The Puddles

Hank escaped from the backyard this week, so Chris spent a good part of the day fixing that issue in the backyard.  Hank is a smart dog and I know that he will eventually figure another way out.  I frankly blame myself.  Our days get so busy that we don’t spend nearly enough time with him, so he gets bored and finds a hole in the fence.  Hank is looking for adventures on the “outside!”  I can’t say I blame him!!

The kids come home during Chris’ project.  I took the opportunity of Chris being outside to force my children outside for outside time.  No chores. Backpacks left in middle of floor. Snacks feed hurriedly while standing. Then a quick shove . . . and out they went.  I walked outside at one point to find the neighbor kids over and they were all playing foursquare in the driveway.  Fun!!  The kids love unscripted time and they needed after the kind of week we have had.

Now the kids are inside and I’m fixing dinner.  To keep them out from under my feet, I sent them into the living room.  Now Madie has her yoga video on and they are all working on it . . . including Chris and the dog (Chris is trying to get the dog to cooperate with him.  Good luck with that.).  They are all quite the sight.  At least they are all smiling.

Ben walks into the dinning room and sees the table that I’ve set and declares, “we are eating like kings tonight!!”  Ainsley comes running into the room to see what “eating like kings” looks like and she sees that all I’ve done is set the table with a tablecloth and cloth napkins.  Wow, it is amazing how little it takes to make amaze my children.  I realized lately that I am resorting too often to disposable dinnerware to help make the clean up process go faster.  I had a nightmare that my children had grown up and were telling their children how to set a proper table by pulling out the paper plates. Ugh.  Not that paper plates are a bad thing on occasion, but I’m becoming lazy and using them more than I should.  So we ate like kings tonight!!

At the end of the day, the kids and I headed upstairs to finish up the books we have been reading together.  After reading to the kids for an hour, we still have a little bit to go in Little House in the Big Woods.  But I had to finally call it quits, Ainsley had nearly fallen asleep, so it was time to tuck everyone in.  It was a good night, and a nice ending to a very busy week.