Shannon Yee

I know you must be crazy with worry about what is going on in my head and in my life. Well, do not fret. No terrible calamity has befallen me. I’m simply maintaining the same routine as always which leaves me with very little to say at times…

We are sequestered at home as a bad cold/flu bug creeps through each family member. Plus, it is so cold and snowy that I don’t know why we haven’t relocated to someplace much, much closer to the equator. On a happier note, our home is pretty clean and we have plenty of food and are playing lots of fun games.

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1. Family. I love them all. It’s just not right that there would have so many awesome people in one family and that I am apart of that family. I think I have something like 75 people in the extended family and they are all so much fun!
2. Faith. Who and where would I be without the saving grace that is constantly at work changing me and has given me life?
3. Friends. It boggles my mind to think of all the people that I have called friend and have returned that over the years. I am most thankful for those who still call me friend when I am not a friend.
4. Food. Honestly, I love to eat and create things with food. I cannot think of anything more fun that sharing a delicious meal with friends or family.
5. Games. Playing games is really fun and helps me to be at ease in a group of people when I wouldn’t normally.
6. Home. It’s where the heart is (and also the messy kids and hubby that I love so much!)
7. Computer. I really like to have all sorts of information available for me to learn and get organized, etc. It’s so convenient.
8. Health.
9. Books. So many to read, so little time.
10. Bed. I’m really tired and it’s so comfy…

Sunday we opened up our home to host a Bible study for the first time in a very long time. It’s fun to be able to do this again, but with kids we don’t always get to all the details of cleaning up. I forgot to put the toilet paper back on the holder when Thaddeus left, but I’m sure everyone was able to locate it and they might have noticed something else strange in the bathroom as well.

That’s just how things work when you have curious and fearless little ones. There are very few places that are out of reach of children as the bingo markers near the bathroom ceiling clearly indicate they need to be kept. For now we have three places where we store all kinds of interesting things. You’ll find the scissors and batteries above the kitchen counter, the stapler along with random screws or nails on the top of the book shelf and the bingo markers above the toilet.

For the first time in 5 years, I went to Canada this weekend. The last time was on a fabulous camping trip with a bunch of young couples when I was not even showing in my pregnancy with Eila. This time I went without my wonderful mate. Instead, I traveled with seven children and just three other adults.

We all had a blast visiting the touristy Cliffton Hill and riding the Maid of the Mist, despite TJ’s vociferous complaints about the poncho. I especially enjoyed walking through the gardens and along the river between the falls. My kids loved the waterpark where we spent the better part of two days. If only getting back into the US was as quick and easy as getting back into Canada, I’d be willing to do this trip every year. (Thank God for the DVDs and stale bagels that held the kids over from 5:15-8:30pm!)

Vacation = 2 parents + 3 kids + 11 days + 6 “homes” + 5 museums + 2 weddings + 1 mini-van + ∞ good times.

We traveled across Pennsylvania & New Jersey to Brooklyn then to Philadelphia and Amish country, stopping at Gettysburg continuing on through Maryland, West Virginia, PA, and Ohio. The dancing and eating were nonstop. Sleeping was optional. Laundry piled high. Swimming, playing at parks, riding trains, milking cows, feeding goats, exploring new places were never enough. The flower girl and ring bearer nearly stole the show with their cuteness.

I mostly love having boys, but sometimes the fascination with gross stuff is more than I enjoy. I know that my boys are still really young and this is only the beginning, but today was about my limit of bugs and boogers.

Thaddeus is teething or has a cold or both and has a constant stream of snot that stretches out from anything he touches, including me. You should be thanking me that I decided not to post the picture I considered. I used less than 25 words to describe it to you, imagine what the picture would’ve said…

Very early this morning, as I am getting out of bed, Josiah starts talking: Mom, I just saw a spider ant.
M: Where?
J: Right here, but he went away. He’ll be right back. He just went to get dressed.
M: Ok. (leaving to go to the kitchen)

A few minutes later…
J: He’s dressed. There’s the ant spider!
M: What?
J: Come see. Look!
M: (coming and seeing that it’s a centipede, then grabbing the nearest book and smashing this bug.) Oh!
J: What’s that? Oh, he pooped. That’s him poop.

Later in the day, Josiah and Eila are on the porch letting ants tickle their arms.
They open the door and come running in.
Josiah, proudly announces: An ant went up my nose!
M: What!?!
J: It crawled right up here. (sticking his finger in his nose)
M: Did it come out?
J: Yeah!
M: Good. How did it feel?
J: Tickles. Him was trying to eat all the boogers.

Not too long ago, I cleaned the windows – inside and out. I know, I know, this isn’t really blogworthy info, but I’ve never actually cleaned all the windows before, so this is big news. And, I didn’t even do most of it. I had my kids do it. Well, actually they were begging me to clean them, so I finally gave in.

They sprayed my mixture of white vinegar and water in a dollar store spray bottle all over and mostly rubbed it clean. It only took about 30 minutes and now we’re all set for the next eight years.

Systems of organization used to be my forte, but now I feel like I’m in a perpetual whirlwind of piles and things to do. And yet, I choose not to do most of those things piled up and waiting to be done…

Today, my excuse was that the weather was too nice, so we had to go outside and play. The same will be true tomorrow. We are playing and growing and learning and sometimes doing the other stuff.

I like to think that I’ve changed in some way and matured – choosing to do the important over the urgent, but I still like to control everything and one day I hope that I’ll have it all under control too without doing any of the work…

I talk about sharing a lot during my day. For the most part, we all share pretty well. But, the kids apparently are no good at not sharing.

Eila got a stomach bug last Wednesday and by Sunday afternoon our house was a hazardous waste zone. All five of us were sick and feeling lousy. Unfortunately, Josiah got a nasty cold at the same time so he was coughing and running a fever in addition to his stomach flu. The next day, TJ had a fever and lots of cold symptoms and of course, the following day, Eila joined her brothers with a cold virus. Eila found it very funny to cough on my head. She was cracking herself up until she saw that I was not laughing…