He said he needed more milk...

It's the price I pay for zoning out for a few seconds while he was awake. Can you blame me? Once again, he had gotten up before his Daddy went to work at 6am. He wanted cereal like his Daddy for breakfast.

Rob left, and I devoted 30 seconds too long to staring off into space contemplating I don't know what. Something was soon pulling me out of my reverie; a strange sound like something being poured, then the words "Need more milk Mommy, Need more milk." As the sound I heard connected in my mind with his statement, I snapped out of it and looked over to see Avery indeed getting more milk. Never mind that the bowl had long ago been filled and that the excess was pouring all over his lap and onto the floor, he kept pouring until I jumped into action and grabbed the precious almond milk box ($2.19 for 32oz) and stopped the flood.

Hard lesson learned, if you are the mom of a particular Avery who is 2 1/2, never let your guard down!

Fun New Discovery

Last night we went exploring to a state park that is less than two miles from our home. We had heard that it had a marina where they have concerts on Saturday nights through the summer, so we decided to check it out. It seemed strange to find this huge recreational lake area so close to our home that we didn't know about. There were deer grazing all along the road to the marina. They seemed completely unaffected by the cars driving slowly by. That was definitely the most deer I have seen in one place. There were as many baby deer as adult too.

While Rob and I enjoyed sitting out close to the water and watching the boats pull in and out of the lake, the kids were bored so we only hung out there about 30 minutes. Their attitudes prompted a lenthy lecture by me entitled, "Enjoying the simple things in life." I think it was lost on them.

From there, we got back in the van and drove further into the park to find playgrounds, picnic areas, and a whole lot of beach. Only wading was allowed, no swimming, but when you're a kid, that becomes somewhat of a gray standard. Especially when you "accidently" fall down while "wading".

I have some cute video clips of this, but am having technical difficulties for some reason getting them from my phone to my computer. Check back and hopefully it will be fixed.

Backyard Mysteries

Okay, so here are a few backyard wonders and I'm hoping someone reading this can help.

First off, Rob and I were excited to find a healthy looking fruit tree at Home Depot Clearanced for $15. Since I plan to line the whole south fence line with fruit trees, I didn't care that the reason it was probably still in the store was because it had no label as to what kind of fruit it will produce. Take a look at the picture and if you can identify it, please let me know.

Secondly, I would like to know what the name of this "weed" is growing on the edge of our woods. It is making such pretty flowers. I'm tempted to dig it up and put it in my front flower beds.

And lastly, I'm not expecting an answer to this. While I love this house, it seems you can always find something you would change. There are three things that bug me at this house; the placement of the cable outlets, the two oddly placed hanging light fixtures in my eat-in kitchen, and the seemingly random and impractical positioning of our water spicket. Now I realize what probably happened is that this particular side of the house was supposed to be underground when designed, but couldn't they have moved it down a little? I have to stand on that little blue cooler to turn the water on and off. Being 7 months pregnant, I am not so graceful at it.

Oh well, if you can identify the two things growing in my backyard, please comment. I would love to know.

Close Call Kid

Maybe it's something about Sundays, I don't know. It seems that Avery was at it once again today. Fortunately, Rob saw him just before he put the screw into the electrical outlet...

I've never used outlet covers with my kids, but perhaps it is time to start.

Memories Lost...Almost

Fortunately for me, my thorough husband began sorting through a pile of things I was getting ready to throw away. Among other things was a CD with no label. I couldn't remember what was on it and since I've been in such a downsizing mood, I figured if I hadn't needed it in the last year, then I wouldn't notice it was gone. Rob put it in the computer and up came a huge assortment of pictures of Alayna when she was just about one year old. There were so many adorable ones, that I cringed to think I had almost trashed them. This one is one of my favorites.

The Definition of Ornery

Uh, that would be the third "A" as in Avery. In recent days, he is really growing up and changing a lot, however he has developed some personality traits that are very high maintenance. Like any 2 1/2 year old he now has his own opinions about things. His favorite actor is "Map" (Alayna informed me of this) and his favorite song is the last stanza from "Farmer in the Dell" being "The cheese stands alone..."

He's very different from Alton and Alayna. Just in the last 24 hours he 1

1) Dove onto a pile of pillows and hour before church, but hit the windowsill instead. Notice the lovely goose egg between his eyebrows.

2) Attempted to roll down the stairs in the laundry bucket (the first landing stopped him thankfully).

3Drew all over the wall with a green marker in the homeschool room.

Sorry, I don't have pictures of the two times he spilled his drink and the bowl he dropped and broke all this morning. Nor evidence of his bad table manners yesterday at Panera Bread after church where he was shoving huge amounts of food in his mouth to entertain Alton and Alayna. The part where the sandwich meat was hanging down out of his mouth seemed to be grossing out the lady at the next table. A mother's discipline is somewhat usurped when the Daddy is also stifling laughter at his antics. He finally got taken out to the car where Rob made it clear to him that that behavior wasn't acceptable.

Whenever he does get spanked, and that is frequently these days, he goes to each of his siblings acting pathetic and saying, "Daddy hurt me." He waits for them to hug him and then on to the next person. We always counter with, "Oh, did you disobey Daddy?" To this he always says "disobeyyyyy" in a sad voice.

I've decided that putting him in preschool would be helpful in keeping him stimulated and bringing some peace to our homeschool room. I always do put my kids in preschool because I'm not good at doing all the little songs and games etc.. that preschoolers do. The difference here is that I usually wait until they're already 3 and then I put them in for two days and move it up to 3 days the next year. I may start him now and put him in for three days right away! That is my project for the week, get Ave enrolled in a preschool.

The End of "Black Market" Homeschooling

We had a homeschool first this week: I actually had Alton take a standardized test yesterday! He took the CAT which is the simplest of the one's approved for assessment in our state. Believe me, I didn't do it because I was worried about his progress. In my mind, if he's keeping up with the grade level cirriculum I use, then he's doing fine. On some subjects, he's even ahead a year.

No, I had Alton tested, because it is required in this state every year. When we were in Colorado, you only had to test every 3rd year. We moved the 3rd year and I didn't test. I was a good girl however and reported to the school system that I was homeschooling. Moving to our current state, I did not report or do the necessary testing because I figured we'd only be in that state one year. Who knew that when we PCS'd we'd still be in this state! Now I'm in a little pickle as they are probably going to want to account for last year. Rob's tongue in cheek advice was to just not report while we're here at all and continue with my "Black Market Homeschooling."

So, I'm complying even though I think it's none of their business. Oh to homeschool in Texas. That lovely state where homeschoolers can do whatever they want and are accountable to no one. Anyway, Alton did great on the test. Now all I have to do is turn in the results, my intent to homeschool form, along with a copy of my diploma for graduating college (you have to have a college degree here to homeschool). Little do they know that despite my degree, I am still learning more about history and math than I ever remember doing when I was in school!

An Exciting Discovery!

While they look like rasberries, they will soon darken into lovely blackberries.

Last night Alton noticed that we had a wild blackberry bush growing on the edge of our woods in the backyard. I was excited to see it and then as I began to recognize the bush, I realized that there are tons of them all along the fence line as well. That is so awesome because that is something I was going to spend money on and plant. I planted one bush in CO and after three seasons it had multiplied into 25 plants. That process is already well on it's way in my backyard now. There are at least 60 very large bushes running all over the place!

We were going to clear a lot of that stuff out, but now we'll have to be careful. I wonder if there's any wild strawberries or blueberries somewhere in there!

Avery's New Bed

Never mind that he currently has Alayna's extra Butterfly and Flowers sheet set on the bottom bunk and no sheets on the top (I haven't found bunk bed bedding that I like yet), Avery loves his new bed. He sleeps on the bottom at night and the top for a nap. Don't ask me why that is his preference.

When we found out that our 4th "A" was going to be a boy, we went with bunk beds knowing that he and his little brother would probably be roommates for a long time.

Little Laundress

The washer and dryer are here and how we are enjoying them. When you purchase them from a reputable store, they come with three men, carry them up your two flights of stairs, hook them up for you, and then explain to you how to use them!

Currently there is more laundry getting done at my house, than anywhere else in the state. There are three of us, that compete to do laundry at this point; yes three, the third being Alayna. It is not uncommon to walk past the laundry room and see this. She asked me how to operate the dryer and so I showed her.

It's funny because I wasn't sure what method we would use to replace our traditional laundry call that we have done now precisely at 4pm each day for three years. I bring the laundry from the basement to the family room. The kids sort the laundry by person on our sectional couch (each person had an assigned section of the sectional) and then are responsible for folding and putting away their own laundry and what we call "the community pile" which is towels etc... Obviously, it would not make sense to carry the laundry downstairs to the family room now only for all of us to bring it back up to our bedrooms and so I haven't quite figured out a plan.

In the meantime however, Alayna to the rescue. As soon as she hears the dryer chiming it's music she rushes up there and delivers everyone's clean clothes to their bedrooms. Her primary motivation is that she wants to put the wet clothes in the dryer so she can operate it. I realize this phase will probably not last forever, but it will buy me some time until I figure out where our new laundry call station will be.