Healing days

filling up the pots

fiona giving a hand

caelan's pot of mints

the three pots: strawberries, mints and herbs

playing board games

yes, that is logan

sidewalk paint

much funner to just pour out

mixing

cae thought it looked like a map

rowan doing the dishes

rinsing

hey, hey guy!

adding color to the play dough

daddy played too

logan at the piano

 We have been plagued with much sickness here this past week. No visits with friends, school days missed, lots of fevers, coughs, and general feelings of yuck. But in amongst the nastiness there have been some bright spots. There were some board games played. We recently got a new to us game called "The aMAZEing Labyrinth"  , it is a very fun and easy to play game, so even Rowan can play. We worked a bit in the garden, the little boys each got a pot to fill with what ever they wanted. I took them to the garden store and each picked out a few plants. Rowan wanted only strawberries, Caelan wanted 4 different types of mint, and Sagan picked out 5 different types of herbs (he thought they would help with the cooking.). We tried out a cool project called sidewalk paint. I found the recipe here. I am feeling that maybe there wasn't enough water or something, it dried so quickly on the brushes, BUT it was still fun to pour out and mix up on the drive way. I also made up some homemade play dough and we used kool aid to color and scent it, we even got daddy in on it. So many beautiful bright colors, that lasted all of about 1 hour. Now we have a huge pile of brownish green dough that smells like a wild fruit salad. Logan has blessed us with some wonderful piano music and Mike has even moved the drums around so that maybe they will be easier for our left handed drummer to get his groove on.
I have even learned to relax a bit and just let some stuff go. As much as I have always wanted to just be ok with certain things, it has taken me alot of years to just be OK with some things. During this week I have let both Rowan and Cae do the afternoon dishes if they felt like it. I know for alot of homes this isn't a big deal but for some reason I have always just said "no" to this. This week I said "yes" and they had a great time and did a wonderful job. I am thinking I may never have to do dishes again!
I have slowly been reading through "Simplicity Parenting" and I am really liking it. It truly speaks to me and what I have wanted for my family. I am slow, ever so slowly removing things from the house. Next weekend the TV will be leaving the house (yet again. we were TV free for some time and only since we moved back to Arizona 18 months ago have we had a TV again), we will also be canceling the cable. It should be an interesting transition, we have become so use to having it around again. But it feels so freeing. The living room will become a room for living and not just watching.
Our healing days have been very nice and comforting. It has been so refreshing to spend some time at home just being here together. The weather has been so amazingly beautiful and the time we spend outside has just be such a blessing. This is truly the very best time of the year in Arizona. The nights are cool, the days just warm enough. No heater or cooler needed, windows open to let in the breeze, the scent of citrus and creosote blooming... ahhh. Just heavenly.