Daily Photo Journal Monday April 25, 2011

I thought I would try something a little different for my daily journal. Each hour I'm going to try to remember to take a picture (or have someone else take one) of something that is going on right then.

I started a little late this morning (9:10) and had Amanda take a picture of the kids and I having circle time. This is actually a smaller group than usual. One child is out on vacation and Michael was with Doug. I am holding a book but the light from the window behind me made it hard to get a good picture. I should have had Amanda pull the blind but didn't think of it then.

10:10AM - Doug took the day off ( I sure wish my job accrued paid time off like his does). Here he was sitting outside drawing plans for something he wants to build.

11:10AM Michael was watching Austin check the oil in the lawnmowers. I had to get this picture of him all comfy, relaxed and happy.

12:15PM Lunch time baby! And, in case anyone ever wondered, those Blueberry Pancakes and Sausages on a stick are yummy. Today was Austin's day to make lunch and he had seen these in the store and put them on the menu. Scrumptious!

1:20PM - The trees on our little acre have not been very well taken care of and Doug is trying to remedy that. This afternoon he cut some of the dead limbs out of two of them. Here he and Michael are pulling the cut limbs away to burn.

2:15PM Oh naptime, how I love you.

3:20PM - Here Doug is behind the garage cutting and burning the branches he trimmed from the trees this afternoon.

4:35PM - Michael keeping me company while I'm watching kids in the back yard.

5:35PM - Amanda made us some very good taco salad for dinner. Here is my plate of salad. Are you hungry now?

6:45 - Today has been an absolutely beautiful day for playing outside and after dinner we were back out again. Here M is enjoying the beans and rice bin at the picnic table in the back yard.

7:05PM - I couldn't resist taking this picture of Michael helping Doug do yard work.

I missed taking a photo in the 8PM hour. But here, at 9PM is Austin eating ice cream and playing a game on his computer while he waits for me to get ready for our read aloud time with him and Amanda.

10:15PM - We've enjoyed our reading time and now I'm going to settle down at the kitchen table with my computer and a cup of coffee.

11:35PM - Since my eyes are starting to close and this is the view from here (it's awfully dark out there) I think it's time for me to go to bed.

Good night all.

A Morning at the Park

We took advantage of a fairly quiet day and warm weather to take the kids to the park. It was a treat for all of us. A friend and her little boy went with us which added to the fun.

Why Amanda felt compelled to crawl up here, I have no idea.

I think some of the kids enjoyed the mulch pile waiting to be spread on the playground as much as they did the actual play equipment.

After having so much fun on the playground everyone was hungry.

 With full stomachs and a little down time we were ready to see the fish and the ducks.

And after all that fun. . .

We went home for naps.

Darn, here is where I should have a picture of all the kids asleep.

Oh well.

Thursday March 17, 2011

I'm tired tonight but it's a good tired. The kind of happy, satisfied tired that comes with a full day of blessings.

Michael was restless again last night and kept waking me up but I really didn't feel too tired today. It took two cups of coffee to get me started but then I was on a roll.

After morning chores and schoolwork we were able to go outside for awhile. When we came in for lunch we were treated to Austin's homemade pizza. He did a very good job with it.

The kids slept well, except for Michael. I thought maybe since he had a restless night last night he would take a good nap this afternoon but it didn't work that way. He fought sleep all the way through naptime and never did fall asleep.

We went back out after nap and snacks. The temperature was in the 60s and it smelled like Spring outside. The Spring Peepers were in full chorus all day. Doug and Austin worked on one lawn mower, Amanda took Michael for a ride on the other one, and the other kids played and explored and just enjoyed the afternoon.

Later Austin, Amanda and Michael went down to Grandma's house for the evening. Doug and I had a quiet evening here at home with the two kids who were here. Doug fixed one of the baby gates that broke today. I cleaned up the kitchen and did some laundry. It was just a nice simple quiet evening.

These simple days of blessing are such a gift.

Wednesday 3.16.11

After a rather rough night and a bit of a rocky start this morning, today actually went very smoothly.It was a fairly quiet day with only three daycare kids.

The rain we had Monday and Tuesday finally moved on, and temperatures warmed up a bit. It was too wet to play in the yard this morning so we made use of the front porch instead. In the field across the road from us were a couple horses we enjoyed watching.

Austin was in charge of lunch today and served scrambled eggs, bacon, toast, hash browns and fruit cocktail. It was scrumptious.

I guess Michael's midnight awakening made him extra tired today because he took a nap, even though Amanda fed him chocolate just before naptime. All three of the other little ones slept also so I took a much needed nap on the couch.

By this afternoon it was dry enough that we could play in the yard. The kids had fun and Doug puttered around with the old mower. He would like to get it running so Austin can use it this summer.

Michael was so happy to have his beloved sister (that's his name for her, "Sister") give him a ride on the riding lawn mower.

Doug took Austin and Michael to church this evening. Amanda made the rest of us taco pie, corn, grapes and chocolate chip cookies for dinner. She is getting so good at making her chocolate chip cookies that she has the recipe memorized.

Cayson's mother stayed for about an hour when she came to pick up Cayson and we had a nice visit. It was just one of those times when it was nice to sit and chat about nothing in particular, whatever popped into our minds at the moment.

I got the laundry room decluttered today and it looks so much better. I don't know why the tops of the washer and dryer are such inviting places to set random things.

Now everyone but me is sleeping and hopefully I will be soon. Michael is restless again so far tonight but is sleeping at the moment. Hopefully he can get some rest tonight.