Alfresco Dining

Tonight we dined alfresco.

It was a beautiful evening and  so long as I could forget about why we were dining alfresco I had an enjoyable dinner.

But it’s hard to really enjoy the moment when you know that the reason you are at the picnic table is because earlier in the day roughhousing kids broke your kitchen table. That’s right the kitchen table, and if you are like us the kitchen table is the table which leaves us with the picnic table and crossing our fingers for nice weather.  Thankfully the weather was nice when I went to serve lunch, unfortunately I had used the picnic table to stand on when I painted the clothes line posts, never moved it back and it was still way in the back of the yard. As I walked all the way out there with two plates full of food I stepped in a hole that my rotten dog dug that I’ve never filled in and hit the ground with food flying. (Leaving me, as my mother pointed out, wishing I had filled in the hole long ago. My procrastination tendency and horrible lawn maintenance are long standing bad habits that I’ll tell you about some other time.)  So that, and the fact that table breaker number two pooped outside next to the table, (Another long standing bad habit that I’m trying much harder to break.) convinced me to drag the picnic table back to the house. Then as I was dragging the picnic table I stepped in the same g-d-hole as before except this time instead of throwing lunch on the ground I threw myself on the ground with a picnic table on top of me.

*sigh*

So, I picked myself up, made sure all my parts still worked, thanked my lucky stars no children heard my thoughts on dog holes and picnic tables, made a mental note to fill the holes (which in case you are wondering I haven’t done yet) and got on with fixing dinner.

Fortunately the too-young-to-wreck-tables kid has an infectious giggle…

…making it far easier than one would guess to forget about a rotten day and enjoy dinner!

Now perhaps when I’m done icing and elevating my foot/ankle/leg/oh-my-goodness-don’t-ever-fall-in-a-hole-under-a-picnic-table I should be back to walking normal and I can go fill in those holes…

…perhaps.

A Moment To Remember

I was sitting with a group of people all of whom were having a beer to drink when Ivy popped up at my shoulder with a glass of water.

She whispered in my ear that she went and got it for me because she didn’t think it was very nice that everyone had a beer when I couldn’t have one. She thought that I should have something to drink too, so she got me a glass of water.

It’s a moment to file away and remember so that next time I hear, ” I DON’T LIKE YOU AND I DON’T LOVE YOU!” I can pull it out and realize that I must be doing something right.

Reason #34 We Do A Lot Of Laundry…

…because my floors are not always what one would call clean…

…and Jane’s preferred mode of locomotion is scooting on her belly.

Good for cleaning the floor. Bad for the laundry situation.

As I was taking these photos Jane got up on her knees and crawled a few feet for the first time!

Theoretically better for the laundry…… but only theoretically. A little more practice and she’ll be able to dump the dog water twice as fast as before which as everyone knows is Reason #9 We Do A Lot of Laundry.

Look Before You Sit!

John, having been raised in a home where he was the only male, is fantastic about always putting the toilet seat down. This is a habit I have always appreciated and admired in my husband and for years I have not had to worry about what sort of condition I might find the toilet in.  But this morning my complacency almost lead to catastrophe. I need to remember that now I am in a home that is raising three girls and I must look before I sit.

You just never know who might have used it last!

Not Quite a Weekly Photo Challenge: Growth

Today I was all set to take a picture for the weekly photo challenge. The word was “growth” and I had packed up the three girls and the two dogs and schlepped out to some public land to go for a walk in the drizzle and take photos. I had ideas, I had plans, I did not have my camera.

So instead I’d like to share a few quotable Clara moments from the day:

Clara’s response to a new pair of jeans: “These impressive!”

Clara’s response to me asking what she was dumping out of a small purple bowl and into my wire garbage can in my bedroom: “My pee!”

Clara’s response to me asking why she peed in a small purple bowl in her playing room and then carried it into my bedroom to dump into a wire basket: “I just wanted to.”

Clara’s response to me suggesting that sitting down on the wet trail to take off her wet pants (and shoes) was not a good idea as it would get her underwear wet: “That OK I just be naked.”

The only other person we saw on the trails response to seeing us walking toward him and his dog: Taking a long detour around the trail into the tall wet grass.

If she’s not a growing challenge I don’t know what is!

If you’d like to browse a selection of blogs written by people who actually bring their cameras with them when taking pictures head over to weekly photo challenge: growth on The Daily Post.