Ode to My Mom on Mother's Day

A year ago you were feeling tired and sick

We didn't know what was wrong.

The news they gave hit me in the head like a brick

Because none of us knew "how long..."

 

I didn't really cry throughout all of the steps

Just focused on what had to be done.

But there was one day that I broke down and wept

At that thought that my mommy could be gone.

Infusions, then surgery, then chemo began

We didn't know what to expect.

But even through all of the pain and exhaustion

You still stood strong and erect.

Week after week, first chemo, then shots

You did it without any fuss.

From the outside it looked like nothing was wrong

Your plan to protect the rest of us?

March 1st the whole world heard me holler YIPPEE

That the pump was officially out.

No more chemo, no more shots, it's finally done

Now one more CT scan to 'find out'.

The news we hoped for: "You're clean" finally came

And I finally let myself cry.

The tears kept coming no matter what I did

When I realized my mommy wasn't going to die.

'Whatever it takes' was our anthem this year

Thank you chemo for doing your job.

My girls have their Nana all better again

More lake trips with corn on the cob.

 

Now it's Mother's Day - almost a full year later

As I write this I still shed a tear.

For even though we aren't together this day

You're.  Still.  HERE.

I love you

April Apriori One Day Sale

     It seemed easier to blog about this rather than post it all on FB.  On Monday April 23, 2012, Apriori will be having a 24 hour sale.  There are 3 main items that will be at a 45% discount.  Sadly, the skin care line is not on sale but there are a couple of other products, WHICH I LOVE, that might be of interest. 
      Just give me a holler if you want to order any of these - or anything else for that matter.  $200 orders get free shipping but if we don't get to $200 we will all just share the minimal shipping cost.

1.  Bronzing and Translucent Powders - as a set $37.40 (reg $68)

Pure, gentle minerals provide sheer perfecting coverage and protection from the effects of environmentally induced aging. Unique ingredients from the NutrientReservoir™ nourish skin, while natural minerals provides gentle, physical protection. Use alone, or layer with Pure Perfecting Veil and Pure Perfecting Powder for added coverage and protection.

Translucent | Sheer, natural coverage gives a translucent glow.

Bronzing | Sheer, natural coverage gives a sun-kissed glow to all skin tones or all over coverage for darker skin tones.

2.  LifeoxyLEAN Weight Loss Accelerator - 60 tablets for $17.60 (reg $32)
           
Are you losing the weight loss battle? Get help with LifeoxyLEAN! This all-natural dietary supplement is the perfect weight loss buddy. Five complexes and 18 key ingredients help to suppress appetite, burn fat, stimulate metabolism, support digestion, support urinary tract health, detox fluids, and energize cells for accelerated weight loss.*
*These statements have not been evaluated by the Food and Drug Administration. This product is not intended to diagnose, treat, cure or prevent any disease. 

P-A-D C: Before & After

The Playroom. Regardless of how many organizational systems I employ and how efficient I set it up, the room gets trashed. Regularly. I have been cleaning up the girls' messes for, well, 6 years really and I found myself getting more and more frustrated the older they got. A couple of months ago I started making them clean the playroom.

The first time they were responsible for it the task took them 5 hours. The first hour was spend rolling around crying hysterically about how hard it was going to be. Then they finally got to work.

The length of time it takes to clean this room seems to be in direct proportion to the amount of effort Ellis puts in. Not only is does she struggle in the 'focus' department, but she's not very committed to hard work. At all.

Here are the before and after pictures of the playroom. I took the before pix on the 20th like I was supposed to but couldn't take the after pix until today because they just couldn't pull it together to get it done in 3 hours yesterday.

P-A-D C: Something you wore

In honor of "Fancy Day" at BLS I wore a skirt. I normally wear skirts in the spring and summer - maybe early fall. However, my butt has gotten so big I am tired of people looking at it in jeans so I hid it under a skirt today.

Yeah, That's The Ticket!

Logan and Ellis have always been pretty good eaters. Aside from a period of time where Logan suffered an easily triggered gag reflex, I haven't had to worry too much about their nutrition. As long as the food isn't too spicy or too mushy we are in business and Sir Gags-a-Lot hasn't made an appearance in quite some time.

However, because there are developmental stages in a child's life where she chooses to exercise her "power muscle" I have set up a boundary for dinner and dessert that eliminates any arguments over food: The Dessert Ticket.

For Logan, dessert is her sole purpose for living. She looks forward to dessert the second she gets up in the morning the second she finishes her dessert from the night before. Because she will fill herself up on bread and then fail to get any vegetable or protein in her growing body, I determine a "Dessert Ticket" for each meal and then leave it up to the girls to decide if it's worth it to them.

Tonight we had spagetti & meatballs, vegetables and french bread. Logan asked what the Dessert Ticket was. Before I could tell her, Ellis said, "How about all of the vegetables. That's a good idea." Agreed. The vegetables would be the ticket tonight.

Not 10 seconds later, she had changed her mind. That was no longer a good idea. In fact it "didn't make any sense" to Ellis. She made tearful statements like "This isn't a good idea. It's not a good idea at all. It's a bad idea. A very bad idea." While I didn't capture the majority of her adorable and heart breaking melt down at the table, this is the tail end where she asserts that this is no longer a good idea at all.

Click to watch the video:

The Dessert Ticket Video

P-A-D C: 5:00

Today's photo-a-day challenge shot is titled: 5:00. I planned to take a picture of us eating dinner at 5:00 but it was spagetti night and neither of the girls were wearing clothes. Instead, I took a picture of the clock in our home that gets the most glances.

This clock has caused some controversy among my family members; my dad in particular. I had the clock hung a few months ago but it fell off the wall. The crash caused the hour hand to slip out of place so they minute and hour hands are no longer synchronized. You'll notice in this photo that the minute hand is straight up 5:00 while the hour hand is about 5:15. This drives my dad insane. It hasn't bugged me enough yet to do anything about it but my guess is that during my parents' next visit, this gets dismantled and fixed.

P-A-D C: A Smile

I couldn't choose between them so I am posting 2 :)

P-A-D C: Neighborhood and bedside

I forgot to post on March 3 so will double dip in this blog. To keep them in order I will post in reverse:

This is today, March 4th's picture. My bedside table is actually a lamp table and it has my alarm clock, a couple of bibles, a baggie of pencils with "Ellis DeJong" on them along with a hair pretty and "The Help". I am actually reading it now and look forward to doing so. It feels good to read again.

MARCH 3, 2012: Neighborhood

This is the picture of our neighborhood from the front of our house. We live in an awesome cul-de-sac with kids the same age as mine. We moved in last June and absolutely love it here. If you look closely past the stop sign and inbetween the two houses you can see The Home Depot.

Here's a closer look. Yes, we are THAT close to the highway. If I think about it, I can hear it. Mostly, I don't. Hear it or think about it.

P-A-D C: Fruit

Fruit that never goes bad :-)

March Photo-a-Day Challenge: UP

Apparently there is a world-wide challenge for the entire month of March. Someone made a list of themes and you are to take a photo using that the theme of the day and post it somewhere. Since I LOVE photography and I LOVE a challenge, I'm in. This is March 1: Up.

Desperately Seeking Dry Nights

I need help. If you are a parent of a child who does not wet their bed, then I need to hear your secrets because I HAVE HAD IT!

I thought by now Ellis would be out of pull ups at night and keeping her bed dry. Not only is this not the case but the other morning she woke up and had filled her pull-up SO FULL it leaked and got her bed wet. Very wet.

This is new to me because Logan has a bladder of steel and was night time trained before she was day time trained. She just did it herself. Ellis, on the other hand, is a pants wetter. She will even get right next to the toilet and pee her pants thinking she can't make it those few more inches.

We have done the sticker chart, money, praise up the yang. Do I just remove the pull up and do boot camp? I am at my wits end!

So, mom's of dry bed kids, how do we get out of the pull up and in to dry panty nights? Feel free to FB me, email me at kdejong803@msn.com, or leave a message on this blog. But do it fast because we are almost out of pull ups!

Parenting 101 - take notes

I am task oriented. While this has caused me some relational discomfort in the past, it has served me well in many other areas. However, there are a few detestable tasks for me in life:

• Yard work - any kind


• Cleaning floors


• Meal planning/grocery shopping/putting away groceries


• Picking up the same mess over and over and over and over

The dread I experience as one of these tasks looms over my head and I come to terms with the fact that no one else is going to do it is enough to make me want to run away sometimes. So here is how I have figured out how to cope with each of these loathesome details:

• Yard work = hire someone else to do it


• Cleaning floors = do it once every 4 months - if that.


• Meal planning etc = no coping skills. Still hate it.


• Picking up messes = throw it all away

This may sound harsh, wasteful, and even irresponsible until you examine the method to my madness. Case in point: the girls' bedroom. Now, I know they are going to mess up the play room. That's what it's for. But their bedroom isn't hard to keep clean. In theory.

Last night, I told them the room needed to be cleaned and I left it at that. When I went in to read to them, that little tidbit of information had clearly not been understood as a directive. Instead of getting mad... again and picking it all up... again, I went to get the laundry basket. I came back in the room and calmly started putting everything that was not put away properly in the basket.

They FREAKED!

"WHAT ARE YOU DOING?!?!?!?" they both shrieked. I told them that if they weren't going to take care of their things, they would lose the privilege of having those things until they could prove that they were responsible and appreciative enough to have them. They both started in with "I'm not happy now!" and of course had to quantify their unhappiness. This was clearly an italian level unhappiness. They cried, Ellis kept quantifying, Logan actually apologized. She was very upset because she knew every single thing that was in the basket. Although Ellis couldn't remember if any of it was actually hers, she still carried on like a southern mother at a funeral.

This morning, Logan woke up still crying about it. She really wanted her robe. I told her I was not throwing those things away but that they would have to earn them back. Here's the new deal:

If I come in your room at reading time and it's a mess, everything not in it's place goes in that basket. If the room is in order, they may each choose one item out of the basket. Tonight, when I went in to read, it was clean. I brought in the basket and Logan went right for the robe. Ellis started to pick out her old, disgusting slippers until she spied one of her dresses and snagged that. They formulated a plan for tomorrow night and strategized about who would pick out what item.

This plan is working out famously! Why didn't I do this sooner? The responsibility is completely on them, takes the frustration out of it for me, and teaches good stewardship of your belongings. Now if I could just do something about their crumbs at the breakfast bar...

Quantification

Is that even a word? I don't know if this is unique to my children but I sure do enjoy it and want to share it with the world.

My daughters quantify everything. Hunger, emotions, magnitudes... you name it, they can quantify it. I think it all began a year or two ago and stemmed from this book

The Nutbrown Hares profess their love for each other with competing measurements: "As high as I can hop" or "As high as I can reach". It's a sweet book that seems to have inspired my daughters to employ measurement as a method of emphasis.

It started with phrases like "I love you 39". Then the ante was upped to "I love you a hundred" or "a thousand". Not to be outdone by the other, it elevated to a million and a zillion. "I love you a zillion" is commonly heard around our home. Other common phrases are, "I love God a zillion but I only love the devil 10." That quickly changed to zero when I reminded them what the Bible said about that.

Some of the funniest are when they quantify their disdain, disappointment, or disgust. "I am a zillion unhappy" or "I am a hundred-thousand-million sad/angry/disappointed/frustrated".. Just pick an emotion and fill in the blank.

They didn't know how to raise the bar after they hit a zillion so they have created an even larger quantity: Italian. Yes, "I am italian hungry" is now a normal expression among the DeJong girls.

Tonight after I put the girls to bed Ellis was angry because I didn't show her the picture in the book I was reading to them. She was horsing around, had taken off her glasses, not paying attention so I didn't wait for her to get situated again. She just missed it. As I walked out of her room and sat back down on the couch I heard her say, "You made me Italian sad and mad!" Which is unfortunate. It's got to be so exhausting to be italian mad. And sad. And... well, anything, really.

Reading Rainbow

Getting the girls ready for school in the mornings has historically been a challenge. If our morning routine had a theme song it would probably be "Flight of the Bumblebee". In fact, there have been moments that I could swear I have heard the song playing in the background as we hustle through breakfast, teeth brushing, getting dressed, hair, packing up and racing to the car.

Just as we got a great routine going and I was no longer raising my voice and clapping my hands (shameful, I know) a new element was introduced into our arsenal of distractions: chapter books.

Rewind a minute: September-ish of 2010, Logan started reading. She was 4 and a half. First it was limited to the 3 and 4 letter words I would write down for her. Then I heard about BOB books so we test drove those and OH. MY. She took to those like a pig to mud. Here is her first attempt at a BOB book:

Confession: I have not been a stellar model when it comes to reading for pleasure. I haven't considered myself a "reader" for easily over 10 years, if not more. I used to love reading. I devoured books. I was one of 2 kids who could read entering kindergarten. I was a reader all the way through middle school (V.C. Andrews books being a favorite) but somewhere between middle and high school my fire went out. I have no idea why.

In spite of my poor example, Logan has become a reader. Her Kindergarten conference was eye opening. Her teacher (who I deem The Kinder Whisperer and a bit of a teacher 'Messiah') gave her a solid report which I was thrilled to hear. Her one concern was that Logan wouldn't be challenged enough by the reading they were doing in class. She looked me right in the eye and all but made me 'pinky swear' that I would provide Logan with challenging reading material at home and to really make this a part of our every day lives.

When Mrs. Schuldheisz tells me to do something, I do it. She mentioned the "Junie B. Jones" series by Barbara Park so I got right on Amazon and ordered one for Logan for Christmas. When she opened it I told her it was her very first chapter book and that Mrs. Schuldheisz recommended it for her (instant street cred). She didn't pick it up right away so I read her the first chapter out loud. After that it was GAME ON.

Once she started reading Junie B she couldn't put it down. We read that first one together with me reading some and her reading some but she finished her first chapter book, all by herself on February 2 - a Junie B. that she checked out from the school library She returned it back to the school library that next Wednesday and brought home a new Junie B. She started reading that book at 3:30 and by 5:00, with several interruptions, had finished that one! She returned that one the next day but didn't get library time for another week so we had to go to the Mid Columbia Library to get MORE books. I am having to really push her to read books other than Junie B so she checked out 4 and I checked out a Clementine book by Pennypacker per the first grade teacher, Mrs. Stiles' recommendation.

Since Thursday, Feb 9, Logan has finished another Junie B, a Cam Jansen chapterbook, and has started on Clementine... which is proving to be much more of a challenge than the others... and she has only been at home, awake, for a total of 9 hours! She can be found with her nose in a book nearly every spare moment she has. Yesterday morning, I got out of the shower and found her in the hall outside my bathroom door using the bathroom light to read at 6:30a.m.

Logan is participating in a reading challenge for kids K-8 called the Countdown Club. If she reads for 10 hours during the month of February she will earn a free pass to Silverwood Theme Park. As of the time of this post, Logan has tallied 8 hours and it's not even the middle of February yet!

I think a big part of what sparked this new found obsession was our new bed time routine. I hadn't been consistent with our 20 minutes a day even though I am fully aware of how crucial that is for my kids' development as readers and thinkers. After the visit with Mrs. Schuldheisz (and after the 4+ weeks of kids being sick) we instituted a new bed time ritual. Here's how it goes:

• 6:30p - both girls go in for pjams, teeth brushed, potty, drink, snuggle buddies


• 6:45p - free reading time = reader's choice. Must be done while in bed.


• 7:00p - Mom comes in and reads until 7:15-ish


• 7:15ishp - lights out

This has guaranteed the girls both a minimum of 30 minutes of reading per day between their personal reading and hearing me read (which I believe is one of the biggest links to literacy later in life). It also provides a 'winding down' time for them. They must be laying down under covers while I read to them which has been most helpful at getting them settled and sleepy.

Even Ellis (who was resistant to even learning her letters and their sounds) is now fake reading much more frequently and actually sitting still to listen to me read.

I encouraged Logan to try some of the Nancy Drew and the Clue Crew books but she did the proverbial 'Judge a book by it's cover' and opted out of those. I think that will be my next bed time read to them after we finish Clementine. It would tickle my toes to see her reading the big kid Nancy Drew or Hardy Boys mysteries some day. For now, I will just let her live vicariously through Junie B's naughtiness and enjoy every minute she has a book in her hand. She has reminded me how much freedom reading provides and has inspired me to try to rekindle (no pun intended) my love affair with literacy that fizzled so many years ago. Step one: The Help. I bought it :)

National Holidays

I know most people were aware of Groundhogs Day this week but Saturday was also filled with a few lesser known holidays. As I ventured out on the day before Super Bowl Sunday I quickly learned that the following holidays were celebrated at the following places:

Costco: Everybody in Benton County Come To Costco, Get a Cart Whether You need it Or Not, and Drive it Right Down The Middle of the Aisle Day. Also known as None of the Sample Stations Have any Samples Ready Day.

The Mall: Bring Your Entire Family and Walk 5-Wide Day.

Target: Move Things Around So No One Can Find Them Day... or I guess that should be Month.

Payless Shoes: Make Sure You Don't Have Any Shoes That Fit My Kids in Any of Your Locations Day.

And finally... Pick Up 3 Nails From the Construction Site Across the Street and Have To Buy A Whole New Tire Because Costco Will Only Repair 2 Nail Holes in One Tire and The Tread is Too Worn to Be Covered by their "Warranty" Day. Also known as Spend 100 Bucks I Don't Have Day.

I don't think any of these days are publicized enough to warrant media coverage but I did find myself "celebrating" frequently as I ventured in and out of the corresponding establishments. I'm thinking next Saturday before Superbowl Sunday I will probably just stay home.

Sick of sick.

This blog post is brought to you by Purell - "Only Purell helps kids reach higher..."

During the month of January, I was out of my classroom 32% of the time with sick kids. This means I had a sub, usually a different one each day, with my 'challenging' students a third of the time they were in class.

This started with a round of strep in early October which we cleared up quickly and emerged from relatively unscathed. Since Thanksgiving, we have had illness knocking on our door, prowling around our home, stalking us - every 3 weeks. The majority of my blog posts seem to be about sick kids.

Although this is frustrating, to say the least, it's not nearly as troublesome as some of the comments and implications that have been directed my way: "Boy, your kids sure are sick a lot. Have you had them checked out?" "Gee, you guys sure get hit A LOT. What's going on?" "Wow, sick again? You can't catch a break!"

Perhaps I am just paranoid but I am wondering if there are CPS calls being made behind my back since sick kids is CLEARLY a sign of poor parenting.

For the record, my kids eat balanced meals, take multivitamins, brush their teeth, go to bed at 7:15 and wash their hands. I wash their clothes, change their sheets, and bathe them regularly. They are just massive face touchers, as am I. I have just built up the teacher/mommy immune system so I don't get stricken with everything like they do.

Because I was starting to wonder if I needed some kind of genetic testing to check for Immune Compromised Disorder (I'm confident there isn't such a thing as ICD. Just sounds smart), I did the next best thing and googled the following: Why do my kids get sick so much?

Here is what I found...

It is normal for young children to have six to eight upper respiratory tract infections and two or three gastrointestinal infections each year. Children in school and day care can often have more (often called day care syndrome). As your child gets older, his immune system will strengthen and he will build up immunity to many common infections and he will get sick less often.

6-8 and 2-3?!? So my kids aren't even in the 80th %ile when it comes to illness! HA! Take THAT Munchausen By Proxy haters! We just need to use more Purell - or 'hanitizer' as E calls it. Maybe a Purell bath now and then in the winter months would keep Mr. Fever Bug at bay.

Every morning I pray that I would be teachable and quick to learn the lessons God has for me through all of this. The relentlessness of the viral attacks is maddening enough that this has to be some kind of refining process for me. Let's hope I learn it fast before my sick days run out!

Beauty is in the name of the beholder

For several months now, Ellis has been obsessed with being beautiful. When I say obsessed, I really mean it. Focused, preoccupied, enthralled - those words don't even begin to express the grip this has on her life.

It started with her hair. The topsy tails, which successfully and fashionably held her growing bangs out of her eyes, slipped into the "not so beautiful" category. This left us with headbands - which do not stay on her tiny head - or "pretties". Barrettes. If I can get the clamp-of-death style ones, they will hold for awhile. Then, throughout the day, they somehow get lost. This usually brings us back to a topsy tail for a few days until we can give it another try. It's also not Rapunzel hair so her hair, in general, defaults to "not so beautiful".

Next came her clothing. Pants, shorts, jeans, and capris all joined the topsy tail in the "not so beautiful" club. It's dresses or skirts - the twirlier the better. She even changes the way she walks when she wears a dress. I decided long ago that clothes weren't going to be a battle unless they were inappropriate so I really let them pick out what they want to wear for the most part. When it's snowing, icing, freezing wind - I require pants. Needless to say, Ellis has felt "not so beautiful" for the past few weeks because of winter weather conditions.

Today, a new one: "The name Ellis is not such a beautiful name." I asked her what she wanted to be called and she said, "Annika". As in Princess Annika from the Princess Barbie cartoons? Regardless of how much I tried to convince her today that Ellis was a beautiful name and that she would probably never meet another Ellis - at least not have one in her class - she is holding strong to that "not so beautiful" stance.

Maybe I shouldn't be taking this so seriously. Perhaps it's just a developmental thing for girls. However, the value she seems to be placing on appearance is a little troubling. In 1 Peter 3 it says,

"Don’t be concerned about the outward beauty of fancy hairstyles, expensive jewelry, or beautiful clothes. You should clothe yourselves instead with the beauty that comes from within, the unfading beauty of a gentle and quiet spirit, which is so precious to God. This is how the holy women of old made themselves beautiful."

While I know Peter was speaking to women, specifically wives, I can't help but feel God's nudging to start really teaching on this during our devotional/prayer time. I know if I don't enlist the help of the Holy Spirit now this monster is going to grow out of control and take her heart captive.

Everything is Meaningless...

Television has always been a big part of my family. Growing up, the TV was pretty much always on. I remember watching Sesame Street, Electric Company, Zoom, and an assortment of cartoons and School House Rock's. This was back in the era when Saturday morning cartoons were "safe" to let your kids watch.

Although I can't give specific examples, I don't feel like it's safe to put on cartoons and let the kids just watch, unsupervised. I think they can get introduced to inappropriate themes, attitudes, and vocabulary way too early.

Before Logan was born I started out with the philosophy of "My kids won't watch anything on TV unless I am sitting right with them." This changed around the time I got pregnant with Ellis and was so sick I would just put in movies for Logan and go writhe in agony on the couch. Eventually, it turned into "only PBS TV" which I still deem as 'safe'. I distinctly remember kind of bragging to a friend that my kids didn't even know who the Backyardigans were and she said, "They will... you just wait."

Then we got cable and Noggin. I remember the first time my kids saw commercials for toys. Their faces lit up like they saw the Messiah. They had no idea such things existed! Enter: materialism. Materialism is a nasty bug that's hard to shake and easy to catch again. For some, it's a plague. For Logan, it's easily justified and soundly debated. Case in point: another infomercial. The conversation went something like this:

Lo: Mom, I have something to tell you. Um, on TV it has these headphones and when you use them you won't disturb others (she said those last 3 words very slowly and emphatically using her hands to mimic punctuation). (pause). And they are less than $50. (pause). Do you think that sounds pretty great?

Me: Sure. And what are you thinking about those headphones?

Lo: Good. I think pretty great. It said, 'Not $200, not $100, not $50 so they put X's on it. (pause). Amazing, right mom? Isn't it amazing?

Me: Well, maybe. How much under $50?

Lo: I'm not sure. (then skipped off losing interest in the whole conversation)

Editors note: Turns out they are just $19.99 plus S&H. They create a perfectly antisocial home environment where the dad can just watch ESPN in peace and block out those pesky family noises. https://www.myzoneheadphones.com/?gclid=COTE0b_S4a0CFQ41hwodLjihTQ

I'm thinking it might be time to start reading to the girls from Ecclesiastes. I could probably use a refresher about how meaningless everything really is myself :)

Nothing To Hide

Right after Logan was born I felt the tug of motherhood pulling me away from teaching and home with my baby. There was one major obstacle in my way though: income. I provided a significant portion of our family's income and I knew it would be impossible to replace that kind of income without having to work long hours to do it.

Enter: Network Marketing. I scoffed, poo-pooed, and ridiculed my friend Shawnna for "selling lipstick" until she introduced me to people who were making 5-digit monthly incomes selling that lipstick.

I tried the products, shared them with friends and - long story short - replaced my teaching income within a year and had an absolute BLAST doing it. So, when I got pregnant with Ellis I was able to resign my postion at Kennewick High and stay home full time with my kids while I "sold lipstick" on the side. I got to partner with my friend Shawnna and really use my giftedness in building a strong team, teaching, and training. Selling is not my giftedness. Thus, the absolute necessity of having a superior product that sells itself.

Shortly after resigning from teaching, the wheels fell off of my life and my business didn't get the attention it needed. As a result, fizzled. I had to go back to working full time. However, even though I wasn't working the business, I had built up such a team that I was still collecting residual income checks for a couple of years.

Network marketing works if you work. The key is finding a company with consumable goods that you can really get behind. After a couple of years, the company I worked for changed the formulations in its products and I could no longer get behind them. I knew how much money could be made but had a really hard time opening my mouth about the products any more.

Enter: Apriori Beauty - thanks again to Shawnna. Shawnna contacted one of the leaders in the first company we worked for and she sent me a sample of this new skin care. It came in a really cool capsule and sat in my closet looking really cool for about 6 months. I had the best intentions to use it but kept finding excuses not to. Finally, Kristin called me and told me about an outrageous sale Apriori was having in August to honor their founder and CEO's birthday. I knew if I was going to get in on this I needed to act right away to take advantage of the incredible sale so I hurried up and tried the teaser in the capsule and absolutely fell in love.

I placed my first order and signed up as a consultant, not planning to sell it, but wanted to be locked in just in case. So I used the product through the fall and as clients from the old company would contact me for orders I would just mention that I had a new line that I thought they would like better. So I gave them one of the capsules I got when I signed up and of course they both loved it.

I still wasn't sure about selling it even though I was completely behind the product and the business model is solid. I had this fear of people saying, "Oh, NOW what are you selling?" "Oh now THIS is the best?" So I just laid low and let people know about it when they asked.

Enter: Nothing To Hide. In November , Apriori launched a new product line of make up. Just foundation, powder and bronzer. That's it. I drug my feet about trying it because I was still in love with my old foundation. However, the previous company had changed that formulation too and I was having a hard time even getting my favorite foundation. So, as my bottle of foundation was dwindling and I was scraping the sides, I knew it was time to pull the trigger and try the Apriori foundation. Oh. My.

Enter: my new source of income. Due to circumstances beyond my control, I am finding myself especially financially burdened as of late. This is one of the largest sources of stress for me. I really value financial security. Not even abundance... just safety. I'm afraid if I don't figure something out quick I am going to have pull my kids out of BLS - the thought of which makes my stomach sick.

So here I am. I am selling skin care again. There. I said it. I guess that makes it official. Here is what I will NOT be doing:

• I am not going to do presentations or home parties (although a girls night with a facial would be fun).


• I am not going to recruit people to do this with me or "under" me.


• I will not be the Apriori Stalker and will not be making phone calls begging for referrals.

I just want to allow people to purchase the really cool $5 teaser capsule and use it at their leisure. If they love it, great. If they don't (which I know will be few and far between) no sweat. It is what it is, it costs what it costs. Use it or don't. I'm not trying to make "gangsta money", just a couple hundred dollars a month to create a bit of a cushion in my budget.

SO! Since it's official, the offer is officially on the table. I have $5 teaser capsules with an extra sample of the amazing scrub available. I also have a website (got it free when I signed up) that you can access: http://www.useloveshare.com/IC/DeJong/. It's free to sign up as a client and you get access to the monthly specials.

That's all for now. I need to recover from this huge leap. I may have pulled a groin.

And now a word from our sponsor...

The month between Thanksgiving and Christmas are admittedly pretty indulgent months.

Lots of sugar, lots of TV watching, and lots of movies. Every year when I pack up the Christmas decorations, I also pack up the Christmas movies - or "specials" as I have referred to them for 40 years. We call it our Christmas detox. The TV goes off and we get back to a balanced diet. This is painful for everyone involved but it usually only takes a few days to for our bodies to forget the sinful pleasures of the holiday season.

Except this year.

The day after Christmas I got everything put away - including the specials - and all seemed to be going according to plan. Then Ellis got sick - for 5 days. Then Logan got sick - for 5 days. Sick kids in our house = TV watching, and lots of it, so the television has been on for two weeks solid.

Because of this, Logan has been introduced to infomercials. She said, "Hey mom... you could get space bags and the Alumawallet and roll over them with your car and your stuff wouldn't get damaged." She has added "Press Dough", "Slushy Magic" and "Wugglepets", which she thought really did "come to life before your very eyes." She is utterly fascinated by every product and is mesmerized by the brilliant marketing techniques. Needless to say, Logan will never be introduced to credit cards. I think there's just wisdom in that. Her flesh is too weak.

This sick has been the most wicked the DeJong girls have ever experienced. I have been in heavy combat with fevers around the clock for nearly two weeks between the two girls. Their poor kidneys and livers are getting a workout from all of the fever reducing meds. Praise God for a couple of things:

1. They are both excellent patients. They take their meds pretty willingly and humor my obsessive-compulsive temperature taking. The only problem was last night at 11:00p when I woke Logan up to take meds and she refused stating that "it's embarrassing". Clearly a fever induced stupor.

2. I have friends who will make runs to the store for me. I ran out of ibuprofen (gasp) and only had the chewable kind. When that triggered the gag reflex in Logan I had my friend Melissa make a liquid ibuprofen run for me. I have friends who talk me off the ledge when I am losing my mind. My friend Shawnna brought me back to sanity when Logan's fever was skyrocketing and reminded me to put her in the tub. She hated every second of it but it worked.

3. So far, I haven't had to clean up any vomit. The Lord has whispered in my ear at just the right times to be near my kids and my OCD with the barf buckets has paid off. With each girl, there was a period of about 2 hours that this horrible virus took over and caused the chills so bad they each vomited. This was not your ordinary vomit. It was so powerful and the duration so long it reminded me of the scene in "Stand By Me" when everyone was throwing up at the pie eating contest and it looked like a barf hose was turned on. Had I not been there with a bucket, it would have been catastrophic. Thank you Jesus.

4. I have learned to trust my ther-MOM-eter. None of our 4 thermometers seem to give me an accurate reading. What has been the most helpful is the ol' cheek-on-the-forehead trick. While it doesn't give me a number to obsess over, it does tell me how many other fever reducing techniques I need to employ.

Although we have now added PINK EYE to the mix of things to medicate, I think we are on the other side of this monster now. I just keep reminding myself that I have kids who are sick with an illness that will pass. There are millions of parents who would pay a lot of money to only have to deal with a fever and a little barf. Seasonal illnesses are nothing compared to the nightmare many parents are living with terminally ill children. God faithfully reminds me to rely on Him by pushing me into positions where I can't handle it. He gives me more than I can bear so I have to give him the load. Too bad that lesson has to hurt so bad each time :)

"And the TRUTH shall set you free."

It's funny... as your kids grow up you really see their character revealed in the little, daily things. Ellis, for instance, has figured out that if she doesn't acknowledge what I have just asked her to do then she has at least 4 or 5 more "asks" before mom's voice changes and she really has to get it in gear. In the Bible, this is called disobedience. Delayed obedience is disobedience. However, I am promoting it and, in the name of character building, this will stop. On the other hand, God made Ellis highly relational, highly compassionate, and hilarious.

And then, there's Logan. Not much of a sense of humor, Logan tends to be easily offended. She does not like extra attention given to her, internalizes every mistake she makes, and needs constant affirmation and feedback to make sure she is doing something right. She 'seeks justice (more on this in a later blog), loves mercy and walks humbly with our God'. No, really... she does. Even at 6. Logan is a truth teller and sees nothing more dishonorable than lies. This is a core family value and is an offense punishable by 2 spanks. Logan has adopted this as her own, personal value as well.

EXHIBIT A: the Santa tree topper.
In her Kindergarten class the teacher asked the children to tell the kids sitting around them what kind of a tree topper they had on their tree. Logan told 2 of her classmates that there was a Santa on top of her tree.
When she got home and realized there was not only no Santa but NO TREE TOPPER AT ALL it sent her into a panic. Fighting back the tears and with a greatly accelerated heart rate she tried to explain that she told the kids at school that we had a Santa on our tree. When I didn't seem as concerned as she was, it only exacerbated the crisis. Being the astute and keenly observant mom that I am, I noticed the intensity in her voice and recognized this as the potential for a major melt down. I calmly said, "There was no room for a tree topper this year."

Logan wailed, "THEN I'LL BE A LIAR! I TOLD THEM WE HAD A SANTA! WE HAVE TO PUT UP A SANTA OR I WILL BE A LIAR!!!"


EXHIBIT B: the crack in the telephone.
Christmas night 2011. After hearing their 1-year-old cousin, Walker, play the drums all day with wooden spoons and pots and pans, Logan wanted to practice her own music. I told her she could do it in my bedroom so it wouldn't be so loud in our echoey living room. Fast forward to dinner. Logan raced through her dinner and quietly left the table (actually, she and E had to sit at the counter because there was no room at my tiny table.)

When she didn't return, I went looking for her and found her sitting on her bed, crying. When I asked her what was wrong she could hardly get the words out because of her "my lungs are too full so I can't get a breath" breathing. She took me into my bedroom and showed me her Aunt Lily's cell phone. It had a significant crack on the face where Logan confessed she had hit it with the wooden spoon on accident.


She was sobbing uncontrollably but I told her she needed to confess it to Lily and ask for forgiveness. She was willing but was confident she would not be able to get the words out. I told her I would help her and went to fetch Lily from the middle of her Christmas dinner.

We showed Lily the phone and before Logan even said anything Lily revealed that the crack had been there prior to their trip to our house and that Walker had done it. The relief on Logan's face (and mine) was priceless but she still needed to compose herself before she returned to the family. She said she felt so bad all during dinner because of the phone and could hardly finish her dinner. Once she calmed down she slunk into the playroom, turning her head so those at the dinner table couldn't see her face. When I checked on her a few minutes later she was still crying and said she was embarrassed and didn't want everyone to think she was a "bad kid".

I assured her that not only did no one think that of her but that we were all proud of her for telling the truth and for the remorse she felt for a mistake she didn't even make! That made her feel better, all was restored and she has let that one go.








EXHIBIT C: the dictionary smuggler.


For Logan's birthday, her Nana and Grampa got her a Children's Illustrated Dictionary. Editor's note: Logan has been sitting with the dictionary this morning and started taking notes on it. She has made it through the letter E before 9:15a.

Last night, she asked if we could read from the dictionary before bed time. We had done a movie night and it was late so I told her there would be no story, just straight to bed. Editor's note: please do not call CPS or Jan Schuldheisz's report this. It is not common practice and I will see to it that the ENTIRE dictionary gets read.

I didn't think anything else of it until about 20 minutes after I left the girls room for the night. Logan called me back in, "Mom? I need you to come here." When I entered the room, she said, "I need to tell you something" and lifted up her pillow revealing...... the dictionary. She confessed (calmly this time) "I hid it under my pillow because I was going to read it after you left - and I did read a little of it - and I just needed to tell you."

My little truth teller could have just put the book back on her nightstand and I would have never known. The guilt, however, was eating her alive and she had to confess it in order to go to sleep. Of course, I remained calm, showed no disappointment, thanked her for her confession and told her she was completely forgiven and this would be wiped clean. She was relieved and went right to sleep after that.

A few of observations about this incident:

1. Ellis watched the whole thing and saw how to handle it when you sin. Hoping this modeling wears off on #2.

2. Rarely do I find Logan deliberately trying to deceive me. I can probably count the times on one hand. The fact that the Holy Spirit is working in her enough to cause that kind of an immediate purge of guilt thrills me.

3. Lord willing, she will only ever smuggle just books into her room. I hope she never calls me in, lifts the pillow and reveals some kind of controlled substance or paraphernalia. I may not remain so calm.

Now if only I could bottle this character trait and spray it all over my students...