The Past Week

Tuesday we finally opened the Bubble Gloves.  It seems like a nice concept, but a bucket would be much less messy than the shallow zipper bags of bubbles included.  The boys are unaffected by messes, so we played until the bubble solution was gone.  In the evening I started designing Silas's birthday invitations.  He is having a pirate-themed party for two reasons.  He likes to dress up as a pirate and say "[walk the plank] Honey!" and we found plates and napkins and a birthday sign (all pirated-themed) at a flea market for $.75 for the lot.

Wednesday - I must have really been present because I did not even take one photo with my phone.  Or I was engrossed in The Lilac Bouquet, which I totally loved and would recommend reading.

Thursday we visited Grandpa and Grandma.  I got the photo I need to print the questions Sawyer is going to answer about Grandpa for his Father's Day gift.  My parents rearranged and added sandboxes and water tables and hooked up an old frog sprinkler.  It was an awesome day - and tiring for the boys.  Win.

Friday was a rough day.  Sawyer and Silas were at each other's throats all day.  In the evening, Deepti and Chuck brought dinner AND dessert AND new Reef sandals for both Adam and me.  We really do have the kindest people in our life.  We ate and then played outside, excluding Adam who was with a new contractor to assess the amount of work left by the old ones and get a new estimate.  This is going to be a long road for what we were told was a six week project.

Saturday Solomon was baptized.  It was a really nice day.  The actual baptism was the best experience of all three because we really like this pastor.  Then everyone came back to our house for lunch and outdoor play.  I finally took new family photos for my brother-in-law and his family.

Today (Sunday) I learned that Silas is a perfectionist.  I watched him building a tower of blocks and he had to line each one up perfectly.  I stacked a couple of the blocks, making sure they weren't flush and he fixed them.  Maybe it is not a bad thing that Sawyer decided to nap after the younger two today.  This evening I will be taking photos for my brother's family.

Praying Mantises

This morning we went for a walk which was a nice change since it was rainy last week.  We usually walk a couple of miles (it's sort of like a country block) in a loop.  Today was different because Silas threw his hat out of the stroller (rather stealthily since I didn't notice it was gone until about five minutes later).  Luckily Sawyer saw him throw it and just did not say anything.  He knew where it was, so we turned around to get it, then headed back the way we came from originally.

The boys wanted to play with the kittens when we got home.  I found a gopher in one of Adam's traps, so we took that to the barn with us.  We couldn't catch Pumpkin, but Sawyer caught Mischief and brought her outside with us for a brief time.  There was heavy machinery across the street, so we put her away before she could run away, and headed to the sandbox.

The boys dumped sand on each other quite a few times, despite my pleading and commanding.  We headed inside and I happened to look up when I opened the fridge.  I discovered the large amount of praying mantis hatchlings.  The boys were delighted.

I put Solomon down once he fell asleep.  Sawyer laid on the couch to watch Tangled.  Silas stayed awake, so I figured I would cut his hair.  When I called out to Sawyer from the bathroom, asking if he would like his hair cut, too, he didn't answer.  I found him sleeping after being out of the room for probably five minutes.  That is a mom victory because getting them to sleep is almost always a struggle.

Silas played on his tablet doing puzzles, pulled out all of the activities from the drawer, ran around yelling, and was an all-around terror.  I finally got him to sleep by carrying him around and telling him he had to put his head down on my shoulder.  He fell asleep hard after being awake for more than eight hours straight.

Sawyer checked his praying mantises several times to see what/how they were doing.  He held Solomon and said that Sol wanted to watch "I have a pen, I have a pineapple, UH."  Adam showed the boys a ridiculous Youtube video and apparently it stuck.  😆

We will finish our BLTs for supper and play outside the rest of the night.

***EDIT***

I was planning to just enjoy what was happening and not take any pictures.  Adam found a sparrow egg and Sawyer and I brought it inside to open.  A teeny tiny not-ready-to-hatch bird was inside.  😥

Memory Keeping and Memory Making

Another reason I want to blog everything is so that I have something written somewhere, in case I ever want to journal about the pictures I'm printing for Project Life layouts.  I've been enjoying using pocket pages instead of having to create 12x12 layouts and only being able to use three or four photos per time-consuming layout.  I also subscribe to Ali Edwards' Stories By the Month.  I really just love the chipboard stickers, but her style in general makes me happy.

I have a few more photo pockets for May, so I have to figure out what I have that I want to print (if any).  I can just stick some from June in there if I need to, though. It seems like there are less rules on this easy avenue. With a layout requiring a title (because it would look odd without one), I feel like the photos all need to be taken on the same day or at the same event. It would take me forever to document that way.

Some thing new I'm including this year is the books I've read each month.  Last year I solely focused on the boys with a few family photos scattered in when they were available.  I have yet to figure out a balance between photographing in search of the complete story through ten photos, and taking one then enjoying what is happening.  I am not at all confident in my memory keeping stories for me, so once I am ready to tackle that issue, I have a starting point.

These ordinary days when the boys and I stay home are my favorite times to document because in a few years, the days will look so different.  The schedule, their interests, everything will change, and I want to remember these things.  These details might seem a little bit insignificant now, but I know I won't regret recalling any little detail in years to come.

 Plus, if they break an arm, I have sweet action shots of the process. 

Lunchtime is something I am looking forward to changing, so long as it becomes less messy.

Instagram inspires me daily because I follow so many awesome homeschoolers who focus on nature. I tried to explain a little bit about symmetry today.  Sawyer got more out of it than Silas did, of course.  I am actually looking forward to talking about that again and again because watching him cut the wooden fruit and veggies in half while we talked was a lot of fun for me.  When I put out the leaf "puzzle pieces," their interest increased.  I will never not love to make leaf rubbings with crayons.  I think my mom has some of the plastic rubbing plates somewhere, but seeing real leaves like this is my preference.  We can use the plates in the winter when we have nothing flat and beautiful so available to us.

All of these photos of Solomon were taken today, too.  He looks a lot like Sawyer, but his size is definitely more similar to Silas.  Oh, the preciousness of nap time is unmeasurable, too.  

I'm reading this book currently.  I wish I had read the introduction after reading the story, because I would have been able to entertain it more like it was true.  The information presented at the beginning makes it seem as though it is not credible (probably something to do with it not making it into the Bible).  It is fascinating regardless.

We have grocery shopping to do this evening.  Then we can hang out with the kittens and play outside until the mosquitos chase us inside.  These summer nights are awesome opportunities for photographing, but also for soaking in the moments and trying to remember them.  

A Rainy Day

Now that I have not posted on HelloSquirrel in almost five years, I cannot sign in to post again.  That blog was basically covering the three years of time that my husband was incarcerated.  Since I never told any stories there about buying houses or having our kids, it feels like a good time to begin anew.

I hope to use this blog regularly, and continue posting on it throughout our homeschool adventures (which have yet to begin).  Part of the reason for this spark in interest again is the need to disconnect from social media for awhile.  I plan to stay off of Facebook and Instagram (the real challenge) for the month of June.  I will need somewhere to post everything I will want to remember.

Yesterday almost ended without any significant events occurring.  We did end up picking out two kittens after Adam got home from work, though.  Silas had taken a nap early in the day, on our way to an appointment, so he fell asleep in the Suburban on the way to the farm.  Solomon was awake when we arrived, so Adam held him outside while Sawyer and I chose two of the five kittens there. The names we decided on are Pumpkin (because every orange cat we have will have this name) and Mischief.

Pumpkin is not quite as tame as Mischief, so she is not pictured in last night's round of photos (above).

Sawyer asks if we can run in the rain every time it rains.  Sawyer and Silas both love putting on their dinosaur rain jackets and their rain boots.  Really, they enjoy dressing up in anything they don't ordinarily wear.  I put Solomon in the Ergo this morning, and we all took some leftover meat down to the barn for the kittens.

Silas may enjoy the cat toys more than the kittens.

After trying to pet them for awhile (which meant the boys meowing and trying to slowly chase them), we headed to the side of the shed for some splash time.  Silas did not have any interest in going into the house after fun in the water, so we went by the barnyard and played around the manger for awhile.  Since I told them a few days ago that that's where the cows used to eat, they enter mooing and laughing every time.

One of the supports for the roof above the manger typically has a nest on it.  I noticed the Robin leave its nest and decided to climb up and use my phone to see whether there were eggs or babies.  I wanted to lift the boys to see, but since I had Solomon strapped to me, I figured we would wait until later when there is a safe way to view them.

We went back to play in the long puddle for awhile, and saw deer (and a turkey) in the field next to the house.  Then we looked in the grass for baby turtles and worms for awhile, and noticed a couple of deer in the field across the road.  One of the does had twin fawns.  SO cute.

The hillbilly dinosaurs finally agreed to go inside once a bubble bath with colors (color tablets) was promised.  My only regret is that I cleaned the kitchen floor before going outside and getting messy.