Bonbons... yeah right!!!!

If you think that I am sitting on the couch eating bonbons during this break from the kids, you would be living in my dream world. I am starting on my 3rd straight day of painting, but I finally see an end. All I have left is a top coat on the cupboard doors and to get the patio door done. They should be all done for Andy to put the hardware on tonight and to get the doors back on the frame of the cupboards. I can't wait to get back to normal. I don't do well with messes so I am having a hard time with my kitchen table being full of stuff. Check back tomorrow for pics :)!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

TCHLTB

This weekend our family had an opportunity to serve others in a very special way. Our church decided not to have Sunday services, but instead to do service projects that would impact our community and the world. The service project we chose to participate in was making meals for kids in Tanzania, Africa. The goal was to make 100,000 meals for the organization Kids Against Hunger. By the end of the weekend, our church had put together over 136,000 meals. It was an incredible thing to be a part of. Each of the kids had a job to do. You can see what they did in the video below. They did very well. I hope this will not be the last opportunity we take to serve others like this. I pray that as a mom I will be able to find many other ways that I can teach my children to serve others and not just themselves. This was a good start! The best part were the hair nets!!!

Carson and Kaelynn worked together as a team with the rice and viatmins and did fabulous!

As if that wasn't enough work for one day, the boys helped me sand the cupboards on Sunday afternoon. It started out very helpful, but quickly turned into more work for me. Oh well, it gave them a little ownership in the project and something different to do.

Phase 1 complete

Phase 1 of the kitchen remodeling is done. Andy worked really hard the last two days to get the wainscoat up and help me get it and the trim painted. The kids did very well and played independently quite a bit so we could get this done. Here is the before: And here is the after:

I am really pleased with how it looks. It is already so much brighter in there. The blue with the white is very calming and fresh. I love it! Now for the grunt work. We have started taking the cabinet doors off so I can slowly work on them this week. I say slowly, because the boys are off of school this week, so I will have to work on them during video time and after they go to bed. I hope to get a good start on them though. It's going to be more work than I thought, but I am quite excited about what it will look like when it is done. Stay tuned! P.S.- Kaelynn still is not walking on her own, however she did make some progress this week. We were outside the last two days with 70+ degree weather and she was not allowed to crawl on the ground because it is pretty muddy. She was able to maneuver herself just right so she could get places. She will stand on both legs on her own now and she will limp along holding onto one of my hands. Slowly but surely!!!

How tough can tough love get?

So the bribe failed! I thought that if I have her pick out the toy before hand and put it in front of her that would be more of an incentive to walk. We now have a Barbie tea set sitting on the piano unopened just waiting to be played with. Has that phased her? Not one bit!!! So this morning, the tough love got tougher. She now is forbidden to crawl. There are some pretty major consequences set if I see her crawling. She is not being carried anywhere (except to the car). I told her I will help her walk, but it is only with one hand and she has to put weight on it in order to have the help. I am not bringing anything to her. This morning she missed out on a snack, her lunch was quite cold by the time she got to eat it, and her blankie has been sitting on the table all day. She is sooooooooooo stubborn. She laid in her room for almost two hours this morning whining and crying because she refused to take the help and refused to even try to walk. I will continue with this as long as it takes!!! I'm really at a loss for what else to do and have been seriously on my knees asking for God's patience and strength to be consistent. Anybody else have any ideas???

Desperate times call for desperate measures....

Yes, I feel like we are in a desparate time with the whole broken leg thing. She saw the doctor on Thursday and got a clean bill of health. The bone is growing new bone and the splint was taken off. However, she is still not willing to walk on it. I am not one to bribe. I think it just gets us parents into trouble in the long run, but as this blog is titled, desparate times call for desparate measures. We have offered her a chance to pick out a toy at Walmart when she starts walking on her own. It will be 4 weeks on Wednesday. Yes, I have bigger arm muscles, but I also have a tired back and a patience that is thinning more and more everyday. People keep telling me that I should cherish this time I have to hold her because it won't be long before I won't be able to. At this point I'm thinking that I'm going to be old and gray with lots of chiropractor bills racked up before that day comes. Okay, that's a little dramatic, but seriously, I'm tired of it. We are also trying not to do so many things for her and making her get places by herself. When she is out of the house that is pretty difficult. (I really don't want her crawling in the parking lot of Target. I'm thinking there would be some child endangerment issues there.) However, I am hoping that by making her do her own things more, she will just forget about it and start walking, or will get so frustrated that she will give up her stubborness. Yeah, right!!! I think I have vented enough. I'll let you know when the blessed event happens. Let's all pray that it's sooner than later. I know I will be!!!!

Enjoying the weather

I haven't posted in a while because we have been enjoying the beautiful weather here in IA. It has been in the 50's and today it hit 60. We took a walk with no coats on!!! It was great. Unfortunately it's not going to last and we will be back in the 30's by the end of the week. The boys have a fun week ahead at school. Tomorrow is the 100th day of school. They each need to bring 100 of something small to school tomorrow. Carson chose marshmallows. Connor's first choice was pretzel sticks, but we only had 92. He then chose pencils, but we only had 74. I then gave him a few more options and he chose Q-tips. We had more than enough :) They did a good job counting them out in groups of 10. They are quite excited for the day's activities. Of course they have a Valentine's day party on Friday. We will be working on writing all of their classmates names tomorrow afternoon. I'm sure I will be singing the "Have patience" song over and over in my head. Kaelynn is still not walking on her leg :( I think I might need to visit the chiropractor after this is all said and done. She keeps me laughing though. Today we were looking at some clothes at Target. She pulled an outfit off the rack and said, "I'm not a big fan of that one." She proceeded to say that to quite a few more outfits. Most of which I agreed with her on. Looking back I realize that I say that quite a bit. She also really loves to play games. Her favorites are Uno and Guess Who. The age recommendation on Guess Who is 6+, but she has it down. She wins almost every time. We are looking forward to spending a few days in Mpls. with my family next Sun-Tues. We haven't seen most of them since the wedding in September and are looking forward to reconnecting for a few days. Happy Valentines Day to all!

This is the day!!!

One of the biggest blessings for me this past 6 months has been my involvement with Kidstuf at church. I lead the worship time for it and have absolutely loved it!! I lead with two other vocalists and 6-8 students. The music is fun and up-beat and I have loved watching the families worship together!!! Another blessing has been watching our kids embrace the music and develop a love for worshiping God through music. They have been immersed in the songs since August as I practice the dance steps for them often during the week. One of Kaelynn's favorite songs is "This is the day". I got a video of her singing it and doing some of the actions an hour and a half before she broke her leg. Enjoy!