fair

This happens to me every year.  We get to "fair week" (which, for those of you that may not be aware, signals the end of summer) and I'm just like, "What in the world happened to summer??"  I'm pretty sure that part of the problem is that celery harvest for Mike doesn't begin until early July, and that to me is the beginning of summer, so fair week sneaks up pretty quick after that.  Doesn't help that up until the last few days we've had pretty cool weather and the days are getting noticeably shorter.  I'm so torn because summer is a crazy time for us, but I like the sunshine and warm weather SO. MUCH. BETTER. than the cold and darkness of winter...

Speaking of it being a crazy time, the farm is pretty caught up to the celery right now, so Mike has actually gotten home at a respectable time the last few days!  Still pretty long days since he's getting up so early to load trucks, but him getting home and hour or more sooner than he was before is pretty huge for me and my level of sanity.

(Side note: I just went to get Caleb out of quiet time and he had fallen asleep in the toy chest...with the lid shut!)

A few days ago Levi got out of his exersaucer!  Didn't scare me quite as bad as the first time it happened with Caleb and Logan (because he didn't sneak up on me), but it's still a little surprising.  :)  Another funny Levi story:  it's crazy how easily they pick up on things!  (The following story contains some details on one form of correction we use for our children.  I know not everyone agrees with me, but just know I love my kids and let's agree to disagree.)  So, in the after dinner chaos the other night, Mike and I were cleaning up, Levi was in his highchair where he could just observe, and Caleb and Logan were getting into trouble.  Mike sent them to separate couches for spankings.  He got the wooden spoon we often use, administered the correction, and when he came back to the kitchen I asked him to spank me with the spoon so that I could know what it feels like - I've been wondering, and I want to make sure that when I'm using it on the kids I have the right amount of force - not too much, not too little.  Anyways, he did, then asked me to spank him.  After we did this I remembered Levi was in his highchair just watching us and I just kinda laughed about it.  A few minutes later I got Levi out of his highchair and set him down.  He very purposely walked around behind me, reached up, and "spanked" my behind!  He only gets some hand swats so far, for which he braces himself by squinting his eyes shut and scrunching his nose, and then goes on like nothing happened...