SUNNY DAYS

The proof is in the bare legs.

The kids woke up at 6:00 on Friday morning. Don't ask me why. I have no idea. Anyway, I knew it was going to be a long day, due to the kids' lack of adequate sleep, and I didn't have the energy or patience to deal with . So, we packed up some food and grabbed some Benadryl, then headed for the park. We spent 2 1/2 hours playing in the beautiful weather in a nearly empty part of the park. Then it was home for power showers and quick baths before naps. Perfect.

COUNTING

0 - Speech therapy sessions Devon has left. In a nutshell, he's fine for now and if some of the later developing sounds don't work themselves out, then we'll go back in a couple years.

1 - Books I'm currently reading. Almost done with it and have another one waiting on the nightstand.

2 - Times I've fixed Naomi's elbow this week. Thankful I had the ped show me how to do it!

3 - Minutes it takes us to get to church. Our drive is now ten miles shorter in each direction.

4 - Weeks left of work in this school year. We go all year, but ending in June feels nice and starting with new books in July is fun.

5 - Number of live Ws in the house. One more than the number of decorative or magnetic Ws in the house.

6 - Weeks until the boys' birthday bash. Wondering what kind of cakes they'll request this year.

7 - Days until I host Cheri's baby shower. Having tons of fun getting presents in the mail for her from a bunch of our Sonlight friends around the country!

8 - Bedtime for little Ws. Peace and quiet prevails.

9 - Sixty percent of the cookies in a box of Samoas.

10 - Number of new towels I bought this week. Out with the wedding gift towels. They've served us well.

LINKS I LIKE #6

I haven't done one of these posts in a super, duper long time!

Stuff Christians Like - Jon did a great post recently on pursuing the things that interest or matter to you, rather than talking or thinking about pursuing them. I know there are some areas I should do less thinking and more acting. I'm sure you have some too.

Coupon Cravings - This is a handy article on ways to get cash for your unused or outdated electronic gadgets.

From Mourning to Dancing - Monica is a friend who used her own illness as inspiration for this very practical post about how to help a friend battling cancer. It includes lots of helpful things and tells you the things to avoid. Read it even if you don't currently have a friend with cancer, as odds are that you will at some point.

Transformed From Glory to Glory - My friend Summer has done a couple posts this month that are fantastic for parents. Actually, they're good for anyone who may be a parent someday. The first one is an encouraging reminder that we need to be patient in waiting for the results of our parenting efforts, realizing that some things will take more time than others and that no two kids will need the exact same parenting from us.

This morning she had another great post about the phrase "kids will be kids". I was just talking to a friend over the weekend about the same idea. It frustrates and perplexes me when parents think inappropriate behavior, even if done out of childish curiosity or ignorance and not rebellion or spite, is funny or cute. Sometimes I just want to shake parents and say "This is not cute and it's certainly not going to be cute five years from now, so buck up and do the hard work of parenting your fit throwing, mischievious, disrespectful, or whining child!"

I hold no judgement toward a parent or child simply because those behaviors occur, as that's part of humanity. It happens in our family, just like everyone else's. What concerns me is parents who do nothing about it. Or snap pictures to laugh over. Or use that sticky sweet voice to state the behavior "wasn't very nice", yet give no consequences. Or reward the poor behavior through bribery or with giving in to the child's demands. Or let the child merrily go on their way while the parent deals with the aftermath of the child's behavior.

I agree that kids will be kids. Similiarly, I agree that boys will be boys and girls will be girls. However, I think it would be fantastic if parents would be parents. Age and gender can explain particular behaviors, but that doesn't mean they excuse them.

Wow, that was a tangent. Didn't mean to go off on that, but it seriously drives me batty in the present and truly concerns me for the future.

Making Home - Jess looks at the "other" Proverbs woman, challenging women to examine the way they speak, think, and interact with others.

Centsational Girl - Lisa directed me toward this blog and it's super cool. I'm not artistic at all and this woman's taste is a little more formal and fancy than what I'm drawn to, but her ability to transform trash into treasures and re-purpose items, while doing it for pennies on the dollar, is awesome. Lots of ideas for sprucing up your home can be here!!

All righty, we'll call that a wrap. Hope you find something in all those links that you like.

5/13/10 THANKFUL THURSDAY

I'm thankful for blue skies.

What's one thing that you're thankful for?

NO MORE DIAPERS

Naomi, like the boys, has sat on the toilet since infancy. Using it when we've put here there has never been a problem, but she wouldn't let us know when she needed to go. She, unlike the boys, was still pooping in her diaper on her second birthday. Totally repulsive. She, much like the boys, has been hit or miss in telling us when she needs to pee on the toilet. It's mostly been "miss" and she's cared less about trying than the boys did.

Well, as of Monday morning there are no diapers being used in this house during normal waking hours. Naomi, for reasons we'll never know, simply decided to use the toilet all the time. She's been to a school, park, three stores, gas station, and at home. I don't have to remind her to use the toilet, she simply tells me when she needs to go. If we're out and about, then she waits til we can get to a bathroom.

Awesome! She's the one I thought would take the longest to ditch the diapers, but she ended up being the fastest. The boys did it more gradually, while she appears to be an "all or nothing" kind of kid.

Now, we've given our children a rich heritage of bedwetting, so there are still diapers in the house ... but none on children who are awake. Woo hoo!!

CLEAN YOUR HOUSE & HEAL YOUR EARS

For those (and I may or may not be referring to the man formerly known as "Buck") who already think I'm a hippy, I'm going to add some more evidence to strengthen your case.

Cleaning - With the exception of the original scented Pine Sol (and who could resist that?!), I can't stand the smell of cleaning supplies. They're strong, stinky, and linger forever. Blech. Though they come at a significant discount with sales and coupons, they're still not cheap. And they stink. Have I mentioned that part already?

Anyway, I know a lot of people who use baking soda and vinegar for cleaning, but I'd never tried it. Until recently, that is. Several months ago I'd written down the solution my friend Faith uses and I whipped some up a week or two before we moved. It doesn't stink, was almost free, and was amazingly effective for all the deep cleaning (think of nasty kitchen grime in places you didn't realize were grimy) I had to do during the move. I'm hooked!

Here's how I did it. I cleaned out an empty milk jug and measured 1/2 gallon of water into it, drawing a mark in black Sharpie at the water line so that I can fill it from the tap next time. Then I added 1/2 cup vinegar and 1/4 cup baking soda, put the lid on the jug, then shook it like crazy. I poured some into a spray bottle for convenience and that was it. Easy peasy!

Ears - Naomi started crying and complaining of ear pain, with no other symptoms, four days before our move. You may remember the ear pain she had back in December, the time she complained occasionally over a few days, then ended up with a ruptured ear drum and double ear infection. Well, I didn't want a crisis on moving day, but it was too late to see the doc and the thought of ER charges didn't excite me. So, I tried something my friend Paula had suggested during December's ear drama. I used garlic. Guess what? It worked!

While there wasn't any drainage, I couldn't be sure her ear drum hadn't ruptured, so I didn't want to put drops directly in her ear canal. I perused a few websites for ideas. This Organic Authority site is great at describing what's going on during an ear infection and has a variety of home remedies. We started off with the following suggestion from that site, as we always have garlic in the house.

Another way to use garlic is to take a clove of fresh garlic and cut a piece to the size that will fit comfortably in the outer ear. Do not put the garlic clove into the ear canal; you only want it to rest on the outer ear (kind of like an old-fashioned hearing aid). The raw garlic may cause a burning sensation, which can be lessened by coating the side that will come in contact with the ear with olive oil. This may not be the most socially acceptable way to fight an ear infection, however this technique is very effective.
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I think a garlic clove hanging out of the ear actually looks kinda cute when it's modeled by the Nomes-a-licious all snuggled up and sleeping on her daddy. Wouldn't you agree?
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We kept that in her ear for about two hours. Unsure if it would stay in her ear once we put her in bed and quite confident it would fall out while she ran around the next day, we moved to step two. Garlic oil. Due to time constraints and the work of moving, I opted to fork out money for drops instead of making my own oil. Such is life. I bought Gaia's Children drops, though Herb Pharm (I've used their drops countless times over the years) also had some. The clerk said those two are the best brands for ear drops. I used the following suggestion from Christina's Home Remedies and it worked like a charm.

Put a drop of warm garlic oil on a cotton wool swab and place it like a plug in the opening of the ear. Leave it for 30-40 minutes in the ear and use it several times a day.

I placed the bottle of ear drops in a cup of hot tap water for a minute, then put a couple drops on a cotton ball (we actually cut the cotton ball to make it fit more easily) and put it her ear before tucking her into bed. We pulled it out a bit later when we hit the sack. The next morning she mentioned once, without tears, that her ear hurt, so we did another cotton ball. She didn't complain again. That was it. The end. I actually did one more cotton ball when we left the house around lunch time, just to err on the side of caution, but it wasn't really necessary.

Now, I realize some of you may think she never had an ear infection to begin with. However, she has a high pain tolerance and the only other time she mentioned her ear hurting (that was the December saga and she complained less about that than she did about this) she ended up with a double ear infection. I'm confident this was the start of an ear infection. I wish I'd known about this option back when Devon was having major ear issues. He ended up with tubes, which I'm totally fine with, but I wonder if we could have avoided them. We'll never know, but I'm curious.

So, there you go. I'm just a little more hippy dippy than I was when I was only homebirthing and making my own laundry detergent. Of course, I'll never be a total hippy. I shave my legs too often, don't eat organic food, love anything made with refined white sugar, and avoid incense. I just happen to love things that are easy, frugal, and/or effective, which often sometimes falls into the "hippy" category.

I NEED SOME ANSWERS

Water - Brookings, Ashland, and Beaverton all had tap water that tasted good. Wilsonville, I've discovered, has tap water that makes you think you're drinking straight from a swimming pool. It's disgusting.

So, what do the locals do? Drink it anyway? I won't buy water. So, what's the better option between a filtered pitcher or a filter to put on your faucet. I think the faucet one would be a nuisance, but the pitcher takes up fridge space. I'm leaning toward the pitcher, but I'm wondering what others like and why.

Phone - We've had cell phones since September 2005. We've used Sprint that whole time and never had any problems. Unfortunately, our service tanks about half a mile down the road from our new home. You'd think a suburb of a metropolitan area would have good service throughout the city limits, but ... well, you'd be wrong. If we stand outside or in the corner of our bedroom, then we get enough of a signal that we can have a conversation, but it's still scratchy. Anywhere else in our home is pointless. Sprint sent us a signal booster, but it hasn't helped at all.

I really, really, really, don't want to have to break our current contract with Sprint, but we also need phones that work. Any suggestions for signal boosters? What company do other Wilsonville residents use, particularly people that live past the high school?

Chair - I have a chair that sat in the garage of our Beaverton home because we didn't have a place for it inside. We have space now, but the chair needs some help. The seat was caned, which looks cool, but makes for lousy support if you actually want to use the chair. After a few months of being used for seating, the seat weakened and tore. I've included some pictures of the top and bottom of the chair, so that you can see what I'm talking about.

It's an old chair and I love it, but the seat needs to be functional. I would love to have the caning removed and an upholstered insert made to fit in the hole of the seat. Is there anyone who knows how to do that? Anyone you've used for similar projects that you'd recommend?