Tiger Face

My son is creative.  I'll give Henry that.  He requested Viv's black leotard so he could make her a tiger for play in the basement.  I heard water running in the hall bathroom as I prepped a slow cooker recipe, and I quickly discovered he had used orange and black markers to draw tiger stripes all over her face, eyelids and lips included.  She now has remnant black that turned an ugly green like old bruises.

A few days ago he excitedly encouraged me to look at Viv's back.  "Mom!  Mom!  Doesn't she look JUST like a kangaroo with hair all over her?!"  As she turned, I saw 1" + long wisps of blonde hair all over the back of her dress.  I sucked in all of my breath and said, "Did you use scissors on your sister's hair?"  He said, "Yes," like he was shocked by such a silly question.  How else was he going to get her hair all over her to make her look like a kangaroo anyhow?  We had a long talk, and I found hair all over the carpet downstairs.  I hid every pair of scissors I could find, and I discovered we own a lot of scissors...paper, crafting, sewing, safety, kitchen...

The most unusual thing Henry has done lately involves his sock drawer.  I made the discovery after Vivian alerted me by saying, "Henry is trying to make some fi-yuh in his room!"  In just one afternoon, I found the following items in his drawer.
4 boxes of matches (Which he said he climbed to get while I was showering.  They were hidden in a bowl and 7 feet high in a cabinet with doors!  However, they were near the gum jar.)
1 can of tuna
6 Q-tips
Sparkle nail polish

Aside from the tuna, all of these items are contraband.  We had a long safety discussion and I detailed the consequences of playing with fire and issued his consequence.  When I asked him about the tuna, he said, "I like tuna."

Olivia had her first ever cross country meet on Saturday, and the whole family cheered her to a great 1 mile finish.  She beat some older boys, which I thought was pretty awesome.  It was really fun.  She's playing the flute, studying ballet three nights a week, learning piano, and doing well in school.  Evelyn takes ballet class, and she is her usual crafting and reading self.  She makes me laugh.  This is a special year of sacraments for Evelyn, and she's really excited.

The last few months have been the most stressful and up and down that I have experienced since 2000 with Anthony's leukemia diagnosis, treatment, and the simultaneous planning of our Illinois wedding from Houston while working full-time.  Selling our house For Sale By Owner has been a long process.  It is the kind of thing that had I known all of the obstacles we would face at the beginning, I would have been paralyzed to go forward.  However, Robbie and I are a solid team.  We have been forging ahead week after week, and we can almost see the light.  Praise God for that.  That work has been compounded by the blessing of finding a wonderful next house that we get to plan.  We just have many tasks and too few hours.  And then...there's the fact that I'm soon leaving for Poland.