In which we meet The Phantom of the Farmyard.

A whole bunch o' summer snapshots.

The Phantom makes an appearance.

The county fair brings out the crazy.

(that's the only Hannah picture in this post - not because she's been doing nothing, but because everything she's doing I have blog posts planned for)

Gray tries to convince us he's old enough to water ski.

The youngest get their groove on at an outdoor concert.

Ains makes a wish upon a star.

Seriously. That's what she's doing - with her little clasped hands and her upturned face on a horse bareback by herself. I think I deserve an award for not eating her up before now. Better than chocolate, that cuteness.

Skippy Jane Jones tried to ride Gray's trike.

But she got distracted by the ribbons. It could happen to even the most reasonable kitten.

There was air travel.

Though she's declared that she doesn't want to be a space traveler. "I'm gonna be that wady that twains seals at the ocean." So that's that.

Play in the living room in a life jacket.

Just in case. Better safe than sorry.

This had nothing to do with the fact that I overran the bathtub last week. He's too young to connect the dots. I hope.

Boat rides.

And we've still got a month of summer!

Yee haw, Cowboy!

It's a ritual everywhere, isn't it?

The backyard campout.

My girls thought of doing it at 8:30 at night, so it was getting dark when we set it up.

Then Hannah brought out 29 books for us to read, they fell asleep, and it thundered and poured all night long. It was surprisingly relaxing. The girls slept in the next morning.

It's not like waking up in the forest, but it's not like waking up in your bed either.

Definitely more exciting than the boring old bed.

I did not teach him that.

Sometimes our kids do stuff and we don't know where they learned it. Like when Hannah was barely three and walked into the room with a pool noodle that she'd jammed two knitting needles into sitting on her shoulder, aiming it and saying "Pew! Pew! Pew pew pew!!!"

She'd made her own bazooka and we still don't know where she got the idea.

Yesterday when I was doing chores, I looked over to see Gray sitting on the grass-shooter-tube-thingy that we had taken off of the lawn mower, aiming it around at things and giggling maniacally when his sisters pretended to run away screaming. The dogs just looked bemused.

Once again, I don't know where he got the idea.

But the one thing both kids' inventions have in common is that they didn't go for little handheld stick varieties - they went straight for the big stuff. Should I be worried or proud?

Filling our days.

Making flags. "Mercan flags" with stars and stripes and everything.

Drawing super-heroes.

Origami.

Lovin'.

Three very unique children.

We went on our nightly walk down the 'farm road' tonight and I was struck by how unique these kids are.

There's Hannah wearing high heels and with a teddy bear safety pinned to her shirt.

There's Gray with a life jacket and a badminton racket.

There's Ains with her bunny (and eventually her shoes) tied to her handlebars.

On the way home, she let Gray do what he loves most of all these days - sitting on her back fender while she pedals.

It's very generous of her because it doubles her work load.

Button Venn diagrams.

Yesterday I wrote "Ains is busy dividing her button stash into 'pretty' and 'cute' piles. She deliberates a long time over some of the buttons - one button got over three minutes of thought out (out loud) debate." on Facebook. Laura said "Sounds like a Venn diagram is in order!" That sounded too cool to pass up, so we did it.

She caught on really fast and was sorting for over an hour.

Then she found some that were neither cute nor pretty but 'awesome' and 'cool' and one was even 'stupendous'. These got their own space outside of the diagram because she didn't want me to draw her a new one.

It's amazing how closely she had to study some of them to get the classification just right.

Hannah wanted to do one, so I made her a diagram with her specifications - 'cute', 'pretty', and 'interesting'.

She's played a Venn diagram game on Zoombinis - Island Odyssey, so she was off and running as soon as I put it in front of her.

*If you want to connect on Facebook, just email me at unprocessedfamily at gmail dot com.

Remember when we had 14 year olds visiting?

Now it's 11-year-olds. Two of them.







And we're having so much fun.

Found on the camera.

Looks like a Hannah picture.

This one's an Ainsley picture. Lemon peel on a kitten head.

Must be a Hannah picture. (Ains got an itty bitty fracture on her arm.)


I love little discoveries like this. They help me protect the kittens better in the future.

How's she fitting in?

It's been four months since Bella came home.

She's doing just fine.

Look at that. I mean, really. They were made for each other. One loves to dote, the other loves to be doted on. They take turns.

I'm not saying that she's happy with *everything* that goes on around here.

The cats she could do without.

I know it looks like she's hiding her face in the bag in that picture. She is. Skippy Jane Jones is a cranky kitty.

But on the whole, her life is pretty dang perfect. She has a little girl who thinks she's a princess (which is convenient, since *she* thinks she's a princess' dog), acres to chase voles in and a cocker spaniel who can dispatch of the voles she finds, a momma cat who will sometimes deign to play tag with her, another little girl who loves to rough house with her when she's in the mood, a little boy who loves to cuddle with her when he's in his car seat, a big, gruff man who pets her when he thinks noone is looking, and a woman who is secretly making plans to make her a new bag for Christmas because she not-so-secretly adores her (though that plan is not selfless, as it means that the woman won't have to look at the leopard print bag anymore).

And that, my friends, was the longest sentence I've ever written.

I'm that mom.

Impromptu blog carnival inspired by Flo and Ronnie

I'm that mom you see smiling as her kids go *up* the slide at an uncrowded park.

I'm that mom whose son led her to the freezer this morning, got out the ice cream for me, and I put some in a bowl for him.

I'm that mom who goes shopping with one daughter in high heels, fancy dress-up clothes that she's 'improved', and a hat that would put any Derby hat to shame, one daughter in a pirate/superhero mash-up outfit, and a son with painted nails pushing a stroller with his baby doll in it.

I'm that mom who doesn't join in conversations about bedtimes, tv/computer restrictions, food restrictions, or joy that school is about to start back up. But I *am* that mom who you hear talking to her kids about everything so that you may hear my child asking for some cheese because she 'needs more protein' or asking if I can help her find a 'sanctuary' so that she can have some alone time to regroup.

I'm that mom whose kids use ... um ... grownup words. That they may have learned from me. And I may sometimes be proud of them for using them in context. Maybe.

I'm that mom who annoys you by saying 'yes' to almost everything and rearranging her schedule as much as possible to suit her children's wants - because I happen to think they're as important as mine.

I'm that mom talking to her kids instead of smacking them if they display 'inappropriate' behavior.

Speaking of that ...

I'm that mom who will never be *my* mom. Or dad. I'm that mom who will never hit my child. I'm that mom who struggles mightily some days with behaviors and mindsets I was taught about children, with patience, with exhaustion, with patience, with frustration, with patience ... Yeah, I'm that mom for sure.

I'm that mom who thinks that kids are not a subspecies that need to be trained and molded, but little humans who deserve to be respected and loved and appreciated for who they are, right now, not who they might be or will be. I'm that mom that thinks that being my child's friend is an honor, not a failure as a parent.

Hopefully, I'm that mom that will raise children who respect others, believe in themselves, and live happy lives.

That will be my greatest achievement, to be that mom.

And I'm that woman that tries to understand and support you as you are your own 'type' of mom - because we women need that.

At the library.

Lemonade to go.

One of my favorite crafty blogs, Wee Folk Art, posted this common-sense (which means it had never occurred to me) method of taking lemonade to the garden with you. I was all over that. I changed the recipe to suit us. It's simply freshly squeezed lemon juice (with lime or grapefruit juice added in if those are laying around), about 10 drops of stevia, ice and water. Yum. Tons of taste, no sugar.


When I saw this tutorial that the same blog did for making a cover for the quart jar - well, I threw out my nervousness about working with wool and the girls and I jumped in with both feet.

The kids really loved playing with all of the different colors.

And the designs on the girl's jars changed several times. Hannah didn't end up with a smiley face on her final design.


The felting process took longer than I thought it would.

Ains gave up, so Gray took over for her.

Since I've never felted before, it was a steep learning curve. There were a few areas on Ainsley's that had to be stitched together and there's a spot on the bottom of mine that's thin. Hannah's, however, is pretty near perfect. Here they are before they got trimmed and stitched.

(From left to right - Hannah's, Ainsley's, mine)

And after.

Mine

Hannah (she did her own stitching)

Ainsley

And we love them - and use them - as much as I thought we would.

If you're not paying attention...

You know those days that seem like nothing got done? Yesterday was one of those days. There were chores, then play, then a birthday party at a friend's house, then play, more chores, and bed.

If you're not paying attention, it feels like nothing got done. Then I go back over the pictures and we really did get stuff - besides chores - done.

We got to meet one of the coolest dogs I've ever met.

His name's Aristotle. That just adds to his cool factor.

Gray got to play with a different tractor and wagon, which in his book is a day well spent.

Several hours were spent dressing up and rehearsing for a Cinderella play, though the director would get frustrated when her Cinderella would take 'hula breaks'.

And Hannah set up a picnic for the family in the flower garden, complete with a plate tailor made for each person - chips for daddy, peas for Gray, fruit for mother, and (since she couldn't find any chocolate bars) Nutella coated chopsticks for Ains.

We got the good stuff done.

You are my sunshine.

One of three sunshines.
You make me happy, when skies are gray.

You'll never know, dear, how much I love you.

Please don't take my sunshine away.