{one of those moments that makes babysitting worthwhile}

Merry's bedtime prayer:

"Dear God, please, please help us obey Miss Leah. She has it pretty rough...four of us, and only one of her! Help us listen to her and not fight with each other...and help the dogs not fight either."

{following the Piper again}

An attempt at a 'real' post...

I've been told that busyness is a choice. However, I believe that busyness is simply relative. What one person thinks is busy isn't for someone else, and vise versa. I think I used to have a lot more stamina and people toleration that is now entirely evading me. And just when I think I have my schedule maxed out, something else pops up. Amazing how that happens, eh?

Anyhow, this post is for all 14 people who have told me to post recently. My deepest apologies for delaying a 'real' post (what is a real post? please tell me why pictures and quotes don't count, I'd like to know). I hope this will suffice.

This week was insane. I had a great deal of school to do. I also started an online photgraphy class. This will be fun. :)

Yesterday evening through a few minutes ago I was babysitting 3 girls in my neighborhood. It was exhausting but good. I arrived at 4ish. We watched part of a movie (The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe in case you were wondering), then decided to play dress up (inspired by the movie of course). I didn't have any dress up; that was unacceptable. So, we walked a mile an a half to my house to retrieve a dress for me to wear. Actually, I ran most of the way. The kids biked. A dress was found and approved, and another mile and a half later we were back at their house. During the course of the play time I went from being Queen Susan to being a servant girl, which was fine by me. We ate supper in dress up. After a musical and Toy Story 2, we went to bed. The secret to no arguments at bed time is to keep your kids awake until they drop. 10:45 ended up being late enough.

The next morning consisted of chocolate chip pancakes with cool whip, more dress up, an impromptu photoshoot, and playing in the rain. Lunch was a picnic on the porch, since it had been raining all morning. The ideal way to get to the porch ended up being opening a window from the living room onto the covered portion of the porch instead of running through the rain.

(the view from the living room to the porch picnic)

During rest time the girls finished a movie and I did the accumulated dishes from the entire time I was there. Then we painted fingernails.

Home now, I'm appreciating being able to go into my room and shut the door. I'm appreciating the knowledge that I'm not responsible for making the next meal. It was fun though, and I'd do it again...

Hopefully that rambling was enough of a 'real' post for now. Off to do multiple random other things...

Good night!

New additions, balls, and cuteness

We've had several new additions to our barnyard, as well as house. Four of our goats have kidded in the last month or so, and last Saturday we got a dog! So...

This is Girl. We haven't yet decided whether to re-name her or not... She is an Australian Shepherd/Border Collie mix. Very pretty and very high energy!

Girl has one blue eye and one brown eye. And she's obsessed with balls. This is Bunny. He was born on Easter morning, hence the name. My dad came in that morning and said he was a girl. When I went out later, in daylight, I saw that the girl was actually a boy...

And here I am holding Ricecake. Yes, my 5 year old brother named the kids this year.

(Oh, and my mom took this picture, obviously I didn't :).)

There are 3 more that I have yet to take pictures of...perhaps I'll post more pictures of the other kids later.

I'm sleepy.