Ham Diggity Dog It

A few weeks ago Jackson, my 5 year old, came up with the Hamdog. It's origins started like most do, from a poor moment and the need for creativity.

We were low on groceries, the kind of low where you have food in the house but nothing goes together. We did not have any bread for sandwiches, no mac & cheese (a go to around here), and no hotdogs for the hotdog buns we happened to have. For some reason we had deli meat, which we never have in our house.

Now Jackson has never been a fan of hotdogs. Seriously. Like never. What boy doesn't like hotdogs? My boy, apparently. So we had a moment of exasperation from me, "ugh, nothing goes together" and a moment of inspiration from Jackson, "let's put the ham in the hotdog bun." And the Hamdog was born. Put some shredded cheese on it and everyone in the house is happy. Hamdog with cheese coming right up.

  

 

This idea, like many in our house, went down the path of Jackson's entrepreneur brain. He wants to build a Hamdog stand to sell Hamdog's. His dad and him talk about it nonstop. He has to plan it out via a drawing. He enlists the help from his handy grandpa, Paw. And, before we know it, we have decided to do a yard sale on a January Saturday morning, really for the purpose of selling our junk, but also to launch his new business.

And Jackson is stoked beyond stoked. He learned how to progress a business from an idea to solid form. He brainstormed, decided the price, came up with the toppings, prepared, served, used customer service skills, and handled the money. He also branded the business name "Hamdog It". And most importantly he followed through. In a world where someone can start a business by buying a domain name with little commitment more than deciding the URL he grasped his little hands around a concept, believed in it, and made it happen.

Obviously this isn't possible without the help of us, the parents, but beyond that, without the help of good people. Time and time again we saw people walk up to a yard sale, where they would have most likely bargained down to the penny on a hundred dollar piece, soften their hearts and immediately respond to a good old fashion lemonade stand. When Jackson asked, "Would you like a Hamdog?" Most of our customers initial reaction was a no thank you, especially because they had no idea what a Hamdog was. But as soon as we told them it was Jackson's first business and how he came up with the idea himself, they melted. Some started out buying a flavored water he was also selling. As soon as they saw him prepare a Hamdog for another customer, they quickly changed their minds and ordered one as well.

Hamdog It's 1st Customer

A great family we met. They all ended up with a Hamdog eventually!

Hamdog It sold out. He made $36. He is hooked.

Jackson's 1st Transaction

The next morning we counted the money, talked about where it all came from, what is most important, and my big boy tithed for the first time. Yeah, I'm a proud mama.

Turning Lemons into Orange Juice

My, oh my, two posts in the same week! Who am I and what have I done with my slacker self? Don't worry, I'm sure this new found brain surge of creativity will die out soon enough. Let's ride this train as long as it will take us. So here goes another one.... :)

This post is dedicated to all those people who can use the restroom in peace and if they do get that peace it is without fear that something disastrous is occurring throughout the house. I'll get to that in a moment.

Let's close our eyes and imagine a house full of children. Happy, well dressed, clean teethed, mohawked children. Yeah, that's right, in my dreams my kids would be rockin' the hawk. Don't judge. The kids would be playing in a toy room full of well organized toys, none of which came from the dollar store or McDonald's. How I despise McDonald's toys. This toy room is fantastic because as soon as the children are done with a toy, the toy grows legs (if it did not already have such limbs), and walks itself back to it's colorfully labeled box. If I did have to clean anything, it would stay spotless for the whole week. That's a little ridiculous, let's just shoot for an hour, because that, in itself, would be a miracle in my house. Ok, let's open those eyes before I fall asleep.

So, as you can guess, this comes no where close to resembling reality. While 1/3 of my kids are usually mohawked, 2/3 might have brushed their teeth, and I'm pretty sure all 3 are happy (except for when they are screaming over a recent injury, which happens often) the rest seems like such a distant dream, like back when I slept. Dreams come true, I wholeheartedly believe this, but sometimes one must wait a very, very, very long time. In the meantime I organize, and reorganize to get my family of 5 and my household of 8 to fit into our home. I surface clean, because a I leave one room semi-spotless the little rascals are following behind messing everything up again leaving very little time to get to the deep cleaning. And often times, throughout my house, one can hear me asking the question "Really? Really?" or declaring my favorite phrase lately "aye-yi-yi!" to some munchkin who feels like putting his own personal spin on the look of a room.

This leads me to my fantastic potty break this morning. I'll leave some details to be assumed but let's just say I was actually done within the first minute of my visit to the loo but chose to sit an additional 2 or 3 minutes to finish playing a game on my phone. I had two kids in school and only one roaming around the house at the time. And this was my moment of quiet time. I chose to assume my two year old was behaving perfectly even though he was quiet as a mouse. Yeah, I know better, but I really wanted to finish that game (sigh).

As I come into the kitchen I am exposed to my lemons of the day, figuratively. Levi, little sweetheart that he is, who loves to do all the big kid things, has filled his cup with water from the refrigerator door...multiple times...and has dumped water and ice all over my kitchen floor. "Really? Really?" fly from my mouth. I'm a huge proponent of a child cleaning up after himself to negatively reinforce the fantastic thing he just did. So I grabbed the rag towels we always seem to need for monstrous messes and quickly realized that we don't have enough for this Godzilla and there is no way Levi can clean this one up. Levi's job quickly turned to picking up the ice cubes and mine was to soak up the water.

As I'm on my hands and knees, mumbling under my breath, frustration of never being able to catch up, let alone get ahead, going through my very being, I had an orange juice moment. I'm staring at this floor that is quit frankly disgusting recalling how many times in the last few days I have walked over it and stated (in my head, or course....why would I want someone to hold me accountable!) that this floor was in grave need of a mopping.

God spoke to me then. Well, I'm not much of a "I hear God speak clearly" person. I think God pokes holes through the fog of thoughts and muddle of activity going on in my brain and allows certain ideas or words to become clear. This is what became clear, He is God and can use anything as an opportunity.

Really, God? Did you really just use my sons mischief as a way to get me down on my hands and knees to clean this floor? Probably not. But with the right attitude, the one with vision seen through the Lord's lens, and with His help any lemon can be made into orange juice. Why orange juice? Well, anyone can turn lemons into lemonade. Only God can turn them into orange juice.

Hope God gives you some orange juice moments this week,
                                                                             
Cat

Sweet Snow Sledding Stitches

So it's been a while since I have posted on this blog, to say the least. To be exact it's been 11 months since my one and only post I have ever blogged. Chalk this up to another one of my fails. Another one of my bright ideas that runs hot through my blood but cools very quickly as soon as I realize I have overextended myself. So why, oh why, am I doing this again to myself? Because it's a brand new year, it's 2013, and everything looks possible again.

Well, that's one reason. The real extent of it is far deeper. I love my family and want to document them. I love my job as a mom and I want to voice that. I love my position at home, but can get frustrated by inabilities to be a creative accomplished adult, so I'm finishing this one thing every week (hopefully). I love my Lord, and truly feel like my life would not be so blessed without my total faith in Him. This blog, although mostly about my life is really about my life through Him. This is a reminder for me to remember that it isn't about me, because I can't do this alone. This is to show myself and others that if I did try to do this by myself I would surely run on empty. Instead, I am choosing to run on Him.

So how does one start documenting and blogging after almost a year break? I'll start with this last Christmas break. For the first time my family of 5 plus my parents and brother (and some additional friends and family later in the week) decided to experience a white Christmas. We were hoping to get away from the chaos of running around and last minute errands so that we can enjoy the blessing of God's gift to us in the form of a baby. Let's just say "mission accomplished!" This trip was that and more... and in some cases more than we bargained for.

It started with the packing and prep work to get out the door. We rented a cabin at Zephyr Point in South Lake Tahoe from the Saturday before Christmas to the Sunday after, so, needless to say, we had a lot to prepare for. Our goal was to exit our driveway at noon on that Saturday. Yeah, that was likely to happen. We finally left at 2. Let me clarify, we left our driveway but did not actually head to our destination. I still needed to get snow chains. The chains I had in my garage did not fit my "special" tires. So we went to an auto parts store. I show them my owners manual stating the size tires I have. Their eye brow lifts and open mouths did not help to comfort me in my already frazzled state. Apparently my run-flat tires on my 2005 Honda Odyssey Touring were more than an odyssey to these veteran car folks. They had absolutely no idea which snow chains I should use. So I call the number in my owners manual. Finally after much explaining I get the part number that I need. And, of course, they are out of stock at that store. But, yay, another store has it, and that's on our way to Tahoe... sweet! Finally seems like something, sort of, is going our way. Off we go to the next auto store. Luckily the lovely gentleman who helped me noticed that I wouldn't have enough clearance once they were installed and referred me to the same size chains but in the cable form. Woo hoo, now we are on our way.... at 3pm!

Our drive was going absolutely great until we hit this...

 

yes, that's a beautiful view, no, those cars are not moving. Apparently I-80 was closed so everyone and their mom was using 50 to get to Tahoe. That, along with chain controls and some not-so-smart people stopping in the middle of the road to put their chains on, turned our 3 hour tour into a 9 hour car ride. A few saving graces... the view was spectacular, for two out of three of our boys this was their first glimpse of snow, my husband was a great Lincoln Navigator, the DVD player is a great distraction, it was nap time for our youngest most of the way, and we were all together, which, for us, is always the best situation.

 

What kept us going the whole time was the thought of our boys waking up to a snowy wonderland. After finally getting to the cabin around midnight, and unloading, we headed to bed around 1am. And what kept us going came to fruition when I came down the stairs in the morning and saw this...

 

 

It was all worth it when Jackson, our 5 year old, said to me "I'm so glad this isn't a dream because this is the best day ever." Yeah, your right son, it's a pretty good day.

 

Our week was spectacular, full of sledding, snow fortress building, movies, games, friends and family. We celebrated Christmas with one of my best ideas to date (if I do say so myself). We had a birthday party for Jesus. After the kids opened up their one present on Christmas eve, which is always pajamas or equivalent (robes and slippers this year)...

 

Levi in robe and slippers

 

Jackson (not too happy) and Alexander (always happy, in pictures at least)

 

...and were sent to bed...

 

...my husband and I decorated for a birthday party.

 

 

Christmas morning was, of course, amazing...

 

Jackson's new minecraft shirt

 

Alexander's angry birds hat

 

Levi's elmo backpack

But what happened the next day was more than we bargained for...

 

 

...our little Levi hit his head on the metal railing of a bed and got 5 stitches. He screamed like crazy, blood was everywhere, but he calmed quickly and handled it like a champ. He only cried again when he was pissed off at being held down in urgent care while they put the stitches in. Yeah, that's our 3rd child. Stubborn, persistent, and first to get stitches. Not a bad record for our family of three boys I'd say.

 

Overall, this trip was amazing and exactly what we needed... quiet and slow so we could fully enjoy the wonders of a baby born to save the world.

 

Here's a few more gems from the week...

 

 

Mike & Alexander Sledding

 

Alexander, Jackson, & Mr. Snowman

 

Levi's Icicle Delivery

 

Matt helps with the Snow Fortress Icicles

 

Alexander being his normal self

 

Real Snow Cones!

 

Minecraft Lego's... Jackson's in heaven!

 

Family

 

Snow Angel

 

The Hernandezez

 

We were so blessed to have these moments and to share them with some amazing people. Thanks to all who shared it with us, helped to make it easier and enjoyable, and truly love our chaos!

 

Running on Him,

                         Cat