Last weekend, my mom and sisters came down to help paint Mary Alice's room. It is a work in progress. I learned that our walls soak up paint like a dried-up sponge! (We went through three gallons of paint, and I still have to buy even more! This is only for one coat of paint!!!) If I'd had it to do over again, I would've finished the easy painting, so that my talented mom and sister could focus their time and talents on the artsy stuff. The room took so much time to paint that my mother and sister ended up having to leave without completely finishing the room. They are painting several different things on her walls. It is a French themed room. I can't wait to see the finished product! One funny thing... Mary Alice saw that Mom and Taylor were painting several French locations on their walls and asked if they would please add another location. Her request was that they would paint a Starbucks on her wall, as it is one of her favorite places. Silly girl.
Monday (an absolutely perfect day): I took Mary Alice to her ballet class in the morning. Mary Alice takes ballet with a home school ballet group. It has really been fun to see her learning so much and making so many new friends. I think there are about twenty girls in her class or so? I know absolutely nothing about ballet, but I have always wished that I did. Now is my chance to learn all about it. :)
After ballet, we decided to run some errands, since we were already out and about. The kids were cracking me up at every turn. We had one of those days where there was no fighting, with peace and joy all around. Everything was running like clockwork. I took the kids to Pei Wei (my favorite restaurant right now). It was so fun to eat a late lunch during the school day. Mary Alice and Major told jokes to me and each other the whole time. They only fought one time, and that was over who was going to sit by me at lunch. I don't normally give in to arguments. Usually, I try to give them the opposite of what they want when they are fighting or complaining. This time, though, I just couldn't resist. The three of us squeezed tightly into a booth, sitting three to a seat that was meant for two, the kids sitting on either side of me. They are such blessings.
After Pei Wei, we went to Target. We drove past "Car Toys" on the way there and Mary Alice said, "Look Mom! Car Toys! Oooh...We should go there. I'll bet Major would really like that store. I wonder which car toys they have? Do you think they have Lightning McQueen?" :) I smiled.
I entered Target and loaded Major into the shopping cart. For some reason, Major felt like singing/screeching "All You Need Is Love" over and over and over again. People were smiling and looking at us. They either thought Major was extremely cute or extremely annoying. I couldn't quite tell, but didn't want to stop him from singing because I love that sound more than any other. We passed the produce, along with a sign that said something like: "Try our ripe red savory tomatoes today." (Mary Alice can read fairly well, but still has trouble sounding out unfamiliar words.) When we passed the tomato sign she gasped and said, "That is UG-LY mom! They should not be talking about our Savior that way!" She thought that the sign was being disrespectful about our Savior, calling Him ripe and red. We discussed the word "savory" and how the sign was talking about tomatoes, not Jesus. :)
About two minutes later, we were passing down the cleaning products aisle. A few weeks earlier when we were grocery shopping, she mentioned that she really thought that we should buy the paper towels with the cute bear on them. We compared the price between the cute and cuddly bear paper towels and the store brand paper towels. The paper towels with the cute and cuddly bear looked to be the same quality as the store brand, but with a much higher price. We discussed the "tricks" of the people selling paper towels, how they try to get you to buy their towels by showing you a cuddly bear, how the bear wasn't for sale at all, just a trick that companies use to try to make you buy their towels. Mary Alice thought that was a mean trick, to charge you so much when you weren't even going to be getting a bear!! So anyway, as we were passing down the aisle with cleaning products, Mary Alice picked up a bottle of Mr. Clean and said, "Is this another trick, Mom? I'll bet these people are trying to make us think that a bald man comes with this cleaner. We WON'T be buying this trick!" Meanwhile, Major was singing "All you need is love!!!" repeatedly. A fellow shopper looked up at us an smiled. Mary Alice proceeded to ask me all about Mr. Clean, if he was a real man. She said that she thought that he looked too nice to play mean tricks on people. :)
My day was absolutely perfect on Monday. I was feeling so great that I even decided to buy myself a dozen and a half roses while I was at Target. Fresh flowers made the day seem even better.
I regret to say that our friend the wiener dog showed up again on our back porch, this time with no tag or collar! The dog was half starved. It was pitiful. We fed her a whole can of dog food and four hot dogs, which she gulped down in about ten seconds. One of Josh's employees was kind to find a home for the night for dear old Lucy the wiener dog. Her owner has been contacted AGAIN and hopefully will keep her dog collared and gated.
Tuesday and Wednesday: A little less drama....We stayed home.
Thursday: After Mary Alice had finished much of her schoolwork, the kids and I went to visit my friend Elaine. Elaine has a home schooled daughter who is Mary Alice's age and a daughter who is Major's age. The kids played with friends that morning while I visited with Elaine. We also went to a local park to feed the ducks. All was well until some rather unfriendly looking geese decided to come out of the pond and come towards us, honking all the while. Of course, Elaine didn't seem bothered by the scary looking geese, but calmly told the geese to, "Get back in the water." Elaine also merely laughed when the geese nipped at her legs. Her girls followed her example and laughed and shewed the dreadful looking geese, who were almost as tall as they were!
Of course, I did NOT remain calm. I freaked out. I reacted by snatching the kids' bread away from them and throwing their remaining bread into the pond, then grabbing their hands and running away from the geese and up a nearby set of stairs. My children did not remain calm either. Mary Alice announced to Elaine that this little excursion had not been so fun after all and that she was now ready to go. Funny how our kids follow our examples, both in big and small things. I need to strive to be a better example in the way I handle life's challenges, knowing that my kiddoes are looking to me to know what they should do. I think I'll try this out on some of my other fears, though. I will not be making a return trip to the pond of angry geese!
Friday: The kids went to visit their Grumpy and Nonnie (Josh's parents) for the weekend. I went to Canton with some of the ladies in our class at church. We stayed at my friend Amy's parents' lake house. It was fun to spend some time with these girls at such a beautiful place. We had a great weekend.
Everyone is home again. The kids are sound asleep in their beds. I'm so glad to have all of my family back in one place again. I'm looking forward to more time with my precious kids and wonderful husband. The last few days have been so full of blessings. I am so thankful to have had another week with the three people I love the most! Have a great week!
