sunny wednesday

Well, how many kids does it take to help mommy clean barf out of a van? I'm not sure, but one sure did. Evelyn was gung-ho, her and I were decked out in our cleaning gloves, having a good old time. It makes me a little sad that even doing such an awful chore was fun for her because of the one-on-one time. She was a real trooper, especially for an 8 year old! Our van is a 15 passenger, one of the relatively newer models with seatbelts that go across the aisle, and mommy had a hard time getting back there....my back was killing, so Ev finished up. I told her I would get her a prize sometime.....we want to go to a car-wash to vacuum it out, she has the quarters all collected.

The details of my life are quite boring, so I'll skip the laundry, dishes, mop the floor junk....and skip to the good stuff. My 10 school kids are on spring break, and today the temperature was in the upper 60's, and brilliantly sunny. They were playing basketball, riding their bikes all around the yard, eating popsicles....I was outside scrubbing car-seats, and enjoying the kids....I also took Kathryn to the dentist, and went to the grocery store AGAIN....then picked Paul up from work...the truck is fixed, and wasn't overly expensive. And: my nice brother came over to look at the hot-tub, to figure out how to wire it up for us....Oh dear, my older kids are trying to watch American Idol, and the station went out again....it's kind of funny, really. Now they throwing a ball at each other, in the house!

Tomorrow I have to take Charlotte Claire the busy one and Camille the incredible nursing baby for well check-ups....M. has the day off from life-guard training, and will be home. So, who will go to help me? It is going to be another glorious day, and they like to spend time outside. I know Evelyn will want to go, because she wants to use those quarters. And we have movies so late from blockbuster, we almost own them. Their NO MORE LATE FEES is pretty well taken advantage of here.

When I was at the zoo yesterday, sitting on the bench nursing Camille (which is one thing I'm good at after all these years, nursing in public. One trick is if someone is looking in your direction, make eye contact, and they usually look away, unless it is fellow nursing mom, and she will smile. Sometimes a knowing gramma will smile, too.) Anyway, I was sitting there across from the elephants, and I suddenly missed my mother so fiercely, it was as if it slammed into me....see, I always brought her with us to the zoo. She enjoyed the little things in life, and the zoo was great fun for her. She got a kick out of the kids reactions to the monkeys......I just still miss her, and would just love to have her back here on earth again. Which is selfish, I know. Because she suffered so much pain for so many years....tonight, my little girls were so funny. Evelyn was smacking a frozen water bottle against the coffee table. I told her she had to stop, but if she wants to smash up all her own furniture in her own house some day, she can. She was laughing her head off, imagining herself telling her husband, "I have a surprise for you, I'm going to smash the furniture all up!" She was rolling around laughing. Sonja says when she gets married she's going to hug her husband...but can she still live here? And Suzanne wants to live here until we die, then have the house....sometimes I pretend that I'm the babysitter who looks just like mommy, and they love it and hate it at the same time....