Hope for the Near Future

Ah, a hot summer day.  Me trying to work a lot of hours in a ridiculous like fashion, whilst also attempting (attempting) to figure out some difficult decisions I'm supposed to make regarding my stewardship.  Though it hasn't been my dream day (and definitely not Daphne's as she thinks moms were made to hold babies and not speed feed them and then lay them down to get back to work-which she's partially right), I had some illuminating moments.  Lastly (as that is the order I placed these pics in, hah!, we made homemade ice cream in ziploc bags which was sorta successful and tasted good all in all.  If you glance behind our lovely model Lily, check out the perfectly trimmed hedge (my husband is full of amazing surprises and skills).  Ignore the shrub trimmings on the deck as that was my job.  I promise when I mow tomorrow I will get them.  

 Earlier in the day, my boys (ever opposed to any form of organized labor) spent nearly the entire day playing together as they had some chores to do before they could have tech time and didn't want to do the chores.  Oh, sometimes it is such a blessing when they are trying to get out of work (and can't have tech) because they play together, and I see this whole other side of them and marvel at how well they can interact together for hours and hours.  Below we have satisfied Shawn who is feeling special with all the playing with Ben and Matt.

 And then, well you know how it is with cheap equipment and very mobile children.  Every picture I took was a blur.  Essentially, here they are using my cookie sheets and baking with foam blocks (they are a bugger to clean up because they get spread all over the house but we love them Ja!).  My three little bakers of "healthy" cookies and cakes.  Matt even put on his Albertsons apron to be official.  No fighting, just playing...did I mention FOR HOURS?  Before that, in order to avoid work, they had also laid around talking about dragon games, etc.  And before that, they had played with a really kick butt toy tool bench that our neighbor was unable to sell at her yard sale and left on our front porch.  Who knew such cool toys existed for little boys 20+ years ago?  The drill actually screws and unscrews the toy bolts.  The saw "cuts" toy pieces of wood...and all for free.  I need to thank my neighbor.  So this was the boys' day.  And I was so proud of them not doing chores, er, ok, maybe only the fact that they know how to play WITH TOYS and NOT TECH only and they can be so good to each other.

Where was big sister?  Well, she is highly motivated to get chores done for money, free time, play dates, anything.  LOVE that about her.  She even cleans when she's angry at me.  Thus, she was finished with about 3/4s of the original jobs in about 20 minutes.  Silly boys!

And speaking of that neighbor and her yard sale...

New to us couches for a decent price AND I KNOW THE HOUSE THEY CAME FROM, thus taking the creep factor out of things.  I know that most blogs I follow have decorating mavens and the most fashionable colors, and the shabby chic thing down so that things aren't too matchy matchy, etc., etc, and that these colors are not vogue currently, but these are probably the nicest couches we've ever had, even with some peeling action going on, except for the 3ish years our first couch set was new.  I am so happy to have these couches and not have to wait a year or 2 to buy new ones for a lot more money which my kids will destroy anyway.  Just happy.  No money for decorating splurges right now and not a lot of time to be overly creative and do things on the cheap or even to dream them up, so this totally works with the added bonus of now having seating downstairs for our whole family plus.  Woot!