music to a momma's ear

"I'm working hard"
"I like helping with lunch"

"Guess there's not much work for you to do today"

this is the music that makes a momma's heart sing

~

thanks, My Sweets, for your happy help

baby, it's cold outside

dessert?

We were finishing up lunch

(mushroom cheese scrambled eggs & biscuits)

when Jeremiah said, "Mmm, this tastes like dessert."

as he downed the last of his biscuit

slathered in homemade blueberry jelly.

Which reminded me....

~

AQ Chicken House was one of our favorite restuarants.

We didn't go out to eat very often

(still don't)

so anytime we ate out, it was a treat.

Kids ate free on Tuesdays

so

it must've been a Tuesday evening...

Tyler went on and on

during the meal

about

dessert

and how much he was going to enjoy it.

Dessert?!

We never ordered dessert!

Lana wanted to be sure to save plenty of room

for this fabulous extravagance

so she gave away her dinner roll

and probably some of her dinner, too.

Imagine her dismay

when she realized that the roll

with honey on it

was dessert!

~

Poor little 7 year old sweetie

oh my!

Swimming suits are so much fun to make!

We were supposed to be in Branson today

whooping it up in the nice warm water

but

the hotel called us Tuesday evening

to say, "Sorry - water park will be closed 'for maintenance'"

which really just means

they weren't going to have enough guests

to make it worth opening today.

They aren't even going to give us any kind of a deal

for when we go in a few weeks.

Bummer!

But

looking at the bright side:

I got to try my hand a suit-sewing!

This little girl

has got to be

the very sweetest in the world!

mom:

(the not sweetest mom in the world!)

"Lily! You just spilled Mommy's pins!

You are not supposed to mess with Mommy's pins!"

"Momma, I know you're frustrated with me.

I'm sorry. I know I'm the one that spilled them.

I'll pick them all up."

~

"Thanks for my skirt, Mom."

"Well, Lily, it's not done yet - I still have to do the hem."

"Well, thank-you for it anyways."

~

If only I could be half as kind and loving as that girl....

what is it

about this book?

~

I wasn't going to use it this time around.

Oh

it worked well enough with Brandon

but I just didn't really care for it.

Problem was

we weren't really making any progress with my method.

I'm perfectly okay with a child being a 'late' reader

if

that is what is best for that child.

But Jeremiah was getting frustrated with himself

for not 'getting it'

and I sure didn't want a six-year old boy

thinking he was a failure

when we were just at the beginning stages of formally

'learning to read'

So

I pulled out the well-worn (if not well-loved) yellow book

and within one lesson

things began clicking!

What is it about this book??

everyone needs to take one of these

swimsuit shopping!

"Oh, Momma - you look beautiful!"

the kindness of strangers

Monday

I emailed these gals

after googling 'swimsuit sewing'.

You know me - until I've attempted it

and it's been proven otherwise

I pretty much figure I can do - well - anything.

Renae sweetly answered my questions

and then some.

And then

Renae sent me another e-mail;

she had a homeless little suit

that just might fix Lexi.

And she wanted to send it to us!

I don't think

Lexi

has much of a future as a swimsuit model

but she's all ready for the water park next week!

~

Thanks, Renae!!

more than ONE way to skin a cat

I handed Lexi the green block,

"Can you put the block in the bucket?"

She took off the lid

put the blocks in

and went about putting the lid back on.

yep

I guess she can.

~

Happy Birthday

Precious Girl

~

next on the agenda:

dessert!

just as soon as our family gets home

my good helper

She came in the kitchen

right after I'd reached up high

and grabbed the red container.

"You makin' oatmeal? I'll help!"

"Well, actually, I'm just about done;

I just need to finish stirring."

I'd responded kindly enough

but really I was thinking

"No, you can't help.

I just want to get these made quickly

so you kids can get to bed."

She grabbed Tony's chair to drag it into the kitchen

talking all the while about how heavy it was

and how big of a girl she is.

They are heavy chairs;

Josiah usually asks for help moving them.

As she climbed on her chair

she noticed that I wasn't making oatmeal;

I was making oatmeal cookies.

Her eyes lit up,

"That looks like cookies!"

I'm ashamed to admit

that I'd also had the thought'

"I bet you want to help so you can eat the cookie dough."

She didn't even know it was cookies;

she just wanted to help me.

I'm so glad I didn't insist on finishing up on my own.

She had such a good time helping

and I enjoyed listening to her chatter

while we worked.

Turns out

she's a pretty good cookie-maker, too.

~

gotta go eat some fresh from the oven cookies

cheerfully made

by the most helpful big little girl I know.

look at her go

walkin'

I was about to go to bed without writing;

I'd already turned out the light.

But I realized

I've not been very good at cataloging Lexi's accomplishments.

I suppose

if I were to be completely honest

it's partly due to the misguided thinking that

If I don't record it, maybe it didn't happen.

As if.

~

The girl walked halfway across the living room!

almost 5 ft!!

The boys have proclaimed her 'a walker'

but I am not so eager to bestow that title just yet.

I know how it works;

one day

they walk.

And then,

just a few days later

they walk out the door.

for keeps.

and I'm just not ready for that yet.

a day of firsts

Poached eggs for the first time ever.

bet you can guess what movie we watched last night

~

Lily named something for the first time;

her little goat

is now

Valice

~

Tony's first time to go to

the first show

of the first tour of RED with Pillar.

(with The Wedding and Me in Motion, too)

too bad he's not at all looking forward to it

~

and sadly

today is also the first time

that Lily has ever gotten upset with her little sister.

They were playing with the dollhouse she got for Christmas

(2 bucks from a yardsale, plus a little elbow grease)

and Lexi was apparently crowding her.

"Go away, stupid girl!"

It just about broke my heart;

Lily is always so patient with Lex.

Neither of them harbored any ill-feelings, though;

Lily apologized and they were happily playing together again

less than a minute later.

~

it's probably not the first time, though,

that I've been quickly typing up a post

when I should be finishing up getting the house picked up for Papa

oops

of knights and fair maidens

I gathered all the kids around the computer

so I could show them the mugshot.

Only a few miles away,

a murderer had escaped

while being transported to another facility.

I didn't want to scare them

but I wanted them to understand the urgency;

if they saw this guy

they were to get in the house immediately!

Jeremiah said,

"If I see him, I'll run up and slap him in the face!"

"NO! You will get in this house immediately!"
I responded.

not very calmly.

And the poor boy put his head down and sobbed,

"I just want to protect the family and you guys never say,"Yes""

~

We talked about how running in the house

would be protecting the family.

That a guy like that,

while he looked nice enough,

wouldn't be detered by a slap in the face

or even a kick in the p***s

(the boys think it's hilarious when to talk about tenders,

for some silly reason; I like to humor them)

We talked about how you have to 'work up' to big protecting...

A short while later

I tied up a particularly foul-smelling bag of trash,

held it out the bathroom door

and called out,

"I need someone to protect the family from this stench!"

I figured Jeremiah would be thrilled at the prospect.

Lily, my eager little servant,

was the only one to step forward.

Guess Jeremiah isn't quite ready to protect the fam

no matter what.

no mess slicin' and dicin'

for more kitchen tips (and great recipes) visit Tammy

where

oh, where

is

Lexi

??

There she is

!!

treasure at the library

I rarely have time to look upstairs

but

I can sometimes sneak in a few minutes

to quickly browse the new non-fiction shelves.

~

When I saw the title, Relaxed Cooking with Curtis Stone,

I snatched it up.

Relaxed?

no - I'm not generally relaxed while cooking.

I figured maybe I'd get some kitchen inspiration;

Lord knows

- and so does everyone else in the house -

that I've been severely lacking in inspiration

in the kitchen.

I'd barely looked at the pages when Josiah asked

if I had any paper he could look at.

The big boys were reading the newspaper

and he was feeling a bit left out.

"Well,"

I told him,

"I got a cookbook at the library today.

It has a lot of pictures; you might enjoy looking at that?"

Needless to say,

that was the end of the book for me.

I can't get it away from the kid

and when I did have a moment to look at it the other day

he caught me and said, "Quit lookin' at my book."

I told him I'd have to look at it some

if we were going to make anything from it.

The banoffee pie was a big hit

(I followed the recipe exactly - except I had light brown sugar, instead of dark)

and

after dinner this evening,

we'll be having Pomegranate Martinis

(If you've never heard a four year old

ask for a Pomegranate Martini - you're missing out :-)

~

I highly recommend a peek at the book

but if you're planning to borrow it out from theFSM library

you'll be waiting awhile;

we're definitely renewing this one!

togetherness

Everyone wants to know -

How do we fit 'so many people'

in to such a tiny house?

the people fit just fine

it's all the stuff

the people like to keep around

we have trouble with...

'all those people'

taking up about 25-30 sq ft of the 975 available.

I do love those people