A Relaxing Evening of Fishing

 We finished early this evening in SPARKS club because we didn't have anyone other than our own eight year old show up, so we loaded up the kids and headed to the fishing pond at the park.  The three year old has a new pole that we got for him when my husband and I had our get-away day Monday, and he was excited to get to use it.  But he was more interested in running over to the park to play so he didn't do much fishing.  This is unusual for him because every time we come to the park all he wants to do is go get his fishing pole.  I guess we can't win :)

We hadn't planned on being outside so we didn't have jackets.  It was fine, but got a little chilly before the end of the evening.  I fed the baby his dinner while the other boys fished, then chased the three year old around the playground helping him swing and slide.  It was a nice, relaxing evening.  Then I walked home with the eight and three year olds while Dad took the baby home in the truck (we had the stroller in the back of the truck).  It was dark by the time we got home, and there was a lot to do to get everyone in bed (another bottle for the baby, folding a very large load of laundry, a little cleaning up, changing into sleepers and several stories read... in other words, the usual.)  Now it's 10 pm and I still need a shower.  But I'm glad we went fishing, and I'm glad we walked home.  We've been walking a lot in the evening since it's been nice.  I've heard it is supposed to rain tomorrow, then snow Friday with a chance of snow all next week, and temperatures in the twenties.  I knew it wasn't Spring yet, but it sure has been nice to have a taste of it.

Leisure Time

 I've been doing a lot of reading lately ... trying to get away from so much time on the computer.  I mentioned this book - The Time In Between - the other day.  Like I said then, I rarely read fiction, but this book drew me in - first with the cover, then with every page.  I finished it over a week and a half ago and still wish the story would go on so I could read more.

 Tolstoy and the Purple Chair by Nina Sankovitch has been my next read.  This is a non-fiction account of how the author used reading a book a day for an entire year as a way to deal with her sister's death.  Interesting concept but I disagreed with a lot of what she said.  I felt sorry for her to have no hope of life after death, which caused her great confusion and grief, with no hope of seeing her sister again, and no way of coping with future deaths.  I also thought it was selfish of her, even though this was a way of moving on in her grief.  She has four sons and a husband, and her commitment was to read an entire book every day and to blog about it.  She never says she missed a single reading, but does mention very briefly times when life made it difficult to accomplish the goal.  I think it was a great accomplishment to be able to succeed at her goal, but in living through books, she missed the connections with the people who were living around her.  I couldn't help but wonder how she would have felt if she had lost one of those children or her husband that year - when she wasn't giving her attention to them.  She spends a lot of time thinking back on memories she made with her sister, but misses being able to make memories with her sons.  Sure she goes along with them, but always with a book in hand.  Anyway, enough of my opinion.  Let's just say I won't be attempting this.  In a way, that's what is keeping me from sewing as much as I would like.  Sure, I'd love to indulge in sewing every single day, and I could set a lofty goal for myself and say it's important for my emotional well-being or whatever, but lets get real.  I would have to neglect my family in order to do it, and that's just plain selfish.

So back to reality.  To prove that I haven't just been reading all day, here's the latest round of baby food.  I figured out that packaging the food in snack sized zip lock bags makes it easy to store, reheat and serve, and I also figured out that the flatter they sit when they freeze, the more compactly they store, so I pressed them flat on a cookie sheet and left them to freeze (which also reminds me that I recently sorted and re-organized the chest freezer as part of my Spring cleaning - not sure I mentioned that before.)

Once they were frozen I put each type of food into it's own gallon sized bag, so it would be easier to contain them and they would be less likely to create a disaster in my freezer.  Also this helps me see how many of each thing I have left.

Then yesterday afternoon, my daughter wanted to watch My Fair Lady - with Audrey Hepburn.  We know all the songs because we listen to that sort of thing (show tunes) on Pandora all the time, but we had never seen the musical.  It was a fun afternoon.  Now I just have to figure out what to read next...

A Couple of Perfect Days

 The last couple of days have been really good - nice and relaxing.

 Sunday afternoon we grabbed some convenience store food - yum, right? - corn dogs, onion rings, chicken strips and such and headed out to go fishing.

 The three year old was more interested in watching the rancher feed his cows than eating his corn dog.

 That, and throwing rocks.  There was a little headgate for the irrigation canal so he could throw rocks without disturbing the main channel where the fish were.

 It was a little scary though - you can't tell in the picture, but this is about a 10 foot drop.

 The boys were anxious to fish.  I haven't bought my fishing license yet since I didn't fish the ice fishing derby this year, so I was just the helper ... the one feeding the baby, untangling lines, and keeping the three year old from taking a nose-dive into the river.

 The eight year old does pretty well fishing on his own.  You just have to watch out for his cast.

 I strapped the baby into the stroller so my hands would be free to do all the other things I needed to do.  He was pretty content there.  He loves to be outdoors.

 The three year old is pretty independent about his fishing... or at least he wants to be.  We set him up with a bobber and some powerbait, but all he wanted to do was reel it in.

 Then he would get very upset and throw a fit when anyone took the pole to cast it back out for him.  He kept yelling, "It's not your fishing pole!"  Eventually he threw such a fit that he had to go have a time-out in the truck.

 Despite the drama, this is the one that's going to be our fisherman.  He's very serious about it and always asks to go fishing.

 The big catch of the day was this whopper my husband snagged.  They had lots of bites, but this was the only one they pulled in.

 The sunset was beautiful.  The camera never does it justice.  I kept snapping pictures as it changed, but it was so much better in person ... and peaceful!

 This is probably my favorite picture from the day.  Thomas Kincaid has a series of paintings called "End of the Perfect Day" - and that was all I could think about as we sat out there by the river.  It hasn't been warm enough yet for the mosquitoes to come out, so it was very pleasant.

Today was also a nice, relaxing day.  My daughter kept the daycare while my husband and I went to Jackson Hole for eye appointments.  We took the opportunity to have a nice, quiet lunch, then walk around the square visiting several art galleries before stopping for some organic ice cream.  I somehow managed to make it through the whole day without taking a single picture.  But most of the time we were in galleries where they don't allow pictures, so I guess you'll have to take my word for it on how the day went. 

We did the little bit of shopping we needed to do, then headed home.  My daughter grilled steaks for us this evening, and then we all walked to the park and around town a bit.  It was windy and we got rained on for a little bit, but it was so relaxing and refreshing I didn't mind at all.  The weather is so unseasonably warm - 80 degrees in town today.  That may not seem noteworthy, but we don't have very many days over 80 degrees all summer, and certainly not before July.  The storm that rained on us brought snow to the mountains next to our town - within a 10 minute drive.  That's how crazy the weather is here.  I've heard we're supposed to get snow Friday in town, and then be in the low 20's next week.  Yeah Spring. 

My Random Life

 This has been a really long week.  Sunday I came down with a sore throat, headache, fever and body aches, as well as congestion in my ears and face.  I usually get over a cold pretty fast, or at least the symptoms change daily, so I wasn't really surprised when I felt considerably better Monday.  Then Tuesday hit me like an oncoming train.  I have had a sore throat all week, with a headache most days.  Thursday was the worst, when I really just wanted to crawl into a hole, but still had the daycare to deal with.  Today I woke up with an eye infection in both eyes and I can barely see.  My eyes are very sore but only a little red, but they're draining and very hot and itchy.  The sore throat is as bad as ever too, so I'm rather miserable.  In spite of that, I am enjoying my weekend.  I always do.  It's so nice to just be with my own children :)

I say that, but then here is a picture of my eight year old with one of the sweet kids I watch.  She is one year old and very bright.  She loves books, and the eight year old loves reading to her.

 This is what I wish I could do all day.  The three year old loves his blankets - always has.  We've called him Linus at times.

 Looks comfy, don't you think?

 Here's a bit of randomness - I've simplified baby food prep.  These are sweet potatoes which I roasted, allowed to cool, then peeled off the skin, cut them into chunks and put them in snack sized ziplock bags.  Much easier than the ice cube trays I was using, and perfectly proportioned since he's eating more these days.  When we need one we just throw the whole bag into the microwave to heat it.  I love simple baby food.  We've also been feeding him things that can be spooned right out of their peel - bananas, very ripe pears, and so on, as well as grinding things up in the food processor - strawberries, fresh apples, mangoes, etc.  Tonight I'm going to mash some potatoes for him (separately from ours since he can't have dairy) and maybe grind up some of our roast chicken.  He loves tuna too, which I think is a bit strange, given the strong taste (of course I have to use vegan mayonnaise to make it since he can't have egg).  I was a bit stressed about not being able to give him cereal and breads, but then I realized things like corn flakes, rice or corn Chex and Kix are all wheat free.  I bought some Rice Chex, but he looked at me like I was trying to feed him sand.  Maybe when he has teeth he'll be more into those crunchy things. :)

 Speaking of cereal, yesterday the three year old intentionally dumped the crumbs from the bottom of the cereal bag onto the floor and proceeded to play in them.  I figured he needed to learn that when we make a mess we have to clean it up.  Hmm.  It was more of a reward to him to get to play with the broom.  Oh well.  At least he learned that we have to clean up our messes... or maybe he learned that when he wants to play with the broom he just has to dump something on the floor.

 Today is a gorgeous day and we've spent a good portion of it outside.  Can you see the three year old pointing?  He was trying to get me to take a picture of his Dad working on the car window.

 Dad was re-taping the window on the car.  We have to wedge and tape it to get the window to stay up.  It may or may not have been my fault that he had to re-tape it.  I might have (ahem) locked the keys in the car while I was in Jackson Hole last week.  Yeah.  Not the smartest thing I've ever done.  All day long I had a feeling I was going to do that, and was being very careful to make sure I had the keys with me.  I usually drive the Excursion, which has a keyless entry so I don't worry about it with that one.  Anyway, I did really well until my last stop at the grocery store.  I was lugging the baby in his carseat, the diaper bag, my gigantic purse and my bag of reusable grocery bags and I thought there was no need to bring in the purse.  I grabbed my debit card and phone and locked the rest in the car.  Halfway though the shopping I realized I needed my coupons, so I finished shopping, left my cart at the front and went out to get the coupons.  It hit me as I was walking out of the store that I didn't have my keys.  Oh boy.  I figured I could remove the tape, slide the window down, then re-tape it.  Well, that didn't work.  We have little wedges on the inside that hold the window up.  Thankfully, someone else in the parking lot was having problems with their car and a tow truck was there already.  I had him come over and open it for me.  Normally they charge $75 to unlock a car, but he said since he was already there I could just give him a tip.  I gave him a very generous one.

 So anyway, my daughter was wanting to take the car today so the taping had to be done.  She is off to see her friends for the weekend - the first time she's driven so far on her own. She's enjoying a little independence.

 The three year old was having a blast today riding his bike.

 My husband and I went to a couple yard sales this morning, and I found this very old plastic container.  The Hansel and Gretel artwork is beautiful and it says it was made in Western Germany.  I think I'm going to use it to store sewing things in - maybe bobbins or my extra pins.  I love stuff like this.

 The three year old thought the baby ought to wear his hat.

The baby thought it was more fun to take off the hat.

 One of our many projects today was to move the 4-wheeler.  The three year old was terrified at first to go for a ride.

 But by the time they backed out of the driveway, he was waving to me and saying "Bye Mom!"

 I love how he was hanging on when they came back - holding onto Dad's sleeves.

 Of course that reminded him that he has a four wheeler of his own.  It's not motorized, but has pedals like a bike.

 The next project on the list was to move our Christmas tree along with several branches from my in-laws' yard.  We borrowed my father-in-law's truck and loaded everything up...

 ... including all the boys.

 We stopped for a picnic lunch at one of our local summertime restaurants.

 Then we headed up to the hills to find a good place to return the trees to their native habitat.

 We added them to a pile of other wood at a campsite.  This is not your typical campsite, but just a middle of the woods spot where people camp.

 Then it was off to borrow a ladder so we could replace our entryway light, wash windows and blinds, and clean our ceiling fan.  This is one of the things I've had on my Spring cleaning list that I  couldn't do with the daycare kids present.  We don't have a ladder of our own, so this had to be a weekend project.

 My husband was a great help in this.  I don't do ladders... at least not safely.

 He scrubbed windows while I washed the blinds.

Then he cleaned the ceiling fan while the three year old attempted to decapitate him by turning the fan on ;)  Then I vacuumed the mess up.  Now we're waiting for our chickens to roast and then we'll get everyone bathed and in bed, ready for church tomorrow.  It's been a long, productive day :)

Total Exhaustion

 Does this look like a game of hide and seek?  And maybe he's counting?  Nope.  This is, my friends,  what complete exhaustion looks like.  A couple nights ago, I had to run over to our Pastor's house to help him with a computer issue he was having. I left my sweet, capable husband in charge of the three bears boys, and when I got home, the three year old was fast asleep ... like this.  It was mighty quiet in the house.  My dear, sweet husband had also put the baby in bed, and he was asleep too.  And the eight year old had gotten into a bit of arguing with his dad, and had been sent to his room ... where he immediately fell asleep too.  I told my husband he's going to have to stop by during daycare hours *wink*.

 I thought the falling-asleep-with-your-nose-in-the-corner-of-the-chair trick was a one time fluke, but it turns out, it's a popular position for the three year old because last night he did it again after his bath.  He was so tired (as you can probably tell). We've had semi-decent weather here lately so he has been playing outside a lot.  In fact that's all he really wants to do every day.  Add to that the fact that he's at that age where he could still use a nap, but he doesn't want to take one.  It's hit or miss and we just play it day by day, but it is more likely he'll be outside playing during naptime than in his bed napping.  So he's still trying to adjust to less sleep, and by bedtime, he's completely exhausted.  (I can relate - HA).

One more cute picture of him.  The eight year old took this one.  He had been taking pictures of his artwork for his blog, and I looked over and there was this whole photo shoot going on, with all sorts of posing on the part of the three year old. :)