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Someone asked what I was doing in the last post… I was right there with them making fruit salad when I smelled a stinky and looked down to John Martin only be taken back by the disaster surrounding us that took the children less than 5 minutes to create.

Usually on days like the one I showed previously {which has been very similar to most of our days this week} I start self-talk that sounds like this, “How in the world am I ever going to have my house picked up? I need 3 or 4 clones. I can’t keep anything clean. I clean one room only to turn around to find another disaster. I just finished cleaning up from lunch and now I have to think about dinner… what are we going to have dinner? I have frozen chicken breasts… I guess I’ll thaw them out…” then I reach in the freezer to find…

a smiling hedgehog,

that gently reminds me of the joy of the Lord; that I get to take care of these children {and their messes}, that I get to have them home with me, that I get to do their laundry, that I get to prepare their lunches, and that I get to make dinner. That all of the little things that I find to be slightly frustrating have been entrusted to me. And I am thankful…

Or was, until I couldn’t find anything to serve with the frozen chicken breasts… it’s a vicious cycle you know!

The little ones have also made a discovery. A discovery I really was hoping to introduce them to the summer before they leave for college. But Morgan came in and said, “Mom do you know there’s a website called PBSKids. ort ?” I tried to tell her there was no such thing… that it was all pretend… she didn’t buy it! 🙂 So, here’s our newest challenge.

Sharing time on the computer with 2 kids who don’t like to share time on the computer with each other. Conveniently, if they need a potty break they don’t have to go far.

A lot of you asked about the board behind me in the picture with the apron. It is a bulletin board that I covered with outdoor fabric and added nailhead trim. I found mine through a local freight company but the brand is Best Rite and they have fabulous products! You should go see. If you’ve been around long, you know I have a fascination with all things “teacher supply store-ish”… I can add their site to my list. One hangs by our back door {which is open for light}. It is 4 feet tall by 8 feet long.

And I have another one in the playroom that is 4 feet tall by 10 feet long… it’s the biggest one I’ve ever seen and I LOVE it! It has cork around the outside and dry erase in the middle.

Nehemiah 8:10 “for the joy of the LORD is my strength”

be. right. back.

First, social networking, Twitter to be more specific. On Sunday I thought I’d see what the hype is all about, I’m not sure why, most days I hardly have time to breathe, much less “tweet”. Anyway, I created an account. I honestly don’t really know how it works… basically Facebook status updates, right? Well, it prompted me to see if any of my friends were on Twitter. So, I thought “ok”. So I entered my email address and it started cranking out people who were on Twitter from my email account. Man, there were a lot of people. A lot. I made my little Twitter page look pretty then the kids woke up, I made breakfast, we went to church, went to lunch, came home, put kids down for naps and I checked my email. This is when I fell out of my chair and decided that Twitter was not a friend of mine. I have come to understand that Twitter pretty much emailed every person I’ve ever emailed and every person who has ever emailed me in my life and told them I want to follow them on Twitter. I can laugh now, but then I wanted to cry. Doesn’t Twitter know I’m months behind on responding to emails? Several of my “contacts” use Twitter, most probably don’t, those that do politely accepted my request to “follow them”. But then there are those who don’t tweet, and they emailed to politely thanking me for wanting to follow them but they don’t use Twitter.

Dear Twitter, Our relationship was very short lived. During our time together I learned that Vince Edge went on a 9 mile run with Charles Buntin on Sunday morning. That people are tired, hungry, going to Walmart, at the beach, going to take naps, eating tacos, going to the pool, watching the rain, and watching tv shows. It’s probably just me, but I also can’t figure out how you work. I see links and I can’t figure out where they go to. Twitter you are over my head. For those of you who politely accepted to follow me, you can do so here.

Next topic, the apron. Before I talk about it. Have you ever taken a picture of yourself? I don’t know about you but it makes me feel extremely uncomfortable. I opened the back door, looked both ways to make sure no one was coming. I kept thinking, what if someone comes to my door and here I am in an apron posing in front of a camera mounted on a tripod. How would I explain this? John Martin was trying to climb the tripod and all I wanted to do was get a halfway decent picture of the apron. Of course, before I took these pictures I was still in my pajamas and the apron looked ridiculous over my jammie pants, so I had to go throw on some cute jeans and red flip flops so that you all would think that I actually have my act together and get dressed during the day. If I was still on good terms with Twitter I would have had to tweet: Woke up, got dressed, set up tripod, and photographed myself all while the children fended for themselves and forged for nuts and berries.

The apron. I made one back in January and told you I’d show you how I did it. Little did you know it would be 7 months later. I’m working on the tutorial… I’ll be back with it soon.