A Minute of Peace

The girls are playing nicely together (!) in their room so I thought I'd do a quick post before I start the Monday clean-up (blah).

We have established our family motto. Last night in the car Daughter B. was gearing up for a full fledged fit when Daughter A. hollered out "B. DON'T FREAK OUT." Hilarious...but also almost exactly what I was going to say. See, our family is pretty much a freakin' out sort of family. Mama with her high-anxiety is constantly 'freaking out' about something and generally uses those words several times when describing her day to Daddy. Daughters A and B are also very prone to 'freaking out' because all issues from teeny tiny to giant require loud vocals, stomping, writhing on the floor etc etc. Lil Jo and Daddy are probably the least likely to freak out so they will be the designated keepers of the family motto who will be frequently called upon to shout above the din 'DON'T FREAK OUT'. And perhaps this established motto will help lighten the mood during the 'freak outs'...it's hard not to laugh when little girls holler and stick out their 'stop hands' :) And really one of our main goals since becoming parents of high drama (since birth) girlies has been to teach them how to resist the urge to freak.

So now I am off to clean the house with out 'freaking out' at how impossible it is to keep it tidy with three little girls, their Daddy, and a piddly dog :)

This pic should be with my previous post under weird games my girls play:

Birthday Girl

My youngest is now two. Amazing how time flies with the 3rd (or 2nd depending on how you look at it) child. The first two years of her sisters' lives seem MUCH longer!

Sister A celebrated by decorating the Birthday Girl's face with a fun ink-pen mask complete with matching neck and hand decor. I would have had a picture of it if Sister A hadn't decided to actually obey and wash the pen off. I was impressed at her prompt response to my order until I realized that she was thoroughly enjoying holding her sister down so she could scrub her face :) This marks the 5th (or maybe 20th) time A. has been banned from pen/marker/crayon use.

Every day I marvel at how fast the girls are all growing. It seems impossible that they were once so tiny (4 lbs 12 and 5 lbs 6 to be exact on the tininess).

Yesterday, we went to the zoo. It was an amazing day for it. The weather was perfect. There were very few people there and those that were there were well behaved and/or kept to themselves. The animals were active and easy to view (the tiger was sitting RIGHT next to the window - so cool). We had nowhere to be so we just took our time -it was great.

I know I should have a plethora of fun quotes from the girls...but I haven't been keeping track of them very well. My Dad asked if I was getting bored with my blog...but it's more laziness then boredom. That and it's a lot easier to check facebook and read other blogs while holding a kid than it is to type a blog post while holding one. And 'Lil Miss Likes-to-be-held-all-the-time' makes sure I have a long list of things to do during her nap time!

So, here's to more posts! yay.

Oh and here's Lil Jo's b-day present from Col. and Sugar:

Earrings! (and the piercing to get them in there)

And how about, instead of fun quotes, we do fun pictures of the girls' weird games:

No idea what the ball game was about. I believe the barbies were all on the piano 'stage.' And the last pic's not really a weird game - they were just all 'journaling' together and I thought it was cute :)

Goals Update

Back at the beginning of August I posted a few goals I had set for myself. I accomplished my number one today so I thought I'd update.

Ever since I posted those goals I have been praying for a piano. I've been looking on craigslist and keeping my ears open for anyone wanting to get rid of one. At one point I had found one that I really, really liked that was in my price range. But, then it was the wrong time of the month and we just couldn't come up with the money in time, so the lady sold it to someone else. I was very sad. Then our heater had to be replaced so I figured the piano was something that would have to wait. (People post free pianos from time to time but it has been my experience that it's almost impossible to call before they are gone....I must not be the only one searching for a cheap one!).

Yesterday I found a free piano listed. It was in the same suburb; it was the right size. I emailed them right away ( they didn't list a phone number). I gave them my number and said I could show up right away to get it. When I didn't hear back from them by bedtime, I figured I had missed it. But there was no picture, so I didn't really know what I had missed and I accepted it as not meant to be.

After church I checked my phone and had a voice mail from an unfamiliar number, the lady said they had received several responses about the piano but wanted to let me have first shot at it(I didn't give them a sob story email or anything...so I was either first...or...who knows...). SO...my husband and a few of his big burly friends went and picked up my mystery piano. I've been piano shopping on craigslist for a long time so I didn't have high expectations for the piano's looks - I was just happy that it was supposedly functional (and since free pianos go like hotcakes on craigslist I could always just turn around and relist it).

Well, God's timing is obviously best! This piano is so much nicer than the one I was going to BUY. Yay!!!!!!

So here's a run-down on the goals list:

1)Find a piano - check! (whoohoo!!!)

2)Find/buy a sewing machine - almost check....we got a sewing machine - and Jer got it to work long enough to make a pillow case and a pair of pants for the girls -both out of some cast off army uniforms (amazing, I know) but then it broke beyond his ability to fix it...so not sure what comes next.

3)Find a productive hobby - check. Mom taught me basic crochet so I'm working away on a scarf and then the sky's the limit, right?

4)Start to learn Spanish - still working on it. bought a second hand text book - but it has no pronunciation guides...may have a chance to buy in with some friends who might be getting Rosetta stone

5)Find inexpensive ways to improve our house - still working on this one...home improvement is expensive.

6)Set a consistent schedule that allows for quiet times, exercise, quality time with each family member - I think I found bible study time ...next is the exercise...bleh.

7)Become reacquainted with my Horn and look into local groups that might need an extra. - not check...maybe later...