Still recovering...

I've just returned from a week long vacation in New England. I flew up there with my 8 yr. old and 5 yr.old sons. During the week, we had a big ol' family reuinon, had a big ol' day-after-the-reunion breakfast,celebrated mom's birthday, went on a whale watch, went to the beach, ate at Friendly's Ice Cream and drank A LOT of coffee and marveled at how LOUD our family is. We all had a blast, but we are still recovering from traveling, no nap time all week, Ben's poison something rashy stuff all over his face, a mild upper respiratory infection and a BAD case of D.D.D..... that's "Dani Deficit Disorder" . Dani is my neice, and my oldest son is having severe withdrawal.

In any case, we are still recovering from all that and preparing for Gustov. Plus, my husband has a not-so-mild upper respiratory infection, and I need to prepare for school next week and the beginning of Sunday School. Which I hope isn't tomorrow. So, I'll need a few days to regroup....see you soon!

Boudreaus

Homecoming unites the past and the present. ~Author Unknown



Standing, Left to right: Uncles and Aunts: Jerry, Mom, Jackie, Norman, Arthur, Bob and Donald.
Bottom, Left to right: Cousins: Dawn, Me, Robin(sister), JoAnne, Sasha, Annette, Jeff and Laurie.

Brrrrrrrrrrrr!

It's a little chilly up here at night....I LOVE it!

But I miss my husband and little people.

WHAT is going on?

I haven't posted since Thursday! What have I been doing? Good night,nurse! Where does the time go?
hmmmmmmmmmmmmmm...I'm scaring myself.

Anyway, I'm taking a trip, folks! Up north to New England. I'll be leaving here not so bright and too dang early Wednesday morning, so I don't know if I'll be blogging before I go. Not really a big deal since I'm related to just about everyone who reads this. So, one half of y'all won't have to read my blog cause I'll be up there with y'all. The other half won't be able to read it because you'll be here in Mississippi taking care of my kids!

So, that pretty much leaves Elysa. I'll email you, Elysa!

Catching Up

Ok, so I've been gone for a few days, but not really gone. We've had an action packed week here at Roberts Ranch Academy. We started homeschool again on Thursday of last week, had a birthday celebration for my husband on the 13th, and...um...well, I guess that's all but it has seemed REALLY busy around here! Well, we did spend a morning watching the Olympics at a friend's house....that's something, right? OH! That's what we've been doing ...OLYMPICS! Gotta go!...

Ok, nevermind. They're still swimming....sheesh! I'm so ready to get out of the water cube.

Anyway! So yes, we've been watching the Olympics in the morning, doing school and chores in the afternoon and then watching more Olympics at night. Last night I finally got my fix of gymnastics, but it wasn't nearly enough, folks. I'm all about Ladies Gynnastics.


Let's see...what else...OH!I did some canning today as well. Spiced pears, using pears from my sweet sister-in-law Tammy. And I made bread. White bread, that is. None of that healthy,whole grain stuff for us! Ok, actually we really prefer the whole grain stuff, but I was making the bread to eat with Spaghetti for dinner. So, you know, gotta be white bread. Oh, yea I also made the sauce myself and do you think anyone ate the sauce? NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO! Just me. And Abby, but she doesn't get to choose. Plus, she only ate like 4 bites. Wyatt, my sweet and wonderful husband always eats the sauce, but he was still full from lunch. So, yea. A big crock pot full of homemade sauce (with dried basil from my other sister-in-law Marla's garden, thank you very much!) and my kids chose to put margarine and grated cheese on their pasta. Not even real butter, or fresh grated parmesan, mind you. Uh-uh, not my kids. The fake stuff...the big ol' tub of %40 spreadable vegetable oil and the shaker of dried parmesan stuff. why?

And why am I so tired if we haven't been doing all that much? I really thought I'd have alot to catch y'all up on, but...well, it's just not happening. I don't get it, I was certain I was tired for a reason.

Well, in any case, I guess I'll just tell you what's going on here. Right now the boys are cleaning their room, and fighting. It's really more fighting than anything. For example, we just heard my oldest son (8 yrs.) say to his 5 yr. old brother, "I'm SO telling!" and then he came stomping down the hall. Before he could make his case before the judge, the defendant (5 yr. old) came running out with a flashlight saying, "I meant to hit myself!" hmm. At this point, the prosecuter yelled, "You AIMED at me!" The judge punished the defendant, who went back into the room crying. After that, the informer (3yr.) told us that the defendant was still crying. Then he hurt himself and is now repeating, "Owwie, owwie, owwie..." and the defendant still cries, while the prosecuter, who has been dubbed Leader of the Brothers Cleaning Crew, is left to rally the troops, get everyone back on track and get the room cleaned, for the 4th night in a row, so they can go to bed. As I type this my daughter just poked her head up from the couch and said, "Mommy! We won!First and Second place." News to me, since I sent her to bed about 30 minutes ago. So it's 9:30, bedtime was an hour and a half ago, and the baby is the only child in bed. So, now I remember why I'm tired.

Ooooh! Women's all around final in gynastics is tonight! This is bittersweet, because although I'm excited to see it, I apparently missed everything BEFORE the finals.

Reckon how that happend????

One of these things just doesn't belong...

I am happy to announce that #2 in the list (of uncool things that may have occured in my day) did NOT happen. And for THAT I am GRATEFUL! All of the other things were unpleasant, but #2 would've scarred me. Just so you know, here are the players in the incidents mentioned. Sam tried to slide down the windshield of the van. Wyatt Henry shattered the van window while mowing the law. Lizzie and Ben (who can't swim) were in the lake and then blamed me for it. (That's a story for another day) I will at least give Ben credit for donning a life vest before getting in the lake. Even if it was much too big. The washing machine is indeed malfunctioning so I do have to stand outside and hold the hose while it drains.

But look now, at least I'm not carrying all the laundry down to the lake and banging rocks on it. Let's keep it in perspective, right? Also, Ben and Lizzie didn't drown or get bitten by a water moccasin, Sam didn't crash through the windshield and the van window is now fixed. Wyatt H was very sad about the whole window thing and helped me clean all the glass out of the van. He even suggested that we might as well clean the van out while we were cleaning the glass out, so there you go! Our friends are very understanding and offered us a rain check on cooking out and swimming. AND, since nobody picked #2, I think I'll let everyone buy me coffee, So I'm good!

One of These Things is NOT like the others...

Can you guess which one of these events did NOT happen today?

1.) Our washing machine isn't draining properly, so I had to stand outside holding the drainage hose before and after the rinse cycle and during the spin cycle for each load of laundry I washed today.

2.) One of my children flooded the bathroom floor by flushing too much toilet paper...couldn't get himself clean because he had diarrhea. Another child came in while I was cleaning the mess and vomitted immediately at the mere sight of it, thus doubling the blessing.

3.) One of the kids climbed on to the van roof and tried to slide down the windshield. Again.

4.)Another one of our children broke a window in our van while mowing the lawn.

5.) Two other children were sent on an errand across the lake. While over there, they decided to go swimming. Fully dressed. Without an adult. And then they blamed me.

6.)Due to a busted up van, and not being able to find a replacement vehicle that could carry us all, we had to cancel our plans for tonight, which included cooking out and swimming at a friends house.

Winner gets to buy me coffee. Or Prozac. Either will work.

I LOVE this song.

I heard the end of this song on the radio and I just CANNOT stop singing it. It's Give Me You Eyes by Brandon Heath...check it out.

For Betsy & Lizzie

One of our children's babysitters likes fairies. This poem made me think of her as well as my daughter Liz.


I'd Love to be a Fairy's Child
by Robert Graves

Children born of fairy stock
Never need for shirt or frock
Never want for food or fire
Always get there heart's desire:
Jingle pockets full of gold
Marry when they're 7 years old.
Every child fairy may keep
Two strong ponies and ten sheep;
All have houses, each his own
Built of brick or granite stone
They live on cherries,they run wild-
I'd love to be a Fairy's child.