Eureka!

We have had a busy week, and the last couple of days have been long ones filled with visiting and playing and gallivanting. Also, this week while Jason has been on holidays, we have played a lot of XBox Kinect (active gaming), and the kids have also been playing a few other new games that Jason had downloaded to his Android tablet (inactive gaming!)

So, when I got up with the sun after 9 a.m. this morning, and still beat everyone else in the house to the punch, it was decided that today would be a non-video-game day. We figured that maybe we all needed a break from what we had been doing all week. At first, Noah erupted in an explosion of complaints.

"Why?" he exclaimed, hitting that perfect combination between a kittens mewling, a donkey's bray, and fingernails on a chalkboard--otherwise known as whining. "I can't think of anything else to do! I can only think about video games!"

"That's exactly the problem," said Jason. "You've played video games so much this week, you've forgotten how to play for real." Noah sulked on the couch in silence.

Some time later, Jude, Noah and Jabin had pulled out a toy that's an oldie-but-goody around here--the MegaBloks racetrack. I normally keep it in the SeaCan, as it takes up quite a lot of space (for a toy), but with the amount of small babies that we've been entertaining lately (along with their families, of course), I figured it might be a good idea to bring it and its extra-large, baby-safe components into the house for the holidays.

This toy was a gift to our kids from their Grandma Winters when Jude was about 3. It has, apparently, yet to lose its appeal. After being heavily involved in setting up the track at the highest location possible and shooting cars across the living room from it for about ten minutes, Noah suddenly rushed over to Jason and exclaimed, "Dad! I'm not thinking about video games!" then ran back to play some more.

Jason and I, needless to say, found the situation (and all its attendant irony) completely hilarious!

Festival of Dedication

We have been celebrating Hanukkah for three or four years, now, but after this year, it holds more meaning than ever. That can be attributed to the wonderful information we found in an eBook I got last year in a newsletter from First Fruits of Zion called "Light in the Darkness". (I'd link to it, but can't seem to find it on the site--must have been a one-time thing.)

As we celebrated the eighth night of Hanukkah tonight, we had all gained a deeper appreciation of how lighting the hanukkiah (the Hanukkah menorah) represented the Light of the World, Jesus Christ--for the Temple menorah was also known as the Light of the World. We understood that we were choosing to rededicate the temples of ourselves to be a light to those around us, and to stand for truth and share God's love with others. And we understood how God had helped his people in the events that led to the Hanukkah festival, and that a Great Miracle Happened There.

And by the end of the week, the kids were almost able to remember the name of Antiochus IV, the Seleucid general who defiled the temple and murdered so many Jews in the first place! (Maybe next year will be better! :-D)

(I accidentally broke our home-made clay hanukkiah on the third night, so we improvised with tea lights for the rest of the week. Oh well, it worked--and was less messy, too!)

Happy Hanukkah, friends!

Coasting

Wow, how long can I be "meaning to post" and not do it? I'm on holidays right now--you'd think it wouldn't be that hard!

So, yet again, the main activity of my first week off last week was catching up on my year's books. I got to the end of August, so I'm not doing too bad. I probably only have three more days of work on that.

Jude began his holiday on Thursday, and the dynamic between the three boys had to be shifted subtly again. However, Jude being the "ideas man" that he is, they did have an easier time coming up with things to play. The costume box got aired out, the Legos got spread out, and the sleds got dragged out (the last at Mom's behest, but they spent an hour and a half sledding at the dugout anyway).

Jason's holidays began at Friday around noon, and he and I both spent the weekend doing a lot of much-needed NOTHING!! We never really got a break this year, so he and I are both going to use this week to recuperate from our long, exhausting, and busy year. We started by playing a lot of Kinnect sports (my muscles say "ouch" to prove it), a game of Scrabble with Jude, spending an hour or two outside sledding and walking with the kids, playing various other games, and I did some scrapbooking, both paper and digital.

It has been so long since I really scrapbooked, I spent about an hour yesterday getting my bearings. What photos have been done? Where is everything? (I haven't done any since we moved this summer, so I had to figure out what I put where.) What is my highest priority? Then, I "went to town." Over the weekend, I completed 17 pages. Here are a few of the digital ones:

 

Holiday Time

As of Friday, I started my holiday break. Not that I will be doing nothing for at least a few more days--I have to finish catching up on my books for the year. While I am not as far behind as I was at this point last year (I have, at least, started them this year, after all), it will likely consume the better part of the rest of my week.

However, to celebrate and get into the spirit of "I-get-a-break" time, I did a little scrapbooking this weekend. First, two layouts using photos I had printed of renovations in 2006, just to get back into the groove. Sorry, haven't scanned 'em, but they weren't anything fancy anyway--basically putting old blog posts on paper. Then, a digital layout of two of my sweet boys:

Expect to see more coming! :-)

It could be an interesting week--we'll see if these same two boys can remember how to play together creatively without Mommy "directing traffic" 24/7, as they will be having to find their own entertainment (which I am adamant will not include any more video games or movies than normal) while I work. Jude will be on holidays starting Thursday, so that gives Jabin and Noah three days to get their creative brains in gear. I guess we'll see how the week goes! :-)

Happy Monday, friends!

Cutest. Ninja. Ever.

"Look, Mom! I'm Ninja Joel!"

"What?!"

Where on earth did he come up with that name? I wondered. This from the kid whose "superhero name" is "Super Jabin"!

But really, with a ninja this cute, who cares what he calls himself, right? :-)

To Everything There is a Season

Nearly two months ago, only days before Thanksgiving, I broke one of my favourite and most-used pieces of Pampered Chef Stoneware--my Rectangular Baker. I had received it as a wedding shower present, and it was well worth the investment of the lady that bought it for me! That item had been used in my house nearly every day for the last seven years, since the family grew large enough to require it.

Unfortunately, while I was still getting used to the stove in our new trailer (which was laid out a little backwards from our other one), I set it on a back burner, and turned what I thought was a front burner on high to boil water in a pot. Only a few minutes later, an ear-splitting CRACK was heard and my beloved Baker jumped apart into several jagged pieces.

I nearly wept.

This piece normally goes for somewhere in the $60 range which didn't really fit into our budget in October, but I knew I would need to replace it right away. So, with the help of a few friends (who supported my catalogue show), I was able to get a new one on the November 60% off hostess special from Pampered Chef. And with my Hostess Bucks I got a Rectangular Flat stone, replacing my last one which broke several years ago. Yay!

When it came last week, I couldn't resist photographing my new baker with the Rectangular Baker lid which I earned in 2003 when I was a consultant for the Pampered Chef. It has been used nearly as much as my original Baker was, and therefore has approximately the same amount of "seasoning".

Thing of beauty, isn't it? Believe it or not, all that "ugly" brown look is desirable in this kind of cookware!

As thrilled as Jason was that I replaced these pieces so economically, when he saw that new stoneware sitting there with it's virgin, still-rough surface his reaction was, "Great! More stoneware that I won't want to touch for five years." To him, the effect is akin to the sound of fingernails on a blackboard. I don't understand it, but I love him, anyway! ;-)

Ironically, only days after the Thermal Shock incident, Jason replaced the offending stove with the one from our last trailer because the "new" one's oven (which was actually much older) went kaput. He used its parts to fix some of the issues that the other one had given me trouble with, and so far, it seems to be doing its job admirably.

Chalk up one more for the "parts trailer!"

The Joys of Boys

"Ow!" yelled Jabin, clutching his eye and looking accusingly at his eldest brother.

"You're just not used to pillow-fighting, Jabin. Here, I'll train you!" volunteered Jude while raising his weapon.

Does anyone else see how this could go from bad to worse, or is it just me?

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"'Jetaport?'" I asked, noting the name Jude had written on the whiteboard to keep track of his UNO points.

"It's my superhero name!" he told me.

"I want to use my superhero name, too!" declared Jabin immediately.

"Okay, what is it?" I asked.

"How do you spell 'Super'?" he replied instead of telling me.

"S, u, p, e, r... What are you writing?"

"Super Jabin!"

"Ah."

Noah, entering the room, said, "I'm going to use my superhero name, too! Super Noah!"

"How original," Jason remarked drily.

At least one of our sons has caught on to the purpose of a superhero name--anonymity.

The other two seem to be following the example of Larryboy.


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"Hey!" exclaimed Noah, pointing at the open can of tuna that Jude had on the table to make his sandwich with. "There really are cans of tuna, just like in Calvin and Hobbes!"

"Yep," smiled Jason to himself. It is difficult not to be amused when a child discovers that yes, there are true things in their entertainment forms, too. I chuckled from my chair in the living room, where I was finishing up yet another sock for Jabin.

"I know why they are called 'tunafish'!" piped up Jabin.

"Why?" asked Jason, humouring him.

"Because people catch them and kill them and then we eat them!"

"And that's why they're called 'tunafish'? Really?"

"Yep!"

I wish I was six, just for a day, so I could know everything, too.