A Week's Worth

I started thinking the other day about the things that are a weekly routine in our house...

A week's worth of miles driven:  560, bare minimum
A week's worth of gas:  35 gallons
A week's worth of Nebraska weather:  you never know!  35-94 degrees from morning to night!
A week's worth of eggs:  2 dozen (nice to know that if it is more in a particular week we can just go out back and gather them!)
A week's worth of milk:  3 gallons of fresh, raw cow's milk

A week's worth of other groceries:  one very full cart, usually with a pretty long receipt
A week's worth of sleep:  47 hours (enough??)
A week's worth of uninterrupted sleep:  I don't remember!!
A week's worth of TV:  one hour every Monday night--"Chuck".  We record it and when everyone goes to bed, Tim and I sit on the couch together and watch.  It's our date night!   (and reluctantly , "The Office" reruns many weeknights as I am checking emails and folding laundry.  Whoever came up with this show should be shot!  I only watch because Tim does.  :)

A week's worth of extracirricular activities:  Monday--piano, choir; Tuesday--run, football; Thursday--run, football; Conquest; Saturday--run, football; Sunday--church, football, Conquest
A week's worth of laundry:  still unknown because I haven't ever finished it all in a week!

I could go on and on, because there are dozens and dozens of things that happen on a regular basis each week in our family.  It is routine, mostly comfortable and what we know.  There are of course MANY irregular things that happen in between all those regular things.  I take lots and lots of pictures each week too, and as I was going through all of them, I was happy to realize that these are the best things that happen in my week. 

A week's worth:  (Saturday to Friday)

Sorting colors...he did this without prompting! Yay...he is learning something! :)



Saturday morning "Chalk Talk".  I wonder if he likes getting up on Saturday mornings just for the doughnuts?

We went to the Henry Doorly Zoo on Saturday compliments of KPMG.  After a wonderful lunch, they offered face painting...really good face painting:



 Too bad it wasn't a Husker Saturday!
This one Jon came up with on his own.  What a great "tatoo"!

Is it wrong to be so tickled about "tatoos"?  I love that my boys wanted crosses painted on their arms!

I'm not sure what it is about these big guys that is so appealing. We could sit and watch them for hours a long time.

 Maybe this is why it is easy to watch the apes...they are just about as entertaining as our kids.

I know that when you've seen one zoo picture you've seen them all, but this IS my fond recollection of my week.  I'm gonna miss this!

I wish I could just burn these kind of images right into my memory forever.

The token "reflection" picture of all of us after hours of watching other animals.

Millie's face painting...Mathilda decided that a rose would be appropriate for one who has the middle name Therese.  See those little spots by her right eye?  Chicken pox!  Who knew??  Happy to say that she was in my arms, the stroller or in her sister's arms all day and not running around touching everything!
   All-in-all, she had about 11 spots, three days of really high fevers and 6 nights of not sleeping AT ALL.  I hate it when our kids are sick.  I just want to take it away for them.  By Friday, she was doing great, with just a residual cold.  I would've taken more pictures of her spots, but I kept waiting for more to appear and now they're almost invisible.
It's hard to see in this picture, but I had to include it...Jakob played an amazing game on Sunday.  Something got him fired up and he made a point to take down the ball carrier...

 ...and again...
...and again!  Followed by catching a pass for a two-point conversion, blocking like crazy, stripping the ball from the opponent's hands and running it in for a touch down, recovering a fumble and taking it in for another touchdown, and knocking the ball out of the way from the intended receiver, just to name a few of the highlights!  It was so much fun to watch him play like this.  He was sore on Monday morning!!

It worked out for cousins to watch Jakob's game too...and share a blanket to keep warm! 

And then there were the "E" snacks:

Egg rolls


Eskimo Pies

Everything Bagels and Eggnog
The eggnog by the way is something my kids LOVE.  (Me too!)  This wasn't real eggnog.  It was:
1 1/2 quarts of milk
1 box of French vanilla instant pudding mix
2 tsp rum extract
nutmeg
whipped cream
Mmmmmmmmmmmm...not quite the real thing, but good enough for us!

Edamame...this didn't go over very well.  The girls liked it, but the boys thought it was disgusting.  Maybe if it was packaged with Iron Man on the front?  We were planning to use the left overs to make a prize-winning recipe of Edamame Guacamole for Friday, but we weren't home all day, so maybe before the week ends we'll try it out.


And then there are just things that I really will miss someday.  Just looking out the back window to see kids playing in the sandbox.  It's priceless! 
Joe and Amelia were playing, but then took a break to help take care of the chickens with me.  Millie likes to help gather the eggs.  She really wants to just hold one of those chickens!




She loves these boots!  Every farm girl needs a pair!


Just checkin' to see if that "pecker" is in there as Joe calls the rooster.

Nope.  The pecker is out and he is crowing!

The end of the week took us to Seward.  The 5th graders had a field trip, so we drove and spent the day at Hot tub Grandma and Grandpa's house.  Grandma made buttermilk pancakes for lunch.  She makes the best buttermilk pancakes you've ever had!
 It's a real treat!
 Full after...SIX???
 Even Grandpa splurges on these yummy hotcakes!
She thinks they're no big deal, but we all know better!  They're something pretty special, and so is she!

The sandbox and the swing is one of Amelia's favorite places to be.

When you live in the country, I guess you can wear your underwear outside.  Joe is wearing his "boxing" shorts.  (Boxer shorts)

Yup...I'm gonna miss this!  It's a good week's worth!