Wednesday

There's just not a lot to post about these days that you haven't already heard from me before. I mean, there is one thing I could write about but I'll spare you. It's gross. It's bad. It's nasty. It's taken over my life for the past two days and I'm not even involved. It's gross. It's time consuming. Oh yes, and, it's gross.  It involves hair. And that's all I'm going to say about that.

Other than that, life is regular. We had parent/teacher conferences this afternoon. All three have all A's. (Eily actually has all 100's.) All on Honor Roll. All reading well above their level. All seem to behave while at school. Mrs. Pickatrz commented on how Elaina is such a deep thinker and the best listener in the class. Mrs. Young commented on how talented Claire is in Math and how quickly she figures out the answers . Mrs. Means commented on how sweet Eily was and how much she's opened up since the beginning of school.  Parent/Teacher conferences are fun when those are the types of reports you hear. :)

Jason is on his last big trip for this year. Hallelujah!!!  And then it's 5 weeks until thanksgiving, 9 weeks until Christmas and 10 weeks until 2014. Gracious! I think I'm going to go stick my head under the covers and be in denial for a while. I suggest you do the same. 

Jason Sacran Fine Art

I know most of you saw this picture on Facebook, but just in case, just in case you didn't, I'm posting it here on the ol' blog.  Jason painted this yesterday at a paint-out in Missouri. He's pretty talented, y'all.

Sunday

Nora woke up at four-thirty this morning with a fever. Sometimes, when my girls have fever, they become very talkative and chatty. Eily is always that way and the other girls do it from time to time. Last night, Nora took her turn; she was shaking from the fever but chatting and chatting about all the things that were flitting through her little mind. Finally, I put on "Barney" aka The Andy Griffith Show, and she fell asleep while watching. So this morning, she and I slept until ten-thirty and the older girls made themselves breakfast and played in the schoolroom- I think. To be honest, I don't know what they did because I was passed out solid.
Once I finally got out of bed, I had the girls clean their room and make their beds while I cleaned the kitchen. Yes, they can fix themselves breakfast but the aftermath is a bit shocking.  Then they all drew and colored in the schoolroom while I started laundry, swept, mopped, etc.... We ate lunch and then the younger two found themselves in the closet in their room (it's very big) playing Mama and Baby. Right now I can hear them giggling.
The older two didn't really know what to do. The were bored. They were tired. They wanted to paint. (NO)
So I used my extensive background and conducted my first class of Pasture Play and Adventure 101. I really didn't know that these types of adventures had to be taught; they came to naturally to me as a child. But the girls have grown up in a much different setting than I did so apparently they needed a little prompting. I explained about the excitement of orphans on the run, of "getting lost", of pretending to be The Boxcar Children. So they are on their adventure. They are feeling timid about braving the wild alone but they have packed a bag of some essential survival items. These items include tea cups and saucers, plastic forks, a blanket, a plastic medicine kit and a diaper bag.

God speed, little ones. And God bless. 

(hashtag alert- judge if you like) :)

Enjoy it. 

Because it's happening.

#family #dailylife  #blesings  #joy #fourlittlegirls  #onehansomehusband  #mylife  #thesedays

Routine

Life is back to normal. We get up, get dressed, get the kids fed and then usually I take the older three to school. We live about two minutes from the school so Jason stays home with Nora (unless she's already awake and then she insists on coming with me) while I drop off the girls.

 I come home and sometimes Jason goes straight to his studio (which is also about two minutes away from our house) but sometimes he lingers and we have breakfast together. Then I get started with my day. I put a load of laundry in the washer, I make the beds, I straighten the house and Nora helps me with it all. We clean the dishes. We fold the laundry. We hang the laundry on the clothesline and we always take a few minutes to swing while we are outside. I've been baking a lot, too. I've started making my own bread and I'm trying to keep healthy snacks in refrigerator for when the girls get home from school.

Once the girls are home, we finish homework and then they play, play, play.  We eat supper around 5:30pm and then, if it isn't raining, we usually end up in the yard throwing balls, climbing trees and running around getting dirty.

 Then it's bath time and brushing teeth time. Many evenings at this point, we all gather in the living room and I read to the family. We are currently reading Prudence with the Millers, The Five Little Peppers and How They Grew, and Farmer Boy. Nora usually throws her choice in the mix, too. Last night it was Sammy the Seal but more often than not, it's Harry at the Sea.
We are working on potty training. It's going surprisingly well. She usually has an accident or two every morning, but then pretty much makes it to the potty on time, every time.

Life is nice and calm.  There's something about this house that encourages calmness. (Well, not in the day to day. It can get pretty loud over here when all the young ones are home.) It also encourages patience, frugalness, and a feeling of contentment.

 Sometimes Claire will say she doesn't like living here because there are spiders but I remind her that we had spiders at our other house, too and that also I haven't called the bug man, yet. But she smiles so big and plays so hard that I know she feels right at home here. We all do.

update: after I wrote this post, Nora and I packed a lunch for Jason and drove it over to him. I counted and it took 25 seconds to get there, not two minutes. And then I had to drive to the school and give the girls their jackets and it took a little over a minute. And now you know the truth.

A "Peach" of a Morning