Labor Day weekend

So this headache has attached itself to my brain and decided to just stay. Today is much better than the past week, but it's still there a tiny bit. At least I can pretty much think clearly today -- that's always helpful for a person who has more work than three people should have to do :-)

Yesterday, I think I MIGHT have bought the last beads I need to finish my lamp shade. I'm about 1/4 of the way finished now, so there's a possibility that I'll finish before the social security checks start rolling in, maybe even before I turn 40! :-)

I have a cool little picture clip holder with clips at the end of four be-jeweled flowers. I decided to put a picture of the kids on each clip, one for each season. I got a really good Easter picture, so that one was for spring. I forgot that I wanted to do this all through the summer, so I'll have to wait for next year on that one. Today, I took the "fall shot" -- or at least tried to. Kids, of course, are easily distracted; so imagine trying to get them to all four look at me instead of being side-tracked by tree branches, bugs, and a crazy little four-year-old! These two will probably be as good as it gets:



I might try again tomorrow with some better light and better angle.

After lunch, Luke decided that he wanted to go for a bike ride with Seth and me. We went on the longest ride Luke has gone on ever! The poor little kid has to pedal his bike probably ten times to keep up with one of my pedals. But he didn't complain a bit. In fact, he said he was having fun just being with me and Seth (music to a mommy's ears, such a nice change to the whining and fighting I'm used to hearing). We did have to take a break under a shade tree about 2/3 of the way through the ride. While we rested, we decided that we'd have a nice cold cup of punch on our nice shady deck when we got home. That thought motivated him to get back on the bike and hurry home :-) After the punch drinking, we thought we might enjoy sitting in the sun on the swing. One problem: a bird had done a little business on the swing. Luke's solution was to just put a piece of duct tape over it! What have I done to that child???!!!!! My solution was both faster AND cleaner -- clorox wipe :-)








It was a little too warm for me to sit in my swing in the sun, so I decided to move it into the shade. Then I decided to try to make a canopy so that I can sit in the swing even in the rain or snow. I don't think the tarp I used is quite big enough, but we'll have to wait for some rain to try it out. I'm even thinking of stringing some decorative lights under the canopy so that I can read out there (bundled up -- it's starting to get chilly at night) or just look at the pretty lights in the cold dark :-) While I was rigging up this canopy deal, Luke was doing his own little construction. He tied a plastic rope (extricated from the old badminton net that got destroyed last summer) in several strategic places so that if someone tried to sneak onto our deck to break into the house, they'd trip on the rope and alert us. This child scares me a little bit sometimes with his thought patterns.