Consequently, I wasn’t generally a really late sleeper in college, save those nights when I didn’t make it in until the wee hours. Then, sleeping until noon happened for sure. (Kids, if you’re by chance reading this: if I was up until the wee hours, it was because I was studying at the library. Not drinking at The Library. Promise.)

When Matt and I were newly married, and up through the time we had Luke, I don’t really remember spending too many Saturdays asleep until much later than 9, much to Matt’s chagrin. That man could sleep for days, I think. I’m just the kind of person who has things to do, and too much sleeping makes me start to feel guilty.

Of course, all of that changes when a baby enters the picture.

Sleeping until 9am, unless you’ve spent many of the dark hours awake, is unheard of.

And then that newborn develops a routine of some sort, and then you have another baby, and endure mind-numbing sleep deprivation again, only to move into the “we’re slightly less sleep-deprived, but still too exhausted to adequately describe” phase, and then you have another baby, and think you may die of tired as you rock and feed that baby in the middle of the night, only to have to deal with his brothers who are up with or before the sun each day. And then that baby gets on a normal schedule, so that you can at least generally predict that someone will be up by 6am and beg for attention to some manner of bodily function or food intake need.

However.

The time does come, some years down the road, when you roll over and look at the clock on a Saturday morning and the first number is an 8, and you can scarcely believe what you’re seeing.

We aren’t to the stage where our kids really enjoy sleeping in yet; rather, the two older boys are still usually up by 7 or so, and they head downstairs to read or play quietly. Jack Henry still comes in our room, and he sometimes climbs in bed with us and turns on the TV for a bit, or he’ll join his brothers and they all play nicely for a while.

And Matt and I don’t get out of bed until 8. IT. IS. GLORIOUS. It practically feels like I’m sleeping until noon.

Karen and I were talking last week, and we’ve decided we’ve earned this. Oh yes, we have. Spacing our kids like we did meant that no one ever totally got out of the wakeful toddler stage before there was another baby in the house to throw off the sleep schedule yet again. And on and on for a total of about 9 years, at which point they’re finally able to get up and and take care of themselves for a short time without any major catastrophes (and sometimes, when we’re really lucky, Luke even makes the other boys breakfast).

Just one amazing perk to surviving the first several years, I guess.

Many have joked with me (and I know they’re joking, I do have a sense of humor) about “stealing” ideas from the 12 dates in ’12 to use with their own spouses. Go ahead…”steal” away That’s just idea-sharing, and those ideas are free for the taking. Like Pinterest is idea-sharing. I recently saw someone describing it as a place that people steal other peoples’ ideas. Clearly, that is a person who doesn’t get Pinterest.

That’s not what I’m referring to here today, though. I’m talking about 2 other issues that have been nagging at me recently.

1. This should be a no-brainer, but taking blog content and using it as your own is uncool. The unwritten ethics of blogging indicate that if you want to blog about something using someone else’s words or idea, you link back to their blog post with a note like, “I saw this on Nicole’s blog, and wanted to write about…blah blah blah.” That simple. I certainly realize that I am not the originator of all ideas on the internet, and that there will without a doubt be overlap of ideas, but sometimes, it really seems that is not the case.

2. You all know I LOVE etsy. Not only my little corner of it, but all the rest, too. There are so many fun and creative ideas to pick from. And, etsy is a great place for inspiration for your own projects if you’re a crafty person, too. I really think that’s fine, and have told people that when asked…heck, I see ideas on there that I can replicate and make them all the time.

HOWEVER. I don’t then sell them in my shop. That would be wrong. If you are a seller and find inspiration somewhere on etsy and make really, really significant changes to the idea, as in it no longer actually looks like the original idea, I think you’re ok…if you’re just replicating what you’ve found in another shop and selling it yourself, that’s not ok. (Please note that I’m not talking about my headbands here…8 million sellers on etsy sell similar headbands.)

Also not cool is finding an idea on etsy and then, if you are a crafty person, providing step-by-step instructions on your own blog about how to make what I’m selling. To those people, who I am sure aren’t reading this blog: I know who you are because people click over to my etsy site from yours, leading me right back to where you ripped off my idea.

Well, now, that was pleasant, wasn’t it? Sorry to be cranky.

I’m done now. The sun is shining, hallelujah, and Jack Henry and I have a million things to accomplish today, and now that I’ve gotten this off my chest, I think I can do so with a smile on my face.

Date 1 was the one I scrambled to come up with right before Christmas, as I had four other good dates lined up but I didn’t want to move any of them to January. I messaged a friend and totally ripped off borrowed an idea. Thanks, K!

Friday afternoon, an icy rain started to fall around 3:15. I’d planned to bring the kids to my brother and sister-in-law’s house around 5:00, which was looking like it was not going to be a great idea given the impending precipitation. So when my SIL Michon called around 3:00 and offered to pick the kids up on her way home from work, I was elated! They were totally looking forward to their time over there with their aunt, uncle and cousins (seriously, it was been talked about for an entire week, prayed about so that no one would get sick and postpone this, etc). It was really nice to kick this whole 12 in ’12 off with them getting to do something really fun, too.*

For our first date, I bought 2 old movies that we used to watch repeatedly in college: Billy Madison and Dumb and Dumber (please don’t judge).

I got them on half.com from one seller (plus he was also selling Office Space, so I bought that, too), which makes shipping cheaper, and since these aren’t movies that I could just get at Redbox, it was cheaper to buy than rent somewhere ($9.72 for these 3 cinema classics, and we now own them…I know, right? Amazing.). We got carryout from California Pizza Kitchen, and had a roaring fire in the fireplace, a couple of drinks, and sat on the couch for hours watching these movies that totally took us back to 1995, and a little apartment on Clark Street in Urbana, where we first watched these movies over and over again.

It was so fun. And wow, those movies are both so dumb, but hilarious. Even after not seeing either of them for 10 years or so, Matt and I were repeatedly saying the next line in the movie before it came on.

Plus, it is really nice to wake up in the morning when you feel like waking up (8:45!), instead of when a certain 4-year-old decides it’s time by telling you he needs to pee and blow his nose (and he apparently wants an audience first thing in the morning).

Also, luckily, the freezing rain was short-lived and didn’t interfere with our plans, and the nasty cold I got about 8 hours after picking up the kids didn’t wreck our date.

So there you have it: date 1, in the books! Can’t wait for date 2.

*I know some people are including their kids on their dates, and if that’s what works for you, then go for it! However, for us, the focus is on making time for the two of us, so the kids will not be doing any of the 12 dates with us. There will be times I’m trading for childcare, like this date (when Ava sleeps 7-8 hours a night, I told Zach and Michon that they’re welcome to bring me their kids for the night ), and other times when I pay a sitter so that we can have our date night.

*I don’t know why I wait until I’m miserable with sinus pain/pressure to do this, but that Netipot-type squeezy-bottle-thing works wonders. For real. I can breathe through my nose for a few hours after using it. Magic, and totally worth the pain of me doing it kinda wrong, but apparently right enough to get some relief.

*WHY do I wait 6 months to edit and upload pictures to Shutterfly? Why do I do this to myself? Ugh. It’s totally worth the effort…the boys love looking through our albums, and so do I. I just wish I didn’t let so much time elapse between working on them.

*The 4 y.o. REQUESTED a 6:15pm bedtime on Saturday night, after being worn out from his sleepover the night before (more on that in the next post).

*An exciting Pinterest update: I’ve added a “recipes I’ve tried” board to my wall, and switched the other to “recipes I’d like to try.” A couple of people I know have already done this, and I would LOVE to see other people do this, too, so I know what people I know have tried and liked.

*Try to contain your joy over this family development, but Matt and I have started sharing a Google calendar, and it’s kinda life-changing. We both enter our events in the calendar, so the old back-and-forth emailing of the schedules has stopped. AND, for added fun, we have been creatively editing each others’ entries into the calendar, so when I get a pop-up reminder on my phone for an event, it often says something funny. Matt – I promise to never edit your entries so much that you don’t know where you’re supposed to be and when.

*Old episodes of “The Office” with Michael Scott are so dang funny. So funny. I want to own every season now.

*Looking for a way to help others? My boys are doing Hoops for Heart (instead of Jump Rope for Heart) on February 3, and they’re collecting donations online. CLICK HERE to go to their site (yes, it just says Bennett…we’re pooling donations under his name because it’s just easier to have one). Help us reach our goal!

*And here’s another easy way to help someone out: my friend Jill at Hagler Happenings is collecting money (small donations via Paypal) to buy a mom who was recently diagnosed with a brain tumor some gas cards to help her get to and from her treatments.

Ok. More tomorrow on our first 12 in ’12 date (which, thankfully, predated my cold by about 12 hours)!

Prior to the firestorm that came up last fall, had Paterno died at the end of this season, he would have been remembered solely for the good he did for Penn State and its athletes. His history of excellence was well-known far beyond Happy Valley and the Big Ten.

However.

In his death, just months after the huge Sandusky child-abuse scandal came to light, there is a darkness cast over his legacy. And while I believe firmly that Joe Pa did not hurt those children himself, he allowed abuse to continue for far longer than it should have, which means he was complicit in the abuse of many.

Many will argue that he did what he needed to: he reported this to those above him, and they failed those children. All true.

But I think that the lesson to be learned here is this: the bare minimum is not enough.

Joe Paterno did the bare minimum, which likely absolved him of legal ramifications.

The bare minimum was not enough. It did nothing to save innocent children from a monster.

And frankly, the bare minimum is almost never enough.

It’s never enough to give the bare minimum effort to your school work. Or to your boss. Or to your spouse, or your children.

Or to your God.

It’s convicting to me, as I think about this situation, that there are too many areas in my life that I give the bare minimum, and I’m reminded of Colossians 3:23:

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters…

And when I looked at the same passage from The Message (an interpretation I don’t always love), I liked it even more (this is 3:22-25):

Servants, do what you’re told by your earthly masters. And don’t just do the minimum that will get you by. Do your best. Work from the heart for your real Master, for God, confident that you’ll get paid in full when you come into your inheritance. Keep in mind always that the ultimate Master you’re serving is Christ. The sullen servant who does shoddy work will be held responsible. Being a follower of Jesus doesn’t cover up bad work.

Wow.

Off to do more than the bare minimum.

When Luke was about 9 months old, we noticed that he liked to grab the burp rag off our shoulder and lay it across his face while he was drinking a bottle (sad face, because I can’t find the picture we had of this). It started to be a little game with him, and then we realized that he liked to rub it gently on his cheek while he was drinking his last bottle of the night.

So, we started letting him take it into his crib at night and naptime.

napping at 10.5 months, lovey tucked under his arm.

And before long, a lovey was born. This was not what we’d planned, of course…I had a couple of cute loveys with satin edges and the like, but he didn’t want those…he wanted the burp cloths. After a while we realized he preferred 2 of them to others, so the rest were put away to be used as burp rags with the next babies, and these other 3, from a set from Target, were kept as his loveys.

One of them was brought to Nana Jo and Papa Ron’s house pretty early on, so that if we somehow got to Effingham and didn’t bring one with us, there was one there for him to use. We got that one back a couple of years ago and because it was relatively unused, it remained in significantly better shape than the other 2.

He was never one of those crazy-obsessed lovey kids…probably primarily because I never let him bring it anywhere with us unless we were spending the night somewhere (SIDENOTE: seeing kids drag a dirty doll/blanket/lovey around in public majorly grosses me out…I gag thinking of that thing then going into bed with them). It was kept in his crib, and later, his bed, and he could fall asleep without it but definitely preferred not to.

By age 5 or so, he still slept with it, but it was not that important anymore. However, when asked, he did always still just want them in his room. Over the years, they’ve still, for some reason, just been in his room. Not actually slept with for years…in fact, since moving into this house, they’ve spent most of the time underneath the bunk beds in a little heap.

Last night, after I changed the sheets on the bunks (an act that makes me feel like a superhero mom…for real, why is changing bunk sheets one of the things I hate most?), I saw those old rags laying on the floor and asked if it would be OK if I moved them to Luke’s memory box up in the closet. He said sure, dismissing me without really even giving it a second thought.

a bit tattered at this point.

i don't think these were designed to be washed repeatedly for years.

Of course, I knew he didn’t really care anymore and hadn’t for years, but it was still sad to see those things that were so important to him be just completely outgrown (Velveteen Rabbit, anyone?).

Today, they’re in the wash. Tomorrow, the memory box.

1.) He’s wanted to go to Pennsylvania for the past six months or so, and while we questioned him a bit about it when he’d bring it up, we never really got a good answer to explain why. Until last week, when JH asked Bennett, “Is Pennsylvania full of pencils, like it says in the name?” When he got his answer, he immediately decided that he no longer wants to see Pennsylvania. I can only assume he was picturing a make-believe land with pencils as far as the eye can see?

2.) “Why do I look so flat-headed?” (after a haircut)

3.) Me, turning the station on the radio: “Ick. Lady Gaga.”
JH: “How exactly did she make a dress out of turkey?”
It took me a minute to get it all pieced together, and then I realized that he’d overheard me talking to his brothers about the weird/dumb/crazy stuff Lady Gaga does to get attention, like making a dress out of beef. Beef, turkey, same thing.

4.) Me: “Would it be fun if I came in and read a book to your class sometime?”
JH: “Not really.”
Me: “WHAT???!?”
JH (with a bit of pity in his voice): “Ok. Fine. But only one time.”
Me: “Why?”
JH: “Because I just like to be at school by myself.”
Me: “Are you afraid I’m going to cramp your style?”
JH: “Well, not cramp my style exactly, but (pause)…I just want to be there myself, OK?” (I strongly suggest having your preschooler say “cramp my style.” It’s hilarious.)

SHEESH.

5.) “I used to have a weak brain, but now I have a good one,” referencing his brain’s capacity when he was a newborn vs. now.

But when person after person declared it didn’t matter, I would LOVE The Hunger Games trilogy, I decided to give it a try. Worst case scenario is I hate them and stop reading, right?

Well that didn’t happen. I’ve spent late night after late night reading through these books, including a three-hour-reading marathon last night, biting my nails (which I only do when I read), and literally gasping out loud at plot changes I didn’t see coming.

If you haven’t read it yet and are thinking you want to, know this: the first half of book 1 was just interesting to me. I was intrigued and wanted to keep going, but I wasn’t totally hooked yet. Don’t give up…because after you get into the second half at all, you’ll be physically unable to put the book down.

I immediately started reading book 2, and felt that its start was a bit on the slow side, too, though that scarcely mattered now that I was so hooked on the characters and knowing what would happen to them. Book 3 is my least favorite, but I still loved it and couldn’t wait to see how the story unfolded.

The first movie comes out March 23, and from what I’ve seen in the trailer, they’ve stayed pretty true to the book.

Have you read them? What did you think? I’m not going to give away the plot, but I was pretty happy with how everything was resolved, given the situation.

PS Also, can I beg of America to not turn this into Twilight by calling groups of people “Team Katniss” vs. “Team Peeta” or “Team Peeta” vs. “Team Gale?” I’m sorry, but that’s so dumb. And I know it’s already happened, but let’s just stop the madness.

Fact: I love Jesus.

Fact: I do not hate religion. I have a lot of problems with “religion,” and it’s certainly flawed, but I don’t hate it.

Fact: This video made me so uncomfortable that I wasn’t able to watch it all the way through the first time.

I understand the point this young man is getting at; I know he’s talking about false religion, about the faults of the church, comprised of human, fault-filled individuals, about the injustices perpetuated at the hands of “the church” over the last two thousand years.

However.

I think there are serious problems with a Christian openly hating on religion like this.

Many thanks to Kelli for pointing me to this article that thoughtfully breaks downs the issues. His point number 5 is a bit sticky to me: we ARE saved by grace alone, but what he says is true:

Absolutely, it is Jesus’ faithfulness to the Father that is the mechanism for our salvation, but we cannot willfully continue in sin and claim to have accepted this free gift.

Watch the video, go read the article in response, and come back here and respectfully tell me what you think!

kelli also has lovely teeth. and she had braces, too.

But that has not always been the case. Oh no, it has not.

exhibit a.

Let’s talk about a few things. First, I was 8. My mom had cut my hair into an awful half-of-my-head-is-bangs haircut, which is why you are literally only getting the picture of my mouth. Secondly, I had clearly only lost 4-6 teeth in this picture, as on the top, I’ve only got 2 permanent teeth…things went way downhill from here as more permanent teeth arrived. Conjure up an image and I’m sure you’re not far off.

My multi-step orthodontia began, I believe, in 5th grade. A couple of baby teeth pulled, a frenectomy (remember when Bennett gave himself one?), braces, some permanent teeth pulled, and braces again. And then 2 wisdom teeth pulled. It was a glorious few years for me, as you might imagine *eyeroll*.

But, I never doubted it was worth it. See picture above, imagine it worse, and then compound those thoughts with the fact that I was a preteen/teenage girl and a tad insecure, and you’ll know why. I was so thankful that my parents believed that fixing my teeth was a necessity.

Matt often joked that our kids wouldn’t get braces. Until I pulled out an old picture to remind him how bad my mouth was, and asked him, “Would you have HONESTLY given me a second look if my teeth looked like that?”

I don’t remember the exact answer, but I think we all know what it was. And I don’t think he was being shallow…those teeth were a hot mess.

And so it begins for the next generation. For in 3 weeks, Luke has his first orthodontics consultation. He was the one that I thought would need a frenectomy, but he had such nice spacing in his baby teeth that I thought we might escape needing major work done.

Wrong.

The baby teeth came out, 8 permanent teeth came in, some of them super wonky, and here we are, investigating how much braces are going to set us back.

though, you'll notice, he's at least starting out with his much straighter than mine.

Knowing that Bennett’s mouth, minus needing a frenectomy, looks identical to mine when it was full of baby teeth does not comfort me. There is absolutely not enough room in that mouth for as many teeth as he’ll have.

Who knows about Jack Henry. His baby teeth spacing is like Luke’s, but now I know not to get excited about that.

So, to my children, I say: I have this fantasy of turning our current under-utilized office space into a craft room for me. But instead, we’re going to straighten your teeth. You. Are. Welcome.