Yep, I Braved Chuck E Cheese on a Holiday Saturday!

On the outset, it seems crazy, but it really all turned out OK!
For the second time in his life, Marc is helping a company move from one location to another. He isn't moving desks or anything, but rather 32 workstations worth of computer equipment! He has been working about 18 hours a day since Thursday morning and I felt so loved that he took 2 hours last night to go to our church Valentine's party with me! He was too busy to pay his lawn maintenance guys yesterday so he asked if I could take the kids and go pay them for him today. They work 45 minutes away! Of course, I was happy to serve him and love him this way on Valentines Day! It occured to me that by travelling up to pay the guys we would be near the closest Chuck E. Cheese by late morning. I quickly ran to my email box and printed out all of the birthday coupons from this last year that we hadn't used-20 free tokens each! Then I printed out extra food coupons, grabbed Marc's pocket change jar and piled the 5 into the car(and the potty seat) and headed out on my Honey's errand.
I didn't tell the kids my plan at all just in case. Sarah busied herself counting out Daddy's quarters and I was happy to hear there was $33 worth hiding in there! After picking up Marc's mail and giving the guys their paychecks I headed back south and was able to pull into the parking lot of Chuck E. Cheese before the kids realized. The surprised look on their faces was SO worth it. We haven't been there since last June!
We had such a good time. They each ended up with about 40 coins each. Jacob was really into it this time since he's now 2 1/2 and Sarah just grabbed him and ran off to help him have fun-LOVE HER!! I pushed Leah around in the stroller and played some "mommy games" and visited each of the kids at their different locations. Daniel spent almost all his coins on a game that blows up tarantulas and mega-ants while Lizzy rode a horse and played ski-ball. Leah used 8 of my coins on a ride on truck with a dog in it. We enjoyed our pizza and sodas and they each got a little toy they wanted with the 400 tickets we all won. Jacob even used the big potty twice!!! There WERE several birthday parties going on, but it seemed like all of those kids were stuck at their party tables and we were just playing games with a dozen other families. It wasn't nearly as crowded as I feared. I usually like to go at 10 a.m. on a weekday!
We had a great time together and it was so fun to "love" the kids by taking them to the second happiest place on earth-and all without taking a dime out of the bank account! :-) God allowed me the priveledge of blessing my kids in an extra special way this Valentine's Day and it was such a joy! After all, Valentine's isn't just for lovers-but moms and kids, too!!

Potty Training: Reflections on 4 Rounds

I felt the call of the bell about to ding. Round 4 in the "Potty Training" ring. I was hoping for a knock-out victory, for MY side! Potty training is an interesting animal, to say the least. I never spend so much time looking between my kids legs as I do during this eventful time. I almost feel guilty for staring!

When my first child passed her second birthday I began to panic. I'd never taught anyone how to go to the bathroom! Was I committed to a half to a full year of following her around asking her if she has to go? I am actually not a schedule kind of personality(though I do it now for sanity sake), so I didn't know how I was going to accomplish this major feat! I did not want to pay even more for Pull-Ups than I already was for diapers, so how did I take all my desires and match them up with teaching this two year old how to be independent and diaper-free? At this point, I decided to ask around and see how others were doing this.

I owe much credit to my dear friend Lauren Harris. She has been the recommender of two books that I live by next to the Bible as a mom. 1. How to Toilet Train in Less Than a Day and 2. Teach Your Child To Read in 100 Easy Lessons. I have used these two books on 3 children successfully, and now it was Jacob's turn for book #1.

Now don't get me wrong, my toilet training record is not entirely 3 for 3 on the Less Than A Day method. My first two children, one a girl and one a boy, went like clockwork and unfortunately, puffed up my pride to boot! Sarah was 2 and 3 months when I trained her in one morning. She only had a handful of accidents altogether(one in front of John MacArthur at DisneyLand) and was allergic to Pull-Ups anyhow. She trained through naps and the night from day 1-YES! SUCCESS!!! With Daniel I wasn't going to push him a day before he turned 3, but at 2 and 9 months, he asked me. He also had only a handful of accidents and trained through naps and the night from Day 1 using only a dozen or so Pull-Ups for car rides to church.

Two years later it came time for Lizzy to be trained. She is smart as a whip being child #3. I reviewed all the "Potty readiness" checklists and she passed them all. She seemed ready, willing and able. Unfortunately, there is no box on the "Potty readiness" checklists for STUBBORN! This lovely characteristic had not shown its face to me too clearly yet, but after she was trained for one whole month, she decided to revert! Oh, the agony when Marc and I decided it would be better to go buy Pull-Ups than to keep up with her constant mess. She generally did OK but then, everytime we saw my parents, she would revert again. Crazy child. For 8 months we went back and forth with her-the one time we went to my parents and the few times they visited us. Oh, the manipulation!

So now, here I am again, 2 1/2 years after that nightmare, facing the fight ring and wondering how it will work itself out this time! Jacob is 2 and 9 months, just like Daniel was when he was trained. He is the size of a 4 year old but has been slower to speak clearly since his body was too busy getting huge! A month ago I picked a clear week in February to set aside to do nothing but potty train him and keep him near the potty. I took the kids to the sitter's(Thanks, Sharon) bright and early Monday morning with their schoolwork in hand and came home to train Mr. Moose. I pumped that kid with 3-9 oz Sippy Cups full of chocolate milk, then let him start sipping on an orange soda. NOTHING! We practiced teaching the dolly-that-wets how to go potty, how to empty the little pot into the big pot and flush, practice trials for wetting her pants---still NOTHING! Not until 10:50 did the boy finally go! Talk about bladder of steel! Training him has presented a new challenge: how can he practice and learn in the typical 4 hours when he only goes once every 4 hours??? So although he didn't train in one morning, it honestly has been a good week of training with him. He is a scheduled pee-er and works like clockwork. He handily goes all at once and not frequently like a girl. He is highly motivated by M & M's and verbal praise. It also helps that he has 3 older sisters and brothers that cheer on his every victory! It has only been 5 days now, but he has only had 2 accidents all week. I decided to keep him in Pull-Ups for sleeping because of his immaturity, but yesterday and today, he stayed dry during his nap! Hooray! He has NEVER stayed dry during a sleeping time in his whole 2 1/2 years. I think his brain in communicating with his bladder-SUCCESS!

So for #4, I am calling this one (so far) a decent victory!

I'll let you know next week if the success remains.

Homeschooling: Out and About

There are two MAJOR blessings in the life of my family. First, is that because my dad flies up and down California for work so much, he earns a ton of free flights through Southwest AND a free companion pass for my mom. This is awesome for us, because even though we live 3,000 miles away, we see my parents 4 times a year for at least 2 weeks at a time!!!! They live in our girls' room 24/7 and we LOVE it! Second, is that because we homeschool, Sarah and Daniel aren't trooping off to school every day that my parents are here and missing out on any time with them!

While my parents are here we try to go and do some fun things. A year ago we spent one day at the Magic Kindom and we have visited different museums and restaurants. This last January visit we went to the Florida Power and Light Nuclear Power Plant where the scientist lit his hand on fire with "Hollywood" technology and discussed why his hand didn't even feel hot-COOL! Afterwards we took a yummy trip through our favorite drive-in: SONIC and tried to find some Manatees along the Intracoastal waterway in Ft. Pierce. My "providence" continued as I have yet to see an actual Manatee in Florida in the wild. Another day we took the youngest 3 to Busch Wildlife Sanctuary while the oldest were at their Latin class and piano lessons.

One of the things I love about homeschooling is the more opportunities my kids have to do some things than they would if they were on a 30 kid field trip. Take some of these pictures, for instance. My kids decided to pose and be statues on the grass my the Manatee observation tower. If they had been in a class of 30 they would have been practicing how to stand in line and keep off the grass. With us they get to be statues if the desire hits them. I know there are good things to learn by standing still in line, but I couldn't help but be thankful they were just being kids.

In the top picture Jacob poses by some birds in our old Disney on Ice hat that Daniel wore when he was 2 1/2-so fun! I love the mermaid picture of Sarah and Lizzy because you can see Sarah's backside since I didn't zoom in close enough! Lizzy looks hilarious as a "merman!" We attempted to take a picture of my parents with the kids but the older ones got silly and Leah decided to wrestle my mom.

Since my parents left mid-January we have had our heads to the books trying diligently to work with perseverance. The kids and I have been memorizing 2 Peter 1:5-8 and Sarah was able to recite it tonight for Daddy at dinner! The older kids and I have been enjoying reading aloud Ginger Pye, playing Blokus, and studying history at the time of Christ. In science we have started a section on the human body and Sarah feels "grossed out" by the whole thought. Guess I'll continue to save certain discussions for later . . .

Jacob and I like to play Imaginext Castle or Little People. He is into his shovel right now and always having his fingers cleaned! Jacob and Lizzy have been out in the backyard during "play together time" making homes for ants and "exercising" our dormant Box Turtle "Franklin." Lizzy is 6/10ths of the way through her reading lessons and doing great! Our current read aloud book is the Milly-Molly-Mandy Storybook. A hilarious title for a girl name Mildred Margaret Amanda!

Leah continues to get into everything. The other night as I was bathing Jacob and Leah, Leah decided to "drop one" into the water. Thankfully I had washed both of their hair already so I grabbed them both out and started draining the water. As I dressed Jacob in the McQueen jammies he had picked out, Leah somehow walked away with the top to his jammies, dipped it in the poopy bath water that was draining, hugged it to her dry jammies, thus making them wet, and dripped it thoroughly through the bathroom, hallway and into the living room. What a mess! Poor Jacob couldn't wear his McQueen shirt and I had to Clorox the bath and toys before anyone else could use it.

Motherhood sure is an adventure, but I must say, it is a very fulfilling career!