T oday while the sun shines

Here is Nathan hamming it up for the camera. A lot of people at church have never gotten close to seeing this side of Nathan. He is the most reverent a child can be and still be breathing. I wouldn't be surprised if he ever just tipped over because he fell asleep or his muscles gave out! Anyway, you can see for yourself if he gets out of his predicament.

We spent all day working on the garage, yard, house or laundry. Chad took advantage of warm, sunny, 63 degree weather and spent the entire day cleaning out the garage. I am very happy about that! We have a lot of garbage now. I took advantage of no kids in the house to go through the kids' clothes. I had to buy 4 new storage bins at Wal-Mart. I finally removed all size 3 clothing from Nathan's drawers and closet. He's only 5 now! I got the girls' clothes separated, too. Our kids have too many clothes.

Today was the first day this year that I hung out laundry to dry. Three loads. It's getting warmer!! Daniel was very helpful and begged to take the laundry down and then folded much of it himself before helping to put it away. This morning he marched right up to me at the sink, pushed up his sleeves and asked me where the bowls went in the dishwasher. !!!! Isn't he a nice boy?

I did a little weeding this afternoon. Our tulips and daffodils are just coming up. We think we planted the daffodils a little too deep. They should have blossomed by now, but have broken ground behind the tulips. We have large clumps of healthy, green grass in our flower beds. The lawn is still thin and yellow. Why is the (unwanted) grass in the flower beds doing so much better than the (wanted) grass in the lawn? Maybe I should plant some tulips around the lawn.

The neighbor kids played with our kids today. It all started when I offered them some freezer-burned ice cream from the freezer (only the best around here!!). After that they were braver and entered the yard. They are twin girls (six years old, I think) and have lived next door for over a year. Last year they cleaned me out of my tulips in the flower bed. They don't go to school in this town for some reason and they're always outside playing in their pj's (today it was thermals). My biggest hang-up is the lifestyle they're being raised in. Their mom and her girlfriend have attrocious language. Those are my two hang-ups. I'm ok with the kids playing with them until things start showing up in their playing. I'll probably restrict the playing to our house, though. I've seen enough of their lifestyle in their yard to not want the kids asking me questions. Let's cross those bridges when they're older!