Peony Spider

The house is finally quiet.  The boys are sleeping, after a long hard fight to get the youngest to sleep.  Aris is tucked in her bed, watching a nature show on her iPod before she goes to bed.  Or at least that's what she's supposed to be doing.  After Kian's screaming session, I can't hear much.

 My wonderful husband has been away for three days and will be gone for two more.  His absence is getting easier as the kids sleep through the night now and are almost all potty-trained.  Yes, you read that right.  Kian has been using the potty successfully for several weeks now.  He's had a couple of accidents, but he's wearing underwear fulltime.  It's very exciting!  But even though the kids are less labour-intensive, it's still challenging when my husband is gone.  I think it's mostly the absence of a buffer when I'm at the end of my patience.  Clearly I need to pray for a compassionate heart towards my children.

 Even though today has been hard, we've had a great weekend.  Yesterday we went exploring with my parents.  During our explorations we saw a hummingbird, dragonflies the size of small birds, redwing blackbirds, Canadian geese with goslings,  caterpillars(my mom loved the caterpillars since she is many years removed from having little children bring them into her house on a daily basis), wild irises, minnows, frogs, dehydrated carp, fish, deer flies, huge bumblebees and three turtles.  We also found a really cool spider in my parents peonies.

 I must go tuck in the oldest child who just finished watching her show.  However, I've been delinquent in posting, so wanted to get back into the habit. Isn't my spider pretty?