Mish Mash - Hodge Podge

Whatever you want to call it - that's how our day went. After breakfast was cleaned up, the boys and I did some school work. Ryan actually finished his Kindergarten books today and I suppose he is now a first grader. That is one thing that is hard to really define when you homeschool. Carly and Wes would be in first grade in the little school down the street - but in reality, they are weeks away from finishing their second grade books.

Aunt Kathy came over and brought with her a box of stuff from Granny's house. A few things are pictured here. There is a picture Jacob cut out of a magazine and mailed to her because it looked like her pug dog. Some stuff he made her at church - but the most touching thing that this woman saved because Jacob made them for her... her "birdnoculars" as they called them. Two toilet paper rolls, colored and taped together with love. Granny kept them on her windowsill and showed them to everyone who came by. Jacob took the stuff and put it in his treasure box.

Aunt Kathy went to the park with us and Ryan learned to swing himself - not because he wanted to, but out of necessity. Jacob learned to blow bubbles and suddenly the world seemed like he could conquer anything. After we went to the park, we went by the Co-Op and got some hay for Kathy's horse. We took the hay and a bag of apples to Kathy's horse and the boys fed Pokey apples while Kathy spread the hay.

After lunch, Kathy went home and we finished our schoolwork. Jacob, Ryan and I made a magazine rack out of some scrap lumber. Jacob did the cutting, Ryan was in charge of the nail gun - my department was safety and prayer. It didn't matter that much how it looked because it is now attached to the inside of the linen cabinet door - out of sight but convenient for those in the reading mood. I was pleasantly surprised at how well it turned out though. I don't know much about reading in the bathroom. This evening as I was just trying to get my pajamas on in my bedroom, Jacob is outside the door asking me what kind of super power I would want if I could have any. I told him I wished for the power to dress without interruption to answer his questions. That would be super. He told me that flying would probably be easier to arrange. No doubt.

While we were working in the garage, Jacob wandered into the storage room and came out with a face painting kit. Naturally that was the next thing to do. Ryan did not like it at all, so once the fake skin was on him, he wanted a bath - right now. So he's not in the picture, because he is in the tub, leaving Jacob to display not only the magazine rack they made but also his horrible, very bad, terrible injury. Fake blood will eventually congeal like real blood. Unlike real blood though, fake blood does not really come off the skin that easily. After a thorough scrubbing, it seems as if Jacob will be displaying evidence of his "injury" for days to come - till the stain wears off.

Today I have also been nibbling on Ryan's ear every chance I got and he would just squirm away. He is not the most affectionate child (as that link will explain) and he would just kind of pull away and question me over and over why I would want to kiss his ear. As I was tucking him in tonight, he turned his head away and I asked him if he didn't want me to kiss him goodnight. He said he did -- but first I could "do that thing just one more time." When Jacob was in Florida I called him sweetheart on the phone. When I hung up, Ryan said, "you call him sweetheart because you love him a lot, don't you?" I told him that was exactly why I did it. He thought about that for a minute and told me I can call him sweetheart too. So I do. If I had tried this a year ago, he would have LOUDLY stated, "my name is NOT sweetheart, it's RYAN!" He's coming around to this whole love thing.