The Rantings of a Winter-Hater

Winter isn't sooo bad I guess.  There are just a few things I would remove from Winter and it'd be just perfect...just a couple little things.  I am really not that hard to please...really.

Like for one, maybe if winter were just a little less cold...just a smidge...maybe then I'd be able to tolerate it better.  And oh, one more, maybe if it were just a bit more sunny?  Is that really too much to ask?  I mean, on the days it is sunny, my eyes are hurting because they are so blinded by the brightness...that is sad!

Oh, and I should throw in ice, even though snow and ice go along with the cold theme too...I really don't enjoy the feeling of my car sliding, out of control, across the street.  (or in today's case, all the way down the driveway as I tried to back out, frantically holding my foot on the brake and praying no one was coming)

And the days are just so short....and yet soooooooo long.  I hate winter evenings...dinner is over and I feel ready for bed I am so tired and it's so dark.  This darkness and being trapped indoors every night seems to have the opposite effect on my children however, because instead of being more tired, they seem to be more energetic and crazy than ever.

But there is some great news...the days are getting longer now!  I think tonight the sun set at 5 pm instead of 4:59.  Let's have a party, let's dance in the streets...I see the light...for one minute longer today than I did yesterday....

Ok, I'm done now.

Christmas 2011

The Advent Calendar

 The kids have had a blast celebrating Christmas this year.  Reese enjoyed her gifts so much that she was dragging out the same library books she's read a million times, just 5 minutes after we finished opening everything.  Oh well...

It was fun seeing the kids faces as they experienced Christmas this morning.  Wish we could all keep some of that wonderment...

New Hat

Carter loved his new walkie talkies

Opening her first present

New Leg Warmers

Getting Out....finally

Reese and the Leopard

On another unseasonably warm December day, we decided to hit the zoo.  We had it almost completely to ourselves...wonderful.  We saw some new things too.

Polar Bear fun

Look how close!

Carter liked watching him play!

Reese loved the Meerkats!

SNAKE!!

Sea Lion cuteness

This baby sea lion loved to see people through the glass.  He just kept swimming back and forth in front of it and really put on a good show for the kids.  He would swim in circles and try to bite his tail.  Very cute.

Self-Sufficiency

I am so glad my kids are becoming more self-sufficient.   I've waited years for this and it's so nice to be able to just sick back and relax while they finally do a few things for themselves.  Examples?  Well, let's see...getting dressed for one.  Carter is starting to pick out his own clothes now.  Never mind that he picks shorts and t-shirts in the winter and wants to wear his crocs still.  Or if he does pick weather-appropriate attire, it's a red shirt, brown and green pants, and blue socks.  Oh and he ALWAYS wears his superhero cape.  Everyday.  Everywhere we go.  Always.

Ok, so maybe that wasn't the best example...on to the next thing.  Reese is starting to wash her own hands now...all by herself!  I was shocked the first time she started to do it.  Only one little problem.  Her method of dispensing the soap is a little less than effective.  She pumps the bottle about four times, dispensing a huge glob of soap onto the counter, then swipes it with her open palm to get it onto her hands.  Often after a quick rinse, her hands are still soapy and her sleeves are soaked.  (And the counter is covered in soap too).  Ok, Ok, Ok...they really are doing more things for themselves....let's see...

Reese is really into brushing her teeth.  Wish she could convince her brother of the importance of oral hygiene, but at least I'm 1 for 2.  Yep she loves to go in there and just chew away on that tooth brush.  Well, at least she has the brush in her mouth and it's touching her teeth.  That has to count for something right?

Reese is also attempting more and more to use the potty by herself.  Both the training potty and the big potty.  Both are scary.  She can fully undress herself and go and be waiting for me to put her diaper back on in a matter of 1 minute.  I've also caught her more than once nearly falling head first into the big potty.

Reese is starting to read books to herself now.  The thing is, she will fixate on about 4 books and we read them so many times over a few days that she has them completely memorized.  I'm not kidding, she sit there with the books and can recite them almost word for word. When she does want me to read to her again, she will go over to the shelves where I have strategically spaced out those 4 books among the other 3,000 that we own and pick them out again. I don't know how she does it but it's uncanny.

Both kids are doing more self-feeding lately which is a huge break for me.  I mean, you try eating your breakfast while feeding two children at the same time.  Not fun!  Problem is, both kids are constantly dropping food down the front of their shirts, and spilling drinks.  They both like to drink out of a regular cup now and think it is really fun.  Reese likes to go upstairs and grab the little dixie cups out of the bathroom and drink out of those while carrying them around the house.  She pulled a good trick on me yesterday.  I was in my bathroom brushing my teeth and had the phone on the counter because I was expecting a call.  Two minutes later I heard it ringing...downstairs!  Somehow she'd managed to swipe it right out from under my nose...she brought it downstairs and even put it right back on the hook!  So while I was downstairs retrieving it, she was climbing up onto my bed...with her cup of water.  When I got back to our room, she had spilled the whole cup on my bed and on Carter's socks....

So we're really making some progress in the Berad household.  In a few more months, who knows what they'll be doing!


I've had some great Pinterest finds that I wanted to share.

 I made these Peppermint Patties which are AMAZING.  SO easy too...have to try them!  Oh my I just ate one because I couldn't resist after talking about them. (I did double the amount of peppermint extract in mine and it was perfect)

I made this little taggie creature yesterday for a baby shower gift.  I've never "embroidered" anything before...I guess that's what you call it when you sew the face?  Mine isn't as cute as the one I found online, but it's not hideous either, right?

And one last Pinterest find that provided hours of entertainment yesterday...a tape "road" for Carter's cars.  We had it going up and across the couch too...he loved it.

Do the Right Thing

As I was looking at the window this morning, a hint of rosy light just touching the horizon, a thought came to my mind.  (I know...scary at that hour of the morning, right!?)  I thought to myself, "Each day gives us a new opportunity to do the right thing."

It is SO easy for me to get caught up in the day-to-day craziness of being a parent of two children.  It's easy to complain about how hard they are, how much sleep I am deprived of...to just step back and shake my head when they are misbehaving and throw up my hands in defeat.  It's easy to feel like I'm not doing the right things...like my parenting isn't effective or doesn't matter.  (Even though I know that it does.)   It's easy to take out my frustrations on my husband or others around me.  It's easy to let the things that troubled me yesterday, carry over to today.   


But I want to put those feelings in check.  I want God's peace to wash over my doubts and frustrations and worries about how my kids will turn out.  I want to take this opportunity today and each new day to have a fresh start.  Days often seem long, sitting at home, alone with the kids (especially in these winter months).  But when you stop and put it all in perspective, you remember and realize that our lives are but a breath.

I have so little time with my children in these "baby years" to teach them everything I possibly can, to provide them with love and support and nurturing, to give them boundaries, to teach them right from wrong, to show them that it is better to give than to receive.

So what if loving them means I have to get up before it's light every day, so what if it means I have to read the same book to Reese 20 times a day, so what if they only want to eat bananas and granola bars at every meal.  Loving my children is teaching me daily what it means to love unconditionally, the way that God loves me.

So I am trying to put all these things in perspective today so that I can start out this day and this week by doing the right thing.  With God's grace and strength, I hope to be the very best parent and wife I can be today.  Give me that strength Lord, to love my children when they are most unlovable and to be the best parent I can possibly be, today and every day.

Kick me While I'm Down

There are days that the kids really behave and cooperate...and days that they don't.  Yesterday was one of those days.  I know why it's happening.  They've been sick for so long and are thus sick of being stuck inside for days on end.  But it is truly tiring, trying to keep them from burning the house down.  At least they are outside playing in the snow for a few minutes now and will hopefully burn off some energy.

So the highlights of our day yesterday....hmmm, to pick just a few....

I met a neighbor to go for a walk, just to try to get them outside for a bit.  For the 1/2 hour leading up the the walk I argued with them and fought them to get dressed.  Carter insisted on wearing a short sleeve shirt and told me he did not need any coat.  It was 33 degrees out.  When she arrived to walk we were not ready.  We finally were bundled up and ready to go and went to the garage to get the stroller.  My kids then began an all-out war, fighting over who would ride in which stroller and who would push them.  Carter was in tears, they were hollering and carrying on...it got ugly.

A little while after we got home, I was on the phone with Derrick for a few minutes.  I came upstairs because the kids had both run up there and Reese had pulled out her top dresser drawer and emptied its contents all over the floor in her room.

When the kids had eaten their lunch, I took a couple minutes to warm up something for myself to eat.  I turned around just in time to see Reese laying on the floor in our family room, pulling off a very messy diaper.  I guess she thinks she can change herself now?

Later in the afternoon,I tried to call a friend of mine who I haven't talked to in a long time.  It is virtually impossible for me to have a conversation on the phone without some fight breaking out or some part of the house being destroyed.  Well, the kids were actually surprisingly cooperative.  I did have to sit in the basement and play with them while I talked but it was a small price to pay for being able to catch up with a friend.  But toward the end of our conversation, I was wrapping things up and not paying attention.  Both kids disappeared around the corner and when I poked my head around, 30 seconds later, they'd already opened about 5 different board games and dumped them all out, dumped out both big buckets of our large cardboard blocks, and were over at the storage shelf just about to pull down a bin full of plastic play food, a bin full of tools and a bin full of trucks.  I got off the phone real fast!

Derrick walked in just as this was unfolding and offered to give me a break so I could exercise.  When I came upstairs, 40 minutes later, he was just putting the vacuum away with a grim look on his face.  When I asked what happened, he said he was upstairs with the kids and left them for 1 minute to go change out of his work clothes.  When he came back they were in the bathroom, throwing cupfuls of water everywhere...the entire bathroom was soaked.  While he was cleaning that mess up, Reese came downstairs and decided she needed a snack, so she got out a full bag of Cheerios and dumped it all over the kitchen floor.

Yep, sometimes it feels like they purposefully try to kick you when you are down.  There are definitely those days when you ask yourself, WHAT WAS I THINKING!?!!?


On a completely different side note, for all you gardeners, I am reading a fascinating and highly disturbing book right now called Tomatoland.  I highly recommend reading it...even if you have no desire to start your own garden...maybe you will after you read the first few pages!  I had no idea the amount of pesticides applied to tomatoes, particularly those you buy in the winter.  I had no idea the atrocious conditions workers are subjected to, who pick these tomatoes...and that there is a healthy slave trade taking place right under our noses in Florida...yes there are tomato slaves in the USA!  I think I'll be buying a lot less "fresh" produce in the winter from now on....give it a read!

"Fear Not"

Our pastor preached an interesting pre-Christmas message last week that I wanted to share (in my own un-eloquent words).  His message was titled "Do Not Be Afraid" and he was quoting from Luke where the shepherds in the fields are awakened by the angels bearing a message about Christ's birth.  He said that the "Fear Not" was a lot more loaded than what typical Christmas story interpretations might imply.  That it was more of a fist-pump "Fear Not!" than a meek and mild, quietly spoken version.  He said, you have to know the history, leading up to Christ's birth to understand the full meaning behind that statement.  When God tells us not to fear, He is reminding us of the genealogy of Christ and the full history leading up to His coming.  Satan's number one tactic for paralyzing Christians or trying to destroy God's plans is using fear.  He gave example after example of how fear had led to disbelief/sin and how Satan had tried to foil God's plan of bringing Christ into the world.

- Adam and Eve hid from God in the garden because they were afraid of Him after eating the apple.  They were soon after kicked out of the garden to follow the path their sin had led them in.
- Abraham feared he would not have a child, went about it his own way - led to all the strife in the Middle East that is still very much in play today.
- Pharaoh tried to enslave the Israelites in Egypt and tried to follow them out, upon their exit, to destroy them.
- Herod was a puppet king who gave an order to kill all the male Jewish babies born around the time of Christ

So the "Fear Not!" should give us more comfort than we might at first attribute to it...it's a proclamation that God will follow through on His promises to us, despite all the attempts of the Devil to foil him.  Some other great points from the sermon were:


1. A life lived in fear is a life half lived. (Proverbs 12: 25)
2. Fear inhibits action, cripples potential, fosters bad judgment and robs us
of peace.
3. Fear is a False Estimate of an Apparent Reality; an inaccurate evaluation
that fosters misguided action.
4. Failure is an attitude, not an outcome. It’s a negative way of evaluating
things, not a final reality. (2 Timothy 1:7)
5. Christmas affirms God’s stubborn dedication to our ultimate restoration.
(Galatians 4:4-7)
6. Failure isn’t final; God’s promises are. (C.S. Lewis)
7. In Jesus’ birth God overcame the worst the world and Satan could do.
He can easily do it again in you! (Romans 8:38,39)
8. God’s presence doesn’t keep all fear at bay; it transforms it into
something useful.

I think I may never look at the Christmas story the same way after hearing this message.  It is a culmination of so many events in the Bible, a true example of a promise kept, an awe-inspiring, jaw-dropping picture of the depth of God's love for us.

Dough...

 Kids are still sick....weather is still yucky....trying desperately to keep them entertained while maintaining some of my own sanity.  A friend recommended I try these salt dough ornaments the other day, so we made a batch last night.  They painted them and this morning we put hangers on them and the kids ran all around the house decorating first our Christmas tree, then my ornamental tree and a house plant...it was pretty funny.  They are VERY excited for Christmas this year.  It's nice to see them both understanding it all for the first time.

 Today I had a hankering for some pasta and meatballs so I made these gnocchi for dinner.  They were SO good.  Carter even noticed and said, "These are different from the other gnocchi...I like them better."  So glad they worked out on my first attempt.

Sick Day

I was joking with Derrick yesterday that I found the perfect shirt for Reese to wear.  I'm trying to have some humor about this whole potty training thing, because quite honestly, I'm ready to be done with it.  Reese is such a punk about it these days.  She will go on the potty like a champ for one full day, and then revert right back to her stinky, wet ways for the next week.  Or like today...she'll be all sweet and ask to go on the potty...she goes and gets a little treat, then 5 minutes later she'll come to me and say, "I pooped!"  ARGHHHHH

Both kids are sick....AGAIN, and I am quite tired of being cooped up in the house with them in their cranky moods.  And it's not even winter yet...(stifling a sob.)  All I want for Christmas this year is another 70 degree day.  We've already done watercolor paints, chalk drawings, crayons, read library books, played with blocks and little animals, stickers, read more books, and played with play doh.   And since they do each activity for a whopping 5 minutes, this has taken up an impressive 1 hour of my day so far.  AHHHHHHHHH   So if you have any other suggestions for things I can do with my sick kids that will keep them from fighting with each other, which happens to be their greatest talent, I'm all ears.

Scary Santa

If sitting on Santa's lap and telling him what you want for Christmas is a requirement for getting gifts on Christmas day, then I guess my kids won't be getting any presents this year...or ever.  They kinda hate Santa.  I mean, they love the idea of Santa...love reading about him in books, or viewing him from a distance, but as soon as you get them within a 5 foot radius of the guy, it's instant terror.  This photo was from the birthday party we attended last week.  You can see how excited Reese was about sitting on Santa's lap...priceless!

My Name is Dadda!

At dinner tonight Carter asked Derrick....
C:" How was your day today Dadda?"
D: "It was good, Carter."
C: "Dadda, what are the names of your friends at work?  When you go to work do you say to then, "Hello, I'm Dadda. What is your name?"

After dinner Derrick hooked up the train under our Christmas tree and the kids were watching it with great excitement.  I don't know who started it but whenever it came around the track, they both started spitting on the engine and laughing hysterically. What is it with my kids spitting all the time...seriously!

I have been playing a lot of Christmas music lately...so much that Carter started breaking out in the Hallelujah Chorus tonight.  He just keeps saying Hallelujah, hallelujah, hallelujah...over and over again.

Impromptu Photo Shoot

 So out of the blue today, Carter said to me, "I want to take pictures in front of the Christmas Tree!"  Well, let me tell you, you don't mess with a 4-year-old who WANTS to take pictures!  So I dressed them as quickly as possible, before they changed their little minds and snapped a few quick ones.  Unfortunately is is a very gloomy day and the lighting is terrible for indoor shots, but I got a few cute ones anyway.

New DIY to try

Who doesn't want to eat an entire bowl of chocolate chip cookie dough?  Well I found this Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough dip on Pinterest last night and it sounded WAYYYYY too good to be true.  I whipped up a batch and it is REALLY good.  So good Reese even gobbled it up, and she's a tough one to trick!  It doesn't taste like a "healthy" snack at all but it really is pretty good for you when you look at the ingredients!

I made this Pumpkin Pie Spice Body Scrub for a Christmas Gift as well as this Lemon sugar Hand Scrub.  Fun!!!  

Today ended up being a much nicer day than expected so I took the kids outside to play for a while.  I wanted to get the yard cleaned up since I knew the rain was coming.  I was in grabbing the shovel and a bag and when
I came back out both kids squatting down, putting their heads close together, and looking down at the ground at something while laughing hysterically.  The game they were playing?  They were taking turns spitting on a pile of dog poop.  This was one of those OMG moments where I was part mad, part sad, part embarrassed and part ready to pee my pants from laughing.  And so I ask again...why do I buy them toys....why oh why?

Tree time

Reese took a 2 hour nap yesterday...unbelievable, I know!  But there is obviously some kind of timer in her head that says I only need exactly XYZ hours of sleep because this morning, instead of waking up at her usual 7:30 or 8 am, she was up at 5:45 am...bright eyed and asking me to make her eggs.  Sigh...be careful what you wish for.

We had our annual Christmas dinner last night with Derrick's friends and I had a babysitter come over to play with the kids in the basement.  They did great and at 8 we paid her and I took Reese up to bed.  When I came back down all the guests were in the basement...it was a DISASTER.  They had taken almost every board game we own down on the shelves and mixed all the pieces together all over the floor.  It was insane.

We took advantage of the amazingly un-seasonable 60-degree weather today to go cut down our Christmas tree.  Last year when we went we had to wear full snow gear because it was frigid cold and there was a decent amount of snow on the ground.  I definitely appreciated the nicer weather!

The kids had fun picking out the perfect tree, which of course was the first one we saw after getting off the wagon, but we did convince them to look a little further.

 On the way home, we asked the kids where we should put the tree in the house.  Reese chimed right in with, "Right where we walk!"  Wow, that sounds SUPER convenient Reese....think we'll pass on that suggestion though.


Oh and I feel like I need to post a disclaimer on the blog about my face.  Yes I manage to give myself facial injuries far too often, unfortunately.  My lip has been swollen and bruised a deep purple all week because last Sunday I managed to fall, climbing over our garden fence and fell face first onto a bucket.  I know...incredibly graceful.  I requested that we install a gate next year so this does not happen again!

Bumblebee!

Don't you think we moms hold the corner market on multi-tasking?  I mean, sure there are plenty of jobs where you have to juggle a ton of things at once but I just don't think they can hold a candle to what we moms have to put up with day in and day out.  Getting a shower in the morning has been an increasingly difficult task for me with Reese waking up earlier and earlier lately.  I typically have to bring an armload of toys into the bathroom with me, belt out kiddie songs and endure frequent questions as Reese pulls the curtain back to check on my progress.  A few days ago, she sat outside the curtain and was assembling a Mr. Potato Head and kept asking me to help her with each piece.  This is not the easiest thing to do while you are taking a shower.  Today was the kicker though.  Today, right before I got in, she asked to go on the potty.  I had no little seat in my upstairs bathroom so I had to just hold her on the seat, cuz you know you NEVER say no to a kid asking to go on the potty!  She went and I hopped in.  About 2 minutes later, she started saying something about going on the big potty again...and I looked out and she was pulling her diaper off and trying to simultaneously climb up onto the potty.  It was then that I started screaming for Derrick, afraid she would fall face-first into the open toilet and unwilling to climb out of the shower to deal with her shenanigans.  All in a day's work...

As I was helping Carter wash his hands today, he looked at me in the mirror and asked, "Why do you look pretty today, Mamma?"  Um...as opposed to yesterday when I didn't shower or do my hair nicely...  Well, the answer was that I took Reese to a birthday party today.  It was super cute and they had Santa Claus there to entertain the kids and let them sit on his lap for pictures.  When it was Reese's turn to talk to Santa, she wouldn't sit on his lap.  But the best was when he asked her what she wanted for Christmas and without hesitation she said, "Bumblebee!"  For the last two months all Carter has been asking for for Christmas is Bumblebee...as in the Transformer Bumblebee.  He has no idea what Transformers even really are, has never seen a movie or cartoon or book...nada.  But he really wants Bumblebee and speaks of him often. So I guess Reese decided it was a pretty spectacular item to ask for for Christmas.  Too funny!

GCC Reunion

 We had an amazing, fun-filled couple of days reuniting with Grove City friends.  Yesterday we managed to get 6 of us together, along with our 14 KIDS!!!   Yes, it was pure craziness, but SO much fun to catch up with everyone after years, to meet kids we'd never met before, and to let all the kids play together.  Boy did they sleep well last night!

So after hosting family for 4 days and friends for 2, we are pretty much ready to sit around and do nothing for the weeks leading up to Christmas!  :)  It sure was fun though.

We got a Christmas card in the mail today with a little friend of Carter's, all dressed up in a black suit...really cute picture.  I said to him, look he is all dressed up, he looks so nice.  Carter looked closely at the picture and asked, "Was he getting married?"

I was reading the kids a Spiderman book today and the last line of the book went something like, "Even though some people call Peter Parker a nerd, he doesn't care because he knows he's really Spiderman."  Carter looked at me when I'd read this and said, "Reese likes Nerds!"  (the candy, of course)

Dena, Kristy, Kathy, Erin, Shelley, Niki and Cindy - friends since 1998!

13 of the 14 kids...one was napping....what a bunch!!!

Tobin and Carter became instant wrestling buddies!