Kershmulls

We don't watch hardly any television in our home but somewhere along the way, the kids have discovered commercials. Liam calls them "kershmulls". The kids and I just spent several days in Kansas City, Missouri, visiting lots of family. While there, my two oldest ended up watching some cartoons and things since there weren't any other children around, not many toys and it was a little too chilly to be outside for too long. I didn't realize until last night, our first night home, just how influential those little advertisements that adults tend to use for a bathroom break or to get a load of laundry out, can be to young children. We did our usual bedtime routine, involving reading a chapter in a book and praying and then, just before I turned out the light, Alley asked me, "Is this a Tempur-Pedic mattress?" I said "No" and then she said," How am I going to get to sleep?" I told her she would manage somehow and laughed to myself as I went out the door. Hopefully, thoughts of Tempur-Pedic mattresses will soon leave her head as she prepares for her stage debut later this week!

Bedroom Bargain

I have heard it said that your bedroom should be a place that makes you smile, not the extra storage room. So, I am working on making my bedroom a "haven" instead of a dumping ground! It's not that bad really, except for the fact that we don't have any chest of drawers or dressers right now so we are making do with plastic storage totes and a baby cradle! You can imagine how excited that makes me! (More on that later). The other thing that was not quite right was my bedspread.

I bought a new comforter set at Tuesday Morning about 2 months ago and I really liked it. It was several different shades of blue which went well with my carpet, lamp and other accessories. After a few weeks, though, some of the threads started to come undone on some of the decorative areas. I decided that I could not live with that and thankfully, Tuesday Morning has a return policy of 45 days. So, about three weeks ago, I went in there with my receipt and the comforter set carefully repackaged in its original bag and got to exchange it. I ended up getting a cream colored quilt type bedspread instead. I really liked it but it had no shams or pillows and no bed skirt. While I was at the store, I found 3 black throw pillows with cream colored designs on them. So, I knew then that all of my blue accent pieces would no longer look right and I was embarking on a slow journey of redoing my bedroom color scheme! I started looking online for a black bedskirt. My bed is tall and it's hard to find bed skirts that are long enough but I finally found one that would work. I added it to my wishlist and kept wishing I had the money to get it NOW because I was tired of seeing the things I have stored under my bed everytime I walked in my room! The other day I was trying to think of what I could do in the meantime that would look okay and cover up the "underbed area". I decided that a black sheet might work so when I was at Wal-Mart last night, I looked at sheets and they had flat twin sheets in "soot black" for $2.96! I checked the length and it looked like it would work. This morning I tucked the sheet between my mattress and boxspring as far as I could until it was the right length. It looks great! I really don't even know if I will even buy the other bed skirt now. I will probably buy 2 more sheets to do the foot and far side of the bed since I had such good results with this. It may not look as good with any color but with black you can't see the hem or stitching so it just makes it look finished. I love it when I can save that much money and get something I like even better! Plus, I feel really creative and "Proverbs 31-ish" when something turns out that way! Now, time to save for the mirror and lamp shade!

Play Update: Alley was chosen to be a Baby Angel in the play she auditioned for. This means she has no speaking parts but she gets to be on the stage and see what it is like to be in a play so she will know what to expect in the future. She is very excited about this opportunity!

The Natural

Earlier today, Alley asked me what it meant if someone said, "You're a natural." I explained that it meant that a particular thing comes easy to you and you don't have to work at it much. A little while ago, Alley and Liam were out swinging on the swingset and Alley was trying to teach Liam to "pump" so he wouldn't have to be pushed all the time. When I came out a few minutes later, I noticed he was pumping so I told him he was doing a good job. He said it was "fantaskit" and then he said "I'm a natural! It comes easy for me." I agreed with him! I love to hear them using things they have learned, especially when it brings a smile to my face!

Play Update

We went to the call back audition last night. It lasted about an hour and a half. No one is allowed to watch the audition except the other people auditioning so I don't know exactly what happened. Alley did say that he asked her to say a line from the part of one of the fairly main characters. That could be just because it was a short and easy line and he wanted to see how loud she was. We were hoping to find out last night what part she will have but we are still in suspense until Monday evening. Basically, everyone there last night will be in the play but we have to come back Monday night at 6 pm to find out what part and to have the first rehearsal. She is very excited to be picked!

Night and Day

It is an interesting and challenging thing to raise a child who is about as different from you as night is from day. When these children are babies, you do not think about their personality developing in the completely opposite direction of yours but then it does and it takes some getting used to! Alley is a wonderful blessing in my life but we are very different. She has completely different interests and talents than I do and it is sometimes hard to know exactly what is right for her when it seems so foreign to me. There are two main examples of this; first of all, Alley is talented musically. ( She definitely gets this from her father!) She likes to listen to kids cds in the van and then once she knows the songs, she sings along with the singer and she makes her voice sound almost exactly like theirs. She inflects her voice the same way they do, adding in accents and all. She has also recently started piano lessons and except for a few "meltdown moments" during practice, she has picked it up very fast and very well and I am very proud of her. I think it will be cool when she masters a skill I do not even possess!

But the main difference in us is her strong desire to be in a play. She is constantly talking Liam into acting out little parts of stories or movies, or even sections from the Bible or history books. But her real goal is to be on the stage. At 4 years old she said to me (her mother who would NEVER audition for a play even if her life depended on it), "I want to be on the stage with the light shining on me." (Yes, we have a little pride to work on :)Needless to say, these thoughts do not compute in my brain! Over the last few years, we have attended a handful of plays at Theater Bristol. This gave her a specific focus for her goal. Back in March she attended a 3 hour workshop put on by the theater to teach kids more about dancing, singing, and acting. After that she auditioned for Oliver. I took her and waited while she went through a three hour long group audition. Each time they would take a break, she would run out to see me with a huge smile on her face! She did not make it in to Oliver but that made her even more determined to audition again. For months she has looked forward to the Best Christmas Pageant Ever auditions and so we went Monday evening. They called today to ask if she could come tomorrow night for a call back. I don't know what this means exactly but we are going. To me, this would seem like a nightmare but to her, it is a dream come true. She knows she might not get a part or at least she might not get the part she dreams of having, but either way, I am very proud of her! We'll keep you posted. :)