My first half!

Today I ran the Mercer Island Half Marathon. The various races (5k, 10k, kids dash, and half marathon) benefitted the awareness and prevention of colon cancer. I started running after Amelia was born and honestly never thought I'd be able to do this! I had heard the course was hilly, so I was fully expecting to crash and burn, even though I've been training a lot. The hills were more rolling and gradual which made it easier than I thought, but there were a few bigger ones that were challenging. There were water stations every mile or so and halfway through I had a Clif gel shot (which I don't recommend as a snack but only if you're doing a lot of activity and need a boost, it wasn't gourmet). The course was along Mercer Way, so it was fairly scenic. The only scary part was a disrespectful driver who was driving on the course behind people and wouldn't stop and turn around. I am very thankful no one was hurt. It just shows that even in official races I need to be aware of my surroundings when I'm running. I finished in about 2 hours and 20 minutes (official results here), which is what I expected since my pace is about 10-11 min/mile.

Bill and the kids came to the finish line and cheered me on. In these pictures I look a little funny because I got kind of emotional when I saw them on the sidelines. I'm so thankful to have a supportive family!

I hope this isn't my last half marathon, but I'm going to take it easy this week and recuperate for a few days.

I just had to share this video of Sarah Palin on the topic of Special Olympics. I especially loved what she said about when her son, Trig, was born:

"It was like an hourglass turned upside down; my heart filled up with love, and my mind emptied itself of all the different worries and fears and concerns that I had..."

By the way, I researched about this because there was so concern that Palin cut funding 

in her state for Special Olympics, but that is misleading. Read about it here.

Three-to-One

I went to grad school for early childhood special education. In that program I worked in two preschools in several different capacities, in the general classroom as an assistant, as a research assistant administering tests and videotaping test sessions, and one-on-one in the autism classroom doing ABA therapy, mostly using discrete trials. Once a quarter my practicum advisor observed my work and part of her observation was making sure I had a 3-to-1 ratio of positive comments to neutral or negative demands and directions. Basically in my interactions with the children, I had to constantly be praising and encouraging the child. Neutral comments basically counted as negative ones. These included placing demands on the child and really has nothing to do with the tone of voice. It seems easy, but it's not! 

The ratio of 3-to-1 is because a negative experience stands out more than a positive experience. Think of your relationships, do you remember the negatives easier than the positives? 

I was thinking about how this applies to my life now as a parent. I have a feeling if my practicum advisor were to observe me on a normal day at home, my ratio would be embarassing! For much of the day I'm directing Caley and Amelia's behavior (neutral- "Come eat your lunch", "Get your blanket for bed", "Go to sleep") or flat out rebuking them when they do something wrong (negative- "Don't take your sister's toys"). And I know I'm not praising them three times more than negative or neutral interactions. Children remember the bad times far easier than the good times. I'm not saying it's not okay to tell your kids what to do in the normal course of the day, but I feel like I don't make a concerted effort to outnumber the neutral/negatives with positive interactions. 

Lately I've been trying to be more conscious of noticing when Caley (usually) does something nice. She is so nice when I give her milk, she almost always says "Thank you." I try to say "Thanks for saying thanks Caley!" When they're just playing and I'm able to get some work done or just take a break, I have been trying to remember to say thanks or "I like the way you two are playing." This seems silly that I should even need to make a concerted effort to recognize the little things they do, but it's the truth. Many of the frustrations I may have with my kids and every day life are because I'm sinful, lazy and selfish. I want things to be my way or no way. I want my kids to read my mind and obey immediately. I am acting like a child. I can see God's hand in this. Lately I have had to go to Caley and ask for forgiveness for being too harsh or impatient. She sees my admission of sin and asking of forgiveness and hopefully will learn to do the same.

With God's grace, and thankfully he has an abundance of it, it won't always be this way. With grace, prayer and practice, praising my children will hopefully be more natural and the ratio will be three-to-zero. 

I just can't figure this kid out

It seems like no matter where I move Amelia's crib, she outsmarts me. Her crib is along the wall next to Caley's room. Often she will spit her binky out at night and when she wakes to get milk in the early hours I have to move her crib to find it. Her crib never seems to stay in one place. Sometimes it'll be too close to the light switch and she'll turn her light on in the middle of the night. Sometimes I'll get her from bed and she'll have moved the dirty laundry from her laundry basket around her crib. One time I checked on her and she was putting on clothes from her laundry basket. Today I moved her crib further from the light switch and she could reach the decorative wooden safety pin on her wall. I got her from naptime and she was holding it saying "uh-oh, uh-oh." When she doesn't get things from around the outside of her crib, she sometimes manages to get stuck between the rungs or partly climb out of it. This kid is a genius. Maybe not, but she seems like it because when Caley was her age she was just learning to walk, so crib shenanigans were unknown to me. Maybe I could put a fitted sheet over the top of the crib as a tent. Maybe I could wrap the rungs with Saranwrap. Maybe I could make her sleep in a straitjacket. Maybe it's time to move her out of the crib. But that would mean admitting she's not a baby anymore. 

Preschool Crafts

This quarter I have been working Wednesday nights at church in the preschool class. Parents are in classes or Redemption Groups so the kids are in "Kids Kore." It's one of the highlights of my week. It is very tiring at the end of a long day, but I love seeing the kids learn about Jesus and love Him more. I also love Wednesday nights because Caley is in the preschool class, and it's fun to see her playing with other kids in that setting. 

We are doing the Big Book curriculum, which is basically a Bible story a week told through a big storybook. Then we play some games to help the kids learn the story and do a craft. I've been planning and preparing the crafts this quarter, which is really fun for me. There has been the occasional week I can't think of a craft or run out of time to prepare, but the good thing about preschoolers is that they're easily amused. In a pinch, shaving cream, playdough, or just coloring is a good activity. They especially like playing group games like "Lost Little Sheep" which the class assistant Janessa does with them, or just running around pretending to be a dinosaur. It gets really loud in class sometimes. But that's bound to happen with 15 kids in a room at 830 at night.

Here are the crafts we've done. Most of these crafts I got from the internet and tweaked a bit.

Story of Abraham and Sarah
Noah and the Ark
Joshua and the Wall of Jericho- baked dough bricks (salt, flour, water) with playdough as the mortar
On left- Daniel in the lion's den; On right- Moses in the bulrushes (egg carton cup for basket, piece of felt, tiny baby inside)

Jonah and the big fish

Can you tell I like using paper plates? They're not just for eating! 

Encouragement

For some reason when I woke up this morning, I felt convicted that I don't share my faith in Jesus "enough." I was hearing lies such as, "You aren't working hard enough; your kids don't know how to talk to people about Jesus; you need to do more." 

Then at breakfast, without any prompting from me, Caley turned to Amelia and said, "Once upon a time, Jesus died on the cross. And the bad guys did bad things to him and then he rose from the dead!"

Thanks for the encouragement Caley. :) I know there is always more to be done, but I'm glad you know the basics and aren't afraid to share them. Thank you Lord for your amazing timing.

I have some competition

As much as I'd like to be innovative and franchising, I just can't compete with Disney. They went and stole my idea for an EVE doll. I should have patented it. :)

Maybe I'm just old-fashioned, but I still like the homemade version. 

Making Homemade Dish Detergent

The next step along the road of frugal living...homemade dish detergent! Honestly, I didn't really think this would work, since I looked at the ingredients list on the Costco soap and there were so many listed I had no clue. But I googled "homemade dish detergent" and got a few recipes. A main reason I wanted to try making detergent is that often the Costco detergent goobers into the many bottle and sippy cup parts after a wash/rinse cycle. Sometimes I can't see it, but I can tell it's there because it makes things slippery. It's probably not healthy if there's residue on the girl's bottles, and the homemade recipe has way fewer ingredients and ones I actually understand. So far it's going well!!

Here is the one I tried:

1 tbsp Washing Soda

1 tbsp Borax

Vinegar

Add the washing soda and borax in the detergent spot, and about 1 tbsp vinegar to the rinser. 

Here is the cost comparison:

Washing Soda (56oz, 112 tbsp): $5.99 ($0.05/tbsp)

Half box Borax (38oz, 76 tbsp): $1.49 ($0.02/tbsp)

Vinegar (128oz, 256 tbsp):  $3.19 ($0.01/tbsp)

Total per load: $0.08

Compare that to buying commercial dry detergent such as this on Amazon. Each box is $23.80, which makes 250 tablespoons. For a load, which would be 2 tablespoons as in my recipe, each load becomes about $0.18.

However, this is on sale at the local Safeway this week for $4.49.

For 75oz, that's 150 tablespoons, which make each tablespoon $0.03, so that makes it $0.06 per load (2tbsp). In this case, it's cheaper to buy it on special at Safeway. 

It's probably a wash (no pun intended!) as to whether making homemade detergent would always be cheaper for everyone, depending on where you buy detergent and what deals you can get, but it's probably always more environmentally friendly and less likely to leave bleach goobs in baby bottles. As well, the price of commercial detergent may go up without notice, but Borax and washing soda is less likely to do so. And probably I could get away with using half as much detergent if I wanted to, which would make the cost per use 4 cents. 

Anyway, it's worth a shot!! 

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

P.S. Am I off in my calculations? I flunked my math placement in college and got placed in Algebra 2, which I'd taken as a 10-grader, so I might be wrong. In my calculations, I used 1 tablespoon = 1/2 ounce. If I'm wrong, would someone please correct me? :)

It's an EVE party!

For Caley's birthday, she said she wanted an EVE party. (EVE is from the movie WALL-E.) And that's what she got! It's been like an EVE factory at our house for the last few weeks. For her party she invited three girlfriends over for dinner, cake and watching WALL-E! Then they had a sleepover! It's been really fun planning and preparing for this party.

The invitation

The practice cake...looks okay, tasted sickenly sweet.

The Rice Krispie treat cake we had at playgroup.

The biggest project by far was the EVE doll pillows. I got the idea from this website and adapted it based on the materials I could find. I'm not a seamstress by any means, so this was fairly challenging for me, especially since I hadn't used my sewing machine for over 2 years. Actually there are a lot of mistakes and if I were to make many more hopefully each one would look better than the last. But it's for kids, so who cares. For the body I used T-shirts. For the patches I used felt because it doesn't fray, and for her plant symbol I used iron-on patches for pants cut into the correct shapes.

The girls also made EVE puppets. I originally was going to have them stuff the dolls, but that'd be too much work sewing them back up on party night. They seemed to enjoy the puppets!

And finally, the last EVE cake!

They didn't sleep as much as I'd hoped, but it was still a really fun party!

"Thank you friends for coming to my party!" -Caley

Happy Birthday Big Girl!!

Today Caley is 4 years old. Happy Birthday Caleyboo! We love you so much! Thanks for making the last year memorable.

Daphne's

I recently went to the cutest wine bar in Edmonds for Karina's birthday party. (Happy Birthday Karina!!) It was awesome and is my new favorite place to go. It's literally a "hole in the wall" and our party of 7 barely fit in our "booth." It's a Paris theme with old time music, dim lighting, eclectic decorating, fantastic service and just a lot of fun. There only appeared to be one guy working and he asked what we wanted, "red or white." Whatever was chosen, he brought out two wine samples and we picked our preferred sample and got a glass of it. Actually it was more of a smallish pitcher and a big shot glass so we could serve ourselves. We also got a bread and cheese platter and some chocolate. 

It was a great way to spend a Friday night, and I highly recommend Daphne's!!

Reviews: Yelp, InsiderPages

Making Homemade Laundry Detergent

I was recently researching about how to cut costs around the house and got turned onto making homemade laundry detergent. From the websites I read, it seems like a fair amount of homemakers do this, at least enough to warrant a try. I used the recipe from this website. Another good website I found is here.

The ingredients are:

2 bars grated Zote soap (or Ivory, or something called Fels Naptha)

Washing Soda (aka Oxy Clean or Sodium Carbonate, not to be confused with Baking Soda which is Sodium Bicarbonate)

Borax

I followed the recipe from the aforementioned website and changed the quantities to use what I had. Here's the updated recipe:

2 bars (12 cups) grated Zote (using a food processor would be better because the soap would be finer)

6 cups Washing Soda

6 cups Borax

Essential oil (optional, just for a scent)

One normal-sized load is 1 tablespoon, and the Washing Soda came with a little 2-tablespoon scoop for easy measuring. Since clothes get pretty dirty around here thanks to messy eating habits, snot explosions and walking in the rain, I use 2-tablespoons per load.

But does it really work? So far I've done about 5 loads and the clothes come out smelling fresh and clean and the dirt is gone. It also works on cloth diapers! I'm actually excited to do laundry now, because it's part of the whole experiment.

Does it really cost less? Yes, even when I factor in the time it took to make. Making it took less than 15 minutes! I spend that much time at the grocery store figuring out the best deal on detergent while managing the yelling children. Here's the breakdown of the costs:

Washing Soda= $5.99

Zote= $2.54 ($1.27/bar)

Borax= $1.49 (half of a $2.98 box)

Total= $10.02

The recipe made 24 cups, which is 384 tablespoons. 2 tablespoons per large load is 192 loads. 1 tablespoon per small/medium load is 384 loads.

Cost per (2 tbsp) load: $0.05

Cost per (1tbsp) load: $0.02

Compare that to buying a brand name detergent such as this. All Ultra makes 140 loads for $32.33. That's about $0.23 per load! Of course detergents may be found cheaper depending on where they're bought, this is just an illustration of how frugal making homemade detergent can be. Am I ever going to buy detergent again? Probably yes, but it's nice to know that there are other options. 

Hmm, what are we going to spend all that extra money on??? ;)

Things I Love

Running in the rain.
Coming home from running in the rain to a warm, clean house that smells like what I made for dinner.
When my house smells like meatloaf from this recipe.
When the kids sleep in.
When the kids sleep in and I get a few hours in the morning to blog.
Watching Friends.

Seeing my friends after a few weeks of not seeing them.
Playing with the kids in the children's ministry.
Watching Caley play with her friends in the preschool class at church.

When it rains.

When it's sunny and breezy.

Snuggling with my girls when they're not feeling too good.

Snuggling with Billy.

Listening to the girls play. Nicely.

Sunday naps.

Jesus, for all these wonderful things in my life.

Merry Christmas from the Gerlachs! We are spending the holiday in Lynden with Bill's family. We thankfully made it through the snow and ice and it's a White Christmas here. It's still snowing!! The kids are having a blast playing with their cousins, and Bill is having some quality snuggle time with Matt.

Thank you Jesus for car chains, 4-wheel drive, and loving family. Today and always we remember the humble way you came to the world, even though you are the King of Kings and Lord of Lords!

Happy Birthday too to David and Papa Bales! We love you and miss you today.

Good job Amelia!

I was in Fred Meyer last week with only Amelia because Caley was in Playland. (But I did not feel like I was cheating on Cost Cutter!) Amelia was pushing the cart around, and several people stopped and commented how cute she was. An older lady asked what her name was and I said "Amelia" and she said, "That's a good, real name. It's not stupid like those new made-up names you hear nowadays." 

I didn't tell her that Big Sister has a "made up" name that's only gained popularity in the last 3o years. See Kaylee's popularity here (we changed the spelling to make our Caley unique and to distinguish her from her namesake TV character.) Just for fun, here is Amelia's popularity.

Getting my butt kicked--part 2

Does my home promote peace?

This was another principle I took away from meeting with Jan a few weeks ago. As a mother and a wife I am the manager of my home. This job includes such things as wisely stewarding the money Bill earns, keeping a clean and healthy home, food in my children's bellies, clean clothes for everyone to wear, and keeping the kids busy and learning, etc. But it's not enough to simply do those things if I am constantly yelling at my kids to eat their dinner, neglecting my children in order to get the house clean, or becoming bitter at my husband while I'm making dinner. Our home needs to be peaceful. Peaceful for me, the kids and Bill, and for any guests we may have. This means that when Bill comes home for work it should be peaceful, I shouldn't bombard him with problems or cranky children all the time.  Trisha over at Work and Worship wrote a great blog entry about this very thing, read it here. (While you're there, I highly recommend her entire series on homeWork, it's fantastic.)

I recently wrote "Does my home promote peace?" on an index card and put it by the sink. I look at it all the time. And honestly I sometimes have to answer that question with "no" in the moment. I yell at the kids, complain about all the work I have to do at home, and just feel overwhelmed. Then I need to remember that if my heart isn't at peace, then my home cannot be at peace. My heart can continue to be at peace by reading the Bible, talking to Jesus and just letting certain things go. Saying no to things that might stress me out unnecessarily. 

Does my home promote peace? Only with Jesus' help.

Getting my butt kicked- part 1

The week of Thanksgiving my women's group met at Jan's house (the mom of a girl in our group) and were treated to an amazing brunch/snack and babysitting while we were able to ask Jan questions about almost anything. She has four grown children and they're a very close family. Since everyone in the group has young children and primarily stay home with them, the questions were mostly about our children, our marriages, and how to do those things well without going crazy. She had a lot of wonderfully wise things to say, and connected it all to Jesus. We are to teach our kids to obey us in order for them to learn to obey God. We are to direct Caley and Amelia to Jesus, above all. 

One point that resonated most with me was that little kids shouldn't watch much (if any) TV. Her reason was that the shows and movies offered today are just too stimulating for young children, that the frames are moving so fast it's just too much information for a little person to take. She said she's noticed that after watching a Disney (or similar) movie, little girls get really whiney and little boys get really active. (At least I think that's what she said, I kind of forgot since I don't have boys.) Jan suggested that if kids are going to watch TV, it should be something at their pace such as Mister Rogers. In real time they watch Mister Rogers walk into his house, take off his shoes, walk across the room, change his coat, etc. 

I was so convicted by this! We (meaning mostly I, Addie) were letting Caley watch TV nearly every morning and sometimes a movie at night. It became fairly routine for her to ask, "Can I watching something on TV" when she woke up, and we'd flip on the TV so she could watch PBS or the Christian cartoons. They were okay shows, but I was starting to feel convicted that I was using the TV as a babysitter. I was able to get a lot done during that time, but it was getting be too much. Jan's talk was so timely for me. Since that week, we have been making a conscious effort to limit Caley's TV time and being selective in what she gets to watch and how much. And it's going so great! She still asks to watch a movie or TV most days, but I just tell her "no, there are plenty of other fun things to do at home." Instead of TV, she has really taken to playing with playdough, drawing, and just sitting and reading books. These are all things that she liked to do before "the change" but now she's getting much more imaginative with her play. I've also noticed that the girls are playing together so much better. Caley can still be rough sometimes with Amelia, but she is getting more gentle and involving her more in her play. (Maybe this is because Caley is older and more "mature" and Amelia can actually play now instead of laying on the floor spitting up!)

It has been so wonderful to watch Caley's little imagination take flight. She's always loved taking care of her stuffed animals and I frequently find her bears and babies tucked into our or her bed. She's getting more creative though. The other day the girls were playing in Caley's room and they shut the door--I wasn't allowed inside. I heard Caley knock on the door, open it and say, "Hi bunny, I'm glad you could join us." It was so cute! Amelia was just playing with the dollhouse next to her, so peacefully. 

We still let her watch movies, but now it's more of a treat. She watched Shrek when her friend Olivia came over, and a bear movie one night before bed. She still loves Wall-E and other movie characters. 

I learned so much else from Jan, but this has been the biggest thing so far. Thank you Jan for your insight and biblical counsel!

Help Yourself!!

After nearly 18 months of living with us, Amelia feels comfortable enough to get a snack whenever she wants:

 Yes, she got the bowl and cereal out by herself. 

From now on...

I'll remember to skip running on Tuesday, the night before garbage day in our neighborhood. 

Why, you ask?

Because Tuesday night this week I was running and ran into someone's GARBAGE!!! And not just garbage, but a huge pane of glass that was completely blocking the sidewalk. I was completely blindsided by it, and subsequently knocked it over, breaking it, and knocking over the garbage cans and recycle bins, and fell on the ground. Sure, it's probably not the smartest idea to run at night, but when it gets dark at stinkin' 4:30 it's hard to avoid running after the sun goes down. Thankfully I wasn't really hurt, I was wearing long pants and a sweatshirt so the glass didn't hurt me. But the last few days my upper body has really hurt because I caught myself after the fall and it was a shock to my muscles. 

This was an interesting way to meet our neighbors, to say the least. Wednesday I stopped by the "glass house" just to tell the guy what happened. He was very apologetic and nice, thankfully.

Learn from another of my mistakes: don't run at night before garbage day. (Doing stupid things for others to learn from is just a free service I offer.)

Just add this to the "stupid" file

Tuesday mornings I get up early and make breakfast sandwiches, and enjoy a quiet morning before the kids get up. This week on Tuesday Caley woke up at 630 (which is too early!) so I told her to stay in bed a little longer until the sun comes up. Around 715 I went outside to get something, keys in my hand, knowing the kids would be safe in their rooms/crib for less than 5 minutes. The instant I stepped out the door and heard the doorknob lock it dawned on me that my house key was not on my keychain, but in my purse. Crap. There weren't any open doors or windows (which is a good thing, but didn't help me out at the moment). My only hope was Caley.

I got a ladder and put it outside near her bedroom window and talked to her through the window. "Caley, this is Mommy. Climb over your gate and go downstairs." I told her this a few times, but wasn't sure if she'd do it. We have a gate on her door because her bedroom is at the top of the stairs and we don't want her to wake during the night and fall down the stairs on accident. Although she can climb it, she is usually very obedient and doesn't climb anymore. We are actually training her to stay in her bed until someone comes and gets her after sleeping. 

I got down from the ladder and ran to the front door and rang the doorbell. She yelled from inside, "I don't know where you are!" and I said, "I'm outside. Go to the slider door and open it." I could hear her little footsteps come down the stairs and run to the slider. I ran around to the back and she let me in! Thank you Caley! You saved me a call to Daddy and a disruption to his day to fix my stupid mistake. 

*Of course afterward we talked to her about opening the door for strangers. We told her to only open the door for people she knows--Mommy, Daddy, Papa, Grama. Stranger Danger!!*

Did you know...

that the letters in the word "THANKSGIVING" can spell 

Hate your sin, the way God hates sin and loves righteousness. That's a good place to start. If we hate sin like God does, we will begin to understand the magnitude and necessity of Jesus' sacrifice.

Hebrews 1:9 "You have loved righteousness and hated wickedness; therefore God, your God, has anointed you with the oil of gladness beyond your companions."

Happy Thanksgiving!

1 Chronicles 16:34- Give thanks to the Lord for He is good, His love endures forever!

We are celebrating today with the Bales/Runyan side of our family. Yummy food, great family, it's been a wonderful day. We hope everyone is having a yummy, restful, and thankful day!

Thanks be to Jesus for life, family, food, and all our other blessings! We are so thankful for our friends and family that Jesus has placed in our lives. We deeply enjoy where God has placed us at this time in our lives.

Thank you Jesus.

Aside from Jesus, here's what I'm (Addie) thankful for: