Red + Blue = ???

Nope, I am not talking about politics. . .I am just wondering why, when Ben chews a red crayon and a blue one, doesn't it make purple?? Seems it should, but his teeth looked more GREEN! Will wanted to color this morning, and the babies thought they needed to also. Luckily I had already had most of my coffee and I was feeling up to it. It is not exactly an easy task to undertake when all of them decide to create. Will has to pass everything out. It is a bit of a struggle for him to understand that HE (Will) does not get to make decisions for Ben, Maddie, and Jon as to what colors THEY want to use. After a few minutes, he "understood" that. Ben creates his crayon art in his mouth. When we are really lucky, he chews on a washable (aka: easily dissolves with spit and makes tempera paint) crayon and sticks it in his ear. It is fat enough it doesn't go in, but all the color does. Maddie is quite the artiste. She has mastered the art of scribble rather quickly; however, she hasn't realized where the edge of the paper is, so the large sweeps of magenta and tangerine extend from the middle of the paper to the middle of the table. (Thank you Mr. Clean for Magic Eraser!) Jon takes a minimalist approach -- small dots and swirly doodles punctuated with thoughtfully-chosen stickers of a "baaa" (lamb) and "cack-cack" (duck). Like Ben, though, Jon has to taste his medium before creating, but his teeth stayed red like the crayon. Somehow the 8 minutes of art seems like an 8-hour job -- oh wait, that's just the clean-up. Will created several sticker people amidst a sea of ever-changing color. He told me the pink smiley face was me and the red blob around it meant I was hot. I promise I acted calm the whole time.

Later I explained a bit about the approaching storm to Will. I told him it was going to be very windy tonight so later today we would need to get all the toys out of the yard. When I got a chance, I got a bunch of empty boxes from the garage and put the on the porch so I could pick up the yard later. The next thing I knew Will was outside putting his large Tonka truck in one box, thus filling the box completely. He picked up a tricycle and put it in another box, filling it, too. I looked out and all three boxes were full -- one riding toy in each, and none of the sand box toys, balls, or trucks had made it to a box so he was crying. When I brought him in to ask what was the matter, he sobbingly told me all the rest of his toys would blow away. I said I would make sure that wouldn't happen and he was happy again. What a helper!

After I got the triplets down for a nap (they are always over-cranky when it is going to rain) I gathered the toys from outside, the grill, the toy-horse, the bikes, trikes, trucks, and cars and moved them to the garage. I took all the swings down, and considered bringing in the dumpster but decided that would wait until bedtime. I think the outside is almost as cleaned up as I can make it. We are far enough inland that we aren't boarding up windows, but we are in the path of the storm -- right about where we don't know yet if we'll get hurricane or tropical storm winds. Either way we are expecting it to be like the top of Mt. Washington without the freezing weather. It sounds awful to say, but I am just a little excited about Ike -- I am not happy about the devastation it is sure to bring to many people, but I think it will be fascinating to see what happens here. Monday, I may be in tears, stressed over the mess we have to deal with, but we are praying that isn't the case. If the power is out for too long, we are sure to visit family -- we have enough gas in the car to get somewhere if need be. Hopefully we won't lose too many trees, and I am crossing my fingers that none of our big ones hit the house. (deep breath, count one, two, three, . . .)

On another note, I am thrilled to report that last night we hired a babysitter for the first time (at least the first time since our family doubled in size). Allen & I went out for a fabulous dinner last night with some people he works with. It worked so well, I think her number will be posted in my cabinet. This is another big step for us, and it is exciting, too. Tonight we get another "date" night since our church has a parents-night-out. We aren't planning anything fancy -- just running the errands that are easier to do without tagalongs. It will be a crazy weekend for sure, but if you don't read a blog for awhile don't fret. Now that Will is back at school, Bible study has resumed, and I am taking the little ones to MOPS and mothers-day-out (twice a month), it is harder to find time to sit and type my thoughts. I am just busier, but that's how I like it. Have a great weekend!