I don't know what day it is...

:)


Life has been very full and I've neglected to write about our time with Carmen.

Here's a Reader's Digest version of last Thursday and this Tuesday.


I don't know the dates, as I don't even know what today is. I think it might be October something. Twenty something. OH! Halloween is a week from today. 31 minus 7. That's today.

ANYway...


Last Thursday, driving to our home, we passed the wonderful little cafe that is new to Franklin. Carmen and Jake were just chatting in the car and when she spotted the cafe, she exclaimed, "OH! There's the Beehive!!"


We talked to her about when she went there...with her Mama and her brother and her friend, Lucia. I asked her what she ate and she said, "We didn't eat anything! We just fighted the whole time!"


Jake and I laughed so much!!


And then she told us that she DID go back another day and had breakfast there. I asked her what she ate THAT day and she said, "Sausages. And pancakes."


She proceeded to tell us how she knows how to make pancakes...she knows how to put the batter on the griddle, even.


So guess what we did at our house??

PANCAKE DAY!!

There was much excitement as we gathered the ingredients and talked about our LOVE of maple syrup. Carmen said her family also uses molasses on their pancakes.


However, my excitement faded rapidly when I opened the refrigerator and saw that the MILK WAS GONE! What kind of home has no milk?? I don't drink milk, so I don't know when the milk is low (unless I'm cooking/baking with it), and we have such a large refrigerator that I usually have a milk back-up (knowing that milk drinkers tend to neglect the job of reporting that milk is getting low). But there we were. Wanting to make pancakes. With no milk.


I was feeling bummed, but then looked at Carmen and thought, "What would Carmen do?" She wouldn't let this bother her! She would find another way to proceed!


And that's just what I did.


I looked a little DEEPER into the refrigerator, with a new hopeful perspective, and I pulled out my yogurt. I measured some out, watered it down a little...and those pancakes were BETTER than ever!!

Carmen days are my de-cluttering days. Sometimes she and Jake are off playing, and sometimes they hang out by me and look through all the stuff that's being de-cluttered. After all, what is clutter to one is *treasure* to another!

On Thursday, they were hanging out by me while I was de-cluttering my dresser area. I had a game out that my friend Anna sent to me...a game for women to connect with one another, called *Cowgirls (Ride the Trail of Truth)*. I knew the game had AMAZING little intricate pieces to it, so I asked Jake if he wanted to look at it with Carmen. She's been asking lately to *play games*, and they get out what games we have and Jake allows Carmen to make up all the rules (so nice of him, since that's how everyone else spent the first 10 years of *his* life, following *his* made-up rules to games!).

They got out *Cowgirls* and were rolling the dice, reading the cards (Carmen was reading them so sweetly), and moving their figures. On the way to drop off Carmen, Jake said, "OH! We didn't tell Annie about the song we made up!"

This was Carmen's *Cowgirl* song:

"Trot, trot to Boston...to get a loaf of bread.

Trot, trot home again. And her cat is dead."

:)

Carmen found a book to read after we were done eating pancakes and she asked Jake to read it to her. I asked, "Where do you want to read it?...over on the couch?"

She said, "No! Right here!"

She plopped down right where she was, cuddled up by Jake and they were reading, once again.

Because that's the kind of girl she is. No need to plan for comfort when JOY is foremost in her mind.

Yesterday I was de-cluttering my closet, and Jake and Carmen were outside for the LONGEST time. I suggested that he *stay* outside once we get here and they get out of the car, because once they're inside and he suggests they go outside, Carmen never wants to. And yet she LOVES playing with Jake outside, so that's exactly what he did. It wasn't raining yet, so they headed to the swingset and to the pond. I was busy busy cleaning out and filling bags for good-will and Jake would pop in for a snack, then pop in for some books. I kept peeking outside and my heart would just fill with such warmth and joy and love watching the two of them at play.

Since I was busy, I didn't get many photos, but here are a couple.

In my de-cluttering of the closet, I found a wonderful roll of BIG paper on Dave's side. I brought it out and asked if Carmen wanted to lay down on it and I would draw an outline around her body and we could make a life-size picture of Carmen! She said, "That would be FUN!"

And so we did. All of our washable kids markers are at the library for my library program, so we had to work with Sharpies, but we were careful (and afterward, Carmen was very careful about drawing on her hands and feet with the pink one!...she especially liked coloring in her toes...not the *picture* of toes...her REAL toes!).

She and Jake proceeded to play with that paper for the longest time. Carmen's favorite thing was when she drew a *bed* and would lay down on it. She asked me to take her picture and then posed several different ways, asking me to photograph her at each pose. She looks at the photos of herself and comments on how cute she is. So not only is she very accurate and wise, but also very truthful.

All is well.