Life..... Beyond the Home Improvements

So there is more to life than our home improvements.  And I haven't talked about it in a while.
Where to begin?
I mentioned a month or so back about Gideon's sleep schedule.  Well, apparently that week was a fluke.  He's probably only slept two nights through in all the time since.  We just finished weaning, and I think we have finally (finally - finally - FINALLY!) established a daytime schedule, but I have had to fight tooth and nail (and other pertinent body parts) for it.  Tough love, lots of clinging, crying, and screaming.  (And not all of that coming from Gideon! :) )  He gets up in the morning about 8, goes down for a nap at 1, sleeps for 2-4 hours (oh how I wish 4 was the norm!), and then goes to bed at 8.  We're past the point that I have to deliberately keep him awake, but not to the point that he can entertain himself.  He still wants me to carry him everywhere.  So even though the rest of my body has gone to flab, I have some pretty serious biceps.
We wrapped up weaning right as he turned a year.  At 24 pounds, and 30 inches tall, he was definitely getting too big.  Not to mention he had started doing "baby yoga" positions - while nursing.  There was more yanking and biting going on than actual nursing.  However, switching him over to "real food" wasn't easy.  He just didn't want to eat.  He'd spit it out or slap away my hand with the spoon....  Let me tell ya how that went over!  But as I figured, once he got hungry enough, he began eating real meals.  Although I have to watch, because his appetite now exceeds his concentration level for feeding himself.  So he'll stop eating what's in front of him, but can eat two or three more servings if someone feeds it to him.
The best, most glorious thing about Gideon having a sleep schedule is that it exactly coincides with Zadie's.  I put him down for nap at 1, and come down and put her to nap within 15 minutes usually.  (She sleeps in our room, since naptime is too precious for me to risk having one wake up the other prematurely.)  Then I do school with the boys.  I would prefer to get it over with in the morning, but I guess the good thing is that by afternoon, the boys have had their time to go outside, play with Legos, do whatever, so this is their "bored time" and I give them something to do.
Whereas fights with Nathan last year were daily, if not hourly, this year they are much fewer.  Math is still reviewing (remember, we couldn't start school til October when we moved back home), so it's easy for him and he loves it when he already knows what he's being taught.  (We're still working on patience and the concept that "practice makes perfect.")  He's figured out that reading might be helpful - aided, I think, by the fact that all of his friends are now reading well - so he wants to try at it.  I did spend a chunk of money on supplemental materials for him - flashcards, phonics work pages, etc - and the new things really piqued his interest.  Not to mention we now have 5 different methods for going over the same material every day, but since it's all different, he doesn't get so bored or frustrated.  He can sound out most short-vowel words, but he is still very slow to put them together.
Jacob has got the school thing figured out.  Sit down, get it done quickly, then get back to playing!  His school is still pretty easy.  He knows a lot of the stuff already from Nathan learning them.  So some days in math we can do 3 or 4 lessons.  He is eager to please with his reading, although he gets bored if he thinks it's taking too long.  Frequently he'll ask to go get a drink, then just disappear until I hunt him down.
We took a break from music over the summer and haven't started up again.  Part of it is the craziness of life lately.  The other part is it's not worth it for me.  I'm not going to beg and plead and barter and fight with my son to play an instrument.  I have too many things to do to waste time arguing with him over every little thing.  When he decides he wants to play and practice the way it's supposed to be done, we'll take it up again.  And we're getting close.  He got his violin out this week and found all his music and set up his stand.  And when the holidays are over, I will press him a little more.  It's something we can do in the morning while the little ones are awake.
As for Zadie...... Oh, Zadie!  She is such a handful.  My brother has a phrase he uses, "a swirling vortex of drama."  And that pretty much describes her.  She is happy and carefree, but she can turn on the screaming screeching in an instant - and then go back again!  Oh, my goodness.  If this is what all girls are like, it's a good thing we only have one!  She is all girl.  Everything pink, sparkly, and girly is HERS.  She loves clothes, jewelry, shoes, and dolls and babies.  She's such a little mother.  At the beginning of summer, we were probably only understanding 10% of what she said, and I'd say now we can understand 90%, now that we've figured out her annunciations.  She has not what I'd call a lisp, but she mis-pronounces certain letters.  She jabbers constantly to us, to her toys, to herself.
I had surgery in August to repair a hernia.  I had the same surgery two years ago, but they didn't put in a big enough patch, and it tore another weak spot.  The hernia was about the size of my fist - disgusting.  I am the proud bearer of a 4-inch mesh patch holding in my insides.  Recovery took longer - I'd say 10 days - before I felt on top of things, and a month before I was back to normal.
Jacob inherited the same weak belly genes.  He's had a tiny hernia since he was a baby, but it has always "reduced" (gone back in).  This autumn, I noticed it pooching out more often, so finally checked it and it wouldn't push back in.  Even though it wasn't an emergency, we made the decision to get it fixed now so it can be well-healed and strong by the time he's a teenager.  Hopefully it's the last we'll have to deal with hernias in our family.
I finally got on top of the house.  I have conquered 4 "baskets-o-crap" and have two left.  (In case you're not familiar with the term, a "basket-o-crap" is what you get when you're in the middle of cleaning and sorting and you need the table.  All of that gets shoved into a box or basket to be dealt with later.  Sometimes it's a month later.....)  I kind of laid it down to everyone about pulling their weight around here.  We all live here, we all keep it clean.
So life is returned to normal.  I'm looking forward to the youngest being a little less "baby" so I can do a little more without him on my arm.  But we are happy, healthy, and growing closer with each other and God, so life is good!

Overheard:

(Zadie picks up the box to Emperor's New Groove.)

A llama??
[mumble, mumble, jabber]
Yeah, weird.



I am so proud!

Overheard:

"There will be blog."
-JC Eichenberger

(Much better than my, "I am so blogging about this!")

I Ditched Facebook: One Year Later

As some of you know, I ditched my Facebook account a year ago. (Last Friday was the "anniversary.")
I didn't make a big deal about it, because of two reasons, 1/I didn't want it to come off as "holier than thou" and 2/Paul got a Facebook account, so I still have access to Facebook.
Why would someone get rid of the best way to connect with their friends?
Because I wasn't connecting with my friends.  I realized how many times I was saying in conversation, "I saw that on Facebook."  Ugh.  Do I not actually talk to my friends anymore?  When did internet interaction replace face-to-face conversation?  I knew everything about someone, without having ever talked to them.
There were other things.
The fake.  Don't get me wrong, I try to put my best face forward in public.  But to talk one way on FB, and the other face-to-face, made me wonder which was the true story.
The drama.  I hate vague posts.  Seriously.  Just put it out there, quit trying to drum up reactions.
The gossip!  Seriously - when you post crap like that, you're begging to be talked about behind your back!  And I got tired of people talking about me behind my back, about who I chose to be friends with and how I interacted with them.
The complete, absolute time suck.  Since it's so easy to "share" - it's so easy to lose track of the time while you're reading all those articles, blogs, recipes, etc.  But I got to thinking:  are these really making my life better?  Not really.  Not so much as the time I was ignoring my kids and housework was making my life worse.  (Even when I get on Paul's Facebook to stalk him or my siblings, I could easily spend an hour on it, just by reading articles that his friends post!)  My friends are not more important than my children.  I refused any longer to ignore them to get my "I just need Mommy time" fix on social media.
What it did to my mind.  I am a person who obsesses.  I would get myself completely worked up about things I posted.  I would post something completely honest, and true to my beliefs, that maybe goes against the social norm.  But then I would worry so much about who I might have offended.  But what good is a public platform if you can't take a stand?  Or I would work myself up about what others posted.  Or who was seeing my interaction with other friends.  (Yes, I'm friends with that person.  But this other person hates him/her.  What if the "hater" saw what I posted on the other's wall?  Why can't we all just get along????)  My brain can't handle all that stress.
Do I miss it?  Not really.  I have about 4 friends that I didn't have any other way to keep up with.  I miss reading their posts, and getting those little glimpses into their lives to know how things are going, and the pictures of how their kids are growing.
And events are so much easier to post on there than to try to promote any other way.
But otherwise?  Nope.
So here's to one year, Facebook free.  And not going back!

The Wonderful Zadie of Oz

My sister-in-law found the "ruby slippers" when Zadie was tiny.  So I had to have a Dorothy dress to go with them!  My sister made this dress for her younger daughter, and I was thrilled that both the shoes and the dress fit at the same time!
So of course, we had to take professional pictures......

With the "Cowardly Lion."

Classic Zadie face.

My personal favorite.

Back to this one.... Does anyone else see a bit of Eichenberger here?  Like JC or Carlsie's baby pictures?

Photos by my sister, Lurenda Walter.

http://www.lurendawalterphotography.blogspot.com/

BLT: Bacon, Lettuce, and Thumb

BLTs and salad for supper.  While chopping the salad, I nearly chopped off the end of my thumb.  It was deep, and probably should have had stitches.  It took me 15 minutes to get it to stop bleeding.
So what's the natural human response?
Keep cooking the bacon!
Because.....
Bacon makes everything better.
:)

Overheard: The Left Coast

My brother JC has been in Los Angeles for two weeks for work.

Via text:

• Welcome back.  Tomorrow's forecast, 60 with rain.
• Better than liberal with a chance of hippie like I've been living with for the past two weeks.

Overheard: (I've got a backlog.)

Nathan:  Mrs. Dean [his Sunday school teacher] said God made Adam and Eve out of dust.  But she is wrong.  God didn't make Eve out of dust.  He made her out of Adam's nipple.



Jacob (As he positions himself in front of the toilet to go potty):
"When I'm big, and I'm a daddy, I'm going to have a big......"
(Nathan yells something.)
"When I'm big, and I'm a daddy, I'm going to have a big...."
(Gets distracted again.)
"Mommy, when I'm big I'm going to be a daddy, I'm going to have a big...."
(Yet again distracted.)
Me:  "Jacob, what's going to happen when you get big?"
Jacob:  "I'm going to be a daddy, and I'll have a big.... combine!"

(What did you think he was going to say?  Yeah, I'm 99% sure "combine" wasn't where he was originally headed with that thought.)



Me [working on identifying numbers for school]:  "Grammy is almost 55.  Can you find 55 on the number board?"
Nathan:  "Or.... Grammy is almost 100."

(In Mom's defense, Dad will be "almost 100" before she will be.)



Zadie:  Daa.  (As she reached her hand out to Paul while watching him play violin.)
She's starting to babble like whatever she's saying is making perfect sense in her brain.  She is also understanding things we say.  You should have seen the absolute hissy fit she threw when I told her "no" to playing with the humidifier the other day - whooee!

Rhodes Report 2012

Where did February go?  Seriously.  Here's our end-of-year update, which I didn't get out until mid-January.  I was waiting a few weeks longer to post it on here, until my sister overseas received it.... I'm not sure she has gotten it yet, but it should be close.  
Plus, I needed to post SOMETHING.....  More updates coming.....  Eventually......  It's been just a little crazy.

Rhodes Report 2012

Greetings in the New Year!

This has been a busy year!  Where has the time gone?  We have been blessed, and we continue to marvel at God’s provision for us.  “All glory to God, who is able, through his mighty power at work within us, to accomplish infinitely more than we might ask or think.  Glory to him ….. forever and ever! Amen.”  (Ephesians 3:20-21)  God has blessed us.  Even when we don’t think to ask, He surprises us.  We are so grateful.

Our biggest news of the year, obviously, would be the addition of our beautiful girl to our family.  Zadie Marie was born in April, and is now almost 9 months old.  She is a big girl!  She continues to top the charts for growth.  She is now crawling, pulling up, and “cruising” along the furniture, crawling up the stairs (!!!), and trying out unsupported standing. She has two teeth, and beautiful big blue eyes, and lots of dark hair.  She’s a very happy, very laid back baby.  We can already, even at her young age, tell the difference in the way she interacts compared to how the boys were at the same age, and we are looking forward to seeing the change a girl will bring to the dynamics of our family.

Jacob turned 3 in October, and continues to be a happy, silly guy.  He has the normal short attention of a 3-year-old boy, but surprises us with what he is picking up from being around as his brother learns.  He knows all of his colors and shapes, days of the week, and can count to 20.  He’s in the Cubbies class at Awana this year.  He loves to sing, and it brings us such joy to hear him singing praise songs to God as he plays.  He’s starting on violin, learning how to hold it and posture.  He’s a snuggler, and loves to cuddle up with Daddy or Mommy or other favorite people.  He’s very attentive to little sister as well.  But as much as he loves to snuggle, he also loves to wrestle with his brother.  They have almost daily matches rolling all over the living room and giggling.  He’s just a very happy boy, and we love him so much.

Nathan turned 5 in September.  We started home-school Kindergarten with him on Labor Day.  (Appropriate, eh?) He is moving along rapidly with Math, and will be moving on to 1^st grade math this spring.  He picked up letters and sounds very quickly, but is slower on learning blends and simple words (although it seems that it’s just now starting to “click”).  He’s in the Sparks program at Awana, and really enjoys it.  In February, he prayed to ask Jesus to forgive his sins and live in his heart, and then was baptized in July.  We can tell that the Holy Spirit is working inside of him.  He’s made a lot of progress on his violin in the last year.  He has memorized 6 variations of “Twinkle Little Star” and 4 other songs, plus two scales.  He did his first special at church December 30.  He had a little accident the day after Christmas, tripping going up the stairs.  He knocked out one tooth, and had to have the other pulled.  It makes him look very tough and grown up!  He is more serious (and strong-willed – imagine that!) than our other two, but still loves to laugh and be silly and have fun.

The boys’ curiosity about the size and geography and cultures of the world has been aided by the fact my sister Carlsie is on assignment with the Peace Corps in Zambia, Africa.  They really perk up when they hear, “In Africa, where Aunt Sissy lives….”  She has been there since August of 2011; her job there is “rural aquaculture” – teaching people how to build and maintain fish ponds for food and income.  She is on the downhill side of her time there, and will be home next autumn.  My dad and brother got to go visit her for two weeks over Christmas.  They really enjoyed the time there, and I am still blown away by the fact my dad actually flew halfway around the world in an airplane! :)     

My Grandma Marie (my mom’s mom) passed away in April, the week before Zadie was born.  Her health had been declining, and we are glad she is not suffering any more.  I think even in her passing, God used it to be a special time of reuniting for her children and family.

We didn’t take any vacations this year, between baby, finances, and time.  Paul did arrange a surprise day trip for my birthday, to the Wichita Zoo with his family.  It was a beautiful day, in the midst of the oppressing summer, and we really enjoyed the time.

We thought 2011’s summer was bad, but last summer blew it away.  No rain; it was depressing to watch the ponds dry up and the crops wither in the fields during 3 solid months of near or over 100 degrees.  The yard is greener now, in January, than it was all summer.  It was crunchy and brown by the 4^th of July.  Despite this, though, we somehow managed to have our best garden ever.  I think it was because it didn’t rain, we didn’t have any floods, wind, or hail to destroy our crop.  It was so hot even the weeds weren’t growing much.  We could water exactly how much was needed, exactly when it was needed.  Our tomatoes were a failure, but everything else did very well, especially our green beans and cantaloupe.

After a month and a half of cramming 3 kids (in their required car seats) in the back seat of our Buick, we bought a minivan.  (We’d been waiting for a certain kind.)  Although I don’t like being classified as a “minivan mommy,” I do like the fact we can fit 8 in the van (which we’ve already done a couple times), and the fact it gets about twice the gas mileage of an SUV (which is what we originally though we wanted).  It’s a basic 2008 Toyota Sienna, and so far we’ve been very happy with it.

Paul continues to supervise at the glass plant.  It has been a very slow year for the company.  We’re hoping that when the economy finally bounces back, things will pick up.  Paul got the opportunity to go to a men’s retreat called “Encounter” in September and again in November.  It has been wonderful to see his spiritual life renewed and energized, and see how God is using him.  We are experiencing the blessings of letting him lead according to God’s design for a family.  He and my Dad are organizing a group from our church to go to another one later in January.  We got Paul a new grill/smoker for Father’s Day.  Several weeks, the temperature didn’t dip below 100 for days on end, and I told Paul I would not be turning on the oven to heat up the house.  Besides the usual burgers and briskets, we perfected the grilled pizza, meatloaf, bread, French fries, and veggies. The grill definitely paid for itself over the summer.  Paul enjoys the culinary adventures, and I enjoy the break from the kitchen. :)

I “just” stay home with the kids.  Besides home school, I teach Nathan’s violin when Paul is working, and I also have been doing piano lessons with my niece Lena.   I still lead our church’s praise team, and teach Bible lessons weekly at Awana.  I organized two worship nights in the second half of the year, where our band joined with some other musicians and singers for a “concert” of worship music for the community.  Both were great nights, with an excellent turnout, and we are planning another for February 10^th.  The whole family was involved in our church’s 10^th annual Bethlehem reenactment, the first weekend of December.  We had record attendance this year, with over 2000 attending during the three nights.  I turned 30 this year, and I am definitely feeling my age.  (haha)  I got glasses for driving and screen time, and got an umbilical hernia fixed (caused by 3 pregnancies).  The hernia repair lasted a week before it tore out at another place.  The doctor said I would need a more extensive surgery to repair, so that will be coming at some point in the future.  (It’s not an emergency at this point, just ugly and occasionally uncomfortable.) 

I’m sure there are other details about the year that I’m missing, but these were the major things.  We love our life. Of course there are always things that we imagine we’d like to change, but in the end:  we have a roof over our head, food in the cupboard, and a family that loves each other.  What more do we need?

We hope that 2013 is your best year ever.

From our house to yours,

Paul & Rachel

Nathan, Jacob, and Zadie

Christmas

Okay, so I think we've FINALLY recovered from Christmas.

It was different this year.  Not only was my little sister in Africa, so were my dad and brother!  Dad and JC left December 13 and spent two weeks with Carlsie in Zambia.  They returned December 30, bringing a lovely little intestinal virus with them, which we all got after spending New Years Eve and New Years Day together.  Gag.  (Literally.)
So our Christmas was pretty low-key.  We went out to the farm for Christmas Eve, which is our tradition.  We didn't do any gifts, but just hung out, made Mom watch The Emperor's New Groove, and called Africa.  All of us talked to all of them.  (It was 5 AM Christmas Day there, and they were getting up to go on a safari!)
Christmas morning we did gifts with our small family.  We spent more on the kids that we originally planned, but they still only got 3 gifts each for the boys, and one gift for Zadie.  Both of them needed new tires for their bikes (completely bald, white fibers showing).  We had NO IDEA how expensive tires were!  We could replace the whole bike for just $10 more than buying two new tires. Nathan's we decided to get the next size up bike, so it was more than a $10 difference, but we were going to have to get him a bigger bike by this summer anyways.  So besides the bikes, we got them each a "bucket" of figures - Nathan of Army figures, and Jacob got dinosaurs.  I had bought them new Eichenberger Farms shirts when my sister did an order, and decided to just wrap theirs like gifts, even though they weren't really.  We got Zadie a "Baby's First Christmas" ornament.... I didn't realize how much she'd have fun with wrapping paper, or I may have wrapped up some more things just so she could rip off the paper.  (The boys were 3 and 2 months old for their first Christmases, so were clueless and indifferent with gifts.)

We went out to Paul's parents' house for lunch and spent the day there.  My mom came for lunch since she would be alone otherwise.  It was bitterly cold and windy, so after lunch and gifts, my sister-in-law Elizabeth and I went to help my Mom with chores and opening gates, while the kiddos (and adults?) napped.  (Having someone open gates, so you don't have to stop and get off the tractor to open and close every gate cuts choring time in half.)  Paul spent a chunk of time while we were there finishing up my Christmas gift.  I had told him I wanted him to build me a new book case for our toy "corner" behind our bedroom door.  We had a ladder shelf (built by his dad) similar to the one at right, and had accumulated too many toys and books to fit on it (not to mention the boys used it for just that.... a ladder).  He designed and built not only shelves, but also a toy chest below it, so that we don't have to stack their big toys under our end table any more.  I love it!  It's beautiful, and makes the corner look so much neater.  He really did an excellent job on it.  

We had it piled high within a half hour of getting it home. :)

Paul took the two days after Christmas off, so we had him home all week.  I wish I could say we spent the week relaxing, but we were on the go all the time.  I can't even tell you what we did, but I just remember thinking it wasn't really a vacation, since we weren't home to enjoy it.  We had somewhere to go every single day.

Nathan played his first special for church on December 30.  We started working on "Joy to the World" in October, and felt he had it down enough to play in front of the church.  Of course, he made some age-appropriate mistakes, but I am still very proud of him.  (And definitely jealous of his innocent confidence.)

Paul went back to work the night of New Years Eve.  I took the kids over to our good friends' (basically 2 more siblings) house, Jared and Christina, who only live about 5 miles from us.  JC put his pictures on the big TV, and he narrated them for us, which we enjoyed (and I'm sure he enjoyed knocking out 7 [?] families at once to not have to answer individually, "How was your trip?  What did you do?")

I went with the kids to my extended family Christmas at my grandparents' house on New Years Day.  I enjoyed visiting with my aunts, uncles, and cousins.

The day after, in the middle of his normal breakfast battle (No, I don't like this, it's icky - sob, sob....), Jacob threw up.  We just figured he had gagged on the pancakes he was throwing a fit about.  But after about 3 more times of puking that morning, it was obvious he had a bug.  Nathan came down with it that afternoon.  I woke up the next morning with an upset stomach and other unpleasant symptoms, but thankfully never threw up.  It was a violent, but apparently a very fast moving but.  It put you through the ringer for about 12 hours, but then it was gone.  We thought Paul had miraculously avoided it (he usually gets sick just from hearing about someone who's got a stomach bug).  He went to work as usual Friday morning, feeling fine, but then called me about 5.  I was like, "Why are you in your truck?"  (I could hear the wind noise in the background.)  He says, "Yeah, I puked at work."  Lovely.  He was over it by the next morning, but felt weak enough he didn't think he should go in.

So that's our Christmas in a nutshell.  I'm sure I have other things to update about, and I'll remember them...... eventually.........

  

I Love My Family

I have a pretty awesome family.  We are so weird, and I love it!  Any family dinner conversation with my parents and siblings can flow from movie quotes, to childbirth stories, to spiritual matters, to neighborhood genealogy, and beyond.  We are so loud, and I'm sure it's intimidating to an outsider, but I think it is awesome.
As I was nursing Zadie to sleep, for some reason I was thinking of one of my brother's favorite things to say. Mom, Lurenda, and I will be in the kitchen putting the final touches on the meal, and we'll get on a roll about something, not even paying attention to the food situation, and JC will yell from the other room, "Hens!  Get in here!  It's time to eat!"

I'm sure it totally stokes his ego to have JC be the first mention in my new series, but when I thought of it, I about started giggling out loud while I was up there.  It's the "Hens!" part that gets me.... Such a perfect description of I'm sure what we sound like.  I'm going to make mention of my awesome family on regular occasions now.  (Regular, meaning, whenever I actually think of something and have the time and motivation to go to the computer.)