"A Wink and a Smile"

Sometimes summer can be exhausting. I won't complain too much because I am home with my girls and we really do have a lot of freedoms. BUT, I am HOME with 5 girls and we all have our own thoughts of what we want to accomplish in a day. Do we ... read books? organize the school room? go to the pool? watch TV? do a craft? mow the lawn? paint a room? clean a bathroom? organize the garage? have a friend come over? go to a store? play on the computer? blog, facebook, or tweet? take some pictures? make Mickey Mouse waffles? plan a homeschool year? sort through the mail? play in the sprinkler? Getting 6 ladies (I'm in that mix) to agree on WHAT to do on any given day can be challenging. Definitely not as easy as picking out what shampoo to use or which color flip flops to wear. ((((SIGH))))) Time to start the day ...

Warning : This post is full of complaints and was written by someone who YESTERDAY had many expletives dancing through her head. In just 22 days 3 of my girls will be starting back up at the local public school. The youngest one will be starting kindergarten. I registered that (now) 5 year old on the very last day of April still unsure of whether I would be sending her to kindergarten or back to pre-k. In our state the cutoff is August 15th and next year it moves to August 1st. Anyway, my husband and I were on the fence about sending our baby; all 34 pounds of her, off to school with those big kids, but she's going. Back on the last day of April, I filled out form after form , gathered the birth certificate and social security number, and went directly to the school to register the youngest. The ONLY thing that I knew was left was the 5 year old physical and the doctor/immunization form. I "thought" I would just go back later with that completed paperwork. I "t...

How funny that I opened up an old album and then found out that today was July 26th! My Poppie was born in 1900 on this date. There isn't a lot that I remember about him ... he died when I was 5, but I do remember him being a gentle giant. He was a TALL NORWEGIAN with great big hands, but when he touched me it was like I was a delicate doll. His voice was quiet and his accent; unlike my own. We had a little connection that I can't describe with the right sort of words, but something tells me that we could have been great friends ... two peas in a pod . Not that I am some TALL NORWEGIAN woman with GREAT BIG HANDS (although, come to think of it ... my hands are rather large). Anyway, I mean that he had a lot of thoughts. Even to this day, I know that about him. I think we would really get one another.

Goodbye to the summer pools and HELLO sprinklers! When everyday seems to have heat indexes near 110 When the pool waters border on hot tub feel (without the bubbles) When you need to walk around the pool area in flip flops so as not to burn the feet (OUCH) When you can't even sit on a lounge chair for a minute without sweat just pouring off When telling your children to turn on the sprinklers and play outside seems easier than packing up a car and heading to the pool When the brown spots show up on the lawn and almost seem to thank you giving them an extra drink When a certain mommy of 5 can look out her kitchen windows and see children happy and playing while she stays inside clothed and COOL ! That's WHEN!