One Step Forward, Two Steps Back

That seems to be the theme of our lives recently, at least in some areas. Not that it's bad, just slow. For instance, I finally bit the bullet and put Matthew in regular underpants rather than the diapers he prefers. Frankly it's past time for him to be trained and to be honest, he knows what to do but is stubborn. So he's in undies now, which is one step forward. But he's still having accidents and is changing clothes at least once a day, which is is frustrating. And he actually pooped in the local pool a couple weeks ago. Two steps back.

Last Friday we went to the Museum Center for Free Friday (one Friday a month during the summer Union Terminal opens up its museums for 4 hours to everyone for free). The kids love it there and were having a terrific time. One step forward. But David slipped off a low carpet bench and knocked his face into a nearby concrete wall. The result? Scrapes all over his nose, blood all over his face and 2 front teeth missing, plus a nice lisp. Two steps back. Poor guy.

At the beginning of June, I went downtown to apply for food stamps and medicaid in preparation for the upcoming job loss. A very nice case worker told me we would qualify but she couldn't complete our application yet because we still had income. She put us in the system though and said this would save us time later. I was told to come back towards the end fo the month. One step forward. . . Last Friday I went down to finish up the application and was told that I couldn't do anything then since we still had income. Not only that but I was also told that because we would be receiving unemployment we wouldn't actually qualify for food stamps. Now does that make any sense at all? Definitely two steps back. I'll head back downtown later this week or next and try again.

An Update. . .

I can't believe that it's almost the end of June already! It's been such a busy month so far. The kids are thrilled to be out of school of course. They have been keeping busy making messes (which they don't clean up), playing outside, playing inside, plus of course fighting and whining (although those last 2 arte not limited to summertime only). Seriously though it's been a fun summer so far.

The Monday after school ended the older 3 kids started Bible Day Camp. It is a glorious program run by the church where David and Rachel went to preschool. It is a VBS program that lasts 4 hours a day for 5 days. I packed each of my kids a lunch and dropped them off every day. Then I had the whole morning to myself!! How glorious!!! My morning involved a bit of housework, some grownup (non-animated) tv and a nap. Aaaahhhhh!!! Now at this point the 2 of you who read this regularly are probably wondering what has happened to Matthew in all this. He's not at Bible Day Camp, yet he's not at home. What did she do to him? He was playing at a friend's house. My dear friend Lisa offered to keep him mornings that week if I took her older 3 kids to Bible Day Camp with my kids. What a great week :-)

The next week was VSB at our church. This was 2.5 hours in the evening and instead of dropping off my kids, I got to go too. I was a crew leader for a group of 7 and 8 year olds. We walked to different rooms in the church for crafts, snacks, games and storytime. It was a tiring week, but lots of fun!

We have also discovered a pool near our house that costs $1 per person to get in (or like $10 per person for the summer). The best part is that they give the kids free lunch! So we go, hang out and swim. The kids come home fed and tired. Yeah!!

As far as a job update, well, there's nothing to report really. Phil's last day is this coming Tuesday the 30th and he is getting increasingly stressed and discouraged as the days go by. We've been looking everywhere for jobs, sending out resumes, applying online with no luck. He's had 2 interviews but no job offers yet. I hate to leave Cincinnati, but we are thinking we may have to. Gotta go where the job is ya know. So keep praying for us and I'll try to blog at least somewhat regularly to keep you updated on how we're doing.

Fun times with David

So today I was hanging out with the kids and we were telling jokes. The kids are very into joke telling these days. I have a book called something like "Laughs for Lunchtime" that I got at MOPS convention a couple years ago. It has pages with clean funny jokes on them that are perforated and can be torn out and put in your kid's lunch box. So the kids were reading me the jokes I put in their lunch today for Bible Day Camp and we got onto state jokes. Ya know, like "What did Missi sip?" "She sipped a Minne sota!" Hee hee hee.

Out of the blue David looks at me and asks why there isn't a Mr.Ssippi. He reasoned that since there is a MISSissippi there should be a Mr. as well. After I stopped laughing, I thought for a moment and told him that "Miss" refers to a woman who isn't married yet. So naturally there couldn't be a Mr.Ssippi until Mississippi gets married! I just had to laugh!!! Ya just never know what kids are gonna come up with.

Matthew turns 4!

My baby is 4 now!! I can't even believe it. Where did the time go? I remember when he was born. The nurses in the hospital actually remembered us from the previous 3 kids we'd had there. Ok that and the fact that we brought a deck of cards and played gin rummy while we were waiting for my c-section to start. He was so little and adorable and helpless. Now he is full of energy, curious about everything and still wearing diapers. ACK! Yep it's true. I may have the only child in history who will goto kindergarten in diapers. Oh don't get me wrong-he knows what to do. He just WON'T. But next week after Bible Day Camp is over he is going to be quitting diapers cold turkey - he just doesn't know it yet.

Seriously though Matthew is a great kid even though he wears me out. He is always on the go, exploring things, curious about everything. "What will happen if I. . . " seems to be his motto. He loves to read books and will climb on my lap with stories for me to read to him. And if I read it wrong, he'll correct me. He has his favorite stories and loves to hear them over and over. Another favorite pastime is playing pretend. He'll grab a couple of the many action figures, Happy Meal toys or even toy cars and have them talk. And of course he gets me in on the action. He'll hand me a couple of random "people" and tell me what to say. And he's very serious about his games. He loves to help me out with whatever I'm doing - he loves to be wherever I am and gets upset if I leave the room (heaven forbid I leave the house without him!). He is very attached to his woolie scrap (a lamb's wool blanket that he drags everywhere!!) and a small red plastic figure that he calls "toy" (creative name eh?). Poor toy looks like he has been through a war - there's tape everywhere holding him together but Matt is very loyal to him. At night he can't goto sleep without his Blue's Clues blanket, his curvey pillow, the woolie scrap, toy and the most recent addition to his collection -- Marty the marty. Marty is a Webkinz zebra that Matt got for his birthday. Not only has Matt named him Marty after the zebra in "Madagascar" but he has started calling all animals by their movie or tv names. For example, a zebra is a "marty," giraffes are "melmans," hippos are "glorias," and starfish are "patricks" (from SpongeBob SquarePants). *sigh* It certainly makes like more interesting!

As I mentioned earlier, this week is Bible Day Camp for my oldest 3 kids. Bible Day Camp is 4 hours every day for 5 days - kinda like VBS on steroids. It's at the same church where David and Rachel went to preschool. And boy this church really goes all out for this program. It's amazing really how much they accomplish - and it's all free. The volunteers all dress up in costumes appropriate to the theme. This year the theme is "Power Lab" so everyone is wearing white scientist coats. They do skits of Bible stories for the kids, sing songs, play games and make really cool crafts. Today for example my 3 kids each brought home a lava lamp that they'd made themselves. It was some combination of oil and water my 9-year-old informed me. All we had to do was add one tablet of Alka-Seltzer and it started bubbling and looked like an actual lava lamp. Now how cool is that exactly? So what does all this have to do with the Bible? Well I'm honestly not sure, but I'll find out Thursday night. They are doing a program for all the parents to show off what the kids have learned all week.

The best part of this week for me is my free time! My best friend and I are carpooling. We each have 4 kids, 3 of whom are going to Bible Day Camp this week. So I take the older 6 and drop them off at the church. She takes the younger 2 back to her house where they play happily together and I have the morning off!!!! It was amazingly quiet at my house this morning with no children there. So what did I do? NAP of course (after I put in a load of laundry and started the dishwasher). AAAHHHHH!!!!!