How to Speed Up the Day

I have a coworker who listens to her iPod while doing filing and data entry type tasks. She is totally hooked on NPR news and other news related podcasts. When I pop my head in her office she pulls out her ear buds and tells me what the latest news is, only she is usually weeks behind real time. Today she told me that Gadhafi was dead. 

A few months ago I started listening to podcasts too. I had heard of something called Too Beautiful to Live (TBTL) and decided I would check it out. It took about 15 minutes before I was hooked. It's the perfect thing to listen to while working, exercising or driving. I love the silly banter between the hosts and now that I have been listening to it for a while I am starting to get some of their "inside" jokes. 

I am new to the podcast scene, and would love some more things to listen to. Do you have any favorites?

A Bump in the Rear

I have been working at a new refinery for seven months now. It is a different kind of job, but I am mostly enjoying it. The biggest change is the location. Now instead of driving twenty minutes to work, I drive an hour. In the summer this was fun. On the drive home we (Nathan and I commute half way together) would have the sun roof open, the windows down, take the scenic ocean view route and blast lots of Queen. Commuting is great! Long days in the sun! Daily road trip!
Fall came overnight, and I discovered several things:
1. I need a new battery in my car.
2. I need a new battery in the other car.
3. I need new wiper blades.
4. I need the heater fixed.
5. It is dark all the time.
6. I don't want to drive an hour each way anymore.
The crazy person in me started thinking about how many hours I spend driving and how many miles of highway I am on daily and calculated that my chances of having a collision are greatly increased. So naturally I got rear ended yesterday.
Commuting is great!
7. Filing an insurance claim is my least favorite thing in the world.

I discovered something else about all of the driving. Each day I get an hour of uninterrupted kid-free time with my husband. We talk, listen to our favorite pod-casts together, plan the future, or sometimes just stare out the window into the dark. Who ever is driving gets to wear the extra warm gloves and hat (driver side heat is currently stuck on air conditioning). We hold hands. When he is driving, I am sure I infuriate him with my pretend braking and clutching the passenger handle, but he hasn't complained yet. He makes sure I have a hot espresso in my to-go cup before we leave. He fixes the fog lights when they fall off. He reminds me of all the money we are saving by not buying a new car. He laughs at my silly work stories and helps me remember my lunch. It turns out that I am pretty smitten with this guy, and I am so lucky to get all this extra time with him.

Commuting is fine. It's a necessary thing right now, and I think we are doing a pretty bang up job with handling it for the long term. And soon we will have a new rear bumper -I'll get that new car one piece at a time!

Don't get too comfortable!

 I was getting all adjusted to being at home with the kids full time. It's a lot of running around to school, preschool, housework and other daily have to do things. We were ticking right along. Of course, finances are tight, and things were day to day. We were set for potential long term unemployment though, and feeling mostly ok with it.
On Wednesday my contract company boss called and said he saw an opening on Craigslist at a refinery doing a few things that I have listed on my resume. There were a few computer programs they listed that they wanted experience in that I didn't have, but we decided to go ahead and send them my resume. My boss told me there would be an interview process and if I was selected for that he would let me know. Honestly, I didn't give the whole thing much thought.
The next day I was at my parents house letting the kids run off some steam in the sun at the playset when my boss called my cell phone again and said that I had the job. They received my resume and said I could start on Monday. I was pretty much blown away. In the last three days I have done a short computer based orientation, and tried to find a new nanny. I have to be in to work at 6:45am tomorrow. I don't know where I am supposed to park, or how to get there, or what exactly I will be doing.
I have never been so nervous in my life.
My mom is watching the kids for us while we figure it out, but I have peace that it will all get sorted out soon.
Starting tomorrow, I am working full time!

Table for Seven?

Last weekend we temporarily became a family of seven. For three crazy days we housed five kids in this humble abode. Five kids, with three of them under the age of five. It was amazingly fantastic.
I don't think too many people are surprised by my admitting that I love large families. Although I don't think that five kids makes for an overly large family, just robust! If our little tribe of six is pretty perfect, I can't help but think that seven is even better!
I know more than a few people who are very against large families. Sometimes people are opposed to them due to personal parenting abilities, or finances, or lack of quality time. I know Nathan feels pretty maxed out on all of those levels. But I think as a family, we are doing alright. Our kids know they are loved (immensely and unconditionally) and they get all of their needs and some of their wants. We provide for our kids on a much wider realm than simply financial. We currently make less than we ever have, but we are still able to give them everything they need. It just so happens that currently, they are able to enjoy a mom at home to play/feed/adventure/clean more than they get to enjoy trips down the toy aisle.
We have a small house, but the kids fit fine two by two in their bedrooms. Where our dining room used to be, we now have a playroom, with a little extra space for tea parties and train tracks. We don't eat dinner out much, but we enjoy making each other's favorite foods. Fortunately we seem to have a house full of blossoming chefs. Morgan is gaining all of her father's culinary talents, and can be left entirely unassisted in the kitchen to make pretty much anything. Last weekend she roasted us a whole chicken, with homemade Au Gratin potatoes and an apple dessert.
We avoid the movie theater, but enjoy a large screen tv with netflix instant streaming! We have a home espresso machine, a playground at Nana and Papa's and duck pond across the street.
I think that the most difficult thing about large families, or having kids in general, are outings that you can't always schedule around good behavior. I'm talking about those grocery shopping trips for milk and bread where your son lays down on the floor in the cereal isle because he wants the spiderman toy inside the cheerios NOW.  I remember when I was a mom to just one and I took her shopping and she decided that since I wouldn't give her a cookie she would roll on the floor all the way to the fish department. That one child had me pretty exasperated. I don't think the number of kids really changes anything, the parenting business still stays the same. I still have terrible outings, but it's usually only one kid having the hard time and gratefully the others help out as much as they can.
For me, the hardest part of parenting more than one, is time management. There is so much that we want to do with these kids, and only so many hours in the day. I want to get on the floor and build trains all evening with Simon, but Zoe needs help with her homework, Isla's diaper smells, and the dishes need washed. So you do all of them, because what else can you do?
Last weekend we watched a little cousin who's four months older than our Isla. We had Morgan that weekend, and filled every single seat in our outdated minivan. We went geocaching/treasure hunting and had a pizza picnic at the park. We took them all to a house warming party, kept them all up until eleven, and made a mountain of pancakes in the morning. We drank a little more coffee than we usually do, but we also got things done, like cleaned out our filth ridden cars and loaded the dishwasher a few dozen times.
By Monday morning we were back down to five humans in our house, which felt incredibly easy and quiet. I had to wait for two meals to pass before the dishwasher was full, and a box of cereal has lasted us more than one day.
I know child raising isn't everyone's idea of a great time, but I love it. I'm glad I get to do it with this great group of kids I call mine, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh, Hello!

So in case you haven't noticed I am not so good at commitment.
But I want to be, so here is a new and improved promised effort.

To update, I am no longer working at the refinery I've been at for seven years. I'm super sad about it, and wish I could explain all the reasons, but the short of it is that I don't work there now and well, that is that.
Although now that I don't, I have lots of great stories I feel a little more free to tell. I've been engrossed in refinery life since I was three, so trust me, there are some good ones!

The kids are of course growing and challenging me daily, now that I am home full time, so there are lots of stories there too. We've caught every cold/flu/viral bug in our county so I've had lots and lots of extra time with these kids! Nathan is a story in himself, he's been very busy lately with some new hobbies of cheese making and beer brewing. Not to mention his continued passion for coffee roasting and tea blending.  In early February he returned from an exciting origin trip to Honduras where he met some coffee farmers and lots of other top notch coffee professionals.

My Dad is a reverend now, and a lot of our conversations have given me pause for thought. Our dear friends recently moved to eastern state to pastor a church restart there. Many theological discussions have been brewing.

So that gives us a nice total of three areas of my life with lots of story telling capabilities.
Unfortunately I also have to go wash dishes and flip laundry around, so you may have to wait a bit while I think and form some more concrete thoughts.

So you don't hate me too much I'll leave you with some pics of the kids. :)

Swinging Girl

The sun shines through my windows only a few months a year at this house. I blame the darkness mostly on the surrounding evergreens and somewhat on the frequent rain fall. We hope to have a new house someday that is full sun, no trees. No big trees at least.
My favorite part of these tall old trees though? It's the girl kitty-corner to us who swings and swings for hours. She has a single swing that sends her swooshing back and forth, parallel to our property. When she really gets going her feet hit some branches, sending the squirrels our way. The swinging girl is super reliable.  If it isn't pouring, she is swinging. From this window by our back deck I can only see her legs as she rushes past the branches. I think she's about Morgan's age. She's tall. I think she gets on the thing as soon as school gets out and doesn't get off until dinner. She makes my heart smile.

Sickness Strikes Again!

I am sitting in my car outside of the hair cut place with the little kids while Nathan takes Zoe to get her hair done, because it's been lots of months since she's had a hair cut and she looks like a cave girl. Well, that and tomorrow is picture day. Since she only has eleven classmates we don't want to be immortalized in photos as the ones who never cut our kids' hair. I'm sure there is a good chance they will remember us as that anyways. SO, I'm sitting in the car here, outside of the Lowes development block, and thinking about the future. There have been a few instances of us thinking we had a new fancy plan and then things didn't pan out. We are sitting in the middle of a whole lot of unknowns wondering which direction we should take. Mind you, I am thinking about all of this while Simon asks me repeatedly if he can get out of the car and get a bubble tea. So nothing too deep tonight! Today work posted openings for lab technicians. I am thinking about applying, but I love my job, and I love the contract company I work for, and I love that I get to be home with the kids two extra days a week. The pay isn't as good as what I get now, but if you factor in full time my checks would still be slightly higher, and we could use that. Of course, I would have to figure out extra childcare and all those types of details. So is it worth it? I wish I could know with certainty.
We are at a huge crossroads at our church right now too, which is exciting and scary all at the same time. Our current beloved pastor (Hi Baron!) is leaving for new adventures as a Navy Chaplain soon so we have been looking for a new senior pastor. I don't think this has been an easy process for anyone, but I think God is doing some good work in people's hearts right now.
In less confusing issues, I got barfed on by Isla on Saturday. She has been filling diapers every thirty minutes or so since. On Monday, after dropping Zoe off at school Simon puked in the car just down the street from our house. As I was trying to clean that all up the Jehovah's Witnesses came by again wanting to discuss some pressing issues in the Bible. I think the smell scared them off a bit though, because I was able to persuade them that now was not the best time. Nathan stayed home with me today to help with the overwhelming sickness, and we ended up doing a bit of driving around so the kids would fall asleep for more than ten minutes. We looked all over the county for a new home while they napped. There are some pretty fantastic rental houses in Sudden Valley, but in Bellingham, if you want fantastic you have to pay at least 1700 a month. Since we are trying to save so that we can buy, that doesn't seem like a viable option. When we got home and opened the door to the house we were overwhelmed by the smell of gross diapers and sickness, so my new priority is to scrub the house and get the garbage to the curb.

Well, we are off on our next adventure now, Zoe's hair is all cut, Simon has a bubble tea and we are ready for picture day!

Turns out a gluten free diet does not improve your golf game.

Hi blog!
I kind of forgot to write in you for a while. I don't think forgetting is the right term. I had lots of internal dialog about things to say on here, but I just never made it to the keyboard. Whoops.
The gluten/dairy free diet kind of continues. Kind of in that when I am really wanting some cheese, I have some.
I can make three delightfully tasty gluten and dairy free things now.
1. Banana bread
2. Corn bread
3. Brownies
I've got dessert covered here!

In other news I've been bamboozled by my Dad to play golf with him every Thursday in a golf league. I have now been golfing a grand total of two times. In my life. All of the people on this league are much, much, much better than I am. When my Dad asked me if I wanted to golf with him this season, my gut reaction was to say no, but the "spend quality time with my dad" reasoning won out in the end. He's very patient with me and has been teaching me lots of good things, but the part I really enjoy is the walking with him. My dad is really close to retiring from the refining world and in June he will be ordained as an Anglican reverend, so our walks on the golf course are filled with some pretty great conversation. I love my Dad, and for him I will willingly look like a fool on the golf course. The hour before our tee time every Thursday though, is filled with lots of self doubt and panic.

Earlier this week I spent a few days with my friend Amanda. We went to a place called Skamania Lodge in Stevenson where she was attending a conference called The 2010 Cultural Congress. Pretty interesting and full of captivating and enthusiastic people. While she attended sessions I did some knitting and hiking and extreme relaxing. She got to skip out on some of the peer groups and during those times we hiked together and saw lots of turtles. The resort is home to a pretty fabulous golf course, but I didn't bring my clubs, mostly because I was afraid of some one watching how terrible I was with no help or advice from my Dad. We had fun walking the trails around the course though, filled with little lakes and trees and all kinds of great wildlife. Funny though, after just three days away, I missed our own little wildlife a whole lot. Who knew?

Now that I am home it's back to spring cleaning, gluten free eating and perfecting my oh so imperfect golf swing. And suddenly, winter is over and spring is here in full force!