A Day in the Life of Bou Bear

They say a picture is worth a thousand words, so I'll just let the pictures do the talking. This is actually a pretty typical day for her - I just happened to be in a good enough mood to laugh it off and grab the camera!

12:30 PM - We've been trying to drill into her lately the importance of wiping herself after doing her business . . . at least she's trying!

3:30 PM - I was downstairs doing laundry and trying to find some Christmas music for guitar when, unknown to me, Kari Bou woke up from her nap and decided to help herself to my large bar of Hershey's dark chocolate. She ate all but 2 small sections before I discovered her.

3:40 - Malachi woke up and needed to eat before I had a chance to get her another shirt. After feeding him, I went downstairs to find her strumming my guitar. Upon seeing me, she immediately shoved nearly all of my pics down the soundhole, grabbed a pair of scissors and tried to cut the strings.

4:30 - I was throwing together some dinner when I overheard her telling her teddy bear, "No, no - that's disgusting." Apparently, he had pooped a cotton ball on the living room carpet and she was giving him a scolding.

The thought of her someday scolding her own children for stunts similar to these strikes me as pretty funny . . .

Have Yourself a Merry Little Shopping Trip

Have you ever watched one of those nature shows where starving wolves tear into some helpless animal they've cornered and worn down? Eyes glitter with a frienzied thirst for blood; saliva drips from bared teeth; every muscle strains as greedy jaws tear into the feast at hand.

I witnessed, and in fact participated in, the human equivalent to such a scene just this weekend. I am not describing Thanksgiving dinner with either Danny's or my family - although both were delicious and well worth tearing into! No, the harrowing experience I speak of, from which I narrowly escaped with my life and sanity, is a trip to Wal-Mart. What made this one different from all the others? Timing.

For the past several years, I have made the trip to a large mall about an hour away. This year I decided - no more. This year, I'm keeping it simple. I combed the Wal-Mart and K-Mart ads, looking for Christmas gifts and clothing for the kids, and meticulously listing each item I wished to purchase, along with the sale price and day it went on sale. Wednesday and Thursday I purchased a couple of items, but of course, they sale day to beat all sale days was Friday. I thought this year would be easy - just a few local stores and no long trips and angry crowds to deal with.

And then the clock struck 5.

I congratulated myself for pulling into the parking lot a full 10 minutes before the hour, and then spent about 8 minutes driving around searching for a place to park. I finally found one, at the remotest corner on the lot, and squeezed into it. I hiked up to the store and the frenzy began.

As soon as I set foot inside, I had to literally jump to the side as people grabbed for carts. It was some kind of Christmas miracle that I actually found myself pushing one toward the toy aisles a couple of minutes later. Meanwhile the magic hour had arrived. Bleary-eyed employees ripped plastic from boxes and crates in the aisle, revealing glittering mountains of toys in all their splendor.

Literally within 3 minutes, I saw shopping carts piled high with dozens of items, from MegaBlocks to Magnadoodles. The aisle was a mass of arms and hands and crazy eyes as half the city piled in for the kill.

I discovered something as I frantically tried to avoid being sucked into the toy-grabbing vortex: this kind of frenzy is contagious. I found myself - in spite of my carefully compiled list - mindlessly throwing item after item into my cart, until it was as ridiculously full as every other cart around. The blood rushed to my head and sweat soaked my shirt as I rushed through the store (as fast as you can rush through hundreds of shoppers and carts). Was this due to the power of suggestion? Or because the sales were just too hard to pass up? Or because of the greed that lurks in my own heart, just as much as in anyone else's? Most likely all of the above.

As if we hadn't had enough, we all rushed to K-Mart at 6, where we repeated the scene.

But maybe the saddest thing of all is that I know with absolute certainty that I will go through it all again next year. After the above account, you may well ask why. And I'll tell you: it's the female hunter/gatherer instinct. An ad for a huge sale, to me, is like the smell of blood to a wolf. I can't stay away. And when I return home after the kill, it's a high like no other. To be able to boast that I found all of the items on my list (and then some), for less than half the normal price - not to mention that I actually grabbed the LAST ONE of several different toys - well, it's addictive (and kind of stupid).

So call me a ravenous wolf. This predator can't wait to see the looks on her kids' faces on Christmas day when her hunting finally pays off. Oh yeah . . . and we'll probably read the story of the REAL meaning of Christmas then, too.

Fall Fun

For the past couple of weeks, we've been trying to settle into more of a routine (whatever that is). The kiddos still have their moments - and days - but lately I've actually been able to run errands with all four of them without too much trouble. (The free cookies handed out by the Wal-Mart bakery have provided great incentive; I've found I'm not above bribery in certain situations.)

Rachel, Zeke and Karis all love their little bro. Each one tries to help in his or her own way, as in the example to the left. Zeke discovered some old earmuffs and decided to help keep Malachi warm while we went out. Malachi was thrilled, as usual. I love this picture because if you can imagine away the infant seat, and pretend the earmuffs are actually headphones, it looks like he's in the recording studio, singing his little heart out.

It's been a full, and fun, couple of weeks. Saturday we watched the OSU/Michigan game with some friends, then headed out later in the evening for a horse & carriage parade. The kids were riveted, watching the horses with their festive decorations and brightly lit carriages. One particular carriage held a family who was obvisouly nuts - they had four kids and the oldest couldn't have been older than 5. I'm just glad the game was in the afternoon; last year the kids and I went to the parade without Danny!

Thanks to the warmer weather as of late, we've spent a lot of time outdoors, mostly raking (me) and doing our best to then scatter the newly-raked piles back over the lawn (the kiddos). I did manage to get a few cute shots of them together. I also got ambitious the other day and decided to try to take some pictures of Malachi in the leaves since he seemed to be in an OK mood.
Oh well - there's always next year! Believe it or not, he has started smiling and cooing much more lately. I tell you what - when he looks up and me and his little face lights up in a huge smile, I turn to mush. There just isn't anything I wouldn't do for the little guy. One of these days, I will capture him smiling on film . . .

We also decided to join our local YMCA this week. The best feature is the free childcare - I can actually go and work out in the mornings for a while. I'm embarrassed to say how long it's been since I've exercised. Yesterday, I dropped the kiddos off and got in a full 20 minutes before I was called back to the childcare area because they didn't know what to do with Malachi, who was "fidgety and fussy." So I strapped him into a front carrier and was ready to take him for a walk up on the track, when Karis started crying due to pee-soaked jeans, socks and shoes. She's been doing this about every third day for the past several weeks - usually when we're not home. Well, I guess 20 minutes on the elliptical is better than nothing!

And now, here I am typing away at 5:30 on Thanksgiving morning. When Malachi wakes up to eat at 5:00, there's really no point in going back to bed, and I get all giddy thinking about how much I can accomplish before the others wake up at 6:30 or 7. And then I just decide to waste the whole time typing and posting pictures . . .

HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

'Tis the Season to be Thankful

I was hauling boxes and dishes out to the car yesterday to give back to people at church, and I started thinking about how fortunate I am . . .

. . . for 6 friends and 2 sisters who loaned me maternity clothes - since I ended up needing just about every season in every conceivable size!

. . . for weeks of meals people took the time to make or spent the money to buy and bring over; and for sweet, thoughtful gifts and cards for Malachi, and for Danny & me and the other kiddos as well

. . . for friends who have watched the kiddos so we could have a date night

. . . for a mother and a mother-in-law who spent days helping me and taking care of the 3 munchkins while we were in the hospital and for several weeks afterward

. . . for a husband who helps with the dishes, changes dirty diapers, and loves to spend time with the kids and with me; and who sets a good example of thankfulness



And it hit me once again at our communion service last night, how grateful I am for the word BUT:

"As for you, you were dead in your transgressions and sins . . . we were by nature objects of wrath . . .

BUT!!!

. . . because of His great love for us, God, who is rich in mercy, made us alive in Christ . . . it is by grace you have been saved." Ephesians 2:1-5

How thankful I am for that one "little" word!

Compromise

OK, I've been "meme" tagged. I'm supposed to list 5 interesting things about myself and then tag 3 others to do the same. I'm usually the party pooper who breaks the chain; and I'm sorry to say I'm going to be that person again this time, except that I decided to partially play along and list 5 interesting things about myself. The munchkins usually take center stage in my posts these days, and I decided it's high time to showcase myself. (I'm sure there's a verse about that in the Bible somewhere.) To make up for not tagging anyone, I am listing 10 things, in no particular order:

1. Two of my toes grew together in high school. (long, painful and very gross story - I'll spare you the details)

2. When I was growing up, the worst punishment my parents could give me was to ground me from reading.

3. I do not have a sweet tooth (except when it comes to dark chocolate). In fact, I would rather have a bowl of corn for a snack, than cake or candy. Also, I love to save leftover cobs of corn and eat them cold.

4. I took a Russian language class in college on a dare, and loved it so much I ended up minoring in it, which involved 2 years of Russian classes, and one semester actually spent going to college in Russia.

5. My favorite outdoor activity is downhill skiing. I've only gone twice.

6. I have always wanted to sing the part of the Narrater in the musical Joseph and the Technicolor Dreamcoat.

7. I was a Bible quizzer for 5 years, and then coached our church team for 2 years and our district team for one. (which is why Danny sometimes likes to call me "Quiz Nerd")

8. I've lived in Nebraska (9 years), Virginia (2 years), Indiana (5 years) and Ohio (all the other years). One year, we filed taxes for 3 different states. The next year, we hired a professional.

9. I once had a hair about 3 inches long on my stomach.

10. About twice a week, I sing "Candle on the Water" to my kids before they go to sleep (their request!)

Woo Hoo!

Some REALLY COOL things have been happening around the Wright household . . .

Rachel is learning to read! She's been working on sight words for the past month or so: we, see, me, my, the, a, look, here, at, is. She's also done a lot with short and long vowel sounds. Yesterday, her teacher sent her home with 4 little "keep books" (ironically, she had to return them to the teacher today), which used many of her sight words, as well as other simple words she was able to sound out. While Malachi ate, we went through the books together, and she was able to read most of them on her own! The best part was seeing the elation on her face when she realized she was actually reading. She's been sounding out words when we go places, too, like S-T-O-P, and M-E-N (on a restroom door), etc. Her teacher is very big on parental involvement in the learning process, which was annoying at first, with everything we've had going on the past 6 weeks. But it's forced me to make the time to work with her, and I LOVE it.

She's also stopped asking me every night if she's going to burn to death in a fire after she goes to sleep. And it's been several days since we've had a discussion about her school bus or our van catching fire. Hey, it's progress . . .

Zekers has become a memorizing machine. Now that Rach is in Sparks (AWANA), she learns 2-3 verses per week, and has been somewhat resistant at times. A couple of weeks ago, when she kicked up a fuss and refused to learn the reference to one of her verses, I was about to throw up my hands in frustration, when I heard Zekers pipe up from the other end of the table: "Romans 1:16". I couldn't believe it - he seemed to be paying no attention while we worked on the verses, but could not only say some of the references, he quoted James 2:10 to me: "For whoever keeps the whole law and yet stumbles at just one point, is guilty of breaking all of it." And now, all I have to do when trying to work with Rach, is look at Zekers and mention nonchalantly, "Well, your brother probably knows it", and bam! she makes sure she says her verse before he has a chance to show her up! It's hilarious. And he actually asks me to work on his Cubbies verse with him every week.

His vocabulary cracks me up. Today before I spanked him for kicking Rachel in the face, he bleated out, "But she provoked me!" (which, I have no doubt, was true)

Kari Bou memorized her very first verse this week. I was experiencing pangs of guilt because I hadn't taken time to work with her on her Sunday School verse for the month. Frankly, I didn't expect her to be able to learn verses yet. But with the other 2 working on theirs, she actually wanted to learn one of her own! Now when they say their verses, she loves to interject "This is My Son . . .Listen to Him."

Kari Bou and Zekers have also been playing together really well this week. Some days are still better than others, but it's so sweet to watch them run around together outside, and start to share with each other a little more. I've decided that maybe we need to just spank all three of them as soon as they get up, just to start the day off right! (just kidding . . .sort of) It seems like after they've had a spanking or 2, things get much better from there.

And finally . . . Kai smiled at me for the first time today! He opened his mouth wide in a huge grin and even made noises that sounded a little like laughter when I would make silly faces at him. Of course, later on, I made the same faces and he cried. But that one smile was pretty great. He's also seemed much more content the past few days. He still has long crying spells, but he's gradually spending more time just looking around - being awake and not crying. I think it's helping that he can see a little better now; he's keenly interested in what's around him.

As for me: I found out a couple of days ago that I'm going to be facilitating our small group discussion for the Daniel study next Tuesday when Linda, our regular facilitator, is out of town. (It was by default - no one else in our group wanted to do it!)Man oh man - knowing I'm going to be doing that is causing me to study this week's material in a whole new way, and it has been incredible. Funny how I get more out of the study when I actually take the time to absorb it rather than rushing through it as fast as possible just to get it done. I want to go on and on, and I plan to in a later post! But for now, I simply feel very, very convicted/challenged/blessed and I'm just 2 days into the week's work.

It's pretty amazing the way that God works. This has been a long week, and last night was the worst one we've had in several weeks, so I started off the day tired and grumpy. But God has given me so many reasons to smile today, and reminded me continuously of all that I have to be thankful for.

And now, just for the fun of it . . .




Do you notice a common thread here?

Visitors

I wanted to post some super-cute pix from last weekend, when both of my sisters and their families came to visit. Hannah, Kenneth, Esther and Luke came in the morning, on their way to the pumpkin patch where we went last month, and Sarah, Anthony and Addie came later in the morning and stayed most of the day. It was fun getting to see them and hang out for a while. I may be a little biased, but I think my nieces and nephew are some of the cutest kids I've ever seen!



What really blew me away was the magnetic draw of the baby toys we brought down from the attic for Addie. Who knew that a bunch of rattles & cloth blocks could so mesmerize a kindergartener, a preschooler and a toddler?? My munchkins played with the baby toys way more than Addie that day - and for a full week afterward. That settles it: I'm putting most of their toys in the attic for several months and giving them to the kiddos as birthday gifts! Hey, it would save some money, and some shopping time . . .



We accomplished the nearly-impossible, and managed to get a halfway-decent picture of all 7 cousins. My parents have gone from 4 grandkids to 7 in just 8 months. Christmas certainly won't be boring this year!








And I just had to put up this last picture - Malachi's one-month "portrait," taken in a rare moment when he wasn't either eating, sleeping, or crying! He weighs a little over 10 lbs and is 22.25 inches long - he's in the whopping 50th percentile for weight. I am doing cartwheels because I've never had a child this age make it past the 5th percentile. The kiddos love holding him, talking to him, and trying to shove a binky into his mouth; Rachel has actually been a huge help, and even Kari Bou will throw an occasional dirty diaper into the trash. And amazingly, no one has suggested sending him back. So far so good. Happy one-month anniversary, Kai!