Love Songs

Last night Madelyn made up a song for me it goes like this.."I love you mommy, I love you mommy. Two hearts together, beautiful. I pick two flowers one for me one I give to you. I love you moooommmy! beautiful rainbows I see. I love God too and everybody. My heart grows bigger and I'm 4." It was so sweet to hear her little voice belt this out to me at bedtime. I got tears in my eyes. It's these moments I don't ever want to forget. She went on to make up songs about Daddy and her brothers. Daddies started out as mine did but ended with him killing the monsters and being the brave one. by the time she got to her brothers songs she was getting sleeping and running out of ideas and just sang about how they love cars and skateboards.

Update

I am happy to say that everyone is finally feeling better, there's still a few coughs and sniffles going around but I feel the end is near. The kids are finally sleeping at night agian which means I am able to get more sleep. Now I just have to catch up on all the housework that I've been avoiding.

Isaac had his 3rd Taekwon do class yesterday and had to stand up and do patterns in front of the class and all the parents and he did them perfectly, I was so proud of him, just for getting up and doing them in front of everyone when he hasn't had as much practice. He also beat the record in the class for comleteing the obstacle course in 8seconds, he's so fast. I keep telling him he should run track. His homeschooling is going well and he's getting good grades. We've devised a great schedule and have been finishing school earlier in the day leaving him more free time and me more time to attend to my other duties. I'm so glad that I made the descion to homeschool. It's such a blessing to have all my children home with me and to be able to teach them. With Isaac being home he doesn't have as much outside influence and is able to stay a kid longer. He doesn't have the peer pressure that goes along with school and he has way less stress in his life. He's also had more oppurtunities to do fun educational things this year than he did before. I hope I am able to continue with the homeschooling since I plan on homeschooling all my children. Madelyn does preschool when she's in the mood, she'll start preschool/kindergarten next year. Most days she loves to do her school work and asks me for more and more but other days she's just not interested. So I don't push the issue since she just turned 4yrs and has a whole year before she's actually kindergarten age.

Michael is doing well with school and staying busy. He's getting straight A's and hopefully will graduate in the Spring. I can't wait for that. It feels like our life has been put on hold temporarily because we don't know what kind of job he will get after graduation or where that might be. I look forward to learning God's plans for my family and I can't wait to have a house with a washer and dryer and say goodbye to apartment living. But for now I am happy to wait and to enjoy the many blessings that I have. I have a wonderful husband, three beautiful, smart and funny children, food, shelter, clothing and transportation. God has made sure all our needs are met and I know he will continue to do so no matter what changes lay ahead for my family.

Down for the Count

We are all still sick. It's been over a week now with no end in sight. Everytime one of us starts to feel better we're knocked back down again. Isaac is now sick too, he held out the longest and just came down with this nasty bug yesterday. So that's all of us. Little Joshie seems to have it the worst and just lies in my lap all day long looking miserable. There's a muscial chorus of coughs and sniffles echoing through the house. My poor babies :( I wish there was more that I can do for them, but all I can do is try to keep them comfortable, make sure they're getting enough fluids and try to keep their fevers down. I try to go with more natural methods instead of lots of medication and found that a spoonful of honey and some dark chocolate works just as well as cough medicine...just a little tip I thought I'd share. Plus any excuse to eat chocolate sounds good to me. So life has been pretty uneventful around here since our days consist of lying around our darkened living room in our jammies watching movies, witch would actually sound nice and relaxing if we were'nt all feeling like we're knocking on death's door. So I'm praying that this passes quickly and everyone is restored to their full health soon so we can get back to living and enjoying life.

Crockpot Chaos

So I was feeling brave today and decided to cook a meal using my crockpot for the first time. On the menu for tonight 3 cheese chicken soup, yummy. Now I must tell everyone I am not a great cook, I'm barely a good cook. Most of the food I make is edible at least, but I am still learning my way around the kitchen. I do not enjoy cooking I find it stressful and overwhelming to have multilple things going on in the kitchen. Baking I like and I'm getting pretty good at it but making dinner for my family to me is a nightmare. So I begin chopping veggies celery, carrots, peppers etc, that goes fine and then comes all the measuring the ingrediants, adding them in mixing them up and I'm finding I don't have everything I need and have to call my mom to ask how the heck do I make chicken broth? Finally everything is in the pot and I turn it on and that's it now I wait for 2hours while it cooks. I sigh glad thats over with and take a look around the kitchen and size up the mess that is waiting for me. There is food everywhere the counters are cluttered with dirty measuring cups and every other cooking item I own and I think to myself was it worth it? All the drama all the mess? Someone better eat this darn soup good or not!!! Well while I'm dealing with the dreaded kitchen the kids are going buck wild in the living room, karate chopping things, tearing up kleenex(joshie), pulling out all the baby wipes(again Joshie), jumping off furniture (all 3) and so on. But now I'm exhausted from cooking, I don't know how people do it everynight. So I reluctantly take control of the wild animals, I mean the children. Pick up the living room and sit down with a cup of coffee and wait. 1hour later I check on the soup, it looks edible and it smells edible, I start to feel hopeful, maybe, just maybe it will be good. 1 hour to go. tictoctictoctictoc ding! dinners ready. I set the table and serve the children. Madelyn and Josh take one look at it see vegetables and decide they're not eating that, but Isaac goes at it with gusto. I love that kid. He scarfs down 3 helpings and tells me its the best soup he's ever had, pats me on the back and says "mom your really getting better at this whole cooking thing". Thats all I needed. That kid is great he tries whatever I make and gives me positive feedback on everything I make. Michael was at school during dinner but had some when he got home and said it was really good. So crockpot cooking was a success! I might even try it agian some time but I might need to hire a zookeeper, I mean babysitter to watch the kids while I focus on dinner:)

I'm sick with the flu whaaa! and now Madelyn, Josh and Michael are sick too and it's only a matter of time before Isaac gets it. I am actually feeling better today then I have been which is good because I need the energy to take care of a house full of sickies. The fevers, the coughing, sore throats, endless snot and sleepless nights oh my!! But life goes on it doesn't get put on hold just because I'm feeling under the wheather now I'm stuck playing catch up and nurse. The laundry has officially taken over the upstairs and there isn't a clean dish in the house. I went out and bought paper plates, I know thats not environmentally correct but oh well. who has time for dishes when they are cleaning snot off faces and cuddling sick kids, not me. Husbands are the worst when they're sick...well at least mine is. He turns into a helpless little child and spends all his time either sleeping or soaking in a hot bath, what a luxury (yes I'm feeling a little resentful at the moment) but he works hard and is our provider so if that's what it takes get him healthy agian so be it. But for a mom there really is no such thing as sick day and if your lucky enough to get one then your not really lucky at all because you must be really sick! ok I'm done ranting glad to get that off my chest:)

In other news we had a great valentines day despite the fact that I was so sick that I thought I might die at any moment, yes I'm exagerating....a little. We booked a hotel for the night for the whole family, I know how romantic we took the kids with us, but remember I'm sick so romance was already out of the question. The hotel had a pool so we spent the evening and the next morning swimming , the kids had a blast and you'd think we took them on a major vacation, they were so excited. We spent time in the evening playing board games, eating pizza and watching movies in our hotel room. It was good family time and I'm really glad we did, though I was exhausted by the time we got home. So now its back to reality, sick kids and a messy house and still I couldn't be happier with the life God has blessed me with.

Remeber you can find joy in all circmustances if you look for it:)

Blue Stripe

Isaac had his first Taekwon do class today and he did so well. He was the only beginner in the class and did his best to follow along. He even earned his first stripe, a blue stripe for his belt by breaking a board with his foot. It was Awesome!!! I'm proud of him and can't wait to watch him gain more and more confidence, learn self discipline, self control and respect through this class. I think it's going to be really good for him:)

Bedtime Battles

Bedtime...that quiet peaceful time of night full of snuggles and bedtime stories.....that is until I turn out the lights.

Most nights are quite peaceful and sweet and I love reading to the kids and snuggling up with them but then there are other such nights like tonight were things don't go quite according to plan.

Madelyn and Joshie share a room and have bunkbeds...Maddie sleeps on the top and little Joshie on the bottom. Madelyn is usually the first to fall asleep and when she does everything else goes smoothly. but on the nights that she doesn't fall asleep that means that Joshie isn't going to sleep either. You see Madelyn is what I like to call a "flip flopper" she flips and flops all over the bed until she's out cold. So I take Josh into my room and snuggle with him and sing him lullabyes unitl his little body relaxes and his eyes start to slowly close and open again...right before he falls asleep I take him into his room and lie him in the bed then tip toe out and I'm free! This is the best way I have found to get them all to bed. Well tonight Madelyn didn't fall asleep first, for some reason or another she was having trouble getting to sleepy town. As I was just getting Joshie to that point of complete relaxation and heading to his room with him Maddie comes running out saying she needs to use the bathroom...jolting Josh to wide awake status. So I patiently wait for her to finish, but it seems to be taking a long time and I grow more and more suspisious that she's milking the time. So I go in and tell her that I know she's done and it's time to get to bed. I tuck her back in and at her request say her prayers with her agian then head back to my room to start the whole routine all over again. Finally I get Josh settled back down and head back to his room where I find Madelyn gleefully throwing her stuffed toys over the side of the bed (and here I thought she had fallen asleep). I quietly tell her to lie down and go to sleep, slip Josh into his bed and then it begins...the long list of reasons why Madelyn can't sleep "my leg is itchy, I'm thirsty, I can't sleep with the music on (the music she listens to go to everynight), and on and on. Finally she gets real serious and says "mom, I need to tell you something" "what is it Madelyn" I ask trying not to sound too exasperated "well my teddy bear ate my good girl brain and that's why I'm not behaving" "oh" I say "well lucky for you I keep an extra good girl brain in my pocket" so I take the imaginary brain out of my pocket and place it on her head. "Mom" she says, "my good girl brain doesn't go in my head it goes in my heart silly" Ahhh....so I place it in her heart and she smiles and goes right to sleep. AMAZING. My daughter understands that goodness comes from the heart and once her heart was in the right place her mind would follow. I love being able to see the world from their eyes, they have taught me in their own ways so many valuable lessons and as I try to teach them to be good people they in turn help me to be a better person.

So I changed the name of my blog to the Arctic Murray Adventures, I didn't really like the super Sunday's title. Today is Saturday and as crazy as this week seemed to be looking back on it now it was pretty uneventful. I signed Isaac up for Taekwon do, he starts next week so now I'm going to be driving back and forth 3days aweek for that on top of the other things we do.. I had to deal with this this past fall when it was basketball season. Now I'm glad that I just ordered a bunch of kids CD's from Amazon...Amazon is Awesome!!! I love being able to shop from the comfort of my own home, it's such a pain in the butt to take 3 kids shopping everytime. Which on thursday I had to make two trips to the grocery store...I've recently started buying in bulk, I don't know why I haven't thought of this before...food goes so fast in my house I' m contantly running out of things and having to make trips to the store multiple times a week... You should see the giant tub of butter I bought, I love it! As I'm writing this my daughter is nagging me for a snack, didn't she just have one? I can't remember. So other than the cries of a "strarving" 4 year old, my house is quiet. Something I'm not used to this early in the day. My oldest son is out with his Aunt on a trip to the museum and my youngest is napping and Madelyn is being entertained by Strawberry Shortcake on tv. I should be using this time to do some much needed house work but here I am procrastinating trying to think of things to write so I can avoid the dreaded sink full of dishes and the laundry that has taken over the house. When everyone is up and home I'm going to be wishing I got those things done when I had the chance. Well now my daughter is insisting there's a spider in the kitchen, though I'm sure its just a crumb but now I must go and play the role of exterminator.

The Super bowl, stinky boys and the energizer bunny

This is my first attempt at blogging so here goes nothing...I chose to call my blogs Super Sunday's since that is the only day that I will have time for an activity like this. I am a stay at home mom of 3 wonderful kids, My oldest son is 10yrs and I have a 4yr year old daughter and a 2yr old son. I also home school my two oldest which despite all its ups and downs and the extra work it has been such a blessing to my family. So today is Super Bowl Sunday and after church that's all that's been on the tv my husband is really into it and the other 2 boys have sporatic interest, my daughter on the other hand thinks that all things "boy" are "stinky" and she wants nothing to do with it. This is a new development that started as we were closing in on her 4th birthday, before that she was very much a tomboy and was down for whatever the boys were doing, but now she has a sudden need to embrace the girl in her and I can't say I mind since this means she wants to spend lots of time with mommy:) We have tea parties, play doll house, paint our nails and go on shopping and coffee (she has a non-coffee beverage I'm not crazy) dates. I'm now thinking of signing us up for a mother-daughter yoga class...sounds like some good bonding time for me and Madelyn and I might get some much needed exercise so we'll see if I can fit that into our never-ending schedule. My youngest, Joshua, is a typical 2yr old boy...he is into everything, and he's like the energizer bunny he just keeps going and going and going....even at bedtime. He's the worlds worst sleeper he has not slept through the night once since birth I keep asking his pediatrician if he has some sort of sleep disorder but she assures me there's nothing medically wrong with him, sure that's good news but what's the problem then, I've tried every sleep method that has ever been used and he seems immune to them. I though after 2 yrs am getting used to the lack of sleep, but now have an extreme addicition to coffee as a result...I guess it could be worse. Isaac my oldest is sweet, gentle, hyper, calm, artistic, spastic and more but his heart is pure gold:) He's is the best big brother his siblings could have ever hoped for. He loves them so much and spends hours entertaining them...he's even helping to potty train little Joshie. He changes diapers (occassionally), wipes faces, kisses their boobos and, hugs them when they're sad...he's like the substitute mommy in the house. Yes I am very very blessed and despite all the chaos of being a mother and a teacher to 3kids I wouldn't trade it for anything. Sometimes I think my home and my heart might burst from all the love in my life.