happily random: Weekend Review

Great weekend here in the Doherty house. Saturday Joel & I did some heavy cleaning. We got rid of one of our couches that our dogs had chewed up when we were on vacation & rearranged the living room. It's now on a diagonal. Love it! It's so fun, and hip too. ;)

Yesterday we loaded up the kids and our new canoe (new to us, anyway) to take it for a test run. While we were loading up, poor Sammy got her thumb stuck in the cat door. It was closed up tight with the tip of her little thumb in it, all red and purple. Of course, I was freaky out trying to get it out, she was screaming, and Joel was frantically trying to take the door off it's hinges to get her thumb out. We ended up just having to shove the door open and it popped out, but not without scraping off a hunk of skin in the process. Poor little girl! It just makes me cringe just thinking about it. But she was quite the little trooper. Once we got her out, I sat with her on the couch and nursed her while Joel tended to her thumb. She didn't cry about it at all after that.

I'm just like every mother out there: I want to spare my children pain. I would have much rather have been the one that got her thumb stuck in the cat door and cut myself than it happening to poor Sammy-Girl. I want to run out and fight their battles & take on their injuries and make the world 100% safe for my kids. But, I can't. And in a way, that's good. The way we face the bad things that happen to us in life seem to shape us as a person more than all the good things. I just wish my kids didn't have to go through them too to learn the things that I did. Like being teased as a kid... junior high was THE WORST for me. I would gladly spare them that. But with experience hopefully comes wisdom. My goal is to raise them the best I can, protect them when I can, teach them when I can, and PRAY. Pray a lot. All that from a hurt thumb....

So, yesterday afternoon we took the canoe out to Killaney Lake. Actually, Joel took Rebekah, Lucas & Tyler on the lake. I stayed on shore with the kids. Looks like our $60 canoe that Joel bought at a garage sale is a keeper. It's water-tight, plus it can carry us all. And we managed to only have one kid fall in: Tyler. He decided to get into the boat will our backs were turned. Thank God for life jackets! Oh, and Tyler held on to the boat for dear life. That kid is surely our adventurous one.

Oh, and one last picture: Rebekah has lost both of her top teeth. She lost one about a week and a half ago and the other one last weekend. Isn't that the cutest smile? It's funny that now I have 2 girls 5 1/2 years apart that both are cutting front teeth. Hee-hee.

Thought I'd mention really quick, I have a toot. Cantata Books picked up 5 layouts of mine for an upcoming book, plus I got 3 assignments. I really needed that. It's been awhile since I've had any calls (although, it helps if you SUBMIT to them, right?). I've been submitting quite a bit over the weekend, so I'm hoping my phone will start ringing soon. :)