Who Cares...

if it's 36 ° F outside?

if it's February?

if I'm as white as Frosty the Snowman?

 I'm wearing my bathing suit...

you wanna make something of it? 

Changing Patterns

Sleeping patterns change a lot around here.  Something or someone is always shifting...this week, it is Eliana.  She has been taking two hour naps.  Do you hear me?  Two hours.  Straight.  Asleep in her bed. 

I have been standing beside her bed until she's sleeping, which doesn't take too long.  It's a sweet time, and often she will want me to hold her (she says,"Hous-shoo, hous-shoo,"-hold you, in this quiet, asking little voice.  Who can resist?) but will still lean back into her bed to actually fall asleep. 

My time with her, however, means that my other two kids are working on things by themselves quietly.  Sometimes I give them options, sometimes they are already engaged in an activity (separate or together). 

Today, I "discovered" Christian in our schoolroom/playroom with our pattern blocks.  The kids love these colorful, versatile math manipulatives.  And Christian, who is quite engineerish, can come up with amazing designs. 

This particular time, he not only designed rocketships, he was actually playing with them, moving them around, making the boosters blast off and other things rockety.  Look, around here it is rocket science. 

Christian's creativity will never stop amazing me.   He's very good at putting things together symmetrically.

I love watching him think, seeing him figure out where his game is going next...

watching him concentrate on the pieces, carefully arranging them...

Michaela is just as drawn to them...their lure is powerful!

It is also interesting to watch how their designs unfold in such different ways.  Hers are often delicate, like flowers; rockety flowers, but flowers nonetheless (I don't have a photo this time!).  And she gives them her undivided attention. 

It is great to know they take pride in their work...I found this when I imported the pictures from the camera...

This, however, I have no real explanation for.  It's just funny.  And kind of cool.  Just like my kiddos.

That Proverbial Ball...

So tonight I "had to" lie down with two out of three of my children, and after all the time that took it got really late.  I should be packing some boxes, and at the very least cleaning up dinner.  Now I'm so sleepy!

Yes...getting ready to move.  I really do need to get the ball rolling.  First, I must find it...

An Empty House, Part I

The kids and I mosied on over to the house today with the camera and I got lots of pictures. 

Here, I am standing outside of the front door and you can see through to the back of the house on the left there (it is one of the bedrooms).  Christian is on the landing that meets the steps (you can't see to his left) which go down to the kitchen.  The steps go up to the second floor on his right.

This is the living room, which is left of the entry...

When you go through the living room you find yourself in a den/study which is quite large.  The door right behind Christian goes to the living room; the other door goes to a hallway.

The master bedroom is next...

It has a nice, big closet...

There is another bedroom downstairs with its own bathroom...

An extra bathroom below the stairs, in the hallway...it's cute.

Now, the kitchen is kind of hard to explain, but it's an "L" shaped room.  This is a picture of the small part of the "L".

It is the very back of the kitchen/house.  I am in the corner of the kitchen, where the side of the house and the back of the house meet, taking the picture of the washer/dryer; the pantry is the door on the left.  Below is the kitchen from the back of the room looking toward the front of the house.

There is room on the other side of the fridge for a smallish table, or something.  The door on that far end leads to the dining room.  You can see the pantry shelves on the right side of the photo.

This is the dining room, from the front corner of the house; I am looking into the entry way with the kitchen door on the right.

One bedroom upstairs from inside its closet...

Same room, other side...

Second bedroom upstairs...

and its closet...

This bedroom has its own bathroom...

This is the third bedroom upstairs which has a nice closet and its own bathroom which also connects to the hallway.

That last picture is from the hallway.

This is the stairway, with the platform which I mentioned in a previous post...the one Christian noticed right away.  OFF LIMITS!

Finally this is the entry and the dining room, with me standing in the living room.  It's a big space.  Plenty of room for all of our shoes (which we don't wear in the house)! 

We are so blessed to be able to live here.  I'll share some images of us making this house our home in the next few weeks.

Reminiscent...

When I was small, I went to stay with my grandma in Kentucky.  She took me home with her, from Virginia, and my parents were coming a little later for a convention in town.  I bet they had fun while I was gone!  It was the summer before my second birthday, and I was a clever little thing (so I hear). 

One day Grandma went to work, and my aunt was babysitting me.  Now, this part of the story I don't know anything about, but for some reason there was a moment for me to disappear.   Suddenly, she was there in the house, I was supposed to be there in the house, but I was NOT in the house.  My aunt is about 15 years older than me. 

Well, she looked everywhere.  She was very worried, even went outside to check quickly to see if I had escaped somehow.  She went down to the basement kitchen and happened to see the dog sitting under the table.  Hmmm.  She looked closer and discovered a little girl under there as well, with a bag of mini powdered sugar donuts...and the dog, something of the terrier kind, had a very fluffy face full of powdered sugar.  And he was not giving away my hiding spot.

I think my aunt didn't know whether to spank me or squeeze me.

I think of this story every now and then and giggle.  Today it was brought to my mind because of this scene...

Christian dropped his plate with cake on it, and I went to get something to clean up the sticky icing residue.  When I came back...well, someone had been quicker than me!  She was poking her finger in it, and taking tiny little pinches.  And she was so very grateful for Christian's generosity.  I could see it all over her face.

Like mother, like daughter...we'll take goodies at the table, on the table, heck, even under the table!