Unclean!

It's catch up time... Sometimes I wonder what I will do when I finally catch up to every To-Do item on my list. What will I have to live for? What will wake me in the morning? Thankfully, life continues to throw itself at us. I will never catch up and my obituary will read:

Lisa Martin
Loving Mother and Wife, she leaves behind her devoted husband and six loving children, mounds of dirty laundry, bills to be paid, and a lost library book that's probably fallen behind the bed, but would be easier to just pay the fine than to pull it out and sort through all that dust and crud. As she is the only one who knew where the ketchup was, she will be missed.

But before I enter an eternity of rest (which isn't what I really believe, because as a Mormon, I am obligated to believe in an eternity of work, improvement, and perfection... every day those born-agains look better and better.) I have to deal with Life's most recent pitch. LICE!

That's right, the Minneapolis School District gave us a parting gift of buggy hair! Yuck. I have been doing laundry ever since. Piles and piles of clothes, pillows, blankets, sheets. Vacuuming has become a summer past time. And we end each day with a prayer, a kiss, and head check.

Here's Willa in front of the latest batch of laundry.

But don't you worry about me. Soon enough the lice will be gone, the laundry put away, and the To Do list close to clear. I'm guessing right about the same time I go into labor.

Calvin's 5th Birthday

First catch up item is Calvin's birthday. My baby boy is 5!

We celebrated in our time honored tradition of braining the birthday boy with his gift and demanding a wish.

Here he sits clutching his loot.

And I wanted to put this picture in because even though it's a couple months old and I'm hiding behind a chair, it might be the only pregnancy pic I get.

Calvin received a Happy Birthday call from Nana a day or two later (time dilation runs in the family). I just love the dish towel cape! Makes me wish he could stay five for a couple of years.

Mother's Little Helper

Next on the blog catch up list is Mother's Day.
For mother's day I got an iPhone! That's right, after basically having no cell phone of any kind, I've now joined the new millinium with the latest, greatest phone out there. I am so techno hip! At least for the next month? When does the next version come out?

Seriously, it's a really fun gadget. I can read and send email on it. Look up stocks. And stay up to do date with information and news. Of course what I use it for most for is a calendar and to do list. Making it a super expensive, battery dependent piece of scrap paper. But I can also take pictures with it!

Behold, the first pictures I took.

Yes, this was an accident.

I was meaning to do this.

But this is my favorite.

As is this one I took a couple of days later while entertaining Willa at a school band concert. That's the other thing this "phone" regularly does: Keeps the kids happy.

And these pictures were taken so I could use them as "wall paper" for my phone.

Which means every time I turn on my phone I see these guys.

Happy Mama's Day to ME!

P.S. In order to make this all possible, this phone has now become the "home phone" as well. I've tried to make it known that the number has changed, but if you need our new number, just shoot me an email-or leave a comment.

Pillow Talk

Here is the last of the "catch ups" for the day. I couldn't possibly do it all in one sitting. What would I do with the extra time afterward? Get to bed on time? Unthinkable.

These photos are from one very lazy morning. Either it's a Saturday right before school got out, or one of our first summer mornings. I remember David was gone, that's for sure. He left us for four weeks to work with my brother-in-law who is a beekeeper. We missed him and things felt odd at first. So the kids often came into my room.

This morning I wouldn't let them in my bed. I just kept throwing down pillows and telling them to lay on the floor. After a while I declared it was time to get dressed and they refused. So we made it into a game. They could stay on the floor for as long as they wanted UNLESS they took their head off of the pillow.

Side note: Are you beginning to see how we all got lice?

While they were glued to the ground I was able to get in a whole chapter.

Willa was not a part of the game. So they would yell for her to come and join them.

Calvin was the first to go, then Enoch, then Emma. Taran could have made it the whole day. But I'm sure he didn't feel it was worth it.

Here's to lazy summer mornings. May yours as lazy and bug free!

In the Dark

I'm still not feeling up to blogging about the things that we have done lately; it just takes so much work to find that cord that connects the camera to the computer. But it hasn't been all laziness, we have done some stuff:

Chemists in the Library
Wherein an older gentleman tried to shush the entire children's section of the library and my children came home with little baggies of jello like substance called "flubber."

Found our first Geocache
Wherein my children whined every step until we found the cache and then whined that we didn't have something to trade.

Field Day
Wherein we all got our first sun burns.

Planted some pretty flowers
Wherein our yard status went up from "Grey Gardens" to "white trash."

Made thank you gifts with for teachers with SHRINKY DINKS!
Wherein I fulfilled a childhood dream of baking plastic in the oven.
&
Laundry
Which I'm always doing, (so deserves a mention) as well as dishes, and clean up, and food prep, and driving, diapering, sweeping, wiping, washing, and someone is almost always crying. No wonder I'm too tired to get up and find that cord.

Until that time, I give you one of our Family Home Evenings (in February?):

a Martin Style Rave

sponsored by none other than Nana, who sent us glow in the dark sticks for Halloween (see? I'm not just a neglectful blogger, I am completely anachronistic! I almost never let that pesky old calendar dictate to me!).

We turned the lights off and the music up, ate some ice cream and got jiggy wit it...

David? in some super fly goggles.

Group photo!

With the flash.

Dancing like no one is watching.

Even when some one is!

Dessert.

Glow stick illuminated ice cream.

Done! and ready for bed.