Blackmail photos...

When Nathaniel was three, he got a lot of flack over this picture. Vindication has come. He is apparently normal, and actually in comparison, he looks wonderful. Take a look at Gabriel at 4 and Asher at nearly three.

Yes, I think these photos will help me in the future :)

Ian and I had friends over for dinner last night, and it was great. We were up past one playing games and talking. Ian and I were just a little tired this morning and tried to ignore the giggles, shrieks, and the herd of elephants running through the hallway. When we emerged from hiding at 7:30 this is what we found. Micaela had talked them into playing dress up dancers. Asher cried when I took off his tutu. Nathaniel as a five year old was too embarrassed to dress up with them- no doubt he's traumatized from the lecture he got from Ian last time! Poor Asher, he really is too pretty to be a boy!

Because if you know me, you know I love this

I'm still laughing through tears!

What? School?

I finally updated my school days chart. As you can see, we get really busy doing school and then burn out and take a break. But really, our breaks are filled with work- gardening, remodeling, cleaning, cooking, and as I looked back on my calender I realized lots of parties. In my book nearly all these activities are educational; however, I realize that the state of Georgia may disagree, so I only counted those days where I faithfully did four hours of "school." BLAH I'm glad it's done, now I just have to file them with the school system. It's hard to believe this school year is almost over, and in August I'll have to fill these forms out for both Micaela and Nathaniel. Well, gotta run- we're working on spelling, math, geography, history, science, phonics, and blending today! 40 more days till 2nd grade and Kindergarden!

Moving Over the Hump

I'm in declutter mode. I can't stand my own skin right now just because of the junk in the house :) I started in the play room and then moved to the three bedrooms on the old side of the house. I had to start in the play room because not only was it a disorganized wreck, it's where most everything homeless in my house should go. So once it was organized, it was easier to find a place for all the junk in the other rooms. Well, the back bedroom where Lizzy actually does sleep was wall to wall (and mostly piled floor to window) stuff. I'm not kidding. Lots of stuff- you couldn't walk in there STUFF. The other rooms actually weren't that bad- well, they did have laundry piles and paper piles. The back bedroom and its closet are now organized. The closet contains two rubbermaid drawers holding precious pieces of five children's art that I can't bear to get rid of yet. All separated by artist :) It also holds a collection of nice remote control cars and their pieces. In the room there is one toddler bed with a pretty little girl sheet (she's over a year old and this is the first time I've used one of her girl sheets!) and her porta crib where she is still sleeping. I washed the walls, windowsills and vacuumed throroughly. Micaela's old room is organized as well. It now holds a treadmill, a large roll top desk and a dresser which will be moved after the dry wall is done in the other room. My room is clean and organized, and it does not hold any large rubber maid tubs of clothes or any cardboard boxes of paper! My closet and the "study" closet are not done, but my closet will go last, since it is a self contained mess that is actually in the right spot. The study closet is mostly trash, I think, or it belongs in Micaela's new room, so I'll wait till I get there.
So I can report three successes. Three rooms that look good. However, now I have hit a hard spot. I've moved to the middle of the house, and now must tackle the dining room, living room and kitchen. They are all open to one another, so I may as well do them together. It's the hump in the middle of the house, and right now it looks like a mountain. If I can just reach the top of this mountain it'll all be down hill from here- after all the playroom was already done, right!
So, I'm hitting hump day early this week.

Update: I finished the kitchen, dining room, and living room! I'll go back and hit the end tables (hopefully) and pantry (definitely). I finished the playroom again, and did the lower portion of the playroom. Tonight I plan to do four loads of laundry because it got behind since Saturday, and I need to do at least 12 loads to catch up. Tomorrow, I'll work on the kids rooms and closets and then do a study rerun. Thursday I plan to put this on hold and clean floors, sinks, windows, toilets and tubs- just not in that order :) Friday I plan to send my children to Nana's and sleep all day, but don't tell Nana!

This is Ian posting for my beautiful wife who sometimes forgets that we can and need to post pictures.

The semi-annual monkey suit rally. This event only occurs at easter and christmas.

Yes, they wore the sunglasses to church.

Elizabeth loves flowers, that was a tulip from Becky's garden.

Know any other two year olds who will hold off throwing up until he can get to the bathroom? I'm a proud papa.

Words to remember...

Today we celebrated Passover (I know we were a day late, but we had a conflict). In preparation, I asked the boys to clean the playroom and their bedroom this morning. They didn't. For three hours Micaela and I cleaned, prepared food, and cleaned some more, and they played and played and played. I finally put them to bed and told them that they would pay Micaela out of their own money to do their jobs. So I sent Micaela in to clean up and left to go finish the hagadahs. Five minutes later Micaela came running to me sobbing- "Mom, the boys are calling me Duncan MacCreigh!" (the Scottish traitor trying to catch Rob Roy in case you don't know). It was just oh so appropriate I had to post in order to remember! Passover was memorable too, but maybe I'll tell about that tomorrow. Or maybe I won't post for a month, you'll never know unless you check back ;)