Making Memories

A heavy downpour leaves some fun puddles along the fenceline in our backyard. I must admit, after a heavy rain, I tend to stay inside with the girls. (One bath a day is challenging enough for this family!) But today I couldn't resist. The girls were so excited about going outside, and I knew they would have so much fun playing in the dirty water. What else is childhood for? My husband read a quote to me the other day. It says, "Kids only have one childhood, make it memorable." Three dirty, wet girls -- oh the memories!

Thanks Scott!

Wow! This was so huge! Just another trial along the journey to a healed arm. With my husband's arm broken, I've had to assume responsibility for many of his regular tasks. One I wasn't particulary looking forward to was yard wark.


Don't get me wrong. I'm perfectly capable. I could even possibly grow to enjoy the time consuming, sweat producing task. No, probably not. But at least I was open to discovering a new love. I was planning on mowing the lawn, when our dear friend S came to the rescue.


He's a true friend. He simply asked what he could do to help us. And then later I heard from his wife that she wanted to come with him to help out. He asked her to please not take away from his blessing - that he really wanted to do this. And get this, he'll be returning to do it again!


He came to mow last week, and not only was our yard taken care of, but he provided the evening entertainment for the girls! They stood in the window and watched. And when he went to the backyard, they followed him, peering from a new window.

Fun times ... great friends. I would hate to do life without them. Thanks S.

Summer invite

A few reasons why I'm so ready for summer:

Less laundry! This may be the absolute best thing about summer. The girls live in their swimsuits. They only put real clothes on if we're leaving the house.

Pottytraining! Yes, I get excited about pottytraining. When success means more money in our pockets, who wouldn't get excited?! And doing it during the summer has proven such ease with C and M. I'm really looking forward to helping J conquere this milestone this summer! (I'll have to post my views on pottytraining later.)

Tanned extremities! I WILL get a nice tan this summer! Somehow last summer my body didn't respond. Did I just sit in the shade all summer? Surely not, but I didn't notice how pale white I was until the middle of winter. I must remember the advice of my grandmother -- brown fat looks much better than white fat!

Speaking of Great Gran, swimming! We love taking a little road trip to swim at Great Gran's house. What's not to love about a pool and way too many cookies?!

Haircuts! The girls' hair is much easier to take care of when it's short. Andy loves their hair long; I love the ease of shorter hair. So in compromise, I chop it all off at the start of summer, trim it towards the end of summer, then let it grow the rest of the year.

So bring on summer! I know I've still got about a month to wait, but the warm weather can come early. I wouldn't mind. Summer, you are officially invited. Arrival time is pronto, please!

Bones - they do break

My husband's arm has been broken for 2 weeks. We've done surgery and will get the staples removed next week. Then we're hoping things will get back to normal after another 3 weeks. No big deal, right? Wrong! Things have been tough around here. Take supper time, for example. The "normal" routine was for Andy to take the kids (all four) after dinner and prep them for bath. (The whole getting naked thing around here is quite a celebration. Imagine three hyper little girls super excited about bath time, running around singing, "Naked! Naked!") While he got started bathing them, I would clean the kitchen. (Once again imagine these same three little girls at the dinner table, still learning the art of using utensils.) Needless to say, there's quite a mess any time food is involved. But this routine has proven quite effective. The girls love the extra time with Daddy. I love the extra time away from the girls -- even if it involves scrubbing the underside of the table. What?! Don't ask.

But, when one player of the team is hurt (ie, broken arm) the whole system gets thrown out of whack. Do I join the girls in their naked celebration, leaving the dirty kitchen mess for later when it's dry and will take twice as long to clean? Or do I let them run with hyper speed all over the house while I attempt to clean with them flying by, all the while throwing in desperate pleas to not get hurt since we really don't need another visit to the emergency room this month? I'm still working on discovering a new, effective routine for the next few weeks while Andy is still recovering.

Giving it a go

So I'm trying out this blog thing. Actually, I'm pressed to action by a request from the hubbie. He said he would really like for me to start blogging. Me? No sure how I feel about the blog world. Don't get me wrong - I'm an avid blog reader. I have my list of blogs that I read daily, but can I morph into one of them - a blogger? To be honest, I don't think I have much to say. And if I do have something to say, am I going to have time to sit down at my computer and write about it? I'm just not sure. So I'm going to give it a try. If it's successful, great. If not, I will press on realizing it's not for me, and that's okay. See ya for the next post.