Whew!

What a day!

Today started at 7:30.  Kevin is sick, so I heard him barking in the bedroom first thing this morning (I crashed on the couch because Livi wanted to sleep with Daddy and I didn't feel like moving her when I was ready for bed).  Poor guy.  He got sick Monday night and has been down for the count since then.  He plans to try to go to work tomorrow, but we'll see about that.  He usually gets worse in the night. 

Benjamin's piano lessons started again today.  His teacher arrived at 9.  Once she got here, I ran to Walmart to grab something for our homeschool group's Not Back To School Party. 

When Benjamin's piano lessons were over, I slathered the children in sunscreen and we headed out for the NBTSP at the new splash pad in town.  To say that it was hot would be ridiculous.  It was miserable.  Since this is the official kickoff for the school year, there were tons of families at today's park day, and we all crammed ourselves under this one pavilion.  I should have sat at the other one, but that seems a bit anti-social.  Anyway, the kids had a blast.

We got home at around 12:45 and spent some time with Kevin.  I threw in laundry and folded a load.  Then I played a bit of Paper Mario with Benjamin.  He's really been enjoying that.

Later we went to the neighbor's house to keep her 4 little girls for about an hour and a half.  I did a little work while I was there to bless her, and left feeling happy.

When we got back, I made some homemade chicken soup for Kevin.  We all had dinner before I headed over to the other neighbor's house for a new Bible study that started tonight.

It was a crazy day, but I feel great about how everything went.  I've been praying a lot lately about God helping me to handle my stress better.  I don't want to fuss at the children or my husband simply because I'm feeling anxious.  It seems to be helping lately.

In other news.....

Olivia has declared that she would like to learn to read NOW.  She insists that I teach her immediately.  Once she realized that she had to learn all of her ABCs in order to read, she knocked them all out in about a week and a half.  I was blown away!  I guess that when she really wants something......  Anyway, we started learning what vowels are now.  We sing Old McDonald with AEIOU at the end instead of EIEIO.  It feels a bit ridiculous to be teaching my 4 year old about vowels and phonics, but we're going to do it anyway.  She's excited.  It is fun to have her walking around saying, "buh-buh-buh banana" and "mmm mmm mmm Mommy!!" 

Benjamin is spending lots of time making new creations with his Legos.  He finally moved out of the room that he and Olivia were sharing and into the office.  He really enjoys having his own space.  He builds creations and doesn't worry about his sister playing with them (aka destroying them).  We bought him a new bed.  We decided on a captain's bed because it has drawers underneath where he can store his Legos.  It came with a trundle, but we decided not to put the mattress there and, instead, are letting him use it to store his completed creations.

That's what's up!