"God made me do it..."

Three year-olds.  They're a lot of fun.   Lately, my little guy has become very sneaky.  I've been filling Easter eggs getting them ready for an egg hunt and I left them all in a laundry basket.  Sam secretly pushed the laundry basket into his room, shut the door, sat behind his rocker and ate candy like a mad man. At least he was smart enough to put all is trash in the trash can. 

The next day he snuck his candy bag from Parents' Day Out under his bed for nap time.  I saw it and took it out.  He came out very upset with me and when I asked him why he did it, he said, "God made me do it."  Um, no.  He did not.

This morning, after repeatedly telling him to stay out of the mud out back I saw his smearing mud all over his toys getting himself completely covered in mud.  I asked him why, and again, he said, "God made me do it." 

No, I'm pretty sure he didn't.  We had a nice long talk about how God wants us to obey our parents, not disobey, and when we choose to disobey our parents, we are also disobeying God.  Then Isabella chimed in and said it wasn't God, but actually the devil that makes us disobey.  So, Sam then told me he thought maybe the devil was telling him to do it.   Lovely. 

Guess we're going to have some more talks coming up.  Fun times. 

An announcement...

Things are once again changing in the Moon household.  No, we're not moving, changing jobs, going back to school, or having a baby.  Though, over the last 11 years, we've had plenty of those types of announcements.  It seems like things are always changing....

And while this might not seem that significant to many of you, it is a very big milestone in our family.  Very.  Big.

The Moon family is officially closing the door on the diaper/pull-up stage of our lives.  WAHOO!!!   

Some of you might be thinking, gee, great, Sam is FINALLY potty trained.  Well, yes, he is.  He is finally wearing underwear day and night.  And as stubborn as he was about it - that in itself would have been worthy of celebrating.  But this is bigger news than that.  The Moon family is done using diapers and pull-ups.  DONE.  Big deal here, guys!   

You see, on May 5, 2003 Sophia entered our family and I began changing diapers. A lot of diapers.  As we added kids, we added more diapers to be changed.  And since our kiddos are all less than two years apart, for a lot of that time we had two kids in diapers at the same time.  And not just disposables.  Because, we didn't have a lot of money, so for atleast 3 1/2 of those years I was using cloth diapers. Let me tell you, that takes diaper changes to an entirely new level folks! 

So, if my calculations are correct, I changed diapers continuously for 8 years and 10 months.  Or 3,228 days.  Did you read that?  3,228 days of changing diapers!  That's not one diaper a day, that's more like 6-18 a day depending on how many kids were in diapers at the time.  Let's just take an average of 10 per day.  Do you want to know how many diapers that is?  Probably not, but I'm going to tell you.  32,280.  Now do you see why this is such a major milestone for our family? 

I'm thinking a party is in order.  Or a vacation.  Or, at least, a day trip.  Something.  Anything.  This is really big.  And I am super excited!!  And, yes, I realize that now that I'm making it "official,"  we'll probably suddenly have several accidents around here.  But I'm okay with that.  Because, after 8 years and 10 months -- 3,228 days and approximately 32,280 diapers, I. Am. Done.  Hooray! 

"I'm really not a fashion girl..."

Today I took Sophia shopping.  That's pretty rare since I try to do all my shopping while the girls are at school.  But, she's outgrowing all of her clothes, and while she seems okay with this fact, for some reason I am not.  So, to the store we went. 

Sophia's got a very basic fashion sense.  She'd rather be in jeans and a plain colored shirt than just about anything else.  Make it a white shirt and it's even better.  If you know Chris, you understand -- he's the same way.  No frills, bling, or anything fancy.  As we walked around the store and talked about the different things she liked and disliked, she looked at me and said this...

"Mom, I'm not really a fashion girl.  Most of the girls in my class like fashion clothes and they work really hard to look good because they think it makes them popular.  I just don't really like those clothes, I like things that are just comfortable.  That's what really matters, that I'm comfortable."  I LOVE that she's low maintenance.  That she doesn't get caught up in what the other girls are wearing or brand names or expensive clothes.  I LOVE that!  Because, frankly, in our house and our budget, she'd never be happy.  But sometimes, you find some really adorable clothes out there on sale and she's just not interested in them at all.  Bummer. Luckily, I have two more girls with entirely different fashion senses all together and lots of years ahead of me for shopping with them. 

Not Sure Where Winter Went...

I can't remember ever having a winter like this year.  I've hardly run our heater at all.  Seriously.  The gas bill has been almost non-existent!  I'm not complaining, really I'm not.  But, I would have loved to have one or two big snows.  This was the first year I made sure all my kids (and I) had snow boots in the right size for winter.  I made sure the kids had snow bibs that fit them, and bought a bunch of warmer gloves.  The tags are still on those gloves.  It figures.  Kind-of like washing your car means it will rain later. 

Last year we had 6 snow days from school, many due to extreme wind chills and it was pretty miserable.  Then, last summer we broke all kinds of records for the suffocating heat.  So, this winter's mild temperatures have been a welcome relief following a year of extremes!  

But, here's the deal.  I sleep really well with a cool house.  And, almost all winter long we didn't have to turn on our heater.  It would sneak down to about 60 at night inside and I'd bundle up in blankets and sleep really well.    But this week it's been in the upper 70's and mid 80's.  Seriously?  Isn't it March?  By midnight last night my house was still 73 and I couldn't sleep for anything.

So, I did what I said I never would.  I turned on the A/C in March.  Normally I hold out until late May or early June if possible, but I just couldn't sleep.  I just had to cool the house down at night.  As soon as I woke up I turned it off again, but YIKES, it's early for the A/C.  I also did something for the first time yesterday that I look forward to all year.  I played the "our house is too hot to turn on the oven" card.  I totally did.  And normally, Chris could grill, but he was out cold all day with a fever and crawling out of bed was just not going to happen.  So, I picked up food from a local restaurant.   Ohhh, I sure love doing that!  It's such a rare thing, and a real treat for me. 

But, honestly, where was winter this year?  It's supposed to be 84 today.  WOW!  I'm going to have to get the garden ready and stop worrying about an actual freeze. 

Saturday Morning Muffins

We are finally at that stage.  The one we've dreamed about for many years.  The stage where Chris and I can actually sleep in on a Saturday if we want.  The kids are old enough to get themselves up, eat a basic breakfast, and pop in their favorite movie.  Good times!  Today, after a quick six person snuggle in our bed, the kids decided they wanted to start making muffins.  They'd get the mix all ready and then I'd pop them in the oven.  Good plan, right?

Well, I let them help all the time in the kitchen, but I have never spent a lot of time going over the measurements with them.  And I always use a one-cup measuring cup for everything.  I guess learning those fractions was important after all (well, for cooking and determining a good sale price at least).

I walked in and the chocolate chip muffin mix was ready to go.  But, it looked different.  There was more of it, and it was very runny.  But they were so proud of themselves.  I asked them how much oil and water they put in.  Sophia pointed to the glass 2-cup measuring bowl. 

She said, "see, it says '1/4 cup of oil', so I filled it up to here...and '3/4 cup of water,' so I filled it up to here."  She was right, she found the 1/4 cup line, only it was the 1 1/4 cup line of oil, and the 1 3/4 cup line for water.  They had two extra cups of liquid in the mix.  I figured we would go ahead and bake them along with some blueberry muffins that I helped measure out.  Here's how they turned out.

Tasty, right?  If you look closely, you see the one on the left is actually already oozing oil out the bottom side. It was so gross!  But the kiddos learned an important lesson on measuring I think.  And I'm guessing they might be a little less ambitious and stick to cereal and pop tarts on a Saturday morning.  That might just mean a little more sleep for us!! 

Another Year, Another Birthday!

I'm a little behind on my blogging.  A home remodel project will do that to you!  But it's so worth it in the end!  

Anna turned seven on February 13th.  SEVEN?  Not sure how time is flying by so quickly, but it is.  Here are a few pictures from her birthday party.  Her favorite color is blue so we had a blue polka-dot party.   

Yes, the cake is totally lopsided.  But, I decided I'm perfectly okay with that because the cake pops and cupcakes looked pretty!  Plus, the inside of the cake was checkerboard blue and white so the outside wasn't as important!

And here are pictures of my sweet Anna.  God blessed you with such a tender, nurturing heart and we are just constantly amazed at what a loving girl you are.  You've always been my shy, sensitive little girl with a big heart and I love you so much! 

  

Numana food packaging event

Our church recently hosted a food packaging event with Numana.  I can't say enough good things about this organization - mainly because they are organized!  They bring everything to your location and you just join in the assembly line somewhere and prepare meals. 

What's really neat about this particular event is it was inspired by our youngest members of our church.  Our Wee Worship class  (ages 2-5) collect offering for very specific purposes.  A year ago, they started collecting money to host a packaging event and send the food to Haiti.  Each week they talked about it and learned more about why Haiti needed their help.  After a year of collecting coins, they decided they needed the help of the rest of the congregation.  Together, we met and exceeded their goal!  During the two hour packaging event, we put together over 11,000 meals. WOW!

Sometimes we get in the mindset that we are a small church from a small town in the middle of Kansas.  We get accustomed to writing checks and sending money do various groups that do amazing things to grow God's Kingdom. But we don't always do the best job of "getting our hands dirty" and really serving right where we are.  Not everyone can take a week off and go to Mexico to build a house or Africa to serve in an orphanage, but everyone can give up an hour to pour rice into a bag.  This packaging event allowed us the best of both worlds. We were able to contribute financially and help with the actual pouring of rice and beans and other important stuff into bags, weighing them, sealing them, flattening them out and boxing them up.  There was something for everyone to do.  My 3 year-old might have had the best time of anyone in the room!  His bags were not only flattened, they were karate-chopped, spun, shaken and thoroughly tested for sturdiness.  Every single one of them held up. 

Below are a few pictures from the event. I'm hoping this is the start of many opportunities to teach our children that they can serve with their own hands.  If a 3 year-old can do something -  the rest of us don't have any more excuses!