"How To Wear Out A Toddler," by James

1. Crowd six family members into daddy's pickup truck and sing funny old Ray Steven's songs really loud together.

2. Crowd six people into a booth at the Waffle House and eat a late breakfast.

3. Hike my little legs over many trails and hold daddy's hand a lot.

4. Get my picture taken a whole lot too.

5. Swim in really cold water with my brothers and sister until my lips turn blue and I am shaking all over.

6. Hike around some more and go over a lot of bridges. Watch for ducks and fish.

7. Climb as much as I can and listen to Momma and Daddy say over and over, "Don't get too close to the water!"

8. Ride the choo-choo train with Abbie and pretend it is Thomas the Train.

9. Help my big brothers catch a fish.

10. After six hours load back up into Daddy's truck and fall fast asleep.

Joy

Thrift Store Fun

I love me the thrift store! Oh, my goodness, a fun day for me would be a day to go and just explore and look at all the books and magazines and hidden treasures. I took three of the kiddos this morning and we went exploring. I found some kid's books, including one for Abbie that will be age appropriate. It is VERY hard to find books for young girls that don't include parent problems, ghosts, horses, or boyfriends. I can handle the horses, but Abbie isn't the slightest bit interested in horses. Any suggestions for me? Matt has been wanting to read Robin Hood and I found one that is perfect for his age. Anyhoo... I found a Sorry game, a Jr. Monopoly game (I just taught the three oldest how to play and I had forgotten how much fun it is), two Jay-Jay wooden puzzles for James, a book for me, a drawing book for the boys, a TobyMac CD for Tyler, and some more Little People farm animals to go with James' Little people farm. You have to be careful when you get the games and puzzles because many times some of the pieces are gone, but today I hit the jackpot!

My inlaws are coming home tomorrow. They have been gone for 13 days on a tour of Canada and the Dakotas. We are going to grill out tomorrow night and shoot fireworks with them. They have sent word that there are "NO GOOD" veggies in Canada so we are having a little different food than the traditional 4th of July fare. I am going to surprise them with grilled chicken and lots of good down-home southern veggies. And apple pie and ice cream. I am thinking about making a cake also, but haven't decided about that one. And homemade lemonade. I am going to try it for the first time. My grandmother always fixed lemonade for the 4th and doing it reminds me of her.

Today Mark has been home and we have just been relaxing and playing games this afternoon. Tonight is more garden work and if I don't iron tonight Mark will not have ANY clothes to wear to work next week. The pile is overflowing from the clothes chair in our room (does anyone else have a chair specifically to hold clothes in your bedroom?" We do.

School Room, Check!

I don't guess I really should call it a school room. We don't do school in it, but it holds our books, and the computer, and all the school supplies, so it's called the school room. It has taken most of the day, but thanks to Jennie's playlist I am done. I turned it up and wasted an unbelievable amount of time singing and dancing to Suspicious Minds. Did you know that when I am alone in the house I sound EXACTLY like Elvis' backup singers on that song? It's true.

No pictures, but I will give you a breakdown on some of the things I found while sorting and purging.

• 3 dirty gross socks
• James' pj bottoms
• $1.53
• a book that I could not find so I had ordered another one
• approximately 15 readers that my children were supposed to be reading throughout the school year ~ unless they were reading under the computer desk in the far corner, I don't think any of them were finished
• four 4th of July books that I should have read to my kids to prepare them for the 4th of July ~ maybe tomorrow?
• a big handful of cat food ~ I'm almost sure James decided that under Matt's school box was the best place to store the cat food
• 1, 657 paper clips
• 3, 890 ponytail holders

But, now I have all the kid's separate books in nifty rubbermaid containers and if Mark asks me where a pencil that is actually sharpened is I will be able to direct him to the pencil holder. I can say, "the pencil holder is on the computer desk", and it will be there. Until approximately 8:32 am tomorrow. Then all bets are off.

Tonight is garden work night and Abbie is already telling me her tummy is hurting. She's starting a little early today on the excuses. I have her laying on the couch so she can rest up for the hoeing ahead. I know, I know, mean momma...

Maid Update

I told Mark about how you sweet ladies said I should get a maid to help out with my dust allergy problem. He looked at me blankely and said, "How 'bout I double your salary instead?"

Gee, thanks.

Thursday

Well, I was going to post a picture of someone who got into my craft supplies (limited as they are) last night. And then later I was going to do a before and after of my schoolroom re-organization as we are gearing up to start mini-school back next week. And I wanted to put some pictures of how the garden is growing, (because that is where I am going to spend my life for the next two months), but... I can't figure out the little card thingy. Something is not right and even though Mark put it in and it worked for him the first time as soon as he left for work it decided to rebel and not work for me. It's a new one and evidently it is playing a power game with Mark and me. It doesn't realize I have four children and I got over power games three children ago. Anyways, hope you all have a lovely day and you'll know if there are pictures later who won the battle.

Dream Interpretation

Hey! Ya'll go over to my sister's blog and see if you can interpret this dream for her. She needs some help!