health food?

I think we made the most of this spring-like weekend! We saw a parade yesterday and we played at the lake today after church, going for a walk and hanging out on the porches. Dennis got to roast hot dogs and marshmallows over a campfire with the neighbor girls (before they went inside to play with the wooden train tracks they laid out yesterday across the entire living room!). David got our electricity problem in the bedroom fixed and now we are sleeping in our own bed again! And the radiator in the Blazer is patched and setting, ready for coolant in the near future! Things are looking up. We are so thankful!

Dennis said to me as we were leaving the house this afternoon: "wouldn't it be something if it turned out that French fries were good for you?". I agreed that it would. It would be a great something, as a matter of fact!

Dennis has kept his room clean for a week. Friday, he earned his first ever allowance money, $3 that I gave him for keeping his room clean for 4 days. He used it to buy his own snack at the gas station/general store when he was on his way to the lake with Gran and Gigi. He was so proud! He knows that if he keeps his room clean until Friday, I will give him another payout. He says "I can do that!". He's gotten a little OCD about it--he cleans up every toy before he leaves his room. He and David are in there now building a big Lego creation, and when I peeked my head in the door, Dennis said "Daddy is building a big submarine, but he made a big Lego mess all over my rug!". I didn't intend to pay him to keep his room clean, but it so happened Friday that I caught him cleaning up when he hadn't been asked, and I was so proud that I gave him snack money (because he'd been consistently doing same for 4 days). He took that to mean that he earned it and asked me if there were any big jobs I could give him to earn money. So I think he'll eventually have money-earning jobs that are separate from the everyday chores that we'll expect from him, but for now, he understands that keeping his room clean makes him and us very happy. He loves to just dance around in all his clean floor space! He still spreads out his toys to play, but he puts one set of stuff away before getting out another. Now if only I could learn same... I've got to organize the rest of the house as nicely as we organized Dennis' room so its easier to keep clean!