Busy Saturday

Chloe on the left, Chase on the right: they've become really good friends, and always look so cute lying together. Of course, when I went to take a picture, they started screwing around and I couldn't get a good one. Chase has a lot of Percy (our prior male golden) in him ... he charged the camera each time I tried to take a picture!

Well, I think Santa and I are done Christmas shopping - that's a relief! However, we've done NO decorating yet. I can't believe it - we've never let it go this long. We're the only dark house on our street! Every day seems to be consumed with everyday things ... walking the dogs, bathing the dogs, mopping the floor of mud from the dogs ... hmmm, who said two dogs wouldn't be any more work than one dog? I've spent 3 weeks now doing load after load of towels, because it's been raining here and the dogs' feet get muddy and have to be wiped, and the dogs go outside and wrestle and then need a bathl. Oh, and sometimes the muddy dogs walk on the thick bathroom rugs, and then they need washed too! Good news on the laundry front, though: yesterday I nearly had a breakdown over the volume of laundry, so I set the kids to the task of hanging up their own clean laundry - and they did it! It was a miraculous breakthrough. That will save me an hour each week if I can get them to hang their own clothes!

Yesterday the boys raked leaves again for a couple hours ... I think they've about all fallen and been dragged to the road. Now we just need the lawn to dry out. We added new mulch to the play area in the back yard a couple months ago and it looks great, but now we need to add mulch to the gardens and the back of the yard (where the grass doesn't grow). Can I get away with setting my kids to manual labor over the Christmas break??? I don't know ... but I may try, IF I can get someone to deliver mulch between Christmas and New Years!

Gary cooked a fabulous breakfast this morning, but now it's nearly time for lunch. Looks like leftovers.

I haven't been blogging as much, because I joined Facebook over Thanksgiving and there are so many ways to waste time there ... it took me 30 minutes just to receive all the gifts/requests/information/etc this morning. I need to get quicker, or put more limits on myself.

I need to be reading ... I just finished The Story of Edgar Sawtelle (and really enjoyed it) and now I've got 556 pages of fine print in The Secret History to get through before bookclub Thursday night. I think I'll try to make some progress today ... and I'll try to blog more often Reggie!