Positively Undecided

So the weirdest thing today...I was all chipper and stuff.  Like in a legitimately good smiley mood.  It's like I didn't even recognize myself.  But I was gonna ride that wave as long as I could...before it petered out and my real self came through...So when I had a meeting to go to this morning, I jogged to the house instead of driving.  And when I came home, I did a really great job of blocking out the complete disaster my house was while Kent played Tiger Woods Golf on my iPad.  All of Addy's whining didn't even bring me down.  And when I went to the grocery store, I rolled my windows down and blasted Gives You Hell while I sang along at the top of my lungs, car dancing all the way.  Soon after, the kids came home from school, and still I retained my high spirits.  Seriously, it was like a twilight zone.  I even took all of the kids down to the park.  I know right?

But, alas all good things must come to an end.  Dinner time.  Not just any dinner time.  Dinner time with the pickiest kids on the planet.  Typically my rule is, if they try a bite and hate it, you can have something else for dinner, but you have to make it all by yourself.  I feel like this is a good compromise, I don't want to be a short order cook, but I have anxiety about my kids being sent to bed hungry.  I was a picky kid, therefore I have a big spot in my heart for those who gag on bow tie pasta like Aubrey did tonight the second it touched her tongue.  Anyway, there was something about it tonight that just made me crazy.  So in the end, I let Aubrey  make a peanutbutter sandwich, and made Colton read the instrusctions on the chicken noodle soup can by himself.  I wouldn't even get the bowl down from the top shelf in the cupboard.  But they sailed through this so effortlessly...it just drove me nuts...so for the first time ever, they had to clean the whole kitchen after dinner.  Unloading the dishwasher included.  Kent stayed downstairs and managed while I took Addy up for a bath.  It took them awhile, but they did it without too much complaining.  When I came back down stairs, I said "wow, this is nice!  We should have done this a long time ago!"  And Aubrey said, in her most sarcastic voice she could muster "yeah, we just had to clean the kitchen!"  her head bobbed a bit, and she had her little arms out to the side, palms faced up...it was classic...

You know what, I take this back.  I had a momentary dip in my mood this afternoon trying to do Aubrey's homework with her.  I don't know if it's a left handed thing, or a dyslexia thing or something, but, oh. my. gosh.  I want to rip my hair out helping her.  It took over 10 minutes to name ten things that start with the sound an s makes.  For example, after she asked for a hint again, I told her to think of something that's at the beach.  I said it's soft.  I said you play in it.  She said 'water?' Colton said it's almost the whole thing of the beach.  He said it's not the water.  He said you walk on it.  She said 'I don't know, can you give me a hint?'  then 'water?  ocean?'  I don't remember what Colton did to finally get her to guess it, but I have never been so thankful for his help.  I said, you have 2 cousins who's name's start with essssssss, she guessed Graycie.  She found an s on a book cover, but it was at the end of the word, not the beginning.  My tongue actually started hurting I made the stupid s sound so much.


Tonight when we were saying family prayers, I was listening to Aubrey, being so smitten with the way she includes other people, and then when she said 'Amen' it sounded a bit muffled...apparently Addy couldn't help herself, she just shoved her little hand right over Aubrey's mouth right at the close of the prayer...

Picture...

A few more examples of Colton's photog-ness...so very un-frame wall worthy...

p.s.  I'm glad the last few days topics brought laughter into your lives.  Getting all your comments brought laughter into mine.  Dennis, I'm not sure it's a good thing or a bad thing that you don't think differently of me.  It might mean you don't judge, or it might just mean you didn't think much of me before...Josh, I am working on the flip flop situation...Alicia, I appreciate your honesty, another reason we are kindred spirits...Kimmie, I hope you enjoyed the half hour you wasted this morning, and didn't curse my name on the way to work....I love you all...Peace Out...Kent, I wish you would have seen the humor in my posts, cause I find humor in your face...booya....