Thank Ya Much

What's been going on lately:

My niece and nephew came to stay with my parents for a few days this month while their parents went on vacation.

Check out the "ornery twins" in the background. Winnie was being very feisty and wouldn't pose for a picture with Sissy, in their matching outfits -

no matter how hard Sis tried.

Rush was feeling "under the weather" during the visit and wanted to sleep a lot of the time. He kept falling asleep in funny places. This was the first time I caught him snoozing. He was playing with the other kids on this chair. One of them said, "There's something wrong with Rush." I always think a kid has died when I see one fall asleep like this. My heart seized up in my chest, and I ran over to him and shook his arm. He looked up at me, like, "What?! Let me sleep."

Winnie was being hilarious. She'd get on top of skinny little Tornado and wouldn't let him up. So, yeah, lots of wrestling going on, as usual.

Of course, he didn't mind.

The "ornery twins" (seriously, can you see the resemblance?) had lots of fun jumping on the bed.

I have no idea how he ended up wearing a striped shirt with plaid shorts.


Sissy played "Momma" to her younger, sick cousin.

On that Saturday, we took Winnie to the library. She was chanting in the car, "Going to the library and the farmer's market!" over and over. We'd hoped to be there for Story Time, but it was cancelled due to the Labor Day holiday weekend. We played in the children's room , anyway, and checked out books.

After we bought some pears and an aloe plant at the farmers' market, the kids unexpectedly were treated to some balloon animals. Sissy could not have been happier about her PINK dog.


Winnie got a little animal, too, but she immediately started rubbing it vigorously on the asphalt. It didn't last long.

I rather enjoyed that everyone thought all 4 kids were mine. I got a lot of, "Are the girls twins?" and "They all look just alike." kind of comments all morning.

Last weekend, the kids and I ventured over to the park, where Eco Fest was taking place. The boys loved this gigantic appliance box maze. Sissy was too scared to go through it.


While we were waiting for the Mayor to speak, a drum circle was playing music. Tornado immediately got up and started dancing. Sissy joined in. They were the only ones dancing. Dash was sooo embarrassed. He was hissing at them, "Stop; you're embarrassing me."


They also enjoyed going through this "cave" with their headlights. I think there were "bats" hanging up in the cave.

They gathered the kids around for a butterfly release.

The kids really got into this boy scout exhibit. I was afraid they would be bored and not want to finish. However, they went through this whole "raise your right hand and repeat this pledge" thing about how to take care of the land while you're hiking or camping. Then the scouts took them around to the different spots with reminders about what to do to protect the wildlife. They talked about it all day.

I don't know what the hat had to do with protecting the wildlife, but Sissy was totally game.

There was a downpour that morning so we assumed the festivities would be ruined. I thought I'd take the kids over for just awhile to see what was going on. This is the kind of "festivity" I'm interested in, so even though I didn't particularly feel like getting out, I made myself go. I'm so glad we did; the kids had a great time!

The one damper: I was afraid it was going to be all muddy; I wore my big rubber boots. However, they are lined, and the sun came out in full force. I felt like I was going to have a panic attack because it was so hot, and my feet were sooo hot, they couldn't breathe. I had to rip them off and carry them around all day. I barefooted it like the true Arkansas that I am.

This is what Daddy looked like all last week. He had...the beginning of a corneal ulcer or something like that. He got new contacs, and they were too tight. He was in sheer misery for a couple of days before he went to the eye doctor. I thought we were going to have to visit the ER late one night. He said it felt like he had something in his eye, and he was really sensitive to light. He had to wear the paper shades and hang out in our dark bedroom for a few days.

One night last week we went to the library for a teddy bear party. (It's Teddy Bear Month.) The two young ones wore pajamas and brought a teddybear. This was Dash, following the leader and dancing around the room with his bear.

I got one of my first glimpses of Tornado heading toward his pre-teen years. He didn't wear pajamas because he said he was too embarrassed. He said he would feel like Peter felt wearing pajamas during his school play in Tales of a Fourth Grade Nothing. Although we try to encourage our kids to be bold in life, I took this as a good sign. Social maturity is one of the areas we pray about for Tornado so it actually just made me smile. He did bring a teddy bear, though.

The kids put all of their bears in the middle of this big sheet and tossed them all around. I would say this was one of the highlights of the night.

Our friends, the Davidsons, happened to show up, too, which we loved. (And the kids were even featured here on Lori's blog.) After going on a bear hunt throughout the library and returning to the kid room to find an actual bear (well, a human dressed as a bear, anyway), they worked on their bear craft.


It was really sweet because after Sissy finished her bear picture (shown here), she said she wanted to give it to Saylor. Saylor, in return, gifted her bear picture to Sissy.

The kids were all playing on the library computers, and little Atticus didn't want to be left out.

When I sat down to work on this post, I noticed there were two looong photo sessions starring Sissy, with Dash as the photographer. Little booger. I have no idea when they did that, but he knows he isn't supposed to play with my camera. And yes, that's how messy my house always is.

Sissy apparently also got to take a turn as photographer.

I love this one that he took. I guess I'll forgive him.

My kids are so used to me taking pictures of them and their creations "for the blog," that they often come to me, saying, "Take a picture of this for your blog." That's Tornado's "tornado." He also really got into this Highlights paper plate craft book he got in the mail from Googie. He cut out pictures to make a scene on the plate. You can't really tell, but the trees and buildings were standing up straight.

Lots of puzzles and projects going on around here lately, as Dash's kindergarten year at home is underway. More about his workboxes another day.

So for Multitude Monday (I know it isn't Monday, but I did actually start this post on Monday. I literally only have time to blog in 3 minute intervals lately. I seriously type a few sentences at a time; that's all I can do right now in my life.), I am thankful for:

#247 - the feeling of accomplishment after putting in the last puzzle piece

#248 - finished projects

#249 - Tornado's excitement in doing art and crafts

#250 - fortunate accidents - serendipity, if you will

#251 - goofy moments with my kids, caught surprisingly on film

#252 - the sweetness of little kids trying to act like big kids

#253 - running into friends unexpected

#254 - little girls giving their pictures to one another

#255 - a bear hunt through the library

#256 - seeing my kids clutch teddy bears in their hands

#257 - a room full of children giggling at their bears being tossed around

#258 - that Ryan's eyes are getting better

#259 - eye doctors

#260 - contacs and glasses

#261 - a red cowboy hat and green frog boots on my little girl

#262 - the sweet boy scouts who taught my kids a lesson

#263 - my little town putting on a festival encouraging environmentally friendly ideas

#264 - all the hard work that was put into it and the fun ideas

#265 - butterflies

#266 - running into Tornado's sweet, sweet friend he made in preschool

#267 - two of my kids dancing even though no one else was

#268 - the smile that it gave me seeing that my third child is just as embarrassed to dance in public as I am

#269 - recycled cardboard box mazes

#270 - farmers' markets

#271- balloon animals - even though they are not environmentally friendly, we do really like them

#272 - seeing all of the kids holding hands while walking across the parking lot

#273 - story time

#274 - big cousins helping little cousins

#275 - jumping on the bed

#276 - kids thinking they are invisible because a sheet is on top of them

#277 - sleeping babies

#278 - sleeping babies in funny poses

#279 - matching outfits

#280 - Cary and Andy making it safely home after a fun vacation

#281 - a fun birthday party in Missouri for Pierson and Clara (more on that another day)

If you've never read one of Ann's posts, I recommend it. She does make me consider why it's so difficult for me to find peace and gratitude in the basic pleasures of life. I like what she had to say here about a "hard hallelujah," - a broken-hearted hallelujah.

She wrote: Isn't this our vocation in this world? To give thanks.