Doing the Dance of the Children

We were fortunate enough to have a clear schedule, again this evening. So, a “spread-out” dinner was in order. We set the table, laid the food out and all sat down. We passed the food around and helped make plates for the younger kids.

When Lex got his plate, he looked at his food with a sad face and said, “I really wish we had squash because every night that we don’t have squash, I’m really sad”.

I guess squash will be on the shopping list for the next “big” shopping trip.

Have a good night~

The kids had a 1/2 day of school today and I had planned to run a couple of errands and then spend some Mommy and Me time with Max. But my plans were foiled. The office I needed to do business at was closed for a training seminar and the weather is too dreary to want to venture out with Max.

I took Max aside and explained that we would have to postpone our plans and that I have lots of work waiting for me at home, so I would be spending the afternoon trying to tackle some of it. He took it in stride and said, “That’s ok. I know why you have so much work to do. It’s because you’re Mommy of Many.”

Love that kid!

Have a great day~

I know that dinnertime is important and in this house we don’t always get to have a sit-down dinner. Many nights, I call the kids into the kitchen, make their plates, hand them to them and then they take them to the table to eat and are excused when they’re done. But last night, there was time in our schedule to have, what Gabi calls,”a spread-out dinner”. This means that everything is put into bowls or on plates and the table is set and waiting and we all sit together. I’m so glad we had that time! It meant listening to the kids chatter at me and at each other about their day and to be able to hear some of their ideas. Had we not been sitting down last night, I may never have known what Tristan wanted to be when he grows up…”rich!”. Or that my 3 youngest boys all think it would be a great idea when they grow up, to have homes for the elderly. Tristan’s thought was that there should be a nice place for older people to spend their golden years. Max felt that he should start a town and give all the housing away, for free, to it’s elderly residents. Luke-Xavier felt that he should have a “food house” where all the people come and he goes up on his roof (he made sure to specify that the roof would be flat) in his elevator and gets the food for the people who need it. Gabi chimed in that she would be a model. She says she’ll be a model most of the days, but on some days she’ll build houses-houses where everything is heart-shaped and they’ll be “love houses”. Tristan asked her, “so, they’re for people who are in love?”. She put him in his place by explaining that “love houses” are full of love and are for the old people so that they know we love them…Sweet girl!

We ended dinner with the question, from Gabi, of how the chicken that was being eaten was killed. I had to admit that I really don’t know how chickens are killed and sent to market. I was scolded and told that they are shot…shot, the bullet is then taken out of the them and the hole from the bullet is superglued together so that no one has to see it. Chicken…yum!

I hope we can find time for more “spread-out” dinners soon!

Have a great day~

I’m always looking for ways to make things easier and more efficient. And a couple of the things that I’ve found that helps our mealtimes go smoother is to plan ahead by prepping the food right after I do the grocery shopping and to write out a menu.

I did our “big” grocery shopping a couple days ago. This means shopping for 2 weeks. It takes me about 2 hours in the store and then a few hours once I’m home to unload, put away and prep. Yes, I have the kids help. They are great at getting everything into the house and helping get everything stored. I’ve found that a little time right after we get home goes a long way. If we wash and cut the celery and carrots, then the kids will snack on them. Otherwise they sit in their bags, wilting until I finally have to throw them away. It’s also really nice, when packing lunches, to be able to grab prepped veggies to bag up or to throw them into the crock pot when I’m thinking of dinner at 5 am. I guarantee you I wouldn’t be making a pork roast w/ carrots, first thing in the morn, if I had to wash, peel and cut the carrots right then.

I buy 5 dozen eggs, every 2 weeks. But, when I bring home the new eggs, there are sometimes still eggs left in the fridge. I like to boil them and use 1/2 of what I’ve boiled to make egg salad and leave the other 1/2 for the kids to grab over the next couple of days.

After this last shopping trip I rotated the potatoes by taking what was left of the bag in the fridge, washing and baking them and making twice baked potatoes. Had there been more left in the bag, I would’ve used them for potato salad.

Another meal prep step I take is to make sure that any meat I’ve bought is split and bagged into meal sized portions. There’s nothing worse than taking out an entire package of chicken to defrost when you really only need a few pieces. You can also bag it with it’s marinade. Mr. Yoshida’s chicken that’s been stored in the sauce is a favorite!

Once everything is prepped and stored, I try to get a list in my head of what we’ll be eating over the next 2 weeks. I hate having the afternoon sneak up on me and wondering what I’m going to cook. If I take a few minutes to write down meal ideas, it makes it all a lot easier. Since I’ve been working, my crock pot has been a life saver and having some meal ideas written down makes stumbling into the kitchen at 5 am a better experience!

For the next 2 weeks, the meal ideas I came up with are;

Chili and cornbread
Black beans & rice with kielbasa
Mac-n-cheese
Chicken with salsa & cream soup in the crock pot
Spaghetti
Chicken devon
Carole’s potato casserole
Rolled chicken “enchiladas”
Mexican lasagna
Nachos
Pesto pasta (with or w/o chicken)
Pasta with alfredo & crab
Chicken strips
Twice baked potatoes

Having the list also helps me know what to take out of the freezer for the next day.

Btw-I’m always looking for crock pot recipes. If you have a favorite, please share it!

Have a great day~

A few days ago, I watched a Mommycast Video that really piqued my interest. I love all the work these ladies do, but this topic hit near to home. They did a video entitled The Military Father with special guest, Armin Brott, Author the book The Military Father. He gave some great tips on keeping fathers connected during deployment and touched on the “cycle of deployment”.

This family is no stranger to either. I can honestly say that I have personally watched the cycle play out time and time again in myself and my children. But we always pull through just fine, settle into a routine and move forward. We have been facing deployments since 1992 and back then, the communication available to families was strictly in-port phone calls and snail mail letters. How things have changed! On this deployments, Clay not only uses Skype to keep visually connected with the kids, but he’s been able to purchase a local phone # through Skype and is able to call each of our phones any time he finds a moment. It’s truly amazing the way that technology has changed the ability for military families to stay connected! Dads (and deployed moms) can still be an active part in bedtime routines, discipline and comfort.

Great show, Paige and Gretchen! Thank you for introducing us to Armin Brott!

Have a great day~

~sigh~

Tonight I had to revisit one of the toughest jobs of parenting-Following through with what you’ve said.

Earlier this week, I grounded one of my girls. The terms of the grounding were one week no ipod and no going anywhere, other than to sporting events. The grounding will end next Wednesday. Tonight was the jr. high dance. THIS was a tough one! Yes, the kids that went through this stage of life, before her, had to miss out on things. And yes, they’ve turned out perfectly fine. But it’s SO hard to look them in the face when they’re crying and begging and apologizing and promising to do extra chores and saying that THIS is the ONLY thing that they want and proclaiming how very, very mean you are.

But, the lesson will be lost if we don’t stick to our words. A big breath, a lot of patience and a calm and even tone are required to make it through.

So, I packed up her sister and younger siblings and dropped her sister at the dance. When it was time to go pick up her sister from the dance, she asked if she could go. And the answer was yes. I said she couldn’t go to the dance. I didn’t say she couldn’t ride along on the pick up. So, she was able to accept her punishment and then came along on the pick up and was able to say hello to all of her friends. She got in the car in a good mood and I’m pretty sure she learned the lesson that I will stick to the punishment given.

I hope!

So, lesson #10 in the Learning Lessons Series is to stick to what you say. It’s a tough one, but it’s important!

Good night~

I don’t often blog about work, but this week we came up with a craft that was fun, educational and can easily be done at home.

We have been talking about farms and ranches, the different animals on each and the duties of the people who live and work there. We came up with the idea to have the kids learn about sheep and wool. So we made each child their own wooly sheep to shear.

Then we explained about the process and that they would be shearing their sheep with their hands.

Then we had them collect their “wool” and explained that it gets sent to factories and is made into different things that we use at home. We gave them the choice of making a sweater or a blanket.

It was a fun and easy project that taught them about sheep, wool and some of our household items.

Have a great day~

After several days of heavy rain, the sun came out, shining brightly and begging me to take my kids out of the house for the weekend. It was too chilly to go to the beach, so I decided to take them to visit the Cabrillo National Monument and the tide pools in that area. Day 1 was cut short because one of  the other kids missed a ride they were supposed to get. So we arrived, walked up to the lighthouse, did a quick tour and then left to retrieve the stranded kiddo.

But on Day 2, we packed some food, put on our tennis shoes, grabbed the camera and headed back out. First stop-the Fort Rosecrans National Cemetery.

I can not think of a more beautiful, final resting place! The boys really wanted to spend time walking all through the grounds, but we’re going to save that for another visit. This time we just took a peek and I explained why the cemetery was there.

Then it was onto the tide pools

The 5 youngest Lang kiddos, ready to explore.

After getting a little wet and enjoying the rocks, water and small sea life, we drove up to the lighthouse.

It was a beautiful day to be up there!

Yes, many household chores went undone this weekend and I couldn’t be happier about it!

Have a great day~

Really, little dog? Really?! I’m not that terrible!

~sigh~

Have a great day~

I have a dog. Well, at least I think I have a dog. I buy dog food and dog treats. I remember having to bomb my house for fleas this summer. There are dog leashes in my cupboard. Every morning Tristan goes outside and puts dog food in one bowl and fresh water in the other bowl. Each afternoon he walks the yard making sure it’s clean of anything the dog may have left behind. But where the heck is the dog?

She simply won’t stay in the yard. It all started with her digging under and breaking through the side gate. Once the hole was filled in, she started digging under the fence between us and one of the neighbors’ yards. THEN, she figured out that by going through the neighbor’s yard, she could wiggle out of their fence, where a slat is missing. So now, she comes to wake me in the middle of the night to let her out and when I go to let her back in…no dog!

And just where does this houdini dog go? She runs several streets up to our friend’s house. She used to live there and apparently is still pining for her former owner. When he was ill, a couple years ago, we agreed that it was best if we took her. She feels differently!

Well Sneaky Dog, guess what?! I have a few tricks up my sleeve too! Yesterday I had the neighbor’s missing slat replaced. Judging from this morning when you were sitting at the back door, wet and muddy from climbing under the fence…and then back again, I think you’ve discovered that 2 can play at this game. Let’s see how long the fixed fence keeps her home.

Have a great day~

Luke-Xavier was asking me about when I would die. I explained that we don’t know when anyone will die, but that we all, do in-fact, die. I told him it’s all part of the steps of our life-we’re born, we live and we die. He was concerned about being dead and never seeing anyone. I told him that we have a soul inside of us that lives forever and that if we are good, kind and loving that we get to live in Heaven and see all the people we miss and explained that God is in Heaven waiting for us.

He thought for a second then looked at me very seriously and said, “Then I will be naughty so I don’t go anywhere. I just want to keep living and stay here.”

I can see that this is going to take a little more explaining. Until he gets it…watch out!

Good night~

Max-”Mooooooom!!! Luke-Xavier peed in our bedroom!”

Me-”Ok, I’m coming”

I got to the bedroom and couldn’t find Luke-Xavier or the pee spot. I called him a few times but got no answer. Then I heard rustling…

…coming from the laundry basket

I stood over the basket and called again (ok, first I ran and got the camera)

The little imp was hiding in the laundry basket because he had climbed under his bed and peed on the floor and was afraid of his punishment.

Great…just what I wanted to do, climb under bunk beds and clean the rug. He’s lucky he has such an impish grin.

Have a great day~

Yesterday, Arianna had her 2nd soccer game. She’s playing on her school’s team and it’s the 1st time she’s ever played. The whistle blew & it was time to start the game. But several girls started yelling, “we didn’t pray!” Everyone waited while all the girls gathered together and prayed an Our Father. Then the game started and the girls played with passion and skill.

It’s those little moments. Those reminders that the kids are in an environment where they remember, on their own, to include God in their daily activities that reminds me why we make the sacrifices we do, to keep them there.

Have a great day~

United Through Reading is a program that believes in uniting families through reading. They have a military program that is offered through the USO at selected USO sites. A service members can stop into the USO and pick a book for each of their children and then make a video of themselves reading the book or books.

Yesterday, we received 2 packages at our doorstep. They were each filled with books and Beanie Babies (not sure if the Beanie Babies are part of the program or just a fun addition). There were 9 books inside, one for each of the kids (Kateri and JJ, I will send yours along). They were accompanied by a DVD of Clay reading some of the books and talking to the kids. They loved it! The 4 youngest sat down and watched the video. They followed along with their books as Clay read. Maddi took her book, retreated to her room and came out an hour later, declaring that she’d finished it and proceeded to tell me the whole story.

When Clay first left on this deployment, he made a video of himself reading one book and the video and book were sent to us. But the DVD was very small and I couldn’t get any of our players to read it. This new one is regular sized and played right on my computer. Everyone was happy to get the replacement!

Lex with Chicka Chicka Boom Boom (it was read SEVERAL times last night)

Gabi, Max and Tristan with their new books

Gathered around the computer to watch and listen to their stories

Clay reading Love You Forever to the kiddos

Happy faces

Thanks USO for making this program available. And thank you to the DFW International Airport Community which helped make our video possible and all the generous, everyday Americans who help to support this program and make it possible for so many!

Have a great day~

Over the last week there’s been an outbreak of lice in my children’s school. Two of my kids have had children in their classrooms with confirmed cases. The thought of lice always makes me crazy because of the magnitude of what it means in my house.

Over my 20 years of motherhood, I’ve had to delouse my children and house on 2 occasions. The many hours of hair treatments, bagging up stuffed animals, washing laundry for days on end (which is ALREADY the norm here, so now imagine the added laundry that comes with lice!) made me HATE lice with a passion and work hard to prevent it by hammering into my kids heads that they absolutely CAN NOT share hair items or scarves etc. It’s been about 6 years since we’ve had to deal with it, so I guess my rules have worked.

However, now that I’m also in the environment with the kids, I’m getting panicky. After much thought and checking the kids’ heads several times, my new advice is this;

Play only with hairless, naked children!

Have a great day~