Wow what a December - Dad's perspective!

So, what an eventful December thus far and holiday season since Thanksgiving!  We have experienced since then:

- 2 rounds of sickness including Thanksgiving and Christmas holiday weeks/weekends ranging from stomach bugs to RSV and our first (and probably not last!) ER visit leading to an overnight hospital stay.  Jeremiah and Rachel both have infections with RSV ( respiratory synctial virus) and both are recovering well thanks to the prayers from our church community and just the grace of Jesus because His grace is unlimited and doesn't run dry!  Below is a snapshot of Jeremiah on some oxygen with the tubes and a quick video of us waiting to be moved into an overnight room when we were in the ER.

- ran my second 50km (31 mile) trail race on much more friendly and runnable terrain at Huntsville State Park, although colder than than I ever ran a race in the NY area ironically!  Not why we moved to Texas but the 32 degree (Farenheit that is) weather made it easier to run!  Completed in 6hr 32 min, a tortoise pace of 12:37 minutes/mile, but it was an hour faster than running up at Bear Mountain, NY.

- moved a whole bunch of plants from pots/portable containers into the ground, for real!  Our first real attempt at growing anything made up of tomato plants, pepper plants and a lone sweet potato that we had left over and unused!

- washed our cars for the second time in about a year, Joshua and Hannah did a great job with the outsides of the cars!

- continued to experience crazy daily life with 5 little kids 6 and under and the craziness of my job in research.

So this year has been pretty eventful, counting from about October last year:

- said goodbye to 7 years of living in the NY area and good bye to lush green forests and one of my favorite outdoors spots, Bear Mountain, NY

- moved cross country with 4 little kids under the age of 5 in 2 cars towing a u-haul trailer in our minivan that doesn't have working heat.  Those were some cold nights going through Tennessee and Georgia!

- moved into a house!  Renting mind you, but this was a huge shift just to experience a laundry and parking all within 20 feet of each other and not having to walk more than 20 seconds to each as opposed to our quarter mile uphill trek to our cars in NY and our 15-20 min laundry expeditions with our double stroller.

- started first really serious year of homeschooling, Becca has done an amazing job since she does most of it during the days when I'm at work.  The kids have come a long way and within weeks were reading and their handwriting has improved heaps in terms of core basic skills!   Joshua has been digesting the history encyclopedia, Hannah is helping to do pre-school with Abby and when I am home in the evenings, we are making our way through the Periodic Table (brings back memories of my own school) and John Chapter 1.  Up to Potassium, 92 more elements to go and about half way through John 1!  It's good for Becca and I to be committing this stuff to memory, especially the Word, because our brains have all but atrophied since we finished high school and college!

- started a new job here in translational research, interesting and stressfull all at the same time.  The Lord uses it along with marriage and parenting as part of our sanctification process to make us more and more like Jesus Christ!

- started drinking gallons of coffee!  Yes I am a dad of young children and yes I need the caffeine to stay awake!

- started drinking a lot more Gatorade and had my first experience (very very good experience) with Gu Energy Gels for all you endurance sport nutrition fans.

- delivered Rachel unassisted, at least in person, Jesus was with us and we had the midwives on the phone as they were racing to get here.

- my brain is fried right now but there's of course the day to day fun, so I'll leave you with some pictures and videos of one of our trips to the local playground:

God Bless!

Claude for the Chews

On the Mend

Thanks to everyone who was praying!  Jeremiah spent the night in the hospital.  He was on oxygen for the night and sent home with some breathing treatments.  We are glad to have him and Claude back home!

Jeremiah is doing MUCH better!  We haven't seen him smile, heard him talk, or watched him walk around on his own since earlier this week.  This afternoon he mustered enough energy to throw a little tantrum.  We figured he must be on the mend after seeing that.  ;)

Here he is after eating a big lunch and seeing his Christmas presents for the first time.  Such a difference!  Praise the Lord!

Updated: Sick Again

As a parent I have often worried that when the children are sick I may somehow miss the signs and fail to take them to the doctor when they really should go.  So far it's been obvious and only one time was anyone sick enough that they required medical attention.

But this week Jeremiah and Rachel have been sick and we haven't known whether or not they needed to see the pediatrician.  :(  Along with Abby, they've had flu-like symptoms and are generally under the weather.  Abby has gotten over it, but these little guys are struggling - coughing, stuffy/runny nose, labored breathing, lethargic, lack of appetite, etc.  Jeremiah can hardly keep his eyes open.  :(

Joshua said today, "Jeremiah is usually the happiest one here.  I really miss his little smiley face."  And we all agreed that life with the Crew is not the same without this jolly little guy running around.  Claude and I have been getting approximately 100 times the cuddles, though, since Jeremiah does not want to be put down except to sleep in his bed.

We have been waiting out this sickness since they were just coming down with it on Tuesday.  So far there is no improvement.  So, this morning, after a fair amount of deliberation, Claude and I made the call to take Jeremiah and Rachel to the pediatrician.

We decided right in time, too, because in the entire network of clinics that we use there were only two pediatric appointments left for today.  We are talking about a clinic spread across the Houston area that has multiple locations each with several physicians on staff.  It seems that we are not the only crew with sick kids!

Amazingly, the appointments were at the location we usually visit.  Praise the Lord!

Hopefully we will have some answers later today so that these little ones can get back to their energetic selves.  And in the mean time I'll enjoy these cuddle bugs.  I know that once they are healthy I'll get two hugs like this a day and then Jereiah will be off exploring the world with his big brother and sisters.  Rachel, at least, still has several more months of nursing (and immobility) but soon enough she will be up and about, too.

They really do grow up fast!

Updated to Add:  The diagnosis is RSV for Rachel.  No treatment necessary at the moment.  Jeremiah, on the other hand, has pneumonia most likely caused by RSV.  Since we were the last people in the clinic this afternoon, the doctor sent us to Texas Children's ER for observation.  So we did a quick car seat swap and Claude took Jeremiah to the hospital.  I have to say, it's hard not going with them.  However, the pediatric clinic was enough of a wait for the other kids.  They're much happier playing at home.

Merry Christmas!

Grocery Shopping with the Crew

Recently we have been trying our hand (again) with once a month grocery shopping. Our first attempt was while we lived in a one bedroom apartment in the New York City area.  It was a bit too much for us at that time.  After reading about how a few other families execute this type of grocery shopping I talked to Claude and we decided to give it another try.  We are working on modifying it to fit our family.

What do I like about once a month shopping?

Well, ideally it means that we only step into a grocery store a dozen times a year.  This helps us stay on budget and also saves time.  It also requires that we have a plan to make sure all the mouths are fed and our food is not put to waste.  We have been making weekly menus for the past year.  It works, but I was spending a lot of time over the course of a few weeks.  And we were spending more on groceries than I wanted to.

NOTE: Since our post about the cost of feeding our family, we have adjusted our food budget to $600 monthly.  With once a month shopping this is working well.  It was not working well when we were going to the grocery store a couple of times a week.

There are a million and one resources on the web for once a month shopping.  I don't have the time now or a workable system to write about.  If you're curious, just turn to our good friend, Google, and you'll find a host of articles written by all sorts of people who really know what they are doing.  Some of them even have printable grocery lists and samples of their monthly menus.

This is about halfway through a trip to the wholesale club.  It took us 45 minutes in the store and our "train" as the kids called it, drew plenty of attention from other shoppers.  I pushed the stroller and pulled the cart while Joshua helped steer from behind the cart.  It worked out well enough that we'll do it again if we can't go with Claude next time.

The kids and I braved this month's big shopping trips since Claude had his 50K race on the weekend we planned to shop.  We divided it into two days.  One day we went to the wholesale club and the next day we tackled the regular grocery store.  All in all it was successful.  We even made it to and from the store without incident.  Well...kind of...

At least our issues didn't happen in the store.  But I did find myself frantically unloading a van full of kids and groceries while Jeremiah (who had diarrhea in his car seat on the way home) screamed from the bathroom, Abigail had a tantrum right in the front doorway, and Rachel wailed from the confines of her car seat.  Oh, yeah...I also had to clean a car seat cover in the midst of that.  Ugh...

So far the once a month shopping has proven to be a good fit for our family at this stage.  I was able to quickly put together a menu for the month.  I tried to see what was already in our freezer and pantry.  I also am trying to make foods that everyone likes so that we don't have unwanted leftovers hanging around.  No more Pinterest searches for what to make for dinner.  We're sticking with some tried and true favorites.

I've also instituted a little "Leftovers for Lunch" campaign.  So far, so good.  It's made lunch preparation quick and easy (something I need in the middle of our school days) and has enabled us to keep up with eating leftovers before they've sat around long enough that we wonder if they are okay to consume.

And just to set things straight...we do actually go to the store every week.  BUT the list is generally short and we are keeping our wholesale club shopping to just once a pay period.  Each week we buy fresh produce and restock milk as needed.

We also keep our eyes open for sales on meat.  When we find one, we stock up and then use what's on hand in our menu planning (something we've always done).  This weekend Claude found ground beef marked down to $1 per pound.  He got several packages that are now in our freezer.  And when the kids and I went on our big trip we found turkey (leftover from Thanksgiving) on sale for $0.27 per pound.  I estimate that we spent about $30 on meat for this month and much of next month.  Don't you just love it when you score a good deal like that?  :)

Will we do grocery shopping like this forever and ever?  I don't know.  My "I must find the one right and best way to do something and execute it perfectly for the duration of my days" type thinking wants to plan on this system for the rest of our lives.  But I'm learning that what works now may or may not work in the future.  Right now it's working and I'm looking forward to settling into a routine with once a month shopping.  We shall see how long it will work well for us.

Getting Kids Involved in Household Chores

I was asked once, after writing some posts about our schedule, where cleaning fits into the mix.  I was a little embarrassed to say that cleaning was not on the schedule because we didn't have a specific plan of keeping our house clean.

There are daily tasks that Claude and I perform to keep the household up.  Every evening we finish up the dishes and go over the floors after the kids finish their kitchen chores.  We wipe down the counter tops, take out the trash, make sure things are picked up around the house, and Claude faithfully cleans the toilets and any other bathroom surface that needs attention.

In this way we keep up with the basics.  But the truth was that since our third child, keeping up with vacuuming, mopping, dusting, and other chores just wasn't happening.  Life with three children ages 3, 2, and newborn was just too much to put weekly household chores into our schedule.  We did other cleaning on an as needed basis.  And let me tell you that it was certainly needed!

Fast forward a few years and we find ourselves in a new and different life stage.

One day, more out of desperation than anything, I put a vacuum into the hands of Joshua and Hannah.  I gave them a few basic instructions and then let them have some fun "cleaning" the front rooms.  To my surprise they not only enjoyed the work, but they also did a really good job cleaning the floors.

It was then that a new day dawned in our little family.  I knew that now I had some willing and able helpers to keep up with more than the basics.  So, we instituted a set of Friday morning chores.  When we finish our work, we head to the park with our local home school group - the perfect motivation to get all of us through our chores.

Now, I find that our carpets are vacuumed and our kitchen floor is mopped at least once a week.  Because Joshua and Hannah are able to help out with cleaning the floors, doing the laundry, cleaning the windows, taking out the trash, and changing bedding, we can keep up throughout the week even better.

I have purposely waited a few months before posting about this new cleaning system.  I wanted to be sure that it was actually working and that we were able to maintain our Friday chores over a period of time.  Now after about four months, it has become a regular part of our weekly schedule.  With a few exceptions (everyone being sick or pre/postnatal check ups with the midwife) we have been cleaning every Friday morning.

Can I just say that freshly vacuumed and mopped floors are amazing!  I wasn't able to keep up with it for a season.  That required a definite change in my expectations. But I'm glad to be back in a family stage where regular cleaning can actually happen.




Our usual jurisdictions are as follows:

Joshua, 6 years old:
-Boys' Room--change bedding, pick up toys, vacuum
-Front Bathroom--change trash, change towels
-Living Room--pick up toys, vacuum
-Laundry--wash, dry, and put away boys' room bedding

Hannah, 5 years old:
-Girls' Room--change bedding, pick up toys, vacuum
-Master Bathroom--change trash, change towels
-School Room--pick up toys and books, vacuum
-Laundry--wash, dry, and put away girls' room bedding

Abigail, 3 years old:
-Girls' Room--help Hannah change bedding, pick up toys
-Clean slider door
-Mommy's helper

Jeremiah, 1 year old:
-Help Abby clean slider door
-Mommy's helper

Mom, unidentified age :)
-Master Bedroom--pick up, change bedding
-Bathrooms--clean sinks, counters, mirrors, tubs, and toilets, mop
-Kitchen--clean sink, counter, and windowsill, sweep and mop
-Laundry--keep up with loads
-Oversee kids' chores

Sometimes we change it up a bit, like this week when Joshua and Hannah worked together to clean all of the bedrooms, the living room, and the school room.  I took care of the kitchen and bathrooms with some help from Abby and Jeremiah.  I was proud of the kids to see how they are starting to take responsibility for their assigned areas.

It may not be perfect or exactly how I would do things, but they are doing their best work, learning to work together, and are beginning to develop good attitudes about their chores.
 

Friday Funnies: Bugs and Things

We saw this big guy on our back window this week.  He caused quite the excitement among the Crew.  Long after a photo op and some speculation as to what type of bug this was, the kids were still standing at the window watching him.

And, of course, they were reporting all that they saw.  This, of course, wasn't much since the bug was just sitting on the glass occasionally moving a leg or two but not really going anywhere.

After I left the room, though, I heard Joshua call out.

"The bug is depositing some waste on the window!"

The girls were just as excited as Joshua was.

Jeremiah let out a happy shriek.

Apparently a bug going potty on the window is fascinating when you're young and in love with nature documentaries.