The Puddles

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I am by myself tonight for Madie’s slumber party (Chris is at a meeting tonight and in the morning).  I can’t find Ben.  After the first girl arrived he went and decided to hide out somewhere (I can’t say I blame him.). And Ainsley is stalking the older girls.  She stays about 10 feet away from them and looks at them with sad puppy dog eyes.  When one of them looks her way, she says, “See this face. It’s sad because I have no friends and no one will play with me.”  (I told her that this is Madie’s night and she had to stay away from the older girls.)

This is going to be rough.

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If you have never meet my youngest, she is truly a girly-girl. She likes her dresses that twirl, bows that match, and shoes.  I never really understood this until last night when we went through her closet to get it ready for the school year.  You know the process . . . pull out the clothes that don’t fit, seperate the playclothes and the ones that she is allowed to wear to school, winter clothes are put on one side summer clothes on the other, etc.  After pulling out all of the shoes that no longer fit, she has over 20 pairs of shoes.  That’s more than me!!!  And what six year old needs that many?  Apparently she does.  When I told her that she had too  many shoes, she told me that she needed all of them.  Black dress shoes, white dress shoes, brown sandals, white sandals, flip flops, flower shoes, cowboy boots and on and on.  She had a story behind every set of shoes and what she will wear with each one.

Sigh. At least they are organized and ready to go for the school year.  I am just lamenting the future with her.  How am I going to afford her when she is 16?

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you will never order delivery pizza again.  It was really good.  New friends at church came and showed a small (but awesome) group of people how to make homemade pizza.  He even taught us to make the homemade dough and the differences between baking the pizza on a cast iron pan,perforated pan, pizza stone, and regular.  Boy was there a difference.  The kids had a good time.  I had a good time. It was really cool learning all that pizza information ( like the history). Did you know that Italy has a commission to regulate pizza?  I learned a lot.  Our tummies were full when we rolled out to the car.  I told the kids that I expected fresh pizza every week since they were now authorities on the subject!

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We packed. We cleaned. We drove home.  We unloaded the truck. We ate lunch. Then Madie and I packed a few items and headed to Grandma G’s house.  Grandma had a medical test that forced her to lay absolutely flat for 24 hours after the test.  Grandma never sits still.  So we showed up to make sure that she behaved herself and did what the doctor told her to do.  I brought the granddaughter with me (who volunteered for this mission) because Grandma may find it easy to tell her daughter no, but I doubt she could defy her granddaughter.  The bonus of the mission is that we got to hang out with Papa and Grandpa while spending some time together as mother/daughter.  We are going to hang out much of today.  Then Ben and Ainsley will join us in the afternoon when Chris drops them off on his way to do a shift as a volunteer EMT.  His last hurrah before facing reality again. Hopefully Grandma will be feeling better and we’ll be able to go home tonight, but if not, we’ll spend the night.  Then we go home to totally unpack and wash the mounds and mounds of laundry.  Washing the salt off of everything and the laundry will take the better part of the rest of weekend.  Then we spend our last week of summer getting ready to go back to school. Ugh! So glad we had last week!

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The morning started early when all of the cousins showed up to get a beachside portrait for Grandma (shh!). Then swimming, beach combing for sand dollars(thank you Aunt Michelle), eating, playing board games, and ended with very tired goodbyes. It was wonderful. After everyone left we went and swam until the sun went down.

It is our last full day of vacation. I am sitting on the beach typing this entry(got to love technology) and watching the kids frolic in the waves with Dad. I love the feeling that doing meaningful yet not structured or scheduled activities with your family gives you. God knows when you need respite from doing His work. I truly hope that this week as given us enough “food” for His journey. I know that the road ahead of us is going to hard and heavy laden and I am grateful that I will have this week to pull strength from to get through it all.

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