sunny day for adventures....

But here are a few pictures from yesterday. They had their bear shirts on. These were in my room and not involved with the smoke too much. I WAS going to give them to one of my nephews, I bought them on super duper clearance last spring....but when you are running out of clothes to put on the kids....well, bear shirts are fine for girls...and I feel like I don't have enough kids here during the day....so I take pictures of Charlotte Claire and Camille....

Here are some of the 25 bags of clothes from the laundry room. Ouch. But the nice Mr. A. said that, in his own words, "This is nothing!", when I asked him if he had ever seen so many clothes. He must be a professional liar. No, that is not nice. He is very kind. But I still can't believe that this is "nothing"...there must be people out there with alot of clothes.

The girls getting ready to go bye-bye.

The laundry room - it wasn't really too bad. Good thing Paul used the fire extinguishers, though. More than one of the kids actually said, "Daddy, you should have let it burn just a little bit longer..."

Charlotte Claire and her cousin Danielle. It was so nice they could be together for the day. Charlotte Claire talks about Danielle all the time. They got along very nicely today.

Here is Camille with them, and you can see Sean in the background...he was more interested in playing than getting his picture taken, he is a boy! He was so funny. He just turned two, and he was pretending to pack his lunch and take it with him when he went into this tunnel, which was the bus, I guess.

There he is....he is my sister-in-law, Kim's 12th child....and spoiled he is! He loves him mommy! But he is very very cute, so she doesn't mind.

I don't know why I like to take pictures of her in her carseat. She hates being buckled into anything, but she knows the van means adventure.

Here is Sean.

The big kids are gone, Daddy is gone, and we are going to clean out from under the couches before we go out and about. And one of our stops today is going to be to go to the store with the orange letters, according to Jon, and get some new mini-blinds. They seem to break easily in the kids' rooms. Maybe because I buy the $2.99 ones from Biglots. But broken $2.99 blinds are like, "oh, well".........

My coffee was gone way too quickly this morning. I am sitting here writing, and the kids are being so nice and good. Jon has been in school, so he is in heaven playing house with Charlotte Claire. He is on his phone, telling someone he is taking a flight to Chicago, he is at the airport. He has on a shirt, some Mickey Mouse undies, and a brand-new pair of sneakers that are in his next size. He has a suitcase, and he is headed for Norway. "Sweetie, our flight is going to take off, come on baby, we are going to miss our flight"....Charlotte Claire is playing right along, but I do think Camille is clueless. But she is going on the flight anyway. If I won the lottery right about now, I would love to actually take Jon, and all the rest of them, too, on an airplane. We jokingly figured it out one time how much it would cost for all of us to go to Florida on a plane, and stay at a hotel...ha. Ain't gonna happen. As Laura Ingalls Wilder said, "The rich get their ice in the summer, and the poor get theirs in the winter"....we get the beach in the summer. Not in the winter. Camping.

Since I cleaned up in here last night, and the kids are being so good, it has been a relaxing session of sitting here. I just want to document this, that I had a nice relaxing time. And I am, at this very minute, thankful. And happy. (honestly, sometimes when I am on the computer, and I KNOW the place needs picking up.....it just isn't fun. I am thankful for that discomfort though, it keeps us from living in a REAL slobhouse. I tell the kids, "If you want to live in a slobhouse, fine"....and they laugh their heads off....)So that niggling feeling that makes me work, I wish sometimes I had it ten times worse, then the place would be lots nicer...but I am thankful that it exists. I don't know what it is called, but it gets me moving. It is sort of a nesting instinct, in low key. I have it way way more, like one million times more, when I know someone is coming over. In general, though, I wish I had it more. I have to make myself do things, which is different than feeling compelled to accomplish something. I don't know if I am making any sense...but right now I am feeling very compelled to clean out under the couches. Because when the cleaning crew comes back, they will be moving them, and I'll be darned if I let them see the socks and toys and hair ponies and stray spoons and school papers. (with the wood floors, things DO go under the furniture more easily....) I mean, most people probably have a tissue or two and some dust bunnies. See, by writing this, I have gotten to the heart of the matter, haven't I? Pride. ouch.


Well, the peace is ending, Jonny is wacking Charlotte Claire with a plastic hammer, but he says that it wasn't even that hard, just softly on the hand......