A Plain Ole Regular Kind of Day

Today started early with goodbyes to Daddy. He's off to the office, and thankfully is in town for the next couple of weeks. My guess is that this little girl will hightail it to the back door right around 5:30 tonight when she hears the garage door open. It can only mean one thing: Daddy is home and he will most definitely get on the floor and play!

While I stripped sheets and started laundry, Grady and Micah got busy with some seat work. Penmanship and addition and phonics and tracing. Add in some spelling with Boggle cubes and some contests over who can yell out some skip counting chants and you've got a glimpse into a typical hour around the table.

After a mid-morning snack we drove to the local nature center just a few miles away. The boys explored the center, running from animal to animal, and Annalyse toddled behind trying to see and touch and do just about everything her big brothers were doing. I did, however, nix her attempt at scaling the rock wall once Micah jumped off.

We gathered with several other kids for a short hike into the woods and then wandered off the beaten path to make, ahem, Fairy Houses. I knew this was the topic and task of today's nature class, but it was much easier to just tell the boys we were taking a walk in the woods and then building miniature forts for small animals. This was familiar territory and they were off and running to collect supplies.

For every six or seven twigs the boys laid out, Annalyse ran off with one or two. For every handful of pine cones the boys lined up, Annalyse rearranged a couple. For their every attempt to lay out a carpet of moss, Annalyse picked up her own piece and threw it. It was a picture of teamwork at its finest.

When our Fairy House, er, small fort, was completed we trudged back through the woods to the nature center to wrap up with a round of hand sanitizer and some hot cocoa. Micah was upset there weren't marshmallows; Grady Lee was upset because he thinks anything more than lukewarm is scalding; and Annalyse was upset because it was lunchtime and her Goldfish crackers were long gone. Needless to say, I didn't sip hot cocoa and chitchat with other moms.

Once the lunch mess was cleaned and Annalyse was down for a nap, the boys rolled and decorated sugar cookies. Micah was convinced he was a human roller "that can make the dough as flat as tar on the roads." Funny, in all my years of baking, never once have I likened my rolling pin to a steam roller.

After rolling and cutting came the sprinkles. Lots and lots of sprinkles. And lots and lots of sprinkles that are still turning up in odd places - in the crease of a school workbook and on the TV remote, to be precise. Apparently "Please go and wash your hands before you touch anything" means something different to four and five year old ears.

In the past, Annalyse has turned her nose to cake and frosting so I suspected that would be her response to a sugar cookie. But, after one small bite, the dear girl let out squeals of complete and total contentment. She wouldn't have relinquished her cookie for anything, I'm sure.

While I (finally) got around to putting clean sheets on beds and folding several loads of laundry, the boys wandered the woods in the back yard. I think I overheard something about "making a big fort for big animals and not small fairies." I'm not entirely sure, however, because as I was heading upstairs with the laundry basket I heard the all too familiar sound of a box of cereal being dumped out. Sure enough, Annalyse was caught red-handed with a box of Kix rolling on the ground all around her.

The boys came inside an hour and a half later covered in mud and were sent straight to the shower. No sooner was dinner done and I was off to get Annalyse in bed. I think she's coming down with a cold or maybe just teething. I don't know what is bothering her, but I do know I had her in bed and asleep by 6:30 pm. Once she was in bed Grady Lee even commented, "It sure is quiet now that all the whining is gone." Amen, my wise and observant son, amen.

Their latest interest is stacking Dixie cups and creating all sorts of towers and walls and forts. They have engineered some pretty great designs, if I do say so myself. Our poor fish, Sharky, has been the center of one too many walls that have inevitably crashed onto and into his bowl.

And would you look at Micah! He has learned from me how to multi-task. If he can just learn how to use his hands while talking on the phone and have a baby on his hip while managing dinner in the background he'll make his future wife quite pleased.

The house is quiet now. It's 8:30 and all kids are in bed sleeping. I've got several things I wanted to research online yet tonight, but a hot bath and a good book may trump my to do list. So, after this plain, ole, regular, kind of a day, I'm signing off.