The Boys' Room

Hi all!  As I was lying down on Joseph's bed and being attacked by small male persons I decided I wanted to post about the boys' new room setup.  A couple months ago I was noticing that the boys were barely fitting into their beds -- Daniel was in a pack-n-play, and Joseph was in a toddler bed.  Both of their feets were rammed into the bottoms of their beds each night.  It was time to bump them up a mattress size.

Of course, I don't have a "before" picture.  (Why do I never think of these things until afterwards?)  But here is their setup now, looking in from the door:

we put their fan and lamp on top of the wire cubbies

I hauled the old twin mattress up from the basement, realizing how much I loathe vinyl mattress "protectors". I think this one ripped AS I was putting it on the first time. Anyone have any good recommendations for where to find good quality waterproof mattress covers?

Daniel thinks big brother's new mattress is perfect for jumping off of

his own is pretty good, too -- plus it adds the extra thrill of the possibility of braining oneself on the edge of the door!

I was tired of waiting for inspiration for how to fix their window covering.  The blinds had broken beyond repair, and they need SOMETHING for their window, preferably dark, since the sun is now starting to shine directly in at quarter after 6.  I had a curtain rod, but the matching brackets had been ripped out (by a small nameless person) ages ago.  So, finally fed up, I just hammered two box nails into the plaster and balanced the rod on top.  That way if any small nameless person tries the same curtain-pulling stunt again, they will end up with a curtain rod on their head, and be strongly discouraged from trying it again.  Hooray for negative reinforcement!


To make the fleecy car curtain darker, I cut up the part of an old fitted jersey sheet (which doesn't fray) that had the fewest number of holes, cut some slits across the top to match the fleece curtain, and threaded them together onto the rod.  (Old sheets are The Bomb!)

sheesh, look at those wrinkles.  Doesn't this woman have standards??

Then for a tie-back I used a section of the elastic from the fitted sheet, cutting slits in the ends to hook over the already-existing screw in the wall.

 It makes the room nice & dark.  I'm so proud of my window mistreatment! :)


Now we're in the process of getting a workable dresser for the boys.  I'll have to rearrange their room again, and creatively, to fit it, but I'll just be so grateful to have one I won't mind.  Half their clothes are currently in boxes and stacked on the floor, b/c there just isn't room in the little three-drawer plastic thingy that we usually keep the baby's clothes in.  I feel like such a failure as a middle-class parent, that I don't have space to store my children's clothing.  Once I finally find a Real Dresser for Mr. Pickles (the one I wanted on Craig's List is gone) :(  the boys will inherit his.


I'm realizing that we have A Lot of Stuff in this house.  I think my nesting goal of this pregnancy is going to be some serious decluttering.  That, and to get over my reluctance to commit to the Container Store.

Good Morning Discovery!

Guess what we did today!  Guess what guess what guess what!!!

We watched the Space Shuttle Discovery fly piggy-back into Dulles airport!!  It was so unbelievably cool.  Mr. Pickles informed me yesterday evening of the news from one of his coworkers who follows these kinds of cool things.  Last week when we were in Chantilly near the airport, I noticed from our parking spot outside Milwaukee Frozen Custard that it afforded a great view of planes landing.  So I decided to head out that way this morning.  And then we hit horrible, horrible traffic.  Apparently several thousand other locals had the same idea, because traffic was snarled all around the area!  I listened to the radio news station in despair, believing that we had missed it, since they were reporting that it had actually arrived 30 minutes ahead of schedule.  But then hope was restored when I heard it was going to make a circuit around DC before it actually landed 45 minutes later.  AND!  While we were stuck at a high point on the Fairfax County Parkway, we just happened to catch a glimpse of it through a clearing in the trees!  It was flying reeeeally low.  Everyone saw it from the car, and we started to get excited then.

I kept tuned into WTOP, and they gave updates every couple minutes with enthusiastic reports from people stationed all over the area.  I love it when news reporters get so excited about something like this. :)  The shuttle actually ended up circling around the DC area 3 or 4 times, giving people all over the area lots of chances to watch it flying right over their house.  It was only 1500 feet up, so it was really, really close and easy to see.

We finally, finally made it to the parking lot, and joined all the other spectators lining Rte. 50!   Lots of moms with little kids and strollers. :)  Several people caught in traffic leaned their heads out of their cars to ask us what we were looking at.  "The Space Shuttle landing!"

 

There were a couple car dealerships nearby whose roofs were full of people, watching.

They were good indicators of where the shuttle was, because they had a better view than those of us on the ground. So when they all turned a certain direction and pointed, we knew where to look. :)


We were really only standing around for about 30 minutes, and we got to see the shuttle fly around several times, and up close TWICE.  This was the first time:

It was SO COOL.  You can hear Daniel saying enthusiastically, "Een!"  which I guess is Daniel-speak for "airplane."  (He's really into airplanes, so he was as excited as everyone else about this.

Many of the moms bailed after this flyby.  The rest of us had noticed that the jet didn't have its landing gear down, so we stuck around to watch it land for real.

are you totally excited?  are you??  are you???  are...  okay, I admit it was much chillier than I was expecting...

 We could see it circling around on the horizon, and it came back about 10 minutes later.

here it comes!

you can even see how the shuttle was attached to the carrier plane, along with its fighter jet escort

Afterwards we joined the hordes of cars trying to leave the area.  I thought it would be fun to drive past the runway to see if we could see it on the ground, but the trees were too full of leaves to see through. :(  But then we went to Dunkin Donuts to celebrate the occasion and that made up for being in the car for almost 3 hours this morning. :)

I'm SO GLAD we did this!  Since Mr. Pickles didn't get to see it, :( we're going to go the Air & Space Museum in Chantilly later this summer, so we can all see it up close.

Hey, those of you living in LA should keep your ears open for news of when Endeavor will be flown to your area at the end of the month!  Details at www.nasa.gov

Because it is there.

Here we go again, again

Okay, so I finally uploaded all the pictures from our camera.  Free space on C: be hanged.  Herein begins the catch-up, beginning with...

A Very Important Announcement!

Daniel has something he wants to share with you all.

So, now the big question is, will the new member be a player on Team A:

or Team B?

Heck, it doesn't really matter.  They're all nuts anyways.

And we love them all.

Stats:
due date: end of October
hormone levels: all good
nausea: mild (worse right before dinner, when I'm cooking)
tiredness: off the charts
belly: already present (although 90% of it is Leftover Daniel)
mood: meh
excitement level: wait, what -- we're having a baby??  how did THAT happen?  oh, right...
house: filled to the brim and overflowing with life

Easter Goodness

Happy Easter!  

Everyone recovered from their chocolate and computer binges yesterday?  Good, good.  So we had a great Easter.  Unless, of course, you count the 3am toddler clean-up baths several nights running, one sensitive stomach, and 2 kids with diarrhea on Easter day.  And then I had plans to do some fun shopping today, waking up instead to a hyper-cranky feverish needy toddler who has spent most of the day physically attached to me.  So, lots of lap time today.  Perfect for blogging!

right now he is sleeping WHILE physically attached to me

 Aside from the extra loads of laundry this weekend, we actually did have a very nice Triduum.  We did a lot of housecleaning on Thursday and Friday morning, and egg-dyeing and baking on Saturday. 

One of these years I'm going to work up the courage to get a Pysanky egg kit, but not this year. :)  We had invited some friends over for dinner on Saturday, but after several messy diapers from Daniel we had to cancel, just in case he got worse.  But we did attend all the Triduum liturgies as a family.  Even Daniel noticed the changes in the church -- our parish covers all the statues for Holy Week, and that always makes a big impact on the youngest ones.

The kids all did really well at the liturgies, even the late ones.  Well, Katie and Joseph fell asleep after about half an hour at the Vigil and lay stretched out on the pews.  There was one tense moment when Katie tried to roll over in her sleep and would have fallen off the pew, if the lady sitting behind us hadn't shot out an arm to catch her. :)  Daniel was a different story.  He had taken a couple really good naps that day, which made him cheerful enough for the Mass, but kept him awake for ALL 2 1/2 HOURS.  He finally fell asleep in the car on the way home, shortly after 11pm.  I had a really difficult time at Mass.  He was cheerful, yes, but tired enough to be acting up -- wiggly and loud.  Wiggly and Easter Vigil do not mix.  I spent all the time when the candles were lit hanging out in the back of the church, where we couldn't hear or see anything.  I will admit it now that my attitude was not good.  And just before Communion, when I was finally starting to feel glad that I had come because at least I got to receive Holy Communion, Daniel had a huge, messy, LOUD, embarrassing diaper that took all of Communion time to change.  And the bathroom was out of paper towels. 

In retrospect I should have stayed home with Daniel, and then attended Mass early on Easter morning by myself.  But as it was, we got home really late, and then had to get things ready for the Easter Bunny to come.  And then, of course, even though the kids were up really late, they all woke up bright and early Sunday morning, begging to hunt their eggs.  I was not a happy camper Sunday morning.  But once I had a cup of Godiva chocolate truffle coffee with lots of milk and sugar, things started looking up.  And then Mr. Pickles let me take a nice long nap in the afternoon, and that made everything better. :)

Easter Sunday was joyful and peaceful.  We hunted eggs, we ate good food, we napped, we watched movies, we devoured chocolate. 

Well, all except Daniel.  He just didn't understand why everyone ELSE got to eat "lala" (chocolate) and he didn't! :(  He is on a strict b.r.a.t. diet until the midnight baths stop.  I've noticed that it's becoming a family Easter tradition that someone will develop an intestinal bug that will preclude them from consuming any Easter goodies.  So don't ever visit us during Easter.

full disclosure: some of us changed out of our jammies to take this picture after dinner :)

Happy Easter from the Pickles!

{phfr} Spring Edition!

Capturing some contentment this week.

{pretty}
(and {happy})

our dogwood makes me happy every year

{happy}
(and {pretty})

some pretty new dish towels in the making (with Miriam's birthday roses in the background)

{funny}

this kid is just nuts.

{real}
(and {pretty}, too)

my backyard: a kiddie pool that perpetually needs scrubbing, a broken gate that's in the queue to be replaced,  and violets, violets everywhere!

Speaking of allergies...

Have you seen the latest pollen maps?

It's no wonder that Daniel's nose is runny and Joseph's eyes are almost swollen shut.  All the trees around here need to DIE.

Allergy update

So, Mr. Pickles went and got tested for food allergies. After about a dozen phone calls back and forth between the allergist and the insurance to see whether that test was indeed covered (it was), he went and got poked multiple times to see if he would swell up like a puffer fish.

He came home looking like the product of a top-secret highly experimental military training program.

behold, the bionic arm

For someone who doesn't like needles, I can't imagine it was very fun.  Although the conversation with the nurse who was poking him repeatedly was interesting -- they were talking about large families and budgeting and all that How Do You Do It kind of stuff.

So, the results?  Mr. Pickles is now officially allergic to:

-wheat
-soy (!!)
-corn (!!!)

The wheat we knew about, but the other two were unexpected.  (Although he says he tested positive for a corn allergy when he was younger, but it hadn't bothered him in years.)

So what that means for us (besides no bread, semolina pasta, pies, cookie dough ice cream, or couscous)  is also no edamame, tofu (no great loss there), soybean oil, soy sauce (even the wheat-free kind), soy lecithin, or margarine, as well as corn on the cob, pop corn, tortilla chips, corn starch, corn syrup, corn oil, fructose, or whiskey (WHAT is the point of living then??).  This eliminates almost every boxed food in the grocery store, even many of the gluten-free kinds (since so many of them use corn as their base).  We have to read every single ingredient on every single box.

In some ways, it's simplifying my life, since there are so many things I just don't buy any more.  (btw, anyone want two bottles of soy sauce?)  It's really forcing me to think and plan ahead as far as menus go, since there's so much I can't make for dinner anymore.  (tacos!  cornbread!  enchiladas!  stir fry!  lasagna!)  The gluten-free products are so expensive that I don't like to use them for the whole family.  Guess it's all steak (grass-fed) an' potatoes from here on out. :)  (and gluten-free pizza dough flour.  THAT stuff is good.)

Speaking of nutty foods, I recently started buying cage-free chicken eggs from TJ's as an experiment.  They're only $.50 more per dozen than the caged chicken eggs.  And oh, my, the taste is unbelievable.  I made scrambled eggs for breakfast this morning, and even my confirmed egg-loathing children couldn't get enough.  They are seriously yummy.  With so many of those healthier things, like organic produce, I can't tell the difference, and therefore don't feel obligated to pay twice as much.  (I can taste the difference with farmer's market produce, but I don't think they're organic).  But these eggs are delish, I'm happy to say.  Well worth the eggstra. :)

(sorry, couldn't resist)

P.S.  If anyone has any recommendations for wheat-, corn-, and soy-free recipes that they just love, please send them to me!

File Under: "WHAT was I THINKING?"

So, siblings, remember when we were kids and planning our birthday parties, and we were allowed to invite as many friends as the age we were turning?  It always seemed perfectly reasonable to me, and cool in a closet-nerd kind of way. 

Well.

Miriam turned 10 this year.  10 is a big number.  It requires BOTH hands to count it.  And with double the digits, one ought to have double the fun, right?

Right?

So.

Miriam wanted to invite everyone in the whole world that she knew to her birthday tea and knitting party.

And, like a fool, I LET her, thinking, "Oh, surely, SOME won't be able to make it, it NEVER happens that EVERYONE comes..."

(FOREBODINGGG....)

And THAT is why we had 19 girls packed into our living room this past Sunday.

Someone please shoot me before I ever agree to do something like that ever again.

More details forthcoming, once I've recovered.

(P.S. Everyone had a fabulous time, and Miriam felt properly celebrated, so it all worked out, glory be to God.)

Not Dead Yet.

And no, I haven't giving up blogging either.  My hard drive is almost full (mostly of pictures and movies!) so Mr. Pickles and I have had to figure out a solution.  We have an external hard drive now, he just has to teach me how to use it so I can transfer pictures from our cameras and then upload them to the blog.  I KNOW!  TWO whole steps!  My life is SO complicated.

But I have so many things I want to share with you all!  Here are a few (without pictures):

-We have a couple of wrens building a nest in our backyard.  In a trashbag.  That is full of leaves from LAST FALL.  See, you should NEVER throw anything away!  Now we will have our very own family of baby birds in our very own backyard soon because of our procrastination!

-Birthday Week is approaching!  It's non-stop party at die Gurke Haus!

-Speaking of Birthday Week, for Miriam's 10th birthday I'm taking her to the shrine of Our Lady of Good Help in Champion, Wis., and to visit her godmother who lives just a few minutes away from it.  Say a prayer for us -- we'll be praying for you!

-The weather here is CRAZY.  It was such a mild winter -- I think there were really only two days that could be considered semi-decent sledding weather (the kids came home covered in mud).  The spring has been amazing.  Yesterday and today it was in the 80's, which is just a little too extreme.  I find myself dreading summer however....

-We've gotten threatening letters from our neighborhood HOA about the scruffiness of our property.  We know it's scruffy.  We have kids!  Our front lawn has been a source of personal embarrassment for two years now.  So we've got Big Plans for re-landscaping our little postage stamp yard -- about to become half a postage stamp!  I also really, really want to make our back yard a true living space -- right now it's pretty junky (even not counting the broken gate lying on its side across the door frame -- I think we exist to make our neighbors feel better about themselves). 

-Mr. Pickles and I have been taking this Matrimonial Love Course.  It's a case study method, where you read a case, make note of the facts, discuss possible problems, and think of solutions together.  We did the one for parenting a couple years ago and it was very insightful -- the marriage course is proving to be as well.  It can get depressing reading about other couples' serious marital problems though!  However you DO get to solve their lives for them.  The bossy older sister in me finds that very satisfying.

-We're STILL working on our 2011 Christmas letter -- our printer died in the middle of printing them all out (the thing WAS about 10 years old -- a veritable fossil), so we had to get a new one.  It's very shiny and has a scanner.  I'm a little afraid of it.  But all the letters got printed, and then when we went to print out labels we learned that the computer had deleted our address book.  Grrrrrrrrr.  So now we just have to psyche ourselves up to hand-address them and just finish already. (#19 on the anti-procrastination list...)  But they are printed out!  And we have the stamps!  So we are determined to do it before the letter becomes obsolete! 

-Speaking of procrastinating, for Lent I've made an anti-procrastination list of Stuff To Do Already and am working my way through them.  I've crossed 11 1/2 things off my list so far.  Some alert readers may note that we are near to finishing the third week of Lent.  However, I would like to point out that these are things that I have been putting off for MONTHS, so 11 1/2 things in 3 weeks is pretty good!  Often my problem is that I don't have the time to do many of the things during the day (like all the things that involve sewing, and therefore require scissors and pins to be out in the open) until certain destructive small persons are contained.  Preferably, asleep.  But by that point I'M ready for bed too, and starting a project that has More Than One Step can be beyond my emotional strength.  It's been revealing how much of my resistance to completing these projects has been psychological -- when I can just psyche myself up to do a project, it really isn't that difficult and doesn't take that much time.  I just have to invest in it mentally.  For some reason that's been a real challenge.  It's been good for me to realize this about myself.  Something to bring to my spiritual adviser, when I get one (#20). 

-Also for Lent, I tried giving up wheat, in communion with Mr. Pickles.  But that's been a miserable failure.  I find that making pasta and sandwiches for lunch is just too convenient -- I haven't thought through what to replace them with instead that doesn't involve tripling our grocery budget.  Any suggestions?  (fyi the kids aren't going wheat-free so they're still sandwich-approved -- it's just me)

-We got our piano tuned yesterday.  Well, not exactly tuned.  We got a pitch raise, which means that the pitches had sunk so low that the tuner had to raise them all back into somewhat closer range to their true pitch.  And then in another month he's going to have to come back to do the fine tuning.  I knew it sounded bad, but I didn't know it was THAT BAD!  I feel like a failure of a piano owner!  It had only been 8 months since the last tuning, and the one before THAT was exactly 6 months, so it's not like we're neglecting the piano.  I have a sneaking suspicion it was the last tuner we had.  The piano honestly just never sounded in tune, even right after he tuned it.  And it started sounding TERRIBLE about 2 months after the tuning.  It sounds much better now, even though I can tell it's not perfect.  But at least we're not cringing every time Miriam practices!

There, proof we're not dead.  Life is going on -- the usual rounds of laundry, school, chaos-resistance, and days in the sunshine thrown in for good measure.

FURTHER BULLETINS AS EVENTS WARRANT