Today's moments

• Sam and Damen (a 7-month old I was babysitting) saying dada dada back and forth to each other.
• Sam coming tearing out of the bathroom, soaking wet after his bath, trying to round the corner, and wiping out on the wet floor. He stood up, laughed, and started pinching his bum.
• Isaiah and Sam both sitting nicely for their haircuts. Sam sat by himself. I sat away from him in the waiting area. I think this time he did so much better than last time because he didn't see the lollypops this time. Oh. And Isaiah told the stylist not to cut around his ears. And she didn't. Oh well! I was too far away to hear what he was saying.
• My middle school and high school bands rehearse seperately, but will perform together at the concert. Today, we had our first joint rehearsal, and I was pleased with how they sounded.
• Isaiah is starting to understand sequencing. Today, it seemed to click. He was able to label the pictures in order of when they happened.

Pirate Game

We had a great time at Isaiah's first MLB game. We were so glad we were under cover, and weren't effected by the occasional, light rain. Isaiah's at the stage where there are good guys and bad guys. In his case, the Pirates were the good guys. At one point, they brought out several soldiers who just returned from a nine-month tour of duty. Isaiah was nervous when he saw the soldiers. He thought they were going to start fighting. He asked me if they were going to get rid of the bad guys. I said no, and he asked why. I said that's just not how it works in baseball. =)

Isaiah had fun taking pictures with my camera

He was so happy to get peanuts First he stuck it right in his mouth. We didn't think of telling him he had to crack them first. So here is Isaiah, trying to crack open his own peanuts.

He ate almost that whole thing of cotton candy himself. "Mommy, go like this!"

Sacked out

I'm now officially a thirty-something

All week, Isaiah has been so excited for my birthday. Last weekend, at Aunt Janet's, he and my grandma made a project for me, and he could hardly wait to give it to me. So first thing this morning, he gave me that present. It was a cute butterfly hanging. Then he starts pulling presents out of the closet! My mom had taken him to Target to get me a shirt and a necklace. He was so cute about it.
So I had a great day with lots of love from family, friends and students.

Goofing around

Watching The Pirates that Don't Do Anything Sam's comfort moves - thumb in the mouth, hand on the belly

Gearing up for some nice belly raspberries

Sam trying to operate the dvd

Reigning Sam in

Samuel (22 months) seems to be getting to the age where he is understanding cause and effect, behavior and consequences. This is a MAJOR improvement, and has brought more order to our household. He still has his moments but has been much improved.

Last week I read Have a New Kid by Friday by Dr. Kevin Lehman, which contains some hard-core parenting advice. Honestly, I think his methods apply better to slightly older children (elementary - teens), but I have been able to use some of his techniques. If nothing else, this book serves as a great reminder about how intentional parents have to be in raising our children.

The weekend and MOPS

Dan and I spent this past weekend at Marriage Encounter. What an encouraging time for so many couples. God worked miracles in that, toward the end of the weekend, some couples shared that they were able to see that there was still hope for their marriage. We had a nice time and enjoyed being away. We managed to sneak off to Beaver Falls Coffee & Tea, which everyone involved with Geneva College raves about. The service was great. The coffee was great. And it had a nice atmosphere. While in the Geneva College area, we ran into two former students of mine and an old camp friend of Dan's. Small world!

This morning I went to my first MOPS meeting. This is a big step for me. :) The anti-social side of me dreads events like this. But the other side of me is looking for new friends that I have something in common with, i.e. Christian women who are married with young kids. The boys and I had a good time, and we plan on going again.

Marriage Seminar Prep

Tonight we met for the first time with the three couples who will be leading our marriage 171 seminar in October. These three couples have a combined 171 years of marriage experience. Yes, they have all been married over 50 years. What an outstanding resource! We're excited to be organizing a hard-core, reality-based marriage seminar lead by couples who have been through it all. None of this feel-good, how to have a happy marriage junk. It's about covenant and commitment. It's about conflict resolution and forgiveness. It's real, and it's how to make a marriage last.

We had a great time hanging out and formulating the plan for the weekend with these three couples. It's going to be great. For more information or to register, click here.

Art lesson

At the end of our dvd, The Pirates that Don't do Anything, the artists give a tutorial on how to draw the characters. Isaiah and I spent quite awhile this afternoon drawing Larry. We kept pausing the dvd so Isaiah could draw his Larry step by step. We had fun, and it was like getting free art lessons!

Persistent Widow

Looking back over my posts from the past few weeks, I realized that Sunday is the day I'm least likely to blog. I don't know why. There's always something from church that really hits home, a message home run, so to speak. So I'm going to try to share that more often.

Today Vern spoke about Jesus' parable of the persistent widow (Luke 18:1-8). He focused in on verse 1, where Jesus tells his disciples to always pray and never give up. His message home run for me was his answer to the question, why should we pray? If we don't pray, we will lose heart.

I've felt like I've been losing heart in two areas of my life... guess why. I haven't been praying about them. Time to change that!

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PS. See playground pics below...

New playground

The new addition to the playground by the North Park pool is open. We went for the first time on Sunday night. The boys loved it and burned off a lot of energy.Spying Lovin it!

Dinosaur stairs up to the playground

Sam preferred to play in the dirt... We loved the choice of colors. Go Steelers!

A triple slide... each one was a little different, and Isaiah had fun findind out which was the fastest.

Face first

Sam going down a goofy slide

Sam hanging on for a few seconds

Eventful errand run

Well, here I am blogging about a trip to Walmart on Saturday night. Have I really sunk this low!?

After the boys went to bed tonight, I needed to pick up a few things, so I went by myself(!!) to Walmart. When I walked in, a store employee was on his cell phone saying, "They shoplifted right in front of me." I thought that was odd, but went on my way.

While shopping, I walked down the bread aisle and noticed that the section labeled "Breakfast To-Go" contained Hostess Ding Dongs and Ho-Hos. Only in America! Lol! I think (hope!) they were rearranging the aisles and just hadn't switched the sign yet.

By the time I exited the store, people had gathered around the front of the store because of the two police cars parked there. I saw a Northern Regional officer escorting an embarassed older teenage girl into a room behind the customer service desk. So that was a little out of the ordinary. It's pretty rare that we see any crime-related activity in Gibsonia.

Book recommendation

Not a Stick by Antoinette Portis is an excellent children's book for toddlers, preschool children, and early elementary students. With simple illustrations, it chronicles the little pig's imaginative use of a stick. Isaiah can't get enough of this book and has asked to read it every night before bed for the last week. We get most of our books from the library. I'm hesitant to purchase books because children get tired of reading the same books, but I'll definitely be adding this one to our personal library.

Goofy McElligot's Pool game for preschoolers

This week we borrowed Dr. Seuss's book McElligot's Pool from the library. This is a GREAT book which always gets Isaiah laughing out loud.

The other night I was looking online for fun activities to do with preschoolers, and I came across an easy game. First, cut out 10-15 small fish out of different colored constuction paper. Write a different fun activity on each fish, such as, sing the ABC song, count to 50 (or whatever), do the crabwalk, find something red, play Mommy says, find something yummy, do a silly dance (we choose to disco to the Oh Freak Out! song), etc. Put the fish in a bowl (we called bowl McElligot's Pool because of the library book we're reading this week), and choose one at a time.

I wasn't sure how the game would go over the first time, but Isaiah loved it. In fact, once we had "caught" all the fish, he put them all back in the bowl, and we played it again.


If you want to look at the education behind this game, you can see that it could easily include math, music, phys ed, science (if played outside... you can find leaves, bugs, etc), spelling (find something that begins with the letter P), etc. It's great when kids can learn something and have fun too.

Bob the Builder Exhibit at the Pittsburgh Children's Museum

We spent the day at the Children's Museum. This was the first time we got a chance to play in the Bob the Builder exhibit. Both boys had so much fun in that room. Here are some photos... Isaiah driving... We don't watch much Bob the Builder, so we don't know the characters names!

Sam sliding

This was such a fun interactive rock wall. The rocks were magnets and the wall was metal, so the boys got to help "build" the rock wall.

Getting balls (which represented water) out of the water pump

Sam just loved putting the balls (water) into the water pump

The air coming out of the tube was blowing his hair. =)

Isaiah planting a garden.

Sam playing with a tool puzzle

Isaiah designing blueprints

Isaiah climbed up the net in the garage room for the first time. He was scared because it goes up really high, but he did it!

Sam playing with the giant size lite-brite in the nursery room

Isaiah's sticker chart

Early this summer, Isaiah's behavior was getting totally out of control. He was getting multiple spankings each day which, clearly, wasn't working.

I decided to try a more positive approach to discipline and made a sticker chart. These are the things I expect my four-year-old to do every day:

1. Get dressed by himself

2. Eat breakfast

3. Get himself buckled in his carseat

4. Water the plants

5. Play nicely

6. Be nice to Sam

7. Help Sam get his shoes off when we get home

8. Help set the table

9. Eat lunch

10. Help clear the dishes off the table

11. Do schoolwork

12. Be Mommy's helper

13. Say please and thank you

14. Eat dinner

15. Tell the truth

16. Get a bath

17. Brush his teeth

18. Go straight to bed without getting out of bed

If he gets stickers for mostly everything (this is somewhat subjective) he will get a smiley sticker for the day. After he earns 15 smiley stickers, he gets to do something really special. In fact, he earned his 15th sticker on Saturday night, and he's due for something special. I'm debating taking them to the Children's Museum or the Pirate game tomorrow. Chances are he'll choose Wildwood Highlands. He loves that kids' indoor play area.

I've noticed that the more consistent I am with his sticker rewards, the harder he tries to earn the stickers.

I realize that behavior modification alone is not enough. Reward charts get a bad rap because they feed into the child's own selfishness. (They're only doing the right thing so they can get the reward they want). I know children need to know WHY they are doing things and making the right choices. But I've tried to reason with Isaiah and explain why we act certain ways (to be considerate to others, to be kind, etc.) but he just doesn't get it at his age. So at this point, I'm ok with him just choosing to do the right thing. The WHYs will have to be understood in the years to come.

The genius of flylady

I've been implementing the techniques on flylady.net for the past several weeks, and I think I've discovered why it works: It breaks housekeeping into small, manageable tasks. My first job was to shine my kitchen sink. Flylady has specific instructions on how to throroughly clean your sink so that it literally shines. Then, as part of your before bed routine, you shine your sink, which involves rinsing the sink, then taking a dish towel and wiping out the water droplets so that it shines. It's so simple, but instantly, you feel like you're in control of one small part of your house. Her very simple routines have inspired me to clean and organize other areas of my house.

As well as the sink shining, I LOVE her concept of washing, drying, folding, and putting away a load of laundry before you start another one. That has made laundry more manageable for me. I used to have piles of folded laundry on the couch and would put off putting it away until all the laundry was done. This made the putting away task seem overwhelming. Plus, as long as anyone is wearing clothes, the laundry is never done! Lol! Even though it seems like it would be less efficient to do laundry the flylady way, I can say that it really is more efficient.

Something else I realized about cleaning, is that that cleaning industry has made you feel like you have to have this cleaning product or that cleaning solution to clean your house perfectly. Flylady just has you grab a towel, wet it, and wipe down your bathroom sink and then dry it. So simple.

Below I have listed her recommended routines. I tend to do more in the evening and less in the morning, because I'm just not a morning person.

* Morning Routine:
-Get Dressed to Shoes (putting shoes on helps you get ready to work on your house) including Hair/Face, Brush Teeth
- Make Bed
-Swish & Swipe (wipe bathroom countertop and swish the toilet clean)
-Empty Dishwasher
-Reboot Laundry (a Load a Day Keeps CHAOS Away) (Chaos = can't have anyone over syndrome)
-Check Your Calendar
-Check Your Control Journal (more about this on the flylady website - basically just a place to record your morning/afternoon/evening routines)

* What's For Dinner?
* Drink Your Water
* Declutter for 15 Minutes
* 15 Minutes of Loving Movement (for help go to Jonathan's websiteNoExcusesWorkOut. com)

* Before Bed Routine:
-Lay out Your Clothes for tomorrow (for style help: Leslie's websiteMissusSmartyPants. com)
-Check Your Calendar
-Put things needed for tomorrow at the Launch Pad (near the door)
-Where are your Keys?
-Spend Two Minutes Clearing off a Hot Spot (Hot spot = a flat surface in your home that collects clutter - and remember, clutter attracts clutter)
-Shine Your Sink
- Wash face/Brush Teeth
-Go to Bed at a Decent Hour

This one speaks for itself

One word... wow.

Only in the USA

This morning I was at the deli counter of our local grocery store. While waiting for my number to be called, I overheard two different customers being, in my opinion, rediculously particular about the thickness of the cut of their meat. The man behind the counter kept showing them the meat, and the customer would examine the meat, then ask for it to be cut thicker or thinner. Really? And what do they do with the rejected meat? Maybe next time I'll just go and ask for the meat that was too thick or too thin for the other customers! Lol! Kidding.

Meanwhile, Sam is sitting in the cart with a free cookie from the bakery in one hand and a free slice of cheese from the deli in the other hand.

Fun summer night

Tonight after dinner we went to the car cruise held at Northway. We had only planned to spend a few minutes walking through it, but when we got there, we found out there were 3,000 cars on display. I have never been to a car show with such a diverse collection of cars to see. I don't know much about cars, but they had ones that looked as old as a Model T Ford, brand new mustangs, and everything in between. The most interesting one was a Dodge dump truck. It looked like it had a brand new paint job and was a shiny gold color. It's not every day you see an attractive dump truck.

The whole time we were there, Isaiah was trying to find all the cars from the movie Cars. We found cars that looked like all the main characters, except Lightning McQueen. He loved looking inside to see what the old cars looked like. He and Sam had fun in the bouncing in the moonwalk and getting balloon swords and helmets.

We came home and put Sam to bed before we build a fire and made smores. Isaiah was up until about 9:30, so we'll see what his behavior is like tomorrow!

Oh well! It was nice to spend an evening together as a family.

Purses...

Buy a purse and support missions... Contact me for further details. I purchased #11a, and it is a pretty sizeable bag. I think the suggested donation for the purses was around $40. If you'd like one, just let me know. My aunt is making them, so I will pass your order on to her. 1

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7a, 7b

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9a, 9b

10a, 10b

11a, 11b