FFF: the thumb bandage

Since we last spoke, lots has gone on in our little household... Maybe that's why I've been so quiet the past few weeks. ;) For now, I'll update on the most recent excitement in Enoch's life -poison ivy.

Over the weekend, the boys played in the back yard and did a little cleaning up of the scrub brush on our yard's perimeter. On Monday, a rash showed up on Enoch's and my hands (I had cleaned off his hands after they were finished playing), which had all the markings of poison ivy. Hugh didn't get any, but he's pretty sure he's not allergic (lucky!!). I applied generous fingernail polish to our rashes, and mine calmed down immediately. We soon learned, however, that Enoch's rash was on his sucking thumb (he sucks it when he falls asleep). His rash remained about the same on his thumb for a few days, but yesterday we noticed the tip of his thumb beginning to harden and the general color intensifying. :/

So this morning I took him to the pediatrician who diagnosed it as contact dermatitis. The poison ivy rash is apparently what started it, but sucking on it for the past week has apparently aggravated it. She gave us a script for some hydrocortisone and recommended that we try covering it so that he can't suck on it (to keep it clean & dry). Unfortunately, she also guessed that it may not go away fully until Enoch stops sucking his thumb completely (or switches thumbs, which is my hope of what may happen if she's right).

Anyway, today after lunch, we attempted to wrap Enoch's thumb. I used some of the stretchy wrap that only sticks to itself (not to skin or hairs) and integrated his wrist into the wrap so that it wouldn't pop off his thumb (hypothetically). Let's just say that Enoch did great during the wrapping process, but that all changed once he learned that the bandage was going to stick around (no pun intended). After a bit of consolation I laid him down for a nap, and although he eventually fell asleep, it was certainly a struggle. The first time that he woke up during a light sleep phase of his nap (he usually has 1-2 of these per long nap), he couldn't comfort himself back to sleep and got really frustrated. Poor guy!

We reapplied a new bandage after his thumb dried out (apparently he still tried sucking on it during the nap), and now he's getting more used to it while he plays. Hopefully he won't have such a struggle tonight with sleeping. If he does, we'll just call it newborn-prep for us and habit-breaking for him. ;)

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10 Tips on Raising Godly Children

Check out this post by Kevin DeYoung's for 10 wise tips on the links between parental authority & raising children.  I enjoyed reading through them, and was convicted most by #5:

Nothing can be more weak and foolish, or more destructive of authority, than when children are noisy and in an ill humor, to give them or promise them something to appease them.

Hugh's favorite was #9:

Many parents are much more ready to tell their children such or such a thing is mean, and not like a gentleman, than to warn them that they will incur the displeasure of their Maker.

Advice for Raising Godly Children, Kevin DeYoung 4/24/13

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Around our House: the tile floor

I am so thankful to have wood floors throughout most of our house!  I love the way the look and the way they feel under my feet (they stay pretty warm in the winter).  In the family room (the room with the fireplace that's open to the kitchen) however, we have tile.  When we first moved in, we had the cleaners come and mop it because before it was the family room it was the partying room (for the college guys living here).  Let's just say that mopping helped the floor a ton!  When we moved in, it looked like this: white tiles and dark grout (see the photo on the right).

The lady who mopped apparently didn't feel a need to pay much attention to the edges though, something that my mama taught me was important when mopping, especially with a floor this dirty.  As you can see in the photo to the left, even after she mopped there was built up gunk in the corners, and the base boards were all in need of a good toothbrush-scrubbing.  (The college boys who lived here had a big hunting dog who I'm sure contributed to some of this room's filth, not to mention that at least one of them dipped a lot and didn't have a good aim...)

Personally, I couldn't handle the dirt all around the edges of the room, especially knowing that Enoch would be playing in here and his balls and toys would inevitably end up all over...  It bothered me immensely.  So I decided to put a little elbow grease into those edges in order to get rid of the grime.

before scrubbing (top) and after scrubbing (bottom)

As soon as I started scrubbing on the base boards though, I discovered a little secret...  in reality, our grout isn't black... it's whitish-gray!!  That's right..  So my small project of cleaning up around the edges ended up becoming scrubbing every square inch of tile and grout by hand with a scrub brush.  yikes!   {especially yikes because our family room is roughly 15' x 18'!}

Unfortunately, having an ever-expanding belly did not help matters since I needed to be squatting down to scrub.  haha!  Let's just say that it took me a few months to tackle this whole thing.  ;)

For those wondering what method I found to be best, I used a medium sized, hard bristled scrub brush and a tooth brush for scrubbing.  {you can also buy grout scrub brushes though, which I might do next time}  For my cleaner, I followed the directions on the back of my OxiClean box and mixed an almost full scoop with a bucket of warm water.  The OxiClean and scrub brush combo worked so easily!  I literally did a few scrubs over the grout with a wet scrub brush, mopped up the dirty water with a rag, scrubbed any stubborn dirt one more time, and then mopped up the remaining water with a rag again.  Last I rinsed with clean, cool water and tried to avoid slipping.  :)

Here's my finished product:  

I'm so glad to have a thoroughly clean floor in Enoch's play space - now the hard part will be keeping the white tile with white grout looking, well, white.   ;)

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A Late FFF/Enoch Live

Sorry for disappearing for a few days!  Friday was a busy day with a drive to and from Meridian and a 2 hour doctor appointment.  Sweet Enoch did a good job hanging out in the stroller during the super long wait, but let's just be honest - 3 hours in a car + 2 hours in a stroller all in one day is a bit much for an 18 month old.  So once we were home and his afternoon nap was over, we went and played outside for quite a while to burn some energy and enjoy the beautiful weather.  {I'm so thankful to already have warm sunshine, singing birds, and green grass!!!}

I caught this cute {and also quite long} video near the end of our play time.  This is what Enoch resorts to after he's tired of picking up sticks and putting them in the pile... playing with them in the dirt!!  :)  In the video he also jabbers a bit and answers "yeah" to a few of my questions (This is one of his newer words, and he usually only uses it in response to questions.  When I give him a command, I will ask "yes ma'am?" to which he is supposed to nod his head if he understands and is ready to obey (he does this in this video, near the end).).

Anyway, I hope you enjoy, and I'm sorry for the tardiness!

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Enoch Live: pickin' up sticks

A few months ago we had some friends come over and cut down a large pecan tree in the back because it was leaning at least 30-40 degrees (the root ball was even beginning to come up).  They did a great job cutting up the tree for firewood (you can see it stacked under our deck in the video below), but as you can imagine, there are still tons of little sticks from when the pecan tree fell.  Add a very weedy backyard to the equation, and I wasn't feeling great about Hugh pushmowing it this week (which it badly needed) since the weeds had covered up all of the sticks, SO we had a mowing crew come over and mow it down for us on Monday.  Once they were done, it looked quite a bit cleaner.  :)

On Monday night when Hugh came home, he got busy picking up the sticks while he could see them so that he'll be ready to mow next time the weeds grow tall again.   Of course Enoch went out and helped him.  It was honestly too cute to not get some footage of it.  Hope you enjoy!

throwing his stick in the pile, just like Daddy

 

picking up sticks

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Around our House: the kitchen

When we first moved into this house, our kitchen was one area that desperately needed help!  You can take a peek at it below (these first few photos were taken while the previous owner (aka: 3 college boys) were still occupying the house).  The main issues were: old stove & dishwasher, very dirty/dinged porcelain sink, unsafe electrical outlets, and dirt.  (The sink was so scratched and dirty that I didn't think it'd ever come clean enough for me to feel comfortable with it; the dishwasher was rusted on the inside racks; the stove only had a few burners that worked and the oven scorched anything you set inside of it.)

I might also add that the small size of the kitchen is slightly undesirable, but we've been making due and have hopes of remodeling it after a few years of saving for that expense.  In reality, having cooked in the kitchen for a few months now, the size isn't as terrible as I expected, as long as only one person is in there at a time.  And one very redeeming factor about the kitchen is that it is open to the family room (to the right of the bar in the picture above), which makes it feel so much roomier!  

dingy and gross or what?

The first issues we addressed were the sink and appliances.  We were able to find great used deals on each needed piece, and ended up spending right around $500 altogether on our stove, dishwasher, sink, and faucet (the faucet was new though).  My stepdad was able to install the sink while he visited in December (also when he worked on the deck), which was such a huge help because it ended up being a bigger job than I expected due to the disposal and older pipes.  We settled on a stainless steel sink because I've found that they age better.  Finding the right faucet was difficult, probably because I was picky, but we finally found one that I really loved (I wanted the high neck on the faucet and only one handle to control the water).  

so much better!!

new appliances ("new" to us anyway)

Then, as I found the appliances, Hugh installed them.  :)  The stove was pretty simple to install (you just plug it in), but about 2.5 months later, the computer in it fried, so then he had to replace the stove's computer (see below).  One thing I love about our new stove is that it has a glass cooktop.  Now I realize that there are some disadvantages to this, but for us it is a huge blessing because we are able to use the stovetop as extra counter space when I'm not cooking on it.  I always hated doing this with a "normal" stove because crumbs and spills inevitably got down under the coils and even under the tray, sometimes, making it super hard to clean!  

The dishwasher was slightly more complex to install, as there's actual wiring and plumbing to do.  After a bit of internet searching though, Hugh had it running in no time.  

In fact, installing the dishwasher convinced Hugh that he could also replace our unsafe electrical outlets!  :)  Technically the outlets weren't unsafe in any kind of general way, but since they were near water, they should've been GFCI outlets (you can read about GFCIs here).  So, we bought 4 GFCIs, and he installed 3 in the kitchen and 1 in the bathroom.  Overall these were pretty simple to install by just following the directions provided in the box; however, Hugh would probably caution anyone replacing them to carefully study the wires in any outlet that has both lines and loads (4 or 5 wires as opposed to 2 or 3) because if you get them mixed up, you have to go back and re-wire.  

stove's computer

When it came time to replace our stove's computer, I was honestly the one who decided that we could do it ourselves because the appliance repairman had sketched out on me.  After some digging on the web, I found a few trusted stores where I could purchase the computer (Appliance Parts Pros or Appliance Parts Experts both seemed reputable) and one that also had a video showing how to replace it (Repair Clinic had the helpful video.. you can click the link to see our stove's video if you want to know how easy it was)!  After watching the video, I was confident that even I could do this.  

Our stove's computer ended up only costing around $70, but some can be quite a bit more expensive, which might affect the decision about whether to replace the computer or the stove.  After it came in the mail, Hugh ended up installing it for me (such a sweet hubby) in less than 15 minutes, and it's been working great ever since!  :)

Here are some action shots of Hugh installing the stove's computer:

And in case you're wondering, we handled the dirt in the kitchen by having a professional cleaning crew come in.  I also re-papered the cabinets and pantry to be sure they'd be clean and fresh.  Now we are pretty much done in the kitchen until we get ready to do the big remodel, which will be quite an undertaking because it includes moving a fusebox from the kitchen out to the garage and replacing all of our fuses with a more standard breaker system.  :)

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FFF: the bee & the phone {videos}

I just wanted to share a few videos of sounds that Enoch learned this week.  The first is mimicking what a bee says.  (There is a bee in the book, though it's hard to see on this recording.  And technically he's been able to make this sound for a month or so, but he just got confident in it yesterday all of the sudden, meaning that he doesn't act shy when he does it anymore.)


The second video is of Enoch showing how to use a phone.  Usually when he points to it I put my hand up to my cheek (like I have a fake phone) and say "ring ring."  Although he isn't mimicking the "ring ring" sounds yet, he does mimic me by putting his hand to his cheek and talking.  :)  I've also caught him doing this with random objects like keys or blocks.  haha!

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32 week photo comparison

Here's a quick comparison shot:

Left: 30 weeks with Enoch

Right: 32 weeks with Karis

Obviously, I was much tanner with Enoch because I was pregnant with him all summer, but other than that (and a different hairstyle), I can't tell much of a difference.  Can you?

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Enoch Live: helping mama in the flowerbed

First, this post is dedicated to my mom, who was always found outside in the springtime, cleaning out flowerbeds and planting new little plants.  Even though I'm not sure how old I was when I first started "helping" her weed and plant, I'm sure I was somewhere close to Enoch's age, and I still love getting my hands dirty in the soil and seeing the fruit of my labor.  Thanks, Mom!   :)

So, this afternoon I decided to get out and tackle the weeds that have just begun to emerge in my front flowerbeds.  Most of them were small, but a few were already making themselves quite at home (like the clover pictured below).  I waited until Enoch's nap was over to get started, knowing that he'd enjoy some time outside... understatement??!??!  :)  Little guy loved soaking up that warm afternoon sunshine, helping with the weeds, playing with the garage door, and watching all of the cars go by on their way home from work.  It was certainly time well spent as we both had fun, and my flowerbeds are weed-free!  Now I just need to do some planting and put some mulch down to try and keep them that way.  ;)

Here are some photos of Enoch helping me in his little muscle shirt...

ready to get to work!

oops!

digging up those roots (and making those muscles stronger!)

pulling the clover to shreds - probably his favorite part

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