Heaven on earth?.....Let's hope not

“The only reason why we ask other people how their weekend was is so we can tell them about our own weekend."

(Chuck Palahniuk - freelance journalist)


Thanks for giving me a long weekend off from blogging. I am forever in your debt (as long as it costs me nothing) and enjoyed being able to teach the homeschool workshop and host the upper school parent/student/sibling party, with nary a thought of my blog...or competing ...or grits...or the corners of my home.

Whoa...That last part is a brazen-faced lie. I totally scoured the corners of my home, even though when 60 people descended on it, you couldn't see many corners. Then we cleaned again after they left. My children still don't understand that system of events. Clean - Mess it Up - Clean again. All in about an 8 hour span.

It's called Hospitality, kids. And every last one of them agreed it was worth the energy expended...and they are already begging to have the Lower School Party here. I told them I'd pray about it and see if Jesus feels like One Family should take all the fun of hosting Both Parties.

So, the party was Friday night - and it ended late (a sign of a good party), and we let everyone sleep in until 9am - which irritates my husband to no end- and seems to cause him real physical pain, but he knows our Love Language is Sleeping In, and we would've liked a tad more love (like till 10ish), but we appreciated the gesture, as well as the pancakes and waffles waiting for us when we "finally dragged our lazy butts out of bed"..and I quote.

But I think the kids were a tad surprised when after all the pre-party chores on Friday, Dad had a to-do list for Saturday as well. Every family has the "thing" they're known for. Athletics. Music. Intellect. Community Involvement. Missions. Working Around the House (that would be us). Working While Other Families Play (that would be us, too.) HOH says it makes us appreciate our (practically non-existent) free time, more. And I agree (in public.)

Don't believe we're hard workers, eh? I knew I'd have to prove it to you, so I took these pictures:

We all know what autumn means, right? Time to open the windows and try to lower those mega-hundred dollar utility bills. Know what that means, right? Time to tighten the screens so the mom with Scoliodentosaurophobia can survive the open windows. Know what Scoliodentosaurophobia means, right? Fear, as in heart-stopping, call-your-husband-to-come-home-from-work (but he won't), fear of lizards.

Justin and Dad worked on screens..... Twenty-Eight Windows Worth of Screens. The HOH may not come home when I call with a Lizard Alert, but he's doing his durndest to make sure they don't get in!

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Mary-Faith took frequent chicken breaks while "checking on everyone."



Winston's Saturday was kind of a bummer, since it was a re-do of a previous job. Notice the level in the background. Too bad he didn't think of using that the first time. He spent yesterday turning our flagstone "pond" into a flagstone patio. He had a great attitude through it all, and did a wonderful job. I'll try to include a picture of the finished patio tomorrow. It looks great!







Andrew's job was to weed. Even with mulch, we need to do weekly weeding. And it's the perfect job for our Daydreaming Boy.



Daniel and Molly were the window sill clean-up crew. This is the "before" picture, when he's dealing with a bad attitude as he realizes there are still about 17 windows to go.



And here is the "after", when I told him I was putting his picture on my blog.
Vanity - Sometimes it works in our favor!




Daniel dustbusted, then Molly came along and wiped the sills clean. They always beg to work together, and as long as there's no time frame for completion (due to very frequent giggle fits), I always let them.




If anyone from Child Services reads my blog, (please stop) we let the kids have frequent water breaks. And I think he's even sitting down. Frequent sitting breaks...yeah, we always do that, too. And when they're done working, we make them wash off in the pool...er, I mean - we let them swim to their heart's content.





And here's Mary-Faith taking another chicken break - Actually, it can't be a legitimate break if you never had anything to "break" from, can it?!



Ahhh...Here's the "supervisor" finally getting around to her own chore - Painting the boy's room doors.








And no self-respecting blog post is complete without a few kitty pictures. Our sextuplets are getting cuter by the minute. They are almost weaned, are playing and pooping on schedule (Kelly, the poop reference is for you..since I know you think no self-respecting blog post is complete without a little potty humor.)
They will be ready for adoption...as soon as you can get here! One is spoken for, but that still leaves FIVE.