There's This and Then That....and None of Them Related

Surprisingly so far this winter, I have enjoyed the cold days where we are "trapped" in our little house to putter about as we see fit. (which has been a whole two weeks so far, maybe - I mean don't give me too much credit, the season is not even official for another week and a half!) The boys will build a fort, we will stay in our pjs or really comfy house clothes and we will read or draw or fight or make messes and bounce from one thing to another like we all suffer from attention deficit disorder. I really hate waking up and knowing that I have somewhere to be these days - which is totally amazing because I used to be the type to make up an errand just to get out of the house. I guess that's what the very idea of bundling 4 children does to a person - makes them retreat into hermit/recluse mode. I truly do not know how those living in more northern regions do it. Our first snow almost sent me into a fit just getting the kids dressed to go out and play. I am thinking that some person needs to invent a Michelin man type snow outfit that velcros together and totally encompasses all extremities. Get on that - someone, somewhere - would ya? See how happy they would be?

I have attempted a few more photo shoots. I have checked off the two younger boys - Avery and Huston and I think what I have will due. Through all of this I have finally given up and gone back to my old, archaic film fed camera. I just missed it. I was very reluctant to go digital, but finally decided to last year. My in-laws bought me this super nice digital camera for Christmas and I love it - it is soooo handy. But I need to really sit down with someone and learn how to use it. The flash is so frustrating - it does not seem to disperse evenly and my sweet babies are overpowered and the nice lighting effect is lost, and then if I turn the flash off any movement at all makes the photo a blur.

I missed fiddling with the focus and hearing the click of my good ol' camera - and I also missed snapping the picture and know that I am capturing that moment and not a few seconds later. I guess down the line I need to save my money and get the digital form of my film fed Canon - where I can interchange the lenses and have all sorts of fun. But that takes $$$ that a family of 6 does not have lying around.

But I'll show you what we have so far... in another post - (quite evil of me I know).

I banished Isaiah to his bedroom today. An experiment of sorts. He has been very mouthy, negative and downright hateful to quite a few people lately. It really is not his personality....and I am going to darn well make sure that it doesn't become the norm. So after many days of trying to get him to straighten out his attitude to no avail, I finally told him that since he cannot be sweet to people, he would just have to see what a day without people would be like. He told me I was grumpy and the meanest mom in the world. Oh well. I think the experiment is working though. He has been very pleasant when I have gone up to check in on him and read to him. He has done all of his Christmas cards, listened to stories on CD and done a bit of other homework. Maybe this boy just needs alone time every once in awhile. I bet we all just reach a point where we get on each other's nerves.

I will leave you with a photo of our three youngest playing ring around the rosy in their fort. Just so you are not subjected to my random thoughts without some photo of the children.