A Definition

writer's block

–noun

a usually temporary condition in which a writer finds it impossible to proceed with the writing of a novel, play, or other work.

I hope it's only temporary.

Thank goodness I don't write for a living.

We'd be hungry.

I hope this "condition" ends sometime before the new year.

Friday Funny

Garrett knows how to woo me. At bedtime, he puts both arms around my neck and says, "You can sweep wif me if you want to. Bucuz I wuv you."

Although I love him, I decline, because I also love a good night's sleep.

But he has also been charming me during the day with, "I wuv you bucuz you're cute."

He said it at the lunch table yesterday, and Jack had to add his two cents. "Mommy, I wuv your husband," he said.

They have had their parental preferences since day one, and I guess it will never change.

On the Subject of Multi-Tasking

It seems like I can't fit everything into my life these days. As soon as I get a good quiet time routine going, the exercise regiment falls off the wayside. Once I get a good handle on my to-do list, my blog suffers. My life without exercise and blogging leaves me feeling rather chubby and boring.

I've been thinking lately that I would try to fit exercise in whenever I can, which might even mean that we drop everything after lunch and head outdoors. Which is exactly what we did today.

After lunch, I told the boys to exchange their long pants for shorts so that we could head to the tennis court. They asked if they should also change into short-sleeved shirts, but I said, "No, it's still a little cool, so long sleeves and shorts will be perfect. You'll be cute and comfortable."

They looked at each other with doubt. I reassured them that I knew what I was talking about. I have been dressing myself for a few years, after all.

A few minutes later, they strolled downstairs in the appropriate attire and with smiles on their faces. I asked, "So you like this way of dressing?" To which they agreed. These days of telling them how to dress are short-lived, I realize.

Before playing, I asked for a pose, of course. I'm a blogging mom. What can I say?
Jack looks unhappy, but he was actually having a good time, too.

Anyway, we took tennis balls to the court. We don't have rackets yet, so what the boys enjoy doing is throwing their balls at me. They "score" every time I miss a ball. My competitive spirit won't let that happen too much, so I get my exercise in by chasing and returning three tennis balls over and over again.

I multi-tasked, you see. We all enjoyed the outdoors. We all exercised. And I got photos for a blog post. I'm one happy mama this afternoon.

Here's a shot of them ganging up on me:
They only scored 1 point for this round.

20 minutes of that game constitutes proper exercise time, right? Good. I'm glad you agree.

We headed to the playground for a few minutes.

Jack insisted that I take this shot:
He's quite the ham today.

And Liam needed to see himself on the camera while hanging from the monkey bars. He just doesn't understand why this vertically-challenged mama can't help him across these monkey bars.
Garrett likes to pull his glasses down and look at me over the top of his glasses.
Gosh, he looks so big! They are all growing by leaps and bounds physically and mentally these days, it seems. Part of me is sad to see them grow up, but I know that it's part of life. I just need to love them to pieces today.

Well, now that I can mark exercise and blogging off my list, I should go hug them one more time. And then hit the to-do list. Catch ya later.

Friday Funny

During breakfast the other day, Liam said, "Hey Garrett, maybe in heaven God will turn your skin brown like me and Jack."

Huh? We might need a little more theology here.

Big Daddy

My boys have dubbed this construction worker as "Big Daddy", the same name they call my dad.
(Please pardon the blurry photo. Roll with me here.)

Does my dad resemble that man? No.

My dad's hands are not two times the size of his head.

Although my dad is a handyman, he is not a construction worker, nor have I ever seen him wear a hard hat.

My dad does not drive a dump truck.

This is the real Big Daddy.
All 130 pounds of him.

He's not a big daddy. But he's the Big Daddy.

Perhaps in my boys' eyes, he's as strong as that construction man.

The Results Are In

Am I surprised? No.

Am I disappointed? Yes.

Is God still in control? Absolutely.

Wordless Wednesday: Liam the Elf

Let's Get This Day Over With

I exercised my American liberty and voted early. If you haven't already done so, make sure you hit the polls today.

I cannot wait until this election is over! The campaigning seems to have run every single day for the last four years. Enough already!

This is how the boys and I plan to spend this election day:
Not listening to the news.
Not looking for elections results online.
We even told Daddy to skip giving us the moment-by-moment results.
Wake us up when it's over.

Over and out.

Halloween

We actually spent Halloween night camping, and I'll post pictures from that fun time later this week. On October 29th, we attended our church's fall festival, which is called the Countryside Fair. It is the typical church festival with various games and treats.

I had my mom make last year's wise men costumes a little big in hopes that they would be able to wear them again this year. I'm glad the costumes still fit this year, because the thought of dreaming up a new idea for this year might have put me over the edge.

What do the boys want? New costumes and a mommy in the asylum, or the old costumes and a mommy to take care of them on October 30th? I asked them, and they answered correctly.

I'm totally kidding. I didn't ask them, because I'm afraid which answer they might have chosen.

And besides, my boys really don't care what they wear. They just want to play and eat candy.

Of course, I really wanted a quality photo shoot before leaving the house.
Of course, they did not.
This is as good as it got:
I wish I had let them wear shorts so their jeans weren't showing. Since summer has reared its ugly head once again, they would have been warm enough.

After the evening, I asked each boy what their favorite part of the evening was.

Garrett named the train ride, and you can see his pure excitement here:
Jack also loved the train ride. But he especially enjoyed the third train ride in which he was surrounded by passengers of the female gender.
He didn't say those exact words. Actually, what he said was, "I weawwy wiked the twain wide wif da giwls." He's such a ladies' man.

Liam's favorite part was playing with his cousins. Here are the fabulous five:
They are a hoot.
Immediately after this shot, tears commenced, as it was time to say goodbye to the fair and the cousins.

But we bribed them to the car with the promise of a piece of candy. We're great parents. We only use the tool of bribery when absolutely necessary.

After putting them to bed, Rick and I dug through the loot and chose a few of our favorite treats. I'm not sure why so little candy is left now.