Introducing Middle

Middle's name came out of nowhere. When I was pregnant with her, we did not know what sex she was, so we tried to come up with both boy and girl names and again, just like with Evelyn, we couldn't come up with any boy names. We wanted to continue with the old fashioned names so we racked our brains and the baby name book for ideas. Then one night, out of the blue, Andrew called out "Gretchen!" It was perfect! Then when she was born, it was a match.



Meet Gretchen. She is the singer/ dancer/ ham of the family. Master of funny faces and jokes and cheesy smiles. It's hard to get a photo of her without her squinting her eyes and giving me the biggest smile she can muster, but oh, what a pretty smile it is.


She is going to be 6 in two weeks and she can't wait! She has already put in her order for the menu that day:: pancakes for breakfast; hotdogs and macaroni and cheese for lunch; meatloaf, peas, and mashed potatoes for dinner; and a chocolate cake with strawberry frosting. She is a girl that knows what she likes! She has a very definite sense of style and never fails to surprise me with an outfit she has put together. For awhile there, she never wore matching shoes and rolled her socks down just like Olive Oyl. She likes to wear this shirt with that pants or those pants with that shirt.



Gretchen is a very lively girl that likes familiarity. She doesn't like disruptions to our routine and hates when I leave to go grocery shopping without them. She cries big tears and wails and pleads for me to stay or to take her. I can resist, but Daddy on the other hand... He says it was the tremor in her voice and the tears in her eyes that makes him feel so bad for her and lets her come along. Maybe she just has Daddy wrapped around her finger? ;o)

She recognizes music from the radio on some of the movies we watch and will often take a tune and add new words. It confuses me sometimes, when I recognize the tune but the words are different and I realize she has made the song her own. She is never without music, whether she is singing, humming, or listening to it on the TV or radio. This makes Andrew happy because he loves music just as much.

Sweet Gretchen, our little star.
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It's a Bird, It's a Plane...

It's Super Girl!!!

I couldn't be more pleased with this costume I made for Middle!

And more importantly.. She loves it!

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Such a picky child, she likes things a certain way; like her pancakes being cut but still touching, or me pouring her juice and not Daddy, or this shirt with those pants...

I worried she wouldn't like the costume and then I was gonna have to figure something else out and let Youngest be Super Girl, but she loves it. LOVES it!

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I cannibalized a damaged shirt that had burned sleeves from my Mom's house fire back in Jan., and I saved the shirt because I thought the fabric was nice. I cut along the sides and around the front of the collar, then hemmed the rough edges to make the cape. I planned to save the button and button-hole from the collar, but it was too big, so I overlapped the pointy parts of the collar and put snaps in. The front panels of the shirt had the sleeves trimmed off then sewn together to make a matching skirt. If someone looked closely at the skirt, they would see button holes on the bottom hem! As it is, she zooms around the room whenever she puts it on, so I doubt she would sit still long enough for anyone to notice!

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I had the old blue t-shirt-- it had a logo on the front for a zoo and I made the superman logo from fleece I had lying around and made sure it was big enough to cover the old logo, then sewed it on. Middle was literally breathing down my neck while I was sewing it on the sewing machine and the minute I snipped the last thread, it was whipped out of my hands and on her body! Just look at her smile in the picture above!

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The other costumes are done, with no sewing from me. We pulled together clothing to make a witch outfit for Youngest and already had a witch hat from an old costume that had been ruined; and for a vampire costume for Oldest, I only needed to get the fangs and make-up. When I was going through clothes, I found a lion costume for Baby from my sister, so he'll use that, since the french painter outfit is too big for him.

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Can't wait to get pictures of the whole gang!

Happy Halloween!!

New Old Bed

We moved a lot when I was a kid. Started out in Illinois, then to an RV in Louisiana, a condo and several apartments in Virginia, a house in Maryland, up until I went out on my own.

Living in a RV meant there was no need for furniture, so most of our furnishings were sold or given to my Grandmother to hold for us. 25 years ago, when we gave up the RV and moved to Virginia, my uncle sold us some of his furniture and we picked up pieces here and there. My mom liked to hunt for treasure in the trash and in the dumpsters, and living in apartments was a treasure trove of stuff. Mom found this old bed for me from one of her jaunts. It was painted this awful pale green color but I lived with it, then I moved out and went my own way and Mom kept the bed for herself after my parents separated. She painted it white and it looked so much better than that green that was on there.

Now that Mom's home is officially sold and her things are here, she has given the bed back to me to give to one of my girls. After much thought, I gave the bed to Middle. It seems to fit her the best, though there was much protest from her sisters.

The bed looks great in their room, the white pops against the pink walls and it truly seems like a princess bed as the girls like to call it. It could use a fresh coat of paint, but for now, it's perfect the way it is.

I remember when I slept on it, I would poke the paint out of the tiny holes in the headboard with a toothpick. I never finished and then after Mom painted it white, some of the holes are blocked up again. I told Middle she could finish what I started and she seemed like she would, but only time will tell.

Middle is happy to sleep in her "new" bed and I am happy to see it passed on. To whomever threw it away: You don't know what kind of happiness you tossed, but I'm glad to have it now!

Life in Sentences.

I let the housecleaning slide a little bit, we've been way too busy and I have to pick what's more important:: cranky me cleaning a house or having a little fun with the kids with a crumb-y floor? I chose the crumb-y floor, but then I also chose the cluttered counter tops, dirty dishes in the sink, messy bedrooms and dirty laundry in the hallway.

Why is it when my house is messy, that's when I have strangers come by-- the phone company guy to replace the modem on our computer and carpet people come and install new carpeting in the apartment. I was embarrassed about the mess, and apologized, then kicked a toy under the hutch and picked up a few torn scraps of paper off the floor. I know there's nothing I can do while the guy is standing in the office, waiting for the computer screen to warm-up and all he can see is the mess in the house. sigh... Let that be a lesson to me:: it's OK to let the housework slide, but not too much!

Here's a quick update::

The garden is growing,
the kids are thriving,
the chickens are establishing their pecking order,
the dog is chewing up barbie dolls,
the husband is still working his part-time job,
the baby is soon a year old,
Archie the cat has a tick on his eyelid,
the cars need inspection,
the van needs new tires,
the garage needs a new garage door opener,
Lucy the cat catches and kills voles,
then leaves them near the food bowls,
the pears on the pear tree are the size of walnuts,
the chicken coop still needs finishing touches,
BC the cat still doesn't like the dog,
the mulberries are ripe and ready for picking,
my canning jars are washed and ready,
I'm itchy with bug bites,
we need to have a major yard sale,
I just picked up a sweet sewing basket at someone else's yard sale,
I have more pee-pee sheets to wash,
Baby's rash is better,
Youngest is getting a heat rash,
Oldest just had a growth spurt,
Middle wants a hair cut,
Husband is smelling mighty fine,
my heart goes pitty-pat when I see him,
I finally loaded the photo program,
the printer and the computer are not speaking to each other,
I have 37 missed calls on my videophone,
Husband found 'Papillon' at the used dvd store,
Baby is walking,
no talking yet,
something is munching on my peas,
I forgot the blanket drying on the line outside,
it's after midnight and I am ready for bed,
Good Night.

There is Always One

Middle is the picky eater of the family. Almost every meal is a struggle to get her to eat what is on her plate. I had a particularly hard day with her when she refused to eat all 3 meals that day. I get frustrated when she gets like that and she slouches in her chair, or turns around to look out the window, or slips out of her chair and tries to disappear from the table.

I made spaghetti this night. Usually a winning meal with all the kids, but not this day and not this kid. I pleaded and raised my voice, I tried negotiating and threats, all to no avail. She turned her back to look out the window and so I closed the blinds. Even Baby ate more than she did. All she did was play with the noodles, but not one passed her lips.

Maisie the dog seemed to be telling her that she'd eat her spaghetti if she didn't want it.

I try to be reasonable, I know what foods she loves and what she doesn't care for. We tell all the kids that they are not allowed to say "eww" until they taste it first. If I make something they don't like, they have to eat at least 3 bites. If I know they like it, but won't eat, then they have to eat bites according to their ages-- Middle is 5, she has to eat 5 bites.

I'm aware that sometimes kids go through periods when they don't eat much. They'll eat when they are hungry. I try to have healthy snacks for in between meals and they are not allowed to eat 2 hours before a meal. We usually eat around 6-6:30, so no snacks after 4.

Today, we had cantaloupe for breakfast. Usually devoured by all the kids instantly. Middle sat there, pouting over her plate. I got busy, took the scraps out to the compost pile, checked on the chickens, came back in the house. Middle came to me with tears in her eyes. "I don't want cantaloupe, I want cereal". Fine, I put the cantaloupe in the fridge, gave her cereal. I'm picking my battles. I'm not going to force her to eat something when she is willing to eat something else. It's too early in the morning for a battle of the wills between Middle and I.

Five

My middle child turned 5 yesterday. Middle. She's my second girl, and between two sisters, so Middle is her name here. 5. Seems like yesterday I held her in my arms.

She came out ready to go, didn't waste any time staying inside of belly for a second longer. She still is ready to go, always doing something, dancing, singing, my little movie star.

Middle is 3 here, all her baby pictures are on film and I haven't had the chance to scan any yet. She is also my boo-boo baby-- getting many bumps and scrapes, bruises and scratches. I'm forever putting band-aids and giving "mommy make it better" kisses to Middle.

I love her even when she is misbehaving, when she picks on her little sister and then gets scolded for it, hence the tears above.

She declared to me once, "I don't want to be a mommy like you, I want to be a star!"

I believe it, I really do. She sings beautifully and I have been asked if she takes singing lessons. She carries a tune very well, I've been told, and she sings all the time, while playing with her toys, while looking at books, while just lying there daydreaming.

She asks me to take pictures of her and half of the pictures come out with the cheesiest grin ever! The kind where her eyes are nearly closed and her smile is nothing but teeth.

She is also detailed when she tells a story and reminds me of her papa when we first met and he would include details about every person in the tale which usually meant it took 15 minutes to share a 5-minute tale. Yes, that's what Middle does now and I have to force myself to be still and listen to her rambling story and sometimes encourage her to condense it a bit, but to no avail.

When I asked her if she wanted a round layered cake like I made for Youngest last week, she said no, it wasn't big enough and she wanted to make sure that everyone got a piece of cake, so she wanted me to make it in a larger pan.

Happy Birthday my dear sweet Middle. May you have many many more!