Wormsitting

"Mommy, will you watch my worms please?" my 3-year-old politely asked. He flashed those big brown eyes at me and I swear they twinkled.

He almost won me over with the dimple and the good manners. But then I remembered I don't like worms. I'll do a lot for my kids, but I have to draw the line somewhere. So I turned down the job offer.

"Well then..." he started, then paused for a second to consider his next move. "Can Rachel and Deena come over and watch my worms while I swing on the swings?"

While I'm certain our favorite babysitters would simply jump at the opportunity to add Wormsitting to their résumés, I had to tell him they were busy.

Just put them somewhere safe, I told him, and go play. You can check on them whenever you want. They'll be fine.

(Note: If I had known that "somewhere safe" to him meant under the couch in the family room, I would have chosen my words more carefully. Next time I'll be more specific.)

Isolation

While big sister is hard at work on math...

Little brothers are hard at work staying out of her hair.

They've been banished to the back porch for the duration of her math test. This works out well for everyone.

Worms in a bucket

 "Whatcha doing, Jacob?" I asked.

He continued to peer lovingly into his bucket of earthworms and nightcrawlers.

"Just swinging with my worms," he answered without looking up.

Truth be told, that's kind of what I thought he was doing. I just wanted to make sure.

I'm not sure Levi's going to be able to take his giant bucket of worms on the same adventure. He might just have to settle for walking his worms around the yard.

If I had a hammer

Our front porch needs some serious repairs.

Good thing Caleb caught it when he did. Apparently the whole thing would have collapsed if he hadn't nailed it back together for us.