dave & janet horsman ::: keepin’ it real since 1998

Here in Minnesota the Public Heath has a great program called WIC - short for women, infants and children.  They provide vouchers for free food staples like milk, cheese, eggs, ect. for families that fall below a certain income.  Our family gets WIC…and are proud of it.  We Canadians love our social programs!

Anyway, I currently have a stockpile of dried beans, peas and lentils, that have come from WIC over the past couple of years, that I’m not quite sure what to do with.  Lately, I’ve actually been using them to entertain Noah…

This is supposed to be a happy face, drawn by me on the paper with glue, decorated with beans by Noah.  He started out carefully placing one bean at a time on the “drawing,” but then ended up throwing the beans on by the handful instead.   I guess he’s more into abstract art!

So, I was wondering if any of my readers might have some better uses for my dried legumes.  Like, I mean, in the form of recipes…kid friendly recipes.  Anyone? 

 Are you done (having kids)?  Yep…hopefully!

Is Phoebe sleeping through the night yet?  Nope.

So, how is she different from her brothers?  I can’t say that she is very different at all so far.  The only marked difference has been that she wants nothing to do with a bottle; all three boys took a bottle very easily. 

And I’m happy to report that everything feels back to normal around here (and as you’ve noticed, I’m able to blog regularly again…yay!).  Phoebe’s four-and-a-half months old now and, just like her three older siblings did at this age, has settled down into a predictible pattern of two, lovely, three hour daytime naps, and is all smiles and coos in between.  I love this age!       

Meet Police Officer Zeke, and Elijah R. Horsman, President of the United States.  We’ve explained to Elijah more than once that he can’t ever be the President, based on the fact that he wasn’t born here, but I thought I’d let him dream big for today!  Too bad…I think he has a pretty good presidential look, don’t you?  Maybe he could go for Governer of Minnesota.    

Zeke:  I’m Police Officer Zeke, and you are under arrest!

Elijah:  Hey, you can’t arrest me!  I’m the President of the United States!

Zeke:  Oh… Oh yeah, you’re right.

…done!

Oh, the heartbreak!  The maitenance crew came and vacuumed up all our leaves today.  Away they go in those two cruel cylinders.

Boo hoo.

We’ve had some pretty perfect playing-in-the-leaves days this week.  Sixties, sunny, and no mosquitoes to swat at…really, it couldn’t get any better than that. 

It amazes just how long my three boys can stay outside…and the many different ways they find to entertain themselves in a pile of leaves.  Of course there’s the ever popular jumping in the leaves, but there’s also been lots of biking through the leaves… getting buried in the leaves… burying small objects and finding them again in the leaves… throwing the leaves (both in the air and at each other)… making as high a moutain as possible with the leaves…  When you’re a little boy, the possibilities are endless.  I love it.  They come in with roses in their cheeks, leaves in their hair, and with that yummy Fall smell on them.  Mmmm.

Oh yes, oh yes!  At long last, Zeke was finally able to ride the big roller coasters at Valley Fair this weekend! 

As you can see, he just barely squeaked by.  The suspense was incredible as we drove there after lunch this Saturday.  We knew he had grown, as we’d been measuring him on a doorframe at home, but until you get officially measured at the Valley Fair office, you just never know.  Once again, we were the loudest family around as Elijah and Zeke jumped up and down, giggled excitedly, and Elijah shouted, “Zeke measured up!  Zeke measured up!”  Pretty exciting.  He loved each and every roller coaster too, which surprised me.  Some of them are pretty intense!

Zeke rode another kind of roller coaster this weekend as well though, unfortunetly.  The emotional kind.  After his euphoric Saturday, on Sunday morning he was given a hard pill to swallow.  The kids were all given their parts for the Christmas play yesterday morning and, wouldn’t you know it, Elijah got a speaking part and he didn’t.  Oh dear.  Zeke wept…he didn’t just cry, he wept.  Heartwrenching sobs.  It was so sad!  No amount of explaining that “Elijah never had a speaking part when he was five either,” could help. 

“Well, I’m telling them next week that I don’t even want to be in the play!” Zeke declared.  Perfect time for the “those who are faithful in little, will be given much,” talk… which seemed to fall on deaf ears.  Sigh.  I must tell myself that at least some of what I say is getting lodged in those brains of theirs…somewhere…somehow.   I believe this is when prayer becomes a very integral part of parenting…asking the Lord to do what we can’t.  He needs to make Truth come alive in their hearts. 

Oh Lord, let it be so!