…you have to wear at least ten hats.

I haven’t really posted anything lengthy or interesting for awhile so here goes….

I have been itching for spring lately.  Just wanting to get out of doors, do some gardening, get some sun in my face.  And my loving Heavenly Father has absolutely blessed me and many other folks here in the Northwest with some flat out gorgeous weather these past few days.  We have taken full advantage of this with going to the zoo yesterday and having a picnic lunch in our backyard today.

There is something about being outside in the sunshine that just allows me to take my life at a slower pace.

As we sat on our blanket in our backyard I just felt peaceful.  As Spider dumped upon the ground an entire bag of Craisins my first reaction was, ‘Seriously?’ and then as I watched the last bits fall, I thought, ‘that really does look kind of neat,’ and I suddenly understood why these people do some of the things that they do.

It really isn’t to make me angry, and it really isn’t always just to get my attention.  They do those things because they are fun, and interesting and they are just exploring their world.  When was the last time I dumped out a bag of quinoa to watch it waterfall down to the ground?  When was the last time I used a unique media combination to create a work of art such as marker on wall or pen on legs?  And when was the last time I used an eyeliner on my face to make angry eyes?  When was the last time my mom told me to clean up styrofoam and then in front of her eyes took a marker to the carpet to make "tracks" for them (the foam pieces)?  They call them children for a reason and I love that they are having the time of their life.

I love watching these people grow.  I love learning about them and seeing the choices that they make. I take pleasure in their funny little quirks and habits.  I love how Spider, my little Person Baby, loves to get under blankets, and today when I walked outside with our picnic, she was already all snuggled in.  I love walking in on her cozied up in my freshly made bed reading the Look (my Mary Kay catalog) and laughing.

It is the little unique day to day experiences that make life so worthwhile, don’t you think?  Rare things, like the moon not being in the sky tonight because of the eclipse or even freshly fallen snow.  Silly things like fourth of July parades.  Wonders of nature like deer showing up in our backyard or undpredictable animal things like this event that we witnessed at the zoo yesterday: (the large goat in the beginning was periodically breaking things up)

And just the wonder that children see in all of it, is so tender so precious, and so worth holding on to.  If we could just be more like them.  I think we’d be lot happier, don’t you?  Well, anyway, I think it is time for me to go take pleasure in bubbles or dumping rice on the ground or maybe even just snuggling in.

As I came downstairs this morning, to find the baby covered in carrots, I was reminded of a page from one of my favorite children’s books:

It is the first page of the book Five Minutes Peace, by Jill Murphy.  The page reads, "The children were having breakfast.  This was not a pleasant sight."

So my life. 

Emily tagged me long ago to say seven random things about myself…. 

*I sing opera.  It’s true.  I went to school to get my degree in music.

*I go to the bathroom right before I go to bed at night.  Even if it’s only been ten minutes since I last went, I make sure to make the trip 30 seconds before my head hits the pillow.

*Sometimes I think I enjoy my kids toys more than they do.  I find myself really getting into the play dough playing and I still love the dolls.  "But what about this outfit?  I think she’d be cute in this."

*I don’t eat my sandwhich crusts.  I don’t.  It used to really bug Charming to the point that he would eat my crusts, and/or give me a hard time about it.  No longer so, he just looks the other way.

*I’m always right.  And as long as Charming is on board with this, things go along just fine.  

*I love babies.  Didn’t you know?  Gee, I’d sure hope so, seeing as I have so many…

*Most people cannot correctly guess my age.  And this is because I look young.  I am young– 27, but I have three kids.  People that don’t know I have kids guess me younger, and people that know about the babies– talk about confused!  They usually put me at older.  (With much, much hesitation.) 

If you are reading this sentence consider yourself tagged. 

…when you don’t put your apples away fast enough.

I would imagine it happened this way, a small child (take your pick, we got plenty around here) decides he wants an apple.  He wanders off takes a bite, and sets the apple down.  Minutes later he thinks, "crud, where’d my apple go?"  and instead of looking for it, returns to the origin of the first apple and takes another.  The process is then repeated.  By multiple children.

Thus you have the lovely picture seen above.  This was all the apples that I found in various places all about the house.

After taking the photo, I found one more.

And for you guessers– BABY ELEPHANT!  Hurrah! 

Finding this stuff always makes me laugh:

Can you guess who is wrapped inside the play dough? 

Says Charming.  But oh no, popcorn is not what he smells, though I would agree it does smell like burnt popcorn.

Sugar is NOTORIOUS for getting into stuff, making messes and being generally destructive.  This morning was no exception.  However in rare form, she came to confess the deed before I discovered it.  Probably because when she put the oatmeal, water and METAL spoon in the microwave, she got scared because of the "popping."

"Mom," she says.  "I put the oatmeal in the microwave and I pushed the wrong buttons and it was popping."   I of course had to record her saying this because it was really cute the way she said it.

I did not however take a picture of the "oatmeal" but the scene I came upon can be described as thus: crispy fried oatmeal in a bowl, with a metal spoon, and the microwave set at 84 minutes.  When I pushed in the crispiness with the spoon, black ooze.  And the smell?  Burnt popcorn with a hint of stainless silver. 

Everything is caving in on me.

I am having a hate-my-house-who-designed-this-thing-it-is-totally-unfunctional-why-can’t-I-keep-it-
clean-I-wish-everyone-would-stop-judging-me-I-don’t-want-to-feel-like-I-have-to-prove-
myself-to-people-I-sure-hope-I-can-sell-$400-a-week-this-month-because-I-am-sick-of-
not-having-enough-$-to-not-be-able-to-spend-on-this-money-pit-of-a-house-things-were-
a-lot-better-in-utah-at-least-I-liked-my-house-and-no-one-thought-I-was-a-bad-mom day.

Nuff said.