Babies, Books, and Butter Making a home with little ones

The house stayed together surprisingly well while I was sick. Things just didn’t fall down all the way, even though Jake and I were both sick.

So yesterday I felt better, started decluttering, and the house looks a little bombed. Of course, that makes it sound like it’s the decluttering’s fault. It’s not. It’s my fault for sitting and doing nothing in the moments I could have gotten it together.

That’s how it goes.

Anyway, decluttering feels nice. I’m going to put our house together a little differently, get rid of stuff, and put some things away more neatly It’ll be good.

I read Charlie and the Chocolate Factory out-loud in two days. I’m pretty sure the kids could have sat and listened to the whole thing in one go, but my voice couldn’t take it and other things intruded. That book was written for Thomas.

The kids have taken a sudden leap in listening to longer stories. Jubilee now has the attention span to listen to long tapebooks, or for me to read chapter books, and Thomas imitates her. So much fun. Come to think of it, I’ve finished three chapter books to her in the last couple days. I guess I read to them the same way I read to myself. Who wants only one book going at once?

I wrote this when I was really sick last Friday and didn’t post it as it felt anemic and tired, which makes sense now. Yesterday was the first day I felt finally well again, as allergies hit me along with a virus. It’s awesome to feel better again. I’m not used to being sick for a week.

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Sometimes I have an impulse, when I’m checking a few blogs I check most days, to check my own.

I don’t know what I’m expecting, but an awesome and self-generating blog would be pretty cool.

It would also be creepy, come to think of it. Maybe it’s better not to be.

So we got back from IL this week after traveling for a wedding. It was all great fun, we had a wonderful visit, and recovering has been slow.

Why did I expect to be put back together and recovered after the trip in a day and a half?

Er, because that would be nice. That’s why.

Well, it was a nice thought, anyway. Rosie thought the time change was a myth, plus she got lots of nice sleep on the way, so she was up at 5am. This is too early, but was especially a bit too early since that meant we got 3 hours of sleep that night.

These are flowers at my family’s house. Gor-geous. Red and yellow tulips are everywhere here.

Rosie is starting to talk a little. She definitely says no, phone, Mama and Dada, yay, and that sort of thing.

I found a tiny vase at a yardsale last summer. Just what I needed when I’m handed a sweaty fistful of flowers and want to put them on the sill over the sink.

There were three tiny vases, but only one was the shape I wanted. And the lady really wanted me to buy all three. She kept laughing and saying I needed all of them. And, for whatever reason, I didn’t want them and only bought the one.

It’s been just right.

I have a theory that little flowers wilt quickly so that you have room for the new ones kids bring. My children squeal over dandelions.

We passed someone’s yard the other day that was chock full of them. Jubilee said “There are hundreds! They must all be friends.” Dandelions are friendly. It’s true.

This morning Jubilee cleaned up her room, without prompting, and was very proud of herself. Later in the day she came to me mournfully and said “It got wrecked again today. I have to clean it once more. And it will be an even bigger task.”

It’s an epic existence, trying to keep your room clean.

And I sympathize with her.

Today I found myself telling Thomas “You can’t give yourself a fever by eating too many noodles.”

Training small minds just never stops, does it?

My kids are obsessed with Dorothy* and the two recorded books we have of Frank Baum stories. Little kids take weird things in stories, like the girl who wants Dorothy to give her her head, since she has a collection of heads, and offers Dorothy a different one, all in stride. (Read that sentence again and marvel at the commas. Mm hm.)

It might freak me out that my kids are listening to this, but I remember reading this same story myself. I always enjoyed the slightly tilted feel of those stories. I remember people in them being cross or selfish, in ways that were funny for kids books. They are odd books, but creative and interesting.

Anyhoo.

Edited to add: my husband pointed out that today is the 7 year anniversary of our engagement. Woo! Go us.

*Dorothy and her SILVER slippers. The ruby slippers in the movie were a change for a more striking looking color.

My children play different sorts of Deep Games. Thomas creeps off into his own nook, corner, room, whatever. He’ll be holding a toy, three swords, a rubber band, or some such thing. He talks to himself and doesn’t want anyone to be hovering or watching. He’ll play like this for a long, long time.

Jubilee likes to set a stage. She’ll spend a long time building a scene for her game, and mostly she likes to sit in a still-life pose and savor her scene. (Like the pictures of her playing Mary and baby Jesus.)

Today she and Tabitha decided to play Little Red Riding Hood.

Tabitha rode the bike outside for a while, bringing her basket.

At one point, when she got off the bike, Thomas knocked the bike over. This would have been a mighty good performance as an evil wolf, but I think it was purely being bothersome.

Jubilee was Grandma. And she made me laugh. She talked in a quavering voice and limped.

I love it when an author, with more eloquence than you could produce, captures how you feel.

How you feel a lot of the time.

“There is a crushing joy that crackles in every corner of this world…
Living makes dying worth it.”

“It is hard to stay focused with so much swirling around me. God is distracting. He never stops talking, and I can never stop listening.
There is a reason we sleep.”

“Look to Him for a heart capable of loving Him.
The fires will burn hotter in Heaven.
Our tongues will learn their taste.”

Excerpts from Notes from the Tilt-a-Whirl by N. D. Wilson. One of my very favorite books. I plan to eventually catch-up-to, and surpass, my age in times around it.

We’ve definitely got buds and flowers and grass beginning to green. Any day that’s sunny and over 55 we’ve been outside a lot. We’re already losing our winter pale. (Those of us that had it, anyway.) Even Rose is getting darker skin and lighter hair. She adores the outside and doesn’t mind grass at all.

She eats now! Crayons, bark, dirt, frozen peas (then spits), and markers. She rejects even tasting most foods.

Some days I feel sort of tired and drained by her and I’m looking forward to being just a supplement, not the appetizer, main course, dessert, and midnight snack. I would imagine my feeling like that means she’s going to start eating food soon. My kids and I are like the moon and the sea.

They had me turn on music so they could dance. Pretty cooperative for a three year old brother, isn’t he?

Traveling to IL soon. Trip Day is a long over-adventure, but I’m very much looking forward to seeing everybody.

We got a Christmas book from the library that was better than normal (this one ) and Jubilee liked it so much that she staged herself as Mary and spent a couple of days bringing her manger from room to room so she could play all day.

I think I’ll take a nap. Long rain days make me feel drowsy.

The other day I noticed red marks and a scratch on the back of his neck.
Me: “Do you know how that happened?”
Thomas: “I think it was the monsters I was fighting.”

He might have been right, actually. The chances of him hitting himself in the midst of a vicious imaginary monster battle are quite high.

I did mention that Jubilee was barefoot outside yesterday while we were working? Yes? No? Well, she was.

Not today.

On Sunday Nathan was hunting in the ponds and under rocks with a friend and ran inside to announce that he’d seen three newts. I, not thinking about April Fool’s Day, said “Cool!” And then several siblings proceeded to say, “Uh huh, yeah right.” Matt said, “If you’d said one I would have believed you, but three is just silly.”

Nathan got the last laugh, since he was telling the truth.

Isn’t it COOL?** Since it had been snowing most of the day it was snuggled into the heat of his hand and loving it.

*I hate flip flops. Not on other people. I think they’re uncomfortable. The shoes, not other people. In general.

**Hahaha, cool. A reptile. You know, because…I’ll be quiet.

Easter is coming! Choir fell down and Easter sneaked up, or something, so I have no idea how our meditation is going to go on Sunday. Hopefully Thursday will (mysteriously) have us singing perfectly.

Anyway.

We’re going to have a troupe of my family over on Saturday morning for breakfast and egg dyeing as an Easter Eve party. That should be loud.

Spring isn’t so much coming as it fell asleep en-route and will need a strong cup of coffee to get going. April 1st was the scene of all-day snow, sometimes quite heavy, though none of it stuck. I was looking forward to today after a forecast of 65, but it was changed to a high of 50 and it feels more chilly outside than I am pleased to partake. I’m going to drive Jubilee to singing school.

Edit: And then the sun was out this afternoon and we did a little school outside. So at least we’re inching in the right direction.

Thomas is turning into the king of Deep Games. He walks around by himself with toys muttering violently, or yelling violently, and if he notices me he gets self-conscious and asks me to please go away. It’s adorable.

I am tired today. I was tired yesterday. I finally got into a good exercising groove, but that makes me tired sometimes. Also, I need to finish straightening the house up. A (reasonably) neat house calms my spirit and makes me cheerful. I have no problem with the kids whirlwinding and playing about, but the end result is that I have to get in gear when they’re finished or I feel blah.

Rachel Jank said it well when she said something like “let’s talk more about cleaning the house, because I can’t stop talking about it.” That sums up housecleaning with small children well.

And finally, we’ll go really BIG for the last picture, because this is my current favorite.