Remember the good old days when...

...I blogged weekly? My Mondays weren't complete if I didn't put a small update here. It was thought-out, sometimes witty, and always had pictures.

 But lately, life has been too full of living to do much writing. Or anything else. Ergo, I'm about to return a library book, about a quarter of the way read. (gasp!) It's due tomorrow and there's just too much else to do to finish it.

 We stained our fence. After a couple hours' work only got the front sides of the fence done, we returned to the store for more stain and a sprayer. For all your paint- and stain-spraying needs, see us first. I think it took Levi about as long to do the entire backyard as I spent doing a quarter of the area. The kids had fun helping me, though. That lovely pink shirt now has a blob of stain on it, and the black pants must as well, because her underwear had stain on it.

Peter continues to dominate the house with his baby-ness. He holds us all in his thrall. (unintentionally rhyming happening here.) I forgot to take him in at four months to the doctor, and then they called to remind me of my neglect, and after I took him in at five months to get his four-month shots, he stopped sleeping. He's spent a good portion of the last month getting up three times a night. Sometimes two. It's a good night when he only wakes up once. This is the baby who slept 11 hours at 3 months. One night he was up three times between midnight and five am. This kid is going to be so grounded.

We finally started him on food a couple weeks after his six-month birthday and he's taking to it really well. I'm mentally gearing up to make my own baby food because I hate paying so much for such small containers of goo. You'd think I'd have this down by four kids. How have I never tried making baby food before? We have a little baby food grinder which we love, but he won't be feeding him table food for a while still. So I'm going to buy some vegetables and put the blender to use. Ought to be fun, right?

On an unrelated note, the clean laundry sat in baskets for three days before I got around to folding it.

Levi and I went on a date night! with Peter. I was due to go to my aunt's witch party, which is held faithfully and without fail the second weekend in October. But then my cousin went and had her first baby that very evening, so we called it off. So Levi and I took the evening to do things we aren't ambitious enough to do with the kids: Ethnic Food and Bookstore Browsing. (I don't get out much, so those do require capital letters.) We went to Taste of India and then walked over to Barnes and Noble. And to do those things with just one baby was...so easy. It was a fun night.

Every time I think about sitting down to write something, I can't think of anything to say. My head's too full of everything that's been happening (and where everybody has left their shoes) to articulate any of it. Like:

The struggles and successes of Nathan's first couple of months of first grade.
Hanging on to every minute of Peter my baby's babyhood.
And a haircut!
Coping with Clara's constant and inscrutable questions. "Why do they call it a Suburban?"
And enjoying Alice. She is a rascal.
Trying to get around to reading Smart but Scattered. It's a book my sister recommended to me and I'm pretty sure it's going to solve all of our problems always.
Doing those nagging house projects in between all the other cleaning things I expect myself to do but never seem to get done.
Why can't I make dinner anymore?
Learning to bake with natural yeast.
The trunk of the car is filled with the beginnings of Christmas shopping because the kids can't get into it there. So don't try and put anything in there.