Weekend Top Five 5/26/09

It's been an emotional weekend for my family members and I appreciate all of the prayers sent our way. Please continue those prayers...they are needed and appreciated.

As for the weekend adventures for our family, we stayed pretty busy. It's hard to believe that we even need to head back to school tomorrow. It seems to me that summer should start now. But nevertheless, we are heading back for 8 more days of school. The kids are very grumpy and we put them both to bed super early Monday night, hoping for better behavior this week.

5. Bad Mommy Again
While I was making lunch on Friday, Aaron called from the basement (where he was playing our piano) that his foot was bloody. He came upstairs and I saw a little blood streak on the top of his foot. I went to go wipe it and the saw IT...gushing blood from the bottom of his other foot. His foot had found a small piece of glass from a glass that had broken down there ages ago.

Slight panic...I couldn't get it to stop bleeding, even after almost a half hour of constant pressure. It was too small for stitches and I didn't have any liquid bandage. After a little while longer, and a VERY impatient four year old begging me to leave his foot alone, I cut regular band aid lengthwise and stretched it super tight across his foot.

It was fine until close to bedtime when I took the band aid off to check it out. Sure enough, eight hours later it started to bleed again. This time Steve was home and I was able to run and get some liquid bandage.

New rule in our home...no going in the basement barefoot again.

4. Playworld
Yup. We ended up at Playworld for a few hours again Saturday night. It is just such a nice place for them to be able to run wild, which they really needed.


Noah got a little tired of running around and took over camera duty for me. Steve and I were his favorite targets.





3. Afternoon at the In-Laws
After early church on Sunday, we headed up north to spend the day with Steve's parents. There are always stories from theses visits, and this was no different. The kids did have fun swimming in the community pool.

But the highlight of the day for Steve AND the boys was something that apparently Steve and his older brothers spent every weekend doing while camping when he was growing up.

Steve took Noah and Aaron into the woods and searched for dead trees. Then, with various amounts of energy exerted, they pushed them over. I didn't really get the fascination...it must be a boy thing.



2. Chore Bucket
This idea stemmed from a discussion I had with my MIL. Beginning the first day school gets out, and for the entire summer, the boys will be picking out a chore to do each morning. Some of them are along the lines of "pick up library books" or vacuum the living room" but others are fun like "write a letter to grandma and grandpa".

When I made the list Monday morning and showed it to the boys, they were so excited they wanted to start right away. I hope that enthusiasm continues come middle of July.

1. Memorial Day Service
Steve's patriotic singing group had to sing for a memorial service on Monday so I took the boys. It was good for several reasons. I was able to have a discussion with them about veterans and those who have died in wars. We sat out on the grass for the 45 minute service. The boys' favorite parts were the 21 gun salute and the release of the 21 doves at the end of the service.


My hubby is the tall one in back with sunglasses



We were supposed to go to a cookout at the director's home later Monday afternoon, but instead, Steve found a different job to keep himself busy.

Two hours later, he had replaced all of the plumbing under our sink, thanks to a clog of spaghettio's, straws, and paintbrushes caught down in the pipes.





The week ahead:
Major activity filled week ahead. Tuesday is the performance of my hand bell group at a local nursing home. I am not feeling super prepared at the moment, but hopefully the residents will be pleased. On Wednesday, Noah has a grandparent's tea in school and baseball game at night (80 percent chance of rain). I still need to make a treat for Noah to take to school on Thursday to celebrate his birthday (it falls in the summer) and on Saturday I will turn 36.