Saturdays... Wednesdays?

So the last three Saturdays we were busy. Really busy. That first one we were down in Raleigh, going to the temple and driving home (3.5-4 hrs). On the 28th Jeremy had to go down to a "state park" called Marchant's Mill Pond in Gatesville, NC for "Mill Pond Day?" I think that's what it was called. It was a little community get together with food, booths, health info, live music, etc. Since he was the only one (from the office) going, and he thought he'd be done by 2 or 3, he decided to take us with him. It was an absolutely beautiful day. About 60-65º and overcast the whole time, but it didn't ever actually rain until we were on our way home. We went down around the bottom of "The Great Dismal Swamp" (isn't that a great name?) and through lots of little tiny towns, which were a mix of old, falling down buildings and restored and/or new homes. It was a beautiful drive, and we managed to never even turn on the DVD player for the kids. (Pretty good for an hour and 20 minutes) It started at 10 am, and the kids and I stayed busy playing in the big inflatable bouncy things they had there, watching some cute ducklings they were raffling off, listening to the two-man band, seeing a live alligator (3 years old), checking out the habitat/stuffed wildlife exhibits inside, and eating some yummy things. I think we supported 4 different little churches between lunch and snacks. Some people were canoeing out on the "pond" (Very interesting countryside, with all the swampiness. I never realized there were so many trees in swamps!) but we didn't attempt that. Jeremy had a good time talking to all the people there and said they were all really friendly. Both girls napped on the way home, and we got back into town just in time for Reilly to attend the birthday party he'd been talking about for 4 days (since the moment he found out about it). While he was there, we took the opportunity to eat dinner with just the girls at Jason's Deli. It's a rather recent discovery for me, and I love that place! The girls loved that there is free soft serve ice cream afterwards... We love Reilly to pieces, but he does tend to monopolize the conversation. It was nice to spend some time just with Jaina and Katy!

The "pond," where the canoes were loading up. We didn't take
pictures so much, but I took a lot of video. :)

Last Saturday (Wait, that was actually Wednesday. Jeremy didn't have work at all that day, which is why I was confused about it being a Saturday...) we decided to make something happen that we've been thinking about for a while. We went through a TON of stuff, and filled up the back of our van with Goodwill donations. Always a little hard for me, but it was good to get rid of some things. Our apartment is just too tiny to hang on to it all. We moved furniture, boxes, and bins all over the house and moved Reilly into the computer/toy/storage room. His bed is up on wheat can for extra storage, and we flipped Jaina's bed frame over so hers is pretty tall too. There is storage and even some play area under hers.  It took quite a few hours to accomplish all of that! It's been going pretty well except that every once in a while Reilly decided he can't sleep in there and ends up on the couch. It IS pretty far away from the rest of us. At least 40-50 feet from our room. ;-) It was fun to change things up a little and clear out a little. We STILL have way too much stuff, but it's progress.

Those new posters are his pride and joy! He picked them out himself!

Above Jaina's bed there is now a big Disney Princess poster.
Their room is slowly becoming more girly!

We moved the dresser out of the closet,

and the toys from the computer room into the closet.
So we can close the doors and not see all the craziness!

This is just a cute picture of Katy (and her crazy
hair) in the "new" room.

SATURDAY Jeremy had stake choir practice in Suffolk for a few hours in the morning, then was home long enough to eat lunch and pack up Reilly and Jaina to go with him to help a family movie into the ward. Apparently there were two 26-foot trucks involved, and they didn't come back for over 3 hours... I think something else happened Saturday evening, but I really can't remember...

What else have we been up to? Our eating habits have shifted a little, since Jeremy hasn't really had any wheat for the last 3 weeks.  He's been thinking for a while he might be a little sensitive to it, since his throat feels like he's getting sick several times a month. We've been using less carbs in dinners, and doing a lot of steel-cut oats and berries, Greek yogurt, stuff like that for him. A little more meat, which isn't necessarily a good thing, but mostly we're just trying it all out for a while to see if it continues to make a difference for him. It's not easy, but it's a lot easier than being completely gluten-free, and it's not that hard to come up with stuff that doesn't involve wheat. For treats I've been making no-bake cookies and I just tried some spelt/oat cookies today. I wish I was closer to my mom; my dad was wheat-free for a few months possibly, so they have a lot of spelt, and a way to grind it! Alternative flour is -expensive!- So mostly we just avoid flour. :) Jeremy even tried his hand at making his own granola, see?

Here's a funny picture. Reilly's been trying to earn some extra money lately, so we revamped our chore charts (we weren't really using the old ones) and he's been doing "extra chores" to earn extra nickels and dimes. I asked him to switch the wet laundry into the dryer, and turned around to find this:

He couldn't quite reach the stuff at the bottom...  These crazy kids are so full of it. It would be easy to just let them watch tv all day, (which they would love) because the house stays SO much cleaner. But we usually try to limit it to some during Katy's nap and/or during the crazy making-dinner time when everyone feels hungry and grumpy and we're all a little crazy. They've been enjoying the warmer weather, and we've been trying to get outside a lot. I really look forward to having a yard for them to play in at some point, but there's lots to do around here, and they even enjoy playing out on the balcony every once in a while.  Here's are some pictures we took out there last week. They are cute little troublemakers!