A Day in the Life of...Part I

I field a fair amount of questions regarding our day-to-day life and I admit, I would be curious too if I knew someone with this amount of crazy going on. The business, the blog, the four kids, the homeschooling, the husband's crazy schedule, no family within a 150 miles - one could justifiably say that I might be headed to the sanitarium at any moment. My one request is (and always has been) that my straight jacket be pink on that glorious day when "they" come to take me away. I've always liked a good buckle.

 

At any rate, here is a little peak into a typical day at Casa de Howard. Full of cuteness and lots of dirt. Curiosity and crazy - oh the adjectives could go on and on, so many would be appropriate.

 

Sometimes we get a little curious in the office -

 

 

Occasionally we find half eaten crackers where we least expect it (tub of baby wipes) -

 

 

We build things in the back yard -

 

 

We climb trees -

 

 

 

 We share the living room with the local speedway -

 

 

We get very...VERY dirty -

 

 

 

Too many times we play in the water -

 

But at the end of the day, the bath water washes it all way and the snuggles are the best -

 

 

 

About half-way thru this post, loading all the pictures, I realized we'll have to split this installment of "A Day in the Life..." into two, possibly three posts. Too many pictures and so many little people. Stay tuned for a later post and we'll delve in to chore charts and juvenile labor. Such a tight ship around here...ha! 





Calm After the Storm

Whew. My poor blog has gone through a famine. I have cooked and photographed and have recipes to share, but they have yet to make their way to the internet.  Even "Photo Friday", a fairly simple task to execute, has suffered. I've been in a storm lately. A storm of activity. Storms come in a variety of strength and length - can be good and sometimes bad. There are sit-by-the-window-with-a-book-and-cup-of-tea storms. Those are awesome. Then there are light-the-candles-cause-the-power-is-gone storms. While those can be fun for a short time, we all prefer air conditioning to sweat, yes? My storm of activity has covered both peaks - really awesome and really trying. The spring storm of wedding season hit. I love my brides. They are beautiful and full of wedding bliss. They keep my schedule full and creating their cake brings me joy. Add to this our recent decision to incorporate, launch a cheesecake line, trademark a product, and shop for storefront space in the Houston area and you can say the business plate is full indeed. Atop this my kiddo's are preparing for the usual spring recitals, vocal performances, and piano contests filling their already demanding work load to the brim. So...when the storm of activity was hit with a true storm - the kind that stops a gal right in her tracks - we found out just how fast we could topple from high speed to screeching halt. We were down. Hit hard by the flu, the stomach flu, and some sort of sore throat from you-know-where. We are very holistic around here, we pay close attention to nutrition and vitamins and honestly, we are seldom ill. So rarely that I feel like a complete imbecile when my little ones aren't feeling well because I have no clue what to do. I don't know what dose of Tylenol to give them - we don't use it. Alternate Motrin with Tylenol - why didn't I think of that? Pedialyte? Oh yeah, I've heard of that! Where do you find it? My husband alone avoided the detainment afforded us by the flu. It doesn't seem fair...save the fact that he did take very good care of us, nursing us back to stability with chicken broth and Gatorade - I can only imagine the frightful shape we would have been in had the six of us been knocked down in our entirety.  We made it over that hump and we'll make it over many more I'm sure, always thankful for God's watchful care over us. I could not be more thankful for the sweet family He has charged to my care. Right now, we are simply enjoying the calm after the dreadful storm and settling back in to our normal crazy. As George Herbert once said, "Storms make the oak grow deeper roots". So buckle up. New recipes are dropping to the blog this week.

"For after all, the best thing one can do when it's raining is to let it rain."

Henry Wadsworth Longfellow