Only the Fun Stuff

It's about time for you to catch up on some of the happy that's been happening around here, you know, just a few of the things I would share with you if you were sitting on my couch, sharing a cup of coffee, and getting covered in dog hair and the residue of chaos that coats our home. So, here you go!

• Bee's pre-sleep reading this week has cycled between truck books, tractor books, and Walt Whitman. Hope she doesn't grow up to be scarred for life.

If the reading material did no damage, her crazy brother might push her over the edge.

• On a similar note, Tiny brought down a blue bib and a pink bib for lunch today. He was adamant that the pink bib was for Bruiser. I acquiesced to his request. It didn't go over well.

Bruiser's face says it all.

• I served the kids spice cake and stew for dinner one night this week. I tried to convince myself that was a completely appropriate dinner, but the truth is that I just didn't want to wait to eat dessert.

Technically, this wasn't the night of stew and spice cake, but see how happy the spice cake makes her?

• Incidentally, when we sat down to eat aforementioned dinner, Littles turned to Tiny, who was bouncing off the walls, and said, calmly: "Let's have a nice Christmas dinner, shall we?"Civilization at its best.

Spice cake requires a death grip.

• The mealtime hand holding war has been started, thanks to Tiny. He has agreed, grudgingly, to touch fingers with Littles, but that's it. Nothing further.

I think it's because he's been marked by He-Who-Must-Not-Be-Named

• I bundled up the kids this week to go walk in the rain. Because that's normal. Littles dressed himself in his puffy winter coat and a pair of gloves. Again, because that's normal. By the end of the walk he had stripped down to a sleeveless shirt. I will say it again: normal.

We watched Kung Fu Panda with the boys last week. Can you tell?

Everyone loves rain. Except for Bruiser. When he's wearing that hat, he doesn't love anything but anger.

• Our family officially has a girl. Bruiser knocked the standing lamp over on top of himself the other day, and Bee cried harder than he did.

This has nothing to do with the lamp incident. It goes with the next blurb. And yes, that's Bee wearing Tiny's jacket.

• Last night we dragged our dinner, both high chairs, and a spare kitchen chair out to the front porch to have dinner in the pitch black fog. All the boys thought this was a great idea. Bee was not so sure. The neighbors are having late night conversations about my sanity. In my defense, I keep forgetting how early the sun sets…and it seemed like fun when Littles and I came up with the plan that afternoon.

In spite of the glazed look in my eyes, we had a good time.

In other news…

Here's what I'm reading: The Cloister Walk by Kathleen Norris (I only have a couple more days until this is due back at the library, so I need to crack down and finish it. There's a lot of food for thought here, though, so I'm wanting to go slow but I already used up my one renewal option!)

And here's what I just read: The Hour Before Dawn by Penelope Wilcox (May I say: lending kindle books may be my new favourite thing ever. Thanks, Mom! May I also say: I didn't intentionally pick multiple monastic books to read this week…it just happened.)

A mushroom palace!

And here's what I'm reading online: The Anti-Hustle (because some of us just aren't made to go and then go and then go some more no matter how intense our scheduling skills may be or how much we are capable of convincing ourselves that we should do everything)

And in case you missed it, here's what I've been writing: Hope and the Helicopter Angel (because we all need a little or a lot of hope right now)

We introduced the boys to White Christmas this week. They are entranced. Naturally.