Best Parts of My Week

We are in the middle of Kevin's loooong work stretch and to be honest we are both at our burn out points!  It's been exhausting trying to keep up, but we both keep encouraging each other throughout the day and are both offering lots of grace for all the the things that aren't getting done as quickly as we'd like.  With that being said, we have a lot we are looking forward to in the next few weeks and it's keeping us going! 

Fleas

In the 9 years I've had Harry, I can't remember ever giving him a bath. And Charlie's never had a bath either. Until this week!  Both cats somehow got fleas (not sure if they came from the dog or Charlie's frequent escapes outside).  I bought a highly recommended (and pricey) flea medicine (Advange II) and it worked a little bit but definitely didn't take care of the problem.  And I call it a problem because Austin ended up having two fleas on his back one morning after he woke up! Gross, I know.  The cats like to sleep in the kids beds, but this week they were banned from bedrooms.  I stripped all the beds, washed every ounce of bedding, and vacuumed the floors 1-2 times daily.  I can definitely tell the cats are feeling better and are scratching less.  Harry, unfortunately, has lost some fur over the last month and ended up with scabs from scratching... so he's still looking pretty rough!

Btw, the cats smell so so good and they are sooooo incredibly soft!  I can't stop smelling and petting them. True crazy cat lady story.  I told Kevin I may make this bath thing more frequent! Ha!
Oh and one more funny story... The cats were SO mad after their baths.  I don't think they recognized each other and I certainly don't think they were fans of their new smells because the cat hissing and growling was serious business for 24 hours!

**I can't remember if I posted this or not, but we purchased a new Dyson Cinetic big ball Animal & Allergy vacuum.  Our old Dyson was dying and not working well, but it gave us almost 9 years of clean floors, so I knew I wanted another!  The new one is even more amazing and I love vacuuming just to see how quickly I can fill the canister.  I know... Between smelling the cats and enjoying vacuuming, I'm a bit weird!

Finding Nemo

I let the kids pick a new movie on Apple TV.  They picked Finding Nemo.  Allie has been walking around all week calling everything "my squishy".  I'm sure they will want to see Finding Dory when it comes out!

Growing Pains 

Krissy, Allie, and Austin have been dealing with growing pains this week!  Literally every night this week I was woken up by someone's cries of leg pain.  The girls both woke up after Kevin had left for work, so I just had them lay in bed with me while I rubbed their hurting leg(s).  They'd end up falling back asleep and usually I'd fall back asleep while rubbing their leg!  

Art Smarts Camp

Our church hosts a summer camp called Art Smarts.  It's a week filled with teaching kids about Jesus through the arts.  My kids LOVE it!  I've assisted at the camp for probably 5 years now, but decided to step it up this year and teach!  I'm teaching a preschool cooking class.  I've been looking for perfect recipes the kids can help me make while focusing on our theme, "Taste and see that the Lord is good!"  My class will consist of 3-5 year olds and I'm lucky enough to have a 3 & 5 year old to practice recipes with!  

Baking

I wanted to perk myself up this week and thought I'd try one of the new recipes I've pinned lately..."the best yellow cupcakes from scratch".  Can't tell you how many of these recipes I've tried over the years, or why I continue to fall for the lie that they are the best, because it's just not true.  They weren't the best.  Not even close.  I'm not sure I'll ever find a cake recipe that is as light and airy and moist as a box mix!  These ended up in the trash shortly after I made them.  And I still have about a dozen more "best" recipes I want to try - so I'm sure I will.  Just need to remember to keep my expectations low!  However, I did make some great brownies, cookies, bread, and cinnamon rolls this week!

Treating the teachers and bus driver!

Chicken Hair Cut

Our little white chicken, Sunshine, was getting quite the poof!  I was reading about her breed and realized a lot of people trim the poof so the chickens can see better.  I had no idea I should be doing that, but I did notice she was always behind the others, slow to get treats, and slow to run away from other big chickens/the dog and it's because she can't see past that poof!

The next day she got a trim and she's thrilled about her new look!

(You can see her eye in this last picture, it's just closed!)

Potty Training

I have to end with a high!  Austin has done amazingly well potty training this week!!!  I knew we were going to be home all week and thought it was a perfect opportunity to work on his potty skills.  Our earlier attempts were unsuccessful because he wasn't interested in my tried and true methods! Ha!  (We always do no bottoms and a long Tshirt for a few days.  It's worked with the first 3 kids!)  When he gets out of the bathtub, he runs around naked screaming "naked party!" So you can imagine my dismay when he refused to go bottomless.  I compromised and let him wear undies but no pants.  Every time he's started to go, he's stopped and told me, so I haven't had to clean up any major accidents.  (I should note that while we are outside, he feels like it's perfectly acceptable to pee in the yard. That's happened twice so we definitely need to work on that!)  The first two days he was afraid to poop on the potty but the last couple days he's done great.  He's also been allowed to wear pants the last few days too :) We haven't left the house in undies but we may give that a shot tomorrow!