The Truth

One simple truth of motherhood is that it is never boring. Even when they are cute and asleep in your arms. Yesterday, Katie and I made brownies together for family night while the boys were at school. It was a lot fun and she was really excited about them. I told her it would be our secret to bring out after the lesson but the first thing that popped out of her mouth as her brothers came home was "we made brownies for family night but don't tell anybody because it is a secret" (guess who is not going present shopping with mommy anymore). Anyway, I go on a tangent because it was cute. The real story happened this morning. I went upstairs and saw a chair pushed up to the counter with the brownies on them and that the brownies had the plastic wrap half off and some were poked marked and some were missing. Now it is time to figure out which child did it because it would be a shame to punish them all if not all of them were involved in the crime. Jacob did you do it, no. Samuel did you do it? no. Katie? no. Sometimes I am not sure if I wanted them to have the power of speech. So I told them that no one got brownies until I knew the truth. Jacob then decided to confess. "Mommy, I took the brownies. I am sorry." Good so far until, "Did I just eat the crumbs or did I eat the brownies?" So I counter with "if you really did got into the brownies, you should know the answer to that question". Which he replies with "but I need to know so I can tell you the real truth". These are the days where I shake my head and wonder where I went wrong. They are still grounded by the way. I have yet to get a straight story.

Books

I've been reading a ton lately. I just can't get my hands on enough books. It's been a great stress reliever. Since I had to get my college degree in english literature I can't even read the stupid ones without thinking, but that's okay. I think that is what I like about reading- trying to find the meaning of it all. When I was in school I loved to read the books that were above the reading level for my age- give me Shakespeare, Dickens, Rand, Bronte, etc and I was happy. Now that I am an adult I love the novels I should have been reading then (not that I don't read a Dickens or Shakespeare novel every now and again for the fun of it). The top of the list now, which include some I got to read to my children:

Fablehaven series
Percy Jackson and the Olympians series
Twilight series
My Fair Godmother
Harry Potter series
Anne of Green Gables
Fairest and Ella Enchanted
Prince Academy by Shannon Hale
Pride and Prejudice and Persuasion by Jane Austen of coarse
King Henry the fifth and Much Ado About Nothing by Shakespeare
The Innocents Abroad and Tom Sawyer by Mark Twain
David Copperfield, A Tale of Two Cities, and Oliver by Dickens

and the list goes on, but I'll stop there. I just love going on all the adventures tucked safely in my own little nook. I enjoy reading to my children as well. Jacob has reading as a part of his daily homework so I let him read a small book for practice and then I read him novels for the rest of the time. The children actually sit still and enjoy the books. I am amazed by their reading retention and love watching them play a game called Gollum that they made up from a character in the Fablehaven series named Hugo. Such fun! What would we do without books? Maybe watch tv, I don't know.

Happy Valentine's Day!

Pirate Birthday

Jon's birthday is this week so while his brother and sister were down this last weekend we went out to Pirate Island Pizza to celebrate. We had Captain Jack as our waiter. They had live singers there and we were sitting right in the front. We ordered a 24" pizza called the Kracken and ate most of it. It was a blast! Happy birthday my love!

My Little Valentines

I asked my kids to kiss each other for the camera and was delighted to find them in a playful mood as they smiled and giggled and flirted for the camera. Here is one of my favorites.

Spring Cleaning/ Sweet Sixteen

Right now I am in the middle of my spring cleaning run. So far I've managed to clean out the master bathroom, the laundry closet, and half the family room. I've been trying out some cleaners from Don Aslett's and I like how the clean! Go Microfiber! It's been going pretty fast, so I hope to be done by the end of the month. Today I found the insect graveyard behind the bookshelf so its a good thing to empty things out and move them once a year or so even if it is a pain.

My little sister turned sweet sixteen this last weekend and hopefully I can get some pics up of that soon. My dad had a special candle/mini firework that he brought from Ukraine and the restaurant was kind enough to let us light it at the table. It was pretty cool.