February 23, 2017

(click here for today's pictures)

• I had already gotten out of bed when Whitman came into our room this morning. He climbed in bed with Robby so it didn't take me long to jump back in bed. Really, the snuggling days around here are fleeting quickly so I don't let any opportunity pass by.
• Whitman helped me wake up the girls-he likes to kiss them until they wake up but that usually doesn't work. This morning he slid on Campbell like she was a slide. Since she was covered with her slippery sleeping bag, he was able to slide fairly well.
• Keaton and Whitman put on their clothes and were soon eating a pop tart in Robby's car on the way to school. Whitman's poptart was broken and this caused major drama. Sweet, tender hearted Keaton wanted to trade with him but I wouldn't let her-she gives him everything that he wants all of the time. I am not sure how much he ate, but he didn't starve.
• When Robby took them to school, the rest of us started on our school work here. Working together didn't seem to take long today but I was barely able to finish in time to leave for Keaton and Whitman. Some days the kids just get their work done with little drama and this was one of those days-they are few and far between but when they do happen, it is wonderful.
• I picked up Keaton and Whitman and Campbell rode along with me for the ride. The highlight of the ride was seeing a trash truck broken down in the road. We talked about that for the entire rest of the ride home.
• Once at home, the kids played for a minute while I worked on lunch. After lunch, I did my chore inspection. Some times the kids can do great on chores and other times they are just pretty lazy. Our normal schedule is pretty heavy on chores early in the week and the last part of the week is just maintaining/straightening. So even though they didn't have too much to do today, there was still lots to be re-done correctly.
• The afternoon flew by-most of my afternoon was spent picking out clothes for our church directory picture. Anderson had one shirt that would match our color scheme-black, grey, black and maroon (do you notice how our color scheme pretty much contained most of the colors?) His shirt was too small (Graham ended up wearing it) so I went back upstairs and the only other long sleeve dressy shirts in his closet was a bright yellow Eastery one and a red plaid. My choices were Target or the attic. I ventured in the attic and opened the 'boys next' bin knowing that I wasn't going to find anything (my stash of upcoming clothes for my boys is very limited) but thank God right on top was the perfect colored shirt and the perfect size. All was well...except for the kids' attitudes when they saw what I had picked out for them. No one was too pleased.
• Well, they were plenty pleased though when Robby said that there would be some type of reward for good behavior during the pictures and there was excellent behavior. When we walked in, Whitman was intently listening to the man when he said "Come sit here, sir" and he went and tried to climb on the stool. Soon enough he had his spot and we were taking pictures. It was relatively painless and the man didn't try to sell us pictures too hard. We didn't buy any but the church directory picture isn't too bad at all-8 people looking at the camera=win!
• We then ran by the library for me to check out a few book that I had on hold, drove to the gas station with 5 more miles of gas left in the tank, bought drinks for the kids' reward at another gas station and then picked up their mini pizzas that they earned from reading.
• When we made it home, the neighbors were out so everyone changed clothes and then they were outside playing. They played outside until almost 7 when the neighbors had to go in. The kids did eat a bite of their supper occasionally while they were running in and out. 
• Then it was shower time followed by some good ole nothing time. They didn't do anything all evening long and neither did we! Around 9, we did start ushering everyone upstairs for bedtime. They had a few minutes to read-Reagan was working on reading her Bible for Sunday school, Graham did some school work, Anderson was reading his Bible comic book, Keaton was coloring, Campbell was coloring some too and Whitman was just causing a ruckus since he had a good nap in the car this afternoon.