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Beyond Christmas

This Christmas break hasn't gone down exactly the way we envisioned.  Weather and illness have kept us pretty low key the last week or so.  Carter takes the prize, celebrating her second birthday with CSV and pneumonia.  Poor girl.  We knew she wasn't well when she refused to eat.  Girl does not miss meals.  Or snacks.  Or food scraps on the floor.  She is recovering, but it's definitely the hardest part of being a parent - seeing your babies sick and miserable. 
   Prior to all the illness, we enjoyed an unprecedented white Christmas.  We were all thoroughly spoiled and felt very blessed.  Our kids were full of gratitude for all they received and never seemed to hit "gift fatigue."  They have been enjoying several new games and toys, but I have to admit, I wasn't sad when they went outside today with a hatchet and pocketknife and spent a large chunk of the afternoon carving fishing poles and spears.  

Our ditch is full of water and they were determined to test their luck fishing. Fischer fashioned a fishing rod out of a sharp stick, yo-yo string, paper clip and power bait.  Sawyer carved a spear out of a fir branch he cut off our discarded Christmas tree...or maybe it was the tree itself, it's hard to tell.  Down we went to the rushing ditch water.  After about five seconds, Fischer started wondering why he wasn't getting any bites.  Sawyer made several attempts with his spear.  They both came up empty, but have plans for a new strategy tomorrow if they can get me to stay out in the cold with them.  We'll see.  It is kind of magical, but it's also cold.  

     

Something else magical, and I'm totally changing subjects, but this was mind blowing - magic erasers!  I kid you not, they are probably cancer sticks, but they are freaking amazing.  Why has it taken me seven years of children to discover these?!  Every baby shower I go to from here on out, I'm gifting the new mom diapers and a box of magic erasers.  Crayon on your wall?  Pencil on your fridge?  Old stickers?  Forget about it, just use a magic eraser.  I made more progress cleaning our walls (fridge, baseboard, and dishwasher) in twenty minutes than I have in two years of scrubbing.  Pretty sure that's worth whatever chemical I just brought into my house.  I think it's freeze dried bleach.  Really.  I'm sure I'm the last one to show up to the game, but now that I'm here, "Put me in, Coach!"  

And apparently this is where I'm at in life: writing about how excited I am by cleaning products.  I wonder if that's what my friends meant when they wrote, "Stay Cool!" in the back of my yearbook?        

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