July 5, 2017

Today I REALLY slept in.  I felt kind of crappy when I finally got up out of bed.  It's Greg's old theory about sleeping TOO much.  It was just kind of hard to ever get the day going after that.  I had a huge sink full of dishes...some left from the Luau, and a bunch from breakfast.  We just kind of puttered around cleaning and making messes at the same time.  When we finished our jobs, we watched "The Hunger Games" movie.  Some of us stayed in our pajamas most of the day.  I finally, finally washed all the pots and pans and finished the kitchen at about 3 p.m.  

Owen and Lance playing doctor.  This melts my heart.

So cute. And Miles and Austin are in the background playing LEGOS.  

By this point, Emma was feeling bored and restless.  She finally had the idea to have a cooking competition with Julia. I looked at the clean kitchen, cried a little inside, took a deep breath and helped them set up the competition.  If nothing else, it could be our dinner.  They spent the next two hours cooking.  And they made a royal mess.  They served pasta and breadsticks and french onion soup, and a tator tot casserole with a chocolate pudding for dessert.  It was a super funny assortment of food.  And surprisingly, some of it was pretty good.  We all ate it.

The cooking competition is underway!  

It took us an hour to get everything cleaned up and washed.  I feel like I spent a crazy amount of time doing dishes today.  I filled up four dishwashers full of dirty dishes.  Sometimes that frustrates me.  It's just one of those jobs that gets done and needs doing all over again.

The boys ran up to play the Xbox while Emma, Julia, Greg and I talked in the family room until it got dark.  We didn't bother to get up and turn on the lights as a beautiful twilight settled over the backyard just outside the windows.  It was a beautiful, peaceful evening.

I may have done a boat load of dishes today, but I'm happy to be with my family.  I'm trying so hard to be the kind of mom who is happy and fun and loving.  I'm trying to stand at the sink at smile.  It's not always easy, but it's worth it.  I just love these people so much!!