Dick and Jane's Mom Never Had Chaos

On Saturday afternoon I was enjoying a nice long nap. The screen door was open, the rain was falling, and I had no idea water was invading my house. When the kids got up I went down the hall to get something out of the closet. Under my feet I heard the strangest squishing sound. I looked down to see water seeping in between the planks of our wood laminate floor. The leak was coming from the refrigerator on the other side of the wall so after turning off the water we got to work as quickly as possible trying to save our floor. Alas, it was all in vain. The boards cannot be put back down and our floor was discontinued 3 months ago. So we will be getting a whole new floor in our living room and hallways. The good news is we can move the good floor (which is most of it) into our bedroom and I can get rid of the yucky old carpet in there. So the last few days have been spent with plumbers, water removal people (whatever you call them), and insurance guys coming in and out of our house. Fans have been blowing so loudly we had to put the closed caption on during the Survivor finale. My fridge has been in the middle of my kitchen. The kids can't use their bathroom because it is so dirty and the fan is so strong it blows them over, and some of my floor is missing.

May is the month I had dedicated to spring cleaning my house. I've been going room to room cleaning every surface, baseboards, and carpet, and cleaning stuff out. Some of it was wasted effort due to the water, but I've been trying to continue this in the midst of the craziness because the kids will be out of school soon and then it will be impossible. Life at the Sandlin house has been a little chaotic. It is all a little annoying, but I'll take my small inconveniences any day. The Facebook and blogging world continually remind me that we have friends serving all over the world living in the midst of war, natural disasters, sick children, and lost jobs. I have to keep a little perspective about my silly little "problems".

So Monday afternoon when a thunderstorm blew in, I took my book on the back porch to breathe for a few minutes. It was very refreshing. It didn't take long for the kids to join me. John Curtis can't pass up a good rain.
Sophie on the other hand stayed as close to the wall as possible. She went to her room and grabbed a book so she could read like Mom.

Can you tell what she's reading?

Look familiar?

Fun with Dick and Jane! I used to love these books. My grandmother gave me some old books when I got my first teaching job. When I was cleaning out Sophie's closet I came across them. Now that Sophie can read them I decided to put them on her shelf. So this is the book she grabbed.

Evidently it was never supposed to cross the border. The copyright is 1956. My dad was 4 years old so those could be his scribbles.

I love the pictures. This one kind of reminds me of me and my mom baking with the kids:) The girls in my family are so domestic.

Here Mom is sewing peacefully and is never impatient when the kids disturb her work. I bet Dad is coming in to tell her the fridge is leaking and he has to pull up her spotless floor.

A nice family dinner. I'm glad to see that Dick and Jane didn't know how to sit in their seats any better than my kids do during dinner.

What a happy family!

Mine is too, minus the dresses and ties.