Parentheticals

Ultimate baby wrestling This week Mike worked half a day on Monday and Tuesday, and he worked all day Wednesday, but he had the rest of the week off. This was part of his paternity leave package that he agreed upon with his employer. Alison and the kids did a good job of holding down the fort while Mike was gone, although the house did get pretty messy since Alison spent a lot of time taking care of the baby, which took away some time from her taking care of the rest of things. One thing that happened early in the week was the conclusion of the light install in the front yard. Mike was able to finish putting everything together, and the lights were easy to install. They look good, however they are not bright enough to be the sole source of light in the room. On Tuesday we picked the "last" of the strawberries on strawberry hill. On Wednesday during the day, Amy offered to watch the kids, so Alison dropped them off, and napped. When mike came home we had pizza at A...

The kids and adults in our family have adjusted back to life together. It was a little exhausting the first few days, but things are going well. We started a new clean up procedure this week. Now for Team Clean the girls each have two loops of string, one in the front room and one in their bedroom. We pile stuff into the loops and they have to clean up everything in their areas. This has been especially helpful to Sara, who tends to lose focus when cleaning. Having a confined space seems to help her a lot, and we have to spend a lot less time redirecting her. This means that we're less frustrated, which is always nice. We also set a 30 minute timer for Team Clean and whoever has finished their jobs (one parent has the kitchen, the other arranges the girls' piles and then does our bedroom and the bathroom) gets to do something fun. Anyone who hasn't finished doesn't get any parental attention until they do. We like it so far. On Monday, Timmy was in charge of the FHE...