I was cooking breakfast. Minding my own business. The kids were at the table doing crafts, which means they were cutting and taping, and interpreting their modern art creations. “Look Mommy, this is a Super Fish. It can fly! See, this is how it saves people and kills sharks!” I take it all in stride. “Uh huh, good job!” If I’m honest, I’m not paying a lot of attention.

“Mommy you need to come clean up my hair.”

Wait. What?

“Why, what’s wrong with your hair?” I assumed it was in her face and she needed a ponytail.

No.

In reality, I did need to actually clean up her hair because it was in clumps on the table and bench.

After I had assessed the damage and saw it was only hacked to cheek length, I breathed a sigh of relief.

Then I breathed another sigh of relief. I didn’t realize this until after the cut had taken place, but I had been living with dread over the day this would happen. I have heard enough stories about little girls cutting their own hair to know that it would eventually happen in our house. Now it’s over with, and it could have been much worse. No bald spots on her scalp. Whew. Dodged a bullet.

I’ll report back tomorrow with an update of her new hairdo, after she gets a cut.

Stepping out.

When we first started considering homeschooling, one of my biggest hangups was, “There is no way I can teach a kid to read!” It turns out kids are pretty smart. Yes, really. Shocking, right? They are learning without me doing anything. While this is great, I’m not an unschooler, and I am filling in the gaps with this book. We’re only 2 lessons in, but they boys are having fun and so am I!

Markus

“Take a picture of my mouth!”

We were so happy to welcome our big kids home today.

Cutie

Just a little cutie to brighten your day. He sure brightens ours!

We made it to the lake today! We had an awesome afternoon hanging out on the beach with the kids. The boys were so thrilled to have us there to build rivers in the sand, Bailey was content to get dirty, and Deacon was the usual life of the party. I love this crew.

We had a delicious supper with Mom and Dad, bathed the two littles, got them all ready for bed (well, not Mom and Dad, they can get themselves ready!), and then hit the road with Deacon. What a great day!

Time for Ten on Ten again. I haven’t blogged in a month?! Sorry about that. I intend to get back into the swing of things soon, if only for the fact that my sister in a far away land is begging for more Deacon photos. Hi Jean!

Today began with gusto. The kids and I were planning to go camping with my mom and dad. Wyatt put in a quick call to his Daddy in the midst of packing up.

When I say quick call, I do mean quick. All I heard was, “Bye Daddy!” Click. Funny kid! This was at noon.

Princess Bailey, eating her lunch before we head out. Her cup is placed perfectly, showcasing her favourite princess: Cinderella!

Oh. Crap. 2:00pm and we are not going anywhere. Just past Martensville, the van overheated. Here we are, pulled over on the side of the road, waiting for Dad to come to the rescue.

The van is empty. Everything the kids will need for camping has been transferred to Mom and Dad’s camper, and the kids are safely tucked into Dad’s truck, ready to finally head to the lake. Clay came to rescue Deacon and I, so all the other gear has been stuffed into our car. We needed to get the van closer to Saskatoon if we wanted to get towed for free, since our CAA coverage only allows tows within 5km of the city. So…Clay manned the overheated van while Deacon and I followed in the car. We made it to Costco as planned. Whew!

Yay! The tow truck has arrived.

I can tell you where I’m not going for supper. That’s right, not Bonanza.

While Clay had some drinks with the guys from work, in honour of his brother Cody’s last day working there, I hung out with my sweet Deacon. He was so curious about our tree in the front yard (hey, I haven’t gotten around to telling you all – we finally have a tree!) and here he is getting his feet wet while we were watering.

7:00pm and off for supper at Montanas with two handsome men, one big and one small.

I was going to get a girly drink. Then I decided to order fish and chips. It just didn’t seem right to order a mojito with beer battered fish, so a Rickard’s Red it was.

What a day. I look forward to starting tomorrow off on the right foot – with freshly roasted coffee from Leven’s. We signed up for a coffee subscription, so now we get 2 pounds of coffee every month, delivered right to our door. Mmmmmm. So yummah!

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Ten on Ten

I stumbled upon the Ten on Ten photo project a few months ago. The idea is simple: on the tenth day of the month, you take a photo every hour for ten consecutive hours. There’s beauty in the simple, everyday things of life. I’ve been meaning to give it a try for months, but always forget about it until the tenth has already passed me by. So today, I begin! Here’s what we were up to today.

This little man took his first real steps yesterday. Look out world! Nevermind the world, look out Mommy! He is very full of life, and at one year old, that means he is trouble. Cute trouble.

Markus loves to be in charge of the water hose. He aspires to be a personal trainer when he grows up, but I wonder if that might get trumped by fireman. It’s not on his radar, but every time he gets a garden hose in his hands I default to calling him Fireman Fred.

Summer means hot dogs. I know they have nitrites, which I know are not good for me but I don’t know why. I figure all the fresh fruit we eat during the summer balances things out. I will continue believing this because I really do like hot dogs.

I’m working on memorizing more scripture lately, and my method is to do it with my kids. They soak it up so easily, so together we are hiding the perfect word of God in our hearts.

Bailey insisted on painting today. It was too dreadfully hot to send them outside to do it, so I set them up on the kitchen table. My table suffered some damage, but it gained me some time to get some supper prep done.

Latte o’clock.

Kids live here. Sometimes that obvious fact escapes me. I work so hard to keep the house looking somewhat presentable. I like to have a tidy living room at the end of the day – it helps me breathe better. And yet…as I was reminded today, I have 4 children under the age of 7. My husband and I are outnumbered 2:1. Our house is expected to look ‘lived in’. So live in it we shall.

Pizzas for supper. I buy these Greek pitas from Costco because they make awesome pizza crusts. It was a little ridiculous to turn the oven today, given the high temperatures outside, but I since it seems I am hell-bent on burning a hole in the ozone layer and single-handedly destroying the world through global warming, I let my air conditioning chug away and turned the oven on.

Our community group came over tonight. I love these days. I love being part of a Jesus-loving church that is on mission to share the good news of Jesus with others.

I hung out in the backyard with the kids this evening and supervised the water play. The big boys had a blast throwing water at each other, and Deacon was delighted to watch. He threw in a lot of splashing to join in the fun.

There you have it! My first instalment of Ten on Ten.

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Lake Day

Deacon loves the water!

Behold, summer’s first harvest!

My little square foot garden is humming along, relatively unscathed by the immense rainfall we’ve had in the last few weeks. Yay for raised beds and soil with good drainage! The only thing not growing are my herbs. What is the deal with herbs? Every year I try, and every year I am disappointed. All I can say to all the stupid things I have pinned on Pinterest about how easy it is to grow herbs is… “get lost”. That is all.

Okay I’m done ranting. Back to my beautiful radishes. These guys taste amazing! Probably the spiciest radishes I have ever eaten – store bought ones don’t hold a candle to them! I will probably plant another round of them soon, because they produce so quickly. I think they were 5 weeks from seed to being ready.

We have enjoyed a few strawberries already too. Each time one ripens, I cut it into pieces so that all the kids get a bite. Then they all exclaim, “Mmmmm! It is so healthy! This is the best strawberry I have ever eaten in my whole life! I LOVE healthy food!” I love their zest for life. Keep it up kiddos. And remember how much you love healthy food next time you think about sinking your teeth into a sprinkle donut.

My peas need something to climb soon. My tomatoes need to be staked. Okay, so my negligence in the garden is starting to show a little. I call myself an accidental gardener. Whatever grows in my garden wants to live, because I don’t do any coaxing. Live or die, it’s your choice. But please live…it makes me look good.

Someone had a birthday!

Sweetest little Deacon turned one today. The past year has been such a blessing. What a joy to have this sweet babe in my arms. Words cannot express how much I love being his Mama. I can’t believe it has been a year since his birth. I purposed to savour his babyhood, and I do feel that by the grace of God I am doing so. Thankfully there’s a lot of baby left in him yet. Stay small, Little, stay small!

Family came to celebrate with us, and this is about half of the crowd. Some couldn’t make it, and you were all missed! (I really like the photo shoot going on to the left…nice pose, Cody!)
Check Clay’s blog for an adorable photo of Deacon digging into his cupcake.

Wyatt was very happy to show Deacon how his new toy worked.

Laughing and playing with his Gramma.

An attempt at a family picture…

There we go, that’s better. It only took us about 40 photos to get one this good!
This family of six sure is a lot of fun! Thanks, Deacon, for adding to the joy!