Nesting

We had a great day doing my visiting teaching with Marnie. We met with Karen for the first time, and the kids just made themselves at home playing with all of Cammie's toys. Jen made some banana bread with chocolate chips that we all snacked on. And Addie wasn't there when we went to visit Kylee, so Ab just played with all her toys by herself. :) We came home and Ab watched a short movie while Dax took a long overdue nap. She came downstairs and was playing in the office while I worked on dishes, when she walks out with an arm full of shredded paper! She piles it up in the middle of the sun pattern. Whoa. What are you doing A? "Making a nest!" "A mess?!" I ask. :) "No, my n e s t !" There was no mistaking the pronunciation that time. Well, ok, that's fun. But then brother wakes up and wants to eat the nest. Who could blame him?? I hadn't realized how much shredded paper was actually available, and how it covered the office floor. We then spent the next 15 minutes arguing about getting it up off the floor. She just wanted to watch me clean it up. Hummm... it lead to some good explaining about making choices to make messes, and how then it needs to be cleaned up. She was pushing my boundaries, so it was time for nap. Which, now that she's got toys in there, didn't happen. So she's tired, I'm tired and everybody wants mommy. Hooray for daddy coming home to save the day. We popped some popcorn and watched "Stardust" and it was off to bed with some stories. "A woman who treasures motherhood on earth will treasure motherhood in the world to come, and 'where her treasure is, there will her heart be also'. " I can't wait for tomorrow. My parenting class starts tomorrow. Last semester was such an uplift, a great source of strength. I told Ab we were going, and she was all excited to play with her friends. :) My greatest joys and frustrations... i love being a mom