The Puddles

No it is not Christmas!  It’s Holy Week.  By the end of the week, we will drop dead from exhaustion, especially Chris.  This is not only Holy Week but the last weekend of Girl Scout cookies (which includes a final booth sale today which I said that I would never do) and the first week of practice for Ben (baseball) and Madie (soccer).  It is not like we didn’t have a busy week already.  Sunday is the bake sale for the campers.  I didn’t bake yet (didn’t need to pass on my tummy germs) because I need to disinfect the kitchen first.  That is today along with a booth sale for four hours.  Tomorrow is Palm Sunday, bake sale, round up the last stragglers for their cookie money, and setting up for the Prayer Path.  Busy. Busy. Busy.

The only person totally excited about the booth sale is Madie.   She was dressed and ready this morning in her uniform.  She is ready!  We have only 100 boxes to sell!!!!!  I am determined.  We will do it.  (Positive thinking.  Got to keep it positive!)

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The stomach bug that two of the kids have been suffering from finally visited me yesterday.  Too many irons in the fire, not enough sleep, and unhealthy amount of stress has created havoc on my immunity system.  I will be glad when this is over.

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Well.  The weak minded men and women who voted for the health care bill have forever changed the course of history to one of less freedom and more burden on our children.  That makes me very sad.

Madie asks me at dinner last night. “Mommy, did they pass the bill yet?”

“Not yet, but it looks like it is going to.”

“Oh noooo.  Do I have to start paying for it today?  Or do I have to wait until I get a job?”  (I told her that this decision would forever  burden her and her children.  They would have to pay the debt that their forefathers created. Nothing but honesty in this house.  I have taught her well.  This makes me happy.)

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I am glad that we have a month to deliver all of Madie’s Girl Scout cookies, but I have one week left and still have several people to deliver cookies to.  I HATE delivering cookies.  I try not to use that word, but must do so in this instance.  I love Girl Scout cookies.  I love to sell them.  I love to eat them.  I HATE to deliver them.  Truthfully, I don’t mind delivering most of the cookies.  I just really really dislike the tail end cookie deliveries.  The ones where you have already been to the house twice and they are still not home.  I am this close to putting all of the left over cookies in the back of my car and selling them door to door from the trunk of the car. At least they would be gone and I would have all of the bajillion dollars  that I owe turned in.

Madie actually told me today that she wanted to sell 1000 boxes next year.  I told her, “NO WAY!”  I am still delivering cookies from this sale and she wants to talk about the next year’s sale.  Next year I will have two Girl Scouts in the family.  I am already stressed out thinking about it.

Today I made all three kids go with me to deliver.  At least today was an adventure.  It was really chilly.  But we loaded up the wagon and put on several layers of clothes and set off.  By the time we got to the last house Ainsley was freezing. Her nose of cherry red and she just wanted to go inside and stay at that person’s home.  She had no desire to go any further.  She cried going down the street that she needed another blanket and if we couldn’t just stay at the last house could we at least borrow a blanket for her to cover up with???!!!  You should have looked at her puppy eyes.  Boy, I feel sorry for her husband one day.  I had a hard time saying no.  But that’s my job! So I told her, “No.  Tough it out.  We will be home soon.”  I know.  Mean mommy. But at least I said it with a kiss and smile. So we went as fast as we could to get back home to a nice warm house.  Luckily Dad came in the driveway about that time and we sent him out with Madie to deliver the rest of the cookies.  Thank you Daddy!!  I was not looking forward to dragging Ainsley back out into the cold.  If she would ride her scooter like Ben or walk like Madie she wouldn’t be so cold.  But Ainsley is Ainsley and once she gets something in her head . . .

But the cookies will soon be finished and we can work on the next project. Or as I like to call it.  “The albatross around my neck!”  You know those projects that you really don’t have any desire to do so you keep putting them off but they keep following you around cursing all of the projects that maybe you would prefer to do.  Something like that.

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I was awoken abruptly this morning by Ainsley announcing that she had to throw up.  Those two words always get me up quickly.  I grabbed her and ran to the bathroom where she refused to throw up in the toilet.  I grabbed a trash can where she could finally throw up.  Poor thing.  She hates throwing up.  I mean it is like a battle of the will with her.  Her body says yes but her mind says “NO WAY!”

So now I am desperately praying that this is a one time thing.  So far no fever. I can only hope!  I am taking the entire Girl Scout troop to a play tomorrow and I am counting on Chris driving so we have enough drivers and seats for everyone to go.  So cross my fingers!

Ben was sick last weekend so we all could have guessed that this was coming.  There is no way that we could avoid this illness from spreading.  It is just not in our DNA to keep things to ourselves that way. So now it is up to Ainsley’s poor little body to decide whether or not it is finished.  I can only hope.

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Panning for gold

Passing the rattlesnack

Ben's out!

Eating hotdogs and chili

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The kids attempted to make the slide into a waterslide.  I wouldn’t help, because (being a Texas girl) I did think that 62 degrees was still just too cold for me to get wet.  My yankee children thought otherwise and tried to do it.  It got them very wet and they even got chilly and quit trying to do it.  Instead decided to use their wet bodies to get dirty.  I hate cleaning the bathtubs after all of that. Yuck!  But worth it!  So much fun!

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I just read my last post again and the last thing I wrote sounded like the Seven Dwarfs heading off to work in the mines.  Except they sounded much happier.

Sigh.  This is Chris’s day to worry so I am busy trying to get stuff done.  Now if you walked into my house today, you would say, “Katherine.  What have you done all day ?  Bonbons and soaps again?”  Seriously that is what our home looks like.  Like a tornado hit.  (Well I guess I do have three miniature tornados in the house. No . . .  Make that three miniature tornados and one F5.) But tons of things were accomplished today.  Most of which was not cleaning the house.  Tonight I will work diligently to get things picked up so that tomorrow we can spend the day outside.  It is suppose to be the last pretty day of spring break.  Today it was . . . (to my fellow citizens above the Red River please disregard the following.  it will only depress you!!!)

70 degrees and no humidity with tons of sunshine.  Gorgeous.  I truly believe that this is what God has ordered up paradise to be like.  So I plan on enjoying the day as much as possible.  Or at least force the kids to be outside all day in it.  I am such a cruel mommy (Insert insane cackling here.)!

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That is what it can feel like on most days. You know that feeling. When all you can do is the bare minimum of human function.  If you dare try to feel something, all of the emotions come bubbling up to the surface and start to overwhelm you.  Sometimes it can truly stink being an adult.  Adult worries can seem so huge.  We seem stressed about everything . . . life, church, home.  There is always something that crops up that gets moved to the stop of the list pushing everything else down a notch to be done later.  Stress. Stress. Stress. Worry. Worry. Worry.  Vicious cycle.  Chris says that we cannot both worry at the same time.  We have to take turn or nothing gets done.  So he has volunteered to take the first shift.  Thank goodness.

Luckily these moments are fleeting and do not succumb us.  Good.  Because there are children to be hugged, laundry to be done, and meals to prepare.  So off to work we go.

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Why go to Fry’s of course! Fry’s is the super store of all things electronic. There is enough things there to make both me and Chris happy. I wouldn’t be surprised if they sold vaccum tubes. 60 plus aisles of stuff doesn’t make for a great place to take kids so only date night it is!!!

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