Pictures!

 Honey got fixed. She was very confused by the cone of shame. I took it off of her because one, it was kinda sad, and, more importantly, she can't reach the incision. 

Everyone loves Honey!

Maggie sent me this to ask if we could get this. Unfortunately, we have a strict non-varmint rule at the Neal house.  

I saved this for Maggie. It's a little baby fox.

Carpet's gone! Spoiler alert: we still don't have new flooring. 

I saw this after Maggie took pictures of that possum eating the cat food she'd put out. Look at that cat's face!

Honey, making do.

Honey's Dad and grandmother are free!!! They really look like you could have some deep conversations with them. 

Oh yeah, Millie tried to play with Honey the day she got back from surgery so Honey snapped at her and I guess caught her because she had a tiny drop of blood on the top of her head. But Millie can't leave anything alone so it just kept getting bigger and grosser so she had to borrow the cone.

We got a new car! Isn't it beautiful? I love it so much. It's hybrid so I've had for weeks and I'm still not even down a quarter tank of gas. Very exciting stuff.

I don't remember but I would guess, Mommy, take my picture.

It was a beautiful weekend so we took advantage. We went out for ice cream and then to the park.

Weekend

Ruby has been wanting to learn to read. We work on it most days. She gets so excited when she sounds out a word. It's very cute. 

She's also figured out how to pedal. I never could get her to even try. She just walks her feet along but, once she figured it out by herself, she's hooked. She rides her trike all over the house. Her little, real bike needs air in the tires. I'm excited for her to know how to ride that. I think she'll love it.

This weekend. . . let's see. We got a new car on Friday. I was going back and forth about it because my old car still worked, it just had lots of issues. But then! On Sunday, we were going to Nana's birthday dinner and it wouldn't start and there was smoke and it was scary and I was like, that's a message from the universe. So, we got a minivan. I'm so happy. The kids love it. It's ginormous. And it does lots of different things. It's hybrid so I have to get in the habit of plugging it in every time I park it in the garage. The charge only goes like 40-50 miles and, it turns out, you go through that quickly. 

Saturday, the girls spent the day with Nana and Gran. The floor people were supposed to come and install our floors (FINALLY!) but they said my floors were too moist. Apparently, at some point, there was a leak in the slab and, even though they were properly fixed, it results in moisture near the cracks. So I need a click plank type of floor and not anything that uses adhesive. So, still waiting on floors. . . 

Sunday was fun. We started the day (or rather, once Maggie got up), we finished our movie from the night before (it was Instant Family and it was very good) and watched another movie. I cooked and cleaned throughout. Ruby always wants to help me cook and/or clean so she did that. I try to let her actually help. That's the best way to learn anything. 

After that, we started a new thing: the family meeting. I read about this when Maggie was around Ruby's age and I thought it sounded really cool but it hardly makes sense for one parent and one kid. I went through and researched what kind of things we would talk about and how we would structure it. We did a check in (the girls said they needed more orange sherbet), family compliments (Maggie gave me the best compliment of my life; she said I am the hardest working person she has ever seen and she knows I do it all for them--excuse me while I cry my eyes out), goals (we set goals for next week; very exciting), chores, important topic, and love. 

For chores, I assigned them their chores for the week and we reviewed them. I also offered paid chores in addition to their regular chores and I'll add the money to their allowance. 

For important topics, I thought it was a good opportunity to talk about big things, like body safety and puberty and other fun stuff.

All in all, it was a huge success. The girls loved it, we set goals, we made plans. 

After the meeting, I said, let's go get ice cream. So we loaded up and went to Marble Slab down the road. While we were eating, Ruby said, look a heart. Maggie and I looked but we couldn't see anything. She kept insisting and we kept looking but no dice. Maggie teased her and she got frustrated so I had her take a deep breath and asked her to try again. Then she said, it's the place that just Mommy and me went. Still no clue what she's talking about. Then Maggie asked her, what did you do at the place? Ruby said, only Mommy got a shot. Maggie and I were facing looking out and Ruby was facing the window and I realized, behind her, was a CVS and she could see the sign in the window. I can't believe she remembered the CVS sign from almost two months ago. She's a funny little thing. 

One of the family goals we made was for Maggie and I to make sure we spent one hour together after Ruby goes to bed. We always have it on the schedule, but it doesn't always happen. So I went and got her and we read and talked and then Maggie decided she was going to clean! I guess she was motivated by me deep cleaning all day. She organized and wiped down my bookshelf, bathroom counter, and nightstand. It was so funny.