Most of the time, I am a diligent person. I always have work to do, and I get up early and work hard. Ahem. Some of the time, anyway. One of the notable exceptions is Sunday afternoons.

Sunday afternoons I guess you could say I work hard at being lazy. For several hours at least, I am a total bum. I lie on my bed and read and sleep, and if I feel inspired I write, too. On a cold, damp day like today I grab the heating pad for my knees, burrow under a thick blanket, and say goodbye to the world for a while.

Thankfully my children don’t seem to show signs of neglect in spite of my extreme laziness. In fact, this afternoon I woke up briefly to feel a lump pressed into the small of my back and cognized that my little girl had joined me for a nap. We slept together, then she woke up and said brightly, “I had a good nap, Mama!” I sent her to my dresser after a chunk of chocolate which Will had thoughtfully hidden in my unmentionables. She scurried like a mouse to fetch the prize, then we huddled and nibbled together in our nest.

Keane joined the scene, so now the bed is strewn with airplanes, Polly pocket dolls, blocks, and picture books. You can see that my children are not being *totally* ignored.

Bloomer the cat was here for a bit, but she’s not quite so welcome. She spends much of her time on the porch with an eye fastened on the door. If someone leaves it open even a crack, she darts in to paradise and heads for Lily’s cat food bowl. Lily is allowed to be in the house when she wishes because Elijah loves her and I love Elijah enough to let him do it. But Bloomer does not have good litter box manners, which creates a problem, because this mama does not want to be cleaning cat poo off the carpet. We call Bloomer “Misser” because she misses the litter box. Her aim is perfectly terrible. So she gets banished. Poor Bloomer!

As I write, I know that the state of my house is deteriorating fast, but I also know I have a dependable and longsuffering husband who will help me when I bravely emerge from my hibernation and say, “Let’s clean up!” I am an INFJ so periodic laziness is necessary for survival. I think. Haha.

(Will just brought me the most delicious strawberry smoothie! I told you he was wonderful.)

Sometimes on Sunday afternoons we actually go do something. Mama gets herself out of bed and we do something fun like walk around the lake. I love those family walks!

I’ll share a few more pictures of daily life around here.

Desiree and Keane like to help me in the kitchen. These pancakes are 100% whole wheat, and unbelievably good. I don’t make pancakes often because I also have to make gluten-free ones for Elijah, so it’s a lot of work.

The children are very interested in puzzles right now.

Desiree brought in a collection of pretty rocks from outside.

Our sweet, dependable Stuart had a birthday on March 3. He wanted to decorate his own cake, and picked out some candy to put on top. For his birthday, he got a small Lego set and a new bike! Having a decent bike is a necessity around here. It’s so much easier for Stuart to go to the library or piano lessons now.

Our children spend many happy hours being outside together.

But we had a round of sickness, too.

My youngest sister came for a weekend. I love my sisters–we understand each other and love to talk about life. Victoria sang at UMC on Sunday morning and blessed everyone with her beautiful voice. We walked to the lake several times, the biggest hike being on Sunday when we walked for two hours!

The same weekend Victoria was here, we went to a pizza party, and I had fun playing with a couple neighbor kids.

Last Wednesday evening, Will’s brother Levi brought his family over for supper and the evening. Desiree was thrilled to hold her new niece, Annie. I helped at Annie’s birth, and was rewarded with a gallon of local honey, harvested by her daddy!

You might say we will be “adding to our family.” Or something like that. Will and I are taking classes to become foster parents. We are excited to do our part to care for the fatherless (James 1:27).

The paperwork is not for the faint of heart. Saturday morning Will and I spent a couple hours drinking tea and filling out forms.

I have to include this picture yet. Elijah looks so comfortable there by the fire, don’t you think? My heart is happy when I see our children safe and relaxed in our home. Elijah has been feeling much better the last few weeks.

These are all unedited photos, some of them phone pictures. Kind of drives me nuts, but now that I don’t have Picasa anymore, I don’t know what to use. Photography experts, help me out please!

As usual, this update leaves out some major things. The wildfires. Uggghhhh! I probably will write about that sometime. The evening we had a local pastor over for supper and our Friday family night. (That was so much fun that my children have been begging to have him over for another family night!) My monthly ladies group–which I absolutely love. Several remodeling projects on our house. Some new people connections. Our new vehicle. (Yes, amen. No more crying in the parking lot.)

When I see casual updates from other people, I always want to ask, “But what are you thinking about? I don’t want to only know what you are doing.”

Trust me, I am always thinking. Always. (Except when I am sleeping.) But I don’t feel like writing it all out now. I might just wander out into the kitchen to see about a refill of that strawberry smoothie.

 

 

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How do you like to spend your Sunday afternoons? What do you like best about your family?