I don't really feel like I have anything much to talk about today, so I'll just write about what we did this weekend. It was a long weekend, thanks to having Columbus Day off. It's funny, I used to think it would be annoying having the school district dictate my days off, and in some ways it is, but sometimes a school-forced holiday, like Columbus Day, is actually a really nice break from the norm. The kids knew going in that this would be a three-day weekend and were very excited to get the time off. So was I, for that matter!
Let's see, on Saturday, we had Jacob's soccer game, which is always a very exciting event. He is now at a level where it is only boys and everybody's starting to take the game much more seriously. I am proud, and slightly shocked, at the consistency with which Jacob plays. I have never looked at my boys as being terribly sporty, but he is absolutely determined to give soccer his all. He doesn't have a lot of the natural talent that many of the other boys have, but he really makes up for a lot of that with his effort and drive. Anyway, we all had fun there, and then we basically spent the rest of the day taking it easy at home.
That is, the kids and I took it easy. My husband has this overwhelming need to spend free Saturdays doing as much around-the-house work as he can fit in. This is not house-work, mind you. I truly believe that most husbands' arms would literally fall off were they to actually pick up a broom or, heaven forbid, a vacuum cleaner. No, this is manly around-the-house work. Work that involves grunting and sweating and becoming completely filthy. Work that is almost always outdoors, where they inevitably feel the need to remove their shirts so all the world can bask in the glory of their hairy, sweaty chests. Work that often requires a trip to a hardware store where they can strut importantly around displaying their equipment, nodding at the other manly men strutting by on their important manly errands. Oh yes, this is what it means to be the head of your household, the king of your castle: You are not truly a man until you've spent your day off working around-the-house until you smell like a lumberjack. This particular Saturday saw my husband mowing, weed-wacking, cleaning out the shed, putting a new drain cover on our lawn drain thingy, and tarring the roof. Or something like that. I know he spent a lot of time up there, grunting and sweating, and he definitely smelled like tar when he was eventually forced down by the afternoon thunderstorm. Not that he gave up easily, mind you. My pointing out that it was probably not a particularly smart idea to stand on a metal ladder in the middle of a lighting storm went unanswered. My subsequent threats that, were he to die in such a manner, his obituary and headstone would both read simply "He was an idiot" also garnered little response. I'm not sure what finally convinced him, but it may have had something to do with our daughter standing on the porch crying pitifully "Daddy! Daaaaaaaddy!" Whatever got him down, I will give him credit that, once he got himself and all of his smelly, manly stuff cleaned up, he did spend some nice one-on-one time with her.
On Sunday, the boys went to a baptism class before church, and then we all had our usual church experience: the boys in their Promiseland areas, Jeremy in the sanctuary analyzing what was wrong with the sound mixing, and me in the 18 month-24 month nursery area with Julia, who was not about to take her eyes off of me lest I sneak out like last time.
Sunday afternoon found us at Joshua's game, where he also showed an impressive amount of drive and determination. With him, I believe it's born out of anger. The more the other team pisses him off, the harder he plays. According to Jeremy (I had to miss most of the game due to Julia's nap), this team was really pushing our team around on the field, so Joshua found good reason to exhibit some passion. I simply don't know where he could have gotten such a righteous temper. Ahem.
After the game we went to Critz Farms, which is this very cool place to pick pumpkins and, in the winter, Christmas trees. We have actually found it to be much more economical to buy our pumpkins from another place, but we still go to Critz for the activities. They have several large wooden play areas (like a ship and a long train), a huge hill of slides, hay bales stacked for climbing upon, a "haunted house" (which is actually really mild and childish, but my boys still insist on running through like something is going to grab them and suck them into the walls to dwell forevermore in the depths of torture-induced terror), animals, a corn maze, and, of course, apple fritters and cider. There used to be pony rides, but due to "liability issues" these have been replaced with a large blow-up bouncing house. sigh. This world today...
On Monday, we went to my parents' house for a visit. The highlight, for me at least, was everybody joining together for craft time. We made "Gorgeous Gourds," which is an idea I got out of Family Fun magazine. I was so proud to have actually done one of the crafts in there. Usually I read through it with a sense of "That looks cool! I should do that with the kids!" but then never actually make anything. But this time, as you can see by the pictures to the right of your screen, we did make something, and I think they all came out really great!
So that was our long weekend. I could go into greater details about much of it, and maybe I will later this week, but for now I'm sure I've already written your eyes off (as opposed to "talking your ears off") and I will call it a post. Have a lovely Tuesday!
