lazy sunday afternoon...

I SHOULDN"T be so lazy, but....we went to church this morning, sixteen of us. We had to take two vehicles because the big kids are so big, it is pretty hard to squish into the big white van. We had a very encouraging message this morning, to really redeem the time, to be interested in what God is showing us.



Then we got home to the messy house. Ouch, how does it get so messy? I need to snap out of it and get busy. The couch pile needs to die, but no, it lives and grows. It is moving over to the second half of the couch. When I am the only one to uses the washer and dryer, the pile stays small, because I put the clothes away as I wash them. But whenever someone else takes a load out, they put it on the couch. Then when the living room gets picked up,it is like: don't know where it goes? put it on the couch! Sometimes the kids will even ask me where something goes, and I will just say, "put it on the couch..." So it is my fault too. As the mom of the house, I realize that most of this is my fault, but oh well, I am me.



So, we got home to the messy house. Did I clean up? Of course not!!! I made a triple batch of chocolate chip cookies!! Delandie, Caleb, and Luke, friends of the boys are over, and Stephanie, Abigail's friend, is coming over later. So we needed cookies!!! And me, being so smart and capable, tripled the shortening AND the butter, instead of combining the amount and then tripling. So they are extra thin and crispy. Oh, they are heavenly in a different sort of way. And tweaking (or messing up) the recipe doesn't affect the smell....it smells wonderful in here. And to top it off, Mirielle is making apple turnovers! She had the little girls all helping her, and it was so sweet to see them peeling apples and talking. I was tempted to take their picture, but decided not to.



And now I am tired from all that cookie making and cleaning up the cookie mess, that I am taking an nice afternoon break. It would be nicer if the living room wasn't so messy, but tired is tired, and I am tired. I am just plain jealous of people with lots of energy. I am glad that it bothers me when I have stuff to get done around here. It needs to be that way, so that I will get moving and clean up. I think the way it works is that everyone has a different level of comfort. Some people want everything always perfect, so they work to have it that way. Some people can live in total slobdom, and it is okay. But me: I want it perfect, but am so darned lazy, I have to live in slobdom and be ever wishing I had a maid. ha. Well, I guess it isn't THAT bad around here, but today....well, Aaron did the dishwasher, Mali swept, I cleaned up the counters....but the living room has some laundry baskets and the waffle town all over. And the baskets of movies are all rumpled and spilling over. And there are extra things on the end tables, like a roll of toilet paper (doesn't everyone have a roll of toilet paper in their living room?), a few empty cups (even though no one is allowed to drink in the living room except for Paul and I), and books and socks and dolls and hair ponies. And Jon's kitty suit. And the pile of bedding: oh, it is daunting. But I refuse to be daunted. I am so affected by the state of my house, I tend to get snappy and snippy and want it back into shape. But it isn't meant to be always in shape around here. People are playing and reading and baking and doing homework, they don't care that it isn't spotless in here. It is just ME. There is a time and a place, and this isn't the time to clean the house. I need to chill. Excuse me while I preach to myself here. But tomorrow, I am gonna clean!!! And do laundry!! And match socks!!! And straighten the books and videos and dvds and maybe wash the windows and mop the floors.....oh, I feel better all ready!



This afternoon, I am going with a few of the older kids to a fundraising meeting. Our church (look on brunstad.org to see about it) has the main conference center in Norway. There are conferences held there year round, ex. Easter conference, Summer conference, sisters' conference, ....anyway, there are so many people there that it is hard to find a place to stay. They are expanding and building more apartments and cabins, and we have a chance to buy one, as a fellowship. They are very expensive, things are just more expensive in Norway. So we are going to raise the money for it. (that is what the beer-pouring at the football game is for. Ironic for a church fundraiser....) I was thinking of making cookies on a regular basis and having people take them to work to sell....we did this years ago, and it does bring in a little bit of money. So with that thought in mind, I made all these cookies today, thinking I would bring some to the meeting...and I sort of ruined them. Oh well. We are trying to come up with some other ideas, it should be interesting. Like I need more to keep me busy.

And here I sit. Charlotte Claire and Sonja are playing something, where Charlotte Claire keeps running out here and telling me that Sonja is dead...then Sonja will yell out, "Not really!" And they laugh....okay, Mirielle wants me to roll out the dough for her...oh, it is nice to feel wanted.