saturday morning in our crazy house.....

Sometimes I just take in the moment, and say to myself, "right now, I am happy. Right this very minute." This morning, I did not want to go out in the rain. No way, no how. But I know myself, and how quick I am with the excuses, so I just didn't listen, and went out anyway. The neighbor lady stopped her car and commented to me about walking in the rain, and I thought she must think I'm nuts. As I got more wet, and my sneakers started sloshing, I wondered if everyone on the street thinks I'm crazy. Even without the walks, they probably do. But guess what? I don't really care.

The kids are out playing in the rain now. It is only sprinkling, but it is very wet out there.

They woke me up about a million times this morning, slamming doors and laughing and running down the hall. Jon has a friend here, and somehow even one extra kid makes them crazier. When I finally got out of bed and came out here, the dogs had already been out, back in, and fed and watered. The kids were playing Nerf, thus the screeching and slamming. I asked them to please do something quieter for a bit, some of us don't get many days to sleep in. So they played Mario Cart, which wasn't much quieter...

Anyway. It is a good day. Suzanne went to the dump with Paul. Abigail is coming over to borrow our pick up truck to return 5 cent cans and bottles, with Jon and his friend, for a fundraiser for church.

I don't know yet what I shall do.

Our kitchen table is covered with boxes and paint. It all started yesterday when Cam and I walked into Walmart to get a new bulb for the van's headlight and discovered two carts full of paint samples for ten cents each. Regular wall paint. Oh, fun! I let Camille pick out eleven bottles. I actually told her ten, but she found an eleventh. Anyway, that made her want to paint something. So when we went to BJ's, we got some boxes...

We taped brown wrapping paper, the kind for sending packages, on the table, and let them paint. They are making dollhouses, of course.

Not at this very moment, but they aren't finished yet, so the table looks lovely.

One of the things I have struggled with through the years is to balance letting the kids do lots of fun stuff with keeping the house from falling down. I don't let them eat in their rooms or anything, but then again I pretend not to notice when Kap and Suze head down the hall with plates balanced on cups and chip bags in their hands.

This IS their house too, but they also need to respect things, and learn to clean up after themselves. I don't like sticky, or crumbs, or dirty. No shoes in the house, wash your hands before and after you eat, don't lick your fingers then put your hand back in the bag. Emily recently thanked me for teaching them table manners. She said, "Mom, you wouldn't believe some of the adults who don't know how to eat properly. Smacking, licking their fingers, talking with food in their mouths..." Sometimes I think I have created intolerant brats, they way my kids get so grossed out so easily by slurping and smacking.

Seriously, though, eating at the table together as a family is good for more than just hearing about each other's days.

Is it evident through my scrambled writing that there is a lot going on around here today? Abigail is here, spurring the littler ones to beg to spend the night at her house.

Anyway, I am done writing for now....