summer 2011

summer 2011

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012

Paul and I, all 16 kids and Ashley, Benjamin's wife...Christmas 2012
family

Thursday, October 1, 2009

getting the kids out the door for school...

This morning, I blissfully slept past the time I was supposed to get up. I do not use an alarm clock. I just wake up. Well, today, I didn't just wake up. So we were a little more rushed, especially because last night I neglected to get out the clothes for today. I was going to do it, and I got sidetracked.....(I was looking at the school lunch menu, and there for today, was the lunch for September 31st!! On a SCHOOL calendar. It was so funny, I had to show it to everyone. I get so sidetracked. Then I helped Mirielle, (who is leaving today, wah) cut up the huge tray of fudge and put in little fluted candy papers on small paper plates into baggies, for the bake sale at Paul's work to benefit cancer research) and I forgot about their clothes. Especially because Camille was still up. She had a green marker at the table, and was creating masterpieces on herself, and on her surroundings. She can grab a piece of fudge like lightening and stuff it into her mouth. How a person that agile can drool so much chocolate goo all over themselves is beyond me. Anyway, I woke up late this morning...

And discovered that three of the first trip kids hadn't gotten up, either. So they were mixed in with my 4 younger kids, and that made it interesting. I had to find clothes that didn't smell like smoke, write excuses for being late for the 3 kids, write a few absence excuses for yesterday, and all the time, Jon for some reason was speculating how funny it would be if Rosie got on the bus. So I was trying to listen to him, or at least smile and nod my head, and the older girls were making lunches, grabbing breakfast, doing their hair, I was doing some hair, Rosie was grabbing the brush and chewing, trying to get a bite of human food......socks, mom, do you have any socks? Well, I certainly do. I bought some the other day, since I maintain it is easier to buy them to match them. Just kidding, well, no I am not, but anyway, the socks are all smoky, so it is good I had new ones. I am a sock buyer, and a washcloth buyer, both of which have been very handy these last few days. A lady from the clean-up service is coming out at 1:00 this afternoon to assess the clean-up. Poor, poor clean-up crew. I am going to be extra nice to them. It is a win-win situation, though. The insurance company covers it 100%, pays them directly, and they get to earn money. And I get all the clothes in the laundry room taken away and cleaned!!!! I want to get in there today before they get here, and get some clothes for the next few days and see if I can get to the laundry mat to get them cleaned for the kids. I figure they may not have the clothes back until Monday or Tuesday. Which may give us time to get a new dryer, and get the room cleaned fixed up a bit.

What would I be doing this week if this hadn't happened? What is next? What an interesting life this is. Paul came home on Tuesday with two new fire extinguishers, and a new smoke detector for the laundry room ceiling. It went off when Mirielle made grilled cheese, and Jonathan flipped out. He was over by the door, dancing around and crying and saying we needed to get out. Poor kid. Both he and Suzanne did not want to go to bed again last night. He probably associates it with going to bed on Monday night and being suddenly screamed at to get up and get outside, quickly!!! Yes, looking back I could have been calmer. But panic has a purpose, that adrenaline is lifesaving, gets people moving. It doesn't always allow for calm, practical, reasoning. I just knew their room was right next to the laundry room, and they had to GET OUT....anyway, they are having a hard time with anxiety about it. We are trying to encourage them that God has our lives in His hands, and nothing will happen outside of His plan, and we don't have to worry about it. And that we won't use that dryer again, and we have a new smoke alarm.

Well, things to do, and laundry to sort...and one would never know how nice and clean this place was yesterday before the adjuster came. It just cannot stay clean, the forces are arrayed against it.

3 comments:

Martha said...

it is easier to buy them to match them How true! I hate matching socks!

I am just now catching up with your week. Wow! Praise God you are all safe and still have a home. When I was still a little girl, I read a newspaper story where a dryer had caught fire and burned down a house. One of the many children was a girl of about 14. She made sure all of her brothers and sisters were out of the house but lost her own life in the process. The family had left the dryer running and gone to bed. It is a firm rule in our home to never go to bed with the clothes dryer running. So glad you are okay!

Tereza said...

I always go to bed with the dryer running...it's the last thing I do each night.....but maybe now I'll have to change that!!
I hate matching socks to!! I have a bin designated for socks. When I don't feel like matching because there are just too many I toss them in there and when someone needs a pair they go and match one up for themselves. It works great!

Unknown said...

I wear odd socks. Life is too short to match socks! I teach, and the children like to see if they can find some kind of connection lol, but sometimes there just *isn't*!

Glad you're all ok. Would it help your upset children to invent an escape plan, so that they have something they can lean on to help stop the afraidness?