Weekend Chores

This weekend we finished up several projects.

Now that the garage is shine-ily organized, the boys can do this (the white board is nailed to the wall in the garage) while I mess in the garage or the front garden area:

(love, love Merritt's look of concentration here)

The Tree People cut down lots and lots of branches.  Then they chipped them up.

Merritt thought the chipper was loud.  Awful loud.

Here are pictures from when we repainted our front porch in June.  It was BLASTED hot, but it had to be done.  It took 3 days.  One day was just sanding and scraping . . . hours and hours of fun.

Yep, this is what our door looked like for 3 days.

The boys were DYING to help.

We then painted it twice (after priming it for a day).

YAY!

Mother's Day Revisited

These were the "notes" my boys left me one day for Mother's Day.

Today in School: Painting with Our Nature Walk

The boys had a great time with the nature walk, and the next day we used the "items" we found to make paintings.  They had a great time guessing as to what shape it would make with paint and then painting with the items to see if their guesses were right.

(I am not sure why, but the last step Evy takes these days when he paints is to paint over everything until it is one big blob.  I guess extensive coverage is important to him right now.)

Today in School: Puffy Paint

Aunt Elise pointed me in the direction of this activity and the boys loved it!  And, Merritt is now using his color language more.  YAY!

It was like magic!  And, who couldn't use more magic on a daily basis?  Everyone could.

Today in School: Italy

Today, we started our study of Italy.  I've listed a couple of the websites that I found ideas for my boys.

http://www.pocanticohills.org/italy/italy.htm
http://www.enchantedlearning.com/europe/italy/
http://www.makingfriends.com/world/world_italy.htm
http://www.busybeekidscrafts.com/Italy-Crafts-for-Kids.html

For sure, we will be doing the gelato and making gondolas.  Tomorrow we will visit a place with LOTS of olives (and, ah-hem, gelato).

Gelato

Gondola

Rick Steves' Venice

Today, we looked through pictures and videos of Italy.  (My favorites are always the Rick Steves.)

white-peace and honesty
red-hardiness, bravery, strength and valor
green-hope

Chills and Thrills

I am amazed at how much we were able to accomplish last week given how much Erik has been gone.  We certainly had some time faeries on our side.

Fix both cars, trim two huge trees (thank you tree guy), run about abajillion errands, doctor appointments, banking, killed bugs, negotiating between insurance and doctor, and finishing up the CLEANING OF THE GARAGE, which is a mixture of organizing, purging stuff, and hanging shelves.  We are now able to get a car inside (one of the cars is too long to fit in the garage, interesting, huh?).  AND, as a bonus, I was able to get away by myself and buy some clothes that fit.  a.w.e.s.o.m.e.n.e.s.s.

Shashabooey!*

He was so deadly in fact,

that his enemies would go blind from

overexposure to pure awesomeness.

My eyes!

He's too awesome!

And attractive.

How can we repay you?

 

There is no charge for awesomeness.

Or attractiveness.

Kablooey!

*Thank you, Kung Fu Panda, which movie I find hysterical but can't watch very often because it turns my boys into ninja fighting spazoids.

 

A couple of things I don't want to forget:

• Whenever I "surprise" Everett by laying out his blanket super nice on his bed, he runs into the room and all Scarlet O'Hara like says,"Oh, you shouldn't have!"  crackmeup
• I love it when Evy runs into the room all excited and forces me to stop what I am doing so he can recap what he and Merritt just pretended.  Merritt runs up right behind him and tells me the exact same thing in Merritt-language.  I love it.
• Merritt does not like breakfast and would only eat meat and eat it all day, if I would let him.
• Evy does not eat meat.
• I'm trying really hard to figure out what I am going to cook while Erik is out of town.
• Recently, when Evy sees me getting down, irritated, or at a loss as to what to do, he'll say from across the room,"Hey, Mom, I love you!"
• Merritt threw a shoe at me while I was driving this afternoon.  That was some lecture he got afterwards.

This week is purdy busy.  A highlight will be finishing some sewing projects.  My sewing machine is b-roke-n forever (I found out today from the sewing maching repairguy).  So, I'm off to Mom's to borrow her machine.

The boys and I will be studying Italy.  Bet you can't guess why.

Merritt Tells a Joke

(Note:  Merritt prefers to only wear the shoes that I have hidden in his closet, evidently hidden not so well.  You know, the shoes that are too big, that he is supposed to grow into.  Thus, he insists on wearing shoes that are too big, and, yes, he'll trip and fall if he starts running.  What I need to do instead is hide the shoes that fit him.  Will do tomorrow.)

Today we held a farewell dinner for our dad at one of those breakfast places . . . and Merritt was in fine style.

He cut his scrambled eggs with a knife and fork, grown-up like.  He figured out how to hold onto the table and walk up the wall behind him.  And he single-handedly ate *5* sausages.  I KNOW!

The boys at the end of the meal decided we needed to go for cookies.

On the way to the store, Merritt played with knock-knock jokes. He knows the pattern of them (he hears it enough between Merritt and me).  The one that he laughed the most at was:  Knock-knock, Whose there?  DADDY!! 

We got the store and Merritt was allowed to walk through the store without a cart.  This is a *big* deal.  When we go to the store, I am usually armed with the list, two tons of snacks, and all kinds of "you need to stay in the cart" talk.

And, he loved the freedom!  After the screams of delight when we found the cookies, we started toward the check-out.  On the way there, Merritt RAN with one arm in the air say,"CHOO_CHOO__  All Aboard!  All Aboard!" . . . totally biffed it by landing on his face, not once, not twice, but three times.  This kid was so excited that he didn't cry or pause; he just got up and kept on running.

When we arrived at the check-out (because after all our noise and fanfare, it has to be considered an arrival), Merritt turns to us:

Merritt:  Knock-knock
Us:  Whose there?
Merritt:   COOKIES!!! HAHAHAHAHAHA

(They were chocolate cookies, iced in orange, and loaded with sprinkles.  We sat down right in the store by the check-out lane, on a couple of benches, and doled out the sweets.  And, everyone who passed us had to make a comment about how awesome cookies are.  Next time, we'll have to buy enough to share with those that pass by us.)

Power of Postive Swimming

Prinny the swimming cat

So, my goal is to swim a mile in freestyle, continuously, no stopping at the wall at all.  Flipturns, consistent pace, developed lung capacity, and endurance is what I am going for right now.

I already swim over a mile in my long swims.  I have about doubled my distance from a couple of weeks ago.  Although, I've still struggled with swimming freestyle continuously. When I showed up for my long swim yesterday, I couldn't get past the 100 meter distance.  I have been hitting this wall for weeks with minor improvement.  I've had several lessons to help me correctly flipturn (I'm doing that), strengthen my nondominant side (still working on that), changed my stroke and breathing pattern (that is getting better), I realized how I was dragging my body in the water (corrected that), and I discovered I was pacing incorrectly (still a struggle).

Well, I was so down on myself.  (Granted, I've only been back in the water about 7 weeks, but I'm in the water almost 4 hours a week, quite often more, with dryland workouts in between.  This should be getting better.)  I left the swim exhausted and disappointed in myself.

So, early this morning, I went back.  I was going to do my best to work on my pace, keep my body at a proper alignment on the water, and enjoy those awesome flipturns of mine.

AND I DID IT!

I interval swim with freestyle for part of my workout, and this is how it would usually go:  25 meters, feeling good . . .  (rest for 10 seconds) swim 50 meters, I'm okay . . . (rest 10 seconds)  swim 75 meters, okay-I'm pushing it . . . (rest 10 seconds) swim 100 meters, I AM GOING TO DIE! . . . (rest 10 seconds) swim 75 meters, why can't I get this . . . (rest 10 seconds) swim 50 meters, thank heavens I am almost there . . . (rest 10 seconds)  swim 25 meters, I don't I'll ever get to a mile.

And, this morning I increased the interval distance (no, not very logical) hoping that my positive thinking and my determination to pace appropriately would come together.  Here is what happened (resting for 10 seconds or less between each distance):

50  meters (m). . . 75 m . . . 150 m . . . 200 m . . . 150 m . . . 75 m . . . 50 m---and I ONLY stopped because I was done with the interval and needed to switch to drills.  I wasn't winded.  I could have gone much, much further! 

YAY!  I doubled the distance with ease.  If I can keep this up and not increase it too fast, putting too much stress on my shoulders, I might still make my monthly distance goal.

There really is much to be said about the power of positive thinking.

(And, over the next four weeks, my access to the pool will dramatically decrease, but hopefully I can keep my dryland workouts intense and not lose too much momentum.)

Tonight

I can't decide what was best about tonight:

• Erik made dinner, fajitas.
• Cake.
• Merritt looking like a few of his front teeth were missing because of chocolate icing "make-up."
• Erik deciding he needed to put some strategically placed icing on his front tooth to see if it would look like he was missing one, too.  (it did)
• Evy deciding that he needed some missing teeth icing make-up.
• Watching all three of my guys clown around with their missing teeth.
• Getting in a late swim.  (you should have seen my flipturns.  I look like I've been swimming wwaayy longer than 7 weeks.  go me!)
• Teaching Evy and Merritt to play tic-tac-toe.  Evy is pretty awesome at it!
• Playing with the boys after baths when they smell like sweet angels instead of sweaty, well, little boys.
• Teasing Everett about what moms don't do (toot, belch, hiccup, etc.  he didn't believe me.  it was hysterical)
• Seeing how Erik was able to install all the webcams so we can see each other when he is gone for forever in a little bit.
• Watching Erik read to the boys.  Merritt loves reading with his dad.  Evy loves doing *anything* with his dad.  They are so fun to watch together.

First Day Back to Preschool

Evy attends a nature museum preschool class once a week.  He loves it and I love it!  Today was his first day back!

Merritt, though, misses his brother the entire time.  Poor guy.

This year Evy is in the 5 year old class because he is almost five and definitely bigger and more mature than the 3 and 4 year olds.  Today in class, they took a hike, talked about our ecosystem, and the animal visitor was the box turtle.  It was pretty much awesome according to Everett.

Merritt and I took a hike in the 106 degree weather.  Lasted approximately 30 minutes and then went back to the AC for the remainder of the time.

(He is thieving from my bag.  And, he thought he was being so sneaky about it, too, as he *slid* across the bench to it.)

Gardening: The Final Phase

Well, I can say that thanks to the heat it was a bust of a year.  In summary:

• The lettuce was always bitter. 
• The tomato plants grew to over five feet high (and only now have 4 itty bitty tomatoes growing). 
• The squash didn't ever produce squash.  Same problem last year, I need to figure out a way to draw more insects to pollinate (and no, the paintbrush/q-tip method did not work). 
• The jalapenos went gangbusters.  I have dozens of them.
• The strawberries wilted, though I see some offshoot strawberry plants developing in the tomato section.
• The basil, rosemary, and lemon verbena thrived.
• Lots of greenbean flowers, no greenbeans.
• And here are the carrots.  They have been growing in the ground since, uh, like May, at least.  I must say that they smell so good when you pick them.

I am taking notes for next spring.  We'll try it again.  The kids do love it and I am hoping we don't push for record breaking heat again next summer.  There were *weeks* when we were not outside in the backyard during the day.

A plus with all this heat, the compost looks rather nice right now.

Good Times

Today, Erik came home at a decent time!

We had dinner as a family.

Played with the boys.  Well, I tried to lay on the floor and the boys took turns mashing into me and jumping over me.  Then, they did their tricks on the trampoline and mat.

Erik gave me time to take a bath to help with some idiot rash I got on my chest from an "imported" necklace.  (go me and my "sucker" mentality for buying from third world countries)

He played with the boys outside; they ran through the sprinkler.

He customized their Monday evening fun and allowed them to watch *3* shows before bed.  He cut up apples to let them snack during their late night debauchery.

And, now, he put the humidifier on "just right" for Evy and told a bedtime story.

It has been nice.

Surprise Party

Merritt was sick this Sunday, and since Erik was staying home with Merritt, Evy decided to stay home as well to spend some time with his best pal, Dad.

I went for Sacrament and came home shortly after so that Erik could go back to work.  When I got home, there was a note on the door, a text on my phone and a message on my vmail.

"Do not come in before 10:45.  I'll text you when we are ready."
Sure enough, just after 10:45, I got the text and opened the door to a freshly organized home smelling of CAKE!  And my guys yelling,"SURPRISE!"

Yes, the boys threw a surprise party for me.  So sweet!  Evy thought I needed a party for all my hard work.

And, yes, we ate cake all day long!

Chills and Thrills

I could use a chocolate chip cookie right about now.

The past week was extremely busy.  I must say that when I get overly sleep deprived because Erik isn't here and Merritt doesn't take a nap and wakes up at 5:30 am all week:  I don't do so good.

Here is how I describe it:  On days when I'm the Lone Ranger and when Merritt doesn't nap, it is as if I live in an alternate universe where I've been kidnapped by Pinky and the Brain.



Other than that, well, I don't remember much.  I did go to book group, which was tons o fun and a welcome relief! 

The boys, by special invitation, had hamburgers with Grandma and Papa on Friday.  You should have seen how difficult it was to get them back home.  And ALL day Saturday they whined about going back to Grandma and Papa's.  They had a great time!  They felt so special!

Here is a picture of Merritt during the best shopping experience with him ever:

He should be so lucky to have a cushioned rolling throne every time we go to Walmart.  And, he has the most patient brother on the planet.

Here is a short recount of the busiest shopping experience for him which occurred on August 18th-2011:

Merritt shampooed the groceries. Not one to skimp on the beauty routine, he also applied a thick layer of conditioner. That is how I learned that the butcher has the best paper towels and how Merritt became the strongest floral scent in the store. (You had to be there to truly understand how fast he works.)


Currently, he is running naked through the house.  And, no, he didn't take a nap today.
And the best way to delay actually having to go to bed at night, like for real getting to sleep:  Getting into Dad's mission stuff and dressing up.  The parents love it.
 

Today in School

Today in school we took a prolonged nature walk to "gather" items for one of our projects.

Various leaves, lego pieces, feathers, acorns, sticks, and other odds and ends were treasures quickly bagged by the boys.

One of the best things about this walk, Merritt didn't take off running.  He stayed with us the entire time and was fully immersed in the task at hand.  We had so much fun!

It was fun to sort their loot at the end and marvel at the various sizes of acorns that were collected.  (or that Evy collected.  Merritt would hold the acorns tightly in his hands and toss them to the squirrels when he saw them saying in Merritt-speech "catch your snack!"--he was so proud to help those rodents.)

Robot Man Wins Again!

We received the results from Everett's latest EEG. 

No seizure activity.  And, his liver levels are looking good!

This means that the seizures are being controlled as best as we can and that we will not need to add any more medication to what he is taking.

It means that we will do another EEG in December, and if that goes well, another 3-4 day Video EEG in March with the goal to ween him off the meds.

The goal in all of this was to have Evy seizure free for one year to allow the 'gene' to go inactive or the pesky part of the brain causing this to heal (by controlling the seizures we allow the brain a chance to heal instead of seizing throughout the day).

I feel blessed.  The doctor and his office are a blessed pain to deal with each and every time.  At the same time, despite the irritations and the anxiety about what procedures will not be paid for by the insurance, I know that he is getting the appropriate care and the doctor has Evy's best interests at heart.  I know that since I am doing all that I can to care for Evy that my Heavenly Father will provide the resources, at some point, to take care of the medical bills. 

Robot Man is taking all of this in stride.  He takes his awful medicine twice a day without batting an eye.  He views each EEG as an adventure with a healthy dose of chocolate at the end, and he even is a champ at all the blood draws we have to take to check his liver.

I am blessed to be at home to provide for him.  I am blessed to be able to find activities that he needs now with the abilities needed to make sure that pre and post medication changes result in positive changes for him.  I am blessed with a husband who reroutes his schedule to help Evy at the appointments whenever Evy needs additional support.  And, I am blessed to have the constant care and inquiry of those who love Evy.  He is lucky to have such loving and staunch supporters!

To Be Knackered

by Dominik Broniek

Wonder what knackered is?  Well, it is us right now.

We are tired, beat, knackered.

Erik is working like a madman. 

I feel like I am working like a madwoman.  I've also some kind of allergy or cold.

Sleep would be really nice about now.

Erik can't 'cause he is working.  Seriously.  I don't think he has slept more than 4 hours any one night over the past three weeks.  Too many deadlines all packed together.

I can't sleep because I am overtired from a nasty cross section of Erik's schedule and the boys' sleeping patterns, and, well, a stuffy nose.

The plus side . . . the weather is cooler, overall, and our computer is fixed (thanks, Erik and Everett).

Ageism

I tried to make a really nice dinner tonight.  The dinner, itself, was amazing.  Balsamic roasted pork loin, steamed honey carrots, quinoa, and a great spinach salad . . . with cheesecake for dessert.

Well, Erik was late (he didn't know about the special dinner that I planned to thank him for working so hard).

And, the boys didn't eat it.  Merritt sat at the table for 5 minutes and took off.  Could not be convinced to return and eat.  Instead, he busied himself arranging cars in very straight rows.

Everett sat at the table for 30 minutes and did choke down the carrots and a couple spoonfuls of the quinoa.

Then, Erik came home.

And, as I sat with Erik and Everett at the table while Erik ate his dinner, I looked at the boys' plates full of good food, uneaten, and said,"Why do I cook?"

And, Evy immediately said,"'cause I'm not old enough yet."

So, there you have it. 

PS Chills and Thrills

I forgot to mention that the boys are insane cats all the time now.  It has been going on for a couple of weeks.  Meowing, cat screaming, eating like a cat, purring like a cat, running on all fours like a cat.

Right now I can hear them bounding around upstairs like they are frantically chasing some bug like cats chase bugs.

They love it.

Chills and Thrills

Pretty quiet on this blog, we've been having some computer issues.  It will get resolved but it includes replacing parts and that requires money, and, uh, some knowledge about computers.

In the meantime, we are blazing through the days.  This Monday brought COOLER weather to our area and continued to be very hard with the wildfires across Texas.  I just cannot believe the devastation.  so quick and so deep.

Erik is on working overload.  He is in town, but we rarely see him.  We are trying to be creative to take advantage of any "break" he has  . . . I'll skedaddle over to his work with the boys and see him for a half hour or so (yesterday, we saw him on a "break" and also used the vending machines . . . my boys love those machines, so many great buttons).  It will be like this for awhile.  Vapid pace while in town and then out of town.  I should be lining up my sanity checks right now.  (right now, he is getting the boys ready for bed, providing me with a much needed separation from my cute hoodlums.  I love them so!)

I'm busy.  swimming.  callings.  the boys.  the house.  stuff keeps breaking.  you know how all that goes.

Evy met his teacher yesterday at his museum preschool class that he will attend once a week.  He loves it!  And, I love his teacher.  She is perfect for those kids and it will be a small class.  Evy is going to be in heaven!

We had a busy Labor Day weekend.  We labored all day Saturday getting things cleaned and then enjoyed the outdoors on Monday.  We are so acclimated to the high temps that all of us were "chilled" by the temps in the 80s.  We did go to the pool, hardly anyone was there because it was so cold.  But, the Sjolseths were there and in the water!

Evy has started waxing sage with his "that's life" series of sayings.  Here are a few (BTW, Erik explained that I am the one that he gets it from, poor Evy):

Some things you like and some things you don't like, that's life.

Sometimes, you have to eat things you don't like, that's life.

Sometimes, you don't get what you want, that's life.

Sometimes, you get owies, that's life.

Sometimes, the carseats are really hot, that's life.

Sometimes, things break, that's life.

Sometimes, you have to clean, that's life.

He still comes up with the most interesting conversation topics.  Today:  "I would WEALLY WIKE to be invisible, Mom."  He is clearly a thinker.  (sorry, too tired to write out the whole conversation.  take my word for it.)

Merritt said his first four word sentence last week:  "My shoe is gone!"   (I was so excited because 1) he was talking and 2) he was keeping up with his stuff.)  This evening he said,"Is this water mine?"

If we are *anywhere* near one of the streets that leads us to a pool that we have been to, I hear Merritt scream from the backseat, "POOOL!"  He certainly is paying attention.

"Back to the Water" Progress

My muscles are super aching today!

I've been adding core workouts and pilates workouts along with my walk on my dryland days.  I keep my swim days to long workouts in the water, with a bike workout if there is time.

Yesterday, as I finished up my last lap, which usually takes me around 56 minutes to get to in my work out . . . I looked over at the pace clock and realized that I was *20* minutes early.  TWENTY MINTUES  EARLY!  (I had to double check my lap count and workout list to make sure I didn't skip anything.)  I must have really shaved off a ton of time with working on my flipturns and pacing my breathing as well as making my stroke as efficient as possible.  YAYAYAYAYAY!!!

I celebrated by swimming another 35 minutes (and then I did my regular long interval bike ride for an hour).

I finally feel like I am making the progress needed to be able to swim a continuous mile in freestyle.  (I can swim breaststroke for hours and backstroke for almost just as long, but freestyle kicks my butt.)  I am working towards better pacing in my stroke and my breathing capacity is MUCH improved. 

I've had to change what I eat, of course, since I started swimming.  I am ravenously hungry on my long swim days and have altered the frequency of my meals and the amount of protein to better meet what my body wants. 

I have had three swim lessons since I started back in the water on the last week in July, and I have one more lesson next week.  The lessons, the structured workouts, and just the effort to keep going even on difficult days have really resulted in progress.  I am so excited!  (and, my ankle doesn't hurt when I do all this.  It does when I walk fast or run, but swimming is pain free!)

A big thanks to Erik for supporting me in all of this and for never giving up on his idea that I return to the water.  (He talked to me about doing this for a whole year before I committed.)