Royal Mail, Quad Wednesday and New Gutters!

My day started off with such a pleasant surprise!!!

I went out to sit on the porch and watch for Amber to arrive with the quads when what should I find on the bench but Royal Mail!!!

A parcel all the way from Scotland!!!

I was so excited!!!

Penny of The Homemade Heart has become a dear friend and this package of LOVE was simply wonderful!!!

The quads arrived and my day was off and running so I did not get that cup of CALMING tea to sip with a classic shortbread cookie (which just happens to be Louis Dean's all time favorite cookie EVER so I must share!) yet! But I plan on celebrating the moment in the morning.

The cup is beautiful and I will enjoy every single morsel of the cookies and drink every drop of the tea. But do you know what brought tears to my eyes and what I treasure more than any of these things?

The NOTE Penny wrote to me.

I will keep it forever and read it often.

Before the quads arrived, Granddad had cleaned and polished TWO mandolins to introduce to them.

He tells me the story of someone famous whose whole family played musical instruments.

Someone asked him how he got them all interested in them and he said he didn't! He just tuned a bunch of instruments and put them on the bed and told the kids not to bother them!!

I think Louis Dean is doing his version of that!

The kids are such delights and keep us amused and entertained!

The reason this was Harrison's special day is because on June 10, 2012 we nearly lost him.

I admit to holding him a bit more today and paying him a little EXTRA attention!

It is a Texas summer which means outdoor time is now limited.

No longer can we open up the French doors and allow the kids to wander in and out.

They begged to eat lunch outside - they love sitting in their little green chairs!

You can see we still had some shade along their picnic bench so we said okay.

Dessert was served in the gazebo, though.

Ice Cream sandwiches which melt fairly fast in 95 degree heat.

Trystan is THE slowest eater of the four and by the time she finished hers - it was a sight to see!

She literally licked her fingers!

After lunch it was nap time.

Sounds easier than it is. First everyone has to get their shoes off, go potty, change into pull ups, get a drink of water, put down all of the blankets and pillows, darken the den, get each child situated, two or three have to go potty AGAIN, get the books, read a chapter of Farmer Boy and one of Miss Piggle Wiggle - IN that order - keep telling the kids to keep their heads on their pillows - and then finally close the book and settle back on the sofa to rest - until I realize Trystan and Harrison will keep playing with each other unless I lie down between them - which I do while patting them in turn and soon they are both sound asleep. THEN I stretch back out on the sofa but Logan isn't asleep yet and wants to snuggle right next to me. SHE starts to drift off and there's a loud knock at the door (we don't have a door bell - thankfully!) and as I open the door to the guys who arrived to install our new gutters - he greets me LOUDLY and I tell him to SHHHHHH!!!! while I hustle out on the porch and shut the door behind me. I show the workers what needs to be done and go in and get Logan to sleep. THEN I relax - only to hear the pounding and hammering of the workers and - sure enough - Harrison wakes up! I get him settled with some toys and let Granddad watch him and go back to the den - and Trystan wakes up crying because she wet her pull ups. I whisk HER out of the room and change her and pretty much give up on getting a rest break of any kind today.

I doled out snack crackers - you know the kind that come 6 in a package - peanut butter and crackers or cheese and crackers - and pour them in plastic cups so they can carry them around with them.

Every time we sit down for a minute or two, the kids are right there to entertain us!!

I loved hearing Trystan tell me they are not babies any more!

They are Big Kids! Because they got BIGGER!

I love this little girl!!

She talked and talked to me all day long!

We are giving a big dinner party tomorrow so I worked some in the kitchen this afternoon, cooking potatoes for salad and cutting up watermelon. Louis Dean had put a huge ham on to cook while I was reading to the quads before naps. All four of them played well with the Lego blocks for a long time.

Then Harrison moved on to other things and the girls continued to build.

Harrison would come back and knock them down!!

So Trystan said they needed to build FASTER!!!

I protected their towers!!

The girls built elaborately TALL towers!!!

I was pretty impressed!!

Granddad picked up pizzas for dinner and by the time Amber picked the kids up the girls had each had TWO pieces while Harrison ate THREE!!! These were regular sized slices, too!!

As soon as they left, I put what energy I had left in gear and cleaned up the porch and all along the deck and in front of the gazebo from the debris left after the gutters were put up!

They asked if I wanted to keep the old ones and I said, "NO! Please take them far away!"

I did not want to give Louis Dean a chance to hang on to MORE 'junk' since we are trying to move Sanford and Son OUT of our back yard!!

All in all, I think we got a good day's work done it's time to let Maddie in and go to bed.

I love Facebook and always find something to inspire me every day!

I remember telling my daughter, Summer, when she turned 50 - 

"Don't worry about any little lines or signs of aging. THIS is as good as it gets!!!"

I still dress, fix my hair and put on make up, fragrance and jewelry NEARLY every single day.

I may be getting older but at least I am trying to look good 'for this level of maturity!!!'

Go, thou, and do likewise!!