The Puddles

1. Wake up at 6:00am to get to the grocery store and back before Chris leaves for work at 8:30am. √
2. Have Chris comment about the amount of groceries by asking me if I left anything in the store for other people. √
3. Feed everyone breakfast and then start to unpack all of the groceries.  √
4. Put away all of the groceries, clean kitchen, finish laundry, and other household chores.√
5. Allow Madie to go on a walk with Hank around the neighborhood.  √
6. Implement  the neighborhood watch (a.k.a. The Finkes) to make sure they were home in case something bad happened to Madie she had a safe place to go. (They are at the half way point of her walk).√
7. Worry for an hour while Madie is out walking with the dog. √√√ √√√ √√√ √√√ √√√ √√√ √√√
8. Watch Santa’s elves feed the reindeer on Live Cam from the North Pole.  √
9. Let Ben build a Santa alarm (you should read the plans).
10. Convince Ben that stringing wire throughout the house in order to alert Ben that Santa has arrived is NOT a good idea.√
11. Practice reading Bible readings with Madie for tonight’s church service.  √
12. Take baths in the middle of the afternoon and get dressed for church.  √
13. Get myself ready. √
14. Make it to church on time. (That one didn’t happen.)
15. Get to church only to realize that the first and second lesson isn’t included in the service, so Madie is not reading that night.  √
16. Rush Ainsley to the bathroom in the middle of worship after the glow stick that they gave the children exploded all over her.  √
17. Convince Ainsley that I can wash the glow stick out of her dress after we get home.  √
18. Daddy tells Madie that she can read the gospel during the 7:00pm service to make up for the miscommunication at the 4:00pm service.√
19. Take the annual Christmas picture of the kids all dressed up. √
20. Run to the store on the way home to buy one last present from the kids to “someone” in the family.√
21. Go and see Christmas lights on the way home.  √
22. Bake cookies for Santa.  √
23. Prepare plate for Santa and reindeer.  √
24. Write letters to Santa.  √
25. Print a picture of the family for Santa to take back to the North Pole  with him (This was Ben’s idea. He wanted to give Santa a present too).  √
26. Clean up the glass jar that Ainsley broke on the fire place when she tried to climb up the cabinets to get the book.  √
27. Read “Twas the Night before Christmas.”  √
28. Have wishes to harm sister for texting me that she was completely finish wrapping presents and was ready for bed at 9:00pm.  √
29. Call NORAD. √
30. Send the kids to bed delighted with life especially Ben and Ainsley (who kept shouting after we got off the phone with NORAD, “Mom. Go to bed!!!  Call Dad!!! Tell him to come in quietly in case Santa is already in the living room.”).√
31. Make coffee. √
32. Give Madie more medicine to help her feel better so that she will sleep (she has a cold.).√
33. Wait for kids to go to sleep. √
34. Wrap ALL of the presents.√
35. Hope Chris gets home quickly from the 11:00pm service.  √
36. Go to bed at a decent hour.

This is a good list and I think we accomplished most of it!  My bed is calling my name . . . so until tomorrow!   I hope the kids remember how to make mommy coffee.  I think I am going to need it!!

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It seems if we don’t have Sunday school to get us up and moving, we have a really hard time making it to church on time.  Shame on us.  This mortifying act is especially embarrassing since we traditionally sit in the front row at church.  So you know when we are missing . . . or late.

Today we got up on time. We were ready to go, but we stopped and had a tea party.  Yes. A tea party.  Ainsley had set up this wonderful tea party in her room last night.  She expected us to attend the party last night, but we just didn’t get all of our chores done in time.  So I had promised that we could do it Sunday morning since we didn’t have Sunday school due to the Christmas break.  I had promptly forgot my promise until this morning when Miss A bonds up to me and says, “I can’t wait for our tea party this morning!!  I am going to go get ready quick so we can get started.”  Ugh. I had forgotten.  But with that sweet smile and the skipping down the hall to get dressed, how could I turn her down?  You can’t.

So Madie, Ainsley, and I had a cup of tea with Ainsley’s daughter.  Complete with a recorder recital from Ainsley, crowns, and pleasant conversation.  It was magical as always.  So I know that most of the people at church who saw us slink in the back door thought we were just being lazy and not able to get up on time (or they didn’t notice at all which is probably closer to the truth.)  We were late because we were having a magical and glorious and fabulous tea party.  The Puddles are growing up so fast and I know that there won’t be many more years of this and that makes me sad. These moments are the best part of getting to be a mom, and I am truly grateful for that.

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“Mom, do you know how cold it is outside?”

“No, how cold?”

“It’s so cold when I went to pick my nose all I got were icicles.”

That is just  lovely (sarcasm). So Gross and so boy.

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I stayed up to late making cookies (22 packages of cookies for Ben’s class to be exact).  I intended to get up early to finish getting everything ready for today but my body wouldn’t do it after only 4 hours of sleep.  So I got up late and hurried to get everything finished and ready. They all have everything that they need in their backpacks and they are dressed, but their hot breakfast was handed to them as they walked out the door and I didn’t double check that they matched (Ben walked out with a tall sock and a short sock on Tuesday.  I did catch that one.) or that their hair was brushed.

Of course, they all left late.  Then there was  me . . . Me in my pajamas running to the truck trying to get Chris’ attention before he runs over Madie’s lunch that she left in the driveway.  Chris getting upset that they are running late. Me walking in the house only to realize that Chris left his briefcase in the house, and then me running out the front door to try to catch Chris and give him his briefcase before he drove down the street.  And doing this on laundry day meaning that I ran to the public street in my ratty pajamas for the world to see.  Ugh.  I was running and praying that no one would drive down the street at that time, but that of course didn’t happen so I’m sure I was quite the sight this morning for ALL of my neighbors to see (including both neighbors who live down the street who were driving to work at that exact moment).

These are not the memories I want to remember in 20 years, but they are the reality of my life sometimes.  The laws of nature only allow this kind of morning to happen on the days that I am not dressed and ready to go before the kids.  So I can either lament about the morning or chalk it up to one of those days.   I’m choosing to chalk it up to one of those days.  So in the words of Scarlett O’Hara, “After all . . . tomorrow is another day!”  (Just say that line out loud with a southern accent while crying about your lost love for whom you hope to win back and you will get the sentiment!)  I think I just might crawl back into bed for a few minutes and restart my day.  Hopefully my new day will start better than this one!

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Ben and I are driving home and he says, “Mom, we need to eat something out of a can tonight for dinner so that we can try out your new can opener.”

“Good idea, Ben.  But there is salt in canned goods. I’m going to have to think about what to fix.”

“Mom, corn doesn’t have salt in it.  That sounds good to eat!”

So Ben and I came home and pulled out the new can opener.  Some one anonymously gifted me with a Tupperware can opener this weekend.  I have no idea who did, but I am so excited about it.  My current can opener (which is in the trash) is horrible.  I argue more with it and the children know to leave the room if I have to pull it out.  The lids never come off nicely.  Usually I’m pulling out some tool to pry the lid to the can open after I have cut it with the can opener.   This tool is so cool.  And it worked so nicely!!  We ate a lot of corn that night because I had to open several cans for the shear joy of it!  The best part of the evening was while I read the instructions, Ben managed to open the first can shouting, “It’s a miracle!”

So to whomever sent me the lovely can opener . . . thank you!  

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Ben is enjoying lunch in the new cafeteria in the new wing at TCH.  Ever since it opened, Ben and I look forward to eating something new there each time we visit for an appointment!  Today’s visit was with the hypertensive clinic.  The nurse took his vitals when we first walked in and Ben’s blood pressure was 86/39.  That’s not good.  I asked the nurse to take it again because he has never gone that low.  She did and the second time his blood pressure was 94/42.  A little better, but these numbers meant Ben had to stay longer while the doctor listen to each limb and rechecked his blood pressures multiple times.  When the doctor took his pressures the numbers were in the normal range again.  The doctor increased his meds last month and she was concerned that his pressures were too low now.  No worries.  There was a fault with the equipment or something.

So his numbers are looking so good  (when you add all of the daily numbers that we report to her each week) that she is going to talk to the cardiologist to see about weaning Ben off of one of his heart meds.  Hopefully Ben’s cardiologist will say yes and that will be one less medicine for Ben to consume each morning.  It was a good visit with his doctor and Ben did great with his blood draw so we got to head home earlier than we expected.   It was a good day.

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“Mom, you give the best hugs!” declares Ben.

“Really?”

“Yeah, yours are better than everyone else’s!”

Thanks Ben for making my day.

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Granted she was sick but I still had to take her in public to deliver children to their activities that afternoon. Crazy! But she loved it!!!

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She brought tears to my eyes listening to her. She sounds great! I can’t wait to hear her performance on Friday!

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