Can we all hold hands, bow our heads and have a moment of silence together....because I feel the need to commemorate this day. All the laundry in the mommycoddle household is DONE. And folded. And put away. It took much labor, much discovery of things that had been missing since, oh, summer, and the deed is done. One step closer to organization, my friends

And now that all the clothes are clean, I've come to realize that my two oldest children have serious dresser issues. Their "hand-me-down, get by for now" dressers have four small drawers and a cupboard with doors down below. The stuff down below is a massive wad of turtlenecks, bathing suits, wool sweaters and tank tops. Seriously, when I clean their room, I take my foot, shove all the stuff back in the bottom cupboard, slam the door and walk away. So today, we took a trip to IKEA and bought some nice, cheap cloth baskets and got those little dressers all neat and organized. Then Emma had the genius idea to make little pictures on the outside of each drawer/door so they would know what to put inside. The taped-on method is a little wonky, but otherwise I love it. I did Mary's sketches, Emma did her own.

Emily, I was going to call you on the way to IKEA but I knew you'd just finished entertaining/holiday, so I wanted you to relax and not feel the need to rush out and meet us. But we're on for next week.

I met with my new book group last night. (They really wanted to "make" the blog today. Hi girls.) We spent about five minutes talking about the book and rest of the time telling funny stories and laughing so hard, I left with sore abs and achy face muscles.

I just wrote a new post on baby center about getting a chore system in place for the girls. One woman can't be expected to do it all. And I think the magnetic refrigerator grid pad that Joan, from BusyBody Book sent me is going to be just the thing for this. Thank you, Joan.

The guineas have had their own little Independence Day. They are now free to move about the cabin...or yard. And word to the wise, don't forget you left the guineas out after dark. We left them out in the dark for maybe thirty minutes. Bye-bye one poor little guinea. Emma reminds me, "Mom. Life on the farm can be tough." And Mary keeps telling me, "When the guinea's ready, he'll come back." She goes out to the back yard every day and calls to him.

Meanwhile, our six hens have become five hens plus one rooster.

Mary and Elizabeth have runny noses. Could cold season already be here? What do you do to protect your children from the flu during this season?

The girls have been wanting pancakes for breakfast for the last few days. And because I'm not at my culinary peak come morning, I decided to make the pancakes this afternoon. We made a few with cinnamon and chocolate chips "for special", and some plains for Dan, bagged them and tossed them in the fridge for tomorrow morning. Hello? Why haven't I been doing this before??

Thanks for banging through the random thoughts with me.
Happy Thursday, friends.

I'll tell you the moral of my story first: Always keep some knitting in your bag.

Dan, my father, and I spent Saturday afternoon in the ER. Dan was working on a small woodshed here at the house and fell, falling on his ladder and bursting the inside of his arm open--basically from bicep to tricep. I've never seen a wound on a human being like the one I saw on Dan. It was pretty alarming, to say the least. If you're squeamish don't read this-----but you could see fat (very little on my lean husband) and muscle, the cut was so wide open. Ick. Sorry for the gory details, but in a way, it's kind of fascinating, too. The human body is amazing.

Being the girl scout that I am, when he came crawling through the kitchen door and I got a glimpse of his wound, I tied a tourniquet on it and quickly called my dad to get him to the ER. I was able to stay calm although I was a shaky mess on the inside. Thankfully, they took him straight into the ER but after cleaning and some x rays, the waiting began.

I had the (selfish?) forethought to throw the latest issues of Wondertime and National Geographic into my bag before we got in the car to go. I wish I'd also had the selfish forethought to grab some mascara and a hairbrush. But anyway, when I dug in to my bag to get the magazines out, I realized I had a knotted up ball of organic cotton yarn from a dishcloth (yes, I'm still knitting them) that was on my needles and just inches away from completion.

It's finished now.

And Dan is home. Lucky to only have a nasty wound, many stitches, a bruise any man would be proud of, and a very sore body.

I have attempted to write this post (not the ER story, but the next part) several times in the last week. But between being sick and this heat, which saps all creativity, I haven't gotten to it. There are so many things to catch up on--an amazing IKEA date with Emily, some pictures, some thoughts, some milestones, some posts I'd like to revisit....But for now, I'll leave you with some fun news.

I am back to blogging for Babycenter as part of their Momformation team of bloggers. When I walked away several months ago we didn't burn any bridges and communication was open. Last month, they asked me to come back and write twice a week, in more of a journal style of post. So my articles over there will be much like the kinds of things you read here.

My feature posts are called A Bushel and a Peck...after this little ditty that my brother-in-law, who passed away a few years ago, used to sing to his children (and mine). You'll find them on Momformation every Wednesday and Sunday. Hopefully, this week, I'll put a link in my sidebar so that you can go directly to my posts on the site.

My first post was a bear to write. I struggled with how much to share from my background and then had some writer's-remorse after it was posted. But it always takes me a bit to find my voice again over there. My second post went up today and chronicles the drama of Emma losing one of her big ol' front teeth last week.

I hope you'll stop by and see me over there and PLEASE (yes, do note a bit of begging) leave a comment so I don't get too lonely. I feel really good about my new "relationship" at babycenter. And unlike last time, I think it won't leave me lonely for my blog but will simply be an extension of myself and what I share with all of you dear friends, here.

Happy Monday. xo.