We ain't got no room for boring.

I've got a lot of catching up to do around these parts. I hate these times when I don't do a very good job of keeping up regular posts because it means that I forget to write about the little things, the things that are most important to capture in the moment because they'll otherwise be soon forgotten. So before I do a monster post about our trip to Austin in January, the Stock Show and Rodeo in February, and visits from grandparents, I wanted to post about what "normal" is for us these days. [Hint: it doesn't involve me on the computer - except when I have to take care of bills and emails and other dreadful but necessary tasks! And I'll spare you more details on that...]

But, to borrow from that recent Muppets car commercial (which, like all the other car commercials, played about a kazillion times during the Olympics and is therefore sealed into my memory - the commercial, not the name of the car, obviously), we ain't got no room for boring in our lives right now! We keep the highway between our house and "town" hot with lots of traveling to and from preschool, museum school, church,  the various restaurants that have provided us sustenance over the last few months, and of course, "the store" (does everyone do this where they call all the Walmarts and Targets and Sam'ses and Dollar Trees "the store" or is that a weird holdover from my youth?). I'm beginning to notice how much lengthier that drive is than it used to be - when we lived "in town" - but the kids don't ever seem to mind, especially when we have an audiobook checked out from the library. Over the past few weeks, we've listened to one of the Magic Treehouse books no less that five times! I'm sick of it, of course, but the kids love it. [Note to self: time to hit the library again - quick!]

When we're at home in between events (or because of these freaky ice storms that will. not. relent...), life is no less exciting. Well, in a very generic, fun-at-home kind of way. We have spent very little time outdoors, thanks to the weather [grumble, grumble], but we did have a few days of sunshine and warmth during which I banned the kids from going inside until the sun went down. (They were confused and bothered by this at first, and then we had to chase them out of the treehouse about half an hour after dark.)

When the weather hasn't been quite so nice (i.e., the other 57 days of January and February), we have run the gamut of indoor entertainment. Of course, the Olympics provided two weeks' worth of evening activities - during which P reclined in his recliner and I couched on the couch, both of us becoming indecently absorbed in the lives of athletes we'd never before heard of, while the children performed feats of gymnastic genius (or not) by jumping off the ottoman or the bean bags, dancing across the living room floor, and wrestling each other without adult intervention - except when they blocked the TV, of course. (Priorities, people.) 

But even without the Olympics, we have discovered plenty of things to keep us busy. During the daylight hours, the kids have played so much with their toys up in their rooms that we have entered into a whole new phase of the "messy room" situation. Before, they never really got out more than one thing, so clean up was pretty quick. Oh, how I long for those days.... Now we go up to Luke's room after he's been in there for "rest time," and the floor is a sea of Hot Wheels, costumes, and tiny plastic people. I finally managed to weed and store their books in a way that has prevented them from being part of the chaos (bins! who knew?), but oh, the chaos that remains. Thankfully, Sarah has not amassed enough stuff yet to be a major problem, but you would not believe the number of times I've stuffed animals back into the stuffed animal basket.... But I digress. Because really, who can complain when the children entertain themselves and each other for hours on their own? It's glorious, really. And totally worth the Major Clean Up sessions we must enforce on a more frequent basis these days.

Incidentally, I wish I personally had more to show for those marathon play sessions, but I don't. I did read through a few fabulous YA novels, but other than that, I have nothing to report. Just lots of laundry, a little cooking, and perhaps a little bit of phone solitaire played while having my own "rest time" on the couch....

(You'll notice that I took both of these pictures from my favorite location on the couch.)

Fortunately for me, my children never allow me enough time to get lonely downstairs on my own... And during those moments when they've grown tired of playing upstairs (or gotten too wild for me to leave them unattended), we have worked on a handful of crafty-type stuff (Luke: "I want to make something." Me: "Here's a piece of paper and some crayons!"), gone on neighborhood walks with Luke on his Razr and Sarah in the stroller, and worked together in the kitchen. Occasionally, I confess that I've sent them outside on their own with jackets and mittens and a bit of a "don't come back in for twenty minutes!" But before you accuse me of cruelty, please understand that putting on hats and mittens is, like, the highlight of Sarah's day. And also, they quickly figured out how to sneak blankets and pillows into the treehouse, so let's not pity them too much, shall we?

We have also played a lot of games over the past few months, including classics like Uno and Bingo as well as torturous terrific board games like Candyland and Chutes & Ladders. Gram gave Luke a great Richard Scarry airport game for Christmas, and it is probably my favorite to play with them - except that it has these teeny tiny cards that I'm certain we'll lose and so I obsess over them from the time we open the lid until the time we put the game away. Lord help me when we start playing with 1000 piece puzzles....

The past few months have been nothing but joy and happiness in this household. Well, not really. We've worked through a few issues, such as a certain girl who refuses to stay in her bed at night, a certain boy who's old enough to buckle himself in but refuses to do so, and two kids who love each other until they can't stand each other. We've worked through potty-training (almost there, I think!) and mealtime manners (not quite as successful), and new challenges and adventures turn up daily! However, the Lord is faithful to this weary momma, and He's given both P and myself the wisdom and strength to do what we need to do each day. It ain't boring - but it ain't bad, either.