Friday, April 24, 2015

Friday Update #16 (4/24/15)


There are some months that we just can’t ever catch our breaths, and April has been one of those months. Nothing particularly dreadful has happened, it’s just been busy busy busy. The Fine Arts Night preparations are consuming.

The weekend was mostly spent at home I let Ezra use a real knife to help me cut up rhubarb and he was so very careful and so very proud.


He also found bluebells and picked them for me.


When we were at my parents, Ezra disappeared to listen to more Hobbit stories from Uncle David. He's getting really excited about the story.



Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday I had a lot of lessons. Well, my usual amount, but a bit more spread out, so it ended up taking up a lot more time than it does most weeks. Until we find the time to decide what to do about the van (necessary repairs? Sell it and buy a new vehicle?) we’re sharing the car, so we’ve had to be a bit creative about our schedules. It’s actually worked out really really well, considering how busy this last half of the month is. And we’ve actually seen each other this week, because we’ve been driving each other places. That sounds a bit Pollyanna (ridiculously optimistic) but it’s been really nice. If we had our own vehicles this week we probably wouldn’t have really seen each other. And Seth definitely wouldn’t have seen the boys. So this way we’ve been able to chat and Seth has told the boys lots of Superhero stories.

Isaac bumped his head this week and asked for an ice pack. He didn't hold the ice pack on his head in the correct location, nor would he let me, but it was still cute.

My allergies were really bothering me Wednesday, but I muddled through lessons. I hadn’t thought to take my allergy medicine because I usually don’t, but my body really didn’t take well to whatever plant started blooming. When I got home and looked up the pollen index it was a “very high alert”. Thursday, however, I couldn’t even get off the couch! My sinuses were so congested and my eyes so irritated that I would have been miserable enough, but I also had one of the most relentless headaches I’ve ever had. Thankfully we didn’t have anything scheduled that day (except for trying to make a dent in the laundry and dishes that had accumulated through the first part of the week – ha!) and the boys were so very sensitive and thoughtful. They watched a lot of TV and played Duplos and did puzzles and PlayDoh and were especially kind to each other. Ezra even got snacks and juice for them! When Seth got home at like 9pm, he had to do quite a lot of cleaning to just even pick up all of used tissues and wrapped up dirty diapers piled up next to me on the couch. And then he put Isaac to sleep and took Ezra to the grocery store (because I also hadn’t had time to go shopping all week). If that weren’t enough, they came home with food for me and a dozen roses! Ezra said that the roses were “the best headache medicine” and apparently convinced Seth of their necessity. He is so thoughtful and particularly protective of me. It was a very sweet ending to an otherwise hard day.

Once it started raining Thursday evening my allergies drastically cleared up, so today I was finally able to get up and cleaned and cleaned and cleaned! It felt amazing to be up and about, but even more amazing to get so much cleaning done after a full week of total neglect.

This coming week doesn’t look much easier, but after Thursday we’re all going to take a big sigh of relief and then take a day off and do nothing. And then, the week after that Ezra turns FOUR YEARS OLD!!

Friday, April 17, 2015

Friday Update #15 (4/17/15) **needs link update

This really won't be an exciting post, haha, as we spent the week in California and I wrote about our trip here: <link>.






Friday, April 10, 2015

Friday Update #14 (4/10/15)

Isaac received a Batman and Joker Duplo set for his birthday, which he plays with all the time. But his brother also found the figures this week and decided to make sure the Joker couldn't make any mischief.


We had a pretty low key Easter Sunday. The boys wore their new matching shirts, but I hardly got any good photos. Hannah captured this shot, however:


Dad and I spent a lot of money and went to opening day at Safeco Field. We had great seats and watched a great game.


And this amazing moment happened this week:


I love, love, love watching the boys interact with Seth. It's the sweetest thing to me.

We're actually already in California, but I'm going to just wait til we get home and write up a big recap instead of splitting it into these weekly update posts.

Friday, April 3, 2015

Friday Update #13 (4/3/15)

I'm not sure how it started, but the boys are obsessed with Seth throwing them up in the air. Outside, especially, because then he throws them higher. "Daddy, frow me in da air! 'Eeese? Outdide!" is a request Seth hears a good 5-10 times a day. It used to scare me a bit, but they really are hardly out of his hands for more than 2-3 seconds and he hasn't ever come close to dropping them.


Saturdays are often the longest day of the week, I suppose because they are Seth's longest day of work and because we usually don't have any activities planned. I try to take the boys somewhere, but sometimes I chicken out for fear "everywhere" will be too crowded. This week, however, I braved the (theoretical) crowds and took the boys to one of our favorite parks.





My parents were doing yard work, so they called and invited us over. The boys looovvveee gardening with Grandma. I don't think they're actually helpful, but she is very kind to let them "help". 


If I spread a blanket out on the floor, excitement spikes. A picnic! So we had a little picnic of waffles and blueberries before church:


We headed to my parents' after church for a meal with all of my siblings. We used to try to get together every Sunday, but it just doesn't work that way any more, as everyone has jobs and various obligations. So these days we're lucky to make it happen once a month or so.

Ezra has been talking about finding Seth a Hulk t-shirt (to go along with his Superman t-shirts and Isaac's Batman t-shirts) for Father's Day, since Seth told them that The Hulk was his favorite Superhero (something that wasn't a lie, but wasn't exactly true either... neither of us had ever considered who our favorite Superhero was before!). So when we were at Walmart this week and we saw a Hulk shirt for $8 (instead of $26 on Amazon as I'd seen), it wasn't too difficult for the boys to convince me to buy it. The plan was to wait until Father's Day, though, to give it to Seth. I hid it away when we got home, hoping the boys would forget about it. But no: every day we talked about it and the anticipation of giving it to Seth proved to be too much, so we told him it was a present for being such a good Daddy. Ezra immediately requested that he put it on and that he lift some heavy things and smash them, since that's what The Hulk does.


This was Seth's first week of teaching drama class at TBS. It definitely breaks up his day and sometimes will make it hard to do moving jobs, but we're excited that he gets this opportunity.

On Wednesdays I teach piano lessons at my parents' house, to three sisters who attend the elementary school across the street. I used to teach two kids who go to our church, Drew and Darya, when they attended the same school, but this week they got to come over and play anyway.


We all headed over to the school, after lessons, to play on the playground for a while too:


We didn't plan to let Isaac's hair grow out, but we're having a difficult time making plans to cut it. Look at these curls!


Ezra really, really wants to climb trees. I don't think he's quite ready yet, but we also don't see very many good climbing trees. There is this little fruit tree on our property, though, and Ezra convinced me to help him climb it.


On a whim this week I found some old Sword of Judgement videos on YouTube and introduced the boys to a different image of their Uncle than they usually get to see. They loved it!





Once a month, usually on the last Friday of the month,we plan a game night for our church youth group. We had other plans last Friday, though, so March's game night was held this week. We have a potluck meal (this time personal pizzas) and spend a bit of time in prayer, but primarily just spend time together, playing games. I don't always get to go, but this time I got a babysitter and tagged along with Seth.