The Power of Persuasion

My parenting battle these days is sleep.  Actually... if I stop and think about it, sleep has been an ongoing issue for about 7 years...  So, let me rephrase that - I think Silas is starting to give up his afternoon nap and I'm fighting it.  Tooth and nail.

I was chatting with some girlfriends a little while ago about some of our parenting habits that we aren't proud of (i.e. soothers and bottles to help our kids sleep).  And I admitted that I let my 3-year-old son take a Disney Princess sippy-cup with milk to bed every nap-time.  If the princess cup is dirty, I will wash it.  And if he asks for a refill, I will get him one.  And when he screams that he needs to be tucked in for the 3rd time, I go in and quietly do it.  Why?  Because I want him to sleep.  I NEED him to sleep. It is the only time I can do my transcription work uninterrupted.  Or update my blog.  Or just sit and read a book.  It is the key to my sanity.  And I will even stoop to bad parenting strategies to make it happen.

But at night I'm firm that he can't have milk in bed because his teeth are brushed (and I want to make sure he can fall asleep without it) so then I sometimes need other ways to convince him that sleep is what needs to happen next on the agenda.  Since the 3 kids are sharing a room for the foreseeable future, bedtime can be chaotic and I feel like I have to be creative to get them settled - Silas especially.  So I've learned that the power of a good story can work wonders - especially with a 3 year old.  My classic go-to trick is to find the nearest stuffed animal or toy and pretend that it's whispering a secret into my ear.  A secret which I then relay onto Silas.  Usually it goes something like this: "Mr. Froggy is so tired but he's having a hard time falling asleep.  He needs someone to help him, but who??"  This usually brings a smile out of Silas - probably in part because he knows I'm full of it, but also in part because he really likes the idea of helping out his little froggy friend.  Or I might say something like, "Elmo has never slept in your bed before and he's feeling a little nervous.  Could you hold him extra tight?"  And after Elmo is thoroughly tucked in and kissed goodnight I can remind Silas to whisper so that we don't wake Elmo up.

I'm telling you, this has saved many a bedtime and nap in our house.

This tactic can be brought to the dinner table as well (but I have to give credit to an episode of Yo Gabba Gabba that gave me the initial idea - haha).  Giving food a personality is surprisingly effective; "Silas, that first carrot you ate is having a big party in your tummy right now but the other one on your plate is sad because he wants to go to the party too!"  Silas is usually pretty pumped to help carrot #2 get to the tummy party.  Perhaps some might say I'm instilling a sense of guilt into my preschooler if he makes his vegetables sad.  But, in the big scheme of things?  I just want him to eat.

My honest desire is to be the parent that does everything "right"; the parent that disciplines my children appropriately even when it's inconvenient for me; the parent that wouldn't resort to bribery and princess-cups full of milk to get the desired results.  I'd like to be that parent.  And I think I'm working towards that.  But I think most of us agree that sometimes you just have to do what works.

Pass the Platz

With the summer (a.k.a. fruit-bearing season) approaching, we've been mindful to finish using up last summer's pickings that are still living in our freezer.  I still had a big bag full of purple plums from our backyard tree and all I could think about was making them into plum platz (a.k.a. fruit coffee cake - Mennonite style).  I've never made platz before and I expected it to be a complicated recipe for some reason.  But when I found the recipe on Mennonite Girls Can Cook, it was surprisingly easy...

I made a batch for our care group and it was such a hit that they even gave me a round of applause.
Yeah, our care group is cool like that.

And since the recipe was so successful, I decided to make another batch the very next day.

So, if you've got any ripe or frozen fruit around, here's a great way to use it up!

Platz:

Preheat your oven to 350 degrees
Grease a 9x13 pan

In the food processer (or with a pastry blender) combine:
- 1 cup flour
- 1/2 cup sugar
- 1 tsp baking powder
- 1/4 cup butter

(The food processer worked brilliant - way better than using a pastry blender!)

Mix until the mixture is crumbly and then add:

- 1/2 cup milk

- 1 egg

- 1 tsp vanilla

Spread into the prepared pan.

Top with chopped fresh or frozen fruit of your choice.  

I was running low on plums for my second batch so I added in some blueberries.  

(It was good but the pure plum one was better in my opinion :)

Crumb Topping:

- 1 1/2 cups flour

- 1/2 cup of butter, melted

- 1 1/2 cups sugar

Combine to make crumbs and sprinkle over fruit.

(Yeah, there's a reason this stuff is so good... 

butter + sugar = true love 4-ever)

       

Bake in the top 1/3 of your oven for about 30 minutes - until golden brown.

Then amaze your family and friends with a little slice of heaven...

Garden Party

Saturday marked our first annual garden planting day at the farm.

We started with brunch together outside, at which point the day was promising to be beautiful.

Then it was time to get to work.  Erik and the boys took on the task of potato planting.

And Grandma got the girls started with some smaller seeds.

Keziah got right to work putting peas in the dirt.

And Emerson got right to work un-planting many of those peas.

We were able to rescue most, but time will tell how many seeds escaped their rows when things start popping up.

Emerson had a great time anyway, and managed to get herself good and dirty by the end of the morning.

You gotta appreciate the Toews-style carpentry that went into this garden project.  While we planted, Doug was in the shop cutting some pretty solid-looking garden stakes, which Elissa then labeled for all of our rows.

Keziah was pretty proud of her row of sweet corn.  Mmmm.  I can almost taste it already.

And this next picture is mostly for my mom who wanted to know where we ended up planting the garden.  It's just to the south of our shop and double car-port.

I found this picture from a similar vantage point that was taken back in October.  You might remember this post about the old pig barn that used to live here and how we had this area cleared out.

Now the fun part starts as we watch and wait for our little green plants to poke out of the ground!

Morning Stroll

Today was the end of a really busy week.  Busy with plenty of good things - like an out-of-town guest, hosting our care group, attending a baby shower, and helping out friends...  But busy, nonetheless.

Today the sky was clear and the sun was warm, so it was necessary to leave the house work and other tasks calling me from inside and head outdoors.

Silas and I started out with some Moses cuddles.

And then a visit with the calves.  We learned, by the way, that our youngest calf Buttercup is actually a he instead of a she.  So, it turns out that we have 3 males.  

The kids are suggesting that we change Buttercup's name to Kevin.

Then it was time for a little ride down our street.  Silas does circles around me on his Strider bike already.

We made the mandatory stop to throw a few rocks in the creek.

And then we went to visit our horse friends.  They come to the fence when they see us now because they know we'll feed them nice big handfuls of long grass.

The grass is always greener on the other side, apparently.

And we saw our neighborhood kitty friend on the way back.  He was quick to jump off his perch to say hello.

Amidst the busy-ness of the week it's nice to simply stop and smell the flowers...

...even if those flowers are just dandelions :)

Happy weekend!

Two-Wheelin'

Would you believe that all three of our kids have learned to ride on 2 wheels in the same month?

It's true.  

Let's recap:  

- Micah finally let us take off his training wheels for good about a month ago.  

- Silas has completely mastered his 2-wheeled Strider bike since his birthday at the end of March.  

And our newest Toewsie on 2 wheels is little Miss Keziah...

Within a few minutes of her training wheels coming off, she was doing this:

And because Silas is just so darn cute on his little Strider...

So, needless to say, biking has become one of our new favourite things around here!

Table Time

A few months ago, some good friends of ours handed down their train table to us.  Even though we're not really in a place to be accepting large items of furniture with our limited house space, I still felt like it would be a good thing for the kids' bedroom - especially with the storage drawers underneath.

At first I set up the train set which had been sitting unused for months, and sure enough, they had a blast playing with it.  But after a few weeks, it sat there once again, lonely and un-played with.  So, I decided one morning to set up all our Little People sets on the table (which had been gathering dust on our toy shelf for many moons).  As soon as they were on that table, it was like we had brand new toys.  The kids spent several hours playing there once again.

And, right on schedule a week or 2 later, everyone seemed to stop caring about the Little People.  So, yesterday I decided it was time to switch it up again.  All those amazing Playmobil sets were packed away in the closet - totally forgotten.  After I swapped those for the Little People yesterday the kids have been having a hard time tearing themselves away from the table.

So, lesson learned - we definitely have more than enough toys, that's not the issue - but I have to remember that putting old toys in new locations will work wonders for these little imaginative minds.

Paradise

Erik and I went to see Coldplay in Vancouver on Saturday night, which was... a.m.a.z.i.n.g.  Except for the fact that during the opening acts I felt overwhelmed by how LOUD the night was going to be.  

I guess I haven't been to too many concerts.

Thankfully I had some kleenex in the bottom of my purse which I rolled up and stuffed in both ears.  It totally saved the night.  But, it kind of made me feel... old.  And it was a bit awkward when we ran into people between acts and I couldn't hear them and had to reach into my ears to remove the little kleenex balls.  Ah well.  Guess who was laughing when her ears weren't ringing after the night was over...  

Me, that's who.

A highlight of the concert was the super-cool bracelets that we were given when we came through the doors.  They totally added a whole new dimension to the light show.  Very very cool.

We took a video of the song "Paradise" - our kids have already watched it about a dozen times - which shows the full effect of the light-up bracelets, especially towards the end of the clip.  (Unfortunately the video is showing up in "teeny-tiny" mode on blogger and can be viewed in a larger frame HERE.)

New Calves & Other Fun

I'm sorry if you're sick of reading about cows.  I know I would be if I were you.  If I'm being honest here, I have to admit I've taken more pictures of cattle in the last few weeks than I have of my own children.

It's a bit of a problem.

But with that said, I have to post a few more.  We have two new calves since I last posted and now our little herd is complete.  The second two came with very little fanfare - they just kind of popped up overnight.

Calf #1 (Russell) & Calf #2 with their Mamas. Both are males.

Cousin Caleb named Calf #2 "Willy".  Russell and Willy spent some time getting acquainted last week.

Then yesterday morning we woke up to find Calf #3 - a female.  We're thinking of naming her "Buttercup", though this morning Keziah was also considering the name "Mikayla":)

When we're not watching our new baby calves we're busy playing on our yard.  Erik is amazing at going out with the kids almost every day (even after a long day of work) and playing with them - giving me a chance to clean up dinner and just have a few moments of peace!  Some days they play hockey on the street, other days it's crazy daddy-games on the trampoline, but the current favourite has been baseball.  The kids impressed me with their batting skills on Friday night.

Keziah has fun doing sports with the boys, but she can often be found discovering and nurturing creatures that she finds on the yard - snails, caterpillars and ladybugs.

Not to mention the cats, of course.

And even though we have a lot of space on our new yard, we don't really have much for playground equipment.  The other days the kids found a patch of sand on the edge of the driveway and dubbed it "The Sandbox".  I'm thinking with a handy husband like Erik we could probably build something a little bit more legit...

As for me, I'm really enjoying the first spring on our new farm - watching everything coming to life and feeling the warm sunshine after some long rainy months.

Russell

Our little calf is a week old and he is a he.

We named him Russell.

Russell was the name the kids came up with after we brainstormed all the movie characters we could think of. 10 points if you can think of which Disney movie "Russell" comes from before you finish reading this post...

The cows provide constant entertainment for us: watching Russell prancing around the pasture -- running circles around all the bigger cows -- and then stopping for a drink and a quick bath from his Mama. Plus, we are still watching and waiting for 2 more calves to join the herd, so we're always keeping an eye on the other Mamas-to-be.

The little guy let me get close enough to take these pictures the other day -- I think he was just as fascinated with us as we were with him, but he is still obedient to Mama Cow's cautionary "moos" to keep his distance.

That's alright Russell. We will just admire you from afar.

{Now for the answer to the Disney animation skill-testing question. "Russell" is the little boy scout on the movie "Up" who casts away on the balloon-floating house with Mr. Frederickson :) }

The Flu: A True Personality Test

It's interesting for me to observe how sickness can bring out the unique personality traits of my kids and expose how different these three really are from each other.

On Wednesday night Micah started throwing up. As it's happening you can envision ear-piercing screams, flailing body parts and sheer panic at what is happening to him. In between episodes you hear phrases like "I'm NEVER going to stop throwing up!" or "I'm going to DIE!!!"

Keziah woke me up at 4:30 am that same night and calmly told me she had just thrown up. I made her a bed on the floor and equipped her with a bowl to get sick in. For the next day she did not make a peep. She would silently throw up into her bowl (never missing the target, by the way), carry it to the bathroom to clean it up and then climb back into her bed. And later when I helped her a few times, she instructed me, "I usually dump it in the toilet and then rinse it out in the sink." Thanks for the pointers Keziah.

Seriously, she is the easiest sick child. Ever.

Then last night it was Silas' turn to get sick. I heard him yelling at me from his bed at about one in the morning, "M-O-O-M-M-Y!! I'M GONNA FROW UP!!" I figured he was bluffing. For the last few days of watching big brother and sister get the "sick" treatment, he kept trying to tell me how sick he was too. But I got him a puke bowl - just to humour him - and then climbed back into bed. After dozing off I heard more yelling, "M-O-O-M-M-Y!! I FROWED UP!!" Sure enough he had started throwing up and thankfully that puke bowl was handy - because he wasn't finished. That first throw-up is always the biggest. And grossest. And as he watched me rinse out the bowl in the bathroom I couldn't stop gagging.

And what did Silas do?

He laughed.

Thought my gagging was hilarious in the middle of the night.

I could go on to analyze their different reactions and predict what kind of people these kids of mine will grow up to be... But for now it's simply insightful.

And entertaining.

Easter

Easter weekend was sunny and beautiful. The first one that I can remember where we've been able to do our Easter-ish festivities outdoors.

In the days leading up to Easter, we opened the Resurrection Eggs that I made a few years ago. This was a highlight for the kids every day, and Micah and Keziah especially are starting to grasp the Easter story and the significance of Jesus' death and resurrection.

(Micah thought a "cross" pose was appropriate for an Easter picture...)

One afternoon Grandma set up a egg-decorating station in the backyard.



Silas joined the action straight from bike-riding. (And has some eye-liner "whiskers" on his face from playing kitty earlier that day...)



On Sunday after church we hunted for Easter eggs...




Silas sinking his teeth into his big white choc-wat bunny...


Then the kids got to do another Easter egg hunt when their cousins arrived later that afternoon...


Another chocolate bunny?

Score!


Now we have a bit of chocolate overload happening around here. And paska that still needs to be eaten... But it's all good :)

"Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ! In his great mercy he has given us new birth into a living hope through the resurrection of Jesus Christ from the dead"

1 Peter 1:3