Feeding time at the zoo

Dan was working late tonight, but Isaiah, Sam, and I had a fun time at dinner anyway. Isaiah hasn't been eating very well lately, so I just made them grilled cheese sandwiches for dinner because I knew he would eat that pretty easily. Well, somehow we started taking bites for different animals. So I started going through all the animals at the zoo, and telling them to take bites for everything from the polar bears to the stinky bats. Sam knows how to wave his arms up and down when we say 'bird' so he kept doing that. It was hilarious. They got pretty wound up but ate their dinners pretty well!

Keeping house

This is a phrase that has gone by the wayside. I learned it from my grandma. Sometimes when I'm talking to on the phone with her, she'll ask what we're up to, and I'll usually say that we're not doing too much. She'll reply with, "Well, just keeping house is more than a full time job."

I think the work associated with keeping a house going is often underestimated and under appreciated in our day. A messy house just ends up with a stressed out family who can't find anything and can't walk from one side of a room to another without stepping on something (in our case, toys!).

Most days, I just try to keep up with the never ending tasks, like laundry and dishes. Even that is tough while I'm busy occupying the boys. Occasionally I'll have the chance to wipe down the counters or table or (gasp!) vacuum. Honestly, vacuuming usually happens when there's some accident which results in a mess that must be cleaned up immediately. For example, Sam broke off the baby-proof latch that keeps the bottom of our hutch closed. Then he grabbed the sugar bowl that goes with my grandma's set of china and spilled the sugar everywhere. That was yesterday.

Some days I feel like I don't do much that's worthwhile. But then I remind myself - at least I'm keeping house, which is a pretty big job! And maybe my family is a little happier because of it.

Hmmm.... I wonder how much merry maids cost. =)

Reclining love seat

Because we wanted to be just like Jon and Patty, Dan and I got a reclining love seat from Levin's today. It is literally the second piece of furniture we've ever bought, aside from small bookshelves, etc. Anyway, we were considering buying one, and Jon told us what a great deal he got at Levin's, and so we went and got a pretty good deal, too.

Getting it in the house was quite an adventure. We borrowed a Lighthouse van to pick the love seat up. Of course we couldn't get the van very close to the house because of the snowy driveway, so we had quite a long way to carry it. But before we could get the love seat in the house, we had to get the futon out. We decided to get rid of the futon because those things just aren't meant to be used as couches. The one side was hopelessly squished and quite uncomfortable. Anyway, we tried to take it apart a few different ways, but ended up just struggling until we got it out of the house, almost falling down the outside stairs only once.

Then we tried to get the love seat up the outside stairs. I was on the bottom, and Dan was dragging it up the stairs, and I had visions of the thing falling on me and killing me, so I started to freak out. It really was pretty heavy, basically being two recliners hooked together. So we ended up getting my mom to help (she came over to watch the kids while we were doing all this...) taking it up through the yard, across the bridge, then in. We also carried out another couch which seemed light as a feather compared to the love seat. Go figure. So hopefully someone else will get some use out of the futon and couch.

Then we had a fun time rearranging the tv room and the living room, going through some toys that we're going to "share" with the gym and/or church nursery.

This was all between church and the amazing Steelers game! Now on to the AFC Championships!

Snow fun

This is my third post today. Oh well! I just thought I would put up some pictures of the boys playing in the snow. We were supposed to get up to eight inches, but we only got about three! It was enough for some fun sledding though. Our yard is very hilly, so there are all sorts of fun places to sled. I even got Dan to start at the top of the hill, sled down, jump over a two foot drop (ouch!), across the driveway, and down the rest of the hill. It was great! Sam and Isaiah both went sledding with us, but neither of them liked the snow spraying in their face. Dan convinced Isaiah to go by himself, but Sam and I were inside by that point.

Isaiah heading right toward me with a big snowball!

About to go down the hill with Daddy.Just lovin' the snow!

Horse

I could write a separate blog (not a separate post, a separate blog!) about what goes on while I'm in the bathroom, which is not often or for long periods of time!!

This morning I went into the bathroom for just a minute. I heard Isaiah saying "Giddy-up-up-up Giddy-up-up-up." This should have prompted me to ask what he was doing. Instead, he offered the information, "I'm pretending my brother is a horse!" "Isaiah get off your brother right now!" followed immediately. The thing is, Sam never complained, so I guess it wasn't bothering him!