A post worth sharing. In a world full of ugly things this is precious, making the heart smile even as the tears flow.
Thanks to the W's for allowing their story to be shared. Thanks to Will for sharing it so beautifully as only she does.

Today's Project

Friday night the bed frame and mattress went home to its rightful owner. It didn't take up an extraordinary amount of room but once it disappeared I asked Steve if we could please install the wire shelving I had picked up garage saleing - a whole bunch of it with brackets for $15!

So our storage area went from this...

To this! Three rows of shelving.

I still need to go through some of the boxes and start getting rid of stuff but it sure looks like it will be a lot easier to work with all this floor space. I am SO thankful for my sweetie who took my vision and brought it to fruition. It's amazing what he can do with a stolen... no borrowed drill! :)

ps. Dad O. I'm picturing you with a big grin, thinking you'll think this was an excellent Saturday's work. :)

pps. that's a toddler bed frame on the right side of the picture, just in case it's mixing you up.

Bullzoding

I think there's something wonderful with an imagination that takes a piece of cardboard, some scotch tape, 2 spoons and a hard hat and transforms it all into a man on a bulldozer.

And the fact that he couldn't get it straight and kept calling it a bullzoder was the icing on the cake.

There's education and then there's.... education

Sam came home from kindergarten today and solemly informed me, "mans only button one button on these kinds of shirts." Yep, his kind classmates decided he needed to be in the know and he was SO grateful. :)

And I laughed out loud as he cheerfully skipped away like the little boy he still is.

Ps. This was taken on parent evening and THANKFULLY he had only done up one button.

Pps. Our sickness situation is such that we are still wondering if anyone else will get it and Cara had her first day without a bucket. Relatively cheerful but weak. Why is it so easy to take good health for granted? I am so thankful for staying healthy to this point and pray that I may be able to miss it all together. Yet, God's ways are not mine and so I will patiently wait and see.

And evening has come and instead of having departed FB seems to have settled into the tummies of the next 3 kids. Or at least, they didn't eat much supper and complained of owie tummies. It could be, of course, that they have learned the (wise) ways of their daddy and taken to fasting when sickness is in the house :) But just in case, my Saturday night preparations looked something like this.

• beds cleared of everything (extra teddies, books, toys and blankets, yes our kids will load their beds with stuff) only the blankets required to keep them warm are allowed to stay.
• floors cleared, rugs folded up and night tables shifted over or cleared off
• buckets set by each bed
• rubbermaid container of extra blankets hauled out of storage
• extra sheets set ready
• couches spread with towels for those needing to move upstairs

Let the games begin! :)

We have house guests

...the kind that surprise you when they come through the door and you count down the days till they're gone again.

Until they showed up I was of the mindset that as a mom of twins I could do fine with 3 crib sheets, 2 for regular use and 1 for emergencies.

Since the arrival of our guests, Flu Bug by name, I have concluded that I was mistaken and really I should be required to have 10 sheets.

• 2 for on the beds


• 2 for in the washer


• 2 for in the dryer


• 2 for on the floor in front of the dryer waiting to be crumpled up... er I mean folded up and put in the closet


• 2 for the closet, close on hand for middle of the night changings.

That way at least the cycle can run smoothly! Crazy but the twins are still at it even though they act pretty normal, if somewhat whiny between bouts.

To add to the quote of a friend, "parenting, house cleaning AND flu bugs are all for the birds". Not always bad but sure with difficult moments. And, Friend? That must make me a really old buzzard! :)

Ps. We've informed the guests they have till tonight to leave but they don't seem too persuaded by my intimidation tactics and just let their eyes slide over to stare down the rest of my family. It's wait and see, I guess.

Two Facts:

- of all my kids, Cam has the weakest stomach and will gag at the slightest (or not so slight) provocation
- my babies are sick and I'm dealing with stomach contents regected from both poles. Sorry, facts are facts.


And despite the fact Cody feels crummy he keeps asking for lunch and supper (we'll work on extending his vocab when he's feeling better) so we hauled out a package of crackers. Sam and Cam wanted to spring for something a bit more exciting as their snack so they asked for cheese whiz for something a tad more elaborate. Cody couldn't help himself and asked Sam to make him one too. Which he promptly broke into pieces and spit his one mouthful back onto the table.

And Cam and Sam? "Run for your lives," Sam hollered as Cam stood there and gagged. Cody feeling a bit hurt in the feelings, chased them with his hands in his armpits and his elbows flopping back and forth, "come back here, you bunch of chickens."