The Puddles

Last Friday I took the girls and their families to King’s Orchard to pick vegetable for our scout troop.  It started out a little chaotic, but it ended well.  I learned a lot from this adventure.  For instance, give more strict instructions before sending a group of 8 and 9 year old girls into a field full of squash.  The end result . . . $70 worth of zucchini.  Yep. $70. I don’t even know what to do with all of the squash that was picked. Once you pick the squash you can’t put it back!  You are stuck paying for it.

BTW, that picture of Ben . . . he is telling me, “Seriously, Mom?  You are taking pictures?”  We are in a corn maze and he just wants to keep going.

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Aren’t they darling?  Perfect for pictures!

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The Before

I finally worked up the courage at the beginning of the summer to cut off my hair and donate it to Locks of Love.  I added a couple of inches during the summer and finally cut my hair this September.  I had Chris take a picture of the length of my hair before I headed out to the hair salon.  I was pretty nervous, but I had been testing this new hair dresser with the kids.  Over several months she had done a great job with them.  Good haircut and lots of patience.  That’s what I needed as well.   So 14 inches later . . .

And the after

I have a nice swath of hair to send into Locks of Love or  . . . ?  After I cut my hair, I put it in a ziplock bag and placed it into an envelope ready to be mailed to Locks of Love.  But of course, I am constantly behind in my “To Do” list so I haven’t mailed it yet.  Then, ironically,  I heard other people discussing the controversy regarding Locks of Love.  I didn’t realize there were so many issues.  So I started doing a little research.  I found a very interesting article from the New York Times regarding this issue.  Click here for the article. So I am donating the hair to Wigs For Kids.

I am glad that I cut it all off.  It is finally lighter and there is less of it to figure out.  It finally got so long that I couldn’t figure out what to do with it any more.  So I am really glad that it is gone.

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It seems to me that in the last 24 hours most people with whom I encountered were irritated.  I try not to take it personally, but by the end of the day it has worn me out. With my Scout troop going on a big field trip tomorrow, Ben’s birthday party this Saturday, and the typical but busy Sunday approaching . . . I know that I will run into more people who are irritated. I am ready to just skip the field trip and cancel the birthday because odds are . . . with as many people that I will encounter over the course of those two events, I will run into more irritated people (I’ve already had initial encounters with some of these people and they were irritated.  And by the way . . . if you are one of those irritated people, elect to not answer the phone if you can’t handle humanity at the moment.)  Prayer and sitting outside to listen to the birds were the restorative ways I chose to deal with those irritated people.  I was much better for it. Luckily my husband and children chose wisely today and were delightful, non-argumentative, and sweet (my eldest even asked to give Mommy a pedicure in order to “just be nice”.  Sweet girl!).  So World . . .  take your happy pills and get some sleep, so that we can try this all again tomorrow. I will pray for those that I encounter to have serenity or at least . . . that they do not answer the phone if they don’t.

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So the kids had to clean the house on Saturday while Mom worked in the office.  Daddy was supervising.  The day started off well.  Ainsley is helping daddy with pushing down the trash.  She came in my office and asked that I take her picture.  Afterwards she told me that I could now put it on facebook. I told her that I wasn’t on face book.  She said, “Well, when you get on facebook you can do it!”

By lunch time the house still wasn’t clean and the kids had gone from helping to being action figures. It slowly degraded from helping to playing.  When Dad left to get dinner for my birthday, I spent the next two hours cleaning the house.  So in less than 2 hours, Ainsley, Ben and I were able to accomplish something that they were not able to accomplish in 8 hours.  But in the end, it was clean and that is what counted.  

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The kids decided to have a slumber party this week in the living room.  They set up there sleeping pallets and felt the need to have umbrellas at each of their spots. It was sweet.

By the end of the night, Chris put the younger two on the couches and Madie had to go sleep in her bedroom (there was a disagreement between the siblings which resulted in Madie going upstairs to her room).  The night was still fun and they did a fairly decent  job cleaning up their stuff!

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This is Dad. He is supposedly “talking” to me while he is also focusing on whatever conversation is happening on his phone!!  But we love him anyways!!

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“Mom, you can only feed me soft foods now,” declares Ainsley.  She is so proud of her tooth, but hasn’t worked up the nerve yet to pull it out.

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