Thank You, God, For Sundays!

As a child I noted my parents relishing the respite Sunday offered with confusion, not understanding how any self-respecting human being could lay around half the day and stay sane. Sundays were so boring! In reality, the Sundays spent actually napping were very few, but I now find myself more often than not in some state of lethargy Sunday afternoons. And I relish it! No guilt restful afternoons! What a dream! We spent time outside today soaking up some sun and being lazy. Judging by the warm prickly feeling in my legs, I may have overdone the sun exposure a tad. Eli got out the pool and the boys had a blast splashing around. They were even joined for a while by their little neighbor friend, Henry. While I didn't get a photo, Liam and Henry are as thick as thieves.

Ian was not a fan of the water...just sitting close enough to watch everyone else enjoy it!

Mom took the lazy way out for lunch!

I almost moved my chair to the other side of the pool so I couldn't see the lush vegetation in the garden. I didn't realize how bad the weed situation had gotten! Add that to this week's To Do List.

My wildflower bed just keeps on giving!

Last week I lost myself in projects. Literally. I lost a day. I may have accidentally had two Tuesdays, but I'm not entirely certain. Friday I was so convinced it was Thursday that I thought Eli was teasing me when he said he wasn't going in to work that day. (He works four ten-hour days.) I may or may not have cried when I realized my mistake. I've been asked several times how do I do it all? It's so simple: I don't. While I'm getting a lot of one thing done there is a host of other things piling up. The plan was to catch up on Saturday with the housework, but that doesn't work very well when you find yourself accidentally a day short.

With only a couple weeks till my future sister-in-law's bridal shower, I spent one day cutting up colored cardstock and punching out flower shapes. It was arts and crafts day in the Berst house. I used up an entire glue stick out of the boys' pencil box and more puff paint. Three cards into this project I was berating myself and wondering what in the world I was thinking making 45 invitations by hand. After reasoning with myself that I only spent $10 in supplies and ordering invitations would ultimately cost more and take longer, I was ok with the situation.

The next day (one of my Tuesdays?) I got the invites in envelopes and addressed them. I finished the ladder project that's been waiting for me in the garage (more on that in a different post), then the boys and I walked to the post office to mail them. We sat on a bench across from the post office, each with our own pile of envelopes to stick stamps on. After that was finished the boys begged to walk to the library. Since we were within three blocks and hadn't been there in several weeks, I agreed.

My little squirrel!

Ian was so excited! 

Did I mention they love the library?

On Thursday and Friday (Wednesday and Thursday in my mind) I worked on an order of peg dolls, which will be my last until some of the craziness dies down around here. I'm not sure what was wrong with me, but every time I sprayed these dolls with sealant I dropped them or smudged them, causing me to have to repaint spots several times. Despite this, the St. Philomena doll was the funnest yet to paint! (Is funnest a word by now?)

St. Philomena

St. Anne(s)

Friday Eli went to pick up his car from the shop, and came back in this.

1992 GMC Vandura, 107,000 miles, $800. A steal.

Look at that TV! This thing was top-of-the-line!

And a queen-sized bed in the back that converts into two "sofas" (accordingly to the button). Seats 10.

I married a Berst. You never know what each day will bring. Eli busted into the house as excited as a kid at Christmas, proclaiming, "I bought it! You gotta check this thing out!" I didn't know whether to laugh or cry. So I did both. And then slouched down in my seat while we test-drove it. It smelled like Elmers glue inside....

Liam, what do you think of the van?

As we drove, Eli laid out his plans for the van: camping trips and trips to Mass in Minnesota and how she (it already had a gender!) would take his car's place in the driveway. I was thinking if nothing else we could park it in the yard and the boys could use it as a playhouse? On our way back from the test drive smoke started pouring into the van from the vents. It turns out that thankfully Eli hadn't really bought it yet, but was so sold on it that he was able to reason away any negative aspect of it. He finally agreed to walk away from the deal, which proves how much he really loves me. I don't think he's completely over her yet. I may still awake some morning to find her grinning slyly at me from the driveway.