"The Booger Hound Rides Again: A Cautionary Tale"

This is the title for the story my friend Becky and I have just decided I should write. It will be based on my daughter, who has, literally in the past four days, discovered that boogers are edible. "Edible" being a very loose term, of course. She is constantly on the fish and nibble and we're trying hard to curb her enthusiasm for her new hobby. "Bitty, don't eat that." Her reply? "Can I wipe it on your pants?" She has asked this question to both me and Troy this evening. And two nights ago she actually fell asleep with her fingers up her nose. Any suggestions on how to deal with this fun new development are welcome.

In other news, I must say, I can't believe we made it through today! There were so many strikes against us. Strike number one: It's Sunday. Any church goer with kids knows that Sunday isn't exactly a day of rest. Strike number two: Troy tweaked his back yesterday. "Tweaked" is a pretty specific term at our house. Every so often he leans over the wrong way or something simple like that and some little thingy in his back goes BOING and that's it. He is literally crooked for a few days and can't do much by lie there. It's boring and frustrating for him. So, no church for Troy today, sitting being the worst position he can be in. Strike number three: Bitty had a nap yesterday. I think I finally got her to sleep at about 12:30 or so...luckily she was very cute and happy, lying in bed in the dark singing songs to herself about "I like pink," but I didn't wake her up this morning. She slept in until 10:00, so guess what, we decided just to skip church. Strike number four: We decided just to skip church. Church is often our only out-of-house activity on Sundays in the winter. Of course church has other draws for me besides getting us out of the house, but when that doesn't happen you sure notice being inside all day. The kids held up pretty well, and we did take a very chilly walk before dinner, but with bouncing-off-the-walls kids and an out-of-commission husband (who did try to help me, more than he should have,) I was very grateful when the kids closed their sleepy little eyeballs at 9:30.

I would also like you to know that miracles do happen. This week I have seen several. One would be the laundry miracle. I have this little dream (okay, actually major obsession) each week as I do the laundry that I'll be able to do every stitch of laundry in the house and have it dry and folded before one single item is added to the laundry basket. It never happens. Ever. But still I try. It's just a fleeting hope. That is until my husband went down in the basement and cleaned out every inch of the lengthy duct leading from the dryer at the back of our house to the vent at the front of our house. Wow. Suddenly the dryer dries things. I could hardly keep up. Another miracle we enjoyed was seeing the sunshine. The weather was so gorgeous this week - it was actually warm and nice out. No coats! Even the occasional short sleeves. I know it's just Utah teasing me - we did get a rainy/slushy storm yesterday, and there is certainly more to come, but ah....I'm excited. Miracle three, my two year old has play dates. Her little friend J is so darling and the two of them actually play together. I just love this shot of the two of them in their dress ups, (take note of Bitty's shoes, especially,) just happily in their own little world. Maybe that's how she learned about the boogers...