Time Out

I'm having a 'staycation.' At least that's what the folks at P's daycare are telling me. I'm taking the week off and have pulled both kids out of day camp and day care, we're not getting on a plane or a long drive anywhere, and we are going to have a blast! We're having 'cousin camp'! I'm very excited.

Today, we are driving over to my brother and sister-in-law's house and will be playing with their three kids and with her sister's three kids as well. That makes, count them, EIGHT children under the age of nine under one roof. Or rather, in the garden, in the park, up and down the stairs and everywhere! Us mommies will be hanging out while the kids have a blast, hopefully only having to act as occasional referees and band-aid appliers.

Tomorrow, everyone comes to our house. On Wednesday, we go on a field trip. Thursday, it's off to the third house and on Friday it's back to my brother's for a housewarming/birthday/Fourth of July party. How fun! Especially since all the hubbies have Friday off from work too. I really love having my family close by.

Birthday Wishes

Today was D's 8th birthday party. We lit the candles on his cake, sang the song and, then, uttered those familiar words, "Make a wish!"

I wonder what he wished for. The answer probably revolves around a Nintendo DS*. But I got to thinking about wishes and how, sometimes, we wish for the moon, knowing that we will most likely not get what we want but we wish anyway, just in case.

What would I want? I do believe that it would be a teleportation device, so that I could see the people that I love that live so very far away, whenever I wanted to. Wouldn't that be awesome?

I don't know if this will ever exist outside of science fiction. I'll keep wishing anyway, just in case.

*The DS? We've struck a deal with D. If he can earn half of the money needed to pay for a new one, we'll come up with the second half.

Made it!

It was a long weekend but I made it through. With the help of a superbly timed birthday party and a visit to my brother's new house (He's HERE! His whole family is finally here!), Saturday and Sunday went by without my going bonkers or passing out from exhaustion. I must say that I really do appreciate being healthy when something like the common cold knocks me down. I'm so grateful that I am recovered and that it didn't have me down for long. Makes me think of those illnesses where you get sick and you stay sick. It's very sobering.

M is back, D is done with second grade, P has moved up into the next room at his daycare (making this his SIXTH classroom there!) and we have 10 weeks of summer vacation in front of us.

Yay!

Who's That Whining?

Oh wait, it's me.

M is off to Virginia for five days to represent the four of us at our niece's high school graduation. It's great because it's a wonderful celebration and a happy reunion time for the three brothers.

However...

I have a cold. Yes, a standard head cold. Yes, the kind I've had before and will no doubt have again. The kind that saps your strength and leaves your nose red and chapped, your throat scratchy, your lips dry and your head feeling like it's been hit with a three pound hammer.

I want *my* mommy.

It is now 5:38 pm and I am counting down the minutes until bedtime when I can get the boys into bed, take a dose of NyQuil and go to sleep. But first I have to rustle up some dinner.

Waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaah!

Definitely Not Ready for the Home Gardening Network

Sometimes, I fancy myself a gardener. I love planting flowers in the garden, seeing how they brighten up the planters and the view.

Sometimes, I realize that I really don't know what on earth I'm doing.

Yesterday afternoon, M had turned over the little patch of earth right in front of our house, making it ready for me to put in the petunias and diathus that I'd picked up at the store. Now you'll need to know that our earth is pretty much 100% clay - NOT well-draining, hard as a rock when dry.

I must amend this soil. I will add some of the Soil Buster that we've got in the shed and that will help make it better draining.

So, I mixed in what I thought was an appropriate amount and started turning the mix with the shovel. This led to the inevitable clouds of dust in the air.

Too dusty. Let's add some water so that I don't inhale all this stuff.

Luckily, I had P to help me out. He held the hose and I mixed. He added water and more water and more water. And the water was not draining. So I turned off the flow and kept on mixing. And pretty soon, I had a nice slurry that was the consistency and color of...CONCRETE!!!!

Yipes! What was I doing? Constructing the next Hollywood Walk of Fame? All it needed was some smoothing over and it would be ready for my foot and handprints.

HEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLPPPPPPPPPPPP!

Husband to the rescue. First, the "I-can't-believe-what-you-just-did" look, then the grin, then he got out a little board and actually smoothed it over, saying, "This should be cured by tomorrow morning." Very funny.

And then he actually helped and poured in half a giant bag of garden soil, handed me the shovel with some words of encouragement and headed back inside. I tried to blend it all together and then dug some holes for the plants. P stuffed them in, I covered them up and watered them and crossed my fingers.

They're either going to grow or not. If they don't, I'll assume that they're all wearing concrete boots. For now, they still look quite pretty.

My Kids Crack Me Up

I've been meaning to write these down before they slip my memory.

"Mama, what are eyebrows for? They're hairy."

"Do mosquitoes bite ducks?"

Also, have I mentioned their obsession with the word 'b*tt'? Yes, it's quite delightful.

Sigh.

The boys are quite inventive. This has led to improvisation on songs that we know and love. We now hear:

Mary Had A Little B*tt
Baa, Baa B*tt Cheek

Who's that Star Wars character that's the son of Darth Vader?

You got it: Luke B*ttwalker.

Somebody save me from 4 and 8 year old boys!

26:17.01

It's not my fastest time, it's not my slowest. But it was today's time for my usual 2.5 mile loop and it felt GREAT!

The wind was in my face.
The sun was on my shoulders.
The blue sky was above my head.
Music was in my ears.
My knees felt great.
My breathing was easy.
I had the rhythm and I could have kept going, and going, and going.

This is why I run.