What you doin' Caleb!!!

  So, today Caleb added another broken item to his list.  The kids were scraping ice off the boy's bedroom window after the temps dropped to -21!  I was busy in another room and hear Caleb coming towards me saying, " I broke it".  Not the words I wanted to hear before 8 am...  Lately, it's I broke your mirror, your piggy bank, sissy's piggy bank, your candle holder... Need I say more?  Then I hear, I cut my finger.  Now, it's definitely not good.  I see Caleb walking toward me with a hammer.  Another bad sign.  "What you doin' Caleb?, asks the mama.  "I broke the window".  A quick walk to the back of the house reveals that he did indeed break his bedroom window.  "Why", I ask barely holding my strong feelings in.  Caleb's response:"I was trying to break the ice off the window".  Now, feeling VERY upset with this little man I quickly told him to "Go, go to another room, Mama's very upset and I'm not going to yell at you, just go!"  So, some may feel that my response was not the one they would have chosen.  I, however, knowing the feelings that I was having and remembering news stories about mother's and their overreactions gone bad, decided that I needed a bit of a time out.  After assessing the damage and stuffing towels in the window to stop the freezing draft from blowing through, went to find the child who has the ability to evoke the responses of overwhelming love, laughter and now frustration.  It didn't take long to find him.  I'm thankful that he wasn't hurt badly, just a little scrape, it just took me a bit to switch back to the loving, forgiving mother that God wants me to be.  Scott came home with some foam insulation and sealed it off til we can replace it in the spring.  It's something that I'd rather not think about too much.  It will probably be a story that we'll tell the grandchildren, if we ever get any:).
  On another note, I had a hair appt. today.  We had a guest coming for supper, so I prepared it ahead of time and left the temps with Scott. My hairdresser was 30 minutes late because she was cleaning at home and lost track of the time.  I had 15 minutes til I needed to head for home, so she did a super quick trim and only charged me $10 instead of $25.  Thankful for that savings since a trim was all I wanted:)
  Elyssia and I arrived home at 5.  Our guest was supposed to arrive at 5:30, but did't come til 6, due to not knowing exactly where we lived.  Oops...  Scott had told him the general vicinity, so he stopped to ask a neighbor.  I was thankful that he came, since it was a lot of work cleaning the house.  I know that the extra food would get eaten by our hungry children, but it's nice to have someone come by when you've cleaned the house extra special for their visit.  Not sure that he noticed, being a bachelor and all, but it was nice to see him pull into the driveway.  It was a blessing to get to know Paul a bit better.  He's not a really talkative fellow, but seemed to come out of his comfort zone to ask and answer questions a bit more than he does at church. The kids really like him because he's a cowboy, has horses, works for the PFRA and wears cowboy boots:).  Elyssia was an extra blessing tonight.  She offered to take the plates and things off the table without being reminded.  The funny thing was that she told Paul, "that napkin is for wiping your face".  She reminded him at the end of the meal too. He thought it was funny, so we weren't really embarrassed. 
  Tonight was also another momentous occasion. Elyssia's second loose tooth reached the pulling point.  She was begging me to pull it and all I had to do was put the paper towel over it and give it a slight tug.  It bled quite a bit, but she's now happy to be missing her two front(bottom) teeth!  Good thing Christmas is coming up, eh?  She's been singing, "All I want for Christmas is my two front teeth and some sausage".  Her and Garrison break out laughing after adding the sausage part. I don't really think she's that anxious to get her teeth in though.  She likes her new look and I have to say it doesn't look too bad. When she loses the top two I think she'll look a bit goofier, but to her it means she's growing up and for now that makes her happy.
  Last on the list was talking to my mom on Skype.  Today was her birthday and it's the closest I've been to spending it with her in several years.  It was nice to catch up and it was really quiet since the children were already asleep. Now it's about time for me to get some sleep. Scott's going to look at some farm equipment tomorrow and I'm going to try to find a few gifts for Christmas...