Was I dreaming?

It's been a little more than a week now since we arrived home from our whirlwind tropical vacation.

Now that I'm fully into the at-home routines again, it's odd to think of where we've been and all that we did a few weeks ago.  It was momentous really.  I'm so glad we captured it all on camera or I'd be tempted to think I dreamed it all up. 

One day on the beach Clive asked me in typical 4 year old earnestness, "Am I dreaming right now mom, or is this real life?" 

While the vacation was dreamy it wasn't exactly restful.  And that's ok; I wasn't expecting to relax.  The numerous foreign dangers put me on hyper-safety-mom alert.  Thankfully, none of my worst fears materialized.  We didn't get torn apart by sharks or fall off any boats.  (You laugh but I truly did have those kinds of crazy irrational fears!) 

Despite my hyper-ness, the trip was thoroughly wonderful in almost every way. 

The biggest downside of the trip was that we couldn't experience it as a complete family.  Due to his teaching responsibilities, Matt couldn't come with us. And since Matt was staying home it logically followed that Solomon should stay too.  Dragging a 2 year old on four separate plane rides, three of which ended up majorly delayed, would have been nightmarish.

But how I wished I could have somehow beamed Matt and Solly onto the beach to join us!   Though Matt is kind of scared of the ocean's immensity (and having swum in it so recently, I don't blame him) I know he would have loved standing there beachside.  It's very humbling and place-putting to physically be in such a vast body of water and to see how small you are in comparison.  (More ocean theology thoughts to come soon.)

For now though, it's good to be home.  I don't miss the daily Clive meltdowns due to lack of naps or the sandy ears of our St. Thomas getaway.  I am again relishing the mundane routines of family and stealing away bits of summer afternoon quiet with occasional siestas or reading time with Chloe.

(If you're interested in seeing a pics highlighting our vacation, check out my FB photo album linked here.)

How 'bout you?  Any vacays planned for the summer months?

Happy birthday to my baby boy!

Our dear Solomon Asher Horn hit the two year milestone today.  I'm just astounded at him.

Solomon has grown SO FAST.  I know this is a common occurrence for youngest siblings but it's especially true of our Solly.  He abandoned sippy cups months ago and he's even trying to copy Clive in the urination department.  I'm hoping and praying having an older brother to model the process will speed the potty training process along significantly!

Keeping up with his siblings paired with his natural inclination towards curiosity and strong physical motor skills means Solomon is into a lot.  He's an explorer and experimenter, to be sure. (And now you know *exactly* why I've not blogged much in the last year.  Keeping Solomon safe and occupied is a full-time job!)

Solomon is also extremely joyful and loving.  He's also saying loads of words now and even trying to count to ten using his fingers.

Solly is also proving to be an opinionated and stubborn little guy.  God is certainly increasing my patience in working Solomon towards becoming a manageable and pleasant toddler!  

For Solomon's birthday soiree we hosted a morning playdate with some of his little friends.  Of course Solly's pals are also the youngest ones of their families so many older siblings came along to party too (which is just lovely for Chloe and Clive). We had such a blast partying together!

Since Solomon's absolutely favorite dvds to watch are old Sesame Street episodes (you MUST check out the vintage Sesame Street flicks available at your library -- hilarious, entertaining and educational in a truly old school and fun way) a Sesame Street party was the obvious choice.

We love you to pieces, Solly-wog.  Happy happy birthday to our crazy little Mexican jumping bean!  Can't wait to watch you grow!

Apparently two year olds don't really do birthday party games.  Get's too complicated for them.  Still it's fun to watch their little brains try to figure it all out!  This was for pin-the-tail-feathers-on-Big-Bird. 

The birthday bambino!

Opening gifts

This was an Elmo-faced strawberry platter whose lower portion kept getting nibbled on by children passing by. 

Broccoli faced Oscar the Grouch.  Obviously.  Or maybe not so obviously since he's sans mouth.

We had so many kiddos partying with us (15 in all -- only a crazy woman like me would dare attempt that many little bodies in my small house) that we did lunch in shifts.  This was the little kid shift.

Big kid shift.

He's a pro at blowing out candles.  Especially when they're only 5 inches from his mouth.

Crazy Clive and his equally crazy buddy, Sammy.

Sesame Street character party favor bags.  These took FOREVER but they were super fun to make!  Even if they look very little like the idea I pinned on pinterest.  Please tell me they at least vaguely look like Ernie, Cookie, Elmo and Oscar?

Playing outside and getting dirty.

So thankful for all these dear friends!

Chloe and the older kids chowing down.

I was extremely proud of my free-handing of Big Bird.  Though I realized later I forgot to give the big yellow guy any arms.  Guess I'm not cut-out for the world of illustration after all. 

February?

What happened to the month of February?  Seriously.  Even with the extra day tacked on for leap year, this February whizzed by for our family.

I'm sure that's largely due to the busyness of our February calendar.  And also due to the fact that most of my February was spent wiping runny noses, delivering cough drops and popping in dvds for whoever happened to be sick at the moment.  But thankfully, our February ailments did NOT include any stomach flu bouts.  THANK YOU JESUS!

Here's a photo highlight reel of our February.  And here's to a slower-moving March!

Lots of reading, playing and indoor shenanigans happened in February.  Chloe helped me out by reading to Solomon after he woke up from his nap.  So sweet to see them snuggling together and enjoying a book!  (Believe me, this kind of sight doesn't happen often in my house.)

Making a band out of pots and pans.  Who needs toys, right?

I instituted a new chore chart for the minions this month including dish duty for the two oldest.  I can't tell you how much happier my heart is now that the kids can share the load of cleaning a tiny bit more!  More on the new chore system to come.  It's working famously for our crew so far!

Like most holidays, I feel compelled to celebrate using themed food. This was V-day breakfast.

My Clive devouring his Valentine's Day pancakes with strawberry syrup.

Chloe (notice the red sniffly nose) posing with her Valentine's Day lunch of heart shaped toast, heart shaped cheese and pink smoothies. 

February makes us all a bit stir-crazy.  In an effort to make our indoor days more fun I cleaned out the kitchen cupboards and let the kids go wild with dishes.  That's super fun, right?  :)

To celebrate Chloe's completion of her January reading chart we ate cheap pizza and subjected ourselves to the insanity of Chuck E. Cheese.  This horse ride was Chloe's favorite.

The boys preferred riding anything resembling a vehicle or that required pounding. 

Chloe was the only Horn child brave enough to hug and pose with Chuck E.

Thank you, Pinterest for so many fun valentine ideas!  There were Chloe's homemade butterfly valentines for the girls in her class.

Not to be outdone, Clive and I decorated these car valentines for his buddies.

And because the boys could NOT receive butterfly valentines, Chloe and I made these cute swedish fish cards for her male classmates.  

Lest you think I have it all together

A friend of mine recently shared some thoughts with me from the book Lies Homeschooling Moms Believe by Todd Wilson. This guy runs through a literal gamut of comparison and envy issues plaguing moms.

Check out the list of lies he says we believe:

• Everyone else's kids are better.
• Everyone else's home is cleaner.
• Everyone else fixes better meals.
• Everyone else is more disciplined and more spiritual.
• Everyone else's marriage is better.
• Everyone else can do it all.
• Every other mom loves homeschooling.
• Everyone else is more capable.

Yup.  I've definitely fallen for several of those whoppers in my weaker moments.

Summing the book up, I'd restate these unrealistic comparisons this way: Everyone else has it all together but me. 

And let's face it, judging by my online persona, I certainly seem to have it all together.  Snagging deals, making homemade fruit roll-ups, and creating crafty projects to correlate with our homeschool studies paint me as some homesteading do-it-all mom that is whistling a happy tune and enjoying every moment of domestic existence.

And that is NOT me.

I'm not purposely trying to fool you all.  I just get more excited about sharing my successes and mountain-top experiences than my low-points.  I mean, c'mon do you really want to hear about how my youngest broke our $250 air purifier?  Or how my floor hasn't been thoroughly mopped for 2 months?  Or how it took me NINE hours to bake said stupid homemade fruit roll-ups and then my husband was so miffed at my excessive use of energy that he went out and bought me a dehydrator?

Honestly, most days I feel fairly overwhelmed and tired.  There are always toys on my floor to be picked up, noses to wipe, dishes in some state of uncleanliness and unsightly scattered paper piles on my desk.

So, lest you think I have it all together let me assure you - I DO NOT.  And below there are pictures to prove it.

I'm inexpressibly thankful that regardless of my failings and inability to get my act together, God never lets me down.  I'm living proof that His grace is always enough.  

How about you?  Have you fallen for any of these lies?

Our dining room table mess during a typical homeschool morning. 

My son drinking milk from a bowl on the floor while playing puppy.

Trying to keep Solomon occupied by putting dry spaghetti noodles into a sieve.  Great idea, pinterest!  Now if only you would have warned me about what a mess this was to clean up. And how frustrated Solomon would get when the noodles broke.  (An even better picture would have been capturing what happened next.  Clive decided he was hungry for peanut butter and shared it with Solomon.  Both boys eating peanut butter out of the same jar with their fingers.  All this happened in the span of 2 minutes while I was working with Chloe on schoolwork.)

Yes, I let my son play with sewing pins.  While perched on the edge of my bed.  Not my wisest decision as a mom.  But he's my fine-motor-skill guy and he didn't prick himself even once!  Honest!

Chloe is my sweet angel.  But I'm afraid she might suffocate while she sleeps beneath her obsessive collection of stuffed animals.

We have an estimating winner!

CHRISTINA HAIRGROVE

You win the prize!  You came the closest to guessing my actual total in paying for the lot of brand new shoes pictured below.

Christina guessed $12.  VERY CLOSE, girl!  I actually paid $12.84 for the above 8 pairs of new kids' shoes from a Payless going out of business.

The rest of the guesses ranged from $15 to almost $30.  Nice try, people.  I wasn't kidding when I said I was Cheap (yes, I capitalized that word on purpose - I'm cheap with a capital C).

I fully realize my ignorance of retail prices in the twenty first century.  I'm usually the gawking shopper in Target who is talking to myself about "how expensive things are these days".  If this is me at 34, how cheap and annoying will I be at 64?  (Don't answer that.  That was a rhetorical question.)

Christina wins a fun little goodie package.  Contact me via FB or email (aliciamhorn at gmail dot com) with your address, Christina to claim your prize.  Way to estimate!  :)

Happy birthday to me! (and an exercise in estimation)

Happy birthday to me!  We celebrated my 34th birthday this weekend and though I didn't get to sleep in and I didn't wake up 10 lbs. lighter, it was a good day regardless.

I woke up to sweet and thoughtful gifts from my Matt.  New and improved travel coffee mug -- yes!  Then I got most of the morning to myself (HEAVEN), took Chloe to lunch and out shopping to spend some birthday cash.  Then I cooked up EXACTLY what I wanted for dinner.  Steak with mushrooms, homemade wheat bread, oven-baked potatoes topped with plain yogurt and cheddar cheese, pear/cranberry/walnut/blue cheese salad and peach cobbler for dessert.  And while I LOVED partaking in last year's dark chocolate and cherry pavlova I didn't feel like putting forth that much effort this year.  (If you've never attempted a pavlova, I highly recommend it!  Read about my pavlova journey here.)

It's good to be 34!  I don't even care that I'm seriously close to the 30's midpoint.  Whatever.  I could care less.  My life is stuffed to the gills with blessings; the biggest being that all my sins are forgiven.  What can top that?!?  If my life had a theme song, Psalm 32 would be it!

So, on to the exercise in estimation.  During my birthday shopping spree I happened upon a Payless that was going out of business and liquidating their inventory.  I almost didn't stop.  I was seriously disappointed with Borders' so-called liquidating sale and was skeptical that the Payless sale would yield any actual bargains.  It's tough to impress this super-cheap-coupon-clipping-bargain hunter.  But the sale was indeed worthy of my time.  8 pairs later I was one happy cheapskate!

What do you think I paid for these puppies?  Closest guess to my actual total will win . . . . something.  Really, I promise to put together some kind of fun mystery prize for the winning estimator.  I won't divulge the percent off I netted here but I'll give you a tiny clue.  Think more than 50% off.  Put on your estimating caps and give it a go!

Solomon was very excited about the new pile of footwear.  He spent a good 20 minutes (which is nigh an eternity for my busy boy) trying on shoes and stomping around the house in them.  Cuteness!

New Year's Hopes

I'm not making resolutions this year.  I'm making a list of *hopes* instead.  And I'm making my *hope* list small and simple in the hope that I'll actually accomplish a few of them in 2012.

Hopes for 2012


1. Get my hair cut.  I can't even remember the last time I got my hair cut.  Seriously, it's probably been a year and my mane is looking mangy and limp.  And I'd like to up the ante a bit and actually get my hair cut at a real salon and NOT a place with the word "Best" "Clips" or "Famous" in the name.

2. Get to bed before 11.  I'm a much more pleasant mommy and wife when I get a full eight hours rest!  And if I sleep a full eight hours at night, there's a greater possibility I won't need a nap in the afternoon and instead I can spend that time doing enrichment activities with Chloe.  Poor girl has been rather neglected in the afternoons.  That's time I envision us reading aloud, playing games or working on craft projects.

3. Exercise consistently.  I'm not putting a lot of pressure on myself here but I do want to be more physically active in 2012.  My mom gave us a Wii for Christmas and the Wii Fit games are a blast!  I'd love to shed 10 pounds but my overall *hope* is for a healthier more energetic and active me.

4. Read more.  I've got a stack of classics waiting for me on my dresser.  Once upon a time, I used to read for fun.  For hours on end!  I realize I won't be able to read for hours at a shot but I can certainly plow through some good tomes if I designate 10-15 minutes as reading time before bed.  I've been reading a few pages each night of Mark Twain short stories and it's been whetting my appetite for more reading.  This is one goal I'm going to thoroughly enjoy.

How about you?  Did you resolve, hope or make any goals for the new year?