Week of July 5, 2009

Sunday: Today we woke up to lots and lots of rain. The heat-relief was welcomed, but Randy & Shelley's house seemed small with four busy kids, so we let them play outside. After the kids got over the shock of being in the rain, we all enjoyed it. Nana brought out an umbrella, sidewalk chalk, riding toys, and balls, and we all had fun. In the afternoon, Allen and I ran some errands and visited the used bookstore. Last week on the way to the beach, I read one of the Magic Tree House series to Will, and we loved it. I was on a mission to find some more of the series, but we left the store with a lot more than just the kids' books. 7/5Monday: It was as a normal as most Mondays after we've been gone. It takes a lot of effort for me to get moving in the right direction, and there is always a lot of laundry to do. Here is a great picture of life after a trip -- Will is smiling and happy, Jon is frustrated that Will took his spot. The afternoon was better and in the evening I got to dance with Allen. After some trouble with shoes in dance class, Allen suggested I buy more shoes. I already know they have to be heels with a back or strap so they don't come off while we dance, but the options are still exciting! We started the East Coast Swing, and it is a fast and fun dance. 7/6 Tuesday: This evening I found a beautiful spider web on the porch and tried to get a picture of the spide stitches. 7/7 Wednesday: I got several emails about Ziploc-baggie omelets so we tried them. I set up the fixings, the kids spooned in what they wanted, then they mixed them up. The omelets were very tasty and super easy, and the kid-cooking was deemed successful and quite easy. The only bad part was the creepiness of having the marker bleed through the bag and put the kids names on the eggs. I did scrape it off before feeding it to them, but it made it easy to know who got which meal. 7/8 Thursday: Today I took the kids to storytime at the library, then we had lunch with Allen. It was a pretty normal day, so the snapshot is of my normal view as I am preparing lunch. The refridgerator is decorated with letter-magnets, several kid drawings, and Will's reward chart. 7/9  Friday: It's was a long day before 9AM, I am praying Ben isn't getting sick -- I can't figure out why he cried all morning. I set out some diaper boxes that kids quickly converted to a train while I got the house vacuumed! That is a huge accomplishment since I am crazy about sorting the toys as I put them away. Ever since I was pregnant with the 3, he's done 99% of the vacuuming. I sat down to check my email and was invaded by four 25-40 pound jumping, ribbiting "frogs". I'd better help get them in bed; we're rising with the sun to get more blueberries in the morning. Saturday: We were all out the door and buckled in carseats before 6:30am on a Saturday. What was I thinking? I had a great time picking berries this morning, but Jon kept saying he wanted to pick brownberries, and Ben said he wanted to go to the beach. They were both happy -- rolling in and eating sand (aka: beach and brownberries.) They were covered head to toe in dirt and looked like the chimney-sweeps in Mary Poppins. 7/11