Summer is So Fun

I just went to the Mother of all Garage Sales - it's now been nine years since I first went! - a neighborhood sale with over 100 participating homes. It's like a carnival - hot dogs, ice cream and the whole bit. I even saw a guy on a unicycle...nobody on stilts though.

I took all four kids by myself and walked probably a couple of miles, but it's amazing what one can accomplish (sanely) when there are toys and goodies to be bought at every turn and of course, hot dogs and ice cream. It was perfect - right as I spent my last dime, I was back at my car and ready to go.

Ahhhh. Such fun.

It's been another one of those days...

Not a bad one...it's just another of those increasingly frequent days when I blow off the painting and do *gasp* other things instead. I know, it's sort of crazy, isn't it? But in my Bible Study I was directed to Psalm 127:2 - "In vain you rise early and stay up late, toiling for food to eat - for He grants sleep to those He loves." Not only is proper rest a GIFT from GOD - but it's highly recommended we receive that gift! I think I'm always sort of assuming that the Proverbs 31 woman, with that lamp that didn't go out at night and the getting up while it's still dark thing, must have sucked it up and just pushed through every day, and so maybe I was being noble or godly or something by sacrificing sleep every day and then behaving like a sleepless raving lunatic during everyone else's waking hours. Forget that the Miss Proverbs probably settled down for a lengthy siesta every afternoon, and she was organized enough to do a lot of delegating and smart enough to know when to say No.

At any rate, all the months of self-inflicted stress and fatigue caught up with me, and I'm taking God up on His offer to give the weary and burdened some rest. I'm not NOT painting, I'm just not doing it all day. And some days (more than Sunday) I might not even do it at all. It's exhilirating when I go through the day and get to mark off all sorts of things on my to-do list that have nothing to do with Art. Pay bills. Unload the dishwasher (though that's never exhilirating because I absolutely detest that job). Finish my Bible Study. Tickle-fight with my kids. Fill out health forms for my kid's camp and sign him up for baseball. I find it amazing that I can do everything that needed to be done around the house and I'm still sitting here blogging, with plenty of time left to make dinner.

Tomorrow I'll put away all the dreaded laundry (another job I detest) and maybe do a little art, but not that much...

New Words!

Cole is saying lots of new words. The ones he's using today? NO and MINE.

The ones he used last week (while in the store holding a large bag of candy) - WANT BUY!!!

Yeah. Hoorah.

Boyz R Gross

So, I have a few boys. When I imagined my life as a mom of boys, I always expected - even welcomed - the energy and rambunctiousness that so characterizes the male species. I was (and am) game for a good wrestling match or a good splash in a mud puddle. I actually sort of like the rough-and-tough stuff. I'm glad that my youngest is so full of all that.

What I did not imagine - though I should have since I do have a brother and a husband - was that boys are ewwwww! My seven-year-old is displaying all those qualities I'd somehow forgotten were also characteristic of boys. The Gross Factor. Wesley is forever getting tattled on for wiping his boogers on someone, spitting, scratching himself, licking someone's arm or something else disgusting. I have to scold him constantly for belching loud enough to make my paint brush vibrate. There is no dainty "excuse-me" to punctuate all this grossness as one might expect from a girl, there is just the constant reminders from mom to please cover your mouth and say excuse me and please do not spit on your sister.

A conversation that happened the other day:

Mom! Guess how far away I was from the toilet when I peed and I STILL MADE IT IN?

Um.

I was OUTSIDE THE DOOR! IN THE HALLWAY!

Okay, Wesley, here's the Germ-X wipes, please go clean what didn't make it in.

...... A couple of hours later:

Mom, I have to go, do you want to watch this time?