What's a Little Mess?

A few weeks ago I was on the phone with a friend who has 5 little ones.  She was trying to talk to me and her 2 year old at the same time.  She was telling him to not turn on the water and instructing him on how he could play.  Then she turned her attention to me and said, "Do you ever just fill up the sink and let Micah play in the water?"  She was enjoying her little one next to her, talking on the phone, while he played in the sink.  I initially thought, "of course not! You are just asking for a mess. I mean, why make more work for yourself?  Don't I have enough already?"  I didn't say this out loud to her but it was what I was thinking.

Today I let Micah play in the backyard by himself.  It didn't take long and he was into the murky bird bath water.  He came in all wet with soaked and dirty arms up to his elbows.  Of course I had to take off his shirt but before I put on another, I decided he might like to play in some clean soapy water while I washed dishes.

This was new to him and he didn't quite understand what I was setting up.  A stool so he could reach, a towel when he spilled it all down the front of the sink, and a pot full of soapy warm water, a ladle and cup. 

I washed dishes on one side of the sink while he played on the other.  He loved it!  Of course, he did.  I always say that children and water just go together!  Really all the mess I had to clean up was water on the floor.  

I really need to do this more often.  Why should I expect a 2 yr old to look at books all day quietly and play with toys made just for them?  He is wanting to explore the world around him, dirt, water and all!  I'll take a little mess any day knowing he's next to me, safely enjoying life.

Thanks friend, for the idea!

Kristin

Building Memories

We just returned from a 2 week trip to California where both my husband and I grew up.  The central valley and the Bay area are both interesting and beautiful places to visit.  This was a support trip where we tried to make as many face to face contacts with friends and family who pray and give of their resources for us to be able to work at Gospel for Asia here in Texas.  It was busy and full of wonderful lunch dates, ice cream dates, coffee dates and dinner dates.  I know I gained a few pounds!  We are so grateful to be friends with so many wonderful people who truly love us and care for us.  We really do care for them as well and enjoy their company and the memories we've made together over the years.  I'm grateful that these trips force us to connect with the people we love and wouldn't have it any other way.  What could be years and years of separation due to busy schedules and life taking us in different directions is not happening in our world.  Thanks be to God!

Can you imagine traveling with a family of 7?  Well, maybe you can but this was new for us.  We haven't flown in along time with our whole entire family and with the new luggage rules of paying for every suitcase you check, we had to get advice.  Some friends of ours who also have a large family suggested everyone bring their own carry-on and a back pack.  We actually had to borrow luggage for this.  Anyway, we wound up only having to check one piece of luggage but this meant we had to keep track of and lug with us 7 carry-ons, 7 back packs, 1 car seat, a blanket and binkie, our purses and our ID ready and available. And lets not forget to wear slip on shoes for going through security and NO WATER  in those water bottles!  This made for a terribly stressed out Daddy.  Luckily when my husband gets stressed out he just gets giddy and makes us all laugh. He just starts laughing like a maniac! What else can you do? 

We did take some vacation days as well and wanted to do some site seeing as a family.  Rich and I grew up going to the mountains and the beach every so often and so we wanted to share this with our children.  They are growing up in Texas where there aren't mountains or beaches that are a short distance away.  We took so many pictures that I can't possibly share them all but I hope to pick out a few shots that communicate some of the beautiful sights we visited.

The first week we visited Yosemite National Park.  Rich and I both had been there several times as children and then we honeymooned there when we got married.

This is Half Dome and it is one of the first things you see when you enter the park!  Can you hear the "oohs" and "ahhs" coming from the back seat?

This is the kind of shear granite rock that you see all around Yosemite.  It is really incredibly breath-taking!

 A fun picture we took while hiking up Vernal Falls.  

AJ was in his element for sure! He is a hiker and was ready to do the 12 hour hike up Half Dome!   He is truly a "Spring Chicken" and can out hike all of us!  When we were panting and muscles were burning, he was running because he couldn't get there fast enough!

And this was what he was running to see!

Rich and AJ got up very early in the morning to do this hike.  It took them over 2 hours.

A place called Curry Village is where we stayed inside the park for one night.  These are called tent cabins and consisted of basic beds with metal frames, bedding (that you make yourself). wood floors and a locker outside to put your food in to keep it away from bears.  I have to say it was sufficient enough but I didn't get much sleep since one person in our family was concerned all night about the bears!

Olivia was our photographer the entire time.  She took most of these pictures for us.  With all of her health issues, she did wonderful hiking around the park for which I was grateful.

Julia was quite a trooper even though she was hot most of the time.  We weren't prepared for how warm it was up in the mountains.

We had dinner at this hotel on our honeymoon.  We wanted to show the children this place and peek in on the dining hall.  It's a spectacular place and the gardens surrounding it are gorgeous!

This is the walking path and some of the foliage around the hotel.

I like this picture of Reece because it really depicts his personality.  There seems to always be a hole in the knee of his pants.  He picked this T-shirt from the gift shop and has worn it almost every day since!

Micah loves to get his picture taken and always says "cheeeeese". This is a picture of him saying it.

On our way out of the park we stopped at Bridal Veil Falls.  There wasn't much water falling but it make it nice for rock climbing which our children can get lost for hours doing!

Looks like I'll have to talk about the beach in a later post.  So long for now.  To wrap it up, we'll conclude that Yosemite was a hit and we would definitely go back.  Just hope it's not another 19 years before we get a chance to return!

Blessings,
Kristin

Going Green?

I'm not sure if we are technically "Going Green" if our motives are for simplicity sake rather than for Mother Earth.  Quite frankly I'm not all about the environment although I'm sure there are good reasons there too to go "simple".  I do hate that we are a country that consumes constantly, always needing new items to satisfy ourselves.  So many of us think used items are second best or lower class or even "unclean" although we know we can wash them and even sterilize them with all the products we have to choose from!

Anyway, with our growing family (as in teenage appetites) and larger budget, I've been brainstorming to think of ways to cut costs.  Years ago I quit buying paper towels and instead we just used paper napkins for things you might use a paper towel for.  We dry our hands with a regular towel and use the weekly newspaper ads to wash windows and mirrors.  So we haven't had paper towels in the house for years.  But. . . those napkins.

Over the past few years I'd learned that most cheap white napkins were bleached with chlorine to get them that nice crisp white color.  So we tried the ugly brown ones that are too pricey to mention and got used to them.  A few times we went back to the generic ones ladened with chemicals and my husband complained that he could actually smell the chlorine when he wiped his mouth.  It bothered him so we just closed our eyes to the price and tried to use them sparingly. But frankly, with 5 kids it's really difficult to use anything sparingly.  I did buy them from a company who sells them at wholesale prices so at least we were getting a discount.  Whenever we would run out of napkins and I didn't want to run to the store just for one item, we would use our cloth ones for a few days.  I was always tempted to just go cloth all the way but didn't really think it would save much with the laundry it takes to wash them and time.  When you give it some thought, how did the pioneers go without paper products?  I mean, for 100's or even 1000's of years we as a people did not use disposable paper napkins!

So I started thinking, if I had about 24 cloth napkins of which I already had 12 with a few random extras maybe bringing my total to 15, I'd only need another set of 6 or so.  If everyone used one napkin a day and we somehow could mark it as that persons, we would only go through 6 a day (Micah doesn't need one of his own yet although he likes to pretend with a wash rag).  That would mean doing a small load of laundry every 4 days.  No big deal.  And we'd never need to buy napkins again?  Really!

I was discussing this with some ladies at church and one gal said her mother-in-law only uses cloth and she marks the napkin ring on the bottom with the first initial of that persons name.  Ooooh, good idea!  Or what we finally decided was easiest for us, was to tie a different color of ribbon on each ring and each child knows which color they are.  I found some napkin rings at a thrift store for $3 for a set of 12 and a bag of ribbon there also.  Don't tell anyone but I think they are actually cloth covered shower curtain rings!  They work perfectly.  Each child is responsible for putting his/her napkin back into the ring after each meal and leaving it at their place.  All my cloth napkins are folded and stacked nicely in a basket with the extra rings in case we have company.

It is very simple and feels good to cut that extra cost of napkins out of the budget!  Another bonus is not having to store large packages of paper napkins.  We would buy them in bulk which is something like 5 packages at a time!  Well now we have extra space for other more important things!

Feeling fancy over here at the Lodi household!

Micah Turns 2

August 16th is Micah's birthday so yesterday he turned 2.  I had nothing huge planned as I usually don't for birthdays.  Quite frankly they stress me out because everyone always throws big parties for their kids and that equals stress in my book. I guess I always feel like I should throw a party but never seem to have the energy or motivation.

    Micah loves balloons so I went down and bought him a balloon bouquet from the grocery store.  He loved it and wouldn't let it go.  We took it to the bathroom with us, to lunch, and almost to bed but I put a halt to that idea!

He was most of the time lost in them or his feet was tangled up in the ribbon.

Here he is with his big sis, Julia.

Julia and Reece are friends with another brother and sister team, their same ages, at church.  Harmony and Arthur were having their birthday party on the same day as Micah's.  It was going to be held at our church and they were inviting the entire family.  So I asked if it would be ok if we brought a cake and had some gifts for Micah too since it was his actual birthday.  They were thrilled with the idea and so was I!  All I had to do was make a cake.

The birthday trio.

I was thrilled with this cake.  I had to find a dairy free/gluten free cake so that Olivia and I could enjoy it too.  I bought a gluten free chocolate cake mix and then a friend gave me a recipe for a peanut butter frosting!  Yum!

I love little hands.

And those big eyes. .  . 

Micah really enjoyed his cake.  He loves sweets.

Micah had a blast with his little friends.  This little girl played with him for hours.

I just happened to get a good shot of them playing peek-a-boo.

After cake, they played chase and Micah laughed and laughed.  He loved it and I was so blessed to see him having so much fun on his birthday!

Here he comes, balloons in hand.

This is Will, another one of Micah's friends.  They play together every Sunday and smile at each other in church because we usually sit in the pew in front of them.

Gift time!  Olivia made Micah a Winnie the Pooh, latch hook pillow.

He doesn't have a pillow so I'm not sure he knew what to do with it.  So I said to him, "Go nite, nite on your new pillow" and this is what he did. . . 

Notice the balloon still in his hand!

He also got a little stuffed monkey and he showed his appreciation by kissing it and then snuggling with it too.

Can you see the little pink monkey under his head?

Our pastor and his wife got him a stuffed puppy dog.

So he was given two new friends.

He decided to love on them both. 

I love that simple things in life excite kids.  I attached this little party blower to his gift and he thought it was great.  He giggled out loud in front of everyone when he figured out how to use it.  

We re-gifted to him a pull toy and some wooden puzzles.  I love re-gifting because that means I don't have to go shopping or spend any money to make my little boy happy.

Micah says, Thank- you for a wonderful birthday to all who made it fun for him.  And now I can focus of Reece's birthday which is tomorrow!

Our crazy July

We had a very rainy 4th of July celebration.  Actually it didn't rain exactly on the 4th but on the 3rd when we were going to go watch fireworks after the Addison air show.