Sunday, November 30, 2008

Help-

I'm losing my good attitude about the dog. Arg!
So, what I'm looking for here is some encouragement from you dog-lovers reading this. Remind me again why I'm happy about having a sweet, dumb, huge doggy? Why is this good for our family? No comiserating please!

Thanksgiving report




And, for anyone wondering- Thanksgiving was fabulous. The turkey ended up a little dry, but the maple-glazed carrots, apple stuffing, mashed potatoes, gravy and turtle pumpkin pie were all big hits! I wasn't thrilled with the roasted Brussels sprouts with pecans, but Kent liked them. Just my parents came over. The pics are of Lindy helping Nana and I with the gravy (just before it boiled all over the stove because we were so busy taking pics!), and Papa covered with paper cut up by the kids, taking a little Thanksgiving snooze. Kent read a Thanksgiving story and led us all in prayer and songs. We all played cards while Lindy napped. It was a really nice day!!

Friday, November 28, 2008

Black Friday, an American tradition.


Painting by Norman Rockwell.

I did not shop on Black Friday, but I did go out with Kent on Saturday. Got many good deals- shoes and boots for the whole family. Pretty sweet!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Unicorns and Ladders-

Out of the blue (actually- we suspect this was "The Princess Bride" movie-inspired), Lindy declared while avoiding eating her dinner this evening, "I have an idea!" (A common phrase uttered by Corbin when he was 3 too, along with the expressive index finger pointing upwards) "After dinner, let's all go for a hike and look for unicorns and ladders!" Now, we live up north and it's already pitch dark at this time. But, it was so cute and sincere.
So, around 8:30 the kidsos were tucked into their warm PJs and beds, we grabbed them both and their fleece blankets from great-grandma, and put them in the car for a Jammy Ride. Off to McDonald's we went for ice cream cones and decent decaf for Kent. Corbin told jokes in the car, we listened to Christmas music, and even saw a few houses lit up already for the season. I drove so that on the way home I took us by a place where I've often seen a horse in the field, and in the dark it looked perfect: we pulled over and aimed the headlights into the field- it even seemed a little misty, and the white horse stepped out of the shadows, into view and nobly walked through our light, we could barely make out his head, and it looked just like a scene out of a movie. Lindy was just sure that it was indeed a unicorn. After shushing Corbin a little not to spill the beans, we returned home to tell Lindy the story of Snow White as she drifted off to sleep in her own bed, surely dreaming of princesses, unicorns and ladders.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Thanksgiving-

Here I am; 31 years old, been married almost ten years, and this year will be the first time that I will host a Thanksgiving day feast. I'm so excited! Got the turkey today. Happy thoughts and prayers welcome. I'll let ya'll know how it turns out!

Sunday, November 23, 2008

Pooley Family Mini-Reunion-









Here are just a couple of pictures from our big family get-together when both of my sisters and their families were in town last week. Kent, Corbin and Lindy got to meet Annika for the first time, and I got to see her again. She is my sister's 9-month-old daughter- my kids' first cousin on my side of the family. She's adorable!
We took some professional photos I think I may be able to post on here soon. We'll see!

Thursday, November 13, 2008

I remained calm. . .


This is Corbin's first big school project that we had to tackle together at home. It is a salt dough map of ancient Egypt. He was so funny when he brought home the instructions two weeks ago saying with big eyes: "We have two whole weeks until this is due!" But, did we start on it that first week? Of course not. Did we end up doing the whole thing the night before it's due? Of course we did. Grumble, grumble.
Overall, I did very well, considering. (Those of you that know me well, know that I have always struggled doing art projects, a.k.a. messy things, with my children. Like I live in some kind of pristine, glass box or something?! What's my problem?) I mean- where is the line with these kind of projects? My 8-year-old son can not do this kind of thing himself without disaster messes (one at home, and one to turn in at school), I'm sure. But, determining what to let him do, so that I don't do the whole darn thing for him, is tough. Ended up; he drew the map, he put the food coloring in for the brown land, he splatted the "land" dough onto the map, he cut out the labels, and put the labels in the correct spots. I didn't lose my temper and the mess wasn't too bad. And actually, I think it turned out nicely and he loved the experience. He actually seemed to have no idea that I was not thrilled with the experience, as he was.
He said- "I wish we had projects like this all the time in school!"
And I thought- "I'm sure they'll keep coming, and I will need to pray for continued wisdom and patience." and I just sighed.

Methods and Principles

You will notice when you are pregnant with your first child that you start to get advice and comments from everyone. This does not end when your pregnancies end- this is only the beginning. And women in particular become quite passionate about topics such as birth, breastfeeding and parenting. (I must confess here that I was one of these over-bearing, passionate women about these things about 4 years ago. I am wiser now. I think...)
Anyways . . . I love this article here from Nancy Wilson. It describes how to have peace among women in community at church. Very good advice!

Monday, November 10, 2008

Speech Meet Results



Here are a couple of pictures from the speech meet. (Sorry about the terrible quality, my phone's camera isn't quite doing the job these days. There's rumors of a new digital camera for us for Christmas. Please Santa!!) Anyways, these photos are particularly funny because they are taken before I explained to him that blue "Superior" ribbons are, in fact, superior to the red "Excellent" ribbons. :) (Note the girls' blue ribbons.) Poor boy!
Really, he did a great job, considering that he came down with croup on Wednesday night. His voice was pretty quiet for the competition, but the flow of his piece was better than ever. Yea Corbin!

Tuesday, November 4, 2008

Corbin won the speech meet!

Well, that's what he reported on Friday after school. Actually, him and four others from his class are finalists in the speech meet, so he gets to attend the big classical school speech meet in Moscow, Idaho on Friday and compete. He is reciting "The Travelers and the Bear" from Aesop's fables. So exciting! I will video tape it, and maybe I can figure out how to post videos on here?! No promises.

In other family news- Kent and I had pink eye last week and a severe stomach flu this past weekend. So gross. Oh, and Lindy puked all over her lovely dress when we were almost to the ballet in downtown Spokane last Thursday. (A good excuse to buy her an adorable dress on sale at Gymboree right before the show, though.) Oh, and the puppy is limping bad in his right leg. Arg!

Anyways, despite these things, we got through our crazy busy October fairly unscathed. Have I mentioned I LOVE teaching these childbirth classes? They're over now. (Sniff, sniff.) Kent was awesome- helping me cook and clean to prepare for these classes at our house each week. Tonight he even took the guys out for a "dad talk", while us ladies talked about breastfeeding and using slings. Whatta guy! He's a keeper.

Monday, November 3, 2008

New Birth Blog!

OK- I am feeling pretty random on this blog here, with no focus or theme. (Reminiscent of my life a little bit, perhaps?! :)
So, inspired by a doula friend, I am starting a separate birth blog here. There is nothing on it yet, but I will be posting articles, news, jokes, thoughts, all kinds of stuff on pregnancy, birth and parenting. Feel free to check it out and follow if you like.
This blog here I will try to focus on my personal life: family, homekeeping, and photos.

Sunday, November 2, 2008

Those Darn Jackhammers. . .


Hopefully you will notice why this is funny. . . Look closely.