In stray sock purgatory

On this Eater Monday, I have gone from the moutaintop of celebration to depths of purgatory for people living in a house with other people: sock purgatory. With the break has come outside play and lots of wardrobe changes for most of the residents of our home. I selfishly wanted to spend time with the kids doing fun stuff and neglected my one to two loads per day. This neglect resulted in my largest laundry basket being full to overflowing with socks, underwear and unmentionables. So I lived in the land of laundry. Every once in a while a child would come upstairs and ask if I was okay. "Where are you in there, mom?"..."Down on the floor. Behind the pile of pants and tshirts." I gave them the task of sorting their own socks and underwear. Seeing the amount to sort, their faces fell like children who lost their puppy, broke their favorite toy AND got their dessert taken away all at the same time. It took them a long time...and then I threw the hub's items as well. They earned a banana popsicle and a run at the dog park for that.

In the end, all were happy and benefitted from the efforts. I'll take it.


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Glorious Easter Day

What a beautiful Easter Day we had today! We couldn't have asked for a lovlier day.



We sat with family in a wonderful church service, had a relatively calm morning for having scads of children and then enjoyed a yummy lunch and family time in the afternoon. Our nephew and his wife and our adopted nephew, Abraham, from Nigeria made the day complete. He had never had homemeade ice cream, which we felt was a crime. So as part of his Easter desserts, he had his favorite: vanilla ice cream. There was lots of football and monkey6 in the middle and a fair amount of this:


Some sort of rolling ball game that the boy, G and Abraham are obsessed with these days. Heck, they were outside getting fresh air. I couldn't complain.

The kids are tucked into their beds, sleeping off a day of family, food, fun and celebrating the miracle and blessing of Easter. So thankful for this day.


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No brain left...nada

Today was a four game day, which was fun and exhausting and annoying. We had hoped to go to a friend's family Easter egg hunt, but were not able to go and enjoy due to late games and the drama that goes with them. Sad faces all around. So instead we watched four games, 2 wins and 2 losses, walked like dirty, sunscreened nomads back to our car and headed for home. Two of the three kids were scrubbed clean and settled down by 4:15, while the third braved the grocery store with me and watched a can of creamed corn fall from the cart on to my Chacoed foot. I had a moment in the veggie aisle as people waited impatiently for their cans of green beans. S kept saying, "Ooh. That's going to turn black, Mom. Ooh." I don't doubt that she is correct. May even have an outline of Del Monte in my foot. It'll be an interesting story. The tile/flooring lady came today as well, measuring and looking at our horribly messed up house and gave me hope that we may see the other side of this remodel. She and Copper made friends and I really think Copper wanted to leave with her. Maybe next time. Currently, the hub is trying to get comfortable on the couch and I am about to go cut up a pound cake for Easter dessert tomorrow. I need to check to ice cream goo and see if it is cooling down nicely for making homemade ice cream tomorrow. Our adopted Nigerian nephew, Abraham, is in for Easter and he has never had homemade ice cream. I think that is a crime in some countries. We will remedy that tomorrow.

With all the hunts and eggs and soccer aside, I look forward to worship and songs and celebrating the miracle of our risen Jesus. It is such a powerful day and one of my favorite services with all the wonderful hymns. I hope your Easter Sunday will be one of joy and excitement and family and faith. "He arose, he arose, hallelujah Christ arose!


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Egg-stra egg-citing

The kids were out today for the start of Easter break. I'll take it. They live the life...got to sleep in, watch TV and have a special breakfast out...good stuff. We did have to do some unfun things like go to the store and clean our rooms, but the work makes the fun that much better. After a less than ideal trip to the dog park in which S was completely taken down and out by two sprinting dogs, we determined that the kids need to stay on the bench when the dogs are running so fast. One bruised back and scraped arm later:



...I think she may go into the fetal position if she ever goes there again. A half rabid hound of hell named Fitz terrorized all the dogs at the park today. He was supposed to be in the little dog area, but of course his owner said, "In his head he's a big dog." Okay...so he's delusional as well. S tried her absolute best not to cry out of her pain and embarrassment. I told her to go ahead. It was a brutal fall. To make up for it, and the fear that the other two kids experienced at the dog park, there were Sonic slushes and egg decorating for the victims. I tried Alton Brown's method for oven hard cooked eggs. I hate boiling them because they rattle around and get all cracked. This was interesting:



I was very pleased and surprised with the results:



The decorated eggs will be good for pickling or egg salad here in a few days. But for today, they were palettes for the family. Armed with Paas Paints and the Williams-Sonoma chalkboard painted egg kit, the kids got to work on their masterpieces.



Forgive the dust mop and old school baby gate in the background. A shedding dog who likes to try and eat my cook books makes both necessary.

A pretty decent day for the kids I think considering dog park trauma and being made to clean on a day off. Tomorrow is another soccer Saturday. let's hope no trauma is to be found there. For the love of everything...
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The diagonals started today

April showers bring May flowers, but they also bring tall grass when working together with super weed and seed that the landscaper put on our lawn not too long ago. My sweet and kind husband hired a lanscaper friend to do the first mow/weed/mulch of the Spring a few weeks ago and it was wonderful. Since then, with every rain the grass has thickened and become for luxurious with every rain. He accomplished in one treatment what blasted Scott's failed to do in a whole summer. When going barefoot, it feels like walking on soft velvet. Last year's lawn, in spite of my every effort(and they were considerable), made you feel compelled to check the bottoms of your feet to see if they were bleeding. Today was the day that I had to bring the trusty Honda out of its hibernation and jerk it back to life by its string. It resisted, but after receiving a drink of gasoline, it sputtered and coughed back to life. The dog was going quackerdog inside...she had never heard the mower before. Because I am a creature of habit and OCD to boot, I carefully mowed our front rectangularish lawn with diagonals. Gots to have the diagonals. Our neighbor who is a funny guy drove by and said, "I see the diagonals are back...it must be Spring!". Okay, so I am predictable, but the lawn looks lovely all green and thick. It just had its weekly haircut and spa treatment. And I learned the fastest way in the world to fill up my sinus cavity in less than two hours: run the mower into a spread of bushes on accident and watch a large puff of yellow poof out and then flutter down like evil fairy dust. I actually sneezed out yellow dust this afternoon. Classy. Living the East Tennessee dream.


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Sudafeding it

In our fair state, as is always the case, a few people have to ruin things for everybody else. Since I have fallen prey to the "Pollen Vortex", I have been searching for the most effective elixir to restore me to my clear headed self. Medications and I have a weird relationship. I take the minimum dosage required and my body reacts like I have consumed half the bottle. Makes the medicine go far, that's for sure. Yesterday I felt my head filling up with goo- every nook and cranny occupied by evil pollen sludge. I took my Curious George meds once again, very much pleased with their results, except that I woke this morning to solidified sludge in my head and a voice that rivaled a mixture of Harvey Fierstein and Peter Brady when his voice changed. The children had a field day with my new sound, asking me to say different words or sing different songs only to collapse in hysterics at the results. Admitting defeat, I made a painful purchase this morning. Mucinex-D...Mucinex with Sudafed in it. In our state, you have to do everything short of a full body cavity search to purchase the stuff. "Ma'am? You just need to give me your license...and check yes to agree...and sign the line...and let me see your license again to scan it." Me, smiling: "Do you need a urine sample too?". She sent a smirk to show she was not amused. Too many dingy houses and run down mobile homes that double as meth labs ruining it for the rest of us. I took the recommended dosage and began my day. A couple of hours at the office felt like I was walking through a bottle of hair gel...gloopy and slow. Why people need to cook it into something else is beyond me. I barely made it through the day in a coherent manner. Now that it is wearing off, I can feel my head slowly filling up again. I think I may have to wear a mask to mow the lawn tomorrow. Mucinex-D won't cut it. The automatic nose sucker at the hospital will be in my future. Let's hope it moves out over night, otherwise you will see me mowing the lawn in an expressionless fog tomorrow. Bring a lawn chair and some popcorn. It might be entertaining.


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Weird, weird day

After a successful sleep night(my Curious Greorge prediction came true), I got up a bit groggy but rested. I got the three musketeers to school with relative ease and returned home for a tiny little cat nap before going to work. This was a rare Tuesday when I did not have a staff meeting, so my schedule was a little more flexible. When I finally went to work, Murphy's law went into effect and the monsoons arrived. Blowing wind and chilly rain and I can't find my umbrella. Oh well. My office was somewhat warm and I went to work on some paperwork and organizing that was long overdue. Now remember, yesterday we were out in the yard playing fetch with the dog, the kids in shorts and tshirts. I heard the screeching of tires, so I looked out my window in the church's "historic district" to find that there was snow coming down from the sky. Yes, Wisconsin Family, you may insert your chuckles here. If the Pollen Vortex wasn't odd enough, the snow certainly was. I danced down the hall to tthe office humming "Let It Snow" while coworkers snarled and said, "Heaven forbid" under their breath. I like to mess with their heads from time to time. I attended a midday Holy Week service and had a nice warm and comforting lunch afterwards. Just a pleasant, but oddly weathered, Tuesday. The youngers got in the car with few stories of their day, so we sang a few songs and took a broken shoe to the repairman to get fixed. Then S called, sounding quite winded and alarmed, and asked me to come get her because her teachers were worried and wanted her to come home. Great. Luckily it was only five minutes to dismissal, so I got my spot and waited for her to come out. Then what to my wandering eyes did appear, but S and her math/homeroom teacher walking to the car. This was a shocker for several reasons. It did alarm me a bit more knowing he walked her out due to his concern with her condition. I am grateful for his care during this weird event. I think she gave him a scare. Every time I think she is almost completely back from her health crisis of a year ago, something else bizarre pops up. I know she panics, not wanting to travel down this road yet another time.

Oh well. For now all three are resting. I am watching The Godfather II and the hub is doing work. I pray for the restored health of our oldest and the continued health of the others. It's never dull around here.


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