Mud and Boys and Life

This has been another normal, interesting week.  The “mud” in the title comes from Wednesday evening, when the three youngest boys slipped outside after supper when I wasn’t watching.  They went into the garden, which they had been told before supper not to do, and played in the mud.  I’m sure it was fun–but what a mess!  I didn’t get a picture of it, but it looked worse than this one from Michigan two and a half years ago!  This time, they were coated from head to toe in thick, sticky clay!  Because they had disobeyed, and because they knew beforehand what the penalty is for getting muddy, I had no compunctions about hosing them down with a cold-water hose.  I had  to hose and rub with my hands to get the quarter inch of clay mud off their clothes, then had them take off their clothes, and hosed them again, and then sent them to the bathroom to finish off with a cold shower!  And it wasn’t a warm evening.  They all decided they don’t want that again.  While the youngest watched the other two getting cleaned up first, his lip stuck out farther and farther as he considered his coming fate.

One warm evening, the kitchen door was open, and Ginger came along to see what we were doing.
I spent a couple of days this week sorting clothing.  Does this look anything like a secondhand shop? or a garage sale?  We’ve been blessed with lots of hand-me-down clothes for the boys!

Next step:  sort through what each boy had in his drawers/closet and decide what to keep and what to put away/throw away.  Here is Seth’s stack (think he had more than he needed?):

One rainy day, Esther decided to make a batch of bread, since it always raises better on that sort of day.  I gave instructions while I worked on clothing.  It turned out pretty nice!

One day this week the sun shone!  I did lots of laundry (and it all got dry!) and we weeded the strawberry bed.  We found a number of ripe strawberries.  Yumm!  We have to get them quickly or the slugs eat them.

Aren’t Esther’s kids cute?

We went to Gore Bay for a baptism this afternoon, and when I mentioned we wanted a family picture, one of the ladies there offered to help take one.  It took quite a few tries to get one with everyone’s eyes open, and this is the best.

After the baptism, we went to the home of the girl who was baptized for a meal.  Joe discovered this wheelbarrow and had so much fun with it that they gave it to him when we left!

So there you have it–several tiny glimpses into our week.  It was a good one!