spring

We finished Spring Break with some beautiful weather.  A little lawn mowing (one of my happy places!), haircuts outside (no hair to clean up in the house!), grilling, and getting some sunshine.  Ahhhh....  Jackson sure seems to enjoy being outside, so he fits right in around here.  :)  I'm not sure yet whether he likes being around Roxy or not.  I think he likes having her out and running around, as long as she doesn't get too close to him.  He will repeatedly say, "Ba (ball), woof-woof (dog)" and he seems to like throwing the ball for her.

Last Saturday was my birthday, and the weather was so nice and warm!  Rather breezy, but I certainly can't complain about the temp.  Mike was gone for the morning driving my dad's new combine home from Portland.  We had a "combine party" with my family celebrating the purchase, with some birthday cake thrown in there afterwards for me.  :)  I mowed the yard in the afternoon, and our babysitter cancelled for the evening, so we just hung out around home.  I was rather pleased when Jackson was chasing me down while I was on the mower, and wanted to ride with me.  :)

Easter morning we had a very nice service at church, and then we headed over to Mike's mom and stepdad's for lunch.  The weather started out yucky, but ended up being a gorgeous day.  We had a fun time with family for the afternoon.

On Monday I had to get Logan from school partway through the day.  Poor guy, he wasn't feeling well at all.  He had mentioned to me that his throat was bothering him a little, and I saw that his tonsils were still swollen.  When the school called they said he had been complaining about his ear hurting, and at lunchtime he was in tears it hurt so bad.  He was pretty upset when I picked him up, crying and shaking so bad he could hardly swallow some Tylenol when we got home.  I was able to get him in to the doctor later that afternoon, and thankfully my mom was able to come and stay with the other boys so I didn't have to drag everyone in there.  He had said his stomach was hurting, and I figured he was just feeling a little off because of just generally not feeling well and not eating much that day.  Well, he threw up in the doctor's office, right where the nurse was taking his weight and height.  She was going for a bucket, but didn't make it back in time.  I had just let him eat a blue popsicle before we left home, too.  Nice.  Definitely a God-thing that I didn't have all the boys with me!  Since it was just Logan and I, I was able to take the situation in stride.  Had I had all the boys with me, I would have been completely, utterly frazzled.  :)  Anyways, he has an ear infection and because he just finished antibiotics for strep, the doctor put him on different antibiotics for this.  Logan felt much better yesterday, but because he had a slight fever the day before he had to stay hom from school.

Levi was teaching himself a song on the piano the other day, and I just love to hear that.  He has really enjoying plunking around on the piano.  The other day he was using their toy keyboard that has a mode that shows you what notes to play, and translating that to the piano keys.

Caleb started asking about soccer camp the other day, so I suppose we should start deciding what we'll do this summer.  Gotta keep these boys moving!

Daddy's Boy

Jackson is a total daddy's boy.  Already!  Seems a little early, doesn't it?  I'm fully in support of my sons becoming daddy's boys eventually, but I should have a little more time...  It's been evident for a while.  He's so happy when Mike gets home from work, wants to get picked up and held, and when Mike puts him down to take a shower, he is NOT happy.  There's been many instances like that, and many times he chooses Mike over myself.  Like, if Mike and I are hugging and Jackson comes over to break it up, he wants Mike to pick him up.  I'm just a little bit sad.  :(

It's been a pretty good Spring Break week!  Not good weather, but we've had enough fun things to do to pass the time.  Tuesday we went to an open gym time at a friend's church, and then Wednesday I had planned an open gym time at school.  The kids do great with just a chance to run around and burn off some energy.

Due to the weather, Mike has yesterday and today off work, but is planning to work tomorrow.  Since we don't have any plans, I can handle him working a Saturday if he gets two weekdays off!  Yesterday we took the boys bowling and out to lunch - it was fun (mostly)!  Jackson lost patience with bowling, and Levi had a couple incidents during the second game.

Jackson has started with a runny nose, but otherwise we seem to be pretty healthy, and the weather is improving for the weekend, so hopefully we'll have a nice finish to our Spring Break!  I decided that we're better off for sticking around rather than going to Florida or whatever like so many other people - it's a good character building experience.  :)

april showers

Last Friday was the first day of spring break, and I was mentally prepared for it to be Mike's first Friday back to work after the winter, but thanks to heavy rain on Thursday, he got the day off!  Unfortunately, with the way the forecast is looking this week, I'm worried he'll end up having to work Saturday.  Boo.

Friday night we let the boys "sleep" in their fort in the basement.  Not much sleeping happened.  They were up early Saturday morning, and totally wired.  I thought we were going to be dealing with cranky, tired boys, but instead they were super hyper.  Except Levi after a little while.  He ate breakfast fine, but then he was in tears for seemingly no reason.  Figuring he was tired, I sent him to bed.  (Which at the time was on his folded up mattress by the door because they had apparently completely tore apart his room.)  He slept all morning, then woke up around noon and threw up and he had a fever.  Poor buddy.  You could clearly see that he didn't feel well at all.  He spent the rest of the day on the couch, napping on and off, and later on he felt up to a few crackers and some juice, but that's all.  Thankfully he was in much better shape Sunday morning.

So, Saturday morning, while Levi was napping, Mike took Caleb and Logan with him to get an oil change in the van.  After he returned, I took them with me to run a few errands.  I went to Byron Center Meats to pick up beef payments and when I was going to look something up discovered that I forgot my phone.  It's unusual for me to forget it, but oh well, I can function.  Drove all the way to Wal-Mart, then discovered I also left my planner at home (which contained the receipt I needed for a return).  VERY unusual for me to forgot that, and I think that flustered me more than forgetting my phone.  My planner is basically my brain!  After going to the bank I went home, and of course, soon after getting here I realized I forgot to go to the pharmacy to pick up antibiotics for Logan (another story).  Seriously.  When did I start losing my mind?!  And, it was at that moment we discovered Levi was sick.  I'm so thankful that even in those moments of temporary frustration, I can look at Mike and love my life, and love that I get to be on this crazy journey with him.  It's not always easy, and I'm not always happy, but we have so much to be thankful for, and God sure knew that Mike and I are right for each other.

Anyways, in continuation of the day, after lunch I made my trip to the pharmacy and then had a nice, quiet afternoon.  After supper I took Caleb and Logan to Target to spend gift cards they had received at Christmas.  (Didn't really need anything new at that time thanks to birthdays and Christmas happening in close succession, so I thought it would be fun to get something new for Spring Break.)  I had talked with Levi and knew what he wanted with his gift card, so we were able to pick that up for him.

There was just a little more crazy on Sunday.  Levi was feeling better, but due to the previous day's fever, we didn't want him in Sunday School.  So, Mike took Caleb, Logan, and Jackson with him to the early service and Sunday School.  I had to be in nursery for the 11am service, so I brought Levi with me, then Mike and I could do a kid trade.  Caleb stayed with me, wanting to help in the nursery.  (Bummer for him, though, there were only two kids - one sat on my lap and fell asleep, the other sat on the other worker's lap and feel asleep.)  Towards the end Caleb was talking about being hungry and asked if we could go to Taco Bell.  I told him I didn't feel like driving over there, and then he asked about Culver's.  I told him that wasn't on the way home either, I was thinking Wendy's.  A few minutes later I checked my phone and saw a text from Mike that they had gone to Culver's for lunch and Levi had left his coat there (and now they were home).  So....Caleb and I ended up at Culver's for lunch.  :)

I let the boys open their new toys after breakfast today, and they've kept pretty busy.  (Which is the idea, of course!)  They got a little playtime in outside, and now it's raining.  It could be a fairly rainy week (surprise, surprise), but we have a couple other things planned, so hopefully we manage okay.

Oh yeah, I almost forgot about Logan's antibiotics!  So, a couple weeks ago he got a rash on his face/chest/back.  He was really tired for about a day, and missed half a day of school.  No fever, but his tonsils were really swollen.  After that day of tiredness, he felt fine.  His tonsils were staying swollen, though, so last week I took him in for a throat swab to see about strep.  The rapid test showed no strep, but then they called on Friday saying his cultures did show strep, hence the antibiotics I needed to pick up.

At the moment everyone seems healthy, and I hope it stays that way!!

derby

Woo-hoo!  Logan won a first place trophy for speed at yesterday's pinewood derby car race!  I have a happy husband.  :)  Caleb and Levi's seemed to start out pretty good, but then gradually fell behind in subsequent rounds.

It was fun to watch each of the boys at the race.  They did a very good job paying attention to when it was their turn, and they handled their cars very well.

During the last week or so Logan has really been saying "I'm bored" a lot.  Oh boy.  Spring Break is coming up, not to mention the whole summer....  Gonna have to figure out how to handle that one!

Today was a nice family dinner for my dad's 70th birthday.  Fun having almost everyone together.  And, it makes for a bunch of giggling grandkids when Papa gets a whoopie cushion in one of his gifts!  :)

countdown

Spring is in the air, and Mike will soon be done with Friday's off.  I'm really not sure I can handle it!  And, how in the world am I going to manage all summer long if I can't even handle a 5-day work week??  Sigh.  No pity parties here, just trying to mentally prepare myself!

March has been a fairly quiet month so far, and that's GOOD.  We enjoy just being together as a family without too much other stuff going on.  A few school activities (dinner auction, Dad's Day, Reading Month, and a Celebration Banquet tonight), some "girl time" for me (coffee with a friend, weekend away visiting my niece at my alma mater and then catching up with friends in the area), and pinewood derby car preparation (this is serious business).

Our church's pinewood derby race is this Saturday, and Mike has been hard at work getting cars ready.  The boys were able to do most of the painting, but they're not quite ready for the other work in making the cars.  :)

I had a great weekend in Ohio!  Nice to have the time away, and I was ready to see my guys again.  :)  I spent a little time with Natalie in Cedarville, and she was very patient with me as I reminisced around campus.  And, to make me feel nice and old, she was asking if we had computers when I was there and said, "Wait, when was the Internet invented??"  Ahhhhh!!!  Yes, we had computers; yes, we had the internet; but thank goodness we didn't have social media!!  From there I drove to Chillicothe where a college friend lives, and the next day a friend from Mt. Vernon drove down to hang out.  We went out to lunch, got pedicures, and did just a little shopping, and a lot of talking.  :)  Come to think of it, I don't know if we actually finished any conversations.  We get started, rabbit trail into all sorts of things, and just keep going following every trail and rarely looping back.  :)

Last Friday Levi had his Kindergarten screening.  I hope he makes it in!  ;)  I have no worries that he'll be just fine.  I think he's ahead of where Caleb and Logan were at this age.  Strange to think about him being gone 3 days a week next year.  What are Jackson and I going to do??

Jackson continues to be quite vocal about expressing himself.  He's learning how to 'ask' for what he wants, and if he doesn't get it, watch out!  Throwing food and his cup from his high chair continues to be a problem, but when we tried having him sit in time out the other day that seemed to get to him, so maybe we're on to something.  :)  He is so much fun, though,  He makes a couple animal noises (pig and rooster), says "uh-oh" (more like "ah-ah"), blows kisses, does "so big", dances, brings his diaper to the trash, and claps when he does something good.  He's been napping less, which is a bummer, but he'll still do a "rest time" in the late afternoon, so that's nice at least.  And, like right now, even though he woke up a while ago, he's been hanging out nice in his crib, so that helps, too.  :)

laundry room

Here's some quick pics of our laundry room project.  Not sure if I'll get around to a full detailed post, but this is better than nothing!  I am LOVING the outcome.  Having a clean, bright, much more useable space is amazing!

down for the count

There's been a lot of sickness going around in the area, and our family decided to join right in.  Last week Sunday night Mike came down with it (cold/flu?) - he was in rough shape for a few days, and really took the whole week to get feeling better.  I started feeling sick on Wednesday.  I had my ups and downs, and was laid flat out on Sunday.  Thankfully, I was much better on Monday.  School was closed on Thursday due to so much sickness, and we had Friday off anyways, so it was a looooong weekend at home.  The other boys mostly have just had some mild cold symptoms, nothing too bad.  Jackson's been the worst with snot and coughing.  And, he also has 3 teeth that I can see coming in right now.  Good times.

He is something else right now.  I feel like every stage we get to I'm like, "I forgot how much work this stage is."  Ha!  He pretty much walks around the house looking for what he can get into that he shouldn't.  Kitchen cupboards, the trash, the computer, lamps, etc.  If he's actually 'playing' with toys, he's throwing or destroying somehow.  (Something that I don't believe boys ever grow out of...)  If he's in his high chair he's throwing down food or his cup.  He's exhausting me, but he's still pretty cute.  :)  He totally knows better than to be throwing things because after he does it he says, "Nah (no)", shakes his head, and swats his own hand.  Ha ha!  Considering he handles his own discipline, and he'll take his own diaper to the trash, I guess he doesn't really need us anymore!  :)

Our laundry room project is almost done, and I am LOVING it!  What a change in that room, and a much more efficient use of space.  There are some finishing touches still to do (get cabinet hardware, install the new light, replace outlets, mount a shelf...), but mainly the room is done and it is wonderful.  Keeping my fingers crossed that next winter will be the kitchen - although, we'd better be able to move quicker on that than we did on the laundry room, because I can only handle so much of living in the middle of a project, and having my kitchen tore up would be a major deal since I spent A LOT of time in there!