Friendly

 With maybe one exception, ALL my friends love camping.  Until recently I thought that everyone except Trent and me loved camping, then I realized these are just the kind of people I get along with and I don't 100% fit in with them.  If I'm sleeping in a tent it's going to mean that something horrible has happened, like the world has turned into that awful book The Road or the rest of my family has been brainwashed by the Boy Scouts and they kidnap me for weekend activities.

All my camping loving friends share another common trait:  high ideals that I love in theory but can never manage to live in practice.  For example, my friends say things like, "We don't tell our kids that Santa only brings presents to you if you're good.  It's like God's love and grace, you don't have to earn it."  I love that idea.

(dramatic pause)

My kids know alllll about the naughty list.   Someone always says that sweet statement around December 5 and I think, yes, I totally agree with that.  Then five minutes later I'm shouting IF SANTA EVEN STOPS AT THIS HOUSE ALL HE'S LEAVING YOU IS A GIANT BAG OF FARTS.

And now I honestly can't remember where I was going with this.  I started with pictures of Holly after she found the lipstick in my purse and some school Valentines.  Glad to know that spending half our life savings on stain proof carpet was a good investment thus far because with sufficient scrubbing that lipstick came right out.

End with the Valentines in your head so we seem like a really sweet family sitting around the kitchen table peacefully making Valentines.

A Tale of Two Birthdays: More Catch-Up

We have a real whirlwind month with Holly's Birthday-Christmas-New Year-Tate's Birthday.

Most of Holly's friends are church friends, family friends, so we had a birthday lunch for her after church one Sunday.

Tate had a Summer in January Party.  It was one of those house-full-of-5-year-olds-and-total-calm paradox parties.

As requested, Tate's birthday cake in the shape of the sun.

Ch-ch-ch-ch-changes

What is happening to me....

The other day the recycling truck and the big yard trash garbage truck both happened to be on our street, in front of our house (!) at the same time.  I felt a quick surge of adrenaline.  Two garbage trucks!  Hurray!  I've been running outside at the first sound of a garbage truck for SIX YEARS.  And counting.

On the way to take Rush to school there's a ditch/bayouish space at a stop sign and most mornings we see giant rats down there.  They are truly almost the size of our smallest cat, Professor Longbottom.  We've only seen them in the morning, never later in the day.  As soon as the nice spring weather arrives, I'm getting up early on a Saturday to ride my bike over and try to get a closer look because it is amazing.

Last weekend Rush, Tate, and I went to Wild Kratts Live.  I almost can't admit how excited I was to go to that, although thankfully we can credit most of that to a nighttime trip downtown.

If you'll excuse me, my old self is calling.  I'll be reading, drinking diet coke, and not cleaning the house if you need me.

Two Great Loves

One night at dinner we were playing an either/or/would you rather game.  It started with "If you had to give up one for the rest of your life but you could keep the other, which would you give up and which would you keep:  cake or cheese?  After a few rounds Rush looked at me and said, "Okay Mom.  Hawaii or Antarctica?"  Well played.  I could never choose!

I pulled out the Hawaiian quilt square to work on it last night and realized I only had about three more stitches of quilting to go.  It's so wonderfully anticlimactic to finish something that I've accepted will take forever to finish.

Trent's going to build a frame for it and based on his design I can skip finishing the edges.

Your move, Trent.

A Few Things I've Learned

1.  If you want to read a book in the bathtub and have any chance of the book not ending up soaking wet, a minimum of three dry washcloths must be next to the tub.

2.  If you have promised hot dogs, never start reading the label on the packages of hot dogs at the grocery store.  Just close your eyes and grab a few packages, assuming that surely the ones you picked are perfectly fine and not disgusting.  Not seeing the label is the same reason you can enjoy Sonic's $.50 corn dog days.

3.  Don't buy anything to "fix up the house" until the house is relatively clean and orderly.  Otherwise it's not just a messy house, it's a messy house with un-assembled shelves on the kitchen floor.

We talked about having shelves and a cabinet built in a little alcove in our dining room.  There were shelves there; but they were basic and we just covered them with a curtain when we moved in.  Putting away platters after Christmas, I reached my limit with the situation.  Trent opted to not be involved at all, so I cleaned off the shelves and re-hemmed the curtain to hid only the boxes on the bottom.  Going to the paint store to paint the backs to match was going to be a hassle, so I found half a gallon of coral paint leftover from our stairs. 

We also finally found a spot for the bench/trunk built by Trent's grandfather that has sat in our garage for the past few years.  

Recent home renovations:  $0.