The Good Life

Contrary to how it might appear on my blog, we're not always dashing off to kids' sports, the zoo or the aquarium, doing school work, and accomplishing scheduled activities around here. We do have our share of down time when we just hang out and don't really accomplish much at all. I'm going to make sure I share some of that on this blog, so in the future my kids can't say I was always a task master!

Here are a few snippets of life around here....

A couple weeks ago Katie Mei noticed the cat's ball was stuck behind the 'fridge. It really bothered her that it was stuck there and she wanted to get it out. She tried with her short little arms for a bit, but couldn't reach it. Since I was in the kitchen getting dinner started, I offered her one of my long wooden spoons. She thought that was great and gave it a try. Apparently, she had a hard time seeing the ball behind there because she got up and announced she needed her peeg (pink) sunna gwasses, and off she ran. She came back with the appropriate attire for cat toy rescue, and set herself to work.

There was a bit of a struggle, and she had to get down on her belly to get a really good advantage on the ball.

She must have been doing something right, because Dusty came by to encourage her and check on her progress.

In the end, she never did get the ball out, and it still sits there because I pretty much forgot about it. When she finally gave up, she went to put the spoon back in the drawer and I told her it was dirty and needed to go in the sink. However, she had already gotten a glimpse of all my other wooden spoons in the drawer and she started exploring. She found my short bamboo spoon and snatched it up, saying "This is a leedle spoon, Just Like ME!!! I want to play wif it!" (She loves to compare herself to other little things for some reason.) She then started to walk out of the kitchen with my small spoon. I told her she needed to put it back in the drawer because I needed it for cooking, but she continued to walk out of the kitchen saying over her shoulder "Mom, you need to share!" Well, at least I know she's putting in to practice what we try to teach her about playing nice.

Last week we had one of many thunderstorms in the early evening. Since the temperature outside had cooled off and felt so nice, I decided to go outside for a few moments of quiet, solitary relaxation. Never one to let Mommy spend too much time alone, Katie Mei followed me out. Since it was still raining but no longer really a storm, I gave in and said "yes" when she asked if she could go out from under the porch into the rain. She was already in her "nighnow" (night gown), but I figured it wasn't that much trouble to change when she was done playing.

As you can see from the photo, she had an absolute blast! I had to grab my camera and get a couple pictures of that wonderfully lit up face!

Well, upon hearing Katie Mei's squeals of delight, Merrilee soon followed in her night gown and asked if she could also go out in the rain. I had to say yes again.

And of course, two is always followed by three, so I ended up with three screaming, jumping, splashing, wet kids and no quiet time for myself, afterall. But it was fun and they were all brimming with laughter and joy. It was quite worth it. Who knew rain could be so much fun?

They dropped their wet clothes at the door and went back upstairs to dry off and put on clean jammies. Everyone was happy and sleep came quickly.

This weekend we had another couple of very mild, beautiful days and I let the kids get in the pool. The water had cooled off considerably, so it was a bit of a shock to get wet. Katie Mei wasn't feeling perfectly well (we've all had a summer cold for the past week), so for the first time since we've lived here, she said she "no" when asked if she wanted to swim. This was perfectly fine with me, because I really didn't want to get in the water, either. So she and I sat on the porch while the other two kids swam. It was just the perfect afternoon to sit and read a magazine, watch Katie Mei play with Jacob's plastic animals, and supervise the older kids in the pool.

Did you know dinosaurs, their skeletons, zebras, and horses all enjoy a community bowl of lawn weeds every now and then?

Camels seem to like to get in on the action, too.

But they're messy eaters, and when they're done someone must clean up their scraps. I had just the right girl to do it! (And you can never start them too young on learning how to handle a broom and dustpan!)

Merrilee and Jacob had a fun half-hour swim before the next round of thunderstorms headed our way, but it was enough to give everyone a little R and R, and then get ready for dinner.

That's it in a nutshell. We work, we chill out, we swim, and we play. I hope the water in the pool doesn't get too much cooler, though, or we'll be down to only three out of the four. I'm not ready for fall to step in quite yet!