August 11 Eight hours of love

Monday:  We started out a little bit "rough" this morning, mostly because I was "HANGRY" because I hadn't eaten before arriving over at the kids' place, I was struggling with a headache, and their voices echo off the hardwood floors ... but I quickly ate (I forget what I ate!) and prayed (yes, I did!) and then I was much more even -empered and tolerable of the usual chaos that accompanies four children. 

We didn't do anything special today--we were essentially "grounded" because I don't pick up my car until tomorrow; so we stayed at home INDOORS because of the excessive heat and humidity. I assumed my "housekeeper" mode for the first hour as the kids took turns having their 30-minute screen times and got their kitchen in order. I was much happier then (I'm odd)!

Weirdly, having never even seen ONE single spider over at their "new" house in the 3 years they have lived there--I saw THREE today and killed every last one of them. The first one was pretty tiny and it was inside of one of Erin's little sweatshirt jackets that she was showing me--it ran out from the hood, which thankfully she wasn't wearing at the time. I stepped on it and ended its miserable existence. But THEN, I was in the basement with the kids and a somewhat bigger one ran from under their oversized beanbag chair right at my feet! Thankfully, I was wearing my sandals and I stepped on it (without screaming or fussing or making a scene). I went back upstairs to finish washing the dishes, and as I was getting the broom out from the corner to sweep the floor, there was another spider (it was NOT small) in a web in the corner by the sliding door. I had to think this one over a bit ... I actually went back to washing dishes as I was considering HOW exactly I could kill this one and not have to actually make contact with it; having concluded that this was NOT possible, I used the broom on it! It was dead right away--and once again, I did not scream or fuss or make a scene (no one would have seen me acting inappropriately anyway since the kids were down stairs), and I did ask the Lord to help the spider die quickly.

Here are a few pictures of the kiddos:

Here is Cal enjoying his video game time ...

Aidan asked to join, and Cal gave him permission ... which worked out, at least for a little while until Cal changed his mind.

I brought my magnetic stones with me because ... they are so much fun. These little guys played and played with them!

Brendan slept in today until almost 11:00!!! He is an official teenager and this is completely normal! Here he is sharing some funny video clips with Erin.

I also brought my Tetra Tower game--a super fun game--and we all played it for a nice long time.

We did other things as well--it ended up being a really nice day with these kiddos. I love them so much, and they love me too. Love is such a wonderful thing, isn't it?