Influence

Last night Lucy laughed and laughed when I kissed her soft little cheeks. How sobering that she adores me so much, in fact measures perfection by, "Is it as good as Momma?" The weight of influence is enormous.

Statistically, no one will probably influence our children more than Craig and I. Wow! Most influential players of the year or rather life! Really makes me evaluate how I am spending my time, attitude, strength, joy. If more is actually caught than taught I better get busy on really being the person God created me to be!

Cleaning Day

Lesson of the day: If you want them to clean, get 'em a squirt bottle!
Jack thinks he's gonna get to spray it. Haha, not on your life! "Wax on, wax off, baby!"



















Enter Momma armed with basil scented cleaning spray that gave her a warm happy feeling about cleaning. Never had that before!? Haha!














Smells good, nice stout spray, yes, we'll clean!



















Jack is wondering if he gets to keep the rag at the end. Most days he plows through a dozen wet wipes "cleaning" around the house. Our rule: if the wet wipe is dirty it means you were cleaning. I'm beginning to think this could back fire!



















Now, do squirt bottles work on laundry?!

Jane, Jack, and Lulie

"Say, 'Jesus, will you come live in my heart?'" I hear Janie in the back seat of the suburban a couple of days ago. She then announces that Jack is going to be in heaven too when we die. Lulu, she's on to you next.




















"I'm just sitting here with my heart listening to Jesus...God is in the sky and in my heart," she says.




















Praying the other night Jack was really rowdy. Part way through I realized he was fiddling with Lulu and saying in his best big brother voice, "Pray, Lulu. Pray! Pray Lulu.." Didn't help that she totally doesn't get the idea of closing her eyes, which is the universal sign of, "I'm praying!"

Tagged?

Someone tagged me. I'm not exactly sure what that means...
Here is my best guess:

7 Facts of Life
1. Cheese and chocolate are my two favorite food groups.

2. Craig freaks out when I drive. Yes, I have a license and drive in the lines, okay, most of the time.

3. I love cap guns. Sounds totally politically incorrect, but I played, "Bang-you're-dead" as a kid and still love to play guns.

4. Day lilies are my favorite flower. We have maybe 20 different varieties in our gardens.

5. My grampa is a doctor and a gem cutter. I once lost a precious gem in a rushing river building a rock dam and almost couldn't get the mangled setting off my finger.

6. I watch one hour of TV per week: Fox News Sunday. Emma's take on it: "Are you gonna watch TV? Good, 'cause I was gonna tell you TV rots your brain."

7. I was once bit by a dog jogging. We briefly wondered if the dog had been vaccinated, determined it had, then the bite area swolled up giant, got infected, and finally drained a couple of weeks later.


Does this mean I get to tag someone now?

Patch Day

Today is a patch day. I sure miss getting to see both of those big blue eyes blinking back at me.













Love that baby.

Shaving

Yes, it's real blood. This big boy saw daddy shaving and wanted to be a big man too. In his words: "Momma look, that blood on there."

Cowboys!

Halloween. The kids are dressed as cowboys. Emma informs us she wants to use her gun for hunting. In her words, she wants to, "stick the gun in the water and shoot, so she can bring us back some fish." Oh, won't Daddy be proud.




















"Like this, Honey."















Jack can't get his gun to engage the caps. He tires of trying to pull the "treasure" and resorts to sucking on the end of the pistol between gun fights with bears and "bad guys". In Jack's words, "My see bear. Shoot. Shoot."














The safety, what?!


















































There's a new sheriff in town!














Let's load this puppy.














And, no, Lulu did not go as a pirate. She was the pretty maid the cowboys were all a-rescuing.