We came, we saw, we dug big holes in the sand! Our Destin trip went really well, despite the water being so cold that I think Chance got all of three toes wet. Since the kids were still happy to play and play for hours, it all worked out well. Seph took many photos (forthcoming), and Rone and Cotton both collected everything they could.

Nanna and Papa made sure the kids got to the candy store, which was a nicer thing for me than for them, because being at the candy store with kids trying to choose which treat will bother me most gives me the willies. Note: very worst is that baby bottle thing with the sugar powder for dipping.

Papa took us all fishing, which is something I've always wanted to do. The kids loved it, until we'd been going against the tide for about 45 minutes, when the bouncing got the better of their stomachs. Rone sensibly lay down on the bottom of the boat, Cotton threw up some very festive St. Patrick's Day Lucky Charms, and Seph positioned herself as best she could to avoid all viewing of fish guts. It's nice to know that without any specific training they've learned how to deal with nausea in their own ways.

We would up with a couple dozen fish, and all had a fish dinner and plenty to bring home. Chance caught the biggest fish, but he had to toss it back because it was out of season--we got a photo though (forthcoming!)

Back home, it's finally spring. We saw bluebonnets and green grass on the way home. Big goal this year is to get a bluebonnet photo of the kids. I've missed the last few years, and have to get this one of Cotton will wonder why there aren't more photos of her as a Texas kid in the flowers. Can't have that, I'm already lacking in so many other areas! So...forthcoming.

Cotton is becoming a reader, and it's been fun to watch. She was reading an Elephant and Piggie book recently and needed help with a word. I helped her work it out, and then she told me that, "The line with a dot there makes that word yell." Elephant and Piggie are often! excited! so! she! learned! that! quick!

She still sometimes assigns things values and descriptions that are very much kid observations. We were having dinner with friends, and we'd sent one kid to tell the others it was time for dessert. When Cotton wandered in, we asked if the message was getting around (because kid is not a very effective communication tool all the time) and she said, "He did, but he said it like a man." Apparently men in Cotton's world talk in low rumbly voices and ,this is the fun bit, make a fist with one hand and make and old-timey 'here we go!' gestures.

Another 'snow' delay. In March! This winter is a record for snow days here in Austin. The kids have enjoyed it, even if zero snow arrives with these snow days.

The kitchen is back to what is generally accepted as a functional room of the house. Broken stove replaced, fridge that only kept one or two things cold at a time, likewise. As happens when you make a clean spot somewhere, I would now like new floor, new pots and pans, and new cabinets. Given the timeline for me updating something as key as a broken stove I'll expect these things to happen about the time Cotton is running for President.

It's been an odd weekend here, with 3/5ths of the family heading to Houston, and big kid and I staying put to eat way too much Italian food.

Cotton headed to Houston with her Aunt and cousins, because Aunt decided it was time to try to outrun the cedar. Rone and Chance followed this morning, because Rone was horribly sad about missing a chance to play with the cousins, and Chance has had his fill of pollen-related nonsense as well.

Today Seph and I were on our own, and after a lazy day of reading, we went to the bookstore, because we both needed to add books to the stacks in our 'to read' piles. Mine is only two feet tall, and was feeling small and neglected. Then I took her to one of my favorite restaurants in town, Vespiao, where she ordered calamari and pizza (yes, Mom, she ate bait. deep fried, delicious, bait). Then I started her on Sherlock, so she could get caught up and watch the new season with me. I'll have to go ahead and watch tonight's episode without her, but I think she can catch up.

Earlier in the weekend we went to The Salt Lick with friends. We were 18 people, so filled two big picnic tables. It was wonderful to give all the kids (9 in all) their own table and let them sort out their own all-you-can-eat-bbq situation. I vastly prefer this to the trips where making sure I got a rib before everyone grabbed them was tricky because I was also feeding a baby a pickle. But pickle baby faces were pretty funny, so I guess it evens out. The whole place was enormously busy--we parked further away than we ever have, the wait was an hour and a half, and the subdivisions popping up all along the way are still surprising to me. Here's hoping we can still get a table someday when our 25th anniversary rolls around!

Rone:
This tastes like expired peanut butter with mustard in it.

What's thinner, a piece of paper or a cat's whisker?

Cotton:

Grandma. Nanna. Puppies. Flowers. Grandma. Nanna and Papa. Puppies. Flowers.
(she repeated this after ripping her big toenail off. she was 'thinking good things because it hurt a lot'. it was just that precious.)

Can I have candy?
(the entire month of December. kid is candytastic.)

Seph:

I'm going to the mall to see Frozen.

(three times and counting...)

Our house has started the new year with a solid two weeks of coughing. I love Texas, but cedar is now at the top of my 'Plants I Hate' list. Poison ivy's decades-long reign is over, due to being stationary and thus avoidable. Cedar has me doing things like searching 'nasal irrigators' on Amazon. Like I need Amazon sending me 'Products You Might Like' emails about swishing out sinus passages for the rest of my life.

Happily, the kids seem mostly unaffected. I'm hoping to convince Cotton my sneezes are a superpower.

The first half of the school year has been exciting for Seph. Dance, choir concerts, the school play, and a big trip to Arkansas all combined to keep her very busy. When she isn't doing one of those things, she likes to go to the mall with her friends, or go anywhere they'll let her order a chai tea latte. I'm not entirely certain what's in one of those, but it makes her happy to have one, and happy is good.

Rone and Cotton are both still going to wilderness school. After the floods this fall, the park they meet in changed a lot, so there was more to explore than expected. Cotton is going to Scottish country dance after a few months of ballet, and is hoping to get to go to a ball. Yes, there are balls!

Rone, in a complete capitulation on my part, is doing a class on the Minecraft Homeschool server. Some wily parents realized that other parents will pay $10 a month to have vague assurances that a few hours of the many spent playing Minecraft involve a bit of learning about history. This is genius, and should make them very wealthy.

The holidays were busy, but it was nice to have everyone home. School had a two week break, and Chance took several days off to spend with us (when football wasn't on). We had Christmas dinner with friends (friends that cook prime rib are the best kind of friends), followed by games for the grownups. Chance played Pictionary, despite it involving getting off the couch and drawing at a child-sized easel! He had to draw six things, he was so good at it! We also played Cards Against Humanity, which has us all laughing until we cried. The box advertises itself as a card game for horrible people, and apparently we're all horrible because we had a great time.

I took the kids for a daytrip to Corpus Christi, which really is not far at all. The drive involves I35, so it's not ideal, but 3 hours is a completely reasonable daytrip range for us. There's an aquarium with lots of critters to touch, and the cutest tiny jellyfish!

Wise Words from Cotton:
Me: "Did you like your Twinkie?"
Cotton:"Yeah, but I didn't eat it."

This weekend has all of us wiped out for today.

The three of us here at home are lucky, and can take it easy. In the ongoing efforts to keep the lodge open, we've hired lawyers, and the kids and I were at a fundraising concert at the lodge on Sunday, followed by a swim. Why listening to someone sing, then watching people swim can make me so sore the next day I do not understand,but I've decided blaming the kids will give me the least amount of mental distress.

Rone is watching animal shows, and Cotton just finished her art project. This week her book is The Rag Coat, so she was making 'rag' coats for paper dolls out of paper.

At one point while driving around on Saturday, all three kids decided that while our house is big enough, there is too much stuff in it. And it's not as clean as it should be. Cue riotous laughter in my head. I did manage to not point out that most of the stuff in our house belongs to them/clothes them/feeds them/entertains them. Here is to a new era of cleanliness at the house, based on everyone taking personal responsibility for their own messes and also pitching in on the more general tasks necessary to have a home as clean as ones that are professionally attended to.

Or just more whining in about a month about how nothing seems cleaner than it did before this realization. One of those.

"If you're a thief, you can get un-thiefed, right, if you just stop stealing things?"

Me: "Yes, if you stop stealing, you're not a thief any more."

"Good. But if you keep thieving, you'll end up in jail."

---

Update: I just read this out loud to Chance. His response? Not a chuckle. Or a chortle. But instead, "Good."

Me: "Good?"

"Yes. I'm glad she knows what 'steal' means."

Me: ?????

"Every morning she comes in our room, and says, 'Can I steal the ipad?' I worried she didn't know what it meant."

I am the bus. That's what I've learned over the last two weeks. For the last ten years, I've been the cook. Now the kids can mash peanutbutter onto bread by themselves, and I'm the bus.

School started for Seph two weeks ago, and our homeschooling 'officially' began on Tuesday. Between the homeschooling activities, and Seph's after-school/social calendar, I'm the Little Minivan That Could.

7th grade is proving more work than 6th for Seph, which seems like the proper order of things. She's got French, Choir and Theater this year, all classes she'd been looking forward to. To accommodate all of this, she's not taking PE, and is taking dance classes 4 days a week to make up for it. She's got classes with many of her friends, and the new bus stop is more walkable. Overall, she's had a good start.

Rone and Tiny are slowly working into a school-like schedule, which involves far less screen time than they had become accustomed to, and also waking up before 9am. Both of these are big changes, after the Summer Of Minecraft and Sleeping In. They both start Wilderness Wednesdays next week. Cotton's got ballet, and Rone has soccer, and both have spelling/reading/math at home. I'm going to devise some sort of Chemistry unit at Rone's request.

Overall, I think we've got a happy schedule, and didn't over-commit. It's just when taken as a whole with Seph's schedule, my schedule, and Chance's car troubles (please be over! thank you Baby Jesus!) that things start to look wonky.

With the homestretch of 100 degree days upon us, the kids are glad to be busy again. We finally made it to the coast this summer, and with luck we'll be able to visit a few times this fall. Football Saturdays will keep Chance home, but the kids enjoy the beach more than he does--while he can crack open a Fireman's 4 at home, they can't build sandcastles in the living room.

Or at least they haven't yet. Don't bring that up, I don't think the Electrolux can deal with it.

Clearly, the attempt to blog the trip didn't pan out, but the trip itself went very well. We camped, we saw mountains, we visited Grandma, we ate pizza, we brought Grandma back with us, got spoiled at a resort, ate barbecue, and sent Grandma home before the heat of Texas summer addled her mind. 

Summer is zipping by. This cold spell we're having, with several days of clouds and thunderstorms, has been a great break. A not so great break is my oven exploding. What? Never had your oven decide what it's missing right now is fireworks and decide to create some of its own? You are missing an exciting thirty seconds, friends. Yellow sparks, blue sparks, a sizzling noise that will make you wonder if you need the fire department...a good time for all.  Happily, July in Texas isn't a time I like to use the oven, anyway.

The kids are having a good summer. Seph is at writing camp this week, which involves a story about vampire Bunnies. Rone is working on multiplication, and trying to swim full laps of the pool underwater. Cotton gave up floaties in the pool this summer, and is really hoping this summer is a Two Trips to Schlitterbahn Summer. 

That's Cotton with a duck at her cousin's party. Did you know you can rent a petting zoo? I did not either!

With Grandma at Jefferson Diner. Where far too many chocolate shakes were had. Me? I ate pierogis.

And this one is from a while ago, included because just *look* at Chance. That's gotta make you laugh.