Weekly Wrap-Up - June

We've had a good week. Started off HOT, we caved and turned on the AC for the week. But YAY! By Thursday it had cooled back down (highs around 80), so our windows are open again and I'm loving our extended spring!!!

We had a bit of "life cycle" learning this week. When I went to get some things out of our storage shed I heard kittens in the outer room (that has a window completely out, big enough opening for a cat to come & go with no problem). I determined the general area where they were, but didn't dig to find them. But later that day Rodney took the girls up to see them and they DID move things around to find them. Apparently they did more moving around than they should have, because when we checked on them a day or two later, they were dead :( The girls thought there were 3 originally, and there were only 2 when we went back, so it's possible that the mama cat (a stray who lived in the chicken coop near our house over the winter, and the girls named "Sneakers" (to keep with the footwear theme of Moccasin and Socks), took one kitten and abandoned the others? We were abit concerned that something had happened to Sneakers, but we saw her a couple times yesterday, so apparently not. Sad, but a part of life . . . and the girls handled it well.

One of the things I got out of the storage building were our boxes of board games that seemed SOO advanced for our girls when we moved here. Now, not so much . . . we sorted through, packed up some games and puzzles that are "between" the girls' ages right now, and kept out Battleship (the girls are loving it), monopoly (they'd outgrown the "Junior Monopoly" they've had for several years, so were ready to move on to the real thing), Jenga (which they played at a friend's house awhile back and liked, I don't think they've noticed that I added it to OUR game shelf yet though), and an old smurf game that was mine when I was their age. They haven't been much for games lately, so this is a nice way to re-excite them about games. And bonus, they're old enough now to play games together without me, so games don't have to be confined to Little Bit's naptime.  Having a few games to take with us to campmeeting next week will be nice too.

Speaking of games. Little Bit pointed to Candy Land today and wanted to play it (it's Dora Candy Land, she loves ANYTHING Dora right now). I wasn't sure if she'd understand the concept yet, but decided to try it. She completely "got it" right away. It's a tad too long for her, she burned out just as she was winning, and that was WITH getting a shortcut that shortened her game time quite abit. So it looks like for now I'll need to do what I did with the big girls when we first started playing, and "stack the deck" to make sure the game doesn't last too long.

In other news this week we stayed busy with school, cooking, and other "same old same old" stuff.

Little Bit's vocabulary continues to explode. She was singing "Wake up Mommy" and succeeded in waking MiniMe as well. MiniMe came in grumbling about having to wake up (it was time for them to be awake anyway), so when Little Bit said "Me wake up Sassy", MiniMe said "yeah, go sing your obnoxious song to Sassy" to which Little Bit promptly replied "me go. Sing noxious song Sassy" It was SOO funny!

This week we ended up with 2 date nights since the big girls were gone all last week. So Wed night Sassy had her date night (that should have been last week). She chose to go to Chipotles and Starbucks with Daddy. Rodney said she talked the WHOLE time . . . it's good for her to have Daddy's undivided attention once in awhile :)

And Thurs night Rodney & I had our date night. We went to Outback. The girls were excited to have Miss Starla come babysit.

Friday was GORGEOUS weather, and I desperately wanted to get the car cleaned out before campmeeting (next week). I'd hoped to do it Monday (Memorial Day) since Rodney was home, so I figured I could go out during Little Bit's nap and he'd be inside to hear her if she woke up. But it was SOO hot that day that I decided I'd just make it work some other time. So Friday was that time. I decided that, with all the windows open, if Little Bit TRULY needed me, we'd hear her (the big girls were playing outside, but near the house). I just wouldn't get there at the first little call of "Mommy, come get me" like I usually can. So went out during her nap anyway. I did the most thorough cleaning of the "passenger part" of the car that I've done in a LONG time (going through the junk that gets shoved in the seat pockets and such, and re-arranging the space by the driver's seat. Those are the 2 areas that I usually leave till last, and then it doesn't happen). So, 3 bags, and a bin of random stuff to put away in the house, and 3/4 of the outside trash can full of trash later, the girls can actually WALK to/from their seats in the car (they are now booster-seat-less too. They're still on the short side, based on the recommended height, but the practical requirements (legs bend at edge of seat, shoulder belt doesn't cut across their face) work, and they're old enough, and really wanted to ditch them, so we went with it. So that makes the seating space feel bigger too). The one area I didn't tackle was the very back, which is still very much on my "to do list". But after doing all that I did, I was nervous that it was too close to the end of Little Bit's nap to start another section with nobody in the house to hear her, so I left it for another day (was hoping on that day being today, but Rodney's sick, and Little Bit napped on the way home from the Farmer's Mkt, so that didn't work out. Will just have to make it work some day this week, either during her nap like I did on Fri, or set the big girls to playing with her outside.

We also started preparing food ahead for campmeeting. The girls made a double batch of Breakfast Cookies, that we had for breakfast one morning and froze the rest (easy breakfasts at campmeeting, woo-hoo!). And I made a batch of Overnight Granola (noticing a theme . . .easy breakfasts . . .).  Still lots of food prep-ahead I'm hoping to accomplish this week, but at least it's a start. Rodney will be staying at home, but coming up most evenings for a little while, so I'm hoping to "group" food in bags in the freezer (and middle of the kitchen floor for non-perishables) marked as to waht day I need them, and not have to try to have all the food there all week. We shall see . . .

So that was our week. Nothing earth shattering, but a nice week all around.