Lord, That I May See

Turtle:  First we eat lunch, then we go "nappy", then we go to camping.  THEN we eat dinner and go to night-night in our tent!    Rosebud, whining:  I don wanna go nigh-nigh. Turtle: Well, when you're an owl, you can stay awake.  But you're not an owl, you're a person. Turtle, continued:  And in the tent Mommy will sleep next to [Sunshine] because she cries.  And then Mommy feeds her.  You can't cry [Rosebud], you just have to say, 'Mommy I have to go potty.'  Cuz you don wanna poop in your pull-ups. . . .  Do you like to poop in your pull-ups?? Rosebud:  Yeah.

Some days I hate this hamster . That would mean any day that it places any requirement on my time other than being in the background. When it smells up the living room needs its bedding changed sprays pee out of its cage onto the wall, the shelf and the floor requires food or water gets played with by the girls gets squeezed so hard it poops (I swear!) gets fought over gets forgotten about on the floor of the living room gets nearly drowned while being "washed" gets put into its ball  and kicked and thrown around has food  that my 2 year old likes to sample on the sly -- complete with the artificial colors therein scratches bedding out of its cage onto the floor runs so hard nightly on its wheel that the "thump-thump-thump-thump" drowns out evening movies and wrecks the coveted quiet of the evening becomes something we have to get someone to watch every time we leave the house for more than a day or two I know pets ar...

This book must be speaking to my Turtle in some way.  It is all she wants to talk about.  She tells me the story over and over and reads it over and over.  "Mommy, the city comes closter (sic) and closter to the little house.  And Mommy, the little house doesn't like the city.  It makes her worried and sad and nervous.  Her windows are cracked and she's not smiling any more. She wants to see the dandy-flowers.  She can't see the moon and the stars anymore -- only the sun.  The city is loud.  It shakes her.  Nobody is taking care of her.   She is so, so, so sad and so, so, so worried.  She wants to be in the country.  See, Mommy?  Look at her sad face. See, then the granddaughter comes and the carrier moves her to the country.  Then she is happy again.  Then it is peaceful in the night.  She is happy that it is peaceful in the night.  She can see the dandy flowers and the st...

because, though I've got lots of thoughts I'd love to write out, I don't have lots of time any more.   Not like I ever did, but these days I'm really feeling the pinch. :)  So, a picture post it will have to be for now. :) Mud Play BLUEBELLS My little Sunshine Rosebud is on a puzzle binge.  She completes 4-6 puzzles almost every day -- the same ones, over and over.  I love to watch her (very slyly) and hear her sweet little voice saying "I did 'em ah bah my selllp!" Hope everyone is having happy spring days!

One of the many frustrations I have with living where we do is my inability to allowing my children to pick flowers.  Everywhere we walk, almost every flower that we see "belongs" to someone's yard, or some state park's grounds, or some other "no picking" zone.  The girls ooh and ahh over lovely spring flowers and I am looking over my shoulder hoping an annoyed neighbor or a park attendant doesn't see us just at the moment my girls are uncontrollably grasping and pulling. We don't have many flowers in our yard.  There is one early spring pink flowering bush and several azalea bushes.  Rosebud especially just combs through the lower branches of the bush, picking each flower and bud in delight.    While a large part of me does wince at the wilting piles of pink buds she leaves in her wake, I try very hard not stop her. There is something about flowers.  There's something about their beauty, their scent and their color that se...

We "un-buried" our ALLELUIA and sang a chorus of it at the top of our lungs. :)  (Rosebud especially is so thrilled about our Alleluia -- she keeps pointing at it and wanting to sing!) Our crown of thorns  had changed to a beautiful crown of life. The purple "prayer table" cloth was changed to white "for Celebration!" And of course there were eggs that the girls had dyed and painted with Daddy on Holy Saturday. We also had special Easter brunch with our best china -- even for the girls. And then we had an Easter basket and egg hunt in our backyard after brunch. On a side note, Turtle got a pack of WikkiStix in her Easter basket and that afternoon she made the Blessed Mother on our window all by herself.  Mary had a veil, clips in her hair, five toes on each foot and even a belly button.  She is very proud of her work and so are we. :)  She has never really drew/made a specific recognizable image in any artwork befo...

I finally finished sewing new pillow covers after about a year and a half of planning to.  Such a simple change and yet it makes me happy every time I see it.   Beautiful things are good like that. :)