7 Quick Takes

Its been an up and down week, unfortunately ending on a down note.  Here are 7 snipers of the week.

1. Ephraim's ears are fine.  Hooray! The original test was off, apparently the nurse probably had the wrong size ear piece since his ear canals are a little further back than normal at his age.  That was the only thing I got out of the audiologist.  That and he is still shy. :)

2. We went to a cookie baking party and the boys had a lot of fun. I'm glad I went even though I really didn't know anyone but the host.

3. Sometimes I get caught up with saying no, especially with the challenger, Ben, in the ranks. But I was inspired to do something crazy. It didn't turn out nicely and we had to throw the end result away and the kitchen floor was red and green all over, but the boys had fun.  It was good to say yes to something just because I could. 

4. The baby can now stand on her own and climb the stairs. We are no longer safe, look out world. 

5. While there were bits of yesterday I do not wish to repeat, a couch and two chairs were drawn all over with a pen by the almost 5 year old, because he "just wanted to do his own thing." There were also good bits, like making beaver dams because they were inspired by Lucy from the Narnia books. 

6. We were set up to have a gingerbread house decorating party tomorrow, but alas 2 of the 3 kids are sick. I still baked 7 houses but we may have to hold of the decorating until the wee ones are out of fever land.  Below is what happens when the almost 5 year old gets a hold of 8 lbs of powdered sugar. 

7. So we will end on a high note, because well its best that way right? Last week I hauled the children to a baby wearing meeting so I could learn a back carry hands on. It only took a week to really learn it and a floor length mirror was broken in the process because I turned my back and the almost 5yo somehow got curious and broke it. But mission was accomplished and I learned the carry. It came in useful today with the 3yo and the 9mo for carrying them around for extra snuggles. 

So I guess the moral of the story is that 4.5 year olds are interesting havoc wreaking creatures, not to be undone by sick babies and 3yos. Check out more quick takes at This Ain't the Lyceum. 

A day in the life..well kind of..

So today was a bit rough health wise for me.  I was dealing with a plugged duct/mastitis bit that kind of wiped me out.  So we stayed home, and for a good portion of the afternoon, I took a rest on the couch while we watched a Disney movie, the Princess Protection Program. Imagine two little boys watching this with their mom, but they actually liked it. And there are some points in there that I really like, the whole yogurt incident where the popular kids prey on the princess but she declares she's not a fool, so the girl can't make her feel like one. So outside of that, we did get do some things, but it was a more low key day.

Our day started out like this:

Tons of puzzles put together by the boys, a particular favorite is the united states puzzle because Ben likes to figure out how many planes it would take to get somewhere or how many hours it would take to drive somewhere. While Ephraim has the puzzle gene, Ben always fights over who gets to put in the Ohio piece.

After this, Miss H went down for a nap, so the boys helped me put together a crock pot french onion soup recipe.  These boys of mine love to make things, if they can scoop, dump or pour they are happy fellows.

We then had lunch and then the PPP movie played.  After this I started feeling a wee bit better, so I went outside with Helena a bit.

Commence chewing on raw okra.  The boys of course followed, and Ben even decided to get everyone popsicles front the freezer. I read them a few chapters in our read aloud book while they ate, because somehow I finish a popsicle way sooner than they do because I know it melts, they don't seem to care.

Post popsicle, they wanted to wash their hands/arms off, so I gave them a bucket of water from the outside spicket.  It turned into this.

So we spent the next half hour being chased by me with a hose in hand so that they could reenter the house. They chose not to for a while and just played outside naked in the backyard a while, this time digging in dry dirt. 

And after that, we had dinner, and I had the boys draw on cards for great grandmas 89th birthday. Then it was bath and bed for the boys. I took Helena to our local garden plot and listened to a neighbor tell me a bit of her story, and then stopped off at another neighbors house to hear some more bits of another life story. I was just going to reap the harvest of our garden plot in a quick 30 minute trip, instead it took me over an hour, but it was good it did.  I love learning about people and from people. How was your day today?