A Labor Day Hike

At a lake down the road. 

(It was a little hot.)

But we saw the nature. 

There are two. 

Three. 

And four. 

Believe it or not, about a split second after taking the photo, Nick broke out in a smile.  

Much like the phase where he never wanted his photo taken at all, our new game is to capture the boy smiling.  

I will win eventually.

That he is now wearing one of Patric's t-shirts from when he first joined the Army, makes me aware that I am running out of time.  

My Dog is Bigger Than My Daughter

Twelve years and still half the size of the dog.

Good friends to the end.

That Took a Turn

When I saw the girls grab the vacuum and a trash bag, I wrongly believed my girls were cleaning. 

Turns out you are ticklish even through a trash bag. 

"Don't worry mom, I'd never put this bag over my head."

Well, okay.

Don't Make Mom Mad!

The board game, made by the girls years ago, has been revived and reinvigorated. 

Mom now chases the children across the board, sometimes steaming mad and sometimes lovingly.  Seems like real life to me.

Getting all four to sit down and play with me, makes me happy.

Dorian

The evening before Dorian, beautiful. 

The day of the storm: school canceled.

The day after the storm: school canceled. 

Essentially, following Labor Day, the kids had a two day school week. 

Monday the following week.

The children arrive home from school defeated.

And forlorn at a full week of school ahead. 

Unheard of: Saturday morning breakfast

Four children showing up at 9:00 in the morning on a Saturday? 

An entire tray of Chicken Minis even gets Nicholas out of bed from time to time. 

The division math was worked out as quickly as they were gone for the tray of 40. 

The To Do List

They can ride together or they can ride with a weight on the seat to keep the motor running.

Either way, they like mowing the yard and I don't have to ride at all.  I'll take this for the year or so that it works.

And Now We Are Normal

Cleaning. 

This is normal.

The cat exploring. 

This is not normal since the dog was right downstairs, so we'll call this a good new normal.

Yes, they eat all of those in one meal after completing the math to determine how many they can each have. 

A house warming gift from my parents-- 

one of my favorites from way back in Memphis. 

The Texas Hibiscus is finding a home and growing like mad.

That

became this.  

And now I can go through my little door and put my clothes away directly in my closet instead of hauling them through the kitchen.

Stained and screened and shaking a fist at all of the flies around here.

And when Ben asks for 100 of grandma's peanut butter cookies, I have the pleasure of accommodating. Normal. 

Now we plan to hunker down and slow down.

Becoming Normal

Summer was a burner in many ways, but we're getting back to normal and back to school around here now. Having Alida show up to make the noodles they love is evidence of a more usual activity about the house. 

Having a Nicholas sighting is even possible these days. 

That's all good, because one day during first school break Ben showed up around 2:00 in the afternoon and made himself breakfast cereal and lunch of leftovers at the same time. 

He tells me he didn't want to take the last Sunkist (the favorite).  So, he took the second-to-the-last Sunkist and grabbed a Coke as well.  

The mayhem is ebbing and we're finding a rhythm. 

Stuber

Oh,  yes.  We did. 

We had so much fun even if the movie was really terrible.