Cyndi Lauper sighting

We actually get a lot of Cyndi Lauper sightings around here...

Grace, 4 years old

It's like Grace takes "Fancy Nancy" to a whole other level. She may not have fuchsia hair mousse or feather boas to accessorize with, but she will come up with her own "look"...

...several times a day.

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

You Capture: Happy

When I discovered that this week's You Capture theme is happy--and took the boys to their music lessons that same day--I figured out pretty quickly what at least some of my photographs would involve.

A dog.

More specifically, a girl and a dog.


That's not the best photo, but you can see how happy Grace is with the music store owner's dog Katie who came to visit that day. After that, I didn't see much of Grace's face because she was reading a Fancy Nancy book to Katie


and watching Katie resting on the floor

and generally gazing adoringly at Katie.


Grace was also happy with her new wall decorations that I put around her bed. She shares a very blue room with Josiah, who once suggested that we paint two walls pink so Grace would like the room more. When he saw this new addition, he said to Grace, "Well, hello, Fancy Nancy!"


Yes, he is a really good big brother! And that makes me very happy. :)

You know what else makes me happy? Yummy pizza...

This makes several of us in this house happy

and beautiful sunsets with fake-looking clouds

right in my own back yard.


But while happiness from dogs, pink wall decorations, pizza, and even beautifully colored skies can fade, there is something that will never fade...

I'm happy from the inside out, and from the outside in, I'm firmly formed. You canceled my ticket to hell— that's not my destination!
Psalm 16:9 (The Message)

Count yourself lucky, how happy you must be—
you get a fresh start, your slate's wiped clean.
Psalm 32:1 (The Message)

Check out other You Capture entries at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Wordless Wednesday: Peaceful

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

Overheard: Fun with personification

In the car on the way to church Wednesday night...

Me: Look, Grace! Doesn't the moon look huge tonight?

Grace [with just the slightest hint of a pause]: The moon had a birthday, so it's another year older. That's why it's so big.

Well, now you know.

The moon looked so much more beautiful than the one decent (...sort of) shot I got of it.

~~~~~

In the car on the way to the library, while we were stopped at a red light...

Grace [laughing]: Oh! They look like puppies playing in the road! Whooooooa! Now I wanna go over here! Whooooooa! This is fun! Oh, look! They're playing together!

Josiah [looking up from the book he was reading]: What puppies?

Grace: I'm talking about the leaves in the road! They move when the wind blows!

~~~~~

And, once again, I am kicking myself for not writing down conversations as they happen. I know there was (at least) one other example of personification in something either Josiah or Grace said, but I can't remember it. Boo.

You Capture: Circles

This week's You Capture photography challenge is circles, and we found circles on the tot-sized mushroom seats at the new library:


There were trendy circular lights at the new trendy library:


Tuesday night I used the last of the frozen blueberries we picked in the summer



to make blueberry pancakes. The batter was a funny shade,


and I rarely make circular pancakes, but they were delicious!


And, last but not least, the last of my Christmas-y decorations:


Check out other You Capture entries at I Should Be Folding Laundry.

Typical

It seemed like a typical day. It really did.

And then it just got more typical.

Grace called me into the living room to see what she had made. Can you guess what she had in mind?

Updated to include this hint: This is not supposed to be a typical bedroom. And she had no intention of actually sleeping here. She was, however, creating a very specific scene.













Grace (4) did all of this entirely on her own, with no help and no direction from anyone.

(Not so) Wordless Wednesday: Emily

Grace started carrying around Emily by the time she was 16 months old, when she would find tot-sized places to sit with her baby...like on the Coke cases in the laundry room.

July 2007

July 2007

...Or on a new box of trash bags that hasn't been put away yet.

July 2007--Now Emily has a baby blanket.

Next comes table food (in this case, animal crackers).

August 2007

And then Emily became twins..."Emily and other Emily." We found the other Emily at Goodwill and, naturally, bought her.

June 2008

According to Grace, she can still tell which one is the "real" Emily, and this Emily remains her favorite...

September 2008

April 2009

even now that there are triplets.

January 2011
Grace with (left to right) Emily, Kenlee (she says this is a boy), and other Emily
(Kenlee is usually named Emily but it depends on the clothing)

Visit 5 Minutes for Mom, Shibley Smiles, and Baba's Farm Life for more Wordless Wednesday fun.

It's like an iPod from the 80s...if there had been such a thing

Robert recently "won" an iPod on eBay after saving up his money for a really long time. If you walked into his room, this is what you typically would find in his hands:


He keeps it connected to the iSymphony he got as a Christmas present a few years ago. The speaker apparently doesn't work on the iPod, and this way he can use it without using ear buds all the time. It also keeps it charged, which is good since the USB cable he bought on eBay is still on its way to our home.

My favorite feature? The harmony it's bringing to our home.

Josiah (8) and Robert (13)

You see, we have an agreement: Robert must refrain from pestering his brother and sister for 8 months, and he must also refrain from fussing about school work until we finish in June. If he pesters or fusses, he loses his iPod for 24 hours.

How's it working? So far, sooooooo good...

New free books!

Despite numerous failed attempts to visit our new library that had the misfortune of opening this week (with all the ice and, therefore, having only two days of operation this week),


we were finally able to visit our new branch on Saturday afternoon!

Grace was excited to find new Fancy Nancy books that our other (now dubbed "old") library doesn't have on their shelves


and Josiah was interested in figuring out where his favorite authors live in these aisles.




Yeah...like he needs that book!!


Grace found a favorite spot to sit on cute, tot-sized mushroom seats


under this "tree."


And Josiah pointed out the unique chairs in the adult section of the library


that are made with seat belts. Really.

The new library was definitely worth the wait! Of course, our "old" library will still remain a favorite place, especially with all our friends over there--the librarians in particular and also these guys:


We love the library, and routinely go once a week. Free books, videos, and magazines make it an awesome deal! Do you visit your local library?

Still with the snow and ice

Let's see...it started snowing on Sunday, so that makes this Day Seven with snow (ice) on the ground.


Which is at least five days too long for most of us in Georgia.


...Especially since there are still some icy stretches of road in the more rural parts of our area.


Even with the ice, it was wonderful to spend part of my time outside with no coat on, with the high reaching the upper 40s!

What's the weather like in your area?

All photos were taken on Day Seven, so I'm not joking about there still being snow and ice on the ground.