Gingerbread traditions

When I was a little girl, my mom always ordered a gingerbread house at Christmas. I would be so excited when it arrived, and I would look at it for a long time, carefully eating only from the back side first so as to preserve it as a holiday decoration for as long as possible. (But I always ate it at the end.)

I went off to college, and she continued sending me one, where it sustained me through finals. I've gotten one every year, even as an adult. One year I was so busy at work that it never left the office (where she had sent it) but rather served as several meals because I didn't even have time to run downstairs and grab a sandwich.

Now, she sends it to the whole family. The kids love it. (I think they'd also love to make their own. Maybe we'll try that too this year.)

But somehow, it doesn't last nearly as long.


Before

During


After

I can't tell you how fast this happened.

It was a good football weekend

Robert Griffin III won the Heisman Trophy.



And the Texans won their division and clinched a playoff spot.



It was a good weekend for my boys.

Makes My Monday

--The kids finally filled up the family marble jar, so we took a trip to NASA on Saturday as a reward. It's gotten so easy to take them all somewhere these days. Charlie and Joseph are so interested in everything too. So much fun.

--Sunday morning Will wanted all the kids to clean up the whole house to surprise us (while we were still sleeping). Yes, they do that sometimes. But he couldn't get any takers to help him yesterday. So he did it all by himself.

--Along those lines, Will loves to clean so much that he has asked for sponges for Christmas. Green sponges.

--We finally had Charlie's parent-teacher conference last week. His teacher started with showing us a bunch of test scores from the beginning of the year, but the scores are somewhat difficult to interpret. Then she told us that on "reading fluency" they are looking for a benchmark of 60 points. He scored 179 at the beginning of second grade.

--Charlie and Joe's basketball games start this weekend. I'm glad. For some reason I can manage to keep our lives organized only if we are incredibly busy.

Makes My Monday

It's a bit unlike me, but I've joined a Facebook group full of people that I don't know.

We all have one thing in common: we all have two sets of twins.

As of this past weekend, though, I do know two of them. They both live in Houston, and we met up at the zoo on the day after Thanksgiving.

The three of us and our combined six sets of twins.

Here we all are. This picture makes my Monday.

Thankful for . . .

. . . my husband, who loves me enough to declare it on Facebook, clean up after Thanksgiving dinner before he sits down to watch football, and just rigged a towel over the window to keep the sun from ruining the Thanksgiving nap I'm about to take. I am blessed to have him as my partner in this crazy life we live.

. . . my first set of twins, who changed my life forever. Charlie makes me proud with his intelligence and natural leadership ability. Joe amazes me with his intellectual curiosity and wit. They both astound me with their passion and enthusiasm. I love getting to see the people they are becoming.

. . . my second set of twins, who vaulted our family into both craziness and completeness. Helen impresses me with her independence, determination, spunk, and strong will. She exasperates me plenty, but she makes me proud more. Will is the epitome of sweetness in every bone of his little body, with a bit of wry humor thrown in. He rounds out our family and compels us to be loving with each other.

. . . everything that makes my Thanksgiving easy. A husband who fries our turkey, wants cranberries out of a can (so you can see the ridges), and this year discovered that Costco sells pre made turkey gravy. An extended family who doesn't think it weird or get offended that we want to spend the holiday at home instead of traveling, allowing us to enjoy precious time with our kids guilt-free. And eating in our pajamas. There's no better way to do it.

Happy Thanksgiving!

Makes My Monday

I am grateful to have a husband and partner who thinks nothing of taking care of our three other children so I can spend a special weekend with just one of them.

And that he obviously does it so well. See how he has everything under control?

Getting emailed pictures like this and knowing what fun they are having with Daddy--it makes my Monday!

The "Sh" Word

For the most part, I am loving our new life as parents of four kids. We've never really had four kids before.

We had two babies.

Then we had two toddlers.

Then we had two toddlers and two babies.

Eventually we had two kids, but still two toddlers.

But now, we have four kids. Independent kids who can do most things for themselves, are capable of listening and following directions, and have the reasoning skills to understand threats when they don't listen. It's a whole new--and much easier--world.

But with growing up comes a certain loss of innocence.

Charlie and Joe had never heard of a "bad" word until they started public school. They soon came home talking about how you shouldn't say the "sh" word -- which I learned was "shut up." Or the "f" word -- "fart." Or the "d" word - dummy. Pretty cute, really. And I agreed with them that we don't say those words. But we don't have consequences for saying them.

This morning, however, the landscape changed. Charlie told Joe: "Say S-H-I-T." Joe was clueless, and obliged: "Shit!" Charlie: "Ohhhh, you said a bad word!!" Joe: "Shit is a bad word?" Charlie: "Shit is a bad word!" Joe: "I didn't know we can't say shit!" And just like that, they both have learned their first curse word. And given the frequency that they violate the rules above regarding "shut up," "fart," and "dummy," we're going to have to deal with this one. I can't have my second graders cussing.

I know this is just a small thing. But it's the beginning. There have been so many sexual abuse scandals in sports lately, and I know that topic--the abuse, sex, or both--is going to have to be addressed soon. Not too mention all the new "bad words" I'm sure they'll be learning in no time.

Maybe this growing up thing isn't all it's cracked up to be.

Communication is important in a marriage

Yesterday Cort sent me this email:

I just deleted 2243 emails from you. 449 were "unread."

Parent-Teacher conferences

We had parent-teacher conferences for three of our four kids this week.

We found out from Joseph's teacher that he is doing wonderfully. At the beginning of the year we were a little worried about his reading, but she says he is reading on a 4th grade level as a 2nd grader and is in the top reading group in his class. She said he skips 98% of the math work because he has already mastered it before she introduces it, so he is given extra work to do independently or with one other little boy. She teaches her class algebra (in the 2nd grade!) and he is loving it. He is also writing stories way above his age level. And he has had no discipline problems.

We found out from Will and Helen's teacher that they are doing wonderfully, too. She recognizes that Helen is headstrong and independent, but says she is very much a leader and it serves her well. She loves Will and obviously "gets" him. She told us that they both pick up on things very quickly. And even though they are the youngest in their class, they are ahead of many of the much older kids.

So now, of course, the question is: Do we go ahead and schedule a conference with Charlie's teacher? Or should we just quit while we're ahead?

Love that girl

Before soccer started, Helen proclaimed that she did not want to play. We signed her up anyway.

The first game, she hovered around the ball, but she would not kick it.

The second game, she kicked it a few times, but fell back as soon as someone took it away. Then she started crying. She spent the entire second half sitting on the sidelines crying. When I asked her why, she said because "I can't score a goal."

During the next week, we pointed out that Joseph had not yet scored a goal for his team, but he wasn't crying. We told her that a player who is sitting on the sidelines crying will never be able to score a goal. And when Joseph scored a goal in his next game, we pointed out that if he had been crying, he would not have scored.

At which point she looked me in the eyes and said, "You can stop telling me that Mom. I know that. And I am not going to cry ever again in soccer."

And then she went out in her game and played her little heart out. She did not score that game. She did score in the next game. Twice. Since then, she has scored more. And not scored. She has been aggressive, she has played great defense, she has been enthusiastic and competitive, she has been in the thick of things every game, and she has loved it. And she hasn't cried once. I really don't think she'll ever cry again.

I absolutely love that girl's determination. She's going to do okay in life.