Let's get this straight.

I am incredibly blessed. I married a wonderful man. While he has many fabulous traits there is only one I am going to dwell on at the moment.

He is a great dad. Completely competent at taking care of his children. He plays with them, is patient with them, remembers to give them their medicine when needed ( way more consistently than myself).  He cuddles and reads and sings songs and dances with them. He is awesome. I am so glad he is the father of my children.

Switching gears slightly I am going to discuss a sentiment I hear surprisingly often. As I am leaving a meeting or event "Got to hurry home and save your husband from babysitting huh?"

Did you spot the problem with that question?

It is the word "Babysitting".

My husband does not "babysit" our children. As far as I am concerned no father "babysits" his own kids. It is watching your own kids. Being responsible for them, taking care of them, teaching them silly or important things, it is not babysitting your own kids.

It is fulfilling the same kind of responsibilities that I generally do during the day. I do not babysit my children everyday. A father who is home with the kids is not babysitting either.

He is being a dad. I am grateful to have a husband who can step up like a man and act like a Dad.

'Round here

Recent happenings:

• My husband did a lot of digging.
• I carried a lot of dirt.
• We leveled out a part of our yard yesterday in hopes of preventing water from coming in the basement.
• My daughter is having constant nightmares. I could live without this. Every night 1 am. Thanks.  Not the terrors, we got those under control. I have resorted to talking her through some beautiful scene to think about. It seemed to be working we had 2 nights in a row without any visits. Too bad it is an hour after she went to bed and I have had to send her back twice already. Maybe we aren't as far along as I thought.
• Hockey lessons ended. So sad.They were lots of fun. I improved tremendously.  We are going to take ballroom dance lessons.  Waltz and foxtrot are the main dances in this session. Later we will go back to hockey.
• My yard has become kid central. Not only are my kids here, there are the grandchildren of the next door neighbor. Then you can throw in the child from a block away, plus the 3 kids on the corner. OK, so that isn't enough for you? How about the neighbor on the other side whose 2 grandchildren snuck away to hang out at my house. I only let them in the yard after making sure Mom knew where they were. Today we had 4 kids from the bus stop over after the bus came. It is kind of nice the kids are getting older and stress me out less.
• School started. I officially have 2 children in school. My life is ruled by the bus schedule now. Get kids on bus. Get kindergartener off a few hours later, get 2nd grader off a few hours after that. Good thing I don't have plans of doing ANYTHING all school year.
• Took the 2 little ones to the park and played in the creek. It was good.
• My second grader is addicted to Calvin and Hobbes

Load 'em up!

I guess I just enjoy sharing ( mostly) things that make me smile here. Here is something I thought was well worth taking a pictures of.

You guessed correctly. That is a hand weight and two Hot Wheels (we don't do Matchbox cars around here) cars on the truck trailer.

Next up, even more entertaining as far as I am concerned.

Sometimes you need to haul great white sharks around in your trailer bed. My kids make me smile.

I forget

Each Sunday we have this conversation on the way home.


Ethan : Naomi what did you learn about in church today?
N: Um... I forget.
E: Victor what did you learn about in class today?
V: I learned about Sacrament. ( or whatever they talked about.)
N: Hey! That is what I learned about! I learned about Sacrament!

Every week Naomi declares she has no idea what her class was about and passes the turn to Victor. Victor than tells us all about what his class did. Seeing as they are both taught from the same manual they get the same lesson. Suddenly she is surprised to have the same topic brought up.

Let's dance!

If you want some entertainment, just turn this song on and watch my kids go, particularly Phebe.

 Even the white kids.

This is currently Phebe's theme song.

I do not recommend the official video. The music is clean, the video pushes my limits.

Cute, just cute

There are few things I have witnessed that are cuter than my 20 month old singing and doing the hand motions to "I'm bringing home my baby bumble bee."

Baby dancing is pretty high up there though.

More amusement

This just made me laugh.




That is all.

FISH!

So we took a little day trip to Pymatuning. My kids declared it "awesome!"

First it is required that you stop at the spillway and be disgusted and awed by what you find there.

Namely fish. Lots of fish.

No, seriously, lots of fish.





Luckily they allow, make that encourage, you to bring bread to feed the fish. My kids loved it.

From there we went to the hatchery. That is where they collect all the eggs and then grow all the fish you see here. It was mildly interesting. My kids were not ... um... thrilled with much there. OK, the giant cat fish in the tank had their attention. The process of raising fish was not enthralling to them.

Then we moved on to the nature center. If you ever go to Pymatuning, visit the nature center. It was so very nice.... and free. They have some fabulous displays of wild animals native to the area. Some of which I didn't even realise were native to the area. Most of the displays say "do not touch." We did find a bear skin lacking that label. Ethan took some awesome pictures of Phebe on my shoulders rubbing herself all over the pelt. If we didn't have a no kid picture on line policy I would gladly share it with you. She loved it.

They also have an area in the back where kids can touch things. The big draw for Phebe was... the "identify the fur" game. She was just grabbing skins and rubbing her face in them. Fox is my personal favorite.

While preparing for this trip I found out that Pymatuning has 6 bald eagle nests in it's park. When you go to the nature area you can see them, sort of. You know, if you bring binoculars. Ethan and Victor did manage to score a view though. Caleb claims he did too. I don't believe him.

I didn't realise how cool that trip would really be. I would highly recommend visiting if you have the chance.

A bit darker

Here is Manha Manha again. Only a little different. Yes, it is kind of creepy. Ethan and I laughed and laughed and watched it over and over.

The popcorn miracle.

If you have not been following along I would like to fill you in on a tid bit.

My 3 year old has calorie problems.

Seriously. The kid needs fed at LEAST every 2 hours. Cheese sticks and peanut butter are very important around here. If you do not get him fed at the first signs of hunger he will morph into a crying puddle of irrational sadness. 

That being said, let me share a story.

A week ago my mother and I went gallivanting around the countryside looking for little farm markets. I guess I had underestimated how long it would take and how many snacks to pack. Soon I have a little boy howling in the backseat. I asked him what he wanted. His response...

"Popcorn."

... You want popcorn?

"Yes mom, I really want popcorn."

Ok, I'll try to get you something as soon as we can. We locate the next farm market on our list and head inside. It is a lovely little store. My mom points out they have bags of flavored popcorn for sale. I take notice and will probably grab one on the way out the door. But wait...

They have a popper right in the store. With little cups beside it. I ask a woman who works there how much it costs. As I suspected, it is free.

Of all the stores I have been to in my life, there have probably been about 3 that offered complimentary popcorn. The odds are just against the coincidence.That made it possible for me to shop quickly and quietly and get back on the road.

I realise this is just a quaint little story. It meant the world to me. It meant sanity for my son. I am so grateful my Father in Heaven knows my son and me. He met our needs. That is amazing to me. Just imagine what things he has in place for my son, or me or you. Things big or small that just fall into place because he knows where we are and what we need.

Dragonbreath

"A day and a half was a pretty long time, especially when you were at school.Time always moved extra slowly there. Math class in particular took several centuries a day."
- Dragonbreath, Curse of the Were-Wiener







 My son found the Dragonbreath series at the library the other day. They are a graphic novel/ chapter book for kids. Highly entertaining. I completely recommend these books.

For a smile

I thought you could use these amusing little videos. So here they are.

My kids just laugh and laugh over these.

Let's be grateful!

Today I am going to play "I'm so grateful for..."

I do this everyday in my journal. I just thought you might enjoy some of the things I am grateful for today.

• Fresh peaches, lots of them. Sweet and juicy.
• I did NOT lose my temper at my intensely passionate, incredibly stubborn and currently argumentative daughter. Unloading and loading the dishwasher would go so much faster if I didn't list it as one of my kids jobs.
• Victor spoke up about what Caleb and Phebe were doing.
• That the shampoo bottle and conditioner bottles were less than half full when Phebe and Caleb dumped them.
• They climbed into the bathtub to pour them out.
• Phebe was unable to get out of the bathtub after getting covered in shampoo, thus she could not take her mess all over the house.
• She did not get any in her eyes.
• My friend and her kids came over to help with peaches.
• No one got cut when a bowl was broken.
• We got some peaches canned, some ready for making jam and fruit leather.

There are many more things that I am grateful for today. There is my sample list. Hope you are having a great day too!

Um... what?

I just wanted to share with you what is possibly the weirdest most disturbing music video I have ever seen.

I bet Lisa Frank would have loved the begining.    

                                                                                      

Seriously, it was pretty bizarre wasn't it?