My Little Soapbox

Just a few highlights of our day at the State Fair.

Lil’B is making his dragon breathe “fire”

Jr. has a repeat of last years face painting choice of skull and crossbones

We found the biggest piggie bank tucked back by the train exhibit. I was impressed with the work that the train modelers (is that even the right word?!) had done. The exhibit has gotten better and more intricate each year and continues to be a favorite stop of ours.

Jr. watching the swans at the DNR exhibit.

Lil’B telling Daddy something neat about what he’s seeing at the DNR exhibit.

Supplies Tape, Crayons, Scissors, Paper, String and a odd leftover pool part
Add in one four year old

What you get is a floor covered with paper bits and a happily creating boy who is busy long enough for you the mom to get something done and snap some quick photos of your busy little bee.

It is almost that time to officially fill out paperwork and to begin our new school year. I am busily putting some polishing touches on our upcoming year at the same time I completely rearrange the science units to accommodate the things we can do right now.

I’ve got most of Jr.’s things mapped out and ready to play that wonderful fun game of “school chess” where the pieces get moved around to hopefully end up in a decent completed order by the end of the year! And I’ve mapped out some things to keep darling Lil’B busy. He’s very cute when he grabs “his school” out of his basket. I never know exactly what he’ll come back with - lately it has just been paper and crayons. He’s my budding little artist. And it never fails to amaze me how well he can already create things. I’m not the artsy type though I do sometimes try. But let’s face it my main and best “art” are stick people! I draw a damn fine stick person!

In other news in partial preparation for this year but mostly in a bid to get my sanity back I’ve set up my email accounts differently. Don’t worry if you are reading this it probably doesn’t actually affect you. Mostly it affects me. I love the groups that I belong to but I can’t get through all the email they send. It is daunting and I’m actually only really paying attention to three yahoogroups/elists. They are just prolific!

So I set them up with a separate address. That worked a bit but I was still getting tons of mail to my email client which would snag me when I checked my regular email. So I went a step further and set that email address in a different email client! Yep to get the messages I have to actually open a second program. It is fabulous!

It has also made me aware of how much superfluous email I get and how much of a time sucker my loops are to my day. My regular inbox is quiet and gets a handful of emails a day. Occasionally I get a couple dozen but its not hundreds. And I’m even whittling those down. My big loops are still available but I’m checking them every couple of days instead of lots of times each day. Do I miss out on threads - sort of but better late to the conversation than to feel muddled by all that clutter in my day.

I’m back to my quick loop around the internet which is very necessary if I’m going to keep the boys focused in directions I prefer like those that don’t get them into trouble. For instance I was “busy” and missed them dumping three bottles of paint into the sandbox. What exactly I was “busy” with I’m not sure and I do remember them asking something about paint. My only hope is that I was “busy” cooking or something more acceptable than tinkering on my computer LOL

Each birthday I try to get one good photo of the birthday boy for our albums and such. Occasionally this is a very fun endeavor. Here’s a sampling of what I got yesterday:

All in taken in pursuit of this one:

That’s my baby. A beautiful four. And I’m so happy to be here with him in these moments.

Funny faces pictures taken while waiting for Jr’s recital to begin.

Lil’B: very delightful almost 4 year old looks up at grandpa “Mommy made fergus.”

confused stare from Grandpa and Mommy. “She made what?”

Lil’B: “Fergus”