The Mother Plagiarizer

Please note, this post is completely lifted from the pages of my oldest son's school journal, spelling and grammar mistakes included.  I require that my children write every {school} day.  I was thinking about making the same requirement of myself, but I wondered if writing would become too much of a chore, like dishes and laundry and cooking and sweeping and teaching and running and showering and... I have too many requirements that I'm failing already.  Let's just keep it the way it is.

UPDATE
You know what they say about March. March comes in like a lion a goes out like a lamb. In 21 day ginger will be two and 15 more days until her birthday party. She is going to share it with our cousin, Login, and speaking of Login she is going to be a big sister in July.
I was sick yesterday and the day before that, so I didn't write in you Journal though I'm still not 100% today. More like 95%.

I ask you, what kind of mother makes her son do school work when he's only 95%?  
Login, whose real name is something very close, is indeed going to be a big sister in July. Her mother announced it on her photography blog, so I guess it's alright for WPaul to announce it in his Journal. Yay for cousins!

Quick Selections

I'm supposed to be taking a nap with my Willa Beans right now.  Shhh... she already fell asleep before I got there, so I'm sneaking these few moments to myself while my older kids have 18 minutes of "quiet time" left.

Seeing as I'm trying to conserve my mental energy in this heat, I really do not have much to say.  Which means of course, that I will ramble on unedited for a while.  And then I will stretch my arms above my head and wonder why I didn't snatch at the opportunity for 18 minutes of sleep when I had the excuse.  Then I will spell-check and goof around on the internets reading about Brad Pitt's mother and her Republican leanings.  Yup. I love quiet time.

This has not been a very productive week around the Ruffer Homestead.  Bummer that.  My housework has pretty much peaked out at laundry and dishes.  But really, what else is there? With the kids camping out in the living room each night, there's not a lot of sense in running the vacuum.  Or maybe there's more sense in it, but I've never been accused of having too much sense.

Ok. Enough about my under-achieverness.  That topic bores me.

GBaby is obviously a little bored too.

We're going all rural around here and using the clothesline exclusively.  Yes, the underwear and towels are scratchy.  No, I don't prefer them that way. Yes, the house is much cooler without the clothes drier running. No, I will not hang my household's underwear and socks on the side facing the road.  Or the side facing the fields, because Mr. S. and Mr. S. Jr., who own the fields surrounding our yard are out there practically every day. So our unmentionables are safely hidden in the center lines.

I took my children to Sauder Village yesterday. We had one hour to visit before we had to hurry home, slap some sandwiches together and get the boys to piano lessons.  The real reason we went was because I, the Mom, (and thus the Boss of my Children) wanted to pick up some nice fabric at the quilt shop.  In an effort to minimize whining and maximize cooperation among my children, I struck a deal with them: 25 minutes for mom in the quilt shop and the remainder of the time for them to see one attraction.  It seemed like a good plan.  While I made my selections as quickly as I could, they poured over the map.  When I came out, they told me that they'd all agreed on what they wanted to see:

Arguing over checking out the Sauder Village Map.

With purposed steps they led me away from the quilt shop...

...Straight to this!

Of course.
Clever children.  They know how to work all of my systems. 

GBaby, a little less bored without the stroller.

Since the ice cream took care of our pre-lunch appetites, we had extra minutes to see some animals.

Some animals are pretty ugly.

Time is more than up...