Quick 5

Apparently I could not live in Seattle, because I have been extraordinarily happy about the sunshine this week. Weeks and weeks of rain is not my jam.

1. Remember how much I dislike March? And then this year I was all like, "Oh! March wasn't so bad!" Well, March decided to make up for it in May. This May has kicked my butt, and I fully blame March for that. I'm glad to see this month go.

2. Our Memorial Day festivities consisted of a walk around the lake at Clement Park. There were so many people there walking their dogs and witnessing us dragging a screaming toddler around the lake. There was no peace there for that hour. Bria wanted to walk when she was in the wagon, and then if she walked she wanted to be in the wagon of course. And then there was the idea she got in her head that we would be going IN the lake, and the world knew of her displeasure when she realized that we would not in fact be going in the lake. I can't decide if we don't do things because she's difficult, or if she's difficult because we've always just stuck close to home. And we also can't decide if we should just suck it up and stay home because she's difficult, or suck it up and deal with a screaming two-year-old and force her to go do things with us. Ah, the joys of a two-year-old.

The post-walk pass out

3. Of course God can take ALL things and work them out for the good, even the trivial things like flooded basements. Our carpets are finally dried, cleaned and freshly padded, so all that is left is putting things back together. But we're taking this opportunity to paint and organize in ways that we've always just put off before. Lee painted our smelly storage room, and the change has been dramatic. So much so that we have to stop calling it the Smelly Room. (That will be a hard habit to break.) We plan to build shelves in there, but we have family coming into town in a few weeks, so for now we're just stacking things again, this time in a much smarter way, with only plastic tubs touching the floor. Next step is to paint the whole basement, which again is a job we've been putting off, but since the furniture is moved out of the way anyway...

4. Our family crossed something off our bucket list this week: Cleaning Gum Out of Hair. Alaina's gum accidentally fell into Joya's hair. Joya was NOT pleased. But the peanut butter trick worked like magic, and no scissors had to be involved.

A very reluctant/forced thumbs up

 5. I finally decided that Alaina is old enough to make her own breakfast. All the breakfast stuff is out of reach (and needs to be thanks to a Food Sneaker in our house) so I still have to get down what she wants, but she is capable of preparing it.  For her first ever breakfast she chose to make peanut butter toast. So she did.  Both she and Joya were giddy with the idea that she was actually cooking. I look forward to her getting faster so maybe this can be her chore even during the school morning rushes. But she IS almost seven!

Coming up next week: Alaina's 7th Birthday Jubilee!