I haven’t shared much kid-related information during the past few days, which is odd as we have spent a lot of time together. During the sunny days, we usually leave the car parked in front of the house and simply walk everywhere – it is very time consuming, but we see all the ducks and cows and sheep, and speculate about the plants we see, and other than the heart-stopping moments when they dart off too close to the street or something, we enjoy quite a good time.
The school has been busy getting the toys clean for the upcoming summer holiday and they’ve devised rather a clever method for this: The children are allowed to pick out what they want to bring home for a week or weekend … but Mom has to clean it during that period. Naturally, my kids bring home the biggest, most impossible things to clean – teddy bears bigger than a child, boxes containing hundreds of blocks (that cannot go in the dishwasher), and lately they’ve been bringing home things that need mending (I guess those cross stitched bookmarks gave the teachers the wrong idea LOL). I have grumbled a bit, but the kids are really enjoying the “new” toys, and in the end, I have to admit it’s not a bad method. Here are Rowen and Nicky with the blocks and then again with the teddy bears (that need mending).
Arden’s been growing and changing at an incredible rate. He’s of average size, but we all think he looks huge compared to how new-baby-tiny he was just a short while ago. Everyone enjoys making him laugh, and he thinks his older siblings are just amazing. He’s a favorite at the local food bank, and after some serious deliberation, I’ve decided to continue volunteering there with him after the summer holiday; I’ll bring a port-a-crib with me. It’s a hassle, but I don’t want to quit. The people there have become something like an extended family and I really enjoy the chance to help out in a practical way. In the second photo, you can see that although he’s a jolly fellow when awake, he takes his sleeping very seriously. 
Max has found a new passion that has, at least temporarily, overshadowed his cross stitching, but we don’t mind at all. He’s suddenly discovered the joy of reading – something I had despaired of ever happening. For a long time, his teachers (and us) worried that he might be dyslexic because he simply couldn’t “get” how to read. Each time he encountered a word, it was as if it were the first time and he had to go through the effort of identifying the letters, matching the letters to a sound, sounding out the letters together … it was very frustrating for all involved. And then, thanks to his biological father’s family, the Geronimo Stilton series of books was discovered and a new book lover was born. We’re so happy, we hardly dare breathe for fear of distracting him from his new-found pleasure!
The workplace has been a mixed bag. As you’ve probably gathered, I have been a SAHM since Arden’s birth, going in to the office only on a couple of urgent occasions. However, they want me back in on a regular basis after the summer holidays. We’re going to discuss one day a week, in which I’d be at the office and Niek would work from home. I don’t know what to expect, as the company has gone through some major reorganizations in the past couple of years that have seriously curtailed the freedoms that I wanted & needed when I went to work there. I also don’t want to give up certain things, like the food bank, but I realize that concessions to the realities of the hiccuping economy are necessary. At least I have the summer break yet to enjoy. 
I hope the weekend has included plenty of moments both of joy and of relaxation for you and yours. I’ll be back on Monday with an update of my birds … I guess that’ll be a *bird food post.
*The Nablopomo theme for July is food.
