Not so adventures of the St. Clair clan...

 The girls are continuing to do their best to keep us on our toes.  It's funny later, but in the heat of the moment, whew.  I'm glad God gave us a sense of humor.   They have recently become obsessed with A) washing dishes and B) the bathroom sink.  Yesterday, I found them washing sippy cups in the bathroom sink.  I can handle the water mess.  It's just water after all...rabbit trail, it was not  water on our bathroom floor the other day.  It was definitely pee, and Emerson was the guilty party.  I couldn't be mad because I'm pretty sure she just didn't want to sit on the freezing cold toilet seat.  I understand perfectly.  I've been tempted...never mind.  I've made my stance on heated toilet seats very clear.  Back to the water mess in the bathroom.  I can handle the water.  The problem is, when I pulled the plug on the sink to drain the water, it didn't drain.  After further investigation, I foun...

Sawyer's razor tooth handsaw broke.  The handle split in half.  I think maybe it was made for cutting the occasional limb and maybe a Christmas tree.  He has probably leveled, limbed, and turned into logs an equivalent of an acre of timber, so I think he got his money's worth, but he was pretty heartbroken.   "Mom, I have some bad news.  Do you want to hear it?" I braced myself and nodded. "My saw broke." I exhaled, and gave him the sympathy he was looking for.  Luckily, the depression was short lived because he discovered a new love the same day: the leaf blower. He has always been skeptical of leaf blowers.  They are noisy, and that's been problematic for him.  The irony there...   Anyway, his dad told him it was his chore to leaf blow and there was no arguing.  He didn't want to do it, but once the backpack was on and he got started...let's just say we didn't see him again until it started getting dark.  Fischer also loves a...

I knew having kids was going to be hard - sleep deprivation, worry, stress, hard choices, etc.  But nobody said anything about the tooth fairy.   I kind of hate her.   I mean, it's precious.  For the first tooth.  For the first kid.  After that, I think she stinks.  I might be the worst version of the tooth fairy.  What's the going rate on teeth these days?  I don't know.  My kids are probably getting ripped off.  I'm just hoping they don't start comparing notes with their friends at school. "What did you get?" "$10!  How about you?" "A pile of change, some lint, and a tooth brush..." "Huh.  Maybe you need to brush better." My biggest problem is remembering to be the tooth fairy.  I had to set three alarms for the last tooth.  My other problem is that my kids want to be freaking pen pals with "her."  So many letters!  So many unanswered letters...   I tried.  Then I forgot....

 I was feeling pretty dumpy the last week or so.  Too much real life all at once.  Being an adult is fun, except for when it's not.  We've recalibrated now and are once again focused on what's True and what's good, and also our kids are hilarious, so that helps. Sawyer got a note from a girl at school this week.  "Dear Sawyer, do you want to be friends? Yes or no."  Ross asked him what he was going to reply.  Sawyer gave him a what are you talking about  look.   "Dad, we already are  friends," he replied, annoyed by the redundancy.    "But she signed it with a heart..." "Daaaaad." Sawyer's eyeroll was almost audible.   As I'm looking into my crystal ball, I see that Sawyer's future wife will need to be very  direct. Carter's future spouse will also need to be a strong character.  She has a personality twice her size and is into more mischief than both her brothers combined.  One minute she is spinn...

 Our kids have been on fire..fi-ya, this week.  They are killing me.  In a good way.   Sawyer has been on a sandwich kick.  He has this recipe that he is pretty proud of and wants to share it with the world.  He made his "famous" sandwich for Ross on Saturday and got many compliments and rave reviews.  This fed his confidence and his desire to feed more people.  He's thinking about a restaurant in the backyard.  On Monday, he made me the sandwich.   His recipe includes: bread, mayo, mustard, lettuce, pickles, cheese and black forest ham or turkey.  After giving him much applause for his masterpiece, he let me in on the one ingredient you can't replicate: magic.   At which point I realized, I should have had him wash his hands before starting.     After Sawyer's magical sandwich, the girls were doing their regular 'I'm not going to sleep' routine.  Normally, this would have tried my patience.  ...

     True confession: I have a thing for farmers.  The older the better.        I love  listening to farmers talk.  I love their farms and their stories about farming.  I like reading about them, watching them on TV, and listening to them on podcasts or in person.  There is something so intriguing to me about the family farm.        Also, I want to be them.  And own a cow.        I got one step closer to my cow dreams this past weekend.  A local farm where I go and occasionally work for fun (some people get their kicks at bars, and some people pull weeds, okay?!), said I could keep a milk cow on their property.  I almost flipped my lid.  Lucky for Ross, he planned on hunting when I got home, so he had an escape route.  I simmered down a degree by the time he got home.  Getting dinner on the table for four kids has a way of grounding a person. ...

 When you welcome a new baby into your family, especially when you already have older kids, it can almost feel more like (please don't take this the wrong way) adding a pet.  You have this new human who has needs and definitely affects your lifestyle, but he/she isn't adding thoughts or opinions yet to the daily family routine.  They count, but they don't really get a say in things.  I realize that we can’t stay in this phase forever, but I am not sure I am ready for what comes next.   As our girls move away from the early days of "mad and inconsolable" to "opinions with some words," I can safely say they have kept us on our toes from day one.  Now that we are on our way to the next developmental stage please, dear Lord, let it be an easy one.   Tonight, let's just be honest, we ae still fighting the bedtime blues.  I may have been a little too excited to put them to bed.  I may have started the whole routine a little too early.  T...