Working On Wednesday

February 1, 2012September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

I thought I’d try something new. A Wednesday post about the randomness we may (or may not) be working on each week. When your home is filled with a toddler, a kindergartener, and a first grader, there’s always something to be working on. If you like it, maybe I’ll get all fancy with a linky button. ‘Course, I’ve said that before. I’m working on it.

Oh, and I picked Wednesday for the alliteration, English teacher nerd that I am.

This week we’re working on learning some new terms.

For instance, Madelynne’s first grade class is working on possessives. As in, “Mommy, you have to put a capastrophe before the s.” She doesn’t believe me when I say my teaching certificate is valid enough to help her with her homework. And why should she? I don’t know about capastrophes.

Amelia is learning terms too. Bossy ones. She recently started stringing sentences together so throughout the day, I get a lot of this:

“Mama rock!”

“Mama read!”

“Mo fru sacks peas.”

(fruit snacks for those of you who don’t speak toddler)

“No milk! Ap juice!”

The best is she can say her brother’s name almost perfectly. So while she pokes my belly button she chants, “Baby Gush, baby Gush!”

Annabelle is learning new terms too. Terms like tonsillectomy and adenoids and ENT. She’s not as fond of her terms as her sisters are of theirs.

We’re also learning to be a little nicer to each other because it will make our home a more pleasant place.

So last night we had a party for daddy to celebrate his new job. We made him a cake and Madelynne insisted on a tablecloth and everything.

Mmmm….that was good cake. Which means I am working on resisting the urge to eat more of it.

You can get the recipe here.

The girls and I started a project this morning as well. 14 Acts of Love. Brought to the Brackett house via Pinterest of course.

You can go here to get your own. Super easy, kid friendly! And no, I didn’t try to color any rice. But I could I’m sure. Maybe I’ll work on that for next week.

So what are you working on this Wednesday?

I’d love to know.

amelia · favorite things · http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · madelynne

Making It

January 20, 2012 Lindsey P. Brackett2 Comments

After my last post, I am overwhelmed by your encouragement, support, hugs (both physical and virtual), and simply by the sheer amount of folks who actually do read this random little blog. Thank you all for caring about these words and these ramblings.

I’m doing better. Nothing to do now but bumble on through to the end and try to keep my sanity intact. I hope you all are praying for my husband as well!

Today I wanted to link up with Rachel not because I want to make a list or add to my one thousand gifts journal.

Today I just want to savor some sweet moments amid all the chaos.

Like the fact that I am absolutely enthralled by Amelia. I can’t remember my big girls at this age. Those memories are clouded by the strain of two under two, a full-time job, and really bad post-partum depression brought on by my hypothyroidism. But somewhere along this journey of motherhood third time, I decided to pay a bit more attention. Suddenly she’s (finally!) stringing words together, such as, “Shoes, ‘kay?” And those shoes she put on by herself (wrong feet of course). She’s obsessed with turning lights on and off, Winnie the Pooh, and gives fabulous tea parties. This week she also informed me when I called her big girl, “NO! Baby!” Guess we’ll have to work on that.

Annabelle is my most stubborn child, but she likes rules. And systems. And boundaries. She functions just fine once she knows where the line is. She just made herself a “stoplight” to help us monitor her behavior at home. It’s just like what her teacher does in kindergarten because anything Mrs. Fry does is the only way something should be done. She’s our neat one, too, always coloring perfectly and making her bed.

Then there’s Madelynne. We figure she’ll grow up and find a job that just pays the bills so that in her spare time she can create pottery or abstract paintings or knit or rescue horses and dogs. She’s all over the place. We call her Tigger sometimes because she’s exactly like that. And thanks to Amelia, we’re all experts on that cast of characters. Her backpack is stuffed with old papers, pencils, candy wrappers, gloves, hat, scarf, a necklace, and half-eaten snacks. She can’t ever find anything, will read anything, and sometimes melts all over me.

Sometimes I think we might be a lot alike.

They’re something else these daughters of mine. I hope this baby boy comes out ready to tango with these sissy monsters.

Oh, and it’s Friday. Savor that over an icy margarita or a nice glass of wine if that’s your style. Or you can be like me and plan to eat pizza with a friend while kids twirl around in the background.

Have a great weekend!

amelia · Friday Five · motherhood · reflections

Five Minute Friday

January 6, 2012 Lindsey P. Brackett3 Comments

This is a great idea from Gypsy Mama. Now let’s see if I can write uninterrupted for five minutes. It’s supposed to be more stream-of-consciousness than edited and perfected posting.

Because I ever have time for editing and perfecting.

Here goes….

The first Friday of the New Year. The topic is roar…

Roaring for what exactly? And how? Amelia likes to roar. Especially when she’s strapped in the grocery buggy for longer than thirty minutes and the line is long and she’s bored. Then she starts roaring. So I say, Amelia are you a tiger? And she says in that sweet little almost-two lisp, Yesh.

Then we pretend to be an elephant, a pig, a cow, a duck, a chicken, an owl (with flapping arms and hoo-hoo) and a lion (which is basically a tiger again). It’s adorable and makes me feel like a roaring mama. Fended off that tantrum, that’s right.

Sometimes she roars and chases her sisters around the house. They squeal and run and climb in and under the kitchen table and make lots of noise that I sometimes get annoyed by. So then I roar like a mean mama. And they get in trouble for—for what? For being kids? For having fun? For distracting me from something that can’t possible be as important as they are?

Their daddy roars with them too. He chases them all around the house and they play and play. Always right before bedtime. And I’m usually in the kitchen wiping down the table and wishing I had the courage to roar just for the fun of it. Just to hear my own voice and their laughter.

ROARRRRRR……I’ll work on it.

amelia · Christmas · http://schemas.google.com/blogger/2008/kind#post · madelynne

Here I Am (Christmas Countdown)

December 14, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett2 Comments

Here I am sitting and being grouchy and irritated over family drama and Madelynne crying because some girl doesn’t think she writes her name neatly and how Christmas just always feels more frustrating than it should when I read a post on facebook that a family is about to spend Christmas at Scottish Rite because their two-year-old has a tumor and suddenly there’s some perspective.

I hate that I have to get it that way.

I’ve got some fun plans for the next couple of weeks, ideas I hope will make me appreciate the Christ season more and not forget what we are celebrating. On a “Twelve Days of Christmas” whim, I’m going to try to post about what we’ve been up to everyday between now and Christmas.

Lofty goals. Good motivation to write everyday.

Here’s what we’ve been up to in the first twelve days of December….

Belle in “S-A-N-T-HO” at her school’s Christmas program.

Rudolph the Red-nosed Reindeer….

Roasting marshmallows on Madelynne’s field trip to the Christmas Tree Farm.

Choosing our own tree. A sweet hemlock this year that’s not too full or needles but overly full of ornaments.

Coloring on the table.

Visiting Santa at Densmore Farm.

Seeing if they all fit on the swing.

Santa’s elves hard at work cleaning Mommy’s car.

Sunday dinner homemade biscuits wrapped in joy.

Come back tomorrow to see if what the beginning of the last twelve days leading up to Christmas will hold.

amelia · cooking · monday

Miscellany Monday

October 17, 2011September 30, 2015 Lindsey P. Brackett1 Comment

1. This weekend the weather was perfect. Crisp, cool fall weather. Like it had been ordered up out of a catalog or something. Seriously. It was perfect. I opened all the windows and cleaned the house. Which really needed it since I’ve been hibernating on the sofa for a month and the dust bunnies are threatening to eat my family. Or at least their socks. I even cleaned the van. Amelia was a big help. She ate all the lost raisins and cheerios we found.

2. I tend to find this face irresistable. I think she’s pretending to be me because of the sunglasses, but maybe she’s just practicing for when she’s a big sister. Probably not. She has no idea that she’s going to have to share mommy and since she doesn’t like to share me with the sisters she already has who were around first, I’m not feeling confident she’s going to take kindly to a new baby sitting in mommy’s lap.

3. I bought mums a week or two ago and intended to plant them in my pathetic dead planter on the porch. That finally happened this weekend. Joshua and Annabelle did it while I napped on the couch.

4. Speaking of working in the yard, Joshua did that on Sunday because on Saturday I made him take me to see Courageous and have dinner. We were childless and I didn’t think yardwork qualified for a childless day. So, on Sunday he and the girls are outside working in what will be their “wild garden” come spring. It’s a concoction of flowers and vegetables and whatever else the girls pick out at Lowe’s. As mentioned before, I was napping. Until Madelynne burst in the house and announced, “I quit helping Daddy in the yard. All he wants to do is kill the grass. I enjoy nature. I don’t want to kill it!” Obviously she hasn’t figured out where her chicken nuggets come from yet.

5. And speaking of our date night, the movie was really good. But sad. I cried. A lot. There’s your warning. Then we went to Longhorn for the special and because I had a coupon. I don’t think we’ve eaten at Longhorn at least four months. Our “eat out” budget is limited to more frugal places these days. But we splurged a bit and I ate way too much. I keep forgetting that pregnancy encourages frequent small meals. Not frequent big ones.

6. We have a scarecrow in our yard this year. I don’t think our scarecrow wants to be on display, though. I keep finding him sprawled across the driveway. Or leaning like this.

7. Finally, I’m feeling better, which means that I’m cooking again. A fact my husband is profoundly grateful for. I made potato soup on Sunday and garnished it with all sorts of goodies like bacon (which I never buy or fry but broke down for this week) and green peppers that are still growing on our plant in the backyard. It was delish.