A Little of This and A Little of That

The last few weeks have been busy! I started a new job. We've been working on getting the garden in, appliances and equipment have been breaking, and Jake and his kids are visiting. We are trying to keep up with everything. It has left my head spinning. Here are few updates and funny things in no particular order. 

Yesterday, while I was at work, Mamaw was watching my kids and Jake's three also. Papaw, Tim and Jake were working on connecting the water lines to the pig barn. First, they had to fix the excavator. 

I did not see this event, I only saw the after effects. They were working on the hydraulic lines. Mamaw and the kids were standing back, at what appeared to be a safe distance, watching the guys work. One of the line connections came loose and sent a hydraulic oil shower on everything below, including Mamaw and the kids. 

When I got home Mamaw had just finished giving five kids a bath. (Thankfully Vivian had been taking her nap, and Kellen was counting his Wii money, or there would have been seven to clean up.) One bath was not enough. Their hair was still greasy. They all got a second bath before bed. 

This week one of our school projects was to make soap carvings. The idea was to carve a figure of a fish and a man to remind us of the story of Jonah. Um... the carvings didn't really turn out all that well, but the kids had a fund time making them. 

It was a little messy, but I'm not complaining. They grated about five bars of soap that I can use for Laundry Detergent.

Vivian (3) has developed this fascination with driving lately. She will ask me if she can drive up to the barn to feed the sheep. Then she will tell me that when she is the mommy she will drive the van. Perhaps I should have mentioned this to Papaw before he took Viv up to the barn with him. 

Vivian rode up to the barn with Papaw to feed the cows. On the way back he stopped to open the gate to drive through the pasture. As he was walking back toward the truck, he sees Vivian in the driver seat. Then the engine revs loudly. She was pushing the accelerator. Luckily,  she does not know how to put the vehicle in gear -  yet. 

Nolan (4) has been quite the character lately. The other day I was trying to put laundry away. It had been a long morning with numerous interruptions. The kids were having a hard time staying on task for school, and I was trying to get a list of things done before work. 

I was in the boy's closet hanging up Nolan's clothes, and he comes in to ask me for a snack (again.) I said, "Isn't it almost time for lunch? What time is it Nolan?" I know full well that Nolan is only beginning to grasp the concept of time, and he does not know how to tell time yet. The question was a blatant attempt to buy me a couple minutes to finish my task while he went and looked at the clock and asked Kellen or Lydia what time it was. It didn't work. He didn't miss a beat, but looked right at me with his mischievous little grin and said, "It is snack time."

Nolan completely adores his older brother, much to Kellen's annoyance. Nolan wants to do everything that Kellen does. Nolan loves and hates everything that Kellen loves and hates. If you ask Nolan what he wants to drink or eat, he asks Kellen what he wants, then asks to have the same as Kellen. It really is very cute, at least from my perspective.  

We got our income tax returns this week. Most of that money is slated to pay off debt, but there are a few things that we've been waiting to buy with it. One of those things is new mattresses for the boy's beds. Thier mattresses are very old and in poor shape. 

Friday, Tim came home with the new mattresses. He and Kellen took the old ones off and put them in the burn pile. A little later we see Nolan crying. It was the hurt feelings cry. He, Lydia and Jude had been playing. I assumed that somehow his feelings had been hurt while they were playing. I was wrong. He was crying because he didn't want a new mattress. 

We tried talking to him about why the new mattress was better. We tried using the fact that he wants to be just like Kellen. Kellen likes the new mattress. Nolan bought that for about five minutes before he was in tears over the old mattress again. 

Nolan literally pouted and cried over that mattress for about 24 hours. Of course it wasn't constant. He would play for awhile, and then out of the blue he'd be crying about the mattress. Who knew a little kid could care so much about a mattress? 

Then for some reason, last night at bed time, Nolan suddenly decided that the new mattress was nice. Relieved, we all went to bed peacefully.