On my housekeeping skills:
While Morgan was at preschool on Friday I vacuumed the house. She came home, took one look, and said, "Whoa! What happened to the carpet?!?"
Is a clean floor really that much of a novelty? My head is hung in shame.
Since I need some validation every so often, here are some additional jobs I did Friday.
changed and washed the sheets on the downstairs beds
cleaned the bathrooms
washed the towels
swept and mopped the floors
washed the sliding glass door
scrubbed several surfaces in the kitchen, including the fridge, dishwasher, oven, sink, pantry door, walls, baseboards, and back of the stove
re-mopped portions of the kitchen and entry after the kids came home from school with muddy shoes
organized the food storage
fixed dinner
If you were curious, I did not get a shower.
Jeremy and I are enjoying this stage in our family right now. One of the best parts is that the kids are old enough for us to leave for chunks of time while we go out and party hearty. Ironically, just as we are reaching this coveted stage, the kids are also old enough that they have multiple activities pulling us in different directions, making date nights difficult to arrange. But we shall persevere and overcome!
To celebrate Valentine's last night, we decided to just get some take out to eat when the kids were in bed. But the complications of this plan became apparent when we outlined the evening's activities. Aiden had to be at basketball practice from 6-7. Marissa had dance from 6:45-7:45. In between all this there was homework and practicing to enforce. It was also bath night. And then bedtime is usually staggered from about 8 until after 10 most days. Take out wasn't sounding like such a great idea after all.
Did I already mention that we shall overcome? I applied my thinking cap and realized that if we got one of Aiden's teammates to bring him home from practice, Jeremy and I could go together to drop Marissa off at dance and then head to one of our town's fine dining establishments for a meal.
Herein lies another kink in our not-so-well-laid plans. Our town has almost no options for a decent meal. We have an assortment of fast food, which would work for our time constraints, but the food snob in me asserted itself against Burger King, et. al., for Valentine's. That left about 2 other choices. We stopped at one, saw the waiting line, and knew that wouldn't work. That's when we remembered another little restaurant down the way: a BBQ joint called Sean's. Plumb out of feasible alternatives and running out of time, we skipped on over. I ordered a beef brisket sandwich on Texas toast with a side of sweet potato fries and sampled the Black and Blue [blueberries and blackberries] BBQ sauce. Jeremy tried the triple threat, a combination sandwich with pulled pork, ham, and bacon. He got steak fries on the side but kept stealing mine. May I say that I am completely won over? I have been thinking about that sandwich ever since. Even now, I think I'm drooling just a little. And to top it off, the timing was perfect. We licked our fingers and arrived back at the dance studio with a few minutes to spare.
It may not have been leisure or well thought out or highly romantic, but Jeremy and I made it a delightful and delicious Valentine's speed date. The very best part, I must add, was the company. Happy Valentine's day to my friend and true love!
Part I: The other night for family home evening we played a trivia game called Beat the Parents. I was highly amused [or should I be worried?] by a few of the answers the kids came up with.
Q: What is the date of American Independence Day?
A: February 29th!
Q: What is the date of Valentine's Day?
A: February 29th!
Q: In which country were the first Olympic Games held?
A: California!
Q: What is a doctor for children called?
A: Dr. Suess?
A: A vegetarian!
Good times and laughter shared by all. And I would like to wish our country a happy 59th birthday this year. [Yes, I am nerd enough that I did the math.]
Part II: Caleb had his first Klondike campout with the Scouts last weekend. I did my motherly best to make sure he had everything he needed and tried to convince him I was just doing my job by harassing him with questions:
"Do you have your hat?"
"Do you have extra socks?"
"Did you get your long johns?"
"What else do you want in your lunch?"
"Do you have your gloves?"
"Which gloves did you bring?"
"How about your toothbrush?"
"Are you sure you have your hat?"
"Am I bothering you yet?"
Well, he came home exhausted but in one piece, all fingers and toes accounted for. But he had to play a basketball game later that evening, and based on his dazed, sluggish stupor, I foresaw disaster. I'm not sure what happened, but he ended up having his best game yet. Not only did he score more points than usual, but he got loads of rebounds, hustled all over the place, and even made a break-away layup. Where did that come from? We joked that maybe he should sleep on the ground in the snow before every basketball game. Proud mom, beaming just a little.
Aiden was playing Pacman on the Playstation today and said incredulously,
"Mom, it's AMAZING! These games were made in the 1990s. . . and they're still fun!"
Remarkable!
Other randomness. . . Morgan has been nesting lately. She found my stash of Easter eggs and has been building little nests of blankets and pillows all over the house. I found her watching t.v. the other day perched atop one of her nests, and she gave me a little peek at the colorful assortment of eggs she was incubating. Then a little while later she came soaring through the kitchen, flapping her arms, and said, "I'm teaching my little ones how to fly." My little ones. Ha, ha!
