7 Quick Takes Happy Independence Day!

Okay, the whole post will not be on the 4th of July, but it's close enough to the date and, of course, I never actually posted yesterday, so there you have it.

1. Mr. ADM and I both had the 4th of July off, so we were happy to have a day with our little family. We started with a nice family breakfast of bacon, eggs, pancakes and strawberries. I have not made from-scratch pancakes, gluten-filled and all, in years. So, I grabbed a recipe off of Pinterest that had only ingredients I had in my tiny apartment...and royally FAILED. They started out as little buttery tortillas. I added more flour, added more milk and finally found some organic sugar hiding in my cupboard from the days where I was planning to make water kefir and voila! Not half-bad pancakes. They still weren't your Bisquick-fluffy pancakes, but they at least resembled a pancake. And the kids took great delight in them. I thought about taking a picture, but then thought, "REALLY, does anyone actually want to see a picture of my food?" And so, here you lack a picture of my triumph.

Miriam having a pre-breakfast snack out of Mommy's lunch bag.

2. From there, we headed to do one of my favorite things in all the world. Shopping. The boys both have grown out of their sneakers, so we headed off to buy them new shoes. And let me just say that, I know the selection is better at say, a Foot Locker or something, but wow. Fluorescent, neon, blind-your-eyes, whatever you want to call it. Shoes today are not subtle in any way, shape or form. Or mostly color. Matthew settled on a blue pair (the blue was toned down) with neon green trimmings and shoe laces. And Mark, I forget what we bought him b/c unlike his brother, he actually is really picky. He tried on about 4 different pairs, after completely denying me the privilege of trying on an orange pair (reminded me of Tennessee...go Vols!) because, in his words, they were "girly." What 4 year old says this and where did he learn that phrase? Certainly not from Dad or Mom...or maybe.

3. Potty-training is going to happen. I'm debating between this weekend, when I really don't have the time but may need to make the time and around her 2nd birthday in 3 weeks. Miriam let out a stink bomb while we were shopping (and did not have easy access to our diaper bag). She's ready and that type of thing really makes me ready. Plus, we've only been half cloth-diapering lately, due to our schedules and lack of time and I'm just ready to be done. It'll be cheaper and easier and maybe she'll get her brothers on board to night-train as well. The only yuck factor is the fact that little hands tend to touch toilet seats in public restrooms, no matter how hard you try to keep them away. Gag.

4. From shopping, we headed to a local festival in our area. Mr. ADM treated the kids (and yours truly) to fair food. We ate like all people do at a fair and spent a lot of time in the children's section, watching all kinds of animal shows and one singer. The kids had a blast and Matthew and Miriam met Sonic the Hedgehog. I learned the power of the sun combined with sunglasses combined with my skin that tans in 2.5 seconds added together equals raccoon eyes. Anyone have suggestions on how to get rid of such a thing?

Matthew with Sonic

 5. When we had had enough of the hot sun pelting down on us, and the kids started begging for overpriced ice cream, we decided to jet out of there. My parents, amazingly, had no children celebrating with them except us. Now, to give you a tiny bit of background, for the 1 or 2 people who may read this and don't know me, I have 5 younger siblings. 2 don't live here and 3 live at home. Usually, it's a packed house at my parents'. I love the chaos and seeing everyone and generally, it's not WWIII erupting. However, this year, all my siblings are either still out of town or had plans. So, it was a relatively quiet evening, minus the dogs barking at every single person who dared to pass by (another festival was happening near my parents' house, so that combined with nice weather made for plenty of passers-by). My dad grilled a delicious dinner with sides done via Mom and we brought a watermelon (our first of the season!) that Mr. ADM picked so expertly. He does actually have a method, trained by my father. After dinner we took my parents' dogs and our children for a walk, introduced them to sparklers (Miriam and I watched from a distance), prayed a patriotic Rosary (one Hail Mary per state and patriotic songs in between), and ran over to the nearby school to enjoy the fireworks, where we had to move twice before we were able to see the fireworks without any trees. We had the usual conversation of oohs and aaahs and how the city should chop down all the trees so we could see the fireworks from the convenience of my parents' home (just kidding on the trees).

A bit fuzzy b/c my good camera's battery was dead, but Matthew enjoying the sparkler.

Mark, somewhat enjoying the sparkler, a bit hesitatingly.

6. If you haven't read Simcha's blog post - The Earth Is a Nursery, go read it. Now.

7. Matthew's TSW eczema is still continuing to heal. He had a flare the other day, but not too bad. You can totally tell he's a TSW/RSS (red skin syndrome) kid because he's constantly scratching/picking skin/fidgeting. He got the opportunity to go on stage at the festival and play the maraca while the singer sang a song. Another little girl was up there with him playing the tambourine and while she was standing there just playing, Matthew would play for a couple second, then adjust his shirt aka "pick at this skin underneath," then go back to playing. Someday...

For more great 7 Quick Takes, visit Jen at Conversion Diary!