Needles and pins, needles and pins, when a man marries his trouble begins

I tried to blog this week. Honest I did. Except somehow, it ended up being Friday before I knew it, and I still hadn't typed a word on here since Monday. (Okay, that might not be true. I think I responded to a few comments.)

It's been a mopey week for me. I've been wandering around, not really sure what to do with myself most days. I've been working away at the final vestige of my taxes, which are about 30 minutes from completion. (Notice how I am spending this 30 minutes typing a blog post, instead of taxes? No comments about that, please.) I've been scrapbooking a little, but not really feeling like I'm accomplishing much. I've been trying to tell myself that it's okay to go outside and enjoy the summer weather with my kids, now--the house is clean and listed, and if the remaining renovations wait another day, that's okay. I've been drained by the constant bickering between my older two children. Yet, ironically, I have also been experiencing baby blues after typing out Jabin's birth story for a layout last Sunday night. Not to mention, the communication errors that are somewhat inevitable in any relationship that seemed to be rather predominant this week.

I have a hard time blogging when I've got that much "downer" stuff going on in my life. However, there were some good things that came out of this week, too:

Jude had two firsts on Tuesday:

• His first solo shower (I know it seems insignificant, but it just seems like a very "grown-up" thing to do)

• His first scrapbook page.

He's been bugging me that he wants to learn to scrapbook, and I have no problem with that! :-) It actually all began one winter day when I was experimenting with painting my own watercolour background paper. Jude thought that was a good idea, and created his own "scrapbook pages." I bought him a cheap album and an acid-free glue stick, and on Tuesday we printed off some photos of his 5th birthday and I set him loose with some stickers and patterned paper. The choice of photos was actually inspired by the safari animal stickers he spotted in my stash, which he immediately decided he wanted to use. Bonus for him: he got to make a page with one of his favourite themes while using his creative muscles. Bonus for me: I got to use up some really old paper and stickers from my stash, and enjoy the product of my son's creativity.

He made the second layout the next day. The only trick was trying to convince him that he didn't need to use every tool and stamp and sticker on the very first page! :-)

Jude’s first scrapbook pages

I finally gave myself permission to read a fiction book this week. I have finished the first chapter of A Voice In The Wind by Francine Rivers. It's not the type of book I would normally pick off the shelf, but Amanda recommended it so strongly, then leant it to me, that I said I would read it. However, I haven't had time for fiction since I finished off Harry Potter 7 at Christmas. It's been a little weird to think that I could be diving into a wonderful fictional world this weekend. Yippee! As soon as those thirty minutes of taxes are done, I'll really be letting loose! :-)

Yesterday, while I was out getting groceries, I bought a couple of Sonic comic books for the kids on a whim. They loved them so much, that a miracle happened: they managed to sit on the same chair for half an hour without fighting with each other!

Jude and Noah reading their first comic book together, Sonic the Hedgehog.

Entrancing.

Tonight we will be over at the Magnusson's. Jason is going over to watch UFC. I will be scrapbooking, and our children will be playing. Sounds like good times!

I guess I can say about this week: All's well that ends well. Right?