My Second Post in One Month!

Dare I say that the heat is dwindling. I'm not naive, I know it will not be middle-of-the-day park weather for a while, but regardless, the mornings are a skosh cooler. This provides some relief from the indoor life. This morning we were out front for about thirty minutes. It was lovely.
This is the time of the year that I give up on my boundaries for TV watching for the girls. They watch a lot of TV in the summer. I've reconciled myself to this reality. Someday they will know how to read and I will expect more of that activity. For now it's lots of Arthur and Winnie the Pooh and this little odd video that they LOVE called Peep Finds! They talk about it all the time. Apparently there's a bird in there who tries to hatch a rock. They find this hilarious. And when they are building nests on the couch and playing house in little nooks and crannies they tell each other that they are hatching eggs.
Little Rowena gets a little forlorn (translation: screamy) when she tries to open the front door to escape outdoors and it is locked. This is not the most endearing indoor behavior. I know that ten years from now I will look back on these days fondly and probably forget that there was ever so much screaming in my life. But right now, the screaming? It is unforgettable. I keep telling myself that Master Hanson will not be a screamer because he's a boy. Am I right? He'll just dismantle my electronics and break his own bones frequently or something like that.
For now our indoor play looks something like this:



1. Summer 2010, 2. Summer 2010, 3. Summer 2010, 4. Summer 2010

Dear Progeny

By the looks of things on this little family album that I started years ago one would think there's not much happening. Quite the contrary, kids, you've been very busy. We've all been busy. As of today our family status is:

Stella 4.5
Gianna freshly 3
Rowena 15 months
and new baby boy to arrive 10/6/10

Plus:

Jamie is entering his third and final year of law school. This year it's only law school. Last year it was law school and teaching seventh grade Latin in the morning. It was work and school all week and then study almost all day Saturday. It was hectic and short on time. One Saturday Jamie accompanied us on some morning errands and I felt like it was Christmas. All of us together! Driving around on a Saturday morning! Would his law books feel neglected? Who cares! Yippee!!!

I have some pictures to document our lives, but they're mostly on my iPhone. And that is pathetic. There are lots of little stories about you in my head. I need to write them down. But the blog was becoming stifling. I didn't like the thought of people reading my words (I realize the irony). So I stopped writing.

But I'm a writer and I must write. So begin again, I say. I don't want to forget all the good that happens around here while our lives seem swallowed up by all the activity of life and vocations and work.

iPhone photos to prove it. I really shouldn't disparage the iPhone photos because if it wasn't for that little gadget I wouldn't have much at all. With three kids to keep track of, I don't have the capacity to keep track of inanimate, static objects.



Stella's drawing of her dad: curly hair

Hot

I've spent most of my summer out of Phoenix, so I have no right to snivel now that I'm back. I'm not sniveling, just realizing a weird mental tick I have about the heat.

When I am surrounded by civilization and unknown number of options for survival, I will be suddenly overcome by dread. Dread of the thought of being lost or suddenly car-jacked and all my stuff stolen and left. Left for dead in a Target parking lot.

This was the thought I had today while putting stuff in the car. I thought, "How long could I survive out here baking in the heat? It sure would be a desperate, depressing way to go." Knowing that I could simply walk into the store and obtain help is the ironic part of this thought being able to seize me so habitually.

It distracts me so much that I leave a newly purchased $20 bottle of Tide under my cart and drive away.

Stupid hot heat, robbing me blind.