Sofia

Right now I am suppose to be getting ready to go out with friends tonight but well, I just wanted to sit down and get down on screen a few Fia stories.  This, Suzi, is how I find time to blog............I neglect other things.  And it only takes a little bit of time and when I don't feel like it, I take a little blog breather.  Which is probably why I started a blog and not a church...........it doesn't take nearly the time or commitment.......so while you wonder when I find the time to do this, I will wonder how you find the time to do the things you do :)

(A little confession...........I had a little moment of awe about my friend Suzi the other day...........I wondered to my sweet husband how on earth anyone could be so beautiful, so together, so intentional, so organized, so......just........perfect.  It wasn't in envy, just wonder and a bit of amazement.  His answer?  Well, people look at you the same way, he says.  Someone out there is saying the same things about you, wondering how you get it all done, how you are the way you are, someone is looking at you with wonder...........and that, people, is called love.  I love my husband and I love the way he sees me and causes me to see myself.  Amazing.)

So, my sweet girl........the other day she spent TWO HOURS helping me can nectarines.  She and Nico washed jars, cut up the nectarines (which you don't have to peel - wonder of all wonders, never will I can a peach again - at least, not in HUGE quantities......thank you Jane at Thy Hand Hath Provided - 89 QUARTS, we did......... :), pour in the sugar water, etc.  It was amazing.  She would not have stopped but for the fact that Grandma Goats came and carried them away to Tuscora Park.  I will forever picture her cutting, with fervor, those nectarines at the counter, with her apron, standing on a folding chair.  She told me, "Mom, just keep working, we will get it done."

The next day she, very seriously, asked, "Mom, I really want to do something.  I want to start washing dishes.  Can I help wash dishes soon?"  Oh my...........YES!  YES! YES!  I have been waiting for this day since I realized that having a family of five and making most food from scratch means loading and unloading the dishwasher multiple times a day :)

Then this past week we were outside playing house.  Sofia was a daughter, I was mom and Francesca was whoever she said she was in the moment - this could range from a baby to a dog to a big sister.....you just never know.  Sofia was working, sweeping the floor and cooking dinner.  She instructed me that we did not have a dad and that I needed to find one before dinner (this was always my plan in college, when it seemed that EVERY SINGLE GIRL at Grove City college was getting married and I WAS SO NOT but it never worked out.............I picked the one who didn't want to get married that lead me to the man I was to marry and THANK THE GOOD LORD that He is Lord and not me of my life........things would have turned out very differently.........thank goodness I always made it to dinner at Hicks without a husband ;) I went off and found a dad (Joe, the best dad of all) and then it was dinner.  During dinner Fia asked if we could pretend we were poor..............and had to make all of our food...................from dirt.  She was so excited.  



That's my girl.........lover of all things Little House on the Prairie.  Although, I told her I didn't think that Laura and Mary ever ate dirt.  She rolled her eyes and smiled.........then gave me a heaping plate of dirt.



How blessed am I :)



The next day she asked me if she could please, please do some chores.  Real ones.  She thought all the kids should do some.  She suggested I make a chart and list the chores that they are suppose to do and I could check them off.


Did I mention that she learned to tie her shoes on her own?  She kept asking us to teach her and then ended up learning on her own because WE ARE AWFUL PARENTS.  (Not really, but sometimes I neglect the basics when we are just trying to GET OUT OF THE HOUSE AS FAST AS WE CAN BECAUSE IT IS 9:10 AND WE HAVE TO BE AT SCHOOL IN 5 MINUTES, I WILL JUST DO IT FOR YOU!!!!)  I apologize, Fia.


I think she will most likely be a better mom than I am.  Well, I know she will be better than I am........and she will be an awesome wife if I could just get her to unlearn the whole eye rolling thing that she might or might not have picked up from me.......................


Definitely her house will be run more efficiently.  But until then she is all mine.


She changed laundry today.  Said she LOVED to do this.  She was so excited.


I can't wait for Monday............maybe we will branch off into FOLDING laundry.............which would TRANSFORM MY LIFE.