Water Park Videos

Hit pause on the music player over there, and check out these gleeful little Spragueling noises. I had the camera turned the wrong way for the first two, so you'll have to either lay down to watch or turn your screen over. (That would earn me a D- in videography.) The kiddos had a blast at the water park with my sister and her family. I'm so thankful that she'd take some vacation days to help me with the little ones, and she made sure it was a time to remember. I loved watching them have so much fun in the sun!

If I had one iota of energy or time to give, I'd fill you in on how things are going here for us. But I'm worked right into the ground, so we'll have to settle for a brief synopsis after gale dies down. In survival mode, it's a wonder that there's a thought to spare for cute kid vids, so don't be too disappointed that there's not more. It's gotta get sane sometime, right? And when it does, I'll resurface again (wink).

Not Overwhelmed, just...whelmed

One big task down. Garage sale...check. And now one less thing to think about. Big stuff is out of my way, and it's on to the next thing. Getting the house ready to go on the market in one week. Organizing a work party for next Saturday to get the exterior painted. Getting the outside pressure washed, patched, scrape wood, tape, yadda yadda yadda. Pack furniture into PODS, paint kitchen cabinets and walls, paint doors, touch-up paint, minor little repairs, fix the garage door, refinish the front door, lay toe moulding, yadda yadda yadda. Wash windows, scrub floors, caulk cracks, mow lawns, yadda yadda yadda. All in a week. That's the goal anyway. There are four little Spraguelings who still need to eat, wear clean clothes, bathe, and enjoy a fairly reasonable level of supervision. So I figure now's the time to decide if I want to be overwhelmed, or just see how Xena-Warrior-Princess I can be...you know, flex my muscles and dance around with my dukes up chanting, "Float like a butterfly, sting like a bee." For tonight I'm going to soak my overworked body in a hot bath, eat the two remaining oreo cookies, read some Twilight (fantastic read, so far). Tomorrow I'll give the Spraguelings some overdue and much deserved playtime and attention, and spend a few quiet moments devising my wicked awesome plan for how to accomplish what seems impossible. Every impossible feat needs a wicked awesome plan for pulling it off, right? So stay tuned this week to see the magic materialize before your very eyes...ooh, aaah, float like a butterfly--sting like a bee! (*wink*)

4th's Happenings

As is tradition, we went up to my sister's house on the 3rd, had a sleepover, and spent the 4th of July with her and her family. We all got up early to watch Jared run a 1.5K race, and Darren run a 10K. Jared did great. He was the 8th finisher for the 1.5K. We hung around downtown for the street fair and Parade where the kids caught their weight in candy as it flew from the passing floats. We played at the riverfront park then headed to Chick-fil-A for lunch rather than try to survive the mid-day heat. After a nap it was time to swim, do Sonny's BBQ for dinner, watch Uncle Darren's fabulous fireworks spectacular, play a little Wii, pack up and head home.

Now at 1am I've got all of the littles in bed, Jared's at Shannon's house and will leave for a NASCAR race with Darren in the morning, and I'm getting ready for my first ever garage sale in the morning. I stuck the signs at the curbs on our way home tonight. I figure I'll get up a 5 to do the rest of the "set-up" before the Spraguelings wake, because once they're up, all bets are off regarding productivity. Here's hoping it isn't a waste of time. But if it is, we'll take what we learn and try again next week.

Looking at these pictures of the day, I wish I could have captured the image of the fireworks sparkling in reflection on Finley's enraptured face. She was thrilled with "twinkles". Thomas, on the other hand, fled indoors after the first fountain was let loose. He came back for the finale. Covering his ears, he watched the rocketing sparks and flashes and I watched Thomas and Finley's faces. When I was a kid, it was the big blaze I loved to see. Now that I have kids, it's the sparkle in their eyes I look for--totally missing the fireworks and drinking in their awe.

Bit of work, bit of play

The first half of the day we spent out and about with my sister, Shannon, and her family. The afternoon, and on into the night, they came to the house and we corralled and contained little kids while we worked on home improvement projects. Darren rehung the french doors to the sunroom, repaired a baseboard in Emma's room, removed-planed-and rehung the laundry room door, laid thresholds in the new kitchen floor and various other manly things. Shannon and Jared primed newly hung interior doors. I caulked cracks in the kitchen and prepared furniture to be loaded in our storage boxes for the long haul to Oregon. Through all of this the kids played with their cousins, watched library DVDs, napped and explored the ever changing landscape of our house. Things are getting done, and by the time bath and bed come, we're all ready for it!

Ordinary day

Today was our last day with Grandma here, so I ran errands, she helped get the house in order, we took her to the airport, then went to dinner and the park. Jared and Emma roller bladed/skated. We came home and skated and toddled around outside some more. I put Finley to bed, slipped a library DVD into the player and headed out to mow the lawn. That, my friends, was our very ordinary Tuesday.

But even ordinary days can't go by without my Spragueling doing extraordinary things. After we came in from skating Emma was critiquing her own progress and lack of skill. And Jared piped in and pointed out all of the things she did well as she learned to skate today. I heard him say, "This is only your second day ever to skate, and you only fell two times. That's impressive, I sure fell a lot more when I was just learning. And you're really steady, too. I think you're learning really quickly, you're pretty good already." I could have just picked him up off of his feet in a great big hug, and sung the praises of a big brother who chose to build his little sister up instead of tearing her down. With all the nit-picking, bickering, rivalry, etc. that can sometimes go on it is a beautiful moment to overhear my littles being their very best selves. My mama heart is happy, and I love this little life.