Gun control

(Background note: Our house is a strict gun control place. We don't even have any squirt guns, though we do have some spray bottles locked in various cabinets.)

After family home evening we were eating some popcorn and fruit smoothies when Kirk happened to notice Edward. Edward had taken a large handful of popcorn and spread it out on the table. Then he was picking up various pieces, wiggling them around, and saying things like, "Bang! I have a blaster. Bang! Watch my light saber." He had a whole popcorn army fighting away on the table. A few moments later Andrew joined in using peanut shells as his weapons and armor (for his fingers).

And speaking of Edward, here are some of his latest efforts at grammar:

"I amn't" as in "I amn't doing it."

"I willn't" as in "I willn't go in Lucy's room."

"be-ed" as in "Andrew be-ed mean to me."

"Hunting for a husband"

The other morning Andrew woke up and told me this:

"If a woman wakes up and doesn't have a husband, then she gets dressed and eats breakfast and goes out to hunt for a husband."

"How does she hunt for a husband?" I asked.

"She gets out a big gun and some bullets and shoots them off. Then her husband will know where to find her."

Inauguration

We all watched the inauguration today in different places: Kirk at work, Andrew at preschool, Eliza, Edward, and Lucy at home. The boys were very impressed with the cannons and the flag blowing in the wind. Andrew was even more thrilled that they "played his song", i.e., The Star Spangled Banner. He asked Kirk, "Did you think about me when they sang that song?" We bought him the Peter Spiers book The Star Spangled Banner for Christmas since he enjoyed the book so much when we would get it at the library; now he thinks that he owns that song. The one annoying thing was that Andrew spent hours of the day after the inauguration chanting "President-elect Obama, Elect Obama, Barak Obama" and so on, in various forms. Anything can get annoying if you repeat it enough. 

Sewing 1.0

After I saved up money for a few months, Kirk bought me a Bernina sewing machine for Christmas. It is the basic model (Activa 220), but seems to be nice. I've sewed all of one pair of pajama bottoms for Edward so far. When you purchase a machine, you also can take a six-session sewing class at the store. I went to the first class last Saturday and found it to be very helpful. Here are a few things that I learned--that weren't in the instruction book which came with the machine: 1. Change your needle after every 4-6 hours of sewing. Obviously, you can estimate how much time you spent actually running the machine. 2. Clean your machine after every 6-8 hours, or about every other needle change, unless you are sewing with fuzzy material. Then you can clean more often. I learned how to take the machine apart and where to put the drop of oil. (You would think that this would be in the instruction book, but it wasn't.) 3. Use high quality thread and throw away your old thread if it breaks easily. European-made thread often uses a longer staple than domestic thread. The cheaper it is, the worse it is. 4. When you put on new thread, don't pull off the old thread through the machine; cut the thread near the spool and pull the cut piece off at the needle. This avoids introducing even more lint into the machine. 5. Don't blow into your machine to clean it out. 6. If you know how to use your accessories and the different feet, it can make your sewing much, much easier. 7. The descriptions of some of the programmed stitches in the book don't make much sense until someone explains them to you. I think my next sewing project is a pair of pajama bottoms for Andrew.

Nice tooth story

Lucy got her first tooth on Monday. It is her bottom right front tooth (I don't know the tooth numbers). She also has a whole inch of hair, so we showed it off in a tiny ponytail on Sunday.

Fun in the snow

As I've mentioned, last week we were having lots of snow. 

The boys enjoy playing in it. I've been making a sled run down our back stairs into the lower garden area. Right now the run is packed ice and very fast. The boys will sled the length of the house. Andrew decided that he didn't need the sled and just flopped down on his tummy to slide. He looked like a blue penguin--and is probably close to the size of several species of penguins. I've even been down the sled run a few times.

Moulting

Last night after his bath, Andrew was intently examining some skin that was peeling off his thumb. Then he declared he was moulting. He drew himself up as tall as he could get and said, "I'm getting bigger and bigger. Then my skin will crack all over and I will pull it off and have new skin underneath." 

Teeth again

OK, here we go back to the teeth saga. Monday morning I called our regular dentist and told him about Edward's tooth changing color over the holiday weekend. He said I should take him to a pediatric dentist. So I called the pediatric dentist and they said I could bring him in that afternoon. For good measure, I also said I wanted them to check Andrew's mouth since his space maintainer retainer was hurting him. The retainer has four false front teeth so he can bite his food and talk better and is connected to his 2-year molars. The first blessing came when we were able to get to the dentist's office safely. It had started snowing and when I made a left turn on the drive to the office, the car began spinning on the ice. Some of the Wisconsin driving lessons must have kicked in (along with divine help) because we avoided a complete spin and an accident. It certainly scared me. The boys thought it was fun. 

Once safely in the dentist's office, the dentist looked at Andrew's mouth and removed his retainer. Andrew has an infection in his gums and will be without his retainer for two weeks while his mouth heals. The dentist took one look at Edward's tooth and said that the tooth was dead and needed to be taken care of. He explained that what they usually do is sort of a mini-root canal or pulpotomy, where they remove the dead nerves and blood vessels from the tooth, but leave the tooth in place. This wasn't unfamiliar to me since both my dentist and a sister had explained this procedure. The pediatric dentist said that it would take about 15 minutes and we could do it right then if we wanted (you want to do it sooner rather than later so the infection doesn't spread to the bone and damage the permanent teeth). I thought for a minute and realized that I had come prepared--for some reason I brought two of Lucy's blankets, one of which had a silky edge that Edward loves, as well as a complete diaper bag. So I told the dentist we would do it right now and that Edward would be fine if I held his hand and he had his blanket. I said a prayer with Edward, Andrew, and Lucy. Then the dentist numbed Edward's tooth and sent us out to watch the movie for a bit. Andrew was happy to play out in the waiting room with all the games. Lucy was happy to get her diaper changed. We came back and the dentist very quickly took care of the tooth. Edward was amazing. According to the dentist, Edward did much better than children much older--and without any sedatives or anything like that. The dentist was also very good--he worked quickly and talked with Edward. The drill was a "train" that was cleaning the tooth. He showed me everything whether or not I really wanted to see it. Finally, the dentist covered the front of the tooth with some type of cement or enamel and we were all done. We were thankful for good medical care, and for listening to promptings so that I was prepared.

The final blessing was that we got home safely in the snowstorm. Originally I think the forecast was for a chance of snow with maybe an inch on the ground. We now have 12 or more of those inches on the ground and it hasn't stopped snowing for the past 32 hours as of this writing. I spent four hours shoveling snow today and barely made a dent in the piles. It takes a long time when I have to toss the snow--or the snow-ice mess from the road--onto piles that are 4 or 5 feet tall. Those living in warm climates are smiling and thankful right now.

New Year Accounting

I've been working on the budget and accounting for the past three days. The first of the year is a bit more work because I have to clean up everything from the previous year and set up the new budget and all the spreadsheets for the new year. It also takes a long time because I only get little bits of time throughout the day to do it. Unlike some people in my family, I've only done extremely strict budgeting for the past 3-1/2 years. A few years ago, one sister pointed out this helpful reference: The Official USDA Food Plans. This gives you an idea of what it costs--on a national average--to feed a family if all your meals and snacks are prepared at home. I still don't have enough money in my budget to allocate what the government recommends in the "Thrifty Plan." However, I know that if I get close to that amount and save the extra money each month, I can then have enough to update our food storage two or three times a year when the local stores have better prices on bulk products or cases of canned items. We also discovered that you can eat quite well on the government's "Thrifty Plan."