And….. Here is the post I sat down to write yesterday. I’d already uploaded all of the pictures onto my computer and was set to start, but instead an entirely different post came out! It was very therapeutic 🙂 There’s nothing like putting order to all of the things that are going on in my mind!
This year we have church at 9am- a complete change from the 1-4pm schedule we had last year. I have really, really enjoyed this new schedule! I am not a morning person, but I enjoy the block of free time that comes along with getting home from church at noon and settling in for a few hours of down time before dinner prep begins. We’ve been making some kind of dessert every Sunday- because there’s time for that now! We even have an early dinner. I love it! I do have to admit that at first the kids didn’t always know what to do with SO MUCH free time. Strange, right?
One Sunday during the Jazz Reader Contest, Ashlyn organized a Lund Read-A-Thon and it was so fun! Everyone lounged in the living room, ate snacks and read! We have done it a few times since because we had such a good time.
Cayden found a more comfortable spot while Matt is trying to find a book to read on his iPad (He settled on Lord of the Flies).
Two weeks in a row, I stayed home from church (or tag-teamed with Matt) because Megan and Alison came down with a horrible cold and cough. They’d been around people with either pneumonia or croup and it sounded like they really were on the verge of this cold turning into either one of those. Luckily they are back to normal now and we were all able to go to church yesterday, but here is what life was like the “sick” Sunday before! The family was at church except for these two little ladies and me. I have to tell you that this mantra of “letting yourself be happy” is constantly on my mind and this particular afternoon was truly a delight! I don’t know exactly why- maybe because the house was so quiet, or the girls (who had been feeling lousy the whole week) were finally happy and playing together, or because I was looking for it- but we just had a fabulous time together.
We pulled out the chalkboard – Megan and Alison became earnest artists at once! Alison knew it was a church day and dressed herself in her yellow poofy church shirt (that goes with a skirt) and her new church dress.
When Megan went down for a nap we began a brownie venture (Melissa Lawson’s Day 24 brownies). They were just as amazing as ever! Jackson still asks for the marshmallow brownies and was disappointed when I made brownies “with just caramel” yesterday. I think cooking is Alison’s “grown-up thing” to do with me. Whether I’m making dinner or just getting after-school snacks out, she is always there saying, “Me help!”
Moving forward to this Sunday, I walked into Ashlyn’s room and found that she was in the middle of a tea party with Alison! My sister, Michele, had given Ashlyn her miniature tea sets and now they were all in use! It was all very proper and careful.
Soon her tea party became a “shop” and everyone could go to her shop and buy drinks (water) and snacks (cheerios). Dylan and Jackson were her employees and were paid with Monopoly money or with mint chocolate chips. They were very thrilled and delivered Ashlyn’s fliers and were constantly advertising. After a successful run, Dylan and Jackson each started up their own businesses.
Jackson started up a Lego business where you could pay him $3 (Monopoly money) and you could build anything you wanted out of Legos. I thought building a maze was really cool 🙂
See if you can go from the opening on the upper-left to the Lego tower on the bottom right!
Dylan had a stuffed animal business that was very popular. A lot of animals are under the table and the money goes in the dump truck. In our house Monopoly money can be found almost everywhere so there was always something to buy! When Dylan would get enough money, he’d go to Ashlyn’s store and buy snacks or to Jackson’s store to build with Legos. It was a very entrepreneurial afternoon! Cayden had just gotten a book from the library about html programming and spent most of his free time reading that. After all of the little ones were in bed Cayden, Ashlyn, Matt and I played Star Trek Settlers of Catan which was a nice way to end the night!
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