Waiting...

This is the first thing I have bought for our soon-to-be new baby. After Renee was born I started getting rid of a lot of our old baby things. Most of them were given to us as hand me downs or gifts, and after being used by five children of our own over the last ten years, had seen better days. I decided that if I ever had anymore babies, I was going to pick out things I actually liked. Because, while I appreciated all the free stuff we had, I don't really care much for other people's taste. My new bassinet arrived by FedEx today. My oldest child very sweetly put it together for my soon to be youngest child.

So now we wait. Since we've already solved our transportation crisis with the purchase of our now-infamous green van, there's not much more to do to prepare for the new baby. Oh, except pick a name. Two names, really; don't let the blue ribbon on the bassinet fool you (it came with both pink and blue, and my assembly team chose to install the blue one), we won't know what flavor baby we have until it's actually born. I'm an elitist snob about a lot of things, and baby names are one of them. I hate names that are trendy, common, popular, spelled "uneekly", or just plain made up. I hate first names as last names and boy's names used as girl's names. In the Christian-homeschool groups I tend to socialize in, there has been a trend to give babies less common Biblical names, to the point that they are actually becoming common. If you call out for "Elijah" or "Noah" at the playground with this group, you'll get a half-dozen kids come running. Now, some common names don't bother me. Names like Michael, Elizabeth, or (our own) Joseph are good, solid names that have been popular for hundreds of years, so somehow that's OK with me. At the risk of offending everyone I know, I'll refrain from mentioning any more specific names that I don't like. The problem most people have is that they really think they are being creative when naming their babies one of the top-ten names. I hear all the time, "Oh, when we heard the name we just loved it, we had never heard another child with that name before naming our little (child's name), but now it's all over the place." As if they were the first ones. Even though said name had been appearing on the most-popular baby names list for a number of years. Sigh... so, you see my dilemma in coming up with yet another name.

Every family has one.

The difficult child. Actually, most of our children have gone through a difficult stage, lasting for various lengths of time. Elena is our current record holder, having been extremely difficult for most of her 5 years of life. Renee is, apparently, trying to out-do her. Here are some conversations from the last few hours:

Renee: I need a snack

Me: Dinner is in an hour, I'm not handing out snacks.

Renee: But I'm so, so hungry. I need a snack. And not something healthy. And real food, no fake food. And no fruit.

Me: Well, what do you want?

Renee: Something snacky.

Me: Good grief.

A little while later at dinner:

Renee (eating banana bread with nuts): I hate nuts.

Me: But you just ate a crunchy peanut butter sandwich. Those crunchy things were nuts, and you liked them. And you eat nuts from the jar, and on your oatmeal. You like nuts.

Renee: Well, I hate these nuts. And I'm not eating them.

Me: Good grief.

Of course, this is but a small sample if the difficult-ness of this child. She spends her days finding new ways to be difficult, and she is getting very good at it.

Cabin Fever

It had not been above freezing here since before the New Year; thus, we have spent a lot of time indoors. Too much time indoors. Like, I've been going 4 or 5 days without so much as walking out to the mailbox, let alone starting up the van, or even putting on shoes. So when the sun finally broke out last week, I decided we needed to go back to taking our daily pre-lunch stroll/death march. The fresh air and, um, bright gray skies will do us good.

In a related anecdote, Matt has been calling me a few choice names lately. Like surly. And quirky. I can't really argue with his assessments. I realized the other day, while driving down a long road here in town that I used to run down regularly, why I've been so downright disagreeable (and yes I know I'm usually disagreeable, but even I know I've been more than just normal disagreeable.) I haven't been able to run! I still go to the gym and walk/run/waddle on my treadmill, but since my belly has gotten rather large, I haven't been able to really RUN. The last time I went for a nice long run was Thanksgiving morning, when I was 14 weeks pregnant. I really need a good 6 or 8 miles of pounding, on a regular basis, to keep me from getting so grumpy. It looks like it will be a while before I get to do that again, so for your own safety, don't get me mad!

Grocery Shopping with the Beckers

Special today on fun-sized three year old little girls! We bought a big box full of them.
No, not really...we owned this cute little girl outright before we went into the store. Besides, if I was buying a new little girl, I'd pick one with a little less dried ketchup on her face. Renee is having lots of fun playing in the huge pile of grocery boxes, though. Boxes, because with a family this size, we tend to shop at bulk warehouse stores that don't give you bags for your groceries. You have to snag the empty boxes off pallets while you shop to pack your stuff in, or bring your own bags (which we also do.)
We spent the last two days going to three different grocery stores, re-stocking our pantry. Something about frigid winter weather makes me want to bundle up all the kids and drag them through various food stores. Trust me, you don't want to be in line behind us when we go to check out. It takes a while. Then we have to bag up all our stuff. Then we have to find a way to fit it all in the back of the van (a little game of grocery-box Tetris.) Then we have to drag it all into the house. The perishables get put right into the fridge and freezer (more food Tetris); the rest of the stuff is still on the pantry floor waiting to be shelved.

It is winter.

See the snow. See the snow fall down. Look, look at the snow! It is cold. See Elena shovel. Go, Elena, Go! Shovel that snow. Now Elena is cold, too.
The frozen depths of upstate winter is a good time to dig in and get lots of work done. These children have studied all morning, and have been sent out to play before lunchtime.
This child has not studied all morning. He has stared at walls and laid his head down in his books, so he does not get to go outside to play. Poor, poor boy.

Unresolved

Today is the first business day of the New Year. Here at home, we find ourselves doing what much of the rest of the country is doing today: burning up on re-entry to the realm of the daily grind.

It has become very trendy to not make New Year's resolutions. While I don't make a list of resolutions per say, I do enjoy starting a fresh new year with a clean slate and at least a mental list of goals to work towards. Besides gaining health, wealth, and wisdom (like most everyone else) I am working hard at making better use of time. Here are some of my children this morning, trying to undo my resolve before breakfast is even over. During the course of our two-week vacation from routine, they have completely forgotten how to do every single thing they ever did in a normal morning, including: getting out of bed, getting dressed, showing up for breakfast, eating in a reasonable amount of time, tidying their rooms, and staring their school work.
Here is Elena not eating her oatmeal, which she will continue to not eat for the next three hours, thus sucking away a large chunk of my daily allotment of patience. Consequently, instead of getting actual work done, I've spent most of the morning re-training the children in the basics of how a normal day runs. Not the best way to start our first day back.
We're getting there, though. On a normal day, I like to be done with our studies by three o'clock or so. It should only take one day of working til 6 p.m. for the kids to get back on track.
Even Fly is beginning to repent a little. She added to the morning's fracas by stealing shoes and gloves making a general nuisance of herself. I hope your first day back is going well!