3 musketeers

This afternoon i moved Adam's bed over to Ben and Brad's room. The 3 of them are officially now sharing a room. (instead of Adam sneaking over on school nights, or doing 'sleepovers' on weekends)

They play hard all day and really do sleep well at night, so it made sense to do this. Adam has been asking for a couple years now, "why do Ben and Brad get to be together and not me?" one time he asked "If we were triplets would i get to be in the same room?" Poor guy. That was over a year ago asked that. Now i'm wondering how many years until he's begging to go back to his own room!!

Adam's old room is now a playroom. Like they needed another play room.

The move itself took more work then i was hoping for. Had to remove the headboard to get it through the doorway. As i was struggling at screwing the headboard back on i said "this is why i don't do things like this, i'm not good at it. Daddy is so much better then me at this". Adam said "well there's something you are good at....you're good at being a mommy." Wow, someone was happy that mommy moved his bed over to his brothers' room!

This might not seem like a big deal, but i think this was a good move (literally). I think this will help Adam to feel included. I'm glad i went with my mother's instinct on this one. Kinda wish i had done it sooner.

weekend

This weekend we didn't have electric from 9:00am saturday morning until 10:30pm Sunday night. On purpose... Yep, we decided to see how we function w/out the luxury of electricity!

it was a memorable weekend. And easier then i thought, although we didn't have anything pressing to do like projects or cooking, etc. which i'm sure made things easier.

we flew kites saturday....Saturday all day supper was cooking in our sun oven. Pork, potatoes and carrots cooked by the sun, from 9-4pm. It was a partly cloudy day, otherwise would have gotten done quicker. This is a pretty neat unit, click HERE for more info on sun ovens. We're still experimenting with this thing, but we really like it.

The panels relect the sun, and it gets warm in there!

Also did cooking on the gas grill, and side burner.

The boys had fun in the evenings. from 6pm until bedtime the house was dark and they used flashlights to play. They didn't complain the whole weekend about this, i was told to try again when they are teens and it may be a different story :)

There were moments of "cheating", used the generator for a few hours a day just for the fridge/freezer. And had some electric during sunday afternoon for company.

Things were so quiet and peaceful and less distractions - i think we'll do it again!!

Now this morning it's back to having the toaster, stove, washing machine, dishwasher, lights, heat, computer, warm baths, and garage door! it's amazing how much we rely on electric! Hoping this weekend gave the boys some perspective on how blessed we are. It was a good reminder for me!

Singing

The twins sang a solo in church (maybe it's not a solo if there's 2 of them...a duet rather). They did a nice job. But more excited about Pastor Michael's reminder to our congregation, of God's faithfulness as we watched these once premature little babies, now big and healthy and singing praises. Thank you Lord!

I've not been able to post videos on here lately, so i just put it on youtube, if you haven't seen it on facebook yet, check it out on here:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nno9Fuxfg8Q&context=C3270230ADOEgsToPDskKvvag0pYwSg8O0AzXq2ueU

Happy Valentine's Day!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RxTOsQ3LDE4

B & B....& A (no C this time)

These guys are a trip. Almost always willing to try Daddy's ideas...And here they've willingly decided to wash up the dishes after making cookies. They did a marvelous job, for real.
So my struggle the past year or more has been not to compare Adam to them. the twins have become very cooperative, fun loving, easy little boys. Where Adam has grown in his tendency to challenge everything, put a negative spin on everything, and insist on doing things his way.

He got his first report card last week, and overall i was pleased. He's doing fine academically and even socially sounded good, but his teacher wrote, and i quote: "Adam is an independent thinker and often chooses his way of completing tasks rather than following given instructions." I could not word that any better!!! It might not seem like a big deal, but almost everything he does is done with a unique twist that just doesn't quite work. So it adds up over the course of a day and gets hard to function as a family when there's one constantly doing things a little "off". But it's interesting because the qualities that i find so challenging now are the very same qualities that i believe God's gonna use in him to do some amazing things in the future! So that gives me hope. He just needs some training. And i don't want to change him (even though i confess i often DO want to change him). I want to direct him. help him. Love him. And celebrate who God has created him to be. It's a process. (A dear fellow mom at Farmdale mom's prayer group gave me the Birth Order book by K Leaman. So i guess i need to add another book to my 'reading list'.)

And i don't like to use my blog to complain about my kids, i DO love the little dearhearts! But it's reality, and you need to know life isn't pefect over here at the Gingrich Funny Farm. :)

Experiments

This week was full of experimenting....in the kicthen, with crafts, and on the potty....

I'll do the potty one first, so that part is clarified. Wanted to see if Clay was ready. Not really. He kept saying "out", like he does in his high chair. It's no secret, i wait till they are 3 anyway, to start training. much easier then :)

Great form, Clay...

I must have been gullable this week. I saw a recipe claiming to be "the best ever choc chip cookie recipe" and had to try it. Same for Panera Bread's Brocolli cheese soup, and Olive Garden's breadsticks. The first 2 were great. I want to try the breadsticks again, the flavor was there but i made them too big. Click on any of those links for the recipes.

I made homemade fruit roll-ups for the first time last Saturday. All i used was frozen fruit given to us last summer, a little honey, and lemon juice. (pureed together) Spread a thin layer on a cookie sheet lined with plastic wrap and bake on the lowest setting your oven can go (mine was 170). they needed about 5-6 hours in there. (with the door propped open part of the time to let humidity out) They were fun to try and tasted very good. These are strawberry and peach flavored..

When they are done, take off the plastic wrap and place them on wax paper. roll them up and cut into little sections w/ a scissors. For Valetines, i surprised the boys with paper hearts hanging from the kitchen table lights. Some have their names on them, with something i love about them on the other side. Some have scripture. i only took an hour on it. If you look close you can see that i wanted to quick get it done :) i wasn't looking to get it on the cover of a magazine, just wanted to make the boys happy.

We also made Valentines this week, won't show those yet. We did for Adam's classmates, family, and friends! We took 2 days to do them. The first day went so well, i was excited to start up again the next day. But they ended up wrestling most of the time while i worked on them! Yes well, you never know. It took Ben a little while to warm up to making Valentines. At one point he asks "Why are you guys acting like this is fun?" It was funny, he came around then.

I think I'll take a recess from the kitchen this weekend, will tap into freezer meals!

Good ole boy fun

A glimse of a few messes these guys created over the past week...

My goal of getting the boys outside for 2 hours a day this winter has been easy so far. Mild temperatures have been the key. And letting them do things like this has helped too....

I only need to turn my back for a few seconds for Clay to do the following.. (flour is never fun to clean up).

A household of boys wouldn't be complete if it didn't involve teasing your brother with a fake spider in his OJ.

"Lord, give me strength for a new week!"

kids workshop

I just learned that Home Depot does FREE kid's workshops the first Saturday of every month! how cool is that? Rod took the 3 boys in today and i kept 'Fireball' at home, (pretty sure he got the better end of that deal). They made keepsake boxes. Perfect for my guys, who think everything is a treasure.

It's hard sometimes to get the full details from the hubby, but it sounds and looks like they had fun. Next month they do little wooden cars.

They got to keep the apron, and are supposed to bring it back each time they go. Great incentive for them to remember where they put it and to not destroy it within 24 hours of owning it! Adam even put his work boots on

Soon after they got home, i heard Adam say to the twins - "Do you want to play Work?" haha, reminded me of something his daddy would have said at his age. Adam enjoys "working."