The 20 year feud...

My little brother and his wife are visiting us this weekend and we are having such a wonderful time. My favorite part has been watching my husband and my brother continue their original Nintendo "Tecmo Superbowl feud". They hoop and holler like they are 8 year old boys over a video game so old that the graphics would make anyone laugh. They have officially been at this back and forth for about 20 years. To be honest, it's probably the reason why we never got rid of our Nintendo game system. But...they love it...and I love to see them have such a great time. Go team!

What aisle do you keep the sanity?

After running several errands this morning with four kids in tow, this song came on the radio on the way home and I tell you it was speaking to me. So as I go and figure out how to be in three places at once, cook a dinner while not being in the house, do 7 more loads of laundry, and figure out a way to clean bathrooms just by leaving the cleaner in the bathroom all by itself, I'll leave you with "my" song for today.

Because today this is all I've got, since apparently they were out of sanity on aisle 7 at Target...

A rare treat...

We went to Costco today and I splurged on a very rare treat for us right now...strawberries. They had them on "sale" for a big box for $4.99. Normally I would never even dream of spending that much on fruit, but to be honest, these strawberries were calling our names. As I served them at lunchtime, you would have thought I had given each one of my children a candy bar or a big ol' thing of cake...but no...it was a pile of strawberries. To them, it was the best $4.99 I've ever spent...

Ethiopian pictures...

Today it was picture day for our smallest little one. I wanted to get a picture of him in his Ethiopian outfit that they put him in when he left the orphanage. I loved how they turned out. The tapestry behind him is something we bought when we were there. It is a beautiful woven cross and reminds me so much of Ethiopia. The colored sash across him says "Ethiopia" in Amharic. I hope someday he'll look at this picture and know that we went halfway around the world and picked up the best one.

What if...

Yesterday I was working with my smallest little girl (who is 6) in a school lesson. One of the things we have been going over had been a question game called..."What if?" I would ask her a question, such as..."What would you do if a fire was in the house?"...or "What would you do if someone was hurt?" My favorite part was when I asked..."What would you do if you got locked in a candy store?" She paused for a moment then said..."I'd call 911 for help...and then I'd have a snack!"

In the middle...

We live in the middle of the United States...the middle. No where near the ocean, nowhere near the mountains, and as of lately nowhere near where it's remotely warm. In fact if you were to drive 4 hours in any direction...ANY direction - pick one - you will find snow. Boatloads of it. And with that beautiful white stuff comes temperatures so cold that your heater in your house just can't keep up. Temps so cold that your hands hurt bad deep inside the thickest gloves you can buy within just 5 minutes of shoveling your driveway. Temps so cold that if you were to sneeze outside...okay, seriously trust me...don't sneeze. You get the idea.

So with all of this winter weather we are having to get a little "creative" with what we can do inside and not go crazy with cabin fever. The kids and I have resorted to doing several puzzles, putting on plays, building with Legos and having all the indoor play dates we can schedule around our school time. But I must admit we are all anxious to get outside again to go sledding and build snowmen.

So from the middle of the snowy tundra (so to speak...) here's a few pictures of what we've been up to lately...please oh, please come on warmer weather.