These days...

Time is flying by so fast that my lips are chapped and my hair is blown back into a tangled mess like Thing One and Thing Two.

It's so bad that I don't even have time to make my checklists, much less check anything off.

It's so bad that I went to bed last night without washing the dishes -just left them right there in the sink! Even left milk in a sippy cup!!

It's so bad that I skipped my shower this morning because it would save me 10 minutes of my day.

It's so bad that we still haven't watched my favorite show, which is on Mondays - AND IT'S FRIDAY!

It's so bad that there's less than a week till Christmas and I still have half of my Christmas shopping to do! And if you know me, you know it couldn't get much worse than that.

So why am I sitting here blogging, you ask? Well, because once I have time to make a checklist then I can check this off right away. Which will inspire me to start the laundry and vacuum the living room. Which may even lead to a fleeting desire to tackle the bathrooms. Fortunately I will be rescued from that urge by the need to fold said laundry and having sat down to do so, I will be overwhelmed by a new desire - to never get up again IN MY LIFE!

So on to the task at hand!

These days...

Annie is enthralled with Christmas. She's been playing with her manger scene puzzle and our olive wood nativity set. There have been some distressing moments - "MOM! RILEY'S EATING BABY JESUS!!" It's also hard to distinguish between Mary and the shepherds, which doesn't sit well with her. But she figures it out and gets everybody in the right spot. I'm amazed at her. You should hear her read "Olivia Helps with Christmas."

Riley is mildly interested in Christmas. It's not much fun because I won't let him clack the glass Christmas tree balls together. So he's always having to be sneaky about it. Poor kid doesn't understand glitter yet and has no idea how I always know when he's been naughty. He likes to tell me "no touch!" with a very stern grunt and then point to the tree. Speaking of the tree...

Benjy won the annual Big Tree Little Tree Debate this year, keeping his winning streak alive. And he did it with style! I admit, I was a little over-zealous with my stance. I wanted a small tree to sit on top of the corner coffee table so that it would be out of Riley's reach. Benjy countered with "Well, we could put a tree behind the table." Really? You would go so low as to hide half of the tree behind furniture? And how would that help with Riley? Then he would have the perfect hiding spot to be naughty. So now we have a 10 foot tree taking up half of the living room (He would say I'm exaggerating, but I only barely refrained from saying it takes up half of the HOUSE! And the 10 foot part is a verifiable fact. No exclamation point needed.)

I celebrated my 32nd birthday on Monday. Well, actually there was some celebrating on the Saturday before and there will be another party tomorrow. But on the actual day, I had a big gaggle of friends over for a Christmas Cookie Exchange. I've eaten enough fudge this week to fill my caloric quotas for the year. Goodbye eating - I'll see you when I'm 33.

So that's what's going on around here these days. The sippy cup did get washed out this afternoon, but the shower... I think I'll go Christmas shopping instead.

Aunt Reno's

It's very confusing for a 2 year old - we were going to stay with Aunt Ronna who lives in Reno. So it was shortened to "Aunt Reno's", and person and a place all in one.

What a fun trip! The kids did amazingly well in the car - 6 hours each way. We left on Wednesday before Thanksgiving, which was Riley's actual birthday. At first I thought it would be a crumby way to spend a birthday, but the more I thought about it - special snacks, watching as many videos as he wanted, lunch and playtime at McDonald's... not too shabby of a day after all. Especially when we got to Aunt Ronna's and there was a pile of presents for the kids!

Reading their new books with Aunt Ronna

  

"Aunt Reno's" was even better than a hotel. We had 3 bedrooms and a bathroom all to ourselves, use of the jacuzzi bath tub, a pantry stocked full of food, and babysitting! We spent Thanksgiving at Uncle Mike and Aunt Judy's house and had a fabulous feast of turkey AND ham. The next day was an all afternoon tailgate party at Aunt Ronna and Uncle Nate's before the BSU game that night. And that's all we'll say about that.

We headed off for home on Saturday, driving through several small snow-storms, and made it back right before bedtime. Again, the kids did so well in the car - I'm just amazed! So thank you to all of you who must have been praying for us the whole way. It was a very Happy Thanksgiving!

"How big is Riley?"

"Sooooo big!" No seriously, SOOOOO BIG! My little baby is one year old.

The year has flown by! I stuck a Christmas cd in last week and started crying because the last time I listened to it I was holding one-month-old Riley and now here I am chasing a one-year-old around the house.

We celebrated his birthday with a family party the night before. The theme was cars and trucks. I made a dump truck cake which he enjoyed imensely and which landed him in the tub.

  

The only hitch in the evening was that we didn't get around to presents until after 7:00 and if you know Riley, you know that's not good. He thrashed and cried all the way through. So off he went to bed and then Annie and the cousins had a grand ol' time playing with all his fabulous new toys! It really worked out well for all involved. He has since had some time to play with his presents, though not much - Annie isn't too thrilled to have to share them with him. Today she ordered me to "put Riley back in his crib!"

Thankfully, he's pretty good at sharing. He'll hand Annie anything she asks for. And he's a cuddler. And a good sleeper and a cheerful riser. He loves music, and cookies (his first word), and wheels. And me.

Thank you, God, for this amazing little boy!!

Tuesday Playgroup

On Tuesday mornings, I load the kids up and head over to my friend Heather's house for playgroup. It's a 25 minute drive each way, not always enjoyable for Riley who is already working his way towards his morning nap, but so worth it once we get there. Fresh coffee, good food, fascinating conversation (about potty-training and deals on creamer and apples), and somebody else's toys to play with (for the kids, that is).  I put Riley down for a snuggle with the giant Elmo they have in their crib, and then I get to sit down and eat food that has just been served and drink coffee while it is still hot!!

Annie with her friend Kaylyn

The magic doesn't last long. Pretty soon somebody hit somebody and somebody else wet their pants (I won't say who, but I have a whole load of wet undies to wash this morning) and there's parenting to do. But even then, there is the relief of being with others who are in the same boat - you know, the one where you feel like all you do all day is bail water. There are no critical glances, no thinly veiled admonishens, nobody telling me that I dressed my kids wrong for the weather that day. None of us have won the "Mother of the Year Award" yet. (It is out there, right?)

But we get together every week and spur one another on towards love and good deals - I mean deeds. Somebody's passing comment or example becomes our motivation for the week. And there's always a panel of experts to answer pressing questions like "Is it too soon to give a one-year-old a dum-dum in order to get through a Walmart trip?" or "What would you do if, say - purely hypothetically, of course, your child got a bean stuck in her nose this morning and it still hasn't come out?"

I am so thankful for this weekly outing and for the friends who make it what it is. And that the kids are exhausted from playing by the time we get home and take good long naps!

Pirate or Carpenter?

It's not like having a baby. There's not a projected due date, but it could come early or it could be late. Halloween is going to be on October 31st every year. So why did there have to be this mad scramble to decide what to dress up as?! I guess it's just a Beck tradition to wait till the very last minute to come up with Halloween costumes and I need to embrace it. Or at least prepare for it.

Our church hosts a family-friendly Halloween alternative, so I signed us up to help with the Trunk-or-Treat. That meant we needed to decorate the trunk, so I started looking around for ideas. I thought we could be pirates and I could use all my shells and decorations we already had. But I could tell Benjy was less than thrilled. So then I tried to choose a theme and costumes based on what he wouldn't mind dressing up in. We could wear his toolbelts and hardhats and be builders. I could put the candy in a toolbox for the trick-or-treaters. So cute! Again, there was no enthusiasm for the idea - no cheers, no pom-poms, nobody doing the wave.

I asked Benjy for his ideas. He didn't really have any. I gave him an ultimatum. It came and went, still nothing. Sunday afternoon I gave up hope of coordinating costumes and car decorations and decided to decorate the car with leftovers from Annie's farm birthday party. I could go as a farmer.

Costumes for Annie and Riley were ready months in advance. Riley was going to be a lion and I borrowed the scarecrow stuff from Serena for Annie to dress up in. So at least Annie and I would fit in with a theme.

So it's now Sunday afternoon, we need to leave in 20 minutes and Benjy is sleeping. And I'm quietly panicking. But he wakes up, shuffles through our assortment of costumes and props left over from camp days, plays with a few things, and finally throws on his favorite costume of all time (see below) which he really wanted to wear all along, and we make it there in time.

So we were: a lion, a scarecrow, a farmer, and a ... well, you decide.

Another highlight of the Halloween season was going trick-or-treating at Grandma and Grandpa Codr's new place on Friday afternoon. Annie dressed up as a clown for that, thanks to a sweet hand-me-down costume from a friend. She made herself right at home, walking into several strangers rooms and admiring their furniture and decorations. She also made sure to pick 2 pieces of candy at each place, one for her and one for Riley. And then she would try to give each piece to Riley. He was a bit frustrated with me for taking them away, so grandma snuck him a couple pieces.

All in all, it was a fun weekend. I tried taking Annie to a couple of houses to trick-or-treat but she lost interest after the 2nd house. And her favorite thing that she got was a little pack of pretzels. What a clown!

"Can it!"

This was my first year canning all on my own. Up until now I canned peaches with my mother-in-law and grape juice with my grandma. But for various reasons, this fall I was on my own - my first solo attempt at what could quickly become a terrible mess. As if I need more messes around here!

So, after very little preparation, I dove right in. That's my usual M.O. for the unknown. I spend tons of time preparing for the familiar, but when I don't know how to do something I just wing it. So I skimmed over the canning instructions in my Better Homes and Gardens cookbook and then went and picked a bushel and a half of peaches. There would be no way to eat all of those before they went bad (though I made a valiant effort), so now it was can or die, buried under a mountain of peaches

Thankfully, my friend Jenny came over for round one of canning - I say thankfully because we did it during the afternoon and of course, both kids took bad naps and I spent almost the whole time trying to get them back to sleep while Jenny did all the work. It was fantastic.

I learned my lesson and did the rest of the peaches at night after the kids went to bed. So now there are 17 quarts and 9 pints of peaches sitting in the pantry.

Then came the grapes. I am able to get the grapes for free from Benjy's mom and dad, and it has become one of my favorite fall traditions. Normally I pick the grapes, cart them (and all the accompanying spiders and earwigs) to my grandma's house, wash and sort them, and then watch grandma do all the important work of actually steaming and canning the grapes. Oh, and I get a fabulous lunch which she somehow whips up in 15 minutes out of what appears to be thin air. And then grandpa serves at least 3 courses of desserts, just in case I didn't get full.

Well, this year grandma was not able to be up and around and doing all the work for me. So the grapes and spiders and earwigs came to my house, but the fabulous lunch did not. Neither did the 3 courses of desserts, so I had to just make do by eating 3 times as much of the dessert I had on hand. Not the same, let me tell you!

Grapes are a little easier to juice and can than peaches. Hence, I canned over 60 quarts of juice altogether. In one week!

First batch

Steaming the grapes

The final product

It went really well, except for the very last bit of juice. It wasn't quite enough to fill a jar, so I got what I could and then covered it with plastic wrap to drink the next morning. As I was transferring the jar to the fridge, it just slipped out of my hands. I was able to catch the jar before it smashed on the ground, but the juice went cascading down the shelves of the fridge, splattering against the wall and all over the floor. The kitchen was instantly remodeled with gorgeous shades of purple. Unfortunately, all my kitchen towels and rugs are red, white, and blue - not a good match. Of course, this happened right as we were about to walk out the door on a Friday night, heading to drop off the kids at grandma's so we could go on a date. We still got to go on the date, and now I'm a little less uptight about Annie's spills.

It's all done now and I have a full pantry shelf to show for all the work - and if you've seen my pantry, you will be properly impressed.

Traditions

"It's the most wonderful time of the year!"

That's right, I am not ashamed to admit I'm already listening to Christmas music. I used to make myself wait until after Thanksgiving, and then I would feel so disappointed because the Christmas season went by way too fast. So Christmas season now starts in October for me. Oh, who am I kidding! I was already buying Christmas presents in February. But the real feeling of excitement starts with all the fall traditions.

Last week we went to Linder Farm's pumpkin patch. Twice. On the same day. And it was so fun that I think we'll do it that way from now on - go once in the morning and then go back in the evening.

So in the morning, the kids and I went with our friends from the Tuesday morning playgroup we go to. It was a beautifully sunny day and we had the place almost completely to ourselves, thanks to the advice to come after 11:00. We got a mini lesson on growing pumkins, got to pet the ponies, took a hay-ride out to the pumpkin patch to pick a pumpkin, and then the kids got to play in the corn bin and the hay bale maze.

Annie and her best friend (other than me),
Boston

"I'll take this one! You carry it, mom."

Annie and friends, Dora and Kaylyn

On the hayride - Riley LOVED it!!

You might be a redneck if your kid's playpen is a tractor tire.

When it was time to go, Annie almost had a meltdown. Thankfully, I was able to comfort her by saying we were coming back that night. It also didn't hurt that we were going to Grandma Cook's house for naps. Crisis averted.

So back we came that night (after Happy Meals at McDonald's) and this time with daddy and all our "flammy." Annie got to ride the barrel train with cousin Ally and run through the maze with Sierra. She was even brave enough to enjoy the swing merry-go-round this year, although the first 30 seconds were rocky. Riely was content to play in the tractor tires.


Handsome guys!



The corn bin, possibly Annie's favorite.

Once she started to enjoy it.

Annie belted out "The Farmer in the Dell"
at the top of her lungs - poor Ally!

At the end of the hayride.

Annie made it through the whole maze
with the help of her cousins.

It was dark by the time we left, and Annie pointed out the "beautiful red stars" (lights on electricity towers). She then proceeded to sing about 14 jumbled verses of "Away in a Manger." Which put Riley right to sleep.

Now you see it, now you don't...

I had to switch out the kids' clothes last week and I suddenly realized - another summer has vanished into thin air. I see its tracks everywhere - swimsuit tan lines on my daughter's back, my husband's tennis shoes green from mowing the lawn, tomatos and zuchinni piling up on the counter faster than we can eat them... But yesterday morning I put Annie in shorts and flip-flops and set off for the morning in the bright sunshine - and she froze!

What happened?! I can't believe summer is already over! Did July and August even happen this year, or did we just skip straight to October?

So time flies when you're having fun, but apparently it rockets when you're having kids. Which is too bad, because with Annie at 2 and Riley at 10 months, if there was ever a time I could slow things down it would be now.

I guess July did come around this year because I've got pictures to prove it. So here are some highlights from the summer:

Ready for the pool!

Learning to stand on his own at 8 months.

Feeding the giraffes at Zoo Boise (more fun
for mommy than for Annie).

With the cousins.

Weekends at the cabin.

Lunch breaks at the park with Benjy.

At the Canyon County Fair with Grandma Beck.

So now summer is over and it's time for fall. We're off to the pumpkin patch today. In WARM CLOTHES!!

Taking the plunge!

For the person who's never even so much as sent a text message in her life, this seems a little ridiculous. A blog? Really?!?

But I'm sinking deeper and deeper under piles of unrecorded memories that will be lost if I keep waiting until I have time to scrapbook them. Like Annie telling me "I love you so much, mom. You're my best friend ever" every time she's sitting on the potty. Bathroom time must be introspection time for toddlers - the only time they're sitting still.

So a blog it is. And it will work because there will be daily accountability - in the form of my sister hounding me to post.

So Serena, this one is for you!