Rice is cooking on the stove for dinner and I have a few precious minutes with no demands on my time before putting dinner together (honey chicken stir-fry tonight). I've been bogged down in a major editing project that has taken up every spare minute of my computer time, which has made it pretty hard to find time for blogging. But today was super productive. I babysat my neighbor's six-year-old and nine-year-old daughters for seven hours, which was marvelous because they helped keep my kids occupied all day! I got lots of laundry done, did some ironing, cleaned out the fridge, made cookies, took care of some phone calls and e-mails, and cleaned up a very messy kitchen. So now I feel like I can sit down and blog without feeling guilty that I should be doing housework or editing instead.

Right now Jed, Chloe, and Tucker are outside digging a big hole by Aunt Lindsay's house. They found a few pieces of brick and are pretending it's buried treasure. Jed and I watched National Treasure a few nights ago, so his imagination is running wild pretending someone left clues to buried treasure. They play so well together. I was thinking today how it's actually easier having more kids than it was when I had just one or two, because even though there's more housework and less down time, it isn't very often that I have to entertain the kids or help them fend off boredom or feel like I've got a constant shadow, though the latter seems to happen a lot still. But that's okay. I think I'll miss it someday. Maybe.

Excellent movie we watched recently: Miss Potter. Loved it! Highly recommend it. Have any of you seen it?

Taking all four kids to the store with me has become a thing of the past. I now go in the evenings because the last few times we went my little four-year-old princess has turned into a little monster. You know that wild and rebellious and crazy look kids can get in their eye sometimes? That was Chloe. Even a quick trip into the health food store can be a nightmare. Which is how it was this past Monday. Chloe went berserk and nothing I could say or do would settle her down. When we got back in the car after getting our stuff, I told her she was going to get a you-know-what when we got home. To my utter surprise, Jed pipes up, "I want to take her punishment for her." HUH? Did any of you ever offer to do that for one of your siblings? The thought certainly never crossed my mind.

At first I told him I thought Chloe should get her own punishment since she was probably too young to appreciate Jed's sacrifice on her behalf. But Jed insisted, so when we got home I brought them into the living room and explained to Chloe that Jed wanted to take her punishment for her. I really talked it up how it was going to hurt him as much as it usually hurt her but he was going to take it because he loved her. The thing is, I think she got it! And of course I couldn't pass up the opportunity to expound on how Jed's sacrifice was a picture of what Jesus did for us by dying on the cross. And the beautiful thing is, I think they got that too. After I was done Chloe hugged Jed repeatedly and thanked him and told him she loved him. I think it was a lesson neither of them will ever forget.

Tucker turned three two weeks ago. Here are some pix of his big day. See that cake? That, thanks to the wonderful gluten-free industry, is completely gluten-free (I cheated a little on the dairy part by using butter in the frosting). It was so fun to be able to serve Tucker a real-looking cake he could actually eat. And do you wanna know something? That was the first cake with frosting that I've had since I was 15! And it was good enough that the non-gluten-free eaters in our midst actually enjoyed it too.

It was also fun having my mom here the evening of his birthday in time to enjoy the cake with us. She came out to see her mother in Peterborough and we got to benefit from her visit too! She took me out for dinner one evening at Carabbas and then we did a little shopping. Yummy and fun! It was good to spend time with her and get caught up in ways that are impossible to do over the phone with little ones competing for your attention.

Hooray! I actually got through writing a post with only one interruption. Time to go fix dinner. The troops are getting hungry.