Monday Mayhem

It's a sunny Monday morning here in Northern, Portugal. I'm trying hard to ignore the chaos surrounding me.

There seems to be a little squabble over the cinnamon and sugar over near the toaster. One of my daughters just got chocolate milk all over her skirt and proceeded to remove it right in front of all of us so that I could treat the stain immediately. (She said I told her to take it off so I could spray it and choose another skirt....but I didn't mean right now) The dog (a large black Lab) is leaping in the air in an attempt to procure his morning snack....flies. One kid has a fortress built around her with 3 cereal boxes, a roll of paper towels, and two containers of juice...the same one sitting bottomless while finishing her breakfast. One of the youngest is fussing at an older one, "You make chocolate milk like water!!" And my son is collecting the remaining milk from his cereal bowl in his mouth and spitting it back into his bowl...and he's doing this over and over again. My oldest is standing on her platform this morning demanding all finish their breakfast quickly because they must begin their work for today and finish my birthday gifts they've been working on for a week now. (My birthday isn't for 2 weeks) Her bedroom has been transformed into a workshop, complete with a sign warning Mom NOT to enter unless I knock first. All the neighborhood kids arrive at 2:00 promptly, and this is when the real work begins. The friends bring supplies from their house...all the fancy craft supplies like glitter!

Monday's.....got to love 'em.

My Mom arrives next Monday for a 9 day visit. We'll spend the next week preparing for her arrival. Deciding on which room in this house is the coolest for her to sleep. She's a spoiled southerner, like me, she's used to having air condition in every room of the house. So much air condition that the toilet seats are cold, even in the summer.

This past weekend we had another pic-nic. This time it was with some friends of ours. And next weekend we'll have another one with all the folks from the mission here in our town that we are working with. These beautiful days won't last long. Soon enough it will turn cold and rainy and last for 9 months. I don't look forward to those days. So excuse me while I spend a little time outdoors.





Have a great week ya'll!

Monday Mayhem

We had it adjusted perfectly. A little tugging, a little stuffing, and little twisting and her belt was just like her little obsessive compulsive self likes it. She brushed off her skirt and looked in the mirror. NOW she's content. Her skirt is just the way she wants it and her belt is the perfect tightness.

Then it happened.

We both spot her tights lying on the bed.

I tell her in my distracted, Monday Mayhem Mom voice, "Lib, put your tights on."

Her shoulders slump, she pooches out her bottom lip, she whines...."But Mom, I'll have to take my skirt off."


I tried really hard not to laugh....but once I met my husbands eyes, it was all over.

She turned 7 Sunday and she still doesn't know you can pull a skirt UP to go to the bathroom.....or apparently, put on tights.

Monday Mayhem

We've had a wonderfully crazy day. It started this morning as we were getting things ready for our friends, the Mosley's to arrive. Our buzzer rang with the delivery guy delivering yet another two boxes with late arriving Christmas gifts. Everything was put on hold as we went through these wonderful gifts. As we were putting them all away and getting back to preparing for our guests, the buzzer rang again. This time it was one specific box. This box contained a gift JUST for me. Some of you ladies can appreciate this......



I was so excited! I yanked it out of the box and placed it proudly on my kitchen counter top. (Thanks Dad!)

Our guests arrived and we had not even come close to getting the things accomplished we were hoping to get accomplished. Too much excitement this morning. After a lunch of taco salad I jumped right up and made some cookies using my new mixer. I couldn't wait to use it. We enjoyed warm cookies and even warmer coffee. (We'll take any heat we can get these days!! Our house stays so cold.) This pretty baby makes life in the kitchen so much more enjoyable!

We are so thankful for precious friends. The Lord has blessed us with many in the short 10 months that we've been here. Here are a few pictures of the kids playing with John and Stephanie.

Monday Mayhem

After hitting snooze twice on an alarm clock set a little too late to begin with, I jumped out of bed with just enough time to make it up before the girls all came filing into my room looking for their freshly ironed clothes.

It's a very cold, crisp morning here in Barcelos, Portugal. Temperatures just above freezing, but we don't mind cause at least it's not raining! Most of the girls 'school' coats are still wet from the ever so needed cleaning they received this weekend. So it was confusion with who had what extra coat that could be shared with which sister and which one looked less like the stay puff marshmallow man. Meanwhile Justice stood beside me pulling on my skirt saying repeatedly "mess...mess...mess..." I never like to hear those words, but at least he comes and tells me know instead of just looking at his mess and going in another room to play and leaving it for me to discover three hours later. This time he was wearing his hot chocolate on the front of his shirt but he was careful to share some with the table, chair and floor.

As we rounded the corner headed for school Brooklyn sucked in all the cold air left in the car and exclaimed that"Dad was supposed to take us to school this morning!" I said, "Why, am I not good enough?" She said "Well, can you explain to my teachers why I wrote a letter to you and Dad instead of to Santa?" (Just for the record, I could have done this...not correctly...but I would have gotten my point across.)

So Michael ran back up there to make sure the Teacher understood. Which of course, she did without any problems and then she informed Michael that the last day of school before the Christmas break will be Thursday. The kids can go home at lunch time after a THREE hour Christmas party! The entire day will be a "festa"! I didn't get three hour parties when I was in school, did you?