Today was our first Tuesday in a long time with no obligations or commitments. I am not one for scheduling a lot of things for the children while they are small. I like our life to be simple with lots of time to just be together. I spent a lot of my time in the kitchen with my little helpers at my feet. They have the whole house to play in, a basement full of toys, but they prefer to be close by and today I wasn't about to complain. While I baked there were children hiding in the pantry smooshing their faces against the glass to make me laugh, a child snuggling the puppy at my feet and the baby squirming on the floor.
When the first pan of cookies came out of the oven I hardly had time to take a picture of them before they were all gone. While the music played, the toddler danced and the timer counted down until the next pan would be ready I reviewed some reading material with Hyrum at the table. We used flash cards to make funny sentences and laughed together. He has really taken a liking to reading and it makes me so happy to see him learning! Between words he would stuff his warm cookie into his mouth and giggle. It made me wish that I could be a kid again.
After lunch a pair of lemons were sitting on my counter begging to be used. Hyrum mixed together the ingredients for lemon bread while I nursed Ollie to sleep. He was happy to crack all of the eggs and we got to talk a little bit about math. "You've got one egg in there already, and you need four. How many more eggs do you need to crack?" He carefully placed the loaf pans into the oven and I set the timer. I went downstairs and gave the little boys fresh cloth diapers and then Finley crawled up on my lap and let out a sigh of contentment. I snuggled him into my shoulder and brought him up to his bed for naptime. He woke to fresh lemon bread and sunshine.
In the early afternoon the skies cleared and the sun came out. After almost four days of constant snow it was much welcomed! Despite the chilly temperatures Finley came waltzing into the nursery with one snow boot and his diapered bottom begging to go into the yard and play. All of the boys suited up in their snow gear and headed out to enjoy the fresh snow!
As I watched them play the bird house caught my eye. It looked like such a cozy little home with all of the snow on top, and I couldn't help but smile and wish for the same cozy feelings to be present in our own home. The big boys headed off to play on the big snow mountains at the park while Finley and I opted to warm up in front of the fire. He played a game of Tug with Reese before we wandered upstairs for a cup of hot chocolate. Camilla came home just as I was putting the kettle on and opted to stay home and join us for hot chocolate instead of playing with her brothers at the park. She went ahead and changed the music to her favorite songs and gave me a wink while I grabbed her a few cookies from the cookie jar.
The boys came home fighting and then seconds later they were both laughing hysterically over something. Boys are so peculiar sometimes. I opted for roast beef sandwiches for dinner because it was easy and let the children have some extra free time to play since Daddy was heading to young men's early. The boys started talking about how fun it was to play "tackle" with Daddy yesterday and then Joseph begged me to play tackle with them after I finished my sandwich. We all went down to the basement and they cleared a spot to wrestle. It was hardly fair since it was four against one. I was on the floor with Finley kissing me all over my face and the older three tickling me to death! It's been a long time since I've laughed that hard. They thought it was hilarious and I loved every second.
While the boys were bathing a friend stopped by with some delicious pizza buns and cinnamon rolls. It felt so nice to be thought of and helped me feel a little less lonely! It's so nice to know that people care.
While the boys were bathing a friend stopped by with some delicious pizza buns and cinnamon rolls. It felt so nice to be thought of and helped me feel a little less lonely! It's so nice to know that people care.
And now here I sit with my legs tucked up in my nighty listening to the hum of the dishwasher and the clicking of the keys as I type. I sent our tired Daddy off to bed early after a long day at work and an evening with the youth. I have just finished doing the nightly rounds where I pull the covers back up to the children's chins and give them one last kiss. They have all been asleep for a couple of hours now and are hopefully dreaming good dreams.
In a few minutes I will be tucking into bed with extra gratitude in my heart. When Mr. Stannix came home he apologized for the hard day that I must have had (with him being so busy and no one else here to help with the children). Usually, days like this are difficult, but today I was able to give a half smile and pull out my camera to show him all of the joy that I tried to capture today with my lens. Life can be hard, but there is always good to find, sometimes it just takes a little extra effort.
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