No James = No Fun

James has been gone for 3 days at the Gathering and Teagan informed me this morning, as she was being disciplined for not completing her morning chores that, "It's just no fun without James here! When's he going to get home already?!"


A couple weeks ago I had only James and Ireson at home for 2 days while Teagan spent the night at Grandma's house. Life for those 2 days was, well, too easy. It was almost boring. James and Ireson got along great, things got done, life was calm and surprisingly quiet with 2 boys all day. Almost serenity dare I say.

WELL, THE TIMES ARE A CHANGIN'!

Day 1 with no James:
Teagan and Ireson have held a completely different dynamic. Teagan has had the treat and pleasure of sleeping in James' top bunk with Ireson in the bottom. However, on day 1 she got up at 6am to pee and woke up her brother! Day 1 not off to a great start. Bossing around the little brother wasn't received so well by Ireson. He's happy to toddle along with his big brother James since he wants to be just like him- but when Teagan tries to impress her "older sisterly ways" on him- he just won't have it. He thinks that he needs to take over as the big brother apparently. They have their precious moments- but overall they clashed.

Day 2 with no James:
Not much to report. We picked about 100 beans from the garden and Teagan whined about having to weed it with the hoe (James loves to do this daily) and then she didn't take a nap and was nothing short of unpleasant come dinner time. Bike riding helped, thunder storm didn't!

Day 3 with no James:
I had to go blueberry picking because last week it was slim picking and there was much ripening still needed. So I took the 2 kids out to a new fantastic place where blueberries are primarily organically grown. My excitement for the Garden- of -Edenish bounty was soon squelched by dealing with 2 lazy, whiney, bickering bums. Teagan tried to shift the blame to James by telling me that "If he were here, he would be helping out a lot and then you [me] could get all the picking done and not need my [Teagan's] help anyway! You shouldn't have let him go to the Gathering Mom if you need his help soooo much!"

Well! Though right she may be- she would still have had to help and do her annual picking part too. She acted as though this was a surprise to her and she had forgotten all the year past!
I still made her stand there in one spot with one branch and pick till I had had my quota and felt somewhat better about invoking the slave labor since I missed my little helper! I will drive this laziness out of her.

Sigh- sweet baby James- when will you come back to me? We just can't seem to peacefully function without you.

What will day 4 bring?....

Family Fishing and Frogging Fun

Bro. Marvin & Sis. Joan Springer have an awesome 12 acre, pond-equipped property about 10 minutes from our house. They have an anytime open invitation for us to come over and fish and visit. They have a gorgeous layout with a vast array of flowers, an abundant garden, and tons of fun old barns and buildings and woods to explore. There is a large pond and a tiny "frog" pond which is primarily frog inhabited but no fish. Lil' James caught his first fish at their house 3 years ago!

Sunday we went over for a few hours with Jesse and the kids, and my parents. The kids had an awesome time catching fish, catching frogs, blowing bubbles, hooking worms, and getting down and dirty with the cousins.

All the kids caught a countless amount of bluegill and Jesse and James caught the only bass. Teagan caught a tree frog on the hike through the woods. It was soooo cute and only about the size of my thumb nail. She held that thing for over and hour. Jesse wanted to use it as bait the frog bully!

All in all- fishing fun was had by all!