believe it or not, its just me

My lack of recent posts is once again attributable only to my inability (unlike other mothers-of-many that I know) to order my life and make sense of the constant chaos. When will I figure out how to balance all this stuff? And if the answer on the tip of your tongue is "never", please feel free to lie and say something more encouraging. Just a couple amusing things the kids have been saying:

Molly (who as you probably saw recently) has been drawing quite rabidly and it takes up a good portion of her time. After a spell of only horses, she is trying to branch out into other areas. One interest that has frustrated her is drawing faces/people, and so she's finally attempting to tackle it. Her Granny sent a book about drawing faces, which is a huge help, but is still requiring lots of effort on her part. So, the other day, after drawing a picture that was supposed to be Carrie, she quit in frustration, huffing and stomping (I'm sure your kids never do that), saying she was "terrible" and would never try again. We had a little talk about patience, practice, and the like. Her face brightens after a bit, she shrugs her shoulders and says, "Well Mom, I guess when I'm learning new ways to draw, I have to remember that after all, Rome wasn't built in a day". Nice.

In other funnies...

The kids have been obsessed with how many more days there are until Dave and I will again eat sugar (which we gave up for Lent), and keep reminding me that Easter is just around the corner. Henry decided just a couple days ago that he wanted to be on the "no sugar diet" (as he calls it), and told us that since Easter was only a few days away, he could handle it. We laughed. So this morning the kids got up for breakfast, freaking out because they saw boxes of cereal (a rarity in our house), and were trying hard to choose which they would eat. Henry spent some time looking, frowning a lot, and finally asked me, "Mom, tell me which ones don't have sugar!", to which I replied, "Don't worry, have whichever one you want". He insisted, "But I told Dad I wouldn't eat sugar, and I'm going to do it". So I pointed out the "healthy" cereals (ignoring trace sugars), like plain Cheerios, Shredded Wheat (not frosted) and Raisin Bran. He chose Raisin Bran, but as I was pouring it I noticed that this brand had sugar all over the raisins (how dumb is that?) and I told him, asking if he still wanted it. He thought a bit and said, "I don't think Dad will be mad if I'm on the 'little bit of sugar' diet". I agreed.