Friday, the 13th

Friday, January 13, I woke up and like most days I read my Bible after feeding the baby. The boys were awake and running downstairs for breakfast when I finally knelt down to pray. Thinking it may be quick, I sensed that God had more in store. I felt like He was reminding me how much He loves these boys. They are my current ministry. It wasn't a long prayer time, but it had a lasting effect on my day and my attitude.

There are many days I can get caught up in doing laundry or cleaning up messes that I forget to allow the kids to make a mess and have fun! That day, I decided to just focus on them and let the little things of life go. We ate breakfast together, simple cereal so I didn't have cooking or clean-up time. Then, I taught them a new song: "I'm a Little Teapot." They LOVED it! They sang it over and over again, and I even got them on video (seriously cute!). We sang the Itsy Bitsy Spider, the Tiny Turtle Song and Five Little Monkeys, too.

We played a ton of games in our office. We started with Rory's Story Time Cubes where we each start out with "Once Upon a Time" and then make up a story based on the pictures of the dice we rolled. Caleb's are funny with "and then" and not a lot of it links. "Once upon a time I flew on an airplane to see Papaw, and then I saw a fish, and then I saw a rainbow, and then I got some wishes..." It's adorable to listen to. Joshua is getting better and better at making up the stories and trying to have them make sense. "Once upon a time, we flew to Florida and while I was there, I mailed this card home and I used this telephone to call home and say hello," and so on. There are nine dice. It's a cute game!

After the dice game we played Toy Story Yahtzee and Memory. We play Memory over and over again, and the boys like to both win. We count the matches to see who "won." The first time we played, we each got five matches. I didn't even have to make it up - it was all tied! PERFECT! No fighting, just fun!

As our day went on, I of course fed baby Ryan and he sat next to us as we played. He sits up well now and grabs at everything. He's fairly content as we play, so I just keep an eye on him so he doesn't fall over. The boys love to make him giggle, too. I feel bad that I often don't get a picture of him in the action, but he's either asleep so I can finally dig out the camera or I'm holding him while taking the pictures. But, he's here and very much a part of the family and the action!

For lunch, I warmed up some of the chicken noodle casserole we had had from the night before, again easy and not time consuming. I realize that kids don't care how much time and effort we put into food - they just want to get back to playing.

While Ryan napped that afternoon, we got out the play-doh. I dug out their place mats they had created at preschool and all our play-doh and accessories. The kids love the car molds Aunt Missy bought one of them for their birthday (Caleb, I think?). They also love the thing I called a "spaghetti" maker to make long stringy things. You can tell what we're into - I call it spaghetti and Joshua calls them "skinny snakes." Haaa!!! We rolled up, padded out and molded all sorts of things with our play-doh before cleaning it all up.

Then, we read books until I told them it was time for quiet time. A new favorite is "You Can Do It, Sam." In it, the bear Sam and his mama make cakes for all their neighbors. Then he gets to deliver the cakes at their doorsteps with a note on the bag that says "A Tasty Surprise." Joshua said "I wish we had a tasty surprise," which got me thinking for later that evening.

I also created a 'new' game where they hold onto their doodle-pros, and I ask them to write certain things. For example, how many fingers am I holding up? Then they have to write the number. Or, what letter does baby start with? I told Caleb he could write capitals but I made Joshua write the lowercase as well since it's good practice for them. When they tired of the game, they had their quiet time. I think both boys fell asleep.

After dinner that night, I told Daddy about our book and asked if he minded if I baked with the older boys. He said "Not at all - sounds delicious!" even though we're counting calories. I had some pumpkin spice mix in the pantry, so we baked some muffins together. They love to help in the kitchen! They each lined one muffin pan with cupcake liners.

They both got to help dump in and mix the ingredients.

And after they were done baking and the boys were in their PJs, they both got to sample our "tasty surprise." It had been a very fun day, and this is a random sampling of activities we do together. I love my kids, and I'm glad God loves them, too! I am blessed to be their Mama!