Goodbye Tours–Preschool (num 2)

Photos of some of my favorite things about my lil’ preschool.

Goodbye dear preschool.

My Mantle

If you think because of that title that this is some spiritual post about ‘the mantle’ of whatever that God has given me (have you heard that phrase?) you’re wrong…. it’s about a plain old (fake) mantle… where decorations go! I’m deep like that.

I’ve never actually had a mantle. And I may never have. But a girl who loves to decorate for the seasons and other occasions has got to make do!

My Dad installed three shelves just inside my front door when he was here. And then later I added one more shelf. It’s the perfect place to switch out decorations (as often as I like) and I love it. Cause I like to switch a lot. And I already want to rearrange the furniture, much to my husbands *joy*. But that is a different topic.

This was the first arrangement. The Welcome Baby arrangement. Flowers, cute subway art, lace bunting, gorgeous photo (ifidosaysomyself) and a lil’ message on the lil’ chalkboard.

Then I did a pretty Easter mantle arrangement, but BAH I didn’t find a picture of it! Boo. It had a super cute little free printed Happy Easter Bunting and lots of other cuteness.  I know you’re so disappointed to have missed that.

But, to comfort you, here is a photo of my current Spring arrangement.

Free printable art is the best. So is bunting made from scrap fabric found under my bed and a lil’ burlap birdie purchased for nothing on clearance. And yes, my baby’s pic is still there. I can’t stand to take it down and she’s still fresh and sweet and new…  just like spring. So she is sticking around awhile longer.

Quote of the Day

“There is snow on our bikes. We will have to lick it off.”

-N to H

My girl does loves to eat snow!

Quarantine

Today is day four of my self-imposed quarantine. I temporarily lifted my self-imposed quarantine yesterday long enough to go to one of those little clinics inside the grocery store to get diagnosed for the miserable ailment that had required this self-imposed quarantine.

The results?

Tonsillitis. And an ear infection.

Well, no wonder I felt like crap. For days.

The nice nurse practitioner happily took my $85 dollars for the visit and sent me out with a prescription for antibiotics.  I did a jig. Not really. But I felt like it because it meant there was an end in sight to my various symptoms but also to my quarantine, which is maybe equally as painful as the sickness for a lady who loves to be around people and loves to care for her family and her home.

After two days of bedroom quarantine I have occasionally joined my family in the rest of the house yesterday and today. But not without tying one of my daughters receiving blankets around my mouth and nose first to protect them from my germs. I thought about posting a picture of that sight, but decided against it… it’s absolutely ridiculous. But I am taking all possible precautions not to spread this thing. I can’t imagine how a preschooler would deal with how much it hurts to swallow? My heart would break into a million pieces if I had to watch one of my babies go through that. Taking a sip of water can bring me to tears. It’s just terrible and let’s hope the rest of the family stays healthy and that I can hold onto my sanity for another day and a half until my self-imposed quarantine is lifted!

Tonsillitis is from the devil.

The end.

What Remains

Remember this cup? (from this post)?

Remember how much my boy liked his lion cup?

This is what remains.

:(

We brought special things like this back with us in our luggage. Little things that would remain constant in my kids’ lives between their African life and their American life. It helped. Their special drinking mugs were among those things.  And today it was accidently knocked off the island by my boy and as soon as I heard the crash I knew it was gonna be bad.

I rushed to him and he wept. I held him. And I wept.

I cried because my boy lost something dear to him. I cried because his tender heart was hurting. And I cried because that silly and special lion cup is something from our dear African life that can’t be replaced.

So much can’t be replaced. For this I wept.

Loose Tooth?

Isn’t my boy too little to have a loose tooth?  He seems apprehensive about it.  This is new territory for us. I guess it’s time to decide if the tooth fairy is going to visit our home or not. What if he swallows it? Does that happen? Will it bleed a lot? What if he freaks out?  Maybe I’m overreacting?

Oh my!

A Bit Untraditional…

I may or may not have put raisins and Cheez-Its in my kids’ Easter eggs…

Okay. I did. And they might have been a lil’ surprised, but they liked it!