a very good day

I just posted yesterday, but I had to post tonight because we had such a great day today and I wanted to record it quick before a hard day comes and erases it from my memory--I'm afraid it is very short-term at the moment. :-)

I think the day may have started so well because we woke up to the smell of fresh baked bread (I love my bread machine!). After breakfast was done and Emma was off to school, I looked around the main floor of our house and decided that I was tired of living in a quagmire of toys, so I informed all four little munchkins that we were now going to clean up. It felt a bit like taking 3 steps forward and 2 steps back with Alex "helping." I had to laugh when Tristan all of a sudden had to go potty. His need was genuine, so I don't believe it was strategical, but this was a joke in my family growing up. All of us really "had to go" when it was time to clean up the kitchen after dinner. Maya and Isabelle were real troopers, and the look on Isabelle's face was awesome when she looked around with pride at what she had done.

So, after that I couldn't let the opportunity pass to clean all the floors. Alex wanted me to hold his hand while I vacuumed, Tristan wanted me to chase him with the vacuum, Maya was content to stay on the couch away from the vacuum and Isabelle was happy watching Blues Clues and just wanted me to stop so she could hear it better.

After cleaning we sat up to have "preschool," and it was so wonderful because Tristan could tell me red and blue correctly!--the two colors we have been working on, and Maya surprised me by successfully holding up 2 fingers when we were counting by fingers, and then Tristan did 3 all by himself! These may seem like silly things to get excited about, but there you have it. I LOVE seeing the pride on their little faces!

After playing in the backyard for a bit we ran some more fresh baked bread to a friend who had just had her first little baby (so tiny and cute!) and headed to a park to play and to eat leftover homemade pizza (with dough from my bread machine!). Tristan fell off the bench at the picnic table and hit his head on the cement. His two front teeth cut fairly deep into his bottom lip, but it stopped bleeding fairly quickly and he seemed fine, so he played a bit more and we headed home for naptime.

At any rate, I won't continue this moment to moment catalog of our day, but I will say that even though this experience is definitely the hardest thing I have ever done in my life, it is also the most worthwhile. In fact from my experience, nothing worthwhile ever happens without a lot of hard work and determination.

By the way about the bread machine, it is from Zojirushi and its bread is awesome! I have all the ingredients I need in one cupboard right above it, as well as the recipes I use with it taped to the inside of the cupboard door. That way I can pop in a loaf in under 5 minutes. I mainly use it for wheat bread, but also for french bread and pizza dough and dough for rolls or cinnamon rolls---ummmm, maybe that's what I'll make for family movie night tomorrow! :) The bread machine makes a horizontal loaf, rather than the traditional vertical and it has a double blade, and it has an extra rise in the process that makes the dough very light and good. They should pay me for this!