TWENTY-FOUR

I love gardening. It fills my soul. And it makes me itch to read Little House books. And I am 5th in line at the library for the new Pioneer Girl biography and I'm dying from the 121 day wait time!!!

2015 week twenty-four

Beautiful early summer week full of gardening and playing.

Mopping the floors means a fun fort for V -which she is suddenly way into. 

For family night we got to tour a 911 call center with our neighborhood watch group. 

The last of the garlic from the garden, and I finally learned how to braid it properly.

And... The highlight of our week was cousins moving to Texas! We kicked it off by getting ridiculously messy at a Messy Party. It was the best thing ever for the dozens of kids running around screaming -and, well, yes, crying a little too. But mostly the screams were those of unfiltered-shaving-cream-smeared joy.

First jello. And Grant was really mad at me that I was watching them and smiling. :)

Such a good idea to just give kids jello to play with. I haven't eaten jello in years, and I totally wanted to eat it. 

The shaving cream joy was entered into tentatively by some...

And whole heartedly by others.

very whole heartedly. 

Drawing with chalk with cousins. Vera wakes up asking about cousins and goes to bed asking about cousins. She loves loves loves the cousins.

Vera has quickly learned that she loves to try on clothes: papa's shirts, mama's shoes, aprons, hats, swim suits, beads ... dog sweaters.

I promise I don't talk about Doctor Who all that often and certainly not to Vera -I'm not saying I don't dream about/think about Doctor Who all the time, I just don't gush about it to my toddler. But every time we have to go to the doctor's office, she chants in the back seat, "Doctor Who! Doctor Who! Doctor Who!" I don't know where it came from and I secretly love it.

V has started whispering and sometimes it's really annoying because she's trying to tell me something but every time I ask her to repeat herself she says it quieter and quieter. It kind of drives me nuts. I tried to talk to her about how I can't understand her when she whispers so quietly, but all it did was get her to yell quite loudly, "I CANT WHISPER!" and then proceed to whisper quieter and quieter... The other day she was just quietly mumbling "melissess" over and over. I think she's casting spells.

When we tell her that she cant do something because it will "break it/hurt her/be sad/etc" she will tell us that she wants to cut her fingers or fall or be sad, etc. She tried to grab the Bible out of my hand and I told her that she has to be gentle with the Bible because we don't want to break it. She nodded her head earnestly and said, "I want to break the Bible! Break the Bible!"

Trying to raise a toddler causes a lot of second guessing and wondering and I was trying to define clearly what I want to raise my children to feel like their duty and purpose is in this life. At least right now I think my feelings are most closely aligned with the idea that I want my children to enter into the world with the task of Making the world a better place and Making the world a more beautiful place. I think that is something I could teach them and not second guess or worry about.