We’re all tired.  It’s been a long six-and-a-half weeks.  Falling asleep in the chair is no surprise.  The real question is: why is he holding earmuffs?

This is why I like us all being home.

I’m making lunch and packing up to go visit Jacob this afternoon.

Lucy is practicing violin, working between piano, YouTube videos, and her metronome to get it “just right.”

I walked by the art room, and Samantha (who could not, would not read this time last year) is reading one of my childhood favorite books, Happy Birthday Moon, to Isaac (in Batman outfit) and Clare (caring for a baby bear).

These are the good times.  Lord, help me remember that!

This really should have posted yesterday, but I, by which I mean Craig, had to figure out how to post pictures since it’s been so long.  Better late than never, right?

The view from our kitchen window.

That is a leaf inside an icicle, if you were wondering.

And the bush outside the bathroom window.

I don’t think I’ve seen snowflakes as fat as we had on Tuesday since we lived in South Bend.  The kids have had a ball (Samantha even got to make a miniature snowman – sorry, no pics of that!) but it has been a little surreal.

And of course all the fun wasn’t outside:

After supper, Isaac stood on his high chair, wiped his nose with his fist, wiped that on his shorts, and climbed down.
To which Lucy commented, “He’s such a man!”
We’ve taught her well.

The Scene:
Isaac is playing with a (purple) bow. Of the bow-and-arrow, not hair decoration, variety. The arrows (mercifully) are missing.
Samantha: “No, Isaac! You can’t shoot people.” Pause. “UNLESS they’re sleep darts. I’m OK with sleep darts.”
Anyone know where I could get some of those?

While playing with Legos:

Me: Wow, my hands feel so big and clumsy.

Isaac: Yeah.

I was looking for sympathy, son, not agreement.

Lucy and her friend were practicing multiplication tables this morning (not my idea – I love having extra kids around sometimes!) and they decided it would be fun to make it into a Go Fish! game.  So they did.  And spent half an hour or so playing 6 Times Table Go Fish.

Just caught Clare explaining to another friend about how difficult it was for Michelangelo to carve David (“and if he made a tiny mistake, just this big, the whole thing would be ruined!”) and retelling the story of The Library Mouse.  Narration?  Done.

And as I type, Isaac is trying to put an apple slice in my pocket.  Earlier he was working on building train tracks.

In other news, I should be putting my first children’s book manuscript in the mail in the next couple of days.  Pray hard!  Asking St. Therese of Lisieux for special help, since it is about her, after all.  (And if you want a preview, let me know and I’ll send the text along.)