Triple Sweetness for Mama

1. The two older children have been fighting like cats and dogs the last few days. At one point, I banished them to their separate rooms. Their next maneuver was to give the two-year-old a "sword" (a wooden Lincoln Log stick) and instruct her to go "attack" the other sibling in her room, which the innocent would do. Then the attacked sibling would send the tiny mercenary back across the hallway with instructions to attack that sibling in his room. Back and forth . . .

Amidst this little flare-up of sibling fighting (when the bulk of the time, they really are such great playmates), I chuckled to discover that when a certain four-year-old sister had apparently sneaked out of Quiet Time and hidden in the pantry, she had written in there a couple dozen love notes to her brother. 

See, I know they love each other and now I have proof.

"John, you are beautiful." and "I like you, John. Mary"

2. Today I was folding laundry when the children ran in giggling, and told me that they had a surprise for me and not to go into the kitchen. So I folded as slowly as I could and listened to all the dishes clattering. When the water began running, I asked Chris to go be my spy, to make sure all was well.

Turns out the sweetie-pies wanted to empty the dishwasher (a twice daily chore for them, but they were doing it without being asked) and Mary wanted to try her hand at washing dishes.

When they showed me my surprise, they were just about tied up in knots, they were so consumed with delight. It was really darling.

3. Mary at four now stays up past her bedtime well enough that she can join John and Daddy for special Mass events at night. Tonight the trio went to a solemn high Mass to celebrate our parish feast day at which the bishop would be sitting in choir. It felt like a milestone of sorts, as these night events are no longer just Daddy-and-son outings, but Daddy-and-his-oldest-children outings. These two have been talking for days about how they "get" to go to Mass "with the bishop!"

The children were super excited about going to Mass, not so excited about having to smile for Mama's photo.

Bonus Reading:

"Ten Tips for Handling Closely Spaced Babies" (love this woman's attitude, so cheerful, calm, and refreshing)

"The World's 15 Most Extraordinary Homeschoolers" (inspiring and cool, although obviously a bit skewed since a number of the children on this list were homeschooled precisely because they were prodigies and geniuses)