A Banner Week

Sometimes I wonder what exactly I am doing here. The last three days, I have heard my eldest son, a very innocent 9 year-old, say the F-word twice (to be fair, one of them was after I said "WHAT DID YOU JUST SAY???"), my 4 year-old inform me "Mom, I have been telling you to get your butt down here.", and my 7 year-old repeatedly tell himself to "SIT down, Noah." only he decided for the morning, all of his s's would be pronounced "sh".

I vacuumed the house exactly 6 times yesterday, and this morning, it looks like I haven't touched it for a week. Good thing I couldn't be bothered to put the vacuum away last night.

We did have a really fun water day yesterday, playing in the neighbour's irrigation water that flows through his yard once a week and over to the orchard that divides our houses, using the slip 'n slide, jumping on the trampoline with the sprinkler going underneath, water fights with some make-shift squirt guns, it was a good day. Except that we all got torched to a crisp... SPF 15 apparently works more like deep fry oil on me, and SPF 30, waterproof, doesn't have a placebo effect or any other effect on the kids. Except for the baby. Though I suspect her mid-day nap saved her.

By 10 am today, baby was in her 3rd outfit, Noah was banished to his room for the second time, Duncan had had his trains taken away, and Gabriel was hiding out in his room, smart boy that he is.

At times, I think, someone else could step in here and the kids would hardly notice as long as they were fed. I am almost certain there are times I am actually invisible. But, I'm not going anywhere, heaven help us all. I love these kids, bless their hearts. Their cursing, messy, sunburnt hearts.