Friday

Thank you so much, everyone, for the encouraging comments. I think I'll keep you all. Grin.


Today was headed in the same downward spiral until a friend came to visit our tornado zone. We had a lovely chat, and she was very gracious about the state of my house.


I spent the next few hours working furiously to accomplish something. Anything. Leif took a nap (wahoo) and Levi, Luke, and I managed to get a good deal of school worked on. I was worried I wouldn't have any pictures for you today.


Until... (cue cheerful violins and those ol' song birds) the sun came out to play. Yes, that is right. Our first day of sunshine in over a week. Hallelujah.


Levi and Luke practically burst at the seams, grabbing jackets and boots, the front door banging behind them.


The first thing I did was dump my pitchers of dead flowering branches and replaced them with luscious green curly willow. Ahhh. Much better.

Then I filled a vase with fresh flowers. Ahh, again.
I'm happy to tell you, by the way, that I did start my day with a green smoothie. I won't lie and tell you that I skipped the Dr. Pepper, but I had less than three and replaced the pan of brownies with goat cheese and sour cherry jam on multi-grain crackers. Probably not any healthier in the end but less 'desperate mom-ish' if you know what I mean. Leif was thrilled to head outside after his nap, and I headed down the way to check on Levi.

Aha. This is an excellent clue....
Wait, I think I see him...
Yep. Just as I suspected. He was at his 'dam.' This was actually the first time I have visited. I've been working really hard to scale back my over-controlling tendencies and let the boys play without me hovering over them.
When I arrived Levi said, 'You're welcome to take as many photos as you'd like, Mom. I bet your blog readers would love this.' I also discovered that he had M&Ms in his pocket, and he invited me to dig right in. When I told him I'd pass he said, 'Aww, Mom. You know you love caffeine and chocolate.' This boy is getting too smart for his britches.
I headed back to the overgrown front yard and situated my chair.

I was distracted by the hillside, though, and started dreaming of hammocks.

Leif joined me to look at bugs.
Luke decided to roll down the hill. (I'm tellin' you, these boys needed OUT.)
When I came back to my chair, it appeared to have doubled. I was surprised that Levi could lug that heavy chair down from the front porch. Then he told me he didn't do it. I asked Luke if he carried the chair. 'No.' After a pause, he added, 'I slided it.'
I sat down and looked up. I decided to stay there for a week.
Life calls, though. It's Chinese take-out for dinner, a game and a couple books for the boys, and movie date-night for mom and dad. (Hopefully Russ can get our second DVD player hooked up since Leif destroyed our first one...)

See y'all tomorrow.