Catch and Release

Tim's been working on a garage door project that left a bit of a gap around the edge of the garage door for a few days. And suddenly there's scat. And we don't mean we can hear singing from the garage in the middle of the night. It's the Not Good scat. Today, as he's finishing up, Tim moved the shop vac off the bottom of a shelving unit. And ta-da...a baby bunny. It peed on the shelf and scampered off to the back of the garage.

Sarah was beckoned and the girls were ordered NOT to open the door connecting the house and the garage because we do not, under any circumstances, EVER, want to be cleaning up this kind of mess inside. They immediately got to work drawing a plan to catch the bunny/cat/mouse/mammal their parents were frantically seeking outside. Miriam was thinking we'd sick a large, happy ant on the bunnies to chase them away. Or something.

We managed to corral the terrified little guy and catch it in a box.

Tim taped it shut with duct tape, like any real man would. 

And we headed off for a field trip to the swamp at the edge of our neighborhood.

Vivian has her "plan for catching" in hand. Just in case it gets out of the duct taped box and we have to re-catch it. Or something.

We let them peek in on him for a minute before Daddy let him slide out of the box and hop off. As he disappeared, Miriam said, "The bunny has a beautiful habitat." 

Yes, he does. And it's not our garage.

P.S. We spent the evening pulling everything out of our garage and cleaning up piles of bunny poo and rinsing away bunny potty with vinegar. Just so you don't think we're gross and never want to come over again.

Pat on the Back

Last weekend there was a not-good swimsuit malfunction at the pool that left Mommy wanting to drown of embarrassment. Instead she went swimsuit shopping the very next day. By herself except for three small children who came along, too. And then! She was so nice that she took them out to lunch!

Again, without any additional adult hands to help! Give this woman an award!

Probably normal adults do this kind of thing all the time, but it felt like a big deal at the time. Mommy felt so capable because she got such a deal on a swimsuit that should not have ANY malfunctioning issues unless it's attacked by a pair of scissors.

And in case you care about the lunch we ate: Chick-fil-a in the mall food court. The girls apparently haven't had those little pouches of mashed fruit before and were preeeetty excited about them. Doesn't take much. Also, Mommy had the cobb salad with a ranch-avacado-lime dressing. So good and full of extra toppings that even a veggie hater would have to love it. Good good good stuff. A reward for being such a capable, cool, collected Mom for two whole hours.

What's in your drink?

Monday morning, as Tim made his coffee, he looked down in the Keurig and happened to spy:

"Hmmm, what could that be?" He pondered aloud.

 "WHAT IS THIS?" He asked more urgently. Because it was so melted. Like a few cups of coffee had been made over it for who knows how long.

Yeah, we have no idea how this googly eye made it into the coffee maker. Wait. Yes, we do. We have children. No further explanation needed. (Right?)

(Please say yes. Otherwise we're in trouble and need to call Ghostbusters.)

And the hits just keep comin'

We haven't been posting much because we haven't been doing anything too exciting. So to catch you up on the everyday, we present a pile of pictures. Because that's our specialty.

We've been at the pool often. Last weekend, we got to swim with Tim's sister's family. And play with them at Cracker Barrel. We probably will need some rocking chairs and checkers on the new front porch, right?

Vivian got a black eye from a fall in the landscaping. It hurt A LOT, poor girl. 

Strawberry Shortcake bandages made it all better. (Thanks, Aunt Annette and Uncle Tom!)

She's young. It'll heal quickly and isn't slowing her down a bit. Back in the saddle again.

Miriam's "weather" picture was published in the weather section (of course) of the daily paper. It's her "holding an umbrella over all the little kids." (Yup.) She's so proud of her artwork!

She, too, got a little banged up this week. She'll make it.

It was T Week. All really good stuff, but the favorite was the felt turtle. This took some prep work on Mommy's part, but the girls were so excited to make their own stuffed animals.

We had a little New House Outing today. Current flooring picks:

On the left is tile for the bathroom; on the right, basically the entire first floor. Carpet in the bedrooms upstairs. Use your imagination on that...just not too much because it'll be neutral. None of the bright purple or orange shag we grew up with.

Between stops we lunched at a new Mexican place in town. It was very good but they don't serve alcohol and only play Christian music. Except in the kitchen. Which we were sitting close to - got to hear Christian anthems with a side of top 40 hits. Burrito was good but would have been REALLY good with a salty margarita. Back to the story. Felicity got to eat in public without a shirt on because she was wearing white, we didn't have a bib, and Mommy wasn't about to take on salsa stains. Felicity likes salsa - tries it eat it by the handful. Actually all three girls love it. Vivian drank it with her straw...

Then off to Home Depot to browse lighting and countertop options. After 45 minutes of that fun, all three girls were barely keeping it together and we gave up for the day.

And see! Vivian's eye looks much better!

Choosing and Serving

What we've been doing with most of our time: splashing in the water and eating popsicles. It's a healthy lifestyle.

Away from the pool, however, Mommy and Daddy have begun wading through the ocean of choices that have to be made when building a home. We won't break ground until October, but to avoid going crazy-over-budget (because EVERYONE says it WILL happen) we're trying to make as many decisions pre-crunch time as we can. It's really fun! We generally agree on the style we're going for - Craftsman, clean lines, simple, bright...but as great as the process is, it is also so overwhelming. An incredible variety of options in cabinetry alone. What kind of wood? Stained or painted? Half inch overlay or full overlay? Furniture feet? Drawer placement? Hardware style? Hardware color? Glass in cabinet fronts? Type of glass? Island the same color or contrasting? That's just a few of the questions for CABINETS. And we're decisive people! We know what we like and have been pinning our favorite things for over a year for this home yet we're still tired at the end of a day meeting with vendors and doing thumbs up and thumbs down. How do people who don't like making decisions do this?

Do you wanna see something fun? The outside of our house will be Bayou. This picture doesn't do it justice, but it's a bright, navy blue. Sarah was hoping for a shade closer to teal. Tim wasn't going for it. This seemed like a reasonable compromise. We're excited and will keep you updated on more choices as we finalize them.

This weekend we also got to do a service project with our church group, Couples with Kids. There were over 40 members participating in the United Way's Day of Caring. We got SO MUCH done for a local non-profit that has a food and clothing bank, as well as emergency assistance for families in need. It is beyond rewarding to give back to our community, and even more, we love showing our girls that serving is why we're here. We had little kids planting flowers and pulling weeds. We had grown men spreading gravel. And there were projects for every age in-between. We're so proud of our friends and children who worked so hard to show how much we care and to make the lives of the staff at Shelter Ministries a little easier!

God is good, all the time. All the time, God is good.

Felicity Eats

Felicity has a bit of a picky/sweet tooth. Bring on the pasta and maybe some meat, but please no fruits or veggies, my good sir. And while you're at it, pass the chocolate.

Double-fisting the popsicles and pretzels

So we had a show down. Felicity ate her serving of mac and cheese with hot dogs and completely ignored her strawberries. Again. Mommy, AKA the Wicked Witch of the West, said, "No," to her wails for more mac and cheese. And Felicity lost her marbles. Throwdown tantrum to end all 15 month-old tantrums. Body flailing on the floor, screaming like she was being burned, tears until she could not breathe. It was an ugly five minutes. And now, after two weeks of explaining in the most basic terms that she needs to eat her fruits and veggies and showing her that if she doesn't she won't be getting any seconds or dessert, we've got a toddler who EATS fruits and sometimes veggies! We're calling it a success.

Grandma got her to eat salad last week!

So some picker eater tricks that work on Felicity:
1) She's so much more likely to eat the healthy stuff if Mommy feeds it to her while it's being prepared. Slip her chunks of cantaloupe or bites of strawberry as we're preparing them at the counter or sink before supper and she gobbles them down.
2) She's the master of her own universe and wants the WHOLE banana or the ENTIRE pear or the corn ON the cob, not just little cut up bites. If she can handle holding the whole thing, we'll give it to her that way because the allure of being the boss of the food makes her happy to eat it.
3) Cook the veggies into her food. Roasted red pepper sauce instead of jarred Alfredo. Veggies on the pizza or in the meatballs. Getting Felicity her fruits and veggies is making our whole family healthier!

In this battle of wills, Mommy will overcome and Felicity will learn to love the greens. And the rest of the rainbow, too.