We have here a never before seen, unplugged, bootleg, director's cut version of One String Guitar Man. This is very rare.

All together now

Yesterday after school...[sorry Kevin]

Anna: Mom, can we play on the computer?
Me: Sure, as long as you don't go to sleep.

John: Mom, the girls are taking all their toys out on the porch.
Me: I don't care as long as they don't go to sleep.

Autumn: Mom, can we watch a Christmas movie even though it's summer?
Me: If you promise not to go to sleep in the middle of it.

Introducing...

We have another musician in the house. Elliott and John just finished their first father-son cowrite. I bet you hadn't heard Elliott's falsetto before now.

There's just one little problem...

Even though it is only day two of my one-child-at-home freedom, a big challenge surfaced yesterday. My children, except for John, were so tired and hungry when I picked them up from school I didn't know what to do. They weren't happy with the goldfish or cheese and crackers I suggested. They wanted sandwiches and ramen noodles and pizza. "This is not like second breakfast only with lunch" I said, "this is a snack. I'm going straight from making your snack to making your dinner."

Then they were all like, "I'm soooooo sleepy. I can't keep my eyes open." That's when I started tickling them and yelling out at random times to scare them awake. I knew that if they so much as closed their eyes, it would be over. They would sleep and sleep and sleep and then they would wake up just in time for bedtime and they would be hungry AGAIN and not sleepy. It's a horrible, vicious cycle. I know this from experience.

So today, on the way home from school, I had an idea. [And no, my idea was not to put on some makeup and wash my hair!]

When your kids want to lay around like a useless cat, and you don't have the luxury of a pool for your kids to burn off their energy in...

simply dump all the toys out of all your buckets, bins and boxes, take em outside and fill em up with water. Yes, water. It's that simple!

This may seem like kind of a back woods thing to do, but we don't really have any neighbors so I don't really care how it looks. Being in the cold water sort of hit my kid's reset button and I think it bought me a couple of hours until they eat dinner and get ready for bed.

April chose to swim in her birthday suit. Surprise!


Autumn likes to float, sort of.


I'm not sure but I think that was a cannonball. Nice splash!


Notice how Autumn is holding her breath. You don't want to swallow a bunch of water. That would be the worst.


A little snorkeling action. I wonder what she saw down there?


Before I knew it, and before I really got anything done, they were clamoring for snacks again.


No matter, they're awake, about to eat a snack and when 8:30 comes, they'll be ready to go to sleep and they won't be monsters in the morning when I go to wake them up!

Parting is such sweet, sweet, sweet sorrow. Did I mention sweet?

Well kids, today marks another milestone in our family. I am sending your sister, Autumn, with you to school to spend her days learning how to read, write and snicker at boys. The house is going to be unusually quiet. In fact, I'll need to keep an eye on April. No telling what she'll be able to get into now.

You did so good this morning getting ready on time and looking cute with your smiles and sleepy eyes.


Your littlest sister thinks she's getting in the van with you. She's been demanding that someone give her her shoes so she can go to school!


John, can you not stop for one second so I can take a picture of you walking in to your first day in the 4th grade or are you too cool for that?



Hey girls! Wait up! I'm supposed to be walking you into class. Not the other way around.


Welcome to Pre-k, Autumn. I hope you don't bite your teacher's head off when she tries to wake you up from a nap like you do me. Oh, and stay away from the boys. They're trouble.


Have fun in First grade, Anna. This is the real thing now, no naps for you. And be good because this is going on your permanent record! And all that stuff about boys applies to you, too.



I'll be here at the house if you need me, eating bon bons and watching The Bold and the Beautiful. Just kidding! [About the soap opera, of course!]

Here's a funny thing...

This morning, April asked for a banana. Now she doesn't say, "Can I have a banana?" She says, "Can I have a beeeenana?" She gets stuck on the first syllable. It's pretty cute. Anyway, she asked for a beeenana and I gave her one. When I give her bananas, I peel them down about half way and tell her to hold on to the bottom part, the handle, and off she goes. Lately, I've been finding half eaten bananas lying everywhere and I just figured she wasn't hungry enough to finish the rest but this morning I realized why she hasn't been finishing them.

She came to me about 5 minutes after I had given her the banana and asked for some beeeenana chips. I told her the banana chips were for school lunches and besides, she had the real thing in her hand. She said, "No I doan. Iss down." I looked at her hand, holding the banana and realized that she had been eating down to the level of her hand and didn't know that she could eat the "handle"! I said, "Oh, sweetie, you still have some banana left in your hand. It's right here." And I proceeded to unwrap the rest of the banana and give it to her.

She looked shocked and said, "Thank you, mommy."

Hey kids, what time is it?

It's time for the Park's Annual Road Trip! Don't worry, you didn't miss anything if this is your first one. We do something different every year, it's just that we don't ever fly so it's always a road trip for us!

The house is buzzing with activity. Well, I'm buzzing with activity. The girls are at grandma's because they can't bear the thought of being away from her for more than a day so they're getting all they can of her before we leave. Elliott is at the studio, because that's where he always is. And John, seeing how busy I was with packing and last minute things, decided to help me by taking apart a keyboard he got for Christmas and seeing how the thing works. Thanks, John. Your such a big helper!


I did an unusual amount of food preparation for this trip. I guess since most of our food budget has been moved over to the gas budget, I've had to be a little more creative. Which means I had to clean out the fridge and the pantry so we could eat on this trip!

I made pasta salad,


peach oatmeal bars,

lots of chocolate chip pecan cookies,

and gathered every snack type food that my kids hadn't yet devoured from my last trip to the grocery store.


There are stacks of clothes in various places in the house awaiting suitcases and duffel bags.



And my kitchen sink looks like this.


We'll be heading to Balmorhea State Park, Carlsbad Caverns and Taos. All in the span of 5 days. And I'll be nowhere near a computer so I'll see you when I get back!