Updates... because I haven't been journaling lately

Wednesday night Mr. T got one of his fevers. It's been about 8 months since his last fever, and really we thought he had outgrown them. Apparently being home was helpful, and I suppose it's not a huge shock that within the first few weeks of school his cyclical fevers should re-start. We'll see what happens. We quickly zapped his fever with the handy-dandy steroid treatment, but I think because he has been off them for so long his reaction to the hyper and hallucinating side-affects was pretty severe. Poor boy was jumping around the fire snakes, trying to climb the wall to kill the bats and spiders he saw in our house, and did a fair amount of damage to our orderly home while up during the wee hours of the night as the rest of us slept soundly. I kept him home from school on Thursday, and I'm glad I did. Friday was a short day and he insisted so profusely that he go to school, so I let him. According to his teacher he did just fine. A part of me wishes someone else got to handle him the way he was on Thursday, but I'm also glad he was well-behaved!

The boys have started flag football. Both boys have tried several sports and have yet to determine which one they prefer to single out. I'm fine with that. But it's also a bit annoying having coaches ask if my not very athletic boys are playing a sport for their first time. They've been doing soccer, t-ball, basketball, gymnastics, and now football since they were 3!!! The point is to try something new, discover potential talents, make new friends, have fun exercising, and get tired so they go to bed for me! We really thought Little E would do well with football - he loves to tackle block and run fast, not to mention throw! But he is just so tired after a full day of school he just kind of stands there and watches. Mr. T, however, is thriving! He is totally in his element and loves it. (Notice Little E in the back with the blue hat... not even aware of what is going on a few feet away from him. Poor tired boy!)
We got a bunch of small house projects done on Saturday. I think we went to Lowes and Home Depot about three times each! But it was worth it! Our biggest project was something I've been excited about. I've struggled with our mantle over our fireplace. I'm really not a decorator by nature, but I want things to look "nice". I knew I didn't want a mirror above the fireplace... but we really don't have another nice piece of artwork that is big enough for the room and I didn't want to spend a fortune on something either since we have BIG plans for re-doing our fireplace/mantle in the winter months anyways. So I decided that I wanted to frame the world map that we have had for years and is a part of our home anyways. I hunted for frames forever and finally went to find out how much it would cost to have a custom frame made (with a 50% off coupon of course). WAY TOO MUCH, my friends. Next I decided we could build our own frame. I googled and checked out crafty sites and finally felt ready to tackle that project - with Mr. Man's help and know-how of course. We bought molding that I liked, molding blocks and a large sheet of cheap thin wood for the back of the "frame". We measure and laid it out, then I spray painted the pieces black. Easy breezy and so fun. (Seriously love spray painting... I took down a few other things and spray painted them too while I was at it... a cheap quick way to change a look!) Then we wood glued it all together, used a kajillion clamps and waited. We didn't add glass because we didn't want it too shiny, and we really liked the crumpled/old look of the map as it was. Today it is hanging on the wall and looks so great and fits right in with our room. It's a HUGE piece of artwork and it only cost us about $30 to build the great frame! What do you think?



I also finally found a GREAT high altitude cookie recipe and Miss J and I have been happily baking and pumping out lots of yummy gooey cookies! She has also been big into these fabulous bead things we got from IKEA years ago... you know, the ones you have to iron together afterwards... she had them out to do with a friend on Friday and then has been going at it all weekend! She is so creative and so patient in her creating! I was reading recently about how children who are creative and artsy usually will have a more difficult time reading notes in music... she was thrilled to have her weakness validated by her strengths.
This post is long enough... I'm leaving my deeper thoughts on my life's course for another post another day! Toodles.