Valentine's Day

What a fortunate woman I am with three Valentine's to love (and to love me!). It was a busy, regular workday, but we started out right with heart-shaped pancakes and pink milk made with frozen strawberries. Yum! Josiah had helped me the previous night with our melted crayon / waxed paper heart decorations.

Weekend Fun

One of my dearest friends from college, Shauna, came for a little visit this past weekend. It was so nice to spend time together! The boys had lots of fun playing with her too, and we enjoyed our usual Saturday morning visit to Central Market together. 

(I try to convince myself that the boys' donut eating habit at Market is offset by the fact that I'm busily buying a week's worth of veggies as they eat their sweet treats!)

***

On Sunday, Josiah worked hard making nearly two dozen beautiful Valentines for his preschool classmates. He did all of the thumbprints and then carefully drew in the bunny features, copying from his Ed Emberly's Great Thumbprint Drawing Book. I was proud of his effort and patience, and he was rightfully very pleased with the outcome!

William kept busy doing his own drawing, and then he and I played some hide-and-seek in the curtains. That's always a favorite activity!

Moral Support

This potty stuff ain't easy. Sometimes it helps to have a friend. 

And in other news...look who made it home!

Breakfast

As usual, breakfast around here was a pretty happy time today. William was in one of his eat-everything-in-sight-at-breakfast-time modes. He had a bowl of Cheerios mixed with bran flakes with milk and honey, an entire piece of whole wheat bread, a pile of fresh blueberries, and a decent portion of plain oatmeal with banana. Josiah, for his part, had a man-sized portion of oatmeal—in a serving bowl no less! Sure do love these boys. With any luck I'll keep them in one piece a few more days until you get home to us. 

Evidence of Life

Ugh. Today was (is) a marathon day. Mom and Dad were gone by 7:45 a.m.  New load of laundry started, dishwasher unloaded, boys up and ready for the day, bags packed, out the door with Josiah for school and work. Teaching. Multiple long meetings with colleagues, some requiring a delicate hand on touchy issues. Multiple meetings with students about research and grad school and grades and proposals and life. An external review team was in the department all day—a once-every-ten-years kind of event—concluding with a dinner and plenary meeting this evening.

Got home after the boys were in bed, which makes my heart break a little. Thank goodness for your parents, Jesse. They're saints. The boys were in good hands all day. There was an empty Chick-fil-A bag on the counter when I got home, evidence of a fun treat going out for dinner. (One of these days I should try out Chick-fil-A myself, now that one has opened in Lancaster. Is it really as good as all the hype?)  Pins and bowling balls neatly set up ready for knocking down first thing in the morning. And a bunch of activity categories crossed off the list from the day:

I think I finished this particular project since you left, right? In an effort to help give some ideas and structure and variety to their days, and to provide some alternatives to "screen" type activities, I've made up a list of activities that strike me as good and healthy parts of any kiddo's day. It's in an 8x10 frame so Josiah can cross off categories with a dry erase marker on the glass then wipe clean each morning. Yesterday he got through every category! (You know, sometimes I wonder how I ended up teaching university students when it appears I'm more suited to kindergarten...hmmm.)

In any case, that marathon day still isn't over, so I'd better get back at it. Do you think if I create my own set of categories I'll find a little balance one of these days?

Superbowl Sunday

We're glad to know you've made the Oradea, Romania to Budapest, Hungary to Istanbul, Turkey to Kiev, Ukraine transition through the weekend — in spite of snowstorms, bankrupt airlines, and more! Our weekend back here in Lancaster has been slightly less dramatic.  :)

Josiah was willing to go into Family Theater with me this morning at church — a first. I don't know if I'd say he enjoyed it, but he was okay. That's a start! This afternoon I took advantage of having my folks here for one more day and got restocked on groceries and such without the boys in tow. And this evening we headed to your parents' house for a little Superbowl party. The boys and I only stayed for the first half then headed back home for bedtime, and I admit to bringing grading along. (I know, you're shocked, right?) Anyway, it was a good day, but...it always feels like something is missing without you here...

 Levi was cute, decked out in Patriots gear. Too bad it didn't help 'em win...

Outings

We're thankful to have Nannan and Papa with us over the weekend. Today we poked around some touristy Lancaster shops. 

Enjoying handmade Amish toys.

At a hardware and antique shop, where William spent quite a bit of time sweeping the floor!

Hot dogs and chips...lunch of champions! 

Just Some Pics

I didn't pull out the camera today, and my to do list tonight remains long. So to keep things super quick and simple, here are a few random older favorite photos that I know will make you smile despite being familiar.  :)  I'll try to have something more fun and current up tomorrow...   We miss you so much!!

Normal Thursday

There's nothing really to report...  It was a normal Thursday, which means William went to Jill's for the morning while I went to work and Josiah went to school, and then we enjoyed an afternoon at home together. Same as every Thursday. There was eating. There was playing. There was cooking and cleaning and stories and cuddles and giggles and, you know, all the regular stuff.

And yet there's everything to report...  Josiah is really on the cusp of reading — like, actually reading. My parents arrived en route home from their two-week vigil at Papa's side in FL (still awaiting more test results to figure out just what type of cancer is so horribly at work). Tonight I went to the school district's Kindergarten Expo night to start the ball rolling on getting our firstborn enrolled in public school (class of 2025, here we come!).

Funny how mundane the days can be. Funnier still how often I pass over the most amazing things, wrapped as they are in the guise of everyday. Change, growth, life, death. Diapers, email, bills, laundry.

Apparently I'm introspective at this hour, and it occurs to me this is not what anyone looks for in clicking over to this blog. I shall rectify with the never fail pictorial combo of "Cute Kids" plus "Evidence That This Mom Most Definitely Does Not Have Her Act Together No Matter How Philosophical She Waxes at Midnight."

So the boys didn't want to come in right away for lunch and I let them climb from their carseats into the trunk. And left them to play in there while I went inside and prepped food. With William still wearing his pajama shirt. Laziness? Oh no. It's called "picking your battles," my dear Jesse, which I do very judiciously when you're out of the country!

Pins

Good grief do these boys love bowling. Evidence? No problem.

1) Josiah's a regular at our local lanes on dollar day Tuesdays. He uses an 8-pound ball. Yes, that's a full 20% of his body weight! William went along yesterday afternoon (instead of napping) and—with Pop Pop's help—took turns as a regular player. I bet he repeated the words "more bowling?" 300 times through the rest of the day.

2) Our Wii Sports bowling would be played for hours if we allowed it. Josiah is crazy good. Spin, tricks, timing, the works. 

3) Our fantastic little set of plastic pins, gifted by Mama Caz and Pop Pop in November, was instantly so popular that (a) I literally cannot put it away until after the boys are in bed each night because they pull it back out pretty much *instantly* and (b) Jim and Tillie bought a second set for their house, lest (shudder) the boys should be forced to spend more than 30 minutes without a pins fix. Again, Josiah's pretty genius with the spin, practicing splits, and so on. For William's part, well, on Christmas morning we couldn't even get him interested in his stocking and gifts until he'd "played pins" for half an hour first.

We have blue painter's tape on the carpet marking a starting line and the pin placement. Both boys are particular in setting things each time, and they are usually remarkably good about taking turns and helping one another reset the pins.

Tonight, while I cleaned up from dinner, it was fun to watch them get a little creative. 

First, there was double-ball throwing:

Next, it was taking turns pushing one another on the car into the pins:

Then there were races (one on foot, one by car) into the pins:

And finally it devolved into full-body crashing into the pins and flailing around.

Sorry no picture of that one, although here they are re-setting after an episode.