Making room for what's important

At 2:22 AM, the National Weather Service issued a tornado warning for our immediate area, siting funnel clouds in a nearby town, heading our direction at 45 miles per hour. Shortly thereafter, tornado sirens began wailing throughout our little city. My first thought, as I fought through the sleepy fog, was that some horrible accident must have occurred and the hospital near our house was experiencing a higher than normal volume of ambulance traffic. A couple of moments later, I realized it was the severe weather warning, but I thought it must be a mistake because it wasn't even raining. At almost the same instant that thought entered my mind, the rain started, and I sat bolt upright and grabbed my phone to check the weather. Jeff asked me what was wrong, and, as we both realized we already knew the answer, we jumped out of bed and hit the lights. One flickering of the electricity was all it took for us to start collecting sleepy children from the other bedrooms.

This house lacks a true safe room, so we made the split-second decision to put everyone in the master closet, following the tornado rules we've memorized as long-time Texas residents. I began literally throwing shoes and other clutter out of the relatively small space, in order to make room for my people. It was then that I realized I just have too much stuff.

I have been trying to live a minimalistic lifestyle ever since we got rid of everything and headed off on our RTW trip. But, suddenly, my stuff was getting in the way of my people, and it just seemed like too much. I was wondering how it even all got there and how I hadn't noticed it piling up before. But I hadn't noticed it before because it hadn't interfered with the safety of my family, and I had just been lazily letting it accumulate.

This morning, I woke up bound and determined to make room in my closet--and my life--for what's truly important. I'm not saying I'm happy we all had to gather in the closet in the middle of the night or that I want a repeat performance, though I'm ready for it if it's forced upon me. What I can tell you is that everything that's important to me was in my closet last night, and it darn sure wasn't my shoes!

Independence Day

We were among the last Americans to celebrate the 4th of July, but, boy, did we have a good time! The Westin resort where we're staying really did it up right, and we had such a fantastic day! It all started with the pool being completely filled up with red, white, and blue beach balls for the kids to play with and take home. We also received patriotic leis and frisbees and little flags to get us in the spirit.

There was supposed to be a flower drop in the middle of the morning, but there were technical difficulties and the flowers didn't actually drop. However, the nets were later ripped open and orchids were distributed throughout the crowd. There were also several fun lawn games, which the boys thoroughly enjoyed playing.

Around noon, the boys participated in watermelon eating contests. Weston was the clear winner of the 6-12 division, but Max also won a prize. And, everyone in the 5-year-old division got a prize for participating.

Later, Clay participated in the hula hoop contest. When I was walking him over to it, he asked what you were supposed to do in a hula hoop contest. I told him he just needed to keep the hula hoop up around his waist. "That's easy!" he said. "Oh," I said, "Are you pretty good at keeping it spinning and not letting it fall to the ground?" "Well," he replied, "That part is hard."

After a lunch of footlong hot dogs, the older boys got in on the pie eating contest, which Weston saw as personal challenge, possibly the event his whole life has been building up to. He took it seriously and came out with one of the top prizes. We laughed and cheered and had a wonderful time.

And, then, we had shave ice. Because, that's what all the prizes had been throughout the day. And, because it was the 4th of July. And, what's an American celebration without a fair amount of gluttony thrown in?!

Before leaving the pool deck, we played three games of BINGO, but, though we were often this close, none of us managed to raise the victory cry. But, by then, we were all in a sugar coma, so the disappointment rolled right off our backs. Besides, we had a table at a Mexican food restaurant on the beach with our name on it, and chips and salsa can cure a whole lot of hurts.

After dinner, we walked down the beach to catch the spectacular fireworks, which were launched from a barge in the ocean. There were many that were quite unique, and, as always, we were dazzled by all of them!

Independence Day is one of our family's very favorite holidays, and this one was particularly fun, even though we definitely missed having Ruth with us. We may just have to give it another shot next year so she can join us! ;)

Having a ball on the 4th of July

Lawn games

Showered with flowers

Watermelon Eating Contest

Hula Hoop Contest

Pie Eating Contest

Shave Ice

Some beach time before the fireworks

Happy Independence Day!

Purangi Winery and Hot Water Beach

This afternoon we finally saw the sun for the first time in a long time, so we divided our time between the Purangi Winery and the Hot Water Beach. The winery is a funky little place, with fun activities, wood-fired pizzas, and a variety of adult beverages to sample. The beach has a hot spring under it, and, at low tide, you can dig holes in the sand to bring the hot water up. It feels pretty much just like bath water and is a phenomenon I have never before experienced. What the kids liked better than the hot water, though, were the huge rocky and forested hills along the beach, with all their caves and climbing challenges and mud. They explored all the nooks and crannies and seriously had to be hosed down before we could let them in the house. In their book, it was the mark of a good day. And, in my book, any day at the beach is a good day!

Purangi Winery

Plants of Purangi

Foosball at the winery

Delicious wood-fired pizzas

Hot Water Beach

I do not ever get tired of watching the waves

All these people are digging for hot water and creating their own little hot tubs

My little mountain goats

Climbing makes this boy so very happy

Peek-a-boo

Ready to explore the cave

Up and up they go

Clay's little rock pony

Necessity is the mother of invention

Yesterday morning, my favorite "three boy," who has recently gotten rid of most of his toys and was, I think, honestly just looking for something creative to do, had found some scissors and shredded a little book and some important papers of mine. Some time after we had cleaned up that mess, and I had chastised the boy for touching things that don't belong to him, I found him hiding in his room with a black marker (dry-erase, not permanent, thank goodness) writing all over his body and the floor. Before I could pull all of my hair out, Jeff suggested that Clay probably just needed a good, authorized art project. Since we are lacking in craft supplies, and since I'm not one of those super crafty moms that relishes a good art project anyway, I came up with something that worked within those parameters: "painting" with water in the garage. Clay loved it and spent the rest of the morning happily working on that project and staying out of trouble. They say "necessity is the mother of invention," but I'm just wondering why I couldn't have come up with that plan before so much destruction took place in the house.

Family, Food and Fun: A Road Trip

Eventually, I will finish my packing series, but it's not going to be today. This week was crazy and left me little time to even think about blogging, much less to actually do it, and we had a road trip I want to report on. I know you're on the edge of your seat, waiting to see what else is in my bag, but you'll just have to wait. :)

Mimi invited the kids who were eligible and interested to participate in a mud run this weekend in Houston, so Weston and Max took her up on it, and the rest of us came along just for fun. Besides the mud run, we also ate some great food at some really neat places, played in the (outdoor and unheated) hotel pool (because, you know, it was the first sunny day in weeks, and the kids simply couldn't resist, even though the sun was no longer shining and the temperature had gone down with the sun), acted silly, and celebrated the most epic Pi Day of the century (literally).

No road trip to Houston is complete without a stop at Buc-ee's,
and our little statue lover cannot ever pass up a photo op with Buc-ee himself.

Dinner at Mia Bella in Vintage Park

Swimming at The Element--and warming up at the fire pit shortly thereafter

Racing with Mimi:
Up top, L to R: taking off, entering the obstacle course, race fans
Bottom: Before, After, Way After

Mud + Running = One Happy Boy

Weston's highlight reel

We enjoyed the gorgeous day with lunch at The Shack.

One of the most important things we needed to do today
was to celebrate this very special Pi Day.
After other plans were thwarted,
we very fortunately found ourselves at Bever's Kitchen in Chappell Hill.

The breaking point

Ruth's Challenge B class at CC is participating in a regional science fair in Austin next month. The kids have been working hard for the last couple of months, researching and preparing their experiments for the event. Ruth originally planned to do an experiment to test the antibacterial properties of several common products. However, when we got ready to register her experiment, we found that it was super complicated, because of the potential health hazards. Rather than jump through all the crazy hoops, Ruth decided she'd rather change projects. Around that same time, she discovered that she had an interest in civil engineering, so she chose a bridge building/destroying project. She has driven the whole project and has done all the research on her own. She spent weeks building four amazing bridges out of popsicle sticks...for the sole purpose of destroying them. She wanted to see which bridge design was the strongest, and today was testing day. We all had so much fun guessing which bridge would be the strongest and watching the destruction of each of them. They all held more weight than we expected, but Ruth's prediction was correct: the truss bridge was the strongest. We are so proud of her hard work and are looking forward to seeing the final project come together in time for the science fair next month!

Beautifully built bridges: arch, beam, truss, suspension

testing the arch bridge 

beam bridge

And the winner is...the truss bridge!

surprisingly strong suspension bridge

A crappy way to start the day

I went to bed early last night, but around midnight I woke up and thought it certainly did seem hot in the bedroom and I needed to make an adjustment to the temperature. Because of where our thermostat is located, our room gets extra warm when we run the heater and extra cold when we run the air conditioner. But then, that feeling of heat I was experiencing changed to a wave of nausea, and instead of worrying any longer about adjusting the temperature,  I did a quick about-face and headed for the restroom, where I became the second household victim of a mild, but no less unpleasant, tummy bug.

Around 3:00, Clay appeared, announcing that he needed to go potty. I took him to our bathroom, and after he took care of his business, the potty made an odd "glub, glub" sound, but it seemed to flush okay, so I took Clay back to his room and sleepily stumbled back to my bedroom, where I experienced the need to use the facilities myself. The toilet seemed to flush just fine, but, after a moment, I realized that the water level was rising. And then, it was overflowing. I trotted off to the utility room to fetch a plunger.

As I stood there plunging, Jeff, who had taken himself to the hall bathroom, since ours was occupied, appeared in the bathroom doorway and proclaimed that the hall toilet was also stopped up and the water level was rising there as well. He took over the plunging duties and was going back and forth between the two bathrooms. I was wide awake by this point, so I was following him around, offering moral support. I was standing in the hall while he worked on the powder bath potty, when I noticed that a small river was flowing out of the utility room. I hollered at Jeff to stop plunging, while I went to inspect. We have a floor drain in the utility room, which is suppose to carry water out of the house should the need arise, but, in this case, it was bubbling like a spring and a steady stream of nasty water was flowing into the house.

Meanwhile, Jeff had stepped into the kitchen, to find that the two floor drains in there were delivering similar rivulets, so that a large portion of the floor in the middle of the house was being soaked in sewer water. I quickly gathered up a handful of towels and old blankets to soak up some of the mess and quietly thanked the Lord that we do not have carpet, but the water continued to flow and the towels and blankets were not making any difference. Jeff shut off all the water to the house and called a plumber around 3:30. The plumber said he could be here around 6:30. We both felt disgusting and disgusted, but we tried to get a few winks before the plumber showed up. He arrived at about a quarter to 7:00 and went right to work.

The problem seems to have been taken care of, and my plans for the day now include mopping the floor, disinfecting various surfaces and washing loads and loads of soiled towels and blankets. It really wasn't a great way to start the day. Still, there is much to be thankful for: my emesis went down and didn't come back up, the tummy bug was very short lived,  we don't have carpet in any part of the house, the water flowing into the house was not stinky or discolored, the plumber was able to get here so quickly.

Happy Monday!

Finding Nemo

A pooping incident occurred at my house today, which claimed as victims all the cushions of my patio furniture and every single stuffed animal in my youngest child's room. It was…epic. And somewhat confusing. I mean, how in the world…?! I don't even know. My nephew was the prolific poop producer, so I was probably infinitely more patient with the situation than I would have been if it had been one of my own. (Just being honest here.) But, it didn't fully strike me how funny my life is until I laid eyes on this scene:

If any of you are still working on finding Nemo, you can stop now. I found him. He will just keep swimming right on through the spin cycle. See, hilarious, right?! I'm telling you, you cannot make this stuff up.

House never cleaner, hubby never happier

Today, my daughter said to me, "I love when we are trying to sell a house, because it is always so clean!" And, my husband fairly squealed with delight when he saw that I had removed all the appliances from the counters in the kitchen and toiletries from the counters in the bathroom. (This reaction is, of course, an exaggeration, but not all of you know my husband personally, so I thought I should clarify. He does not, under any circumstances, "squeal with delight.")  Technically, we have not put our house up for sale yet. We are simply trying to get some pictures taken that look like we don't really live here. Which is super hard. Because, we do, in fact live, here. And, work here. And, school here. We are here all the time, except when we are running kids around to various activities. Southern Living, it's not, folks. I do truly wish I could produce this level of joy in my family members all the time. (The ones that care, I mean. Because there are those, it seems, that actually prefer the mess. Or, at least, they work extra hard to ensure that the messiness is a constant.) But, as there are still only 24 hours in a day, and as I can only do so much, I guess we can simply be thankful that we move as often as we do, so that there are a fair number of days that the house is truly clean and clutter-free.

7th, 3rd, 1st and Pre

We survived completed our first week of school and can officially say we have students in 7th, 3rd, and 1st grades and a preschooler! It was not an unflawed week, but I'd say it actually went remarkably well. You'll notice an abundance of electronic devices in the pictures, which hasn't ever been our normal MO, but we're practicing this year for the "roadschooling" to come during our upcoming round-the-world travels. We sent all of our textbooks to a company called 1 Dollar Scan and had them digitize everything and send us back the pdfs, which we then downloaded to all our devices. It's not a perfect schooling system, and it takes a little getting used to (especially if you are a lover of actual books), but so far, we are very pleased with the quality and convenience and feel it will serve us well while we are traveling. Don't worry, we are still trying to work in some real books and some hands-on stuff so we don't turn into complete screen zombies.

Here are the schedules for this year's students:

Ruth (7th grade)

• Math (Algebra I)
• Latin
• History
• Spelling/Vocabulary
• Literature/Writing
• Italian
• Logic
• Science
• Music (Voice)
• Ruth is also participating in Challenge B classes, which is the 8th grade level of CC. She will engage in weekly discussions with other students and a trained tutor, and they will cover topics in Math, Science, Logic, Latin, Literature/Writing, and Debate. She will get to put together a large science fair project and participate in a mock trial, among many other interesting and educational activities. 

Weston (3rd grade)

• Math (working in the 5th grade book)
• Grammar/Writing
• History
• Spelling
• Latin
• Science 
• Reading
• Weston will be in the 8-9 year old class at CC, where he will gaining knowledge in the areas of Math, English Grammar, Latin, History, Geography, Science and a chronological timeline of the world, as well as participating in weekly science experiments, presentations, and fine arts projects. 

Max (1st grade)

• Math (just about to start the second grade book)
• Reading 
• Writing
• Spanish
• History
• Science
• Max will be participating in a CC class for 6-7 year olds, which will cover the same topics I mentioned for Weston. 

Clay (preschool)

• Pre-reading skills
• Numbers
• Pre-writing skills
• Sitting in on any class with older siblings he can get away with and spending lots of time being read to by his teachers.

Spanish--first day of school

This boy LOVES to read!

electronics everywhere

ooey gooey science

proud of his blue non-Newtonian fluid

young scientist

Let it go

Two months away from most of our worldly possessions has taught us that we have entirely too many worldly possessions. We lived minimally while we were away, and even then, many of the things we had with us went unused. When we returned home, we found a house full of things that we not only don't really need, but many that we don't even really want and have just been too lazy to take the time to get rid of. The American culture is one of consumerism, which tells us we need more things to be happier. We've bought into it. Literally. And I just have to tell you, it is a complete lie. In fact, in our family, we are often finding the opposite to be true. There is an inherent burden to owning things. So, with a little time on our hands this weekend, we have taken a critical look at our possessions, and a great many of them are no longer with us or will soon be moving on to a better place. Every one of us, from oldest to youngest, has been in on the purge, and I can sense a lightening in the household. Just by removing some of the clutter, we have also located a few items that we actually do care about, like a misplaced passport, the title to our van and a long lost pair of favorite shorts. If you've been to our house and you've seen something you love, just ask. There is a good chance I will be willing to part with it. However, if you are deluded into thinking that adding another thing to your collection will bring you more happiness, I will caution you that it is not very likely.

First of many similar loads to make their departure

Monday. All. Day. Long.

• Clay, who has been consistently visiting our room between 2:30 and 3:30 every morning for the last few weeks, was still sleeping in my bed at the time I usually make it, because I was just too tired to take him back to his room during the middle of the night. I should have known I wouldn't make it back in there to make the bed and therefore should have just crawled back under the covers. If I accomplish nothing else during the day, I can usually say I at least made my bed. Not today.
• I had a customer service issue to deal with first thing this morning. That's really a lovely way to start any day.
• While I was on hold with that company, Ruth's piano teacher called to remind me that Ruth had a make-up lesson today, which I had forgotten to put on my calendar. Not a big deal, but just kind of rattled my plan for the day. 
• Immediately after hanging up with the customer service rep, my phone began to ring. It was the secretary from the church where we meet for CC. A pipe broke over the weekend, and we were going to need to cancel our CC day for tomorrow. 
• Quickly, a fellow director and I made a plan about a make-up day, which will push our semester back yet another week. (We have already had several make-up days this semester, due to ice.)
• I then had to call, email and otherwise connect with the entire campus to let them know what the situation was. 
• The three big kids are in various stages of head colds. There has been a constant chorus of coughing, nose-blowing and requesting pain medication around here today.
• We received a helpful reminder about what is provided and what is not provided at the condo we will be staying at in NC next month. Linens are not provided, which I had completely forgotten. "No problem," I thought, "I'll just take a bag of our Campmeeting linens." But after searching the garage, attic, storage closet, and any other place I could think of (multiple times), I finally surmised that I have either inadvertently donated or thrown all those linens away. They are nowhere, and I am sad. (By the way, this is a major disadvantage of storing important things in large black trash bags.)
• I ran into a friend at the grocery store and found out her family will be moving soon. This is good for them, and I'm happy for them, but I selfishly wish they were staying.
• We got everything set up for dinner on the patio, which required hauling the large plastic table and matching folding chairs out from the garage (since we are without patio furniture at the moment, even though we have a nice, new patio) and a multitude of serving dishes for all the fixin's for soft tacos. We took exactly two bites of our food before the heavens opened and began spilling its contents upon our picnic. It started out as rain, but quickly turned into hail.
• While rushing to get everything in the house, a bowl was dropped and shattered, and what I thought was the last of the salsa was ruined. (Thankfully, we found another jar in the pantry!)
• While making a note about something on my calendar after dinner, I realized, with a bit of a shock, that the due date for the mortgage payments had come and gone. 
• So, yeah, it's been Monday here. We're looking forward to Tuesday. How about you?!

Going where no man(di) has gone before

I will admit that I do not regularly move my sofa to clean underneath it. (Go ahead and judge me, if you must.) In my book, that chore falls squarely into the categories of "out of sight, out of mind," and "ain't nobody got time for that!" Now, that's not to say that I never think of cleaning under there, especially when I'm sitting in the chair that faces the sofa and can see a bit of something poking out. But, it is ultra low on my priority list. I recently lost something, though, and so tonight, after the kids went to bed, I decided to scootch the large sectional out of position and see if I could find the missing item. I did not find what I was looking for, but comfortably situated amongst the dust bunnies I did find the following items:

• four mateless shoes
• a broken crayon
• two pencils
• a foam football with a bite taken out 
• a plastic gun
• three board books, one of which was literally in tatters
• two odd dice to a game I know nothing about
• four large connectable building blocks and one small one
• a plastic pocket knife
• a red foam ball that looks just like a clown nose
• one brown M&M
• a few pieces of popcorn
• the non-sticky (trash) back part of a sticker
• a metal loop to one of those crazy disentanglement puzzles
• a bottled water cap
• a petrified piece of mac and cheese
• a bottle cap toy with a happy apple face on it
• a penny
• a squishy submarine bath toy
• two tiny vehicles
• And, a rotting apple core

So, now you know all one of my dirty little secrets. What part of your house never gets cleaned unless dire circumstances call for it? 

Daily Disaster

Adventure lives on at the Watts' house. Here's some of the fun we had today:

• A slosh fest with the juice (of course)
• Another sticky drink spilled in the exact same location, just moments after clean up
• Poopy toddler pants (again, probably obvious)
• A Kleenex blizzard (Thank you, Clay!)
• A dropped jar of jelly (sticky AND dangerous!)
• Ketchup bombs, while trying to get that last little bit of ketchup out of the bottle
• Overfilled chili dogs
• Escapees from the ant farm
• Overflowing bath tub (and not just a little--there was water running out in the hall)
• Earring down the sink

And that's just the messes. I'm not even going to get into the drama! Makes me tired just thinking about it. Think it's time to bid this Monday adieu. 

(Almost) Perfectly Clean

In the Watts' home, everyone is expected to contribute. We have gone through several methods of chore distribution, including this one from 2012. The thing that actually seems to work best for us is to switch things up every so often, so that the chore schedule always kind of feels fresh. We've been through several methods since that post in 2012. The chores themselves don't really change too much, but the way in which they are displayed and distributed do, and it really seems to make all the difference in the level of enthusiasm the kids have for the chores. For 2014, we have adopted another new method, which I'll just go ahead and count as my Pin of the Week, since it's not likely anything more creative is going to happen around here this week. Assigning specific chores on specific days really gives the kids more focus and keeps them from being overwhelmed, and thus, the chores get done in a more timely manner, with less whining. (Or maybe that's just due to it being a new system, and everyone loves a new system at first.) Perhaps you all already knew and have implemented that in your homes, but I'm a little slow, so I'm just now having that lightbulb moment.

Anyway, what I really want to tell you is this: One of Weston's chores for this week is to clean the kitchen counters. He set to work on it yesterday and very quickly announced that he was all done. One peek at the kitchen told me the counters definitely weren't clean, so I asked him if he really thought it was clean and what he saw when he looked at it. He proceeded to tell me that, to him, it looked "perfectly clean." This seemed like a teachable moment, so I put my arm around his shoulders and began to walk around the kitchen pointing to obvious milk spots and sticky areas and crumbs. Each time, I would point and ask, "Does this look perfectly clean?" To which, he always replied, "No." There were quite a few of these areas, and by the time we were done, he was in tears. Finally, through sobs, he declared, "But you only picked out the dirty spots! The rest is perfectly clean!" 

A couple of things the classical model of education (which we employ in our homeschool) emphasizes are the over-learning of the grammar of any subject and the defining of terms to make communication more effective. Clearly, I need to be better at defining my terms, and Weston needs a bit more practice with the "grammar" of kitchen cleaning. Thankfully, we will both have plenty of opportunities over the next few years to improve in these respective areas. 

Mama needs a time-out…and a very strong drink

I don't know if it was the weather or having dad out of town or the approaching full moon or what, but my kids were extra-crazy today, and I was already in a bad mood because our Internet connection was non-existant on a day when I had a ton of emails to send. Here are a few highlights from the day:

My youngest child has entered a nakedness phase and absolutely refuses to wear clothing, except for the occasional pull-up or pair of underwear, sporadically paired with unmatched boots in various sizes. After chasing him around for a while this morning, I finally threw up my hands and let the child run wild and free. All. Day. That's right, on what will probably be our coldest day of the year, my baby wore no clothes. I'll be waiting by the mailbox for my Mother of the Year award. That same child also locked his bedroom door, before pulling it closed, no fewer than four times by mid-morning. While I was busy jimmying the lock each time, he was stealing I-don't-even-know-how-much candy from the pantry.

Meanwhile, the other children, who were supposed to be investing in their education, were running amuck and making ridiculously bad choices. Repeatedly. I will admit, I also gave in to temptation and made some bad choices of my own. By 11:00, I felt like I was losing control and sent myself to time-out in my bedroom. I wished I could have stayed forever. I would seriously love it if someone put me in permanent time-out. Eventually, though, I began to worry about those on the other side of the bedroom door setting the house on fire, so I came out. Reluctantly.

Around 8:30 this evening, Jeff texted to see if I had survived the day. I wisely and prophetically responded that I couldn't say for sure just yet. Almost the next thing that happened was that I checked in on Max in the bathtub and found that he had amassed, in the tub with him (from who-knows-where), a whole forest worth of paper, which he was desperately trying to coax out of the drain in large clumps when I walked in. I turned myself around and went straight to the kitchen for the alcohol.

I'm so glad we all get to try again tomorrow.

First Crazy Weekend in November

Most weekdays I don't seem to have time to catch my breath, which is why I have only been showing up here occasionally (and often only in bullet-pointed lists) on the weekends. I would love to tell you that life will slow down soon and I'll be appearing more regularly and slightly more coherently, but that seems unlikely for the foreseeable future. We are in the middle of a football season that just won't end (yay, playoffs and pick-up games!) and have signed everyone of age up for the winter sports of their choice, which, of course, will not be the same for all the kids or played in the same city. I would say, "Well, at least it keeps us off the streets," but if there is one place we are for sure, it's the streets. Who was the woman that put the "stay-at-home" in stay-at-home mom, anyway? I'd like to meet her. The good news is, I'm here now to tell you all the fascinating details of our crazy weekend. (Try to contain your overwhelming enthusiasm!)

Jeff's birthday was on Friday. He says he's officially in his late thirties, but I choose to heartily disagree, since I am approaching that age myself within the year. Jeff wanted to celebrate by going to a local high school football game. Thirty minutes before it was time to leave the house, Clay was in full meltdown mode, and by the time everyone was ready to walk out the door, he was sound asleep. So, the plan was modified a bit, and just Jeff and the big boys went to the game, while Ruth and Clay and I celebrated in our own ways at home.

Doesn't look like late 30s to me!

Thankfully, our Saturday sports were not until 11:00, which meant a mostly leisurely morning. Max's football season was supposed to have ended last weekend, which he was ecstatic about. But his coaches were able to get in on a pick-up game in Canyon Lake, and Max couldn't imagine anything he'd rather do that play in that game. So, since Jeff hadn't seen a volleyball game in a while, he offered to take Ruth to her game along with the other two boys, and I took Max. Since the season was over, we had ceremoniously thrown the nasty mouthpiece in the trash following the last game. We (not me) had also neglected to put our jersey in any kind of location that made sense for actually finding it or wearing it. So, we (I) scrounged up Weston's jersey from last year and a spare (new) mouthpiece that didn't really fit in Max's mouth. Of course, no one bothered to tell me the mouthpiece was ill-fitting until we were many miles down the road. That's when things got a little redneck. I whipped into a dollar store, purchased a pair of scissors and snipped the ends off the mouthpiece until it would go in far enough for Max to close his lips. I don't want to think about how unsterile those scissors were. (Or the mouthpiece, for that matter). When we arrived in Canyon Lake, we found ourselves in the middle of a huge bike race that was taking place in the heart of a construction zone. The race seemed to span both lanes of traffic, and the cyclists, true to form, seemed completely oblivious to the motorized traffic on either side of them. Additionally, the road we needed to turn on to get to the football field was completely shut down "for maintenance." Not being familiar with the area, I was blindly trusting my GPS to get us there, and ended up going in circles forever, before finally figuring out the detour route. I was a nervous wreck, but we did finally make it to the field, where Max played the game and then enjoyed pizza provided by the other team. As we left the field, I asked Max if he had fun. He enthusiastically indicated that he did have a good time. So, I asked him if he was planning to play again next year, to which he replied, "No way! I just meant it was fun getting to have pizza after the game." So glad I risked my life and sanity for this Saturday morning outing. Max and I did get to have a lunch date, though, which was very special. I'm not so sure that he and I have ever really been alone like that. So, I guess the morning's antics were worth it after all.

A special lunch date

After a brief stint at home, trying to get a few things done around the house and overseeing a round of front porch haircuts, I had my second date of the day. This one was an adult-only affair, and the juice was less sweet and more alcoholic. This was Jeff's and my second visit to the Cabernet Grill in Fredricksburg, and we hope it will not be our last. The atmosphere is fun and the food is delicious! Mostly because we were unwillingly to end our date after dinner, we made our way over to Sweet Marley's for FROYO. The air conditioned building drove us outside, but the even colder temps there landed us in the van, where we turned on the heater and seat warmers and enjoyed our FROYO in all the glamour and romance you are picturing. Back at home, we tuned in to the Aggie game but quickly realized we are old (late 30s!) when we decided we'd just go to bed at half-time. Fortunately, the Ags pulled out the major victory without our help, and we avoided the heart attacks that almost always accompany Aggie games.

Texas Tempranillos 

Our treat for fall-back Sunday was having it be light out at 6:30, when Clay climbed into our bed, which meant there was no chance to go back to sleep. And, since I was up at such an enterprising hour, I decided to make these low-cal pumpkin muffins for breakfast. While the second batch was in the oven and the first batch was cooling, I hopped in the shower. All but two muffins had been devoured by the time I reentered the kitchen, and those were only there because Jeff forced the kids to save some for me. I guess they were a hit. They were surprisingly moist and very easy to throw together. I will definitely be making them again! (And, speaking of low-cal yummies, I made some birthday cupcakes--pictured above--for Jeff, using a tip I saw online to cut the fat: take any cake mix, add two egg whites and 10 oz. of any diet soda and bake as usual, in cupcake or cake form. We topped ours with fat-free Cool Whip, and they were scrumptious! We may have liked them better than the full-fat version.) The other highlight of the day was the First Sunday Potluck after church. The kids were all on the fence about whether they wanted to go to church or not until they realized they it was the most glorious of all Sundays. Holy zeal took over at that point and everyone couldn't wait to hop in the van. Since then, we have been enjoying a quiet afternoon/evening at home, with various people watching football, shopping for used cars, painting, napping, jumping on the trampoline, watching a movie, doing chores, blogging, getting some work done, and spilling large amounts of laundry detergent all over the utility room. I'll let you guess who's been doing what.

Football watching buddies

If you've stuck it out through this long, infinitely mundane post, thank you. Both of you. You should reward yourself with a special snack--maybe some low-cal cupcakes or muffins. Thanks for hangin' with the Watts through the mundanity and insanity.