A couple of days ago we arrived home to find a turtle flipped upside-down in our driveway. Our dogs were in a frenzy yipping and barking and biting the poor thing. It was tightly tucked inside its shell and the kids were convinced the dogs had killed it. I picked it up and put it in our newly cleaned out baby pool (I know it's a bit early for that, but we're all excited with the warm weather).
Here they are inspecting Tony the Second. (We had a turtle a couple of years ago that they had named Tony).

Yes, Mr. Smiley has a Ring Pop that he is sucking on while holding the turtle. Kinda' gross.

The turtle was not shy once we got the dogs to leave it alone.

My children are learning foul language!!!!

The other night while we were eating dinner together, Precious Jewel rather sheepishly but proudly declared, "Daddy and mommy, I learned the f-word and s-word in school today.."

Choke! Gasp! Cough! Try not to spit out food! Luke and I looked at each other wide-eyed and I calmly (if not shakily asked), "What do those words mean honey? Just whisper it to mommy."

Now back up a whole year. Last year Abigail was home schooled for kindergarten. No, backup about 28 years. I was Private Christian Schooled K-12th and Luke was both Public Schooled and Private Schooled. It was a HUGE decision for us to send her and Mr. Smiley to public school this year. I'm talking HUGE!!!!!!

This was just ONE reason I, in particular, wanted to keep them home a little bit longer. Although, I have learned this year, amongst a host of other things, that influences in our local public school are pretty much identical to the influences I had growing up in a Private Christian School. But that's for a whole 'nother post.

Back to story:

Precious Jewel leaned over and guiltily whispered, "It means freak and stupid." She hung her head as if she was tainted forever.

Whew!!! My mind (as was Luke's) was racing a thousand miles a minute on how we were going to delicately explain the real words to our 7 and 5 year-old.

Mr. Smiley had overheard her explanation and gravely declared. "Ohhhhh, it is very very bad to call someone a freak or stupid. What does freak mean daddy?"

That one I had no problem explaining.

Why some mammals eat their young

There are stages in every mother's parenting journey when they would like to


A: Run screaming down the street like a raving lunatic in hopes that someone will call the police and lock her up for a few weeks of much needed rest.


B. Ship her children off on the next boat to Madagascar


C: Eat her young





None of the above choices are all that great if one still wants to be considered a good mother. So, her next choice is to grit her teeth, desperately pray for patience and count to 10, 500, a 1,000,000 or however long it takes to control her own anger before facing the naked 1-year-old who has suddenly required contortionist skills and is willfully choosing to exercise those skills during diaper changing time.

Honestly, it's not the diaper changes that make me want to loose my cool, throw myself on the ground and join whatever toddler has lost their cool. It's the time where all children experience personality changes---teething time.

Right now, Naters is cutting all 4 eye teeth at once. He's not slept through the night in over two weeks. Serious snot flows and he always gets congested during teething time. It's also height-season allergy time and he can't breath to well because of that either. You would think that after my 4th child the constant crying wouldn't get to me so much...or the biting...or the kicking....or the yanking of older sister's hair (just because he knows he shouldn't). But, after 2 weeks of mind--numbing screaming, my human patience is stretched to the max (and God forgot to grant me a large dose to begin with). (and yes, I have been giving him pain medicine).
Just last week the little bugger screamed himself into his and his sister's room and proceeded to pull every one of her beloved American Girl Doll books off her shelf. He also pulled off her piggy bank, her porcelain duck (I'm still not sure why she likes that thing), and her ceramic hand-painted Precious Moments clock. He walked back into the living room where a friend and I were trying to visit, looked at me, cried louder and walked back into his room. He was trying to get me to follow him. When I did, I noticed that he had not touched one item of his own precious stash of toys. (Who says that a 19 month old can't reason). He was just plain being a little turd!

Luke has worked a lot the last 2 months. He's also worked 7 weekends straight (including Easter--which I cried most of the day through). I was so frustrated and angry reading everyone else's happy little posts of their Easter joy. I was just trying to keep my sanity in church and not allow the little guy to run screaming down the front just because he wanted too. I ended up leaving the service entirely with Good Lookin' in tow and threats of no Easter egg hunt at Grandma's to the other 2 if they got out of the pew and came after me. I sat outside in the hall and held him screaming on my lap

I'm worn out! I'm tired! I am very cranky and short fused right now. I've felt like a single parent with Luke's crazy work schedule and am so excited he is being transferred closer to home.

But, there is always a silver lining at the end of every sob story. Two teeth have come through those little swollen gums. I don't have to be hauled off to prison for cannibalism, and life does resume a shiny new--tooth normal.

Spring Happenings

So much has happened in the last couple of weeks that I decided to put up my favorite pictures and write a little piece about each of them.

Precious Jewel was given a feather and decided to write a letter with it and a small cup of paint. She found it a lot harder than it looked in the illustrations of her books, but she had a great time.

Nater Mater got his first feel of mud. I abandoned the camera after he fell in it face first. He then discovered the baby pool that still had 2 inches of snow water, and delightedly muddied up that water.

More water play. This kid is going to love the pool this summer!

The kids were all home from school on Good Friday, and we were invited to play at a friend's house with their kids. Good Lookin' has grown so much this year. A year ago at this time...well even 9 months ago...he refused to go anywhere. Every Monday morning I attend the Mom's In Touch prayer group. Good Lookin' sees the same 4-6 little kids every week and is just now at the point where he is excited to see them. He has come to love little Cloe and Noah and it was precious to see them playing and laughing together.

Good Lookin' is my "Little Helper." He loves to be right there "assisting" in whatever Luke or I are doing. Here he is watering our non-existent lawn and flowers. The dogs have pretty much dug up any remaining grass.

Nater Mater absolutely loved my friend Elizabeth. He kept crawling up into her lap and following her around. She sat in the swing with him for a good 10 minutes. Every time she would slow down, he would kick to tell her to go again. Just before we left, he again crawled up into her lap to just sit and snuggle. He is my precious little baby.

The kids are so excited to help with our new garden! We went to LOWE'S and bought our supplies. I love to garden..whether it's flowers or vegetables. Being outdoors is so wonderful to the body and soul. Each of the kids brought their piggie banks and picked out their own garden tool. I had to drag them inside after just an hour so they could eat supper before bed! Oh and yes, Precious Jewel does have 6 piggie tails in her hair. And yes, we did go to LOWE'S with them in her hair. = )

Mr. Smiles was so excited about his new shovel! All the kids tools were made out of metal, so they should last for a few years. We'll have lots of happy worm hunting and grub digging as well I'm sure.