Okay...so...

This house is notorious for blowing light bulbs on a regular basis. The worst place right now is the one-year-old ceiling fan in my bedroom. It has five bulbs at 60 watts each. I've been through two-to-three cycles of bulbs already. It gets expensive, ya know? I decided today, while out shopping with the children, to put in the new energy saving bulbs. (The package says they will last six years. We'll see about that!) These take in 13 watts to produce 60. I'm hoping it will make a difference. Meantime, it sure is bright in here! (I was down to one working bulb before the new ones.)

Last night, the children just wouldn't go to sleep. They were put down by 9:00. Meg went to bed. Just about every hour thereafter, there was a new situation. Robin, who never wanted to be awake if everyone else in the house was asleep, begged me not to check on her. She said she wasn't afraid anymore and wanted to test herself by having me go to bed while she was still up. A bit later, I discovered why. I found her in her brother's room, quietly playing and watching TV with him. Hmmm... I sent her back to her room. She was still admonishing me that she needed the "test" and would I please go to bed? Finally, at a little after 1 AM, I thought she was asleep...so I went to bed. At 2:15 AM, I woke up to her crawling into bed with me, pillow and blanket in hand. She said, "How did I get all the way back here?" Hmmmm...

This morning--just imagine--I had trouble getting the skunks out of bed. They were tired! I told them we had errands to run. It is never good to take both of them shopping, but I can't wait for the end of the day to get things done. We went to Radio Shack, then to Wal-Mart. In spite of bribes, behavior wasn't good in the beginning. (It got better after threats.) They were allowed $10 each to spend. (There is virtually NOTHING available for less!) As the ice cream was melting in the cart while the children were picking out purchases, Robin discovered a couple of trays with snakes and rubber dinosaurs for $1 each. You'd think we had struck gold! Ryan quickly abandoned the $12 dinosaur (for which he would owe me $2 of his precious $4), and Robin spent all of hers. (She paid me her $4 when we got home.) All of these treasures were to play with Jack in the mud puddle of their own creation at the end of the drive...

When Meg got home, she said, "WHY is Ryan being allowed to play in the mud??" I'm sure there was criticism implied. I told her, "Because he is a boy!" Ryan and the neighbor boy (Jack) LOVE playing in water. They daily flood the little ditch at the curb where Meg's car is parked. I don't know of any cleaner options. It's like buying children expensive presents, only to observe them play with the box it came in. I have thought I should buy Ryan a water table... but Jack HAS a water table. He prefers to play in the mud!

Meg will be flying to San Francisco this weekend to visit her Russian friend. She is already worried about her lack of sleep. Stuff happens! I will be trekking to Chicago the week after, to help revise the SATERN manual. Our county's 4-H fair starts this next weekend. Will be sure to get the children there in between commitments. We enjoyed it last year.

As I mentioned in a previous post, the summer is flying. I haven't taken the kids to Splash Island yet, but they have had a busy summer. (So have I!) And the remaining time is filling up quickly. I want to take a trip to my sister's in IL with the kids, but am not sure, at this point, when that can/will occur. We may just have to escape!

Ryan is in bed. Robin is in the tub. Megan is in bed. Better get busy here so I can hit the sack at a reasonable hour. Reasonable? Did I say that???