Random Week

These are the only pictures on my camera this week.  Not impressive, but I guess that's a reflection of our crazy busy life and my determination to be more on top of the meal preparation part of being Mom and Wife.  So far, so good.  Mornings go so much better when the breakfast is already made the night before or at least in my head.  Evenings go so much better when dinner is ready before Daddy gets home and most of the cleanup is done also.  Ahh, housewife harmony.  It's bliss.

Darla and Daddy love to cuddle and I love that she still looks small when she's in his arms (that's about the only time the little heifer looks small, I can't believe what a chunk our dainty Darla has become)

Ksenya recently had a sad incident in which her violin got broken.  In an attempt to get enough money to buy a new one we decided to sell these fun little lemon trees that we sprouted from seeds.  I was amazed at how many people wanted to buy them and within one day we had sold enough to order her new violin.

I don't even know what this is a picture of except that he is growing every second and is in a highly mischievous  stage right now.  I love him, but sometimes it's a lot of work :)

I've also been taking time here and there to make our house a little more functional.  This is the tiny corner in the laundry room at the crossroads of the back door and the kitchen door.  It is always a pile of (usually muddy) shoes.  So I built these little shelves so the kids' shoes can be put up off the floor (even Darla can reach her shelf) and they are only allowed out one pair at a time.  So far it has helped me retain a little floorspace in the kitchen.

It's also sprouting season.  What you see here is the silhouette of my new sprouting shelves.  This is the only safe Southern facing window in our house (meaning up high enough that the littles can't reach it and we aren't closing blinds in it all the time.

We also needed some benches as there isn't quite enough room in the kitchen for actual chairs.  I measured exactly what size I wanted them and went through the scrap wood at my parent's house and built these benches.  They were awful - wobbly and bendy and ridiculously not level.   After a frustrated Mommy had a few lessons in building from a very patient Daddy I decided to try and sure them up a little and now they work just fine.  Still not a work of art by any means, but they are working and all 8 of us can now sit comfortably around the table.

Here we have Darlin' taking care of one of the babies.  This particular baby used to be the same size as her but now she's finally hit her growth spurt you can once again tell which is the baby doll and which is the baby Darla.  Crazy busy random life and post, but sometimes that's the most accurate depiction of our crazy wonderful life.