Bits: Have to Laugh

Our town and many areas around us were hit with a sudden and freak storm while we were on vacation.  It left many without power for several days.  We would have been one of those people, suffering through the intense heat.  Thankfully a kind neighbor emptied our fridge and though, sadly, we lost a lot of food-- we were spared the hard week and we didn't lose our home.  So we feel pretty grateful.

To thank this neighbor, who is often up for lending a hand, I stayed up till 1:00 am waiting for the bread maker to finish the dough cycle so I could take him a loaf for a surprise breakfast treat.  Of course when I went to open the machine, the kneader was missing which meant I did not have bread dough.  I had a large, sticky glob of 2.5 hour nothingness.

This kind of marks the week following our great big vacation high and, well, I gotta laugh.

More?

So, the girls are cranky; I finally put down all my bill paying and laundry doing and catching up madness to take them outside.  With cries of, "Sandbox!!" we find the thing has been washed out-- but I rallied.  Finally found the extra bag of sand in reserves and filled 'er up.   Moments later I am stung by a nasty bee for no good reason, which left a nasty mark for days. I slather on a baking soda concoction and rally again.  Make us some sidewalk paint and try the front yard until more bees come to join us with a side of giant ant hill uncovered by a crying Alysse.

Hope loses her second tooth and we are careful, oh so careful, to not lose the tiny extracted thing like the last time.  In a spirit of pretending and with great excitement, we place it under her pillow.  The next morning I hear sobs from the top bunk one room over.  Her tooth was still there!  Yep, I totally forgot to take it and make the dollar exchange.

There are more of these little stories to be sure, but that's what I love about this space.  I take the good with the bad, shake it up, and smile.

Laugh even.

Bits come 'round whether we're on vacation or secretly wishing we never left. :)
*****

:: The backyard started out as lovely.  Reunited with sandbox and pink "fwing."
:: The front yard momentarily didn't look half bad either.

Silver lining: After I whined about our afternoon, Joe came home and we (mostly he) cut down extra brush and weed eated and sprayed again.  Blessed man.

:: When all else fails, make a great pasta salad.  Eat dinner indoors on a picnic blanket and watch some Veggie Tales.  Get an attitude check to the tune of Bob and Larry.

:: I can hardly forget this once bald baby girl, who continued to have little hair until after her second birthday-- all the while wishing that her locks would "grow up."  They have, and so has she.  She is turning four this week, I hear.

:: Which means we're creating all little things girly, garden and fairy.  Overall, we're just not believing she's coming on that old.

On to the third and fourth coats for my Goodwill $5 party cart find.

:: Best of all, we met up with some great missionary friends in from Africa.  The men here go way back, and I have always loved how Joe cares about his friends.  We hadn't seen their crew since the last time they were stateside and graciously made the trek to see us.  It was too short, but really good.

Miss you, Gilmers!

These are the ordinary, trying weeks that I actually love to have recorded.  For one day I'll want to remember flopped bread, gloppy and barely used sidewalk paint, ant hills, and those valiant attempts at lemonade out of lemons.  Otherwise I might not recall how I rallied at dark thirty in the morning and slyly stuffed a buck into Hope's favorite stuffed animal.  How I helped dry up those tears after suggesting she look again.

How we, indeed, laughed and then went to make breakfast.
~Katrina