not just another cold overcast morning...

No, this is a special day! It is the day that the Lord has made! It doesn't FEEL special. It feels like the very sort of day one would take for granted, or even grumble about. Snowing again, damp, muddy. But do any of us know how many days we have? Surely we can't write off today as Just Another Day!

Samuel 17, Margaret 16, Kathryn 14, Evelyn 13, Suzanne 11, Sonja 10, Jonathan 8, Charlotte Claire 6, and Camille 5, all went to school today. Our morning was peaceful, no breakfast spills on school clothes, no forgotten homework that was remembered and completed in a rush, lunches were made, and I so nicely sent notes with the three youngest that I would pick them up in the afternoon, to spare them the almost hour-long bus ride. (Camille has gotten too smart, she asks to be picked up before she even gets out of her nice warm bed in the morning...how can I say no?)

Kathryn and Suzanne are going to walk to Emily's after school, her new house is in the village. Emily is amazing, I might add. She has had some help, but she is fixing up that old house! They ripped out old carpet from all the bedrooms upstairs(4), and have installed new wood flooring in three of them. They have sanded and painted, and ripped up carpet from downstairs. Her house makes us all happy, it is a place for the kids to go, where they feel comfortable and welcome. It is a huge old house, with lots of nooks and crannies and tons of character. It would almost fit our family!

Anyway. It would be a shame to write off this day as just another day because it's is all any of us has!

So. I would love more input about beagles. I so appreciated the comments yesterday. If anyone else has any experience, please share! Our kids have started really begging for one of these puppies! I told Jonathan this morning that Moms and Dads try to think about things a little more than kids do, although I agree that beagle puppies are absolutely adorable, and yes, I am sure we would love it...we tend to think a bit about the messes and the cost.

Now, Suri can be a bad dog. Just last night she stole the angel-food cake from the table (I honestly don't know how I forgot to put that away..)...she brought it into the laundry room and had an angel-food cake party for herself. The evidence was the foil pan, ripped to shreds. She also brought Camille's Ariel doll in there and chewed the foot off, and possibly ate her clothes. They are nowhere to be found. I know it is my fault, I gave in to her pitiful howling when she was a little pup, she did not like the crate. I should have held fast.

Yesterday while picking the kids up from school, I was offered a job application, to be a teacher's aide/substitute teacher's aide. I have no college education, but I have learned a thing or two through the years, although I don't know if that counts. Anyway, I have the application here. I have mixed feelings about it. I don't want to work. I have a good life here at home. I am the one person who takes care of all the loose ends...the appointments and the oil changes, the shopping, washing the towels and making the meals. Is it worth the stress of having to balance it all? It could possibly be just a day or two a week, which would be fun. Paul says You Never Know Unless You Try, but. I don't know.

Plus, how could I get a puppy and then leave it all alone with Suri? They would destroy the place!

I am drinking my coffee slowly but it is almost gone anyway.

I should get moving. I have that Home Improvement Bug, which I so obviously don't always have, so I am trying to accomplish things here while I have the desire to. Yesterday I hung the pictures back up that I had taken down to decorate for Christmas. Plus a new one that I got at the thrift store. $6.99, and it looks nice. I want to organize the little girls' room and paint it..it has not been painted since we moved in, 20 years ago. That room has had a whole rotating cast of characters write on it's walls. It was baby Joseph's room when we moved in, he was eleven months (yes, he is 21 now). Now the cribs are all gone and the princesses have bunkbeds. They want lavender paint, or "sparkly silver", says Camille.

My room needs a good cleaning too. It is much nicer to get out of bed in the morning when the room is shiny and clean. I have gotten much better about hanging things up instead of draping them around, but honestly, I don't think I will ever be a neat freak. I just don't have it in me. I love clean-ness, love that stark look of No Clutter. I love shiny. I hate sticky. And I try, I really do. But it just plain does.not.come.naturally.to.me. Not. I love the results, don't mind the process, but I can't seem to KEEP it that way. Organizing and Me are just not compatible. I try. I really really do. Yesterday I finally went through the huge mess of papers on top of the microwave. I threw things away, sorted, and now there is just a neat little pile there. I love that!

I also cleaned under the roll-top desk. I want to keep rolling up the lid, just to see the neatness!

Having lots of people in the house makes it challenging to keep the place neat. The little girls pulled one of the chairs away from the wall in the living room and made a fort behind it, a cozy little place with pillows and blankets. It is still there after two days.

Our visit to the library was fun. The girls like, "Charlie And Lola". Evelyn got a whole stack of books. Jon just got a firetruck book, and a beagle book. And a whole bunch of, "I Spy".

And...that's enough for the day!