"And I mean it, Stanley!"

What a wonderful week this has been so far. I've taken the girls swimming at the pool in Thomasville, we've gone to see a movie "The Croods" at the Summer kid series. The girls have gone to school camp for the second time. And Daisy our beloved dog and I have been playing an interesting game regarding the fence in the back yard.

A little over a year ago, a LARGE pine tree fell in our back yard. It took out a portion of our chain link fence. My husband insisted that he would cut up the pine tree and fix the fence. Now a year later, yes I still have a pine tree in the back yard. The chain saw apparently stopped working as he was cutting up the tree... and no one had found time to fix the back of the fence. But for 11 months Daisy didn't notice that there was a whole in the fence where the tree had bent it. She didn't realize how easy it would be to leave the dog yard and run around free.

BUT, during the past month she has noticed and so we've begun our game. I barricade the hole as best I can. Then she devises ways to get around my barricade. She's dug holes, used her paws to move things, climbed onto cinder blocks to boost her jump out of the fence etc. It's been an interesting game. My barricades have typically worked for a hour or a day, but then Daisy finds a way around them.

First I moved an old bicycle in front of the fence, then our wheel barrow, an old ladder, a cinder block, branches from the old pine tree, lids to our sandboxes, etc....

And finally, I decided that I would take the "extra" portion of the chain link fencing that my husband had left in the corner of the dog yard and wrap it around my barricade. It worked! The extra fencing was the key, but I worried she'd lift that up, so I added partially filled paint cans to hold the fencing down.

As my barricade grew I kept thinking of a children's book that I love. It is entitled And I mean it, Stanley!  In the book a child is building a sculpture out of junk and talking to Stanley as he/she builds the sculpture. Stanley isn't listening or so the child thinks. So he/she keeps telling Stanley about it, but going on to say "Don't you look, don't you even peek." At the end of the story, Stanley a large shaggy dog comes tearing through the fence that he/she is on the other side and knocks down the child's sculpture and covers the child with kisses. The child is thrilled!

So as I've built my barricade I've thought about how Daisy and I are playing a game like the child and Stanley! It truly is a really beautiful thing!

STANLEY!

Summer reflections on life and motherhood

It's relatively early evening and quiet in my house. Josh is in bed nursing a sinus infection that he brought back from NYC. The girls both fell asleep right about 8 P.M. Miracle of miracles! Ella Rose did object to heading to bed at a fairly normal (school year bedtime). She said, "But it's not even dark yet?!?!" How, I remember feeling the same way as a child and I'm so thankful it's not the school year, but man did I need those little ones to go to bed.

Don't get me wrong...I love them to pieces and they know that. In fact, the two stories we read tonight were No Matter What and My Little love bug they giggled their way through them as I read it to each of them. Ella Rose said she was my Cherry Pie, and Evie Alice announced she was my watermelon gum! :) I truly enjoyed the message from both that I love them dearly and the no matter what!

Then I settled down and finished reading Mother's Night Out granted I've not had a night out so that I could go see it, but I am eagerly looking forward to seeing it when Amazon gets it on instant video streaming. Yay! And I could so relate to this book. No, not the worrying about salmonella or such, but I could relate to the overwhelming feeling of taking care of it all while my husband is out of town. I'm sure many other women can too...after all it wouldn't be the success it is, if they couldn't.

And I loved how well the book relates that none of us Momma's feel like we've got it together or are doing as good of a job as should! Isn't that the truth. I'll never forget commenting on that to a friend of mine down here in South Georgia and her telling me that none of the other moms including herself had it any more together, that they were just faking it. I don't know about for others, but this book definitely dove deeply into my psyche.

And the whole fiasco involving their night out was so bizarre it could have been real!

I did have a "day out" this week and painted my front porch as a result. No majorly bizarre events occurred as a result of my day out, but I did joke that other Moms go to the grocery, and clean the house when their children are gone. I paint the front porch! I'm sure my husband in trembling in his boots as he thinks about my having 5 hours each day to myself come fall.

Anyway, it's been a wonderful day.  The girls and I visiting a local grocery that is closing down and stocked up on some really, really good deals. We also visited the farmers market, and our free vegetable store.

Which reminds me of another side note. While at the farmers market the girls were pushing for me to buy cucumbers, and cabbage and bell peppers. These are all things they dearly love! Seriously! They will bite into any of them raw and tear leaves off the cabbage just because they feel like eating cabbage at random moments through the day, but I refused. I explained we don't buy those things. Why would we when we can get them for free. When we drove a few yards (maybe 100 yards but probably not that) down the parking lot we saw three "road kill" cabbages that we loaded up to bring home along with our already vast spread of produce and other miscellaneous plunder.

After we got all that unloaded, and had a bit to eat we headed out to our free vegetable source (no, not our back yard) but Southern Valley, and loaded up on a grocery bag full of bell peppers and at least 3-4 bags full of cucumbers, as well as quite a few squash and zucchini.

I sent some over to the neighbors and still have more than enough for our fridge. So needless to say, it's been a great day.

Not only did all that happen successfully, but I got to enjoy a supper with my family. A quiet evening visiting by phone with a good friend in Texas and my best friend, my Momma sharing my favorite quote from the book with them both, "The hand that rocks the cradle is the hand that rules the world." You know...that's true!!!

It does make me realize the importance even more of what I'm doing day to day. I also realized just today that it's been just over two years since I became a fulltime stay at home Momma. If often feels much longer, but just as rewarding as always.

Well, there's a strong storm blowing through our way..so before it decides to visit with my laptop, I'm going say goodnight. And I hope that all Mommas out there realize how important the job is that they are doing. We may not all do it the same, and none of us may be able to live up to the expectations we set for ourselves when it comes to parenting, but our best is more than enough!

Good night!