What a gorgeous weekend.

We had a warm, sunny, gorgeous weekend. The kids and I spent Saturday morning cleaning up the little presents Ben left us over the past few months and then they spent most of Saturday playing outside. Don got home from work on Saturday morning at 5:30 so we let him sleep in until noon, he was so happy to not join in our little doggie doo scavenger hunt! I loved seeing them climbing trees and playing with the dog. The dog and the kids were exhausted at the end of the day for sure! I am sitting here looking at the rain coming down again thankful we had a few days to enjoy the outside before we get trapped inside again! Nothing real exciting going on oh yeah I made Butterscotch Blondies this weekend from my Betty Crocker cookbook, they were delicious. I felt so cool making the Blondies like they had in the new Nancy Drew movie, so did my kids.

It's the simple things

I sit at my computer this morning with the smell of fresh baked bread in the air. The kids have just finished writing letters to all their "admirers" grandmas, pen pals, uncles, aunts, etc. It's sad that our world has gotten so technologically oriented, I don't know about you but to get a hand written letter in the mail from the post office, not in my inbox makes my entire day. To know someone sat down and took the time in their own penmanship to write a letter just is such a blessing. The kids will be waiting with baited breath for the next couple weeks to hear back from everyone. If you think of someone remember to pick up the phone or send them a real snail mail letter. I've had many instances when I've thought of someone but not made the effort of contact and then find out later they could have really used that little extra during that time. Appreciate the simple things, they aren't as simple as you may think!

What's more simple or homey than fresh baked apple pie?

Brock didn't write any letters but he's too cute to leave him out.

Cale, notice how long his hair is???!!!

Ty adding his personal touches.

Morgan decided to stand and write all her letters, silly girl.

Thankful

Yesterday the kids and I went for a walk to get our free RedBox movie and run a couple other errands. I realized as we were walking there how thankful I am to be able to homeschool the kids and be home with them. I was noticing in them their innocense starting to slip away a bit while they were in school but yesterday reminded me yet again of why having them home is the best thing for us. They were all running down the sidewalk with their scarves on their necks with the tails flying in the wind behind them pretending to fly, it was so sweet and young and free. In our society if seems they are expected to grow up so fast and the other children mine were around were very quick to make fun of, etc. So to see them doing something like that or even skipping instead of running makes me thankful. I know homeschooling is not for everyone, believe me we have our hard days, too. God gives me these little reminders, I just have to sit back and pay attention!

Organized, at least for today!

Baking supplies Before

Baking supplies after

Cale thought it would make a much better hiding place.

Storage/Plastic Supplies before!

Storage/Plastics After

Brock asked me to take this picture for some reason, he's so silly!

Cale and I decided it was time to organize the cupboards under my kitchen island, it's the gathering place for all things plastic along with my baking supplies. I love the fact that the kids help unload the dishwasher however the before pictures will tell you the part I don't love! We had a lot of fun and now it won't be embarassing when someone looks down there like it was for me this past weekend, cringe!

Making a Valentines Cake

We made a Valentine's Day Cake yesterday in anticipation that Don may not be home. We let the kids do all the decorating and they had a great time. I heard it tasted good, not a big fan of cake myself!

Had to throw in a cute one of Ben, he would take a bath with the kids if I let him yuck!

Thursday was an interesting day in our house. Cale made some yummy blueberry/boysenberry muffins for breakfast which we loved and the rest of our day was pretty uneventful until bathtime. I realized that Brock had never had a bubble bath so I decided it was time, I got some great shots as you can see but afterwards the floor in the bathroom was majorly slippery, anyhow Brock stepped on the two inches that I didn't have covered with towels and bonked his chin on the floor, he split the inside of his top lip for like the 100th time and got a rather nasty bruise on his chin. But hey the bath was a success until that point!

Beware of the Homeschool Bandit

I have no idea what Cale was thinking this morning but I got a picture anyhow, made the morning quite funny. He had to put on his disguise to do cursive I guess. Who knows!

Oh my!

Well they were trying to be helpful today while I was chatting online with a good friend and well you can see the "help" they were. They decided to wash all their play food and dishes from their kitchen. Needless to say they used 15 dishtowels, a quarter bottle of dish soap, and everyone had to have their clothes changed when we were finished. Who knew washing stuff could entertain kids for so long. I knew they were going to make a mess but my goodness the magnitude of it was not evident until they turned and I saw their clothes. The thing I love about our house is the dining room and kitchen are all one big room and our computer is in the dining room. So I got to "chat" and play with the kids at the same time. I wish I still loved doing dishes as much as they do!

I feel like a failure today!

Well here is a confession post, I need to write it down and hopefully it will make it seem like not as big of a deal. I have mentioned in the past that Brock is stubborn and that has been a real sore point with he and I with his teeth. I literally have to pin him down to brush his teeth every night. I noticed last week one of his front teeth looked chipped or cracked or something so we took him in to the dentist today. He has two, yes two, cavities on the backs of his front teeth. The dentist told me there wasn't anything we could have done to prevent it because of the way his teeth are but I'm so mad at myself right now. The other three have, knock on wood, no cavities or tooth issues so I guess Brock is making up for all of them. The dentist wants to wait six months and look at them again before we take any steps to repair them. Because of his age he is going to have to go under general anesthesia to get them fixed, I can only imagine what he'd be like if they tried to do it when he was awake. We have special mouth wash we have to use three times a day, I have to figure out how to floss in that little mouth without being bitten, oh and he is a little addicted to having water in bed with him at night and thats not allowed anymore either. I tried yesterday to take away his pacifier at bedtime, at naps he cried so hard he threw up so I gave it back and then I tried again last night and he cried for an hour and I felt horrible so we are going to try and take it away when he's more ready or maybe when I am. Oh sure I let my kid get cavities and he still has a bink, only in bed but still. Wow, I feel a bit better, writing has always done that for me, too bad I can't turn that into an income earner huh? Thanks for reading my rant/confession/whine session.

Our weekend!

Oh yeah I tried chopping the end of my finger off with a potato peeler so Morgan and Ty took over the potato job for me!

We have had a pretty uneventful weekend, Don got home late afternoon Friday and had to leave at 2:30 this morning to head to California so we only had yesterday as a family day. We had planned on staying home all day Saturday until two of our front window blinds bit the dust so we were off to Home Depot. We found that the faux wood blinds were quite a bit cheaper than the cellular blinds we had been using. It has completely changed the look of the living room. I would have been okay leaving it the way it was and just putting up a sheet but Don didn't feel comfortable leaving us home without decent window coverings. Today we slept in, I do not enjoy sitting by myself at church so we didn't go, instead we took a walk to return library books, we'll head back there tomorrow to check out some more. We are in the process of getting a new library. It will close mid-February and open again in the new building the beginning of March so we are going to have to check out a huge amount this time to make it through the month without having too big a withdrawl. I am just hoping the library still smells like library books, it's almost a comfort to me to go in a library and smell that smell whatever it is or bring home a book and open it and I'll be honest I take a whiff, I love that smell. Anyhow, that was a weird confession. Anyhow, we've been baking and got a couple cute pictures of Morgan and Ty doing what they love doing! Hope you had a great weekend.