This morning S was up before the others, and she was in the kitchen eating breakfast. I was working on some bills that need to be sent out before we head out of town, so I wasn't paying very close attention to her. She said something about being done, and I asked her if she wanted more cereal. She said, "Yes, more serwal. And more poon." More spoons? My back was to her, and I turned. She was nodding her head, wanting more cereal and more spoons. Of course, she already had four that she was using! I hadn't even realized that she hadn't gotten them out of the drawer.

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On the drive back from family camp this past weekend, we passed a lot of deer on the road. Since there were no cars behind us, N slowed down so I could take a picture. It was getting later, so the lighting wasn’t too great… thus, my picture wasn’t too great either (this one has even been edited quite a bit to lighten it). Anyways, as we’re stopped looking at the deer that are hanging out in front yards, M says that they’re not all deer since some of them don’t have the “things” on their heads. I said they were deer, but I hadn’t gotten any further in the explanation when B told her the facts.

“Girl deers don’t have them. Only boy deers do.
Only boy deers grow fingers on their heads,
and that's 'cause they're boys.
Fingers are on the boys and not the girls.”

...Fingers?

I couldn’t quite figure out what he was saying. (I guess you could say I couldn't quite put my finger on it!ha,ha) After a silent "huh?" and a confused glance toward N, I turned around and looked to the back of the Suburban. There was B, thumbs to his head, making antlers. So, there you have it: Antlers are made of fingers. And boy deers grow them.

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On a sidenote, I see that only ten people have voted in my crayon poll... Come on, amuse me! It takes like two seconds, tops. Your opinion is your right, so don't let your vote go uncounted!:-) MAKE YOUR VOICE HEARD!!

If ever there was a sinful dessert, I baked it today! (And there is definitely nothing more worthy of being baked right before the girls’ dentist appointments!) On a whim (obviously a somewhat planned whim since I had the necessary ingredients!), I made baklava. This morning after breakfast, I chopped walnuts… lots of walnuts. Then I decided to prepare it, so I went ahead and put it all together. Without completely thinking it through, I stuck it in the oven and made the sauce. I thought I had plenty of time, but it bakes for close to an hour. I hadn’t realized how late it had gotten, but fortunately the timer for the oven would be going off just as I needed to head out the door with M and L. I pulled it out, poured on the sauce, and we left. When we got home it was pretty much cooled and ready to go. I think N was just waiting for me to get home so he could try some. I gave him a little nibble. Then he got another little nibble. And another. N has awarded the baklava:

my “Best Dessert Ever”

But that may just be because he was hungry! Anyways, knowing the temptation of having a pan full of sweets sitting on my kitchen counter, I immediately put most of it into a Tupperware… I’ll just freeze it and save it for July Bunco. At least the pieces in the Tupperware are sensibly sized for self-control! I don't know if I could say the same about those still in the pan... :-)

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Hey, take a second to vote in this week's poll! Remember, it's just for a little fun, so come join in!! No membership required. :-)
What color is your mood today?

I bought a bottle last night—a bottle just for my olive oil. I decided I needed to get something smaller for the oil since I’m tired of lugging my big ol’ Costco jug to and from the garage. I’ve been eyeing the bottle for quite a while now, but I finally gave in last night and forked over the $4 for it! Sometimes the littlest things bring such big joy! Every time I look over and see my olive oil now, I smile. The yellow and orange sunflowers look so pretty again my red kitchen wall (does the paint color look familiar?!)

To go along with my pretty new kitchen accessory, I had a wonderfully pleasant surprise this morning. On my “to do” list for, seriously, a year and a half now (I am not exaggerating!) has been to schedule dentist appointments. I decided to start with M and L, and then I will work on getting myself and N in for cleanings… I’m not worried about S and T, and B can wait until his next birthday. So I got the phone, the phone number, and my calendar out. I turned to August but had fingers in July and September, too, and checked to see what was going on those weeks, when we’d be in town, etc. Dental appointments, from my past experience, are the kinds of appointments (like an annual is) that you have to schedule way out in advance… “Okay, we can get you in for a cleaning in three months” sort of scheduling. So you can imagine my surprise when she said she could get M and L both in on Friday, the 16th. I was taken aback, “Oh, like this week Friday?! Great!” So, yay!—that is finally scratched OFF the list!!!

Right after lunch, S came from the backyard, past the kitchen and toward the front of the house. Next thing I know, I hear a great big thud and shrieking, screaming, cries of pain. I run in there, and the blood is pouring from her mouth. I’m flushing her mouth with water and dabbing up blood and slobber with tissues and trying to comfort her while figuring out exactly what happened. (Fortunately it’s just a couple split lips.) I’m shooing the other kids outside, so that they’re not hovering over her. In the pauses of S’s hollering, I can hear M gathering L and B, saying,

“Come on, guys. It’s time to pray. We need to be praying for S right now.”

What sweet, perceptive words to come out of the mouth of my little 6 year-old! And how convicting… I just needed a little reminder to take a moment to pause and pray... and then everything seemed okay.

Now, just a quick question—have you ever witnessed a lovelier roll of toilet paper?! I found my new roll completely unrolled and in a pile on the floor. Not willing to waste it, I rolled it back up and stuck it back on the holder! Fortunately, it was only on the floor. About a year ago, B unrolled a brand-new roll of paper, but he stuck it in the potty. Fortunately, on that occasion, I found it before he flushed.

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DONE, AT LAST!!!

...with a great big shout out to my hard-working husband who helped me with all the finish work! (Somehow I dragged him into my little project!) We need to get the door back on, but other than that, it's done. (Oh, except for the vent cover. N won't put it up until I repaint it! ha/ha The vent was painted with the blue & white sky, too. I'm going to sand it and spray it white.) It's already so nice and clean feeling. It might've taken six stinkin' coats of paint, but now that it's done, my brief moment of inspiration and lack of sanity was well worth it! And possibly even better, that can of paint is gone, and I won't be tempted to use it somewhere else! Yay!

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Well, school is officially over for the year. M got to meet her new teacher and class (she is excited about her new teacher and her new classroom and her new desk). School was on early release for the last day, but kindergartners were on super-dooper early release. Class started at 8:40 as usual, but M was out at 10. So pretty much by the time we left the school, we were heading back! Yesterday was the kindergarten picnic, and I got a few pictures, but I forgot to get one of M and Mrs. T... Actually, I didn't get the picture mostly because things were a bit hectic as I was trying to keep track of my five monkeys (mostly B and S)-- I was doing constant head counts!! Overall they were all really good but amid all the kindergartners and parents and everyone else, there was a lot of activity. Plus, T was fussy, so I was having to hold him while keeping track of a stroller... which ended up holding only my purse. So, all that said, I took the camera today and got one of M and Mrs. T after all the students were out of class. M says,

"Look! Our hair is the same! We look the same!"

(It's a really cute picture, huh?) As we were starting to walk back to the car, M ran over and hugged Mrs. T and said good-bye. Mrs. T gave her a big hug, too, and thanked her again for the beautiful windchimes.

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The neighbor across the steet walked over last night since we were all out in the front yard. The kids were riding bikes and N had finished up mowing. I was watering and holding T. She saw that the baby was out and had to come over to admire him. "Oh, I see the baby! I need to come over and look at him!" He gave her big smiles and coos, so she was very happy. Then she said that she had a few toys that were for her grandchildren but they had outgrown them and she wanted to see if our kids would like them before she gave them to Goodwill. I said that would be nice, figuring we could give them to Goodwill, too. Well they actually turned out to be really neat. There was a desk and a teacher's chalkboard and chairs... the kids immediately set up school (M, of course, was the teacher. "Children! Children!") We put them out on the front porch last night, and this morning the kids have been out playing more school while I've been painting the bathroom (yep, still at it!). So even though school is almost done, I think there will be school on throughout the summer at our house.

T has been getting lots of tummy exercise-- he's really pushing himself up now. Yesterday I put him down for tummy time and when I came back in later, he was on his back. I think he rolled over, but I can't honestly remember if somewhere in there I flipped him when I went in with him fussing or something. But either way, he's getting stronger and more mobile. When he's on his back, he spins in circles and "scoots" around some.

UPDATE!!!: M's windchimes were successful! They look really cute. She decorated them with some Sharpies, and then I sprayed them with polyurethane. She was excited this morning when she saw they were shiny. Tonight she's going to write a letter, and we're going to "wrap" the chimes in a bag. Tomorrow is the kindergarten picnic, so she'll take them to Mrs. T then. Friday is the last day of school, but it's "move-up day" so she'll spend the morning in her new teacher's class-- she'll get to meet her teacher and her class for next year.

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Somewhere between a moment of inspiration and a lapse in sanity (I’m running low on mints! [see my Monkey See Monkey Do post]), I decided to repaint the downstairs bathroom. As most unplanned projects like that are, you start right away before the inspiration fades… I didn’t want my inspiration to fade because I am so ready for a cherub-free bathroom! Pretty much since we moved into this house we’ve wanted to repaint the bathroom (well, we’ve wanted to repaint every room, actually). N, especially, wasn’t too fond of the cherub wallpaper border and the cloudy sky painted on the ceiling. So I came in last night, put the kids in bed, and started ripping down the cherubs. Fortunately, the wallpaper didn’t have top-quality adhesive, and it came loose very easily. Unfortunately, my red paint had trouble covering the walls, let alone the dark blue sky, and it took me two days and four or five coats of paint to get non-splotchy coverage… and that’s only the edging. I haven’t gotten to rolling yet! (But on one wall, I was able to paint “I (heart) N”... that teeny bopper doodle was in celebration of our seventh anniversary we are celebrating today!) Now, in the back of my mind, I knew that this would happen. (This is some leftover paint we had from an earlier painting project. It took N a long time to get those walls covered.) But thinking positively, I figured that for me there might be a better outcome. No such luck!

Because of the painting, I covered the doorway in “do not enter” tape last night. I had N take off the door for easier maneuvering. Of course, S immediately came running in “Uh-oh, Moma! Uh-oh, Moma!” Then she readily admitted to pulling the tape down on purpose. Even still, somehow we managed to get through the entire day without anyone going into the bathroom!

Since the bathroom downstairs was off-limits, I kept sending the kids upstairs for potty time. At one point B went up and S followed him. After a little bit, I sent L up to check on things—she said B was still on the potty and S was playing. After a little longer, I sent her up again because it sounded a little suspicious. She came running back down, telling me that “this time it’s something bad!” Well, B and S had the drain on the sink closed, had the sink filled with water, had the water running, and had the tub toys out of the tub and in the sink… After mopping up the water that was everywhere, I went to hang the bathroom rug and the towel over the tub to dry. I then discovered the remains of S’s peanut butter sandwich in the bathtub—dropped during the retrieval of tub toys, I guess.

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White Broccoli

M has been wanting to get a gift for her teacher—such as, for example, the rose petals she collected walking home from school yesterday and brought home and put in a baggy with water (so they’d always stay soft and not dry out). I told her that maybe a baggy of water, even if it did have pretty rose petals in it, wasn’t the best present for Mrs. T. I told her something that Mrs. T could keep for a long time would be better. She let me know that's why there was water in the baggy! Well after lunch today, I found M reading a craft book she found in the bookcase. She found lots of things that she wanted to make. I found some old clay up in the cabinet, and we set about making wind chimes for Mrs. T. Although our clay seemed a little dry, I think they might work out okay. Hopefully. (I'll let you know in a couple days!) But, of course, after we spent the afternoon working with our clay, rolling it out, cutting pieces, poking holes, and putting them out to dry, M had the book back out. “Oh, what about this, Moma?... maybe instead… Oh, I bet Mrs. T would like this!... Oh, Mom, do you have this? Can I make this now? (with this I stress the NOW in it... not now as in next time but as in now) Let’s make this one!” I’m thinking, We just finished the last project! No way are we starting another one now! From there, it went to food. Can we have this snack? That snack? The other snack? To which I’m thinking, You just had goldfish! No more snacks! So, I needed a distraction. I sent the girls out to pick sweet peas. I told them they could eat what they picked and that would be their snack. Next thing you know, M and L have a bowl and area filling it up with all the sweet peas they can find. I hear them talking about dinner and M about a really yummy recipe. I doubt M’s recipe is anything more than in her imagination because I heard sliced bananas somewhere in it. Then she starts looking through the fridge asking about squash and white broccoli (“white broccoli” is mom-talk for “cauliflower”) and zucchini and carrots and many other things...Then she took the peas and washed them. Before she got too far into this “recipe” of hers, I took over the sweet peas. We ate some of the peas raw, and I stuck some in the microwave and we ate those cooked.

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