Not sure what to call this...

Well, I wasn't sure what to title this post. It could read: "Why the boys played emergency plumber all day" or "The one sound you never want to hear while sitting with a babe on the breast" or "How to have fun with water inside on a cold Fall day" or maybe "Why the boys need to drink more water"

So here's what happened:

My dear boy did his business like a champ, mom helped him get finished up, then we washed our hands, flushed and left the bathroom. Mom moved on to go nurse Hayden in his room, the boys went to couch to look at library books and await their mom's arrival for some reading time. So, I am sitting in the rocker, enjoying a quiet moment with the baby, when I hear the toilet running. Strange, I thought, since we hadn't heard it doing that in a while. Then I think I hear the faint sound of water trickling. Could that be what it sounds like? Faster than than you can imagine, and while nursing Hayden, I bolted from the rocker and into the hallway, where I was met with the slosh and splash of water around my feet.

In about a split second, I put Hay Baby on the ground in the living room, call Elias to come keep him from crawling into the water, and enlist Asher to go back to the other bathroom for the plunger. While they are carrying out their tasks, I am taking every towel within arms reach, whether it be hanging on a hook or folded neatly in the cupboard, and tossing them all over the ground, making sure that the first place they land is at the top of the stairs which lead down to our newly carpeted stairs and basement. Then I go to the water shut-off, which doesn't seem to be working!! As I fling the last piece of cloth I had grabbed, Asher comes back from the other bathroom. "Where's the plunger?" I ask. "Here," he says as he hands me the TWEEZERS! That's what I get for asking my three-year-old to fetch something he probably has never seen. SO, blinking back the tears of laughter, I make my way through the growing river to get the plunger. With just a few plunges, I begin to see the waters recede!

The upside to all of this drama ... the water was CLEAN!! And, it provided great inspiration for play for the boys. While I put Hayden in the saucer and began the job of mopping up the overflow, the bigger boys raced around the house pretending to call the plumber and re-enacting the flood drama they had just experienced. It really was laughable!

Moral of the story: Make sure the boys are getting enough water so their bodies are working more efficiently (AKA: avoid bodily back-ups, so as to avoid toilet back-ups.)

All in a day's work here at the Mathews' house.

What did you all do today?

Jodi

Look What I Can Do!

Yep! Hayden is officially pulling himself up ... in his crib, on the coffee table, on his brothers (if they are still long enough for him to use them as leverage), on the couch ... you get the idea.

At 7 months this little guys is keeping us on our toes!

LOOK WHAT I CAN DO! (and I think it is FUN too)


Love to all,

Jodi

A River Runs Through It ....

Here is my handsome man on his first fly-fishing outing with Adam. They left early on Saturday, the 24th. This is just 15 minutes from our house. They went fishing on the Clinch River. We really do live in a beautiful part of the country. It was about 30 degrees when they hit the river at 7am. No, they didn't catch anything but they really enjoyed the "guy time" on this amazingly beautiful East Tn morning.




Love to all!

Jodi

Happy Thanksgiving!

Give Thanks!

We have so much to be thankful for! We were blessed to have Kalyn and Adam here for the weekend. We have been missing family and it was nice to be with them. We had a fabulous feast, good times talking, a nice Fall hike, and nice birthday celebration.

Here are some pictures of our hike and our Thanksgiving feast. After our hike we ate turkey sandwiches and drank warm apple cider. We found a lovely kid and dog-friendly hike just 10 minutes from our house. We are discovering more and more about this area that we enjoy. Being so close to the mountains and so many rivers has been great! Justin and Adam got up early Saturday morning and went fly-fishing. I will post some pictures of that tomorrow!




The feast!


This is the centerpiece made from the things the boys and I collected on our nature walk last weekend. All these things either came from our yard, or from the woods behind us.


Making pumpkin pie with Aunt Kalie!


We miss you all! Happy Thanksgiving!


Love to you all!

Jodi

FullnessoftheFaith.com Launches!

Fr. Justin's newest project! Check it out, embed it in your site, make a purchase (10% of all sales are donated to Orthodox Christian charities!) Enjoy and check out the full site...

FullnessoftheFaith.com

Uncle Josh ... underway

Well, now I have one little brother at boot camp and one headed to sea for the next six months!

Jacob has joined the Marines and has been in basic training for the past few weeks. He will graduate January 4th and I am sure that cannot come soon enough for him!

Yesterday, Joshua, who is a lieutenant and the operations officer on the USS Germantown, got underway for a six-month ship tour. You can guess where he is headed! There was a great post on Josh and Tina's (and Otto's) blog about his departure (see our links for their blog!!). Justin read the blog post to the boys and me over breakfast this morning.

The boys are pretty interested in what their "soldier" uncles (sorry Jeremiah, Quinton, Adam, Jordan and John!) are up to. They regularly ask us if Uncle Josh has ever had to kill a bad guy. Sunday night we called him to say good-bye and they got to ask him for themselves. Uncle Josh told them that he had never had to kill anyone.

This morning, after hearing about Uncle Josh's ship setting off, the boys retreated to the basement and into the land of make-believe. Justin and I heard them talking and playing. Turns out Elias was pretending to be Uncle Josh and Asher was pretending to be Aunt Tina! Asher had this green fisherman-type hat on. ??

I told Asher that he could pretend to be Uncle Jacob, because he was a soldier too. He asked me if Uncle Jake was on a ship, to which Justin (seeing that being on the ship was part of the highlight of this play) replied, "Marines frequently have to be on ships. Uncle Josh's ship carries marines."

At this time we hear Elias yell from the basement, "I tried to tell him that but he wouldn't listen. He still wants to be Aunt Tina!"

Then Asher says with his special little smile--you know the one, "No, I am going to be Aunt Tina." And then he was off again!

God bless you Uncle Josh, wherever you are this night. Our prayers are with you!

Jodi

Go VOLS!

That is the UT Volunteers for those of you who didn't know. And let me tell you that if you aren't a UT fan around these parts, you aren't anybody!

A man at our church, Cardy, called Justin Friday night and asked him if he and the boys wanted to go to a UT scrimmage basketball game. Well, I was on my way out the door to meet with a doula client and Justin had all three boys. He decided to "carpe diem", packed the kids in the van and headed for Knoxville. He wore Hayden in the backpack and the big guys had their own seats! They loved the game. It just happened to be the largest crowd for a scrimmage game in TN history, with a whopping 19 thousand people. Kudos to Justin for single-parenting his way through a massive crowd of people and a noise and energy-filled stadium!

Justin said Hayden did well except he lookied a bit worried when things got really loud. Asher said his favorite part of the game were the "pom poms." "Sometimes they spin," he said. "And sometimes they don't." I think this experience has definitely started them on their way to becoming die-hard UT fans. Thanks Cardy!

Sprite and popcorn at the game! "I love sports!" Elias tells us.


Go BIG ORANGE!


Love to all,

Jodi

Sticker Tree!

OK, we know it is "trick or treat," but try telling that to Asher. He thought for sure he was supposed to say, "Sticker tree!" Who knew that this simple, seemingly strange pairing of words would open the floodgates of sweets and treats!

The boys went trick-or-treating for the first time (really). OK, we went around to friends' apartments at SVS the past couple years, but this was their first adventure into the "neighborhood" with other miniature super heroes, military children, talking animals, high-society royalty, cartoon characters, and the like. When I told them earlier in the day that we would go trick-or-treating after Vespers Elias hugged me tightly and said, "You are the best Mom ever!" As if I wasn't sure he felt that way!

Grandaddy bought the boys these costumes, Batman and a "soldier" as Elias likes to say. We limited our jaunt to one smallish neighborhood without traffic, where the houses are close together and where there were many other little ones with which we could roam the streets. After we hit every house with an inviting porch light aglow, we headed to the Skate Church down the street from our house for some free hot cocoa and some running around the indoor skate park. The boys had a blast slipping and sliding on the ramps!

Enjoy these snapshots from our much-needed night of fun with the kiddos:

Ready to go...


The trick-or-treaters! You wouldn't believe how many comments Fr. Justin got on his "cool, awesome, interesting, original" costume!


Oatmeal Pie ... Sweet!


"Mom, look what I got!"


That's one tired super hero!


Love to you all!

Jodi