The Three Musketeers

This is a bit late, but there they are Easter Sunday in our backyard. I had to bribe them to pose for this picture.

Here's Spencer!

When stressed... go here.

Beautiful.

Time to plant my garden

I'm so excited to plant my vegetable garden today!!! I'm planting tomatoes, squash, cucumbers, and this year I am going to grow watermelon! I am determined to produce at least one watermelon. I love, love, love being out in my garden. Wish me luck.

If I could stop time...

There are times when I wonder how all of this happened around me. Where was I when my kids began to take over? I am lucky if I get a moment to take a shower before noon. Well, it's not just lucky, it takes a lot of careful planning if I want to have any time to myself during the day. Honestly, there are days when I look at myself in the mirror and I don't recognize who is staring back at me.
With all of this said, my life is full of joy. I never imagined how much it took to run a house, keep family fed, take kids where they need to be, spend time with husband, and on and on and on... My mom always made it look so easy. And she always seemed so happy, like there was nowhere else or nothing else she would rather be doing. A great example.
So, during my down times I need to remember why I do what I do. Because there are four people that count on me and I get to show them how much they are loved. I wouldn't trade this time for anything in this world.

Library Trauma Part II

Yesterday I needed to take a few books back to the library, so I thought I could take all three kids in to look around for just a few minutes. I am still working on literacy in our home!!

Okay, so Katie is so excited to check out a few books. She goes right over to the computer and starts typing away for her latest 'Dear Dumb Diary' series she is reading. I guess she will be my reader. Spencer just starts looking for Pokemon picture books and Hunter won't hold still or be quiet. Apparently I never taught him what the word 'whisper' means. I could not get him to even stand by me while I look for one book.

So I ask Spencer, who has returned with no books because he doesn't want to read ever again, if he will take Hunter outside while I go check out. He says sure and immediately Hunter runs for the door, except it isn't the main door it's the emergency door!!!! I tried to call to him but it was too late. He opened the door and then the most horrible alarm went off throughout the entire library. His face was full of fear and bright red as he came running back to me. I looked up to see every head turning towards me. Yes it was one of those moments when I wanted to crawl into a hole. Well, the alarm was still going off and I am dragging my two boys up to the main counter to confess that my child had set off the alarm and beg them to check out my books and let me leave in peace (ha, ha).

During all of this, Katie is still looking for her books, so I go over to her section and I find her there with her books and two boys!!! These boys were completely flirting with her and she was having a great time. She was oblivious to the alarm and my horror. My horror on both parts, Hunter is a maniac and Katie is growing up way too fast!!!

It's library time, hurray!

So, here is my funny story of the week. Spencer had a day off from school and it has been unusually cold and snowy so I came up with the idea to take them to the library. They both take off to the children's section and I tell them I will look at a few books and then come and find them.

As I am thumbing through I few rows of fiction, I just had to smile. I felt for just a moment that I had done a great job of teaching my kids to love books and to love reading. My favorite thing in the world to do is curl up on a comfy couch with a very soft blanket and a great book (Jane Austen comes to mind). And now, here were my boys, running off to find their next adventure in a book that may become a favorite.

So after a few minutes, I decided to go look for them and see what they had picked out to read. I walked down every aisle in the children's books and I couldn't see them. "Well, maybe they are already curled up in a bean bag reading because they couldn't wait until we got home to start our read-a-thon!" I checked the bean bag/reading area and no sign of them. As I was turning the corner to see if they had traveled to the mysteries, I saw Spencer out of the corner of my eye. At first glance, it looked like they were both sitting in a strange hole in the wall completely engrossed in their own books. As I took a few steps closer I realized that they were both PLAYING VIDEO GAMES!!!!! I could have killed them. Here I was thinking I was the greatest mother EVER because my kids wanted to check out some library books, when all along they just wanted a quiet place to play their stupid games. So they both smuggled in their DS contraband and were happy as... well, they were really happy.

Just so happened, I had my camera in my purse. After I got over my disappointment (something tells me there is more of that to come), I decided it looked pretty funny so I snapped a shot just so I would never forget how my boys tricked me.