Saturday at Our House

My sister asked recently what we do on a typical Saturday.  I would say only about half our Saturdays are typical.  We have either family events, out of town guests or something for our church about half the time.  During campaigns PD would just have back to back events.

But we have been having more typical Saturdays lately and today was one of them so here goes:

8:30 PKs wake up and watch a Dora video and eat dry cereal.














9:00 PD brings me some coffee and goes out to mow the lawn.

9:15 I get up and make eggs for everyone.  It is kind of opposite around here because PD makes breakfast on weekdays and I make a big breakfast on Saturdays.  By now the kids are outside with PD doing sidewalk chalk while he mows.

10:15 PD comes in and eats, showers and leaves to go to a walk through for a big political event on Monday.   By now I am rubbing a pork shoulder with spices and calling a friend for advice because I realize I do not have the right kind of roasting pan.

11:15 I am just finishing getting the breakfast and pork stuff cleaned up.  I throw in a load of laundry and sit down to finish reading an article I have been trying to finish for three days. Little neighbor girl is now over though and the kids are calling me from the back yard every two minutes for drinks, to reach toys that are hung up in the garage and to watch tricks they are performing on the swing set.

12:00 PKs are hungry.  I make them and the neighbor girl a peanut butter and jelly and chips.  I think my friend Kristina would never serve lunch without cutting up fruit to go with it, but I have already made a lot of food today and I can always make the girls a smoothie later.

12:30 They are done eating and want to play more before we head over to the PGs to see their garage sale and Little Cincinnati Cousin who is in town for the weekend.

1:00  We head to the PGs.  PK2 takes the new scooter that Great PG gave her for her birthday.  We watch the kids play and PK2 rides her scooter up and down the sidewalk like a champ.













1:30 Great Grandma is leaving and when PK2 runs to hug her goodbye she falls and skins both knees.  Everyone is horrified, but PG has Hello Kitty Band Aides and Neosporin.  I find it ironic that it wasn't the Razor scooter that did her in, but the hug.

2:00  We head home and PD is there.  He is pulling weeds.  I join him for a bit but I only like to pull weeds when it is really easy and these were tough ones so I go in and address thank you notes for PK2's birthday gifts and putter around the house a bit.  Soon PD says the ground is too dry to weed and he starts returning e-mails on his laptop.

4:30 We are hungry so we eat the pork I made with corn tortillas, sour cream and lime.  I bought a beautiful bunch of Cilantro to go with it but it didn't smell as good as usual...I looked...and it was parsley.  Darn it.  That is not what I wanted.

5:30 We go to Oakland Nursery to get the lilac bush I was promised for Mother's Day. It was a madhouse and we couldn't get anyone to answer our questions.

We didn't end up buying anything except a cilantro plant:

But we liked looking around and the kids played on this:














6:30 Stopped at DQ.

7:15 Baths for two girls.  PK2 was beyond filthy.

8:00 Books, prayers and bed.

That is as far as we have gotten today. The rest of the night may look a lot like most nights.  Me and PD on separate computers or watching a TV show we taped this week.  I need to make sure we all have something to wear to church tomorrow.  It is our turn to serve in the nursery.

Congratulations if you are not my mom or sister and you read this.

Friday Fashion Fiasco

Every year PD goes to approximately 100 political events.  I try to attend 4 or 5 of said events with him.  This Friday is one of my favorite ones to go to. Some years it is a breeze to find something to wear in my closet. Sometimes I buzz over to Macy's and the perfect thing is waiting for me for $30 bucks.  Sometimes it is a nightmare.

Well, it wouldn't be a good blog post if this one wasn't a nightmare.  I went shopping once by myself this week and once with the PKs.  I know it is normal to just look around and wait to buy something until you find the right thing, but I kept thinking my time was limited and I didn't know what else I would find....SO I bought FOUR, count them FOUR dresses.  (yes, I kept the tags on and receipt)























Things were complicated by the fact that I am going to a wedding in August and was hoping to buy one dress and wear it to both.























But the wedding is a casual beach type wedding and nothing seemed right.  I really liked this one best:























But I think a 34 year old homeschool mom in a strapless dress may be a little desperate.  I liked the red, but it is too fancy for the beach wedding. SOooooooo wait for it.
























I am going to wear these pants I have and a $15 top from Target.  It didn't photograph well, but it looks classy.  I think I just heard college sister have a stroke in Kansas.  Weigh in and tell me your favorite, but I think I am going to go for the pants.  After a glass of wine I will not think about what I have on anyway and I will just enjoy visiting with adults and maybe dancing with PD.

I entered this post at the Hooked on Houses blog party. To see what other people are blogging about go here:

Hooked on Houses

Things to Remember Thursday

I was telling my friend the other day that I was considering not taking the PKs for their yearly well visit to the doctor anymore.  I kept thinking about it and decided that the only reason I was taking them was to see what their growth percentiles are.  (For those of you who don't know, this is a chart the doctor shows you comparing your child's height and weight to other children.)  I am always curious if there is any way the girls will be a little taller than me.

With the kind of health insurance we have, it is money out of our pocket too.  And I hate going in, waiting and trying to keep them from touching whatever the flu infested kid before us touched.

So my friend suggested that I just look up a growth chart online. Genius.  I love the internet.  So here are my findings.

PK1

At 6 years and 5 months:
your child is 39 pounds, and that is
at the 8th percentile for weight.
your child is 44.5 inches, and that is
at the 17th percentile for height.

PK2

At 4 years:

your child is 33 pounds, and that is
at the 32nd percentile for weight.
your child is 41 inches, and that is
at the 75th percentile for height.

So there you have it.  Two little peanuts.  One a little more peanuty than the other. I won't name names.

That is like $300 dollars in the bank!

Memorial Day Weekend 09

Memorial Day 09 from Political family on Vimeo.

Happy Memorial Day

We are feeling blessed beyond measure today.  We have had three days in a row with PD and only one morning was spent on politics.  This is an all time record.  Even the cell phone has been remarkably silent. Today PD got all his girls up early to go hiking here :

I will report back with pictures soon.  And don't forget to scroll down for pics of PK2 turning four.

PK2 turns 4

Saturday PK2 turned 4. We had a fun old fashioned party with all our best friends. (Side note: if you home school, your kids' friends are your friends' kids. It works out GREAT!) 

We did a water relay game. The kids are at that age where they want to do whatever was done at their last party or the last party they went to. So water relay is really making the rounds right now.

We played t-ball, PK2's current obsession. She is pretty good for a little peanut who has only practiced in the backyard. She bats lefty too!

Had I known it was going to be so warm that day, I would have planned more water fun, but it worked out fine to just turn the hose on everyone.

We had a very loose theme of "butterfly." Besides the cake, we gave out butterfly nets as a party favor.

PK2 got some great gifts.  A razor scooter, some really nice learning blocks, a ball picked out by PK1.  Other favorites included water guns from David and a guitar from Kansas Grandma. Check out the look on her face when she opened the guitar.

We are so thankful for little PK2.  So cliché, but it feels like we brought her home from the hospital two years ago, not four!

Quick funny memory from PK2's homecoming: It was so hot the day we brought her home and the air conditioner at our house was broken.  PD called the guy to come fix it and the guy asked if it could wait until after the weekend.  PD looked at me, 2 year old PK1, infant PK2 and his mother-in-law and answered, "No it cannot."

Things to Remember Thursday

One of the reasons I started this blog was so I would not forget what our life was like during these crazy years. I love this stage with the girls so much and the last nine months have been a beautiful time of peace between PD finishing one campaign and starting another.

But I get so busy wiping down the counter, making sure fruits and veggies are consumed daily and getting two girls cleaned up and in bed by eight that I forget to savor the good and funny little parts of our lives.

So I am going to try to start a regular Thursday post where I write down some of the little stuff that is going on with us. You can skip reading it if you want, but I think I will be glad to have the record for our family.

1. PK2 has been looking forward to her birthday for three months. She sometimes stops her playing and says, "everyone BE QUIET..I am trying to think of what kind of cake I want for my birthday!"

2. PK2 just started sleeping in panties instead of diapers at age almost 4, two years later than her sister. But she is also learning to read and write two years before her sister.

3. PK1 loves ancient history. Especially Egyptian culture and Greek Myths. We are reading a kid's version of the Odyssey right now.

4. These will be the last golden days of PD coming home to eat lunch with us. He is going to start working downtown. This is heartbreaking to me as it is the end of an era. I am so afraid of what will happen to me if I only come in contact with a 4 and 6 year old for 10 hours a day. But I am thankful for all the days he was able to eat with us while the girls were little. (When they were babies, I used to try to save the poopie diapers for him!)

5. I am training the girls to help me with chores. They are folding easy stuff from the laundry and they load the stuff onto the conveyor belt at the grocery store. In fact, I didn't take them to the store with me once a few weeks ago and I was like, "crap, I have to load all this stuff myself!"

6. Today the girls and I all bought underwear at Meijer. (Yes, my Victoria Secret days are apparently behind me.) Anyway, I bought the girls one pack of ten panties to split. They are only a couple of pounds different in size. When we got home they lined the panties up on the coffee table and took turns choosing. It was a panties auction.

Run Baby Run

Today I ran my first ever 5K. I am loving my tag that says, "runner."

I am not an athlete AT ALL. I do exercise regularly, but I usually stick to the elliptical machine and a few light weights. My real athlete friend talked me into trying to run a 5K with her this spring and I have been training for maybe ten weeks.

I haven't hated the training as much as I thought I might. Running does give you kind of a cool endorphin rush, but I have fought shin splints a little. I was going to just be happy to run and finish, but my friend kept encouraging me to shave more and more off my time.

I ended up really enjoying the race. I was a little nervous that some unknown factor would crop up, but it didn't. The weather was nice and cool and it was beautiful to run along the river in downtown Columbus.

Our other friend ran with us too. By the way, these have to be the only two people in the world who can make me look tall in a picture.

Here I am coming into the home stretch. I am glad the picture isn't any more close up because I was a hot mess!

The PKs had a lot of fun cheering for me, but wondered why I didn't win and encouraged me to try to win next time. For the record, my goal was to run it in 36 minutes and I did it in 35:15. This was especially good because it turned out to have some uphill, which I had not trained for AT ALL. My athlete friend wanted to do it in 29 minutes and she did it in 28 something. It was a resounding victory for a couple of political moms.

Congrats to College Sister

On Saturday College Sister graduated from college:

She graduated from MY alma mater:

With a degree in Psychology:

I was so proud that she graduated with Honors! PK1 was proud too:

Look at my parents, so happy they got all three daughters through school. They kept saying they looked like the grandparents, but I think they look great!  My mom is beautiful and classy!  (that is where I get it)

I am not sure what I will call College Sister in my blog now.  But I still call my almost four year old, "the baby", so don't look for any sudden changes.