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I just got home from a late night of working at the shop. It’s nearly 4 a.m. Good night.

My kids have been at each others’ throats lately, which I know is totally normal sibling behavior, but it’s driving me crazy. I can’t get through 15 minutes without one of them coming to tattle on the others.

Last night we had a long talk and I came up with a plan. Each child is allowed two tattles a day. That way they have the opportunity to air their grievances if necessary, but they are forced to stop and ask themselves if it is something worth arguing about. Do they really want to waste a tattle on something trivial, or do they want to hold onto it to use it for a true injustice.

We started implementing the plan this morning and it really worked wonders. Every time one of them came up to me to complain about someone else I asked them if they were about to use one of their tattles. I told them it was fine if they did, but that they only had two all together.

I was pleasantly surprised how many times they stopped and thought about what they were going to say. Most of the time they smiled and turned around and walked out of the room. A couple of times they decided to use their tattle, which was fine with me.

Do you know what happened? They got along ALL DAY LONG. It was beautiful. There was far less bickering and much more playing, which meant all of us were so much happier!

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Earlier today I went outside to check if my plans had survived the recent storms. Some of my tomato plants were destroyed, and several other plants don’t look well, but there were quite a few that remained unscathed. Noticing how nice the temps were, I told the kids to play outside. I was watching them from the kitchen window as I was making dinner. The boys were running around in their bare feet chasing each other and squealing. C, on the other hand, was wandering around, nose deep in a book.

She’s been like that lately. She is obsessed with reading, which makes this reading mama’s heart very happy. She going through multiple books a day, which means she should be ready for something more challenging pretty soon.

I’ve been making a mental list of books I want to introduce her to, but I would welcome any suggestions. (When we did her homeschool review, she tested at a 6th grade reading level.)

So far I have-

• The boxcar children series
• The Hobbit
• The Mandie series
• Anne of Green Gables
• Charlotte’s Web
• The Chronicles of Narnia

There were squeals of delight when the lights came on after nearly 24 hours of no electricity. We all had our jobs prepared. Two people running around flushing toilets. One person filling the water filter. One person filling the bathtub just in case the power went out again. And one person making sure the thermostats were set correctly.

We spent most of our day out of the house, keeping ourselves busy until the lights came on. The storm that hit us yesterday did quite a bit of damage in the immediate area of our neighborhood, but not much else anywhere else.

We took the kids to IHOP for breakfast and then made a leisurely trip to Walmart and then the library.

We are all just happy to have air conditioning, running water, and flushing toilets again!

An impressive storm came raging through this evening. It battered the house from every direction with crazy winds and hail. And check out that lightning map! 😳😳 I’m not surprised we lost power, I just wonder how long it will be down.

I’m sad that I haven’t devoted more time to the blog lately, but the truth is I have been overrun with editing. For the past few weeks I have been slammed with work, which is a huge blessing, but it has left me with little time to do much else. On top of that, I am finally putting 10+ years of marketing meetings to use by managing the marketing aspects of our family business. It’s a steep learning curve, but I’m enjoying the process. I’m hoping to get more time for adventuring in a week or so, but until then, I’ll enjoy my air conditioned editing corner during these 100 degree plus days!

Since I moved my computer up to the bedroom, the kids have been interrupting me a lot less. They actually have to go out of their way to get to me. It has been working well, for the most part. This afternoon, though, Baby E had had enough of playing. He was tired and asked if he could come to my room and rest for a little while. I said that would be ok if he was very quiet. As I sat at my desk, he climbed into my bed and made himself comfortable on my pillow. Within a few minutes he was fast asleep, oblivious to my editing in the corner.

I have NO idea what Big E found so appalling about his little brother, but his face is cracking me up! Any guesses what he’s thinking?

When I married Tim, I married my best friend. Which is awesome, because it means I get to spend everyday with someone that’s just as silly as I am!

But seriously, this guy works so hard (have I mentioned the shop doesn’t have air conditioning!) and then comes home in the evening and spends time with me and the kids, reading to them every night and teaching them hymns. Life has thrown us some crazy curveballs, especially over the past few years, but I’d do it all again with him by my side.