crackers and coffee

On a morning where my breakfast consists of coffee with a side of crackers, it sure was so sweet to walk back into the living room from the kitchen and see this scene before me. Mark reading his magazines from Grammy, a favorite pastime, and Micah next to him... not bothering him, just playing with his own toys near his big brother. Oh I love it. Sweet moments like this just melt me into 1000 pieces.  Moments like this make me smile and think how wonderful life is. It makes me forget the sadness, heartache, frustrations of life and make me just feel alive. I live for these sweetness moments. Even on a day--- no, especially on a day where breakfast consists of crackers and coffee and it is taking all effort to not want to crawl back into bed, I am so blessed by God's small gifts. His desire for His children to know he's here, to know He's real, to be reminded He's with us, He'll never leave us and no matter what "yesterday" brought, He's still here "today."  Oh how I need to know that. Oh how we need to know that. God is here! God is here! Jesus is with us! Jesus is alive! Jesus is here! Oh we need it. Mark looked at me so sweetly and said "We weren't even fighting today, Momma! We were being your good boys today not hitting or anything at all."  Oh thank you Markie! 

And, Thank you, God, for today.

Potty Training 101

You know there are just some things that no one ever discusses with you.  When you 12 or 15 and are dreaming about some day becoming a mom... there are just things no one discusses with you. No one says to the cute kid of then that some day she'll have places on her body she wont recognize or some day she'll wonder where her twenties went or that being a mother is code for being on call 100 hours a day for any possible reason or cause. It means neglecting your schedule for someone's sniffles or blisters or fever. It means an endless cycle of dishes and laundry that some how seem to mate and produce more dishes and laundry every load. It means sleep is for yester-years because there is no sleeping after you have children. No one tells the dreamy eyed unsuspecting teenager that she'll be peed on, puked on, farted on, perhaps pooped on, jumped on and any other number of painful or gross things... and that my friends is where this late night rambling leads to.  Not one person ever told me about the amount of bottom problems these children have.  Problems, if you will, that they themselves can not handle on their own, that is of course for you to handle, you being the parent.

For example, someone--who will remain nameless-- wet his bed again last night.  Hmm, on soccer nights when we drink 2 full water bottles, we apparently lose the ability to get up and go to the bathroom! (oops, did that give it away?) So four of the five Hobbs were awake at 1:20am dealing with wet sheets for the afflicted bed. Which resulted in him sleeping on a sleeping bag on his bed--thrilled him, whatever. And the other one thinking it was time to get up and play. But since he's also potty training these days, he needed to go take a turn on the potty.  Did I mention that? No?

Well he'll be 4 in December and I'm hoping we're successful in our attempts before then. We shall see. He's been doing a good job about it. I'd say where in the 60-40% standing lately. Here's a Mark funny for you though, we were at soccer and he said he needed to go, and the only thing available is a port-a-potty. Jamie opened the door... and Mark says "well. uhhhh. I think I wait until we go home."  Smart kid, huh?

If I were to put together a Potty Training 101 list... here would be some of the things I'd say.  Even though, I probably wouldn't say them because who talks about this stuff in person right? right.

1. All the crazy people who say "oh, he should be potty trained by now" should be smacked. Seriously. Just smack them. Or don't really, but just walk on past them.  I'm learning that much like the nursing or bottles controversy  people have high standards and lots of opinions about potty training. But I'm learning that there is no special time or magic number. They will "be potty trained" when they are good and ready.  I decided Matthew was "old enough" and I battled him tooth and  nail about it. I have not pushed the issue with Mark even though MANY people have flapped their mouths about it and he's finally interested in training and we're moving forward. He's been in pull ups for a week now and he's pretty proud of himself. I do believe any earlier for him would have been a waste (or torture) of my time.  Don't let anyone pressure you into training. IT IS NOT WORTH BATTLING. A friend of mine has a child same age as Micah who's potty trained already. I sometimes think she's a fairy tale walking around in a real person's body, but that's fantastic for her. In the end though... if my kids are out of diapers before they go to college, I'll be glad with that.

2. Accidents happen. Spare yourself the Elmo video. The "Accidents Happen" song will be in your head the rest of your ever lovin' life! But. It is the truth. Accidents Happen. And there is nothing you can do about it. (Micah peed on the couch tonight... awesome. thank you.)  Try to not raise your voice. That's equally pointless and in fact makes the situation worse. (Sadly this is from trial and error again... it's that learning curve. The poor defenseless first borns get all that trial and error stuff).  Mark has started hanging his head in shame when he's not made it to the potty fast enough. Oh my heart can't stand it. I'm trying to take the shame out of it and just make the rewards great for the good stuff. High fives, stickers, candy... whatever it takes to make him feel good. But without the shame involved!

3. .... well... I can't think of a three... so I guess I only have two bullet points for this lesson. Ha ha! Oh well. I'm in a season of washing sheets constantly, but there is probably light down this tunnel at some point. Potty Training is just one of those stages moms have to go through. At some point all these people will be in underwear and I'm sure I'll wonder where the diaper days went. Not today, but maybe some day.

desk-less but ready for movin!

After about four weeks, I can not believe we are READY to move Jamie's desk to his new office this week! Friend and hard worker,  J, was able to finish today! I am so amazed at his work. He did a fantastic job. Today he installed the AC unit and showed Jamie how to use it. He did a couple of touch ups to things and cleaned up and left shop! Eeeee! I'm so excited.  Here's little tour of Jamie's new (currently deskless) office. 

 the old space (this side will be a closet now)

 same corner, gutted

new window carved out of opposite wall, 

window will be facing driveway 

 dry wall around window, waiting to be cut out.

these four pics show the closet transformation! 

 And here's the closet after the shelves were built... 

And then after the stuff was organized in those shelves! 

(the two boxes in front are for the AC that is now installed, 

so those aren't there anymore!)

inside and outside view of new window space! 

 in addition to the office side, 

here's a peak across the hallway to the other side...

 I also got new (more!) shelves in my "pantry/storage room"

 Here's the new curtain now hung in the 

open doorway to the storage room

The newly painted hallway 

(Jamie and I did this space ourselves, 

he roller-ed, I did the cut in/trim work)

Here's Matthew enjoying the new "shoe bench" J built us! 

I love it so much!

 J also took out an old window box unit that was just stuck in a hole in the wall and sealed the hole. I plan on doing something neat with the "picture frame" now but haven't decided what yet. Possibly a verse or maybe "Hobbs established" type something. Still thinking on that. 

 So here's the outside view now from the driveway, you can see 

the picture frame on the right side and the new window on the left.

And, here's the office interior, finished, waiting on the desk...   

the fish tank stand (fish tank currently on the back deck, fish to come later)

 

  corner where Jamie's desk will go, next to Asian table

 And there is the wall unit for the AC. It's hanging above the closet door. It's smaller than I thought in my head it might have been. It doesn't stick out of the wall as far as I expected. It's tasteful even though it's obviously there. Again, J did a fantastic job. Just fantastic. I'd be pleased to pass his name.

(and yes, that's Micah *in* the fish tank stand. Sure is.)

Jam jam and more jam

 I've been on a jam kick lately.  A dear sweet friend and mentor in my life keeps giving me pears and I keep making jam.  My first batch yielded 4 jars. I felt like it was a lot of work for not a lot of jars, but it was my first ever attempt by myself. My second batch yielded 11 jars (it was a lot of pears)!  Then I did a batch of grape jam. I think that was 6 jars. And then today another 9 jars of pear jam!  Here's a few pictures of the process.

 boiling the pears and sugar

 the jars all filled

the jars, filled and turned upside down to set (process)

YUM! I'll turn them over in the morning 

and they'll be ready to shelf! 

Happy Jam!  What kind of jam do you like to make? 

My next endeavor will be strawberry jam, I've made that last year but not this year yet. 

Meet Apples

 This is Apples.  He's my birthday present from the family. Matthew thinks that because he's my present, I should keep him in my room, but I'm so rarely in my room... I decided to share him with the whole family in the kitchen. Right now he's in central station on the island counter-top. Jamie said this evening as Micah was shrieking and Matthew and Mark were running around the island trying to "find Apples" that he felt a little sorry for him. "Poor Apples," Jamie said. "Poor Apples?" I asked him. He said "yes... he doesn't know what kind of family he's been brought home to!" Ha ha. We are loud, that's for sure. But Apples seems happy. He ate his dinner which fascinated the boys. I had even picked up Micah to see our new fish and he found him and pointed and smiled and tried to say "ish" and then when I put him down he promptly signed "more more more" so I picked him back up. Minus the amount of noise (and in truth I hope we don't stress poor Apples totally out) the kitchen will be a fun place to have him. I've walked past a few times and smiled when I see him fanning his fins and fluttering about in there. Fish are so fun. I know some people consider them boring pets, but they are so fun and so pretty. I have enjoyed three other Betta fish in years past, but it's been 6 or 7 years since we've had one. Apples is a nice addition, I've missed a little calm happy spot in our hectic mix. Hopefully he'll get used to the loud factor. Mark woke up from his nap running into the kitchen "HI-YA APPLES!" It's so worth it! I gaze over at him currently and he seems happy swimming in a circle around his little plant. What do you think?

 The kids had name choices picked out (weeks) before we ever went to the pet store today... and they were Bubbles or Mickey. I had already decided that Bubbles wasn't going to work for me... but one day this week Matthew was eating his apples and talking a lot and I said "eat your apples" and he said something else and I said "Apples" and he said "you know, that would be a good fish name" I looked at him confused and said "what? what's a good fish name? Apples?" he said "yes. I like Apples for a fish."  So in the end... Apples won out over Mark's choice for Mickey.  Mark gets to name the next fish though. We're hoping to do a big tank sooner or later (we moved the dumb thing from Kansas City over 7 almost 8 years ago!). But for now, this is fun. They get to learn about feeding it and all that. And I like him. He's pretty. He's my little Apples.

(what his home actually looks like)

Oh and I will say... going to the pet store is such a trip. It was "adopt a kitty day" and there were kittens everywhere while we were there. I mean everywhere. Big tables were set up and the kittens were stacked cage on top of cage. They were all so cute. Mark was pretty sad we weren't taking one of them home. He liked a couple of them enough to want to keep them.  Micah was pretty fascinated with the kittens too. He would stick his one little pointing finger in their cages and they'd bat at his finger. It was cute. Kittens are so playful. Mark also was pretty taken with a lizard he found. (Why am I a boy mom!?) I was sooo not interested in the lizard and had to call out both his names when I looked over and he was KISSING THE LIZARD'S TANK. He said he named him "Tootie" and was taking him home with Apples. Aren't you glad Mark didn't get to name Apples "Tootie" geeeeez.  I will happily admit that we didn't come home with a Lizard named Tootie today... Just Apples the Fish. 

the tree adventure

 someone backed up into one of the little trees on our drive way, so Jamie 

pulled it up since it was horizontal on the ground... took it to the backyard 

and chopped  it up for firewood. The boys were mesmerized. 

 what Micah was doing for most of the tree adventure...

 when he got down, he was quite upset to not be allowed

 through the gate with the big boys

what I was doing while they were having fun with the tree.... 

more firsts

This past week, there were firsts for all the boys in my life…

1. Mark had his first day of preschool this year as a big boy in the 3-year-old room. He’s not too sure about not being with his beloved M teacher in the 2-year-old room but he’s doing fine. They are telling me he’s doing very well while he’s there. I come on the scene and suddenly he’s shy and huggy and somber but apparently that’s just for me.

2. Matthew had his first soccer practice Friday night!  Look out world, here we come!  Matthew seemed to really enjoy it, so here’s to another season of sports in the Hobbs house. 

3. Micah had a first as well! 

He colored with crayons for the first time. 

And loved it though the pictures don't show it well. 

4. And, Jamie even had a first… 

He was able to pick his first home

 grown tomato from our little bucket garden.