Random Sweetness

Friday afternoon I unpacked MW's school bag. I pulled out all the usual things...three pictures all drawn in marker on white typing paper, her pink folder jam packed with notes for the next week and examples of her practicing writing the letter "x," her letter search, etc. Then I pulled out her red letter folder and we reviewed her letters and I signed off...and then I carried her little school bag to the trash can and dumped a handful of acorns into the trash can. I had to blog about this because it is a DAILY occurrence...one I will likely forget with time, but one I don't want to forget. Last year every Tuesday and Thursday MW came home with a ziplock baggie in her school bag...loaded with acorns. For two years now, every day she gets to go out on the playground, she collects acorns and like a little squirrel, stashes them in her school bag. They are all over the windowsill above the sink. 

The first thing MW did when she got home was to plop down on the kitchen floor and remove her little leather mary janes...and then dump the black rubber mulch from the playground onto my kitchen floor...just another of those daily occurrences I want to remember. There's a strange sweetness in it.

And one more happened tonight. Dinner was long over and MW and I had both cleaned our plates. We were both hungry and so we split a frozen waffle...one T had made from scratch a few weeks ago (what a guy!). As we sat at the kitchen table eating, MW gently placed her footie-pajama'd foot on mine and said, "do you feel that love? That's love on your foot. Like a gentle kiss, 'cause I'm rubbing your foot real gentle. I love you, Mama." Melt my heart!!!

I wish I had something sweet like that to say about T3, but it hasn't been a sweet day. Here's a little clip: "T3, don't touch that." Then he would look at me and touch it. 

MW and I finished Little House in the Big Woods and are now on chapter 14 of Little House on the Prairie. She LOVES these books and begs for four chapters a night, "'cause I am four!" Two is usually all I do. Last night we read five. It was pretty exciting and we just couldn't put it down. These are GREAT books! I love the ingenuity. The cleverness and the thinking. I love that Ma and Pa expect the girls to obey. In the last chapter we read last night, two Indians came to the house. This was the Ingall's first encounter with Indians. Pa had left earlier in the day to go hunting and had told Laura and Mary not to unchain the dog. When the Indians came and the girls realized the Indians were in the house, they wanted to unchain the dog...Mary reminded them both that Pa had said not to. Laura argued that Pa hadn't known Indians would be there. Mary reminded her again that Pa had said not to. The girls decided not to unchain the dog. Later in the day when Pa returned home and learned about the visit from the Indians it came up that the girls had thought about unchaining the dog, but had not. I thought Pa would say, "oh, good job girls. You obeyed." But no, he sternly and firmly told them that they were ALWAYS to do EXACTLY as he told them. "No matter what. You do as you're told." Wow. I like that. I just love that the very things we're trying to teach MW are being taught through the pages of these books!

This afternoon...this Sunday afternoon...I did not observe the Sabbath day and keep it holy. No...I went in our bedroom and the room stunk of stale dog odors...(keep in mind...I AM pregnant.) So I told T that if the dog wasn't bathed by tomorrow, she would have to become an outside dog. I just couldn't take it. He bathed her right there and then! (SCORE! Thank You T!) While he bathed her, I went to town. I dusted that room top to bottom. I vacuumed the roman shades, I cleaned the fan blades, I mean, I really went at it. And my kids helped me! Yep! MW was actually helpful this go round! Hmmm...maybe having kids has some hidden benefits! -hee, hee! Even T3 got his own little rag and went about wiping things and crying. He was a bit out of sorts all afternoon. SO out of sorts that I didn't even read him a book before bed tonight. I just couldn't handle him another second! So anyway, I went to town cleaning our room. After T left for work and T3 was down, MW and I (yes, the two of us! What a difference her help really made!) moved furniture and vacuumed more so I could steam clean our bedroom carpet...(remember, I borrowed that steam cleaner...yeah, I still haven't returned it...some friend I am! HUH?) So I needed to knock that out...the water from cleaning the carpet...OH MY! It was SOOOOO GROSSS!!!!!! Gag me gross! Every time I emptied it...pure nastiness...disgusting!!! So anyway, our bedroom is now super clean...

Oh, I neglected to mention that while I was vacuuming, MW and T3 were crawling and hopping around the bedroom floor pretending to be dogs and "barking" with their little "ruff ruff" barks. And then MW crawl/hopped and barked and ran head on into Scout, who was trying to get away from the children. She has a red knot at the corner of her eyebrow and the bridge of her nose...poor girl! She went and got two pieces of ice from the freezer...one for her head and one for Scout's!

And I'm on my third load of laundry...I don't get this MS thing...yesterday was awful. I wish I'd taken a picture of the playroom. Let me tell you...I closed off all the doors and gated the top of the stairs and I put a blanket and pillow in the middle of the floor and gave my kids cheerios, fruit loops (MW calls them "junk" 'cause she asked for "junk" cereal once and I made the mistake (?) of telling her we don't spend our money on "junk." -ha! They remember everything!) and chex mix and I laid my head on that pillow and closed my eyes and it was all I could do not to be sick...cheerios, fruit loops, and chex mix were ground into the carpet. Every toy was out. Every basket turned over. Every game piece spread all over the floor. Oh yes...stuff was EVERYWHERE!!! It took me and MW an hour and a half of cleaning to get things back in order. I have yet to vacuum. So yes, that's what I did on the Sabbath. But...I think my ox was in the ditch. The brief reprieve from MS was so welcomed and I very much enjoyed and was thankful for the ability to perform such tasks...whereas normally, I might be found muttering something under my breath about how unappreciated I feel...ick! Yea, there's my pride again!

Ok, it's late. I'm going. One more load to fold and another to transfer over. My body is telling me to go to bed.