We got to the school an hour later, and he comes to tell me he needs to pee. I look at him in daylight for the first time all morning.

“Um, what shorts are those? I’m pretty sure those are boxers.”

”No, they’re just shorts.”

”Pretty sure not. Do they have a fly?”

“Nope.”

Hmm. Still pretty sure they’re striped boxer shorts. Your brother definitely wore them as unders.

But he has to pee. Of course he does. No just getting the under dressed boy home. Now my in-his-unders son will need to parade through the whole school to use the bathroom. I let him out of the bus and send him inside.

Afterwards: he found the fly and sheepishly admits he wore boxers for bus route. But it doesn’t end there. My boss, who helped him into the school because I was stuck on a bus full of kids… yeah. Before afternoon route he announced it to my boss. They had a good laugh.

I’m still laughing about it. Mortified. But funny.

But once you start an improvement and you reminisce about a photo you’ve seen before some ungodly decision by a predecessor was made to paint the brick… and a decision was made. $100 in brick grinder disks and a couple days of labor later…

It’s not without any paint. But it has a lot less now. And a couple weeks later, I’ve finally stopped finding the brick dust that went EVERYWHERE in my house. That was a lot of cleanup.

Of course, the fireplace (in the dining room) prompted a full room makeover. Its gray walls are now blue. The blue cabinet I stripped, sanded, and painted brown, along with the shelf next to it.

The china hutch is new. Jury’s still out on that. I have visions of an old door from my parent’s house becoming a backdrop to a cast iron rack there so it might have to go.

Overall, I’m pretty happy with it.

But this weekend, I was sitting folding laundry and saw the living room end tables I’ve been meaning to paint a fresh coat on and glanced up at the freshly painted brown cabinet, and a decision was made. I need to go put a second coat on them shortly.

Last weekend I painted the shutters, outside doorway, and foundation. Things are sprucing up around here nicely.

Mid-project peek at my fresh green doorway, naked of shutters and pre-paint on the foundation. After photo… in the works. The shutters are done, the concrete still has some work left to go. I’ll get there.

When life gets stressful, I take on projects. It’s oddly cathartic.

“I wrote my name! I think it’s upside down though.” Yeah buddy. Kind of. He asked me to write his name in dots so he could trace them. Then he argued long and hard that his name needs a capital N at the end.

My work is not done.

I found a good cup or more of blue gel in a pile on the corner of the carpet in the hallway a couple days ago. Turns out, Creed was attempting to kill a tiny spider. With aloe vera gel. I didn’t examine the evidence, but I dare say, I’m pretty confident he was successful.

I pulled four things out of the shower drain a couple weeks ago. The shower has a drain cover that had to be removed to even get to the drain. Long forceps, a shop vac, and some very nasty water splashing Elliot and I later, we rescued not just the one thing he’d told us was down there, but four. Why? I do not know. But again, Creed.

I thought he’d outgrow the shenanigans. The mischief is just getting more complicated and skilled. His curiosity gets the better of him daily. He’ll probably be brilliant. I’m just not sure the house or its contents is going to survive him.

Life has taken a serious, unbelievably hard turn this year. I can’t even begin to explain it all now, and maybe not ever. But as we walk through fire and cling to Christ as we plod through a murky slough of pain and difficulty… please pray for our family. We’re brokenhearted.

Lachlan was supervising supper prep. It clearly took far too long.

Sterling sent me this photo with the caption, “Pierce is going to have a rude awakening.” I couldn’t decide if Lach or Pierce should wake up first. Lach has wicked morning breath. Wicked. He also loves to climb into bed with his brother. Pierce sleeps so hard he doesn’t even notice.

For ages, I’ve wanted geese. I love the birds running around my yard, but first ducks and now geese have made this way more fun. I got my first pair of geese – I think they’re a pair, anyway – a few months ago. Elliot has them tame and named Conrad and Contessa.

I’m feeling very bougie with my porch geese!

And finally, Stellan and Elliot had a little lawn-mower-turned-trap-line-transportation breakdown. I cracked up at them coming back into the yard.

Also, Elliot is the girliest girl. She wants everything pink and repaints her nails almost daily. She also checks the trap line, drives the four wheeler, ogles fancy cars, dispatches and skins the trappings, and butchers chickens with gusto. She’s quite the girl.

Fun times.

It’s one of the more redneck things I’ve seen lately but it worked surprisingly well. It got me home. I did decide not to back the bus in to park, however. I pulled up to begin backing, in the dark no less, took one look at that mirror and pulled up to the bus barn. Someone else can deal with backing up that nonsense.

Creed labeled the sugar canister this morning. I had to break it to him that it wasn’t quite spelled correctly when he asked. He’s still talking about how crazy it is that we don’t spell it with an H. I don’t plan to relabel anytime soon. He’s fantastic.

Today’s casualty list, at the hands of Creed:

two cotton tee shirts that “had dirt on them” so he bleached that problem right away. The shower curtain, hanging bath towels, and rug nearby seem to have escaped unscathed. I think. Bedtime came quickly, however.

I told Liberty’s boyfriend I hoped they have a little boy like Creed someday. His incredulous “Why would you say that?!” said he disagreed. But man. Life lessons have been taught by the hand of Creed. I’ve very purposefully never prayed for patience. God is teaching it to me anyway. Along with holding on to possessions loosely, and how to be very, very specific in what NOT to do. Everybody needs a Creeder.

And to leave you on a note of “this is motherhood around here”:

Lachlan’s Sunday school teacher asked who is always listening. He responded “Jesus, the Holy Spirit, and the government.”

Creed couldn’t make it to the toilet so he peed in a metal mixing bowl he found in the pantry shelf. He didn’t empty it. When I was told of the bowl, I didn’t even question who did it. I was not wrong.

Welcome to my life.

Next up is the dining room. Not yet though. I decided it’ll be the same color… when I get the gumption to dig into that project.

I took kids to the park today after a stop for treats at the grocery store. It’s been ages since I’ve done that. We had a great time. Lachlan asked if we can go again tomorrow.

We have chicks and ducks! After a month of hearing the whir of the incubator on my desk, we hatched out eight chickens and seven ducks. We tried for turkeys too but those eggs turned out to be not fertilized. I’m not entirely heartbroken. A coworker gave me the eggs but I wasn’t sure I really wanted turkeys anyway.

Creed shenanigans: I think I need to start a series. I’ll forget the things he does otherwise.
For this week: we have a hole in the basement wall with a little pick in it. Only the handle sticks out now. He thought it would be nice to have a handle there. Just sticking out of the wall. So he shoved the pick into it.

I found a toy airplane with a cockpit full of toothpaste the other day. “Creed did you…” is a comment question. 98% of the time, the answer is yes. He wanted to make a pilot for the plane – out of toothpaste, I guess. This is a nice throwback to my contact case full of toothpaste. Dear, dear child.

I kept finding the toilet paper rolls turned inside out on the little plate that they sit on attached to the dispenser. Yes. He is the one that pushed it so hard onto the plate it inverted the roll. The new dispenser is here because he bent the other so far it broke. He found it to be wiggly and was trying to figure out why. Problems solved. It’s no longer wiggly. It’s in two pieces instead!

And finally, this week… he grated a bar of soap into the grate on the front of the space heater. To clean it, he says. He always has a reason. It might only make sense to a five year old. But there’s always a reason.

I mowed some of the lawn a couple days ago  my perennials are starting to pop up. We planted hundreds of bulbs around the yard. I can’t wait until they all bloom. One lone tiny tulip is currently blooming. The boys are going to wear a groove in the sidewalk with their bikes at the rate they’re going. Good days. I love spring.

Elliot turned 12 on Sunday. Hard to even believe. My youngest baby girl… it’s odd. She’s a fun mix of purple and ruffles, a huge head of blond  hair, and quite the car enthusiast and a trapping buddy running a trap line with Stellan. She’s pretty fun.