Crackin' up

A little of this: Prompted a little reading of this:

Warning - a hammer, a rolling object and two four year old children can be a little scary! No injuries were sustained, the coconut meat was not an instant favorite, but they loved the coconut milk. All in all a successful first for this gang.

Nurse Mom

We have halted all fun summer activities to allow for some little ones to recover from summer time viruses. Ainslee was hit the hardest. For a week she had a fever, then didn't, then did and the the grand finale was a all-night-stomach-bug that kept her running from bed to bathroom crying "my tummy hurts". I felt awful for her. She is all better now and back to her silly ways.
Baby Aidan's just started. Right now it is a runny nose and the occasional sad face accompanied by tears. I hope this is the worse for her. We don't see many pouts or tears from this one, so we know she isn't feeling great.

Tomorrow starts a full and crazy three week stretch. I have been going over my schedule and making lists for this & that. It is all fun stuff (VBS, family trip) but all of it is time consuming on the planning side. I am ready to stop dosing out Tylenol and dive in to the fun stuff.

Summer Fun

I realize I am walking a fine line in blog-land. I am not doing much to blog about but I continue to post entries on my blog. I am sorry for the lack of activity that is going on, but I can't seem to make myself do anything creative. In celebration of father's day we did spend a lot of time together and had a lot of fun, but still nothing crafty. We did go blueberry picking on Saturday morning and it got hot fast. We picked for a little under an hour and then played on the farm.


There was a stocked lake (catfish) so we saw a few people fishing, there was a playground and some shady spots to just sit and people watch or relax. We did a little bit of everything.


We also stayed the night in Houston to visit with a friend who happened to have a pool. It was perfect for the HOT weekend we had here in Texas. I think Ainslee would have grown a fish tail and gills if we had stayed one moment longer! I hope you all had a great weekend too.

Girl Time

There is no lack of girl time here in our house with a 4 to 1 ratio, but this afternoon I had a friend over and I had some woman-time. There are plenty of play dates and gatherings where I see other moms, but I don't get to talk to them about much because some little one needs juice, to go potty, a band-aid, the list is really endless. So, for two hours I was able to talk to my friend and connect a little more with minimal interruption. The only down side? It left me wanting more. Where is the balance? It is tough for me to find a balance and I need to work on doing a better job in this department. The time is coming when all three of my little girls will have three very different schedules, so in some respects I have more control over my schedule now than I will then, so why is it so hard to find time to do things I enjoy doing that aren't mommy or wife related? Seriously, I am throwing that question out there to all you stay-at-home-parents. There is still no craftiness happening here. I did finish a dish cloth (whoopee) but I am content to read or flip through a magazine when I have a few quiet moments. Sewing & knitting inspiration haven't hit, and I am not going to force it. I would like both endeavors to remain enjoyable, so I am waiting for some inspiration to hit from somewhere. I'll be sure to let you know when it does. Okay - off to read before some little someone, two, or three wakes up.

Creative thinking

Between three children and two nap schedules it would be so easy to never leave the house, but that would not be good for any of us. Today was wide open with only one required stop to the dry cleaners. We headed downtown to a thrift store that I really like, but the store was gone. It was here in March, but now it is one large empty space. Not sure what happened. We made our way back towards home and stopped at another thrift store that I like almost as much. It was still there and then some. The store looked as if it had exploded in a semi-organized way right out the front door. There was stuff everywhere. A visual feast for sure. The owner whisked my two oldest girls upstairs to work on some watercolor painting (big selling point for shopping mama!) and Aidan & I browsed. There were a couple of things I spotted and continue to mull over but the four little treasures below came home with us. They have been warmly received in E & A's kitchen. These just happen to be four of E & A's favorite grocery items too.
My rule of no TV (they still watch TV, I just don't have it on 24/7 and I am really trying to eliminate it from our morning routine all together) has challenged me to find ways to entertain the girls so I am happy to add to their toy collection if it supports my efforts to spur creative play. As a result of no TV this morning a magical transformation has occurred. Our laundry room became an elevator. The room is located off our kitchen and has a pocket door. I can totally see why they picked this little spot as the elevator since it is boxy in shape when the pocket door is closed. This morning they packed their "briefcase" and headed up the elevator to their office. They played happily for quite some time. They get all the credit too. I love seeing their minds at work and seeing what they come up with. So, there is still no creating in the tangible way, but lots of imaginary creations taking place.