Just my luck!

Happy Chinese New Year everyone. At least I think. It supposedly starts January 26, but we chose to celebrate it today (I'm not real savvy on the whole lunar calendar thing). Not that we've ever celebrated it before, but the thought of not having to cook dinner appealed to me, so we got some Chinese take-out, put up a few lanterns and hi-cha, Chinese New Year!!

Don't they look as excited as I am?

Jacob's penguin out of "Qi-Qiao Ban" or "seven clever pieces" or "12 clever pieces after Micah gets done with the scissors"

I figured since we'd celebrated, I'd better look into the holiday a bit more. Apparently, legend has it that the Chinese used to battle at the beginning of the new year with a mythical beast, the Nian, or "year" in chinese. He'd come through and eat everything in it's path until they discovered it's weakness. The color red! A child wearing red scared it away, so they set out red lanterns, fireworks etc to scare it away and it never visited the village again!

So here's how I fared on some of the traditional (according to the ancient Chinese philosopher, Wikipedia) good and bad luck the new year brings:

Good luck

• Opening doors and windows to invite good luck in - We opened doors all day today, some even left open for AMAZING amounts of time!
• Sweets eaten to ensure a "sweet" year - Sweet!!! I never have a problem with this one.
• Clean house top to bottom before the new year comes to ensure good luck for the coming year - Ummm...how long does this have to last? The house looked AWESOME yesterday from 11:00-1:00 (hurried and cleaned it then left the house.) Of course by 2:00 it looked "lived in" again. But I did get it cleaned (you'll just have to take my word for it as Phil does)
• The night before, bathe your self in pomelo leaves to ensure good health for the rest of the year - Yes I had to look up pomelo. It's a citrus fruit like a grapefruit, which I ate 2 days ago - count it!

Bad luck

• Sweeping your floor on the first day is usually forbidden because it sweeps away good luck - yeah, but have they ever eaten rice with 3 boys and chopsticks! Give me a break!
• Washing your hair is considered to wash away your good luck - washed mine twice today because we went swimming.
• Saying words like finished and gone is bad luck - "Is your chicken gone?" "Are you finished with that rice yet?" "I'm finished, I'm going to bed!" hmmmm, ouch!

Well, hopefully that grapefruit from 2 days ago will make up for the rest. May you have better luck than me in the coming year!

For the record...

I don't know about you, but my journal writing has plummeted since I entered the blogging world. I used to be pretty good, but this is so much funner. So...I was thrilled to find a couple of options online for printing my blog so that it can be used as my journal. I think my posterity will learn more about us by reading it than my usual chronological journal entries.

I've found two options. One is Scrapbook Blogger. This option makes it into a scrapbook like book with cutsey pages etc. I was a little frustrated because I couldn't get the pictures to format the way I wanted, but it does look cute. The one I used was Blog2Print. This prints it in a more journal like format, just entry after entry. The formatting isn't always perfect, for example occasionally a date will end up at the bottom of one page with the entry on the next page. It is more like my journal though and I was pleased with the finished product (so was Phil, see below.) Just thought I'd share...

The Potty Train

There's something Divine about the fact that we, as parents, forget. We forget the pains of labor and pregnancy. We forget the sleepless nights. We forget the agony of nursing, sick children and knowing how to decipher those relentless crying sessions. Perhaps it's the fact that we are half asleep for most of those early months, or perhaps it's part of the Grand Design, but looking back you realize what seemed would last forever, is now a distant memory.

You forget, until once again you are faced with the same challenges you experienced so long ago. The ones that seem they will never end...Which is why for the past several months, I have been ignoring all of the subtle clues that Micah was giving me about learning to go potty. The subtle clues like, "Mom, I'm stinky" and (and yes I quote Micah to Phil one day as he was changing him), "Get that stinkin' poop off my bottom!"

I have very loosely tried potty training a few times. Micah will hop on the potty now and then, but I have totally been dreading the whole ordeal. The hours of sitting by the potty, reading stories, the extra underwear and gear it requires for everywhere you go. The charts, bells and whistles! Yet, it has been haunting me as something I need to face up to soon.

So this is the week. My little Micah has been a champ as he's figured out the functions of his little body. I've loved the "What was that?" comments on the toliet and the "I stayed dry all night long...yes!" The boys have had reading charts so we started a potty chart for him. He filled it up pretty quickly and yesterday he and I got to go to ice cream to celebrate! I've been pretty proud of my little man for taking it upon himself since I was entirely too lazy to oblige him. After our "date" we went to the library and of course had to find their bathroom. Whoever came into the other stall got to hear a cute little voice say, "What is she doing?"

We're a long way from being finished, but I must admit it is nice to be back on the potty train. On the way home from ice cream, this song It Won't Be Like This For Long (I think it's the 2nd song on there) came on the radio and I thought it very appropriate. Love you Micah! Way to go.

tall, Tall, TALL!

Unfortunately, in the sun he melted, melted, melted....(yes I am the primary chorister!)

We enjoyed a great winter hike this weekend. It's fun to have the boys old enough to have a bit more endurance.

Four Seasons

I went for a beautiful run this morning. The world was blanketed in fresh fallen snow, the roads were cleared and not many people were up yet. The sun rising over the mountains made the sky just gorgeous. After driving in the snow last week with Phil's white knuckles on the steering wheel, it was nice to have a contrasting peaceful look at the beauty snow brings. It is nice to live in an area that gets four seasons. Though I loved going to the park all winter long in Texas, this is what I grew up with and the winter feels more like winter with snow (those of you who don't have to drive in or shovel snow may now laugh.)

My fingers were too cold to take many pictures, and these don't do it justice, but they'll have to do.
The boys also found great enjoyment this week in the snow. We found some snow caves that a friend had made and the boys played in them for hours. Boys includes Phil. He in his most manly way took on the challenge of building one himself. (I suddenly realized I was not one of them and enjoyed reading a book in the car...fun for all!)