Phillips Ponderings

For my birthday last month, Julie got me tickets to Jimmy Buffet at Comerica Park.  The concert was last night.  We got a babysitter and went down a little early to gather in the atmosphere.  Parking was worse than we thought as there was a convention of Jehovah's Witnesses.  We did make it to the park by 6:20, just enough time to see the tailgating and take some pictures.  The entire parking lot in front of the stadium was full of parrot heads.  There were hula skirts, leis, and even a few pirates.






 We got nosebleed seats, which was fine because we were gonna see Jimmy Buffet!  It actually turned out quite well since we could see right down on the stage.

Waiting for the show to start.

The view.

The show started with John Fogarty.  We recognized some of his songs, and enjoyed the music, but the real show was about to begin.

Jimmy started out with Summertime Blues (Alan Jackson).  He play a bunch of his well known stuff, but did others like Scarlet Begonias, It's 5 O'clock Somewhere, and Knee Deep (which he had recorded with Zac Brown Band).

The music was upbeat, and the crowd was laid back singing along with every song.  He sang from 9:15 to 11:30 with an encore.  It was a pure rush of dopamine.  I have never experienced 2 hours go by faster than this.  I was disappointed to see it finish.  We had a great time, definitely a concert worth repeating sometime.  Next time maybe in the front row!

The days are long, but the years are short.  I've heard that quote and I really do believe it.  Because, yes sometimes the day is long and I am counting down the hours until kids are in bed and I can relax in peace (or get something done without them tearing it apart 2 seconds later.)  But, man the years do fly by.  Somehow 5 years have passed since I first became a mom.  I am really not sure where the time has gone.  My baby boy isn't so much a baby anymore.  He is a big boy who is five and will be going to school all day every day starting this September.  Yes, some days are long and he can really test me.  But I wouldn't trade him for anything.  Kyper is a joy.  He is an amazing little man.  He is social and most often kind.  He is smart and asks a lot of questions.  He is a great big brother.  He loves Jesus.  Yup, I am going to repeat myself.  He is a joy!

We couldn't let this big of birthday go by without some sort of celebration.  So, we decided to go all out and celebrate it 3 times!

We happened to be in west Michigan the weekend before his birthday, so my mom graciously hosted a birthday party for him for family and some friends from Dearborn that just moved to West Michigan.   Kyper had a ton of fun seeing his best bud Frank at Grandpa and Grandma's house and he had a ton of fun with his cousins.

Frank and Kyper jumping on the tramp.  Frank is Kyper's best friend from Dearborn, but Frank and hi family moved to West Michigan this summer.  Good thing we go and visit quite a bit.

On his actually birthday, a Monday, I switched days and Joel ended up having off so we got to spend the whole day with him letting him choose the activities.  He and Joel went out to get donuts in the morning for his birthday breakfast.  I know, breakfast of champions right there.  After breakfast, we got ready for the day.  The first item on the agenda was to pick out some decorations for his upcoming friend birthday party.  After that, we headed to the zoo.  We got home mid-afternoon and let Anja have quiet time.  After Anja's quiet time, Kyper got to open presents from us.  He played with his new train tracks for while and then we had his favorite meal--ham and broccoli alfredo.  After dinner, we had cupcakes.  (We ended up buying them at the store since I didn't want to have to bake 2 cakes, one for the actual day and one for his party with friends.)  That was basically the day, he went to bed early since he woke up early and was so busy the whole day.







The Saturday after his birthday, we had a party with some of his friends from school and church.  We had 6 kids total, so it wasn't super crazy!  I have to give a major shout out to Joel for the creative side of this party.  Joel's mom sent us a pirate game many months ago, so I saved it and figured that could be the theme.  I found the sailboat cake on pinterest and the walk the plank game.  But, that is really all I did.  Joel came up with a treasure hunt--a cool map and clues--that ended up in the garage aka the cave.  Kyper wanted a pinata, and we were able to find a treasure chest.  Joel created the waterfall feature by the walk the plank game by tying a watering can into the tree and running the hose up there.  He also made our fire pit into a volcano.  The kids loved that and actually asked him to do it again later on.  The joy of baking soda and vinegar bubbling out of a bottle!  Joel also came up with coconut bowling (apparently he did it when he was younger.)  Joel really directed the party and I ended up taking the pictures and on Anja duty.  What a great dad!  (Although, he did tell me that I am in charge of the girl parties.)












  Happy birthday to my favorite Kyperman!

We had a pretty relaxing Fourth of July.  Joel is on pediatric neurology for two months.  The first month, he is working in clinics, so he had the day off.  (This has been a great  rotation and July since many days he is only working half day at the clinic.  August will be a completely different story once he is back in the hospital floor again!) 

Joel and Kyper set up the marble works in the pool aka waterworks.



We played outside since the weather was beautiful.


We grilled chicken and peaches for dinner.  We also had corn on the con--I had a great helper peeling the corn. :)



We did some of our own fireworks.

Can you see who is still awake in the window?

We saw fireworks from Kyper's bedroom window.



Happy (belated) Fourth of July to all!

This is not a post that will give you insight into where we are headed as we don't know that yet.  We have some possibilities, but that isn't for the whole internet world and audience to know just yet.  We have told a few important to us people some specifics in our case, but I did want to fill you in on what is happening in general in regards to Joel's medical career to this point.  It has been a long time since I explained the stage of his career we are in.

Joel is in his fourth year of a four year residency.  Residency is additional and required training to get into the specific field of medicine a doctor wants to be in and to receive a permanent license.  Joel was officially a doctor (D.O.) when he graduated in May of 2011, but he needed to complete a residency to become a neurologist with a permanent license.  To get into residency, he participated in Match Day.  He began his residency at Henry Ford in Detroit July 2011.  His first year was called a transitional year.  During that year, he rotated through a lot of different medical specialties like he did as a student during his 3rd and 4th years.  In July 2012, he started focusing solely on neurology and neurological fields.  Here is what I gather from him that he rotates between:
1. Floor--this means he is on the neurology floor taking care of patients on that floor.
2. Consults--this means he is all over the hospital and on different floors when non-neurologist need a neurologist to see someone.
3. Clinic--one half day a week for the last 2 years and this year, Joel goes to a Neurology clinic located in the hospital and has a case load of patients for outpatient care.  (Although with the typical clientele at his hospital, he doesn't have as many repeats as he should.)
4. Other required rotations and electives: these are months where he is working with specialists within the field of neurology.  For instance, he has to do two months of pediatric neurology.  He has also gotten to choose some.  he has done hospice and pallative care, I think he is doing a Sleep clinic this yea.

That pretty much sums up residency.  Joel will graduate from residency next June!  I can't believe we are to this point.  We are at the point of discussing Fellowship.

Fellowship is optional, but many doctors do one, because it makes you more trained in a certain field, which can help in obtaining a job and gives you more of a focus within your chosen field.  Well, Joel is looking into a one year Fellowship.  He wants to do a Hospice and Pallative Care Fellowship, because he sees using this in a neurology practice to follow his patients with long term neurological diseases.  Not only could he help provide end of life care with hospice, but  pallative is more about pain management and that goes very well with neurology.

We hope to stay in Michigan.  There are several options for this type of fellowship in the state.  So, Joel is applying to programs in Michigan only.  He has started the process of applying and making inquires on how to for the ones he wants to apply for.  He actually has an interview already set-up for one program.  (Again, those that need to know, know where it is at.  Once, things are official, we will share more details.)

After fellowship is when Joel will get a full-fledged doctor's job.   Although it is another two years away, we are starting to think about where we want to end up.  We have some ideas, but are praying about it and realize that a lot can change.  Prayer warriors can join us in praying for discernment and wisdom and being intentional in listening and watching for where God wants us to be.

Yes, you read the title correctly.  We do a monthly meal plan.  I have to give most of the credit to Joel for getting this process started.  He was pretty sick of spaghetti and the other 2-3 meals we could make last minute.

The reasons behind a monthly meal plan:
1. I don't love to cook, but what is worse is when you don't love to cook and you also have no good ideas for dinner and you are trying to think of something at 4:30pm while you have hungry children demanding your attention.  So the primary reason was to know what was for dinner well before 4:30pm!
2. It has been said that if you meal plan you will save money on groceries.  I'd say that is true. It also means less trips to the grocery store for me.  I can make a list and basically do a large shopping trip once every 4 to 6 weeks.  Yes, I have to go to the store almost weekly to get fresh produce and milk.  But, those trips are way easier and I have way less emergency trips to the store at 4:30pm when I realize we don't have a key ingredient for dinner.
3. I have a husband who likes variety.  I could do tacos every Tuesday, but alas Joel isn't into a Taco Tuesday or Pizza Friday.

What we used:
1. I got a small monthly white board from a MOPS group I was a part of, which is the foundation to our plan.  I advise white boards, since it doesn't seem like such a rigid plan when you know you can erase things easily.
2. Dry erase markers
3. Recipes--we have a list on the computer of ones we really like, we look through some of our cook books and our recipe box.  (The list on the computer include ones in our cookbooks and recipe boxes as well.)  We also just know some tried and true meals that will happen every month--tacos, spaghetti, pizza, etc.
4. We attached magnets to the back of the dry erase board, so it can hang easily on the calendar and be visible for us. 

How to:
Either both of us or one of us will sit down at the end or beginning of each month and put the dates on the calendar and fill in the meals.
Like I said, we have some meals that we use every month.  We also have a few outings that we know we won't need to prep dinner for, especially during the school months, our church has a community dinner on the first Wednesday of every month, we have small group one Friday night, perhaps we'll have a date night one night, etc...  You also can always put LO--that stands for left over night in our household. :)
We also like to have back-up meals underneath.  Those we typically add throughout the month when we think of things or if for some reason we don't use a meal that was scheduled it goes down to back-up so we can remember it for the next month.
We also only put the main dish down on here.  I still have to come up with sides for many of the meals.

Some comments I have had about why people don't think they could do a month meal plan:
1. "What if I'm not in the mood for that meal that night"
Don't be so rigid with it.  Joel and I eat a variety of types of food and I know when I fill it out I even try to spread out the types of meat or meals we are eating. (So we don't have chicken 10 days in a row or a whole week of Mexican recipes)  So often if I am not in a certain mood for a meal we had planned I will just swap it with another meal that we had planned later on in the month.  The nice thing is I typically have all the ingredients on hand for 30 meals.

2. "I don't have enough meals to do that"
Again, don't worry about it.  If you don't mind repeats--repeat meals.  If you like to try new things, look up some new recipes--Pinterest is a great resource or Facebook--put out a request like this on Facebook and you can get tons of ideas from your friends.

A picture of our board:
 We don't typically have that many LO nights anymore as Joel is home a lot more with home call and not at the hospital.  This picture is from almost a year ago.  I don't make big meals if it is just me and the kids--they just don't appreciate it.  But, Kyper is now starting to help fill out meals.  His favorites are burgers, stir fry, spaghetti, pancakes, pizza, apple pork chops...I think this helps promote gratefulness at meals and a little less complaining since these are some of his favorites. :)

A long time ago I pinned a head board that the blogger on Housetweaking made.  I loved it and so did Joel.  Well, from my employment I had some connections to get some reclaimed wood.  The volunteer projectg manager was doing some deconstruction as well as working with us.  Deconstructing means that they take apart house or buildings and try to reuse the materials they find.  It isn't a full blown demolition.  Well, he was able to get his hands on some planks of wood for us in order to make this pin a reality in our home.  We probably got the wood from hims at the end of last summer or in the fall and were just now able to get to the project.

Joel had a random non-vacation days off.  His rotation at Henry Ford ended on the 26th and his next rotation is at a different hospital system, which doesn't switch until the 1st of the month.  Therefore, Joel got off on Friday and Monday and made things happen.  (yep, we did a little potty training, there was a trip to the beach and the headboard was made.)

To begin with, we had to decide which boards to use and how long to cut them.  (Joel was super excited about this project because it meant he could use his tools!)  Our contact grabbed us a lot of wood, so we weren't going to use it all.  (We have a couple more projects in minds and the rest can be kindling.)    I measured our bed, so we knew we wanted to be about 64 inches long.  We then took a look at the boards.  We tried to go with ones that had some character--cool notches, knots, wood grain patterns, some even had some words on it (American Brass Detroit Mich), and one or two boards had flecks of copper or brass in it.  We choose the boards and Joel got to work cutting
(These pictures are after staining the boards, but are close up to show you some of the cool things we wanted to capture on the boards)

TROIT MICH

See that small fleck there--it is either copper or brass in the wood

After cutting the boards, they needed to be sanded since we wanted to clean them up a bit and stain them.  We tried to make sure we could see some of the letters on one of the boards still...Troit Mich, to represent our time spent in Detroit.  (3-1-3 baby!).  We had to run to Lowes to grab an attachement for the drill so we didn't have to sand the boards with sandpaper and muscle.  Joel was excited to use another tool at this point.



Once Joel sanded the boards, I was standing by ready to accept them in order to start the staining process.  While at Lowes, I picked out some stain.  I was leaning towards a gray stain and Joel agreed.  So, I headed there not sure what I would find.  The first one I saw was weathered gray, but that looked a little dark.  Lo and behold, a few more down was one called Driftwood.  It was a light gray and it was prefect!  Not just because of the color, but also the name.  I knew it was meant to be.  Joel loves the beach and driftwood.  We have a driftwood log on our wall as an art piece.  I did the staining of the boards and then an hour after I stained them, we sealed them with polyetherane.


It was late by the time we got done sealing them, so we headed to bed.  The next day I had to work, but Joel did his magic and got the boards together.  We used two smaller planks on the back to connect the boards.  Another tool in action--the drill!  Once he got the boards all connected, he attached two flush wall mounts on the back boards so we could hang it on the wall.  (As advised by the blog on housetweaking.com)

That night we hung it on the wall.  Joel was very good at measuring (it only took 4 extra holes) and the bed wall mounts slipped right in and it is very secure.    I will admit that our room is not perfect for this board since there is really only one spot our bed can be positioned along with the rest of our furniture, so if the headboard looks off centered from the rest of the bed it is.  We have a window on one side and the other side is our dresser, so we can't really move the bed over without it interfering with the drawer openings.  It doesn't look as bad in the pictures since we pushed the bed over for the picture.  Someday, we'll have a bigger master bedroom where the headboard and bed will align. :)



Overall, Joel and I love it and would call this project a major success!