My foolish children

Proverbs 22:15 Folly is bound up in the heart of a child, but the rod of discipline will drive it far from him.

Today has not been a great day. I had a lot to get done and feel like I am running behind. I should have realized that it would not be a great day. The boys had a busy weekend with not enough sleep, too much junk food, and it was a full moon last night.

So Aiden's new glasses had gotten horribly bent out of shape. He hasn't even been able to wear them. So the first thing on my long to do list was take him to Effingham to have them bent back into shape and tightened. On the way there, he and Maverick were fighting in the van and he grabbed Maverick's arm, drawing blood with his fingernails. At that I added clip boys fingernails to my already long list.

On the way home, Maverick yelled at me non-stop. Turn up the music, turn off the music I want to sleep. Finally, I told him if he was sleeping, he needed to stop talking.

When we got home, I needed to can green beans. But of course, I have lost my instruction manual for my canner. OK, there are a lot of things I don't worry too much about the instructions but running a pressure canner is not one of them. It took me a while and a phone call to customer service, I found the instruction manual to download online. In the meantime, the children have destroyed the front room. There were toys EVERYWHERE.

I got the green beans going and made lunch. They all asked for peanut butter to dip their apple slices in. I happily obliged! Then I caught Aiden scraping the peanut butter off his plate WITH HIS HANDS and putting it on the plates of the other boys...WITH HIS HANDS! Seriously?!?!? In what world is THAT a good idea?!!?!?!

But wait...there is more!

I was working on cleaning up the kitchen and watching the canner pressure to make sure my green beans were going to be successful and the canner wasn't going to explode, when Maverick comes out of Aiden's bedroom and says "Look what Aiden did" On his face, there is writing with ball point ink pen. He has whiskers, a black nose and something that looks like ears on his forehead. Then Griffin came out...he only had whiskers. I went looking for Aiden. It took me a while to find him...he was hiding under his bed. When I asked him about it he said Maverick did it himself. I sent them all to their room. In short time, Aiden admitted he lied and he had done the drawing. They all stayed had to go to their rooms and Aiden got hot sauce on his tongue for lying. Maverick and Griffin are also in trouble because they had to sit STILL for him to do that. They can't sit still in church but they can sit still for Aiden to draw that much on their faces...the art work was actually well done if it weren't on someone's face.

Then I called Shane to tell him what had happened and as I was telling him about the "ears," and Aiden yells from his bed "They aren't ears...they are eyebrows!" Seriously??? He thought correcting me was a good idea!?!?!

Now they are asking for paper and crayons and markers for drawing! ARE YOU KIDDING ME?!?!?!

So, the day has not really gone as planned. The only thing I've gotten done is Aiden's glasses getting tightened and as I typed this I heard all the green beans seal. Unfortunately that is just the tip of the iceberg. I did get one other thing done that I added to my to-do list- I made cookies. Chocolate is my drug of choice for a bad day!

Progress and Milestones!!

We are making such great progress on the garage. As soon as the stairway is enclosed, we will start running electrical. I can hardly wait. Mom and I just cleaned out our deep freeze that is still hanging out in their garage. It is empty and defrosted...ready to be moved and cleaned. Once we have power out there we can get our meat and stuff and have it here where we can get it easily. Of course, there isn't much meat to put in it. Hopefully, that will be remedied during deer season this year.

And the most exciting news of all....(drum roll please)...Griffin is wearing underwear!!!!! He woke up dry yesterday morning so I had him go pee in the potty! He only had one accident all day (and it made him cry)! He even pooped in the potty yesterday. Today (at this point) we are accident free and he has even gone a few times without being told to go. Could he possibly train this easily this early?!?!?!? The other boys were terrible potty trainers and I just quit and prayed they would not need diapers when they moved out for college!!!! Griffin seems to be ready to do it! He woke up dry from nap yesterday and this morning and last night he didn't want a diaper to sleep in (but we aren't quite ready for that)! YIPPEE!!!!

That's all folks!

Rain Rain Go Away!

I know I will be wishing for rain in a month or two when my well is running dry and I'm at the laundromat...but for now JUST STOP!!! Seriously, it rains every other day on a good week. If I want to deal with this kind of humidity and continual rain fall I would move closer to a beach...then at least I would be able to enjoy the ocean when it is sunny.

We did FINALLY get the yard baled, I mean mowed...although baling it probably would have been better. The grass, I mean weeds, were knee high. Just ridiculous but so is mowing in the thunderstorm. Blech!

We did get to work on the garage this weekend. We even scored at the hard ware store and saved about $200 on enough masonite to finish the closet and the stairwell. They had some seconds that they needed to sell. WOOHOOO!!!!!! I'm hoping over the 4th of July weekend we can get it wired for electricity and maybe SOMEDAY it will dry out enough to do the dirt work so we can park in there. :(

Father's Day was a beautiful, albeit hot, day (it was the one day it hasn't rained in a long time it seems). We cooked out at the pond and swam all day long! It was a great way to spend the day! We were all waterlooged and a little pink by the end of the day but the boys were exhausted and slept so well. Makes for a happy momma!

More SuperCamp stories and photos.

Here we are in the van...I'm not sure when I took this picture but since the next stories occurred in the car I thought it was a picture worth showing.

Having Maverick in the car lent itself to some comedic relief. Following are 2 examples...

Maverick: Are we in Illinois?
Me: Yep
Maverick: Are we in Illinois?
Me: Yep
Maverick: Are we in Illinois?
Me: Nope, we are in Indiana now.
Maverick: Are we in Indiana?
Me: Yep.
Maverick: Are we in Indiana?
Me: Yep.
Maverick: Are we in Indiana?
Me: Yep.
Maverick: Are we in Indiana?
Me: Nope. We are in Kentucky.
Maverick: Are we in Kentucky?
Me: Yep.
Maverick: Are we in Kentucky?
Me: Yep.
Maverick: Are we in Kentucky?
Me: Yep.
Maverick: Are we in Sane?
Shane and I together: We are getting close.

(He spaced these questions out about 5-10 minutes...I've given you the cliff notes version and cut out many repetitions of the questions...you can post your thanks in the comments if you'd like) ;)

As you can tell, Maverick is a talker (I can't IMAGINE where that comes from). He talked incessantly about something for most of the drive (I would say all but he did sleep a few hours on the way home). When he ran out of things to talk about he would fixate on one word and repeat it over and over and over. At one point the word was gigantic, giGANtic, giGANtic, gigantic. (you get the picture). Finally, Shane calmly told him it was time for him to close his lips for a while. For once, he actually did as he was told and closed his lips. Unfortunately, he could still hum. So we heard hmmHMMhmm, hmmHMMhmm, hmmHMMhmm. It was clear he was still saying gigantic...but with his lips closed. *sigh*

We got to go on a tour of some caves. The boys thought it was cool. Here is a picture of them in front of "the Fireplace." the story is that it was used as a fireplace by deserters in the Civil War. Unfortunately, the smoke escaping from the cracks in the roof of the cave gave them away. Of course, without those cracks they probably would have died from carbon monoxide poisoning.

Anywho, we've been home almost a week and things are almost back to normal. It is so hard to get everything rolling again after a week away. Also, while we were gone we had to "bug bomb" our house (I HATE doing that but the ants were winning) so when we got home all the surfaces had to be cleaned. And since I emptied our kitchen before we left I had to put it all back together. Whew! Ready for a more "normal" week next week!

Things I learned this weekend....

We made the drive to Creation Ministry International's Creation Supercamp last weekend. It was held near Asheville, NC. We took all three boys on the 10 hour (or so) drive and it was interesting. On the way down, we stopped overnight in Nashville and visited with a great friend.

Thing I learned #1: Telling Maverick to close his lips does not mean he is going to be quiet...it just means he is going to start humming.

Thing I learned #2: Baja Burrito is a really good restaurant in Nashville. If you are in the area, you should stop in.

Things I learned #3, #4, and #5: There are several things I think those in the Southern States take VERY seriously...of those, the top three I observed were...
1. Sweet tea (Hallelujah! Although I am currently suffering from a caffeine headache due to withdrawal)
2. Porches and rocking chairs (Yippee! I loved sitting out and looking at the mountains and rocking in my chair...I want one or two or 5 for on my porch) and
3. Waffle House (I have no real opinion of this, we never stopped but there is one at almost EVERY exit on the highway).

Thing I learned #6: 10 hours is a REALLY long time to sit in the van for anyone...especially when there are 3 young boys who are bored stiff and overtired and hyped up on sugar and other problem foods. But if everyone stays calm...it can be, well, tolerable...maybe even fun!!

I also learned about the earth and how it was created (not that I didn't already know something about it) but there were so many things I didn't know that make it obvious that God made us about 6000 years ago. I was especially fascinated by the genetics talk. So interesting!!! I am so thankful we were able to go. We met some great people, learned some fascinating things, and had a great time. Now I have to get back to the clean-up. YUCK!

Eavesdropping does have some benefits!!

These are two conversations I heard (or was drawn into) this morning.

Aiden: Maverick stop throwing the plate frisbees at me.
Maverick: They won't hurt you.
Aiden: MOoooooom, Maverick is throwing plates frisbees at me.
Maverick: Moooooom, Aiden was going to kick in me in the balls and that hurts to death!!!
Me: (struggling not to snicker) Aiden don't kick people in the balls. Don't kick people ever at all. It is mean. Maverick, stop throwing the plate frisbees.

DAILY VOCABULARY: Plate frisbees: (n) toy plates from a little kitchen set that are being thrown like a frisbee. Come in many colors.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

The other one I just overheard. The boys were watching Clifford the Big Red Dog on PBS this morning. And I heard Aiden say:

"Emily Elizabeth, Clifford is gonna die someday."

(For those who aren't up to snuff with their children's programming on PBS (or books) Emily Elizabeth is the little girl who owns Clifford the Big Red Dog.)

So I am curious if you would worry why your kid is thinking about cartoon dogs dying OR if you would be concerned that he is talking to the TV?

Family Camp!!

Over Memorial Day weekend we spent time at Cuivre River State Park with the my dad's extended family. Every couple years we rent a group camp with cabins and a mess hall at this park. We all get together and spend a weekend relaxing and having a great time. We also invite some friends to join us. This year the Martell's joined us.

We went over a little early and spent time at the zoo before we made it to camp. We had perfect timing at the zoo. The animals were nearly all out and many had just been fed so we were able to see them eating and talk about their diets at the zoo. There were some monkeys who were not eating. At first we weren't sure what was going on but it soon became all too clear and we moved on...THEN we noticed the zoo worker making note of the monkey activity and timing certain activities. It was interesting??!!

They liked watching this monkey eating...sorry no photos of the "other monkey business"...this is a G rated blog. :)

All Griffin really wanted to do was ride the zoo train. He loved it!! Aunt Heather was a good date for the ride.

Aiden and Maverick enjoyed riding too. They wanted to ride with Nanny and Pappy...Shocking, I know! (did you see my eyes roll?) lol

Saturday was a full day with a long hike in the morning (long because we took a wrong path and went a little out of the way), playing in a creek in the afternoon, and swimming a the lake in the evening. At the creek we even built a dam with big rocks and it was fun. They liked how fast the water moved over the dam and how deep the pool was.

Aiden and Maverick finish up the hike with a cousin.

Griffin walked most of it but we also had a "baby backpack" that he rode in...he much preferred walking.

Sunday was a lazier day since all three boys slept for HOURS in the afternoon. I finished a complete novel in that time. It was a good read. "The Last Song" by Nicholas Sparks. Anyway, we came home Monday morning and I went to the laundromat. Three triple loaders and 2 double loaders later, everything was washed and read to be put away. Since we had to take all our own bedding and towels and beach towels, the laundry was overwhelming!

Serious piles of laundry ready to be washed!!

It was a great weekend and I'm glad we were able to go. I am also glad that Derek, Elisabeth and the kids came along. I learned that we watch tv only because it is here, we don't miss it when we don't have it. And I learned that a/c is SO wonderful!! I did, however, make it not as cold in here when we got back. We can be comfortable without it being quite so frigid.

I realized there are no pictures of Shane and I. I'm sure someone took one but I guess I never really got one. There were a few with Shane but there is only one picture of me from the whole weekend on my camera and it is HORRIBLE!!! So you'll just have to trust me...I was there!