Family Musings

The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him!  Proverbs 20:7 In honor of this special day for Dad's everywhere, I repeated my Father's Day Interview with Charlotte & Mary. What is something Daddy always says to you?  - "I love you." What makes Daddy happy? -  "Giving him hugs and kisses" What makes Daddy sad? -  "When I disobey him" How does Daddy make you laugh? -  "By telling me really funny jokes" What was Daddy like as a child? - " I don't know because I never saw a picture of him." How old is Daddy? -  "How old are you Mommy?" "I'm 35." "Then's Daddy's 35." How tall is Daddy? -  "Really, really, really, really tall. But not as tall as a giant." What is Daddy's favorite thing to do? -  "Play with me and work." What does Daddy do when you're not around? -  "Go to work. Work at home." Wh...

Apparently, I  have a thing for taking pictures of Mary sleeping! These are all from just this year!

I've been trying to motivate myself to do more fun things specifically for Mary each day after we drop Charlotte off at school. So today, we went to the park at 7:40 AM. I wasn't even sure it would be open that early, but thankfully it was! Despite the sand pit being closed, Mary still had a good time. I tried to discourage her from taking the sand toys out of the bag, but she insisted and said, "dat's otay. me can petend!" This is her using her sand toys to make us some breakfast. In this case, it might have turned out better that the sand pit was closed. Later she called out to me, "de eggs are almo done honey!" For some reason she calls me her honey, which I don't mind at all. I have all sorts of nick names for her too. My favorite though is May-May, which comes from how she normally says her own name. Recently though, she's been trying to say it more like Mare-a, which sounds much more like her actual name. Because the ground was wet, M...

Monday included two visits to a local school called Dream of Louisa. While public education is free in Nicaragua, uniforms, books, and supplies are not, so many children are shut out from educational opportunities. This school exists to fill that gap.  For some reason, my photos from our morning visit uploaded in a random order... This first one is Mary modeling for the camera in the older student's classroom. Charlotte finally had a chance to ride in the back of a truck. And to take a picture of mommy taking a picture of her. :) Our family is grateful for Stepanie and the other teenage girls on our team. They are willing to help out and keep the girls occupied when we need a rest or have something else to do. Here, Charlotte is encouraging the students to dance during the Chicken Dance song. And here she is working on the fishing game. During the morning session she quickly bored of her job, but towards the end of the afternoon session, she was practically runnin...

The righteous who walks in his integrity— blessed are his children after him! Proverbs 20:7 In honor of this special day for Dad's every where, I repeated my Father's Day Interview with Charlotte & Mary. What is something Daddy always says to you?  - "I love you." What makes Daddy happy? -  "Seeing me and Mary" What makes Daddy sad? -  "When he misses us. That makes me sad too" How does Daddy make you laugh? -  "By tickling me. I'm ticklish." What was Daddy like as a child? - " I don't know because I wasn't there when he was a child." How old is Daddy? -  "I don't know, 25?" How tall is Daddy? -  "Tall enough that he can get the beans down." What is Daddy's favorite thing to do? -  "Watch us dance and play together." What does Daddy do when you're not around? -  "He just, you know, like, he likes to sit around." What is Daddy really good at?  -...

Bruce here, hijacking Jennifer's blog again. Today is Mother's Day. And I thought I share a little bit about my appreciation for Jennifer. Jennifer and I met in 10th grade history class. And, within one week of meeting Jennifer, I told her that we were going to get married, one day. This is an undisputed fact. But, Jennifer still has trouble believing I really meant it. Of course, she also shook her head "no" when I asked her to marry me 5 years later; she couldn't believe I was serious that time, either. But, I was. So, why would a 15-year old punk be picking out his future wife? It sure does sound pretty absurd. But, even back then, I knew what kind of woman I wanted to be the wife and mother of my future family. Yes, I was a strange kid. Years later, when I actually asked her to marry me, I had already planned out our financial future so that I knew we'd be able to make it. I was only 19, at that time, but I knew people, including Jennifer, would wo...

Sometimes I impress myself with my brilliance. I have no idea if other moms have discovered this trick to help toddlers use stickers, but I made it up one day out of frustration with helping Mary,  2 1/2 years old, get new stickers to put on her paper. Maybe you've known about this for years, in which case I say to you, why didn't you tell me?! In order to make sure none of my friends can say I didn't share this amazing trick, here it is: Pull the non-sticker sticky paper off the page before you let your toddler work with the stickers. It means all they have to figure out is how to get the sticker off, without messing around with the background of the stickers. This is really great for developing fine motor skills too. And yes, those are princess stickers. Don't judge me. They were on clearance and at the rate Mary uses stickers (a little over 100 on the day I took this picture!) I'm not too picky. They have bug and airplane and dinosaur stickers too thou...

I love finding new places to do cool things in my chosen town. And as active as I am in my community and as much as my husband likes to tell people I'm the "stay at home mom who never stays at home," I still find new places to explore with my kids and friends all the time. My most recent discovery is a produce stand called Indian Summer Farms . Obviously though, it is more than just a produce stand. I organized a play date there for my MOPS group and for $5 per kid, we had a great time! Here's a peek at what it included: Feeding the animals in the petting area. Mary had NO fear and walked right up to the goats with her bread. She might have even been a little too bold at moments for this momma! Hanging out in a unusual play area that included a wider variety of toys in an outside area than I ever expected. There are also two swinging tires that the oldest kids really enjoyed. Gave one of the moms a pretty good work out trying to get the swings higher and f...

I offer this conversation as evidence of Mary's on going improvement in the area of speech. Me: Mary, don't pick your nose. Mary: Me no pick my nose? Me: That's right. Mary: Me pick Mommy nose? Happy Valentine's Day to all of you.  I hope you made a good pick! (PS. You still have time to finish The Husband Project . Be sure to comment and enter to win one of the great prizes!)

On a typical night, dinner is a pretty casual affair. I make something. We eat it. The mess gets cleaned up (eventually). And it is typically over in about fifteen to twenty minutes. About as long as it takes me prep and make dinner most nights. Sometimes, I like to make dinner time more special by making fancy food. You know, things that require sauteing and deglazing and stuff. But I don't always have time for all that. Other times, it is easier to make a simple meal, and dress it up. That is what I did for a recent dinner. In this case, I took a simple meal of soup, salad, and warm bread and treated it like a restaurant meal. When the family came home I immediately welcomed them to the "Sabin Restaurant" and led them to their seats. I used a cheery, over the top greeter voice to set the tone. I also let the girls use my Fiestaware and cups without lids (BIG deal in my house!). I busted out my Crate & Barrel cloth napkins and my favorite Pandora jazz channel was...

Tonight, Mary uttered her first 5 word sentence - "My daddy drink my milk." That's the kind of thing that only a parent can appreciate. This happened towards the end of dinner tonight and when her declaration was over, Bruce and I just looked wide-eyed at one another. "Five words." We both had silly grins on our face after we watched Mary pull this off. It's possible that no one else will see how big of a deal this is, but we do. We've watched her explode in language over the last two months. There are few words that she is no longer willing to attempt. We get to have real conversations with her now. Her pronunciation often needs to be translated by me, but I don't mind. It just thrills me that she is trying to make more noise. (Well, in theory it thrills me. Not so much when we are in a confined space like our car.) Also, Mary might be one of the funniest children around. There is not a week that goes by where someone doesn't tell me, ...

As a team, nothing can stop them. When she sees danger, she gets down to business. Her super power is her super cuteness! They can fly anywhere in the world. Fast. Not only can they bust the bad guys, they can also bust a move. Even blindfolded, they can get the job done. The pins fell down before the pumpkin even got there, just at the sight of this dynamic duo. Tall ladders are no match for this super hero. She can (and did) climb that ladder all by herself. Super heroes always need to keep themselves well hydrated. And well nourished too. Look at how this super hero tamed the wild beast, "Princess." It's important for even the tiniest super heroes to practice so they can keep their game sharp. What fun events did your family participate in this weekend?