Day of Rest?

Anyone that knows me... knows I LOVE Sundays!

But today was crazy, hectic, upside down day for me.

As a Relief Society Presidency we have lots of kiddos that intermingle at weekly Presidency meetings, which is usually fantastic... but we have managed to cross-contaminate each other recently.

So I was the lone Pres. member standing this morning... not that I didn't have sick kiddos, Savannah has the flu and Christian has yet another plague of poison ivy, but at least my kiddos were old enough to be left at home.

Off to church I go, with Ty in tow!

Thankfully my sister, Misty, is our new Secretary so my sanity did manage to hang on by a thread, but hanging on is a blessing some days.

I rushed home after church to start supper, so we could all sit down and eat fast, fast, fast.  We had hometeachers, which we adore, coming.

Then Shawn had to leave again for Bishop's Youth Discussion, minus our normal attendees of Christian and Savannah.

So I finally exhale once Shawn leaves and think my day is finally going to wind down.

But seems Christian was BEYOND bored after being home all day... him and Ty pestered each other terribly... known side effect of said pestering is their mommy is a total grouch.

So I ordered them to come kiss me goodnight and go.to.bed!!!!

Ahhhhhhhhh!

Sweet, pityful daughter is medicated and sleeping soundly,

Sons are probably not asleep but are in their separate rooms and not making a peep,

Hubby is home from his meeting, safe and sound...

And I have a quiet, peaceful Sunday... it only took till 9:58pm for me to achieve it.

I heard the following quote and want to record it because it rang so very true for me today, with my church calling, kiddos, and millions of to dos:

Mothers have the uncanny ability to derail a train of thought in a heartbeat,

jump to another track,

and run on it... with all engines smoking.

Does that sound familiar to any one else?

ChooooooooChooooooooooo!

I almost lost my mommy license for this one....

First things first... a bit of explanation, with a little pinch of self-defense, in an effort to plead my case:

I do not own a sweet tooth.  I was not born with one, have not found one, nor have I developed one in my many years of tooth ownership.  I do however own plenty of salty, crunchy, chip loving teeth...

but no sweet tooth.

With that stated upfront, I think it may help explain why I forget about all the sticky, sweet, fruity, gooey, yumminess available in this wonderful world of ours.

So imagine Ty's surprise when I took him to the ChickFilA Pumpkin Patch Extravaganza a few weeks ago... and he is handed Cotton Candy!

Ty, at 7 years of age, did not know what it was!

GASP!!!!

There!  I own it!  My poor son looked at the Cotton Candy and gave me a questioning look of.... 'what. have. you. been. keeping. from. me.?"

I reassured him that it indeed was edible.

So he sampled it, grinned from ear to ear, and proceeded to say, "how long has this been invented?"

I really considered lying to him, yep, I really, really, considered telling a big fat fib.

How does a mom tell her son that Cotton Candy has been around since the ice ages?... or at least since I was a little girl... which to him WAS the ice ages.

He finally stopped giving me accusatory stares when I stood in line to get another cotton candy, under the premise it was for me, knowing that I would give it to him...

Then, and only then, was I forgiven for my monumental oversight!

Ty keeps calling it Cotton Candy Candy Clouds... isn't that cute?!

No stone Unturned

Christian is my child that experiences everything. He loves new things, is not easily intimidated, and is always 'up' for anything. When he was a toddler I had a HUGE learning curve with him. I could not reason with him like I easily did with Savannah.

Christian often learned things the hard way. After months and months of trying to convince him that he was going to hurt himself climbing on the back of the couch... he had to learn by falling off... taking a lamp, answering machine, phone, and side table down with him in a mess of brokenness. Then, and only then, would he point to the back of the couch and simply say, "ouch".

Another example was how he would run full speed across the yard and plunge into his little blownup swimming pool. He would come up choking and sputtering. I tried to tell him to plug his nose before leaping in... but NO!! How could he get the needed 'lift off' to create the maximum splash in the pool if he had to have one hand plugging his nose! And so he continued to half drown himself that whole summer. That ever present dilemma of motherhood of knowing when to step in and prevent... vs. get out of the way and allow your child to experience. It never ends with this son.

But I have learned that the flip side to this is that he enjoys things to the fullest! The most mundane things are a thrill for him. He finds the interesting aspect to anything. He looks at things and sees a creative spin, or a new approach, a joy in the process.

I can honestly say that the day I had Christian... I was transformed into a better mother. I get him. Seriously. I love to watch him be. Christian formally tests in the genius levels, but he is an 'outside the box' thinker and I can't wait to see what he attempts with his future.

My heart flips when I see Christian. He makes me laugh more than any one thing can in my life. He challenges me to enjoy things and not simply react... does that make sense? I love this boy to the point that it takes my breath away.

This week Christian needed to learn all aspects of laundry care for a Boy Scout requirement.

Simple... right?

Not.

Cause he's got to truly understand all the ins and outs. Look at the ingredients of the Spray and Wash bottle and try to formulate, in his mind, why its able to accomplish its goal of stain removal.

Don't laugh!

Seriously, this is how Christian absorbs any speck of knowledge in his life.

So, imagine my exhaustion when we finally arrived at the end of this Laundry 101 Lesson.
Seeing him ironing his clothes, knowing that another life experience is now filed away in that brilliant mind of his. Knowing that as he uses this skill in the future, time and time again... that it will never be mundane, cause nothing in Christian's life is mundane.

And I don't even mind that he had a chance to turn the tables and laugh at me for once... as I quietly started humming... "I hope they call me on a mission"... moms gotta plant those little seeds whenever they can, Right?

A Barn Raising

The day has finally arrived. We've wanted a barn in our back pasture and its now being built.
It will be a little barn with two stalls and a tack room, just perfect for what we need.

The first post went in and Savannah and I were down right giddy!

All the posts were in and they started to 'skin' the barn, woo-hoo.

The treatment on the outside of the barn will be Board and Batten, just like on the house porches, love it!

This is Savannah with our favorite 'Farm Guy'

His name is Jeff McDonald (appropriate last name for a farm guy, huh?). Jeff can do it all, seriously. He builds our farm fences, repairs our old barn, clears trees, etc. We really appreciate him and his crew. He was extra generous to let me snap his photo... generous but NONE too thrilled. Guess farm guys aren't keen on smiling for the camera, snicker!

Hooray for Art Projects

Ty's Art Lesson for today was on Mosaics.
He was to search the house for mosaic materials and create two different creations.

He raided my kitchen canisters and craft supplies... then got to work.

Ty said this one was the wind.

And he has been studying the Galaxy in Science... so he said this is a mosaic of space.
I think I am officially OUT of all blue buttons now ;)

Can I just take an itsy bitsy moment to clarify that Ty gets his creative gene from Me... humble little me, snicker, snort.

SnuggleSpot & SlingShot

Savannah is a reader, takes after her mom. She has wanted a chair in her room so she could go cuddle up with a book but not have to use her bed.

I found this oversized chair, it is a complete circle and so very comfy. It arrived today and it fit perfectly in her room. The body of the chair is classic linen and then we are going to recover all the pillow in some yummy fabrics.

I took the shipping material off the chair and asked Christian to dispose of it.
When I came back downstairs I heard hysterical laughter on the back porch. I looked out to see the boys with my camera taking photos of their newest adventure.

This HUGE band was wrapped around the bottom ruffle on Savannah's chair. Not surprised in the least that Christian saw this and quickly found a way to put it to good use.

A massive slingshot!

The perfect slingshot projectile? A rubber dinosaur, of course.

The guys got some serious distance with this thing!

Only one backfire! Christian laughed, Ty did NOT... but in the end, Ty didn't stay down for long. Afterall, there was a very close competition going on, a distance competition... very serious stuff these brotherly matchups.

In the end, Christian was victorious. He got both distance AND height when he cleared the chicken coop. I personally thought the dino was the actual victor because it landed on its feet! Bravo!

dayBREak

I promised forthcoming pictures of Savannah's new mare, Bre. We are having a barn built to the back of our pasture and adding farm fencing. Until that is done, our neighbors have allowed Savannah to board her horse in their pasture, so thankful!

Here's the posse that is boarded next door. On the left is the only fella in the herd, Buddy. The black and white paint is Bre. On the right is the ever beautiful Cherokee. And striking a relaxing pose... so nonchalant... is Chelly, the donkey.

Ummmm, seems Buddy is not the least bit camera shy.

Although I know absolutely nothing about horses, I must declare that I think Bre is gawgeous...

and a tad camera shy to boot.

NOTE: Savannah scared the bujeebers out of last week. Bre has not been ridden in over a year (she just had a little filly 6 months ago) and is a tad 'rusty'. Savannah has a friend working with Bre and things have been going fairly well. Savannah, fearless cowgirl, decided to give Bre a go on her own. Let's just say, Savannah had a rough ride AND landing and is nursing a very sore shoulder blade. AND, Savannah was not wearing her riding helmet! I fully own that I was extremely mad at her... maybe, just maybe... screamed and scolded for an unnecessarily long amount of time, but I don't think Savannah will dare do that again. I am not naive in thinking she will never fall off a horse... but I find it reckless to not protect herself as much as possible. So the first big fall is done, I'm sure there are many more to come... but my daughter better have her helmet on from now on...and I'm secretly hoping this incident put at least a little fear in my fearless daughter, hope, hope, hope!