Instead of soccer and dance this year, a couple of the girls are attending Young Rembrandts to get some art skills.  Riley is going to start violin next week (it's free at the school!), and give it a trial run on a rental.  I'm so jealous of all of them!
I tried painting yesterday.  Lately, everything I paint I just hate.  I want lessons so bad.  And I think that as Riley takes her violin lessons, I'll snatch up her 3/4 size violin and just try to hone my "skills."  I'm sure I've lost it all completely.  I'm starving to be skilled at more than cooking and cleaning.  I'm really good at those things though.

I got a call from another school mom last night.  Remember Mean Girls?  It's a funny and terrible movie about mean girls.  Those meanies exist in the 4th grade.  Apparently, Riley is caught in the middle of 2 feuding girls, trying to be the go-between to help them make peace.  This has been going on for years, and we keep encouraging Riley to not be in the middle of it.  This mom was encouraging me in one direction with one side of the story.  I do not find drama fun.  Can't we all just smile at each other, and hugs and love and candy and gum, Kumbaya? Anyway...

We haven't hung a kitchen cabinet door in at least 2 weeks.  I've lost count.
 
The homework situation has improved greatly.  We hit a 3-day terrible streak there and I thought we would die.  But all of the sudden, after approaching it more positively, we're getting assignments accomplished in record time.  That makes life a lot less depressing. :)
We're not drowning in our tears every afternoon and evening.  It's really great.  And this child actually gets to have relaxed, creative play time, which I know she craves.  I was seriously about to home-school her.

Guys, I realize my blog has changed a bit over the past year or two.  I used to have encouraging words and lessons I'd learned, and projects I'd finished.  I feel like I have a lot less to say these days, unless I just share the details of tween drama and laundry.  And Lucy.  Life is just going a lot faster now.

When it comes to lessons learned in motherhood, I feel very redundant in sharing them.  The Lord keeps needing to teach me the same thing.  And maybe I'm just not learning anything right now.  If I were, I'd be excited and I'd tell you about it.  That's no good.

I also just have a lot less time to chat, now that I have a non-napper.  The 3-yr-old's TV time is when I can either type or read, or cook, or clean a bathroom, or shower.
And with the sisters at school, I have to devote more time to playing with ponies.

I'm going to keep updating you on my garden and Lucy's obedience, and funny things, because I know that there are 7 people reading this that love me. :)
No matter how un-profound the contents may be, it's fun to talk with you.
Hang in there, maybe I'll get profound some day.