The Puddles

Yes. And today was the day.  After a rough start this morning, I threw in the towel and gave up trying to accomplish anything productive around the house and just play.  So we had a kid focused day (minus the dinner*).  The first day of the year was spent trying to accomplish great things, but by the end of the day it was all about having a good time.  (Minus the dinner.*)  We invited the neighbors over for a twilight party. No, I don’t mean the movie by the same title.  A party where friends come over and you do all of things that you normally do at a slumber party except sleep over.  So we played games (Twister. Way funny!). Dressed up in all sorts of costumes (at one point Ben and Sonijha were stealthily creeping up the stairs armed with weapons, badges, and binoculars). Ate as much popcorn as we could consume and watched a movie.  All in all a good night (minus the dinner*).  Madie cried  when everyone went home, but Chris assures me that it is because she didn’t want everyone to leave.

Chris took Ainsley with him to fix someone’s computer, so the older siblings had the benefit of not having the younger sibling around to impede on their play.  Very important at 6 and 8 years old.  My laundry is still not done nor is the numerous other chores that needed to happen, but in the end everyone is happy.

*Special note . . . It is New Year’s Day. So dinner is sausage, sauerkraut, and black-eyed peas. The kids hate it every year and yet I force one bite of each item before they leave the table.  I have eaten this meal every Jan. 1 for as long as I can remember.  It is our family’s good luck for the new year meal.  I always thought that it was just my family, but apparently it is a southern tradition.  Trust me.  Finding black-eyed peas in Ohio and Nebraska for ten years had been difficult.   But I’m too scared to break tradition.  (What if what I thought was a bad year really turned out to be a good year?  And I only found out because I didn’t do my good luck meal this year.)  Chris says I need to remember my Christianity and to not rely so much on luck and to pray more.  Sure.  I’ll add it to my resolution list this year.  Just one more thing that I need to remember to do. ” Knock on wood” that I’ll remember to do it. Shoot.  I need to throw some salt over my shoulder to get rid of the bad luck for forgetting to not rely on luck . . . Oh, I give up.