I had to have surgery this week to remove a skin cancer spot on my nose. Having gone through skin cancer a few other times, I naively thought it was going to be no big deal. So, I went into the surgery center very low key. I couldn’t believe how many people were in the waiting room when I arrived for my 7:45 AM appointment, but since I was the youngest one there by a good 40 years or so, I am guessing this is normal.

So it was one of _ those _ library trips where I was really regretting going. We were pushing close to past bed time and Momma was tired. But, I knew there were some books on the hold shelf waiting for me and I had two bags of books in the van to return, so I figured we’d run in “real quick.” But, of course, it wasn’t real quick. I had to help my Kindergartner find a book on cats for her science book.

This afternoon I was finishing up in the shower, when my youngest walked into the bathroom. I told him, “Hold on bud, Momma’ just needs a minute. Can you give me some privacy?” His response? No Mommy. I can’t. I can’t find your pivacy. Neither can I…. going on 9 years now since I lost it.

So, it turns out we have a sneak here at the circus. Yes, behind this adorable smile is actually a rather devious little chocolate hoarder. Earlier this week the kids received a package of chocolate from their cousins for Valentines day. I let them all have one after lunch and then we put the box up on the counter for later. Later that evening when the kids wanted another piece after dinner the box was no where to be found.

The other night I came up to kiss the girls goodnight and found them voluntarily cleaning their room. And folks,I don’t mean stuffing toys under their beds and clothes down the laundry shoot. I found them in the closet sorting and they asked me for a laundry basket and a trashcan. It was already past their bed time, but they were clearly in the cleaning mode. And I know when it comes to things like Deep Cleaning you gotta embrace the mood when it hits.

When we walked through the house with the kids, after we knew we had won the contract, they eagerly checked out their bed rooms to call dibs on which would be the boys room and which would be the girls room. The boys chose one of the 2 “kids rooms” and the girls petitioned for the master bed room. After all they pointed out, “it has a bathroom right off of it and we go to the bathroom in the middle of the night, not you guys” and “it has the laundry shoot in their too so we’d be sure to put away all our dirty clothes” and it had plenty of room for their bunk bed and dressers.

I am trying to get my blogging groove back on… not sure how exactly to do that, but it seems one way is to simply post… I am short on words right now, so I’ll just post a few of my favorite recent snapshots. He loves to help me in the kitchen, in large part b/c he loves to sample the ingredients EVERY CHANCE HE gets. Kit joined us for school at home

It’s February and that means Blue and Gold banquet season for Cub Scout folks. An annual tradition at our Blue and Gold banquet is the Dad/Lad cake decorating contest. [ ](https://latc.s3.amazonaws.com/wp-content/uploads/2013/02/IMG_9501.jpg) This is always a fun event in the circus household. Even though all of the baking and decorating is done by Dad and the cub scout… the rest of the kids greatly enjoy observing the fun in the kitchen.

A State of the Union here at the Circus Casa on this Friday afternoon would include a sink overflowing with dirty dishes, a living room with traces of party balloons and presents strewn about, a dining room bursting with hearts and red and a pile at the bottom of the laundry shoot at near epic proportions. It’s been a full week at the circus. Started the week off celebrating my daughters 7th birthday… she had a party, a gymnastics meet, and grandparents and cousins in town for the occasion.

I recall seeing something on Facebook before I went to bed about possible flash freezing or snow. But, I didn’t give it much thought. When I woke up I peeked behind the curtain to see if anything came of it and I gasped. It was that big white puffy snow that sticks to the branches of trees. My most favorite kind of snowfall. And I laid in bed and watched it fall snuggling with my hubby and kids.