Refrigerator Art

Counting the Happy Stuff This Week

Monday

Today I sent the kids off to school with hugs and kisses and picked them up later with smiles and "how was your day?"

I ran four miles and it felt really good.

I took frequent breaks from my work to chase E around and we laughed until our tummies hurt. 

We had leftovers for supper so I didn't have to cook and barely had to clean up.

There was no homework. 

Archer and I played two games of chess, we each won once. 

Elijah Graham and I played checkers and he made up a rule and claimed, "That's Bampa's rule!" That means the end of any debate over whether or not its a real rule.

Tuesday

Grocery store trip where I told the kids they could each pick one thing for supper. We came home with fizzy grapefruit juice, cheesy potato chips, and watermelon. No one complained about not liking supper.

Bedtime, finally, after a long stressful day and I'm instructing the kids to brush teeth, change into jammies, pick up their toys and "Eli you're getting on my last nerve!" "I want to TEAL your last nerb!" That was it, the icing on the cake, I told him he's a nerb, he called me a nerb, everyone went to bed laughing.

Wednesday

Lunch at the office and catching up on whose kids are doing what now (talking? almost crawling?). A visit to HC.
A nice chat with the other moms as I waited through Shelly's ballet lesson.

Thursday
A quick run when there was a lull in the activity.
A beautiful painting of Flower Forks to remind us that warmer weather is not too far off.
Our last Cub Scout meeting, casual, getting ready for the ceremony next week, a sense of things closing and new things opening. All of the boys had to have an interview with the Cub Master to make sure they know everything they're supposed to know. There were lots of high fives and Scout handshakes as each Scout passed the test.

Friday
A strange game with E where we played with chess pieces some game with no rules where he jumped over my pieces then knocked them off the board. Lots of talk of attacking and capturing.

Saturday

First thing - a run with Dad, OUTSIDE, because we're having a heat wave and its 25 out there! (Yes, I got too hot during the run.)

Archer had a friend over and it was a pleasure to listen to them as they played game after game on the Wii. I know video games are bad, I know the kids should get outside more and have more physical activity. But those two boys were having fun, lauging together and just generally being friends. And that was nice.

Shelly helped me make a bulletin board for motivation while I run, she's so creative and it was great to see her at work. Then we went to the library together where she checked out 10 books and finished the first book within two hours of getting home. Way to go, girl!

Mashed potatoes - we spent four hours in the kitchen turning 24 pounds of potatoes into mashed potatoes, everyone chipped in and we all had a good time in the process. Now movie night, cause we missed it last night. And maybe we'll even sleep in late tomorrow morning. (Yeah right, who am I kidding?)

Sunday

Six miles on the treadmill, felt good to do it but I'd wanted to do more...
Clean up everything cause we're expecting guests, felt good to get the house in order.
Tea time with Mom and Dad while we watched E entertain himself with the plastic food from the plastic kitchen.
Wonderful family meal thanks to David's superior cooking skills, yum!

I did this little experiment over the last week to see how much I could come up with to be happy about. I have this bad habit of complaining about all the annoying things that happen in my day, but thinking about what I was going to list here did help me change my focus and feel better about the passing time. Yeah there were still those tough things, work, housework, squabbles between the kids. But my focus was different, and that was nice. Perhaps I'll try it again this week...

Monday, the sun is shining, I have a loving family, I have lots of things I'm looking forward to this week!

Horticulture Lesson

E and I were taking a close look at this blossom, I asked if he could see the bumps on the petals 

"Yeah. That means when the bugs go in there that just CLOSES UP and the plant EATS them." He's clenching his hand in a fist.

How does it eat them, does it squish them? "Yeah it just quishes them and then they go in there and they're the food. ALL plants eat bugs. They just do that!"

He's now discussing spider aliens with Archer. I asked him about this when he came running past me. "The aliens are in the game, but one climbed up and he got close to Archer's person and Archer killed him when he climbed up. (And he runs off to Archer.) I telled Mom the aliens are in the game." Ahh how little I know. I'm so glad I've got E to explain the world to me.

Snow Day #3