The Blessings of Hospitality

We have a special guest today. She is the four-year old daughter of good friends who are having a weekend to themselves. I notice a few things about having a house guest. Luke's behavior is radically different when there is someone here to entertain. My house gets cleaner and stays cleaner when there are other folks here. For instance, after lunch today, rather than needing to follow the boys into the playroom to ensure peace and civility, I let our guest do it. Seriously! Add one four-year-old girl to the mix and life becomes SO much more sane. We are going to do this more often. So while they played, I did the lunch dishes. That NEVER happens. Usually Erik arrives home to a very messy kitchen because it was the last thing on my list. Not so today. :-)

It is currently 7pm, a time of night during which I usually entertain Luke with a game or five. Tonight he and our guest are having pajama playtime together. And I have time to blog before 10pm. I might even read for pleasure. Wow. We need to do this every weekend.

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Paul shows off his wheels to our guest.

Pajama playtime!

Things To Do During A Power Outage

• Dust furniture
• Fold clean laundry
• Drink lukewarm coffee
• Eat graham crackers
• Listen to iTunes collection for at least 3 hours and 23 minutes (time remaining on laptop battery).
• Read NPR page that is already loaded
• Write a blog entry with a pen and paper
• Be thankful my kids aren't TV folks and are happily playing in the playroom
• Be thankful that toilets don't require electricity to flush
• Marvel at the infrastructure of our country
• Remember time spent in the third world when the electricity was turned off by the government nearly every evening at sunset. Actually not such a bad thing. More candle light, more guitar playing, more song writing in those days.
• Listen to my children play and notice that Paul is imitating "I see you" fairly accurately. "I ee oo"
• Play "BSF" with Luke which always involves a Bible story, questions and answer time, and hymn time. And don't forget snack.
• Use the Old School kitchen timer for time outs. BRRRING!!!
• Explain to Paul that the electric piano won't work without electricity to which he responds, "Oh."

The power was only out for about forty-five minutes. I still have no idea what happened, but I was very thankful that it came back on before lunch time.

Later I thought of the idea of taking pictures. So here are a few shots after our power outage was over. The list is only comprised of things we actually did during the outage. Anyway, here are a few of the pics from today.

Snack time on the kitchen floor.

King Pharaoh in his palace trying to decide if he is going to let the Israelite people go...nine times out of ten, Luke gets to say, "NO!" to Moses, played by Mommy. Can you see why he likes this game so much?

Happy Paul

Still Sickies

Luke's fever raged for three days and he was a complete lump that entire time. I usually spend so much time telling him to use an inside voice or to stop running in the house, but when he is quiet and still, it's freaky. His fever finally broke Saturday morning and he has been on the mend ever since. Paul's started Saturday evening. I have been able to keep his from skyrocketing using Tylenol and ibuprofen, but I will be staying home with him tomorrow rather than going to BSF leadership. The worst part is the cough for both boys. Their lungs are just so susceptible to illness. We are nebulizing them both with Albuterol and Pulmicort. It's such a process every time. I finally gave up trying to get Paul to sit still and instead just let him stand while I hold the mask up to his face. It works. Luke, on the other hand, loves to sit and hold the mask himself. He's a big boy.
And now the pictures.

Paul right before bed tonight. Never too sick for the trains.

Luke and his tea set in the tub.