lovely day at home....

Spring has finally sprung here in New York state.

We went on a nice walk the other day....

The little ones just got home from school. Emily picked up some of the older ones and took them out and about. Jon has been waiting for his sisters to get off the bus so they can play outside. He wants to climb a tree, but Camille cannot. Not yet. I hate when kids climb trees anyway, but when the baby of the family breaks her arm, oh dear. I can't bring myself to forbid it though, it is part of being a kid. Low branches, and make sure they're strong, please.

I managed to stay home today. Jonathan is reading, "Farmer Boy", by Laura Ingalls Wilder. He is learning to write a little neater, and is perfecting adding fractions with different denominators, and improper fractions. He went around the yard picking leaves and comparing them. He played with his remote controlled helicopter (it is actually controlled by his tablet), and ran around with the dogs.

Tonight is the elementary school concert for Charlotte Claire and Camille. Paul has a board meeting, and the other kids are going to Activity Club. It is so busy sometimes...

Camille just found an M&M in her sneaker, she is throwing it out because her shoe reeks, she says. She is a better man than I.

Anyway. I went on a nice long walk this morning, I was thankful my knee didn't hurt. I am hobbling around sometimes....

Yesterday, I cooked chicken out on the grill. Paul and the little girls were out in the garden, Camille is hilarious, Paul had the rototiller on, and she was dancing around on the other side of the garden, leaping and picking flowers (weeds), and singing. I sat down and looked at our yard, at the mature trees that we planted when we moved in, and realized how fast the years go by. Our land used to be a corn field, and we could see the highway from our house when we first built it. Now, there are woods around our yard. I looked at the ride-ons that they are too big for, especially the Little Tikes Cozy Coupe, which Emily christened, "The Rain Car" (because it has a roof, and when it rains...one doesn't get wet, I guess...). This is the second Cozy Coupe, the first one of Em's lasted through several children, then Jon got this new one. They are all too big for it now. Sad thought. It has been a few years since we had a toddler, before that...we had them year after year after year, starting almost 30 years ago. All those years of scrambling around protecting drinks on end tables, being on the alert for chairs being dragged across floors for easier access to sugar bowls and salt shakers, keeping the toilet lid down and the bathroom door closed, making sure the doors were all the way closed and little choke-y things were all picked up from the floors that had to remain clean all the time because of the crawling babies that we seemed to have a never-ending supply of. It's funny because while I was thinking these things, of how even though we have kids here it seems so silent, without the crying babies and toddlers, Charlotte Claire said so innocently, "Mama, you haven't had a baby in a long time! But I don't want to talk about the baby that died, or you will have bad dreams...."

I'm the kind of person who will be very busy when I have to be very busy, but when I lose steam and there is nothing that absolutely HAS to be done right now, I don't know what to do with myself. I get the dishes done and the floors cleaned, the counters straightened, and I'm like, Let's Go Bye-Bye. Or, Where's My Book? That's why I am enjoying the homeschooling this year so much, I feel like I belong here at home, to be available for the older kids, and to be here when anyone is sick and has to stay home from school, and teaching here gives me a purpose. Plus, of course, I think it's a really good option for Kathryn and Jonathan.

There is chicken soup on the stove tonight. I feel so accomplished when the afternoon rolls around and I actually know what's for dinner, and when I have it already started, oh yay me. There are some rolls for those who still eat such things, and leftover watermelon too. I am hypnotizing myself again...You Will Not Eat Chocolate. Ice Cream Is Not That Good. One Bite Of A Roll With Butter Leads To Another. A Few Chocolate Chips Is Not 50. Stay Out Of The Miniature Snickers. Do Not Eat One Chip - It Doesn't Work.

Last evening I had a cup of tea, which helped, after I ate like five of those little mini Snicker bars. I decided that was ENOUGH, and made the tea. rrrr. I know, why did I buy them? Well, they were $4.99 for a 52 ounce bag. How could I NOT buy them? I will send the rest with the older kids tonight for their youth activities. Get them out of here. :)

Yah ,so we all have our struggles.

Did I mention that Mali Rose got a job? She got a job! At the same hospital Mirielle works at, as an Registered Nurse. Yay! She still has to take her state nursing exam, but can start working first and take it with in like a six month period. Four nurses in the family now...

And....we have decided for sure to let our four girls come along on the trip to Georgia for Samuel's graduation from Basic Training. Kathryn 16, Evelyn 14, Suzanne 13, and Sonja 12, are coming with us. It will change the whole dynamics of the trip from a nice little getaway to...oh dear, to rather a Drama Fest, but these four girls are SO MUCH FUN. (Margaret cannot come because of school, and the older ones have obligations and work, and the younger ones already got to go last time) So...we cancelled our reservations, somewhat regretfully on my part, I had reserved a place with a nice outside saltwater pool:), back to the same hotel we went to last time because it has a one bedroom suite, with a t.v. in each room...the pool is indoors, but oh well. Maybe it will be rainy and we will be thankful for that. Paul had reward points, so we only spend like sixty dollars a night for this place, which isn't too bad.

Oh well, have to finish making that soup, and get the girls ready for their concert, and figure who else is going where and who is driving and what vehicle I will be driving....ha, no more babies or toddlers, but oh dear, the logistics!