Goodies and smarties, odds and ends.

Darrell brought in the mail on Friday, and to my delight, there was a package for ME, one that I hadn't ordered from anywhere and wasn't expecting from anyone - the best kind, right? My dear friend Sally, from Illinois, knitted me (or crocheted??? Do I know the difference?? I think they're knitted.) two potholders and a dish rag!! How sweet is she?! Thank you Sally!!!

Yesterday, I was sitting here at my desk, and I just happened to glance over at Anthony's art easel. Do you see what I saw??? The little smartie pants had written his name, all by himself!!

Both of the girls still have colds, but Makayla's is much worse than Mackenzie's. Ah...green snot. And today Anthony's nose is running too. Gotta love it.

So, I recently discovered something that makes my life easier, and I'm all about anything that makes my life easier! Did you know that the post office will send you priority mail packing supplies FREE OF CHARGE??? Yep - last week, I went on their website, and ordered 10 flat rate envelopes and 10 flat rate boxes, which were shipped to me at no cost. I had made a birthday gift for my grandma, who lives in Illinois, whose birthday is this week. I wanted it there in time for her birthday. I have sick kids. Do I want to drag them out to take the package to the post office? Not a chance!! So...I printed off a shipping label online - on regular paper - and ran it through my Xyron machine to put adhesive on the back (I could have just taped it or used some other adhesive just as easily). Since it's a flat-rate envelope, it doesn't matter how much it weighs, eliminating the need to worry about weight and proper postage. (Plus, you get a $.05 discount by paying online as opposed to at the post office!) Then, I arranged, online, to have a mail carrier come to my home today and pick up the package - again, at no charge. I just left it on the table at my front door, and when the mail carrier picked it up, she left me a slip indicating she got it. How simple is that?! Love it!!

Something that did NOT make my life easier, was believing that my 3 and a half-year old son was mature enough to be trusted to use markers unsupervised. I've let him use crayons and markers with no concerns for quite a while now, but this morning, he showed me that perhaps I was being too hasty with this. I was busy attending to the sick girlies, whilst he was redecorating the tile floors, the girls' toys, and his entire body, particularly the bottoms of his feet - which were SOLID BLUE. Fortunately, it was a dry-erase marker, and a bit of my vinegar cleaning solution cleaned it all up fairly easily (although the grout did take a bit of scrubbing). He was concerned when his feet were still somewhat blue after a soak in the tub...um, so what have we learned here??? He was also a bit disconcerted when I told him I would be letting daddy in on the news of his artistic efforts. File this in the "what WERE you thinking???" category.