Eleven

In honor of Meg’s 11th birthday today, I gave her a quiz asked her some questions about her life (idea shamelessly filched from Beth). Hard to believe we’ve gone from this:

to this:

BECAUSE YOU’RE 11

What is your favorite color? Yellow

What is your favorite food? Tacos

What sports do you play? Hockey and Softball

What musical instruments do you play? Clarinet, Piano and kinda sorta guitar

What is your favorite thing in the world to do? Read

What are your favorite types of books to read? Fantasy

What do you love about Drew? I love that he’s a dork. I am a dork too.

What do you love about Izzie? She likes to snuggle me at times.

What do you love about Annie? She gives great hugs.

What is your favorite subject in school? Everything.

What do you want to be when you grow up? Oh my gosh. Maybe something to do with animals. Or maybe a writer.

What’s your favorite thing to do with Dad? Go to hockey.

What’s your favorite thing to do with me? Have you read to me.

Do you think you’ll ever clean your room?  (one question to grow on) It’s kinda clean. But I think I can, someday.

Happy 11th birthday my sweet girl. Mom loves you more than you know.

Let Them Eat….Lamb and Cow?

January is a big birthday month for our family, as all three of the girls celebrate birthdays. Annie and Izzie’s birthday is exactly 2 weeks before Meg’s. It makes for a crazy month of baking, wrapping and celebrating, much like December. I wouldn’t have it any other way.

This year I knew right away that I would be making cakes to celebrate what Annie and Izzie love most~lambs and cows. I had no idea if I’d find any party supplies to match, but I knew that the girls would have the cakes of their favorite things.

Of course once I made the cakes I was nervous that neither of the girls would even let me cut them, as the cow cake was made to resemble Annie’s cow named Mooie and the lamb cake was made to resemble Izzie’s lamb Shakes. We did have a small crying episode from Izzie when she was presented with her cake to eat, so we pretended it wasn’t Shakes at all and she happily gobbled it up.

Can I just say how much I miss using my own camera? I use Meg’s Coolpix and when the light is low I get yellow pictures. I need to get my lens sent in to Canon for repairs ASAP.

I still can’t believe my babies are five.

Kid Love

I love the way she sits, curled up on the small couch we inherited from my in-laws, her feet tucked under her, book in hand. She’s usually accompanied by her cat and while she reads she murmurs to him and pets his head. I watch her eyes skip across the lines in the book and I can tell she’s lost to whatever world her story is in, becoming part of the plot.

I love how he comes home every days and asks me where his cat is, so that he can go scoop him up and snuggle with him. He will hunt through the house looking for him, then I find him carrying the cat around like a baby on his shoulder. The cat and boy are perfectly content, happy to be reunited again.

I love how she talks to me so seriously about wearing a striped turtleneck under her short sleeve shirt in order to keep her belly and neck warm, and how the short sleeve shirt kind of matches her big sister’s shirt that she’s wearing today so they are like twins (pronounced tweeeens aka Skippyjon Jones). Her eyes light up as she talks to me and I’m amazed she’s only 5.

I love how sits in front of the kick-plate heat in the kitchen every time it comes on, warming her little toes. She brings coloring books and crayons, or her new Lego set to build, and she hunkers down, getting warm. Sometimes she lets her twin join her and they share the big bucket of crayons, coloring in their new Hello Kitty coloring books and warming their toes, but often she’s there alone, lost in her little warm world.

What are your kids doing lately that you love?

Stream of Consciousness

I’m terrible at giving my blog posts titles without repeating myself. I know the title is what is supposed to draw people in, like the title of a book, but I guess I don’t really write for others but for myself. You know, when I have time. Which lately, isn’t very often. So I throw these little posts together to get my thoughts out and maybe have someone stop by and say hello. And if you don’t stop by, I don’t get mad, because writing these little posts mean I had more than 30 seconds to sit still and I was able to do a little something for me.

The time between Thanksgiving and the end of January is notoriously busy for our family. We host Thanksgiving at hour home, so there’s lots of cleaning and cooking and more cleaning involved, but very little picture taking (I don’t think I even got my camera out on Thanksgiving). Then December rolls in and I’m creating holiday cards and calendars for our families and then WHAM the twins are on school vacation for 4 days before their siblings and Pandora is running full-tilt in Christmas mode and WHAM it’s Christmas Eve day and I’m wrapping ALL the presents because quite frankly, I’m too tired to wrap them at night in the days leading up to Christmas. But then Christmas Eve rolls around and this happens and I’m sitting and relaxing with family and I breathe.

Christmas brought more family and less toys but still ridiculously happy kids.

Christmas wraps up and we run headlong into Drew’s birthday. He turned 7 and I couldn’t really wrap my head around it. How is it possible he turned 7? Wasn’t he just born? It certainly seems like it to me. We celebrated with family on his actual birthday with a little Star Wars theme this year (isn’t every 7 year old into Star Wars and Legos and Pokemon or is it just mine?).

We also celebrated with his hockey and non-hockey friends at the local ice rink with skating, a gigantic whoopie pie cake made by one of our friends, along with homemade gelato.

I’ve been interrupted too many times to count while I’ve been trying to write this and I’ve lost my train of thought. 2012 has already brought us Annie and Izzie’s 5th birthday and Megan’s 11th is coming up in 10 days. I’m still trying to clean up from Annie and Izzie’s party and haven’t even uploaded pictures to the computer so I can’t blog about it until I get that task done. The washing machine is beeping at me, insistent that I remove the wet sheets and get them drying and it’s just about lunch time even though I started writing this 90 minutes ago. Izzie’s now singing Frosty the Snowman for me while she looks at the book and Annie’s asking for me to tell her what letters she’s reading spell. I’ll come back again, someday.

Bloggy Holiday Card Exchange

It’s snowing here in Maine! I’m thrilled we’re having a white Christmas. Now if those elves would show up and wrap all my gifts, clean my house, and finish my baking for me, I’d be set!

I participated in Meghan’s Bloggy Holiday Card Exchange the first year, but haven’t been back. What a fun way to wish the internets a Merry Christmas.

Wishing you and yours a merry, bright, happy, holiday season.

Just Write

Narada Christmas is playing on my DVD player. The CD player in my laptop isn’t working so I’ve resorted to playing CDs on my DVD. I’ve spent the better part of two days shredding mail. With just a few days to go before Christmas, shredding junk mail seems like an enormously stupid idea. There are presents to wrap (wait, I have to do those at night because the kids are home), cookies to bake, a house to clean. The shredding though, was long overdue. So, I sorted a gigantic pile of shred-able stuff and a pile of recyclable stuff and just went to town. Three gigantic kitchen bags later, the shredding is done. Not exactly helping get me ready for Christmas, but at least one little corner of my life is clean.

My parents are giving me an early Christmas present tomorrow~they’re taking Annie and Izzie home with them after Meg’s 8am chorus concert so that I can shop or wrap or just stare at the walls get my act together before Christmas is upon me. I’m so overwhelmed with this awesome gift that I haven’t yet figured out what I’m doing tomorrow. Do I shop? I still need to. Do I come home and wrap? I think the shopping may win because I don’t often get to shop without having to take kids with me.

Drew’s birthday is exactly 8 days away. He’ll be 7. How did that happen? I have to work on an invitation to his party and figure out a guest list. The party is at a local ice rink, so it does help to invite kids who can skate, which of course leaves other kids out and that makes me feel bad and I don’t have time for feeling bad.

There’s so much to do and I just want to sit on my couch, stare at the Christmas lights on the tree, drink some hot cocoa and breathe. I’ve given up on making the holidays “perfect” and instead just focus on making them nice. All the kids will be home Friday and we’ll decorate cookies (which I’ve yet to make) and I’ll make some caramel popcorn for snacking. Narada Christmas is still playing and while I love it, I think I need a little more pep in my music. I need to troll Pandora and find some spirited music to clean to. Maybe it’s time for a little Whitney to get me moving.

I’m linking up again with Heather at The EO for her Just Write series.

Sunday Love

My husband is currently outside in the 20 degree weather building a hockey rink for our kids. Yesterday I stood outside with him and his surveying equipment (engineers = geeks) to find level spots on our side yard and today he purchased the lumber and plastic sheeting needed to build them a rink. The rink is a Christmas present from us to them, because how can you resist having a rink in your yard when your kids look like this:

Photo professionally taken by Crowley Photo. I may love it very, very much. So much so that when I look at it on my fridge I get teary eyed.

Stream of Consciousness

I just put some cocoa in my coffee in a desperate attempt to wake up and get moving on the zillion things I need to do today. It’s gray and rainy and I’m not holding out hopes for a white Christmas. We had a foot of snow for Halloween and another for Thanksgiving, but I haven’t heard that we’ll have any of the white stuff for Christmas.

My kids have all told me what they want for Christmas and I just have to share it:

Meg: a pug puppy (live)
Annie: a cow (live)
Izzie: a hundred lambs (live)
sense a theme here?
Drew: all the Star Wars Lego toys in the world (at least he’s practical, although indulgent)

I am thankful that the twins’ preschool teacher talked them down from the live animal ledge the day they announced those choices at school last week. Seriously, live animals??? We already have a rooster, four hens, three cats, four kids, and a partridge in a pear tree. Oh my.

I’m not remotely ready for the holidays. The big brown truck has been here a few times in the last couple of days so things are starting to come together. We’re holding true to our no toys for Christmas, although Santa will be bringing a few toys. There’s magic in Santa that I’m not planning to take away from the kids.

Christmas music has been going non-stop here since just after Thanksgiving. It’s my way of getting into the spirit of the season. The kids all have their favorite songs~Annie loves Frosty the Snowman, Izzie loves The Little Drummer Boy, Drew loves Straight No Chaser’s Twelve Days of Christmas and Meg loves just about every song (especially ones she can play on the clarinet). We have the tree up and decorated, and snowflake lights around our sliding door and dining room windows. I wish my I could take some photos of our holiday cheer with my camera, but my 18-55mm lens is broken and needs to be sent back to Canon (oh how I’d love a new lens for Christmas, Canon!) and while I like Meg’s Nikon Coolpix, it just isn’t the same as my very own Rebel.

I am currently blasting Whitney Houston’s Do You Hear What I Hear? on Pandora. She may be a mess of a person but her voice, oh her voice is just beautiful.

Laundry is calling me. There is a Christmas party for two little girls in this house tomorrow and a jumper with snowmen on it must be washed. Annie’s jumper with the wreath on it has been hanging in their closet for a week, just waiting for party day. I love how excited they get to dress up for something special.

Whitney’s singing again. She’s lifting my spirits with every word.

Just Write

The piano has sat, untouched, for many months. She doesn’t like to play it when her brother and sisters are home because they come in the room and stare at her and touch the keys, and it makes her cranky. Irate is a better word. When she plays her recorder or clarinet, it’s always in the safe confines of her bedroom with the door closed and locked. But the piano sits behind me, in a public space.

Today she’s home sick for the second day this week and she’s restless. She loves school and I’m sure will be happy to be back tomorrow. Right now though she’s at the piano, playing Christmas music that she learned last year. She is such a talented musician for a 10 year old, and while we tell her her, I don’t know how much she really believes us. Right now Deck the Halls is being played, first with her right hand, then both together. It’s such a happy sound on an old piano, one I inherited from my grandmother. She’s going to play O Holy Night for me now, because she knows it’s my favorite. She’s growing up too fast, right before my eyes. She flips through the piano binder looking for her favorite Christmas piece, not having any clue how happy her music is making me.

I’m linking up again with Heather at The EO. Won’t you join us?

The Christmas Dilemma

I’m not buying my kids toys for Christmas this year.

Phew. That was hard to write, because I really WANT to buy my kids toys for Christmas. Meg and Drew love Legos and I’m sure they’d have a fantastic time playing with new sets. Drew’s right into the Star Wars Legos and I’ve seen some newer, affordable Harry Potter Legos for Meg. Annie and Izzie would love toys that feature cows and lambs and I know there are some at Toys ‘R Us that they’d adore. But I’m not buying them.

Here’s the thing. My kids don’t take care of the toys they have. Drew can’t find his Lego people because he doesn’t put them away in their DESIGNATED spot when he’s done with them. I can’t get into Meg’s room at all because her floor is a mess. Annie and Izzie leave toys, clothes, papers, books, scattered in their room, the hallway, the playroom. The kids’ playroom is a total disaster. They’ve broken most of the storage drawers we purchased for them and the toys are always all over the playroom floor and they get stepped on and broken. There’s no way I’m adding more things to that mix this year.

I’ve told the kids I’m not buying them toys. My mom is even on board with it and told them the same thing. None of my kids believe me when I tell them that they aren’t getting any toys this year. They all still believe in Santa (yes, even Meg, or if she doesn’t, she hasn’t let on for the sake of her younger siblings and for that I’m grateful, because I am a Polar Express kind of girl and still hear the ring of the bell), which leaves us with a bit of a dilemma. Should Santa bring them a gift or two in the form of a toy? Would they appreciate the things they get if they got a toy or two each, just from Santa?

It breaks my heart to have to tell my kids that they aren’t getting toys. I love Christmas, I love buying and wrapping things for them to open. I love seeing them excited for something new, as we don’t buy toys during the year. But to have them show a complete lack of respect for the things we (and others) get them has me really down. Getting them to clean up their rooms or their playroom is a long, ridiculously frustrating experience that leaves me exhausted and wondering why I just don’t do it all myself it I want it done at all. But I have an almost 11 year old, an almost 7 year old and two almost 5 year olds who need to start taking some responsibility for their own things and I guess this is my way of getting them to understand that. Will it work? Will it fail? I guess I have to wait and see. The whole thing leaves a bitter taste in my mouth and I really wonder if I’m making the right choice.