Friday, April 26, 2013

Kids, Bill Lumbergh, History (7qt)

(1)
It's been a while since I made you ogle pictures of my kids, hasn't it?  Must rectify, stat!

First, checkout delicious Ms. Mare Bear during breakfast this morning, 10 months old and filled to the brim with personality...






We're still not quite sure what color her eyes are (guesses appreciated).  GreyBrown maybe?  Anyway, she's just learned to pull herself to standing, which is hilarious because her feet look like squishy round balls of peach colored clay.  Oh, and she claps.  Best.  Ever.

(2)
This is a pretty accurate picture of Cecilia.
Really I want to brush her hair and put clean clothes on her so I can take a photo and pretend that she's a pretty pretty princess...but no.  She's just a wreck.  Do you have a kid like that?  That looks like a disaster all the time no matter what?

(3)
And you already saw cute pics of Paul last Friday, so Imma show you what he looks like right now:
Sick!  Again!  DoubleYou Tee Eff?  Everyone else is fine, boy sick.  He has the worst immune system of anyone in this house and I just don't get why.  What can I do to help him?  Supplements, special foods....anything.  Advise me, oh wise readers.  I beg of you!

(4)
And the big girls don't really change much, so you can click on the "us" tab if you really wanna refresh your memories.  Instead, I'll tell you what THEY must think of ME...
Bill Lumbergh - Yeeeah...if you could go ahead and stop putting your clean clothes into the hamper that'd be great

(5)
I hate saying the same annoying thing over and over and over again, I really do. And I hate that they make the Peter Gibbons face at me when I come in the room.  But do you know what I hate even MORE?  Laundry.  Loathsome, horrid, putrescent laundry.  And they have to help do it!  One would think that helping to do the unlovable chore would encourage them to keep the soiled clothing to a minimum, but one would be wrong.  Wrong, I say!

(6)

Insert smooth segue here.

We've gotten totally obsessed with researching our family tree on ancestry.com.  That picture is of my great grandma Katie and my great uncle Phil.  Is there even enough room here to enumerate the ways that this picture makes me happy?  Probably not.  She and I share a favorite color though, that's for sure.

(7)
Anyway, she had 9 kids.  My grandma (her daughter, also named Kathryn, except they called her Kay so it would be less confusing) had 14.  They didn't have electric dishwashers or the internet or huge vehicles large enough for their whole families to fit into.  They had no Netflix!  They were just regular people, you know?  My great grandpa was a Russian/Polish (history is complicated) immigrant coal miner in Pennsylvania. Not rich or famous or nanny/housekeeper-fied or anything.  And even though I remember my grandma being the most selfless and patient human being, I realize now that she probably didn't start OUT that way.  I'm thinkin' 14 kids have a special way of making you selfless and patient whether you like it or not!  

Where am I going with this?  Oh yea.  Whenever I start feeling like a jerk or wonder if I'm gonna make it through the afternoon (we've all been there, I know it.) I think of them and it helps.  It really does.  I even pray for their intercession sometimes because I figure, like, not tons of people are bugging them so they have more free time to pester Jesus about me.  Y'all should totally try it!

7 quick takes sm1 7 Quick Takes Friday (vol. 214)

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39 comments :

  1. I really liked this post and loving hearing stories of large families from days past. It really puts a new perspective on a bad attitude day for me, thank you!

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  2. Omigosh...Cecilia and Mary are so cute I just want to squeeze them! Which makes me sound like a super stalker...but there you have it. (And boo with the poor boy being sick again!)

    I often think of my great-grandparents as well. They were farmers on the prairie when the closest town was 30 miles away! They took care of there kids when they had nothing, and still fed hobos during the Depression! We've got it so easy with this "electricity" and "indoor facilities" stuff!

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  3. Paul needs probiotics! Tons of them! Reuteri is a really good, well researched brand.

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  4. Your pictures made me smile Dwija, have a great weekend ;)

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  5. I distinctly remember my dad telling me that same thing about laundry while I was growing up. That, and he would always complain because I used a new towel for every shower. Oh, and when I would peel an orange, I would do it in a kitchen towel and then leave the peels wrapped up in the towel in the family room for some unsuspecting parent to huff over to, pick up and surprise! Orange peel confetti!

    Man, I sound a little like Cecilia ;)

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  6. Re: Number 2 - Yes, we have a kid who is always a mess. His name is Eamon. He is our messiest eater and he's 6 and it's always been that way, and now that we refer to him as the messiest, I think he kind of revels in it.

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  7. I'm gonna go with dark hazel on those eyes.

    And I am still that messy kid.

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  8. I am the wreck in our family. I keep telling myself that will change when I don't have a kid in diapers but we will see. Definitely try a good probiotic for your Paul,they definitely help me defeat the bugs my kids bring home.

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  9. I just realized, not all your pictures made me smile. Not the one of your sick boy :( I hope he´s feeling better.

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  10. I know it's a real shot in the dark, but you might consider looking into how well Paul tolerates wheat gluten. Wheat (and other food) allergies tend to disguise themselves as immunodeficiencies, and before I discovered that that's what my problem was, it seemed like I was down every other week with a mysterious stomach flu. Poor kiddo - it's no fun being sick all the time!

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  11. That family history is amazing! So many kids!!
    Love all the kid pictures and I hope your little guy gets better soon :(

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  12. Excellent photos, new and old!
    Re #5: Yup I now am in disbelief of how casual I was about putting essentially clean clothes in the laundry.

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  13. Yes, I have a kid who always looks a mess -- named Vincent oh and another one named Dani. They both crack me up, but seriously...they are the reasons I finally did away with working all that hard getting everyone prettified for church!!

    oh and the LAUNDRY. the LAUNDRY!!! we make a rule in our house that they can only wear one after-school outfit all week, but do they abide? no!!!! they drive us nuts!!! There's just too much stinkin' laundry at our house!

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  14. Felix is pigpen/Cecelia. Lina is never sick. Girl = never sick. Maybe it's a boy thing. ;)

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  15. I don't comment often, but I love guessing games! I'm going to guess Mary's eyes are hazel. They almost look a little green in the picture?

    Also, I love the pic of your great-grandma. I love stories of ancestors and looking at old pictures of my family too. Even the oh-so-solemn-we-mustn't-smile-because-that-would-ruin-it photos!

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  16. Love everything about that last photo of your great grandma & great uncle. Love the kitchen, glasses, clothes, expressions. Love it.

    And your precious Paul reminds me of my precious Griffin. Those eyes. Hope he feels better soon. Probiotics? Culturelle? Idk. My daughter is the one who always gets sick. Haven't figured out how to help her avoid sickness yet.

    Love the end of this post. You always have great perspective.

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  17. My grandmother had 10 kids. How did they do it back then?? These women most likely went straight to heaven!

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  18. Ancestry is our latest obsession too but I haven't come across a great picture like that! Your Uncle's face is priceless, what a funny man. Your kids are beautiful and your sense of humor, awesome.

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  19. My Greta always looks a mess...you can brush her hair and then 2 seconds later it's all messy again. And, the spilled food..and messy face. Ayiyiyi.

    And, I agree with whoever said probiotics for sick Paul. They help. Vitamin D supplementation helps a ton too, as far as keeping kids healthy. I've noticed a HUGE decrease in the amount of colds and other illness we get when we started giving Vitamin d.

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  20. My mom always said the same thing about our grandma on my dads side, she had 7 kids but the first 5 were 3 & under for a while...3,2,1, and newborn twins. Ack!

    My little sister was the walking disaster. You could brush her hair on the way to church and you'd never know!

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  21. My mom always said the same thing about our grandma on my dads side, she had 7 kids but the first 5 were 3 & under for a while...3,2,1, and newborn twins. Ack!

    My little sister was the walking disaster. You could brush her hair on the way to church and you'd never know!

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  22. What is it with pre-adolescents/adolescents putting clean clothes into the dirty clothes????? I'm with you on that one. Super annoying and super time-consuming in a 7 person family! I get a little broken record-y about it too. And maybe a little mean mom about it. Funny story: waiting in the hallway to get church directory pictures taken a few years ago, a family sat with us. 12 year old daughter's pants were visibly, though minimally, dirty. Mom, embarrassed, asks daughter why she wouldn't have put them in the laundry to be washed. Makes comment that they can't get washed if they don't make it into the hamper, etc. Daughter replies, "Mom, when we got home from church last week, you said, 'and don't put your clothes in the dirty clothes because wearing them for an hour doesn't make them dirty.' " The Mom looked like she wanted to crawl under the linoleum. I laughed inside and was grateful it wasn't me, 'cause I tell my kids that all the time!

    I hope Paul feels better soon.

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  23. Could I love those pics of your squishy adorable child any more? They make my uterus glow. (I really really need to hold a baby. August needs to come faster.)

    And um, yeahhhhhh, I'm gonna need you to stop referencing movies I love. Makes me feels like we're best friends which makes me a creep. (Our copier at work freaking IS that stupid copier in Office Space! Never ever wirks!! i always make relevant jokes and no one gets it...)

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  24. Hazel :)

    I had something else to say, but I forgot as I scrolled down to the comment box....

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  25. "Anyway, she had 9 kids.... They had no Netflix!"

    The lack of Netflix explains the nine kids.

    Modern day media affects a couple's ability to get together more often.

    I love the background of the picture!


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  26. My youngest, Jameson, was sick ALL.THE.TIME. Until we had his adenoids and tonsils taken out. Now? Never sick. Ever. Apparently, the adenoids and tonsils serve a vital function in very young children to help the body fight off disease. But in kids who catch a lot, it never shuts off and gets bigger and bigger and then they actually start harboring stuff that makes them sick. In a normal person, they shrink up and shut off. His tonsils and adenoids were HUGE. You don't say if he's sick with the stomach bug, or sick with fever, cold, etc. Jamie's issue was upper respiratory viruses.

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  27. When in doubt, I always say hazel. And Mary!!! The cheeks!!!

    My Cecilia goes through several outfits a day, dirtying only a few articles of clothing. I mean, you can't expect her to stick with just ONE outfit (or pair of underwear. sigh.) for an entire day, right? But I'm so happy that she actually puts her dirty clothes in the hamper that I don't care if they're dirty or not! Of course, she's 2 so she doesn't have the judgment that your big girls have :P

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  28. Lumberg meme FTW! Clean clothes in the hamper drives me demented.

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  29. My father-in-law is one of 16 children and back in the day they apparently roadtripped with 2 parents and 12 kids in a station wagon. Yeah, I have no idea. My husband's family runs skinny, so maybe that's how they did it. (Also, this was before seatbelts.)

    I have nothing else to contribute, but I was reminded of that by your comment about how your ancestors didn't have cars that could hold all their children.

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  30. Mary has a dimple! Love it!

    And I love that you're doing ancestry.com. I've always been fascinated by genealogy, and go through spurts where I spend obscene amounts of time on ancestry and other websites to do research. So fun!

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  31. Useless fact: at our house it's called "fake laundry" and (almost) nothing is more annoying to me!!

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  32. 1. AHHHHHH, those TEETH, that SMILE!!! AHHHHHH, uterus, STOP IT!!!!!
    2. Yep. Got one or three of those....yup
    3. So pitiful and yet it's so quiet when they are pitiful. Heartbreaking and yet somehow this is when my best mother moments come out...all warm and fuzzy...WHY????
    4. We figured out that when our 13 yo was "putting his clothes away"...yeah, hamper. WTH?!?!??! Figured it out when his pile was 3x the size of everyone else's....hmmm, stinker!
    And clearly you got some catching up to do on the great-grands and grands....ammiright?? I kid. Really. I'm not sure how we ended up with 4, nevermind that my great grand had 8. Kookoo.

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  33. 1. So cute!!!! I love those half-moon eyes!

    2. Cecilia is wonderfully wonderful. And if she ever reads this blog, she should know this: she is beautiful no matter what her hair and clothes look like. And I love the way your kids look like your beloved and you! I know, that's the way it's supposed to work, but you two have kids who combine your features beautifully.

    3. Oh, poor baby. Him *and* you. :-) I know I'm a grownup and things are different with me, but I take 1000 mg of vitamin C every day and don't get sick nearly as often as I probably should. Extra vitamin C just gets excreted in pee, so I don't worry about the high dosage. Also, tonsils. Rosie (my #3, rosie-ablogformymom.blogspot.com) was chronically ill during seventh and eighth grade, though she tells me now that she was faking it a lot of the time. Anyway, she got her tonsils out and was much better after that. Of course, maybe she realized that she'd better quit pretending to be sick or we'd send her for more surgery.

    5. (Yes, I know I skipped 4. And?) I'm not saying that you don't do the following, because I don't know. I'm just saying what we did. We taught each kid to do his or her own laundry starting at about the age of 11. Starting maybe at 12, each kid had to make dinner once a week. They started begging out of it in high school, but it was good while it lasted. Also, another #5 thing. When #1 was in college, he lived in a dorm close to home and often came home to do his own laundry, which was fine with us. His roommate, however, had another way to get clean clothes. He put his dirty stuff in a basket, which he locked that in his car. His mother then drove in from about 45 minutes away, unlocked the car, took the laundry, drove back home, washed and dried all of it, and then drove back to her son's car and put the clean stuff back in. My jaw still drops, thinking of it. I wonder if her son has learned to do his own wash yet.

    6. #1 was very interested in our family tree at one point. He borrowed our copy of a book that somebody wrote about the descendants of somebody in his father's background. It had been updated a few years previously, and it had a handy-dandy index so that one could look individual family members up. He found that he was distantly related to that same college roommate, who did not believe it. ::shrug:: The more genealogy one does, the more relatives one discovers. I'm distantly distantly related to my husband's sister's son's wife from a common 16th-century ancestor. 'Struth.

    7. There is no #7. Count your blessings.

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  34. I got so sick of washing clean clothes that I took my kids clothes away from them and doled them out daily. My older kids have since earned theirs back, but I'm still holding the younger ones clothes hostage. The worst offender was my "disaster", Leah. She's ten and we have always said that she is a force of nature, like a hurricane or tsunami. She has wild and crazy curly "hobbit hair", that never loooks brushed. She always looks dirty, or wrinkled, or mismatched. She walks like an elephant and talks too loudly all the time. I'm crazy about her. I want to be like her when I grow up. She's just so... enthusiastic and present in the moment. She's awesome!

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  35. I dunno what color her eyes are, because they're the same color as Silas', and we still can't figure his out. He just turned ONE (today!) and we call them blue/gray/green/brown/hazel. Witness: http://instagram.com/p/YvdAYPSaKu/

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  36. Ahhhhh. She's so squishy!

    For Paul, I'd try to get more vitamin C into his diet, plus some source of good bacteria- yogurt or kefir. If he likes smoothies you can sneak everything into a smoothie. Oh! And homemade broth. Lots of it! And if he can swing it, fresh air and sunshine do help. Hope he feels better. Man it sucks to feel crummy all the time.

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