Accentuate the Positive

I am a mean, nasty, grumpy mother tonight, so I'm going to write a blog post full of sweetness, light, and motherly love. Magically, I will then become such a mother.

It's worth a try, anyway.

I will start by posting pictures of our peonies from this week. To maximize their mood-lifting qualities, I'll post them in a larger format than I normally post pictures.

Ah, that does help.

Then there's this little ray of sunshine, in the new apron Aunt Lisa from Alaska made her.

Elliott, in his part of the package from Aunt Lisa-- a dress shirt that pleased him to no end. It's a little too big, but hopefully he'll grow into it by this winter. (I'm a mother who LIKES to see their kids outgrow clothes-- it doesn't happen very fast around here!)

Then we'll move on to industrious redheads who practice writing words around 17 hours a day.

GQ's latest cover model lunching with Miss Marilla.

The boy has STYLE! Actually, they were all a self-attempted effort to be brave around the sound of Evan's saw.

Evan, about three seconds before he said, "You know, it's just SO STUPID not to replace these windows while we have the siding off. They're single-paned, the glazing is shot, they have no seal..." So, we've ordered windows to add to the Continually Evolving Money Pit Restoration Project.

I think I need more peony pictures, thinking about the Money Pit.


Okay. Much better. I have been brutal and REALLY whittled down the backlog of pictures I have been wanting to post. So you'll have to leave to your imagination the Memorial Day potluck we hosted. (You're not missing much in the picture department, I forgot to take too many pictures.) We had a great day, though, and I don't know why we don't plan more potlucks-- need to shake off our laziness and congregate!

You'll also have to imagine the pictures of me (with a few other helpers!) heroically carrying boxes down a flight of twenty stairs as I helped Bet and Justin move out of their apartment. I got my exercise that day! I also have no picture of the incredulous look on my face as the landlord glanced in a few bedrooms and then gave them back their security deposit without coming within 15 feet of the kitchen. Literally! Oh, for such forgiving landlords in our renting days.

And, you'll have to imagine pictures of Cheyenne at a horse pull. (It REALLY bothers me that I wasn't there and couldn't get pictures-- IMAGINE the photo opportunities!) Anyway, picture a little girl, at "Jim's farm" (the neighboring farm to Mom and Dad) with her two aunts. She gets to watch Grandpa Lee load the weights on the sled with his tractor, and then watch the horses pull. She gets to buy food from the concession stand there-- including soda! She comes home sunburned and full of stories about "Bob and Babe" (they won the pony pull) and about how beautiful Jim's horses were, and how strong the horses were... The poor girl is stuck in Suburbia with her boring parents, and within her beats the heart of a farm girl.

I finally got on the stick, picture-wise, for Orianna's third birthday. (I don't think kids would know how to blow out the candles if there weren't sixteen cameras trained on them!)

"Hi, Nephew-of-Mine-to-be. Get used to the camera now, because between Mommy and Aunt Clover, you're going to be staring into a lens for a looooong time!"

Here is the masterpiece of a cake, compliments of Bethaney, who, incidentally, had moved that morning. It was as delicious as it looked, too.

The gorgeous three-year-old.

Her goofy sister.

Marilla being cute that Sunday.

Mr. Blue Eyes, similarly cute.

Cheyenne at the zoo for a field trip. I got to be a chaperone! Connor's mom brought him along as well, so Cheyenne got to hang out with Alex and Connor, even at the zoo!

Cheyenne, jumping up startled, when the penguin came right at her!

With some other little girls in her class, watching the elephants.

We had a library book sale here this Friday. This is what happened for a few hours after we got home. They were getting rid of most of their kid's book-and-cassette-tape bags, so we've been listening to stories since then!

Roxaboxen in Suburbia! Deprived of woods, and the attending twigs and stones, this is what my kids used to set up houses on the deck. (That's Elliott curled up in the blanket beside his water bottle and Max, the Cabbage Patch Kid.) Evan bought these panels for work (they're great floor protection) but the kids get to use them until Daddy has to take them to a jobsite.

Cheyenne building a room for the children's crib. She takes her responsibility of mother VERY seriously!

And now, for your reading pleasure, some of Elliott's most recent knock-knock jokes... These all started with this joke that we heard.

"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting Cow."
"Interrupting Co--"
"MOOOOOOO!"

Elliott and Cheyenne can be endlessly entertained by substituting other animals. Cheyenne seems to favor pigs, and Elliott likes doing a bear roar. Of course, Elliott's timing is a bit off, so he never actually interrupts, but it makes them happy. Now Elliott has branched out of strictly animal sounds and has come up with these.

"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting hymn."
"Interrupting hymn who?"
"Tell Me the Story of Jesus..."

"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting cheese."
"Interrupting cheese who?"
"Num, num, num!"

"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting fall."
"Interrupting fall who?"
"Ouch!"

And, the last one (he made it up after he saw me tell Marilla to stop her "fit", or tantrum!)
"Knock-knock."
"Who's there?"
"Interrupting fit."
"Interrupting fit who?"
"Waaa! Waaa! Waaa!"

I think the kid has a future in comedy. And hopefully, after dwelling on all this wonderfulness, I have a future as a Mommy who will get up in a more cheerful frame of mind tomorrow!

Skip the Clean House (and the Blogging!)

Yeah, today was the day I was going to blog in the morning and then clean my house like an avenging fury. Instead, I helped Evan blow insulation into the walls of our previously insulation-free house!This was my post-- opening up bales of cellulose insulation and feeding them into the blower. Marilla IS part of the setup here-- about 1/2 the time she was sitting on my hip. Evan took pity on his vampire wife and rigged up the umbrella there. Of course, despite putting on suncreen and trying to stay under the umbrella, my neck still got sunburned. Ouch!

My snazzy paraphernalia. A face mask is miserable, and safety glasses are miserable, but together they're deadly. Anytime you breathe out, the air goes up besides your nose and fogs up the glasses! (On another note, my house is so bad right now that this would have been appropriate attire had I cleaned house today.)

Evan got to drill holes in the top and bottom of every stud bay and feed the insulation hose in. Once he got up on the roof to do the walls of the kids' room, it seemed a good idea to him to take the kids up there. I tried not to have a nervous conniption, and the kids tried to see how often they could stand up and be told, "Sit down!"

They were quite pleased with themselves.

As was Evan, Master of All He Surveys. He's especially proud now that he's Master of a 3/4-insulated house! (We're saving the back of the house for next year, since there's a whole other set of projects to do back there.)

Rilla, on the other hand, was worn out and sad. Poor little bunny did pretty well considering Mommy was tethered to a machine all afternoon. Today was a morning nap only, which didn't fit in with parental plans real well. This picture was at the very end, when all hope of a normal world seemed evaporated in Marilla's eyes. She had stayed quite happy pushing her little shopping cart around the driveway and watching Elliott and Cheyenne meddle in Evan's work trailer most of the day. Despite the dust and work that was today, it is a very good feeling to think our little house might stay somewhat warm this winter without the furnace running non-stop.

Now that I've written a little, I really should go make some semblance of order in the kitchen and other essential area. I was remembering the naive, smug person who posted this post just a few short months ago (scroll down to the paragraph that starts, "I have always been a fairly organized person...")-- HAHAHAHAHAHA!!!!! On that note, nighty-night.

I Am Incapable of Editing.

So I sit down this evening, to write a blog post for the first time in almost three weeks. "Piece of cake," I think. "I'll just select ONE picture from each major, exciting event from the last couple of weeks, write a little bit about each, and I'll be done soon." Ha! I am incapable of not including cute pictures. How do you chose one picture of Orianna's birthday party, one picture of our Memorial Day get-together, one picture of my kids' coloring? You don't, not if you're me. The problem is, I've recently become incapable of staying awake past 10:00 p.m., thanks to Miss Rilla's new schedule. Therefore, I am writing one SHORT little piece tonight, and then tomorrow I let my house go to even further rack and ruin while I put up more pictures. Until then, here is tooth-achingly cute pictures of my three kids.

They were coloring together so peacefully (fully aproned from helping me in the kitchen).

Are these not the sweetest feet?

Rilla likes to color, too.

And get up on the table. LOTS of milk has been spilled lately because of her climbing-on-the-tables ability.

I forgive her, though, because she is so curly-headed and has such a big grin.

And he's just gorgeous. Simple as that.

Well, the computer shows that it's 9:57, so I have to get upstairs in the next three minutes! See you tomorrow!

Elliott the Builder!

Evan is going great guns, ripping siding off of our house. We can't think of anything to do with our vast cash reserves, so we're residing portions of the house. (It all started with a simple door replacement. It seemed so innocent!) Elliott is loving helping Daddy with his project. Here was his job Saturday.

Grab a (very light) piece of wood.

Haul it up the ladder.

Throw it in the dumpster.

Wait for appropriate praise.

Smirk, and descend the ladder.

That is some smirk.

Then, since Mommy wasn't having enough of a heart attack watching the dumpster routine, climb Daddy's REALLY tall ladder.

This is the outside wall of the kids' room that Evan is working on right now.

I actually love the old cedar shakes that are under the old aluminum siding.

Aren't they a great color? They are old, though, and most of the point of this project is that we could insulate the walls. Ripping the shakes off makes this easier.

Uncovering LOTS of bees' nests. No wonder I spent our first summer in the house freaking out-- we have an exterminator spray every summer now, keeping me sane.

Rilla got in the climbing spirit.

"Look, Daddy is busy thinking about building and is ignoring the fact I've been climbing in and out of the stroller while Mommy was on her walk!"

We had quite a bit of rain Saturday, so Evan didn't get as much done as he would have liked. The kids sure did enjoy "helping" him, though! It's cool here again today, hard to believe it was so hot in April!

I got a lovely foretaste of the next twenty years this evening. Cheyenne was crying while doing her homework, assigned to her on Friday, of tracing her name on a worksheet. Excuse me, FIVE worksheets with several repetitions of her name on each page! I thought it was just a tad much for a weekend homework, considering the child is in preschool (and already prints her name just fine). Of course, I should have stood over her and made her finish it earlier in the weekend, but I think the things she did all weekend (go on scooter rides while I took a walk, help Evan clean up siding, go to library story hour, play imaginative games for hours on end with her brother, take a snuggly nap with me in between meetings today) were more important than busy work. I know it will only get worse! I love the book, "The Homework Myth" by Alfie Kohn. (He wrote an article for Education Week that is a quick overview of his point).

Elliott made Evan and I laugh today in the car (me in a "I love you, Elliott" way, Evan in a "Wow, here's proof of what I have to live with" way!) Evan was fooling around and braked hard when we entered a speed zone. From the back seat we heard, "Evan! Evan! Evan! Pay attention! Drive careful! I mad at you!" (I truly don't know where the "I mad at you" statement came from, but the rest is spot on!)

My goal tomorrow is to do laundry, and put it away, all on the same day. I don't really have a lot of faith in my ability to meet this goal. In fact, if I get the laundry away before the next wash day I feel like Supermom. Who knows, though, tomorrow may be the day I conquer empires! It would probably help if I went to bed now...

May is Great.

These are the blossoms on our decorative crabapple tree. It blooms for such a short time, but the smell is wonderful. May has a lot going for it, this tree being one of them!

Cheyenne got her prize box from Secret Agent Josephine today! (We're guessing that Bug decorated the box so nicely!)

It was a great prize for a coloring contest-- art supplies! They were packed in a paint can.

Cheyenne LOVES painting, so this was one of her favorite items. There were colored pencils, crayons, jiggly eyes, pipe cleaners, buttons, glitter gel, glue, sparkly butterflies, and lots more... We had to start creating right away!

I set the kids up on a table in my room so I could fold wash while they crafted... but who was I kidding. I was hovering over Cheyenne's shoulder, longing to touch all the cool things.

Elliott watched very intently.

(The quilt you see in the mirror's reflection was one my grandmother, Goldie Brown, sewed. Evan just hung the quilt rack up for me, so I'm loving having a chance to see it all the time. Since I never got to meet her, it's a way to get to "know" her better.)

This paper-bag puppet was the fruit of Cheyenne's labor!

We only used things that were in the prize package-- down to recycling the Starbust (yum!) wrappers for the lips and fangs! This was Cheyenne's first time using pipe cleaners, and she was blown away by their coolness! This puppet had great fun flexing the muscles in his pipe-cleaner arms!

It rained most of the day, but by late afternoon, we had some beautiful sun back. It takes a rainy day for me to realize how much time my kids spend outside (as proven by the farmer's tan Cheyenne is sporting!)

Elliott is seriously this excited about driving his car each and every time he climbs in there. Best birthday present we ever bought, two years ago now! The latest wrinkle is that he'll take the key out (like Mommy and Daddy do) and then not be able to drive the car again until he finds the key. No key, no movement!

Grandpa was visiting for a few days while he worked over this direction, so I posed the girls in their matching outfits from Grandma. She had bought these outfits for the girls last year, but my little peanuts are just fitting in them now!

Elliott had to join in, too!

This is the new front door. Now we only have to side it, and build a porch (oh, yeah, did Evan forget to mention that was part of the plan?) and re-insulate, and... It is a beautiful door, though, and we're loving all the extra light in the entryway!

I'm mired in the special education system this week. The Committee on Preschool Education in our district declared Elliott ineligible for special education preschool. I disagree, not because I don't think Elliott is amazing, but he's not up to speed yet. I know what Cheyenne has done in the "normal" preschool this year, and my little 25-pound boy isn't ready for that yet! I'm trying to educate myself on the various options, and we'll see where it all leads. Anytime I have to do extra work for Elliott, I try to remember what a privilege it is to even have him around to merit the extra work-- he's our miracle boy, and I won't forget that for a long time!

Now, off to bed... or tea and a book!