People often ask me what my daughters think of having a brother.  I think this picture about sums it up.

This is one little boy who does not lack female attention!  He’s been kissed by more girls than most boys can brag of in their entire lifetimes!

Ben is doing good.  He can roll now from his belly to his back.  He could probably learn to army crawl if he stayed on his belly, but he will not.  He just fusses at me.  He wants to move and grab things so he gets frustrated.  He’ll get it all too soon, I’m afraid!  He did discover his toes this week and pulled one of these cute pretzel moves:

Then, of course, everyone had to get in on the action:

  They’re all starving for motherly affection, apparently.  “Look Mom!  I can do that, too!”   Impressive!

School went better this week.  Or I should say, the after-school hours went better this week.  I moved the twins piano practicing to the mornings and made dinner while the kids were at school.  I also had Megan babysit Ben for me from 4-5 every afternoon.  Those three things made afternoons much more doable, and hence, more peaceful.  Yay!  We had time to do homework, go to soccer games Tuesday, Wednesday, and Thursday, and still have dinner together as a family.  Cool.

Megan has been a great help babysitting Ben afterschool.  I am paying her a little bit, so we have a contractual agreement.  She has more time than her other sisters right now, so it works out great.  She has taken Ben on walks and out to visit with her friends.  She’s started to get a real knack for taking care of him and I am oh, so grateful!

Savannah started back in on Cross Country this week.  She ran in her first meet on Thursday and placed 10th overall and 4th for her team.  Now if we can just get her practicing consistently, who knows what she could do?

My neighbor offered me free peaches this week.  At first I thought that I just could not do it.  But, I wanted them badly, and free is just so . . . free!  So, I decided that I would keep the kids home from school, since I could do it with their help, and it’s just one day of school, and that’s what a farmer would do, right?  Anyway, it turned out that I didn’t need to keep them home!  I just had them up early peeling, halving, pitting, and filling jars.  By 8:45 they had all three buckets done and had filled 30 quarts.  Now that is impressive.  I spent the rest of the day processing them – rotating them through the boiling water, but that I could handle on my own.  Savannah missed first period, but that was all!  It was a huge accomplishment, even if you don’t think 30 quarts is a lot.  Trust me.

The other thing we have been putting into jars is not quite so sweet.

Yes, those are grasshoppers.  Or, more specifically, those are “desert locust” according to our National Geographic for Kids magazine.  This is what Cheyenne, Calianne, and Mariah spent the weekend doing.  Actually, it was mostly Cheyenne and some Mariah.  Calianne gets very scared when the lid comes off the jar.  There are eight grasshoppers in the jar at last count.  They all have names and Cheyenne is hoping that they have babies.  Cheyenne even told me excitedly, “Lily’s stomach is getting bigger!” – which, of course, could only mean one thing . . .  The older kids look at the bugs with pity in their eyes and tried to make the younger kids feel bad about keeping them in the jar.  I had to put an end to that.  “This is what little kids do!” I told them sternly.  “They put bugs in jars!  It’s fun for them and it’s okay.  Remember, they are BUGS!”  So, now we are at a mutual understanding and life’s little joys can continue unabated.  It also made for a great visual to tell about the struggles the early settlers here had with “desert locust” and to recount the miracle of the seagulls.  All in all, I think it was a good way for them to spend the weekend!