This has been a pleasant day. It started with me making waffles for the kids, which went largely unappreciated by the younger set I might add! Here I thought I’d get rave reviews and gushing praise from the children who have suffered from the absence of waffles in their life. Instead I had children who were silly and playful and had very little interest in the waffles on their plates. No doubt the dog got his fair share of the waffles that were discarded by Amelia, Mike and Judah as they cavorted during breakfast. I was somewhat mollified by the older children as they woke up one by one and found the heaping plate of waffles waiting for them. They ate very appreciatively.

Michael had an errand to run, so it quickly grew into several hours away. Instead of me going out for my traditional cinnamon roll & coffee, Michael took Isaac out to run errands and grab breakfast at Bob Evans.

My goal today was to get more work done on my project of reclaiming my dining room. I want to set up an educational area with the leftover cabinets and countertop from the kitchen, and also set up the dining table so we can stop standing around the kitchen island to eat. We made good progress on that, including hauling out cabinets we aren’t going to use and hauling in the ones that will work for us. We cleaned up our “old” microwave (the one we had before we inherited our almost-complete kitchen package) and donated it to my sister.

Michael helped me on my projects and also worked on weatherproofing the kitchen doors. As you might imagine, any work done around our house while children are awake never goes as quickly as it would otherwise. We took lots of little breaks throughout the day for such things as dirty diapers, solving squabbles, picking up the glass that Judah broke on the front porch, hunting for lost tools, etc. Still, as I look back on the day, I’m pleased with our accomplishments. Not much to show off quite yet, but definitely quite a few steps in the right direction.

This evening I took Luke out for a special time. We ran errands and did some shopping, and we stopped at Culvers for supper. It was fun to interact and be playful and enjoy Luke’s company. We cracked silly jokes, pondered mysteries that puzzle seven-year-olds, and didn’t worry about anything too serious.

Now I’m looking toward tomorrow and trying to keep track of the things I need to pull together for a successful Sunday. As I sit on my bed and knit, I can hear the noises from downstairs indicating a vicious battle in the kitchen. Michael is playing Star Wars Monopoly with his three oldest children and all of them are having a blast. I can hear shouts and laughter and painful exclamations of agony.

This is what life is all about. I guess it’s not about the big things like debt and houses and cars and jobs so much. It’s about a family being together and enjoying one another.

Happy Saturday!