She is sleeping on the couch right now. Margaret and Kathryn went out side with her and Camille and played on the trampoline in the leaves. They must've used up alot of energy. Camille is napping now, too. Abigail was helping me do a very sad thing: pack up the baby clothes. My lavender Simo pram is still in there, I don't have anyplace to move it to anyway. There are still some things I didn't pack away....babies have been such a part of my life for so many years, but I am 44 years old. I left the booties that my mom made, and lots of little shoes and bonnets in the drawers. As I sorted through the little things, I had to decide whether to save or toss each thing. Save for what I don't know. But I saved lots of things.
The five little girls (Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, Suzanne, and Sonja) just got a package in the mail from Gramma, who is in Florida for the winter. They got Christmas watches! Snowmen for the youngest two, and Christmas trees for the other girls. How exciting. If I had gotten a watch in the mail when I was a little girl.....watches were expensive then. I got my first one in fifth grade, and before Christmas vacation was over, it fell off my wrist and broke. It was a regular watch (not digital) with a clear plastic strap. I just remember how devastated I was about that. I don't remember getting another one until 7th grade. It was a Texas Instruments digital watch with a calculator and alarm clock, just the latest technology.
Kathryn traded with Evelyn, and then changed her mind, now they traded back, and are wishing they got the one that Margaret got. I am trying to get them to go out and clean out the van. On Friday night for activity club, a few of the groups are going to a fun fun place, an enchanted walk. It is at a nearby nature preserve, and it features hundreds of carved jack-o-lanterns, games, ect. I had told the leaders (my nieces) that I would drive the 15 passenger van if they wanted to go, so they talked about it and decided to take the girls there this Friday night. And I get to go, and bring the two little ones if I want to. I am glad they asked me, because that means I must have behaved myself last Friday night, if they asked me to be along again. Believe me, I had to work at it. I had to bite my tongue and remember that those young girls, whom I remember being born, and are now in their twenties, are the leaders of their groups. I am just the guest.
Charlotte Claire is sleeping away on the couch, all the kids are home from school having snacks and taking turns going out to clean the van. It is not quiet in here. Mali just came along and said, "I have to check to see if she's dead.", and she touched Charlotte Claire's nose. She moved. "Nope.", said. Then she turned to me and said, "Wouldn't that be awful?".....and off she went. Of course that would be awful. I hadn't even thought of the possibility, thank you Mali.
I am being the mean mommy and not letting them turn the t.v. on for even just one minute today. I was not born yesterday, and I happen to know that kids do not watch tv for just one minute. And yes, I am mean.
Mali just broke a glass. I asked her, from the living room, why she did it. "Do you think I did it on purpose?" Okay, good, just checking. 'Cause the day they throw a glass on the floor on purpose is the day I start thinking about some disipline. And I am glad it wasn't my favorite coffee mug. This reminds me of a long time ago, when I was visiting a family that had 14 kids (at the time, they had one more later), and I was sitting with the mom, chatting. I had only one child at the time. Several of the kids were in the kitchen cleaning up and doing the dishwasher. Then we heard the crash of a breaking glass. One of the little girls came in, all serious, and said, "Mommy, we are sorry, that was one of our really good glasses. From the gas station." " Oh dear', said the mom," just clean it up." Oh my, a gas station glass. And the mom did not even get up. She kept talking to me, as the kids vacuumed and swept up the glass. I was totally surprised. But, NOW I understand. Although Mali is fifteen, plenty old enough to clean up a broken glass....I think. I think I will double check. In a minute.
Yes, I am mean. I made the kid go outside and play in the leaves. Not because I wanted peace and quiet but, hey, it is nice. Only Aaron, Margaret, and Sam are in here right now. Abigail is in the shower....we have strict orders not to run any water so I can't start dinner yet. Benjamin just came in and looked at a notebook I had been writing in the other day. The day I tried to do some meal planning. "Oh good, it says we are having homemade macaroni and cheese and pork chops tonight", he said. Oh. I never made that. Sorry. He was laughing. He knows me. I have some boxed macaroni and cheese, and it probably isn't real food, but they like it.
I went into my nice almost-finished laundry room before I sat down here, and there were puddles of water all over the floor. What the ??? Aaron went in there and checked behind the washer, and a hose was undone. Great, the downstairs is pretty wet. I think my new linoleum is very wet underneath. eeks.
Well, my room is all clean and vacuumed. All the rooms in the upstairs were pretty decent, which makes me happy, because I want the whole house to be clean at the same time one of these days. I cleaned the hall, which tends to get things piled in all the time. Then: Evelyn Joy decided to clean her closet. Her closet is not that big, thankfully, because it was like four feet high of stuff, mostly clothes. And one of my carriages, a Silver Cross seat, and an Emmaljunga frame, stored in there. Taking up room in their little closet. It is now in my previously clean hall. Rats. Anyway, instead of making dinner, I am going to go help Evelyn clean up her room. The stuff that was packed into her closet is filling up all the room in the already cramped room. I have to pick someone to make dinner. hmm.....
3 comments:
love it. :) i'm a mean mom, too... but i did let my little one watch tv tonight. ha. some days, though, i don't. even for one minute. ;-)
melissa
He he. I like the comment that maybe boxed mac-n-cheese isn't even real food but they like it! Isn't that true! I've often wondered the food value of it but once at a well-child check, it registered in the food pyramid breakdown chart so it must qualify for food! :) I love your blog!!!
Breaking or losing a special gift is always heartbreaking. When I was in first grade my daddy bought me a birthstone ring for my birthday. It was a little big on my finger and as my friend and I played a game at the bus stop it fell off of my finger into the grass. Though we looked and looked we never did find the little ring and it was never replaced with another. My dad probably never knew how much that little ring meant to me or how I never forgot it. Even many years later I would glance at the spot by the pine tree where it was lost and wonder if it was still there somewhere buried in the grass and dirt.
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