Expose'

I thought it would be fun to take a picture and tell more about some of the "drama" that is going on surrounding the moment. 

Jimi brought a huge bag of crust to feed the birds on the ferry ride. 

Why do we have a huge bag of crust? Because our kids (I suppose like most kids) do NOT eat the crust. So we always have piles of crust laying there on their plates in the morning.

This particular morning, Avery was on a kick to make breakfast for herself and the boys. Earlier we had a bit of a fight about how little she does for herself. She is almost 8 and she sits at the table and waits for her food to magically appear before her. She doesn't even pour her own cereal. 

Her friend Bea was at our house when we were discussing how pathetic this is, and we found out that Bea can make her own toast! 

So the next day she decided to try toast cooking. 

On this morning before we drove to Seattle, she made toast after toast and there were plates and plates of half eaten toast and crust. 

So we gathered it up and fed it to the seagulls.

Next.

This is a picture from conference weekend...

In a weird twist of irony, the opportunity to hang around in our pajamas on a Sunday actually made me more committed to keeping Sunday a holy day. 

I don't really know how to explain this without boring you to death, but it was a weird Sunday. I think because of the spring weather, the kids were outside playing with friends a lot, so that made it seem like "not Sunday". 

I slumped around in pajamas all over the neighborhood chasing after Andrew. Lindsay texted me and said the kids were down by the drainage ditch throwing stuff in, so I went down to survey the situation. That led to playing in the forest, and by the end of the day the kids had changed into swim suits and were having a water fight. 

It was such a slippery slope and it ended up being the most un-Sunday like day ever. 

But the good news is, it made me realize how much I treasure the feeling of Sunday. The absence of sabbath renewed my commitment to keeping the Sabbath Day holy. We've since instituted Sunday "rules" to ensure that it has a special/different feel from the other days of the week.

I have a pattern of having my mind changed by the absence of something. 

For instance: when I went to college, I exercised my new found freedom and often slept through church. After a while of not going to church, I realized that I didn't like it. 

The absence of church was uncomfortable to me. 

Then I renewed my commitment to go, even though my mom wasn't there to make me.

Last.

This wagon is a Christmas gift from Kim and Aaron. 

Long story short, it just barely came in the mail a few weeks ago. I think it fell out of Santa's sleigh? 

No, we were supposed to go to Fallon around Christmas, but had to change plans. blah blah blah.

Anyway, it's like my favorite thing lately. I'm having a real inner battle with how much I let the kids play with/in it. I don't want it to get trashed. 

Believe me when I say it WILL get trashed if they are given free reign over it. But it's so fun to play with. 

Anyway, the other day we were walking around the neighborhood in it, and a family of weekender Canadians were moving out of the American house, and the mom came and told me to come and take some toys because they didn't want them and didn't want to deal with them. So my kids run in and there are a ton of new, exciting toys. I offered to take them all to Goodwill for her, and they filled our wagon to the brim with toys. 

So now we have a room full of new dang toys that my kids are having tons of fun with. 

My inner battle is: we do NOT need anymore toys. Groan. 

Solution: I'm gonna give it another week or so and then go through and make a serious purge of all toys new and old.