Me in Place

My awesome (usually) brother and sister-in-law (always awesome) bought me a Swiss Army Knife for my birthday in February. It has many a feature, including a teeny ballpoint pen and a ruler.

His name is Mack. As in, Mack the Knife. Which I played today on the piano. A particularly fun smooth jazz version of it. Is it going in your brain now? Mr MIP tells me when he hears that song, it brings him right back to Wednesday nights. As a child, he and his family would attend Wednesday night prayer service and their parents would take them to Dunkin’ Donuts afterward and get them a donut. Pretty sure we can call that donut a bribe for sitting through prayer service. Anyway, at 9 pm, Mack the Knife would play every Wednesday night and it brings Mr MIP right back to a chocolatey place in his heart. Mack the Knife makes me think of my Fruncle Roger’s cool 3-D McDonald’s sign he had in his office at his old house. It was a picture of the moon dressed like Mack the Knife. I don’t know why.

Anyway, now that I’m ready to deal with any and all situations, I’ve decided I’ll start a new list called:

Mack & MIP Save the World! And I’ll list how each accessory was used to save the situation at hand.

And, now, with no further delays of childhood memories:

Mack & MIP Save the World:

1. Tweezers: When SuperBoy climbed the fence to see where the fire engines were going  – after we heard a big explosion – he slid down from the fence and ended up with six splinters. Tweezers to the rescue! 3/19/10

2. Scissors: Bought the girls new tennis shoes. Ones that tie. 7yo wanted to try them on in the car. “Wait til we get home and I can cut that for you…” I started saying. “Oh! The Knife!” I whipped out those scissors and new shoes were worn in less than two minutes. 3/13/10

It used to be that I use a new mother and I would get embarrassed if my kids drew attention to themselves – mainly because old(er) people are just plain grumpy about kids most of the time. Since when did old(er) people decide kids were evil?

The thing is, after three kids – the third being a boy – I don’t even blink twice now. When SuperBoy’s security number comes up on the screen at the front of church and I go get him and he apparently has told his Sunday School teacher he threw up and is lying on the floor of the church hallway rolling around and she is patiently handing me his “build your own Old Testament Tabernacle” craft (including a ball of tinfoil – I guess to stand for silver?). I smile at the teacher and thank her for helping.

When SuperBoy runs in the big Target circle in front of our Target because it looks like a hamster wheel….doesn’t phase me. Even when he runs up to it loudly yelling, “I have to run in my hamster wheel, Mom!”

SuperBoy loudly asks me about prices on toys at the store now. “How much is this??” “Ten dollars.” SuperBoy loudly replies:”That’s soooo much!”
Doesn’t phase me.

SuperBoy makes BFF’s with the waitress at Olive Garden and says maybe he could have two after dinner mints because he saw some in a basket…she kindly brings them over – laughing at SuperBoy, because over lunch, they’ve become buddies.

If he was/is being naughty or loud in a quiet situation, yes, we take care of the issue and make him behave. But most of the time, he’s not doing anything wrong, he’s just so stinkin’ happy and can’t contain the joy!

It’s too bad old(er) people have so much joy sucked out of them they can’t crack a smile at a 6 year old running in his hamster wheel.

Last week Mr MIP brought home a book entitled Too Small to Ignore: Why the Least of These Matters Most by Wess Stafford and Dean Merrill. I canNOT express enough how much I want you to read this book. I also feel I don’t have the words to properly explain his book, but I wish I did! Using the story of his life as a missionary kid in Africa – all the way to his life as President of Compassion, Int’l, I came away respecting Stafford immensely and had insight into his heart and passion to help the children suffering in poverty in this world. Here’s the link to order the book (or I’m totally willing to loan it to you if you live by me):

Or,if you just really can’t bring yourself to read a book, please consider sponsoring a child through Compassion International. The charge is $38 a month to sponsor a child. We have tried to explain to our kids a little about ways they can help and we have them contribute to the sponsorship and help write letters or draw pictures to our sponsored children. I searched until I found a girl born on the same day as our middle child, in the year our oldest was born. And our second sponsored child through World Vision has a birthday quite close to our oldest. (Finding children with similar birthdates makes it even more interesting to our kids.) I’m still searching for a little birthday buddy for SuperBoy!

So, consider sponsoring a child, please?

February includes one more birthday in the family – my mom’s! She deserved a day of doing whatever she wanted to do, too…so she chose going to Starved Rock to view the eagles.

In the winter – January and February – the eagles fly like the eagle down to the Illinois River from way far up north where even the eagles know it’s just too cold and it ain’t right. So they come down here to get some food and sit in trees and pose for people who take tons of pictures of them looking like little polka dots off in the distance.

We didn’t spend much time at Starved Rock because the trail was very icy – but we spent time roaming around and went to the Starved Rock Lock and Dam across the river. Here the kids spent an inordinate amount of time playing in a ship’s bow? cabin? steering the boat and pulling levers to their heart’s content.

I’m considering having one installed in our living room it kept them so happy.

This was my favorite part of the ship, can you see why?:

We even saw a barge go through the lock (here’s the gate closing behind it):

We spent more time roaming, ate at two different good restaurants and arrived home happy birthdayed out.

‘Til next year! See ya, February!

Lots of aspects of parenting are difficult – repetitive – annoying and just plain tiring. But it’s always good to remind yourself that much of it is actually very easy. All they really want is your time, security in the home and lovin’.

For instance: Kids’ birthdays can be very stressful for the mom. But we had an great, easy birthday. SuperBoy just wanted the attention and love. The other details didn’t matter as much to him as I – as the mother – would have thought. Easy!

I found Pirates of the Caribbean party decorations for a majorly good clearance, Mr MIP asked SuperBoy if Pirates were okay for his party…SuperBoy’s response? Sure, that’s fine. She can do whatever she wants for my party.

So, pirates it was. And the girls in attendance were just fine with it.

SuperBoy was INTENSE with excitement while playing memory game with his friend, Mr C. I wish we had video of him playing this game – because INTENSE is an understatement. But playing a game with his idol? A great memory for him!

When I asked him what he wanted for his cake, he didn’t really know. So I took him to Jewel and he loved being able to pick out his own cake…a multi-layered mint green cake! Who woulda guessed? So much easier than the do-it-yourself pirate cake I woulda done if he had asked (sorry about blurriness – seriously, INTENSE joy in that boy!)

Throughout the year, SuperBoy always gets so excited when the UPS driver drops off a package. Then gets all sad when the package isn’t for him. So for his birthday, I ordered four separate little gifts from Amazon.com (I get free shipping from them, so no cost) and had them delivered. We hid them and throughout the day, we put a package on the porch, rang the doorbell and hid. SuperBoy exploded with excitement each time the package arrived. Easy! And I didn’t have to wrap a thing!

And one of the highlights of the day was a possum in our yard. So much cheaper than renting a magician.

Sorry I haven’t posted a lot lately. I’ve been busy. Mergers (“Legos go in this drawer, with the army guys”)…Acquisitions (“Okay, how many groceries have we gotten so far without going over budget?”)…Important Meetings with Clientele (“Which story do you want tonight, guys?”)

It’s the best job I’ve ever had.

The secret is, I’m going to be an awesome old lady. I have a mad, mad crush on Bob Newhart:

And a little hobby fondly known as Cross Stitch. Yes, it’s the one craft I can handle. Because you have a pattern and you follow that pattern and ta-da! A picture is born. That I can handle. Drawing, painting, trying to get two sides of a quilt to match up…not so much. But in my perfectionist little mind, cross stitch makes sense.

However, the perfectionist in me also finds herself at the end of a cross stitch project that has taken me almost eight years.To date, the longest cross stitch project in my life. And you thought I had a short attention span. I started it shortly after my middle child was born. She’s claimed it as her own and is excited for me to finish but for some reason…Perfectionist MIP always stalls toward the end of a project. All of a sudden, it’s just…done. And what if there’s something wrong with it? What if it’s not quite right?

So here’s my project. It’s actually not a picture I would have chosen at this point in my life. But, ah well, it’s homey and Middle Child likes animals, so she’s fine with it. It’s about 16″x20″.

I have all the stitching done, just have to do the finishing outline work. Here’s what I mean:

Outlined:

Not outlined (Lamp and spools of thread):

So close and yet so so so far away.

I’m trying to beat the perfectionist and finish. Will let you know the outcome.

Meanwhile, here’s another popular hobby in the house. This one’s Mr Mip’s:

Here’s an easy craft for a snowy Thursday afternoon. Or a non-snowy, sunny, but bitterly cold Thursday afternoon. Whichever one you have on hand.

Paint a winter scene with watercolors and, while the watercolors are still wet, sprinkle salt over the pictures. They dry looking like a pretty snowfall. And kids are happy because they made a giant mess with salt everywhere and Mom is happy because they did this for approximately 24.3 minutes. 24.3 minutes of cherished happiness and peace, I tell ya.

10 yo’s:

7 yo’s:

SuperBoy’s (5yo): I’m not sure this a winter scene. I think this is more influenced by the StarWars Lego Nintendo game he’s been playing for the last month. Can’t you see Luke? Or R2D2?

Look what showed up in our mail on Monday! The word “Chocolate” on a customs label?

Thanks to our friends in Ireland, we enjoyed some delicious chocolate:

Guess which one was for me? Yep – the Cadbury Creme Egg Twisted – a delicious chocolate bar filled with that ooey gooey orange/white stuff.

And guess which one was for SuperBoy?

Yes, of course… The Yorkie bar! It’s not for girls! (We couldn’t exactly figure out why it wasn’t for girls. It was just pure chocolate. And you can bet he enjoyed keeping it from his sisters.)

One of my favorite things about having little babies is holding them in their snuggy little footed pj sleepers. There is no other thing so wonderfully sweet in the whole entire world. Their little bums in the soft little diapers and cotton sleepers…

I always expected myself to break down in tears over my youngest one – who is now about to turn SIX – growing out of his last pair of footy pj’s.

Thank goodness for cute manly sleep pants.

There were no tears and the transition to Little Man has gone quite happily.