out and about with the little ones...

Today was fun. Just plain fun. My sister-in-law mentioned she needed a small shopping trip, and I was game. Poor Joseph had been promised a trip to get his driving permit all week, but with the fire and clean up, and the day he forgot his I.D., it hadn't happened. So today was the day. But, he had to sit through a McDonalds visit with the little ones and my sis-in-law, and her two little ones. I thought it was great fun to drink coffee with Kim and watch the kids play, but Joseph was clearly just suffering through it. Very nicely, I might add. Then we stopped at BJ's and he opted to stay in the van and draw. We said we would be quick. ha. We put Charlotte Claire together with her cousin Danielle in the cart, and they were so much fun. Kim had Camille and Sean, who turned two a few months ago. We shopped and talked and had a nice time...then went home in the pouring rain, and loaded the things she bought and her kids back into her van.....then I went back to town to another store, because of all things, I was low on bread, and I had planned on sandwiches for dinner. Yes, I have my act together!

Mr. A. has the laundry room completely empty and they washed all the shelves and hampers. wow. I am assuming that they will be back on Monday. I was still gone when they left. We cannot go into the laundry room at all, per Mr. A's instructions (I am still behaving). He left some sort of fan going in there that is supposed to get the smoke smell out. I am just hoping that it doesn't ironically burn the house down.

It feels wonderfully liberating to NOT be able to even go into that room. I cannot throw a load of clothes in. I cannot. I rarely go a day without doing that. I usually go back to doing laundry when my newborns are like two days old. It is a love/hate relationship, laundry and I. And that is all I am going to say about laundry today.

Tomorrow, I am going to take the kids to an apple orchard. Paul is going beer pouring again. That sounds funny. Our church is fundraising at the Dome, the local college football stadium. They go an hour before the game, and pour beer until half-time. And the older kids are going to a bible competition. So I will have the seven youngest for most of the day by myself. We have had some wonderfully rainy and cold weather lately, and tomorrow it is supposed to be dry and sunny. The ground will be soggy, but it will be a good day. I bought quite a few apples last week for $8 and $10 a bushel, but we picked them from wood crates. I thought it would be nice to take them to an orchard to pick them off the trees, and maybe go on a hayride. Just for something nice to do outside. I truly love those adventures with them.

Ha, I love nothing more than dropping everything and going off....housework is nice to have done, but horrible to actually do. I actually vacuumed and cleaned up and did the dishwasher tonight while the kids were at activity club, with Charlotte Claire and Camille as my "helpers".....ha, if helpers dump water all over the table and color on the floor and go way too fast on the treadmill, that is. They are funny, though. Except they were tired tonight, and Camille bit Charlotte Claire twice. So off to bed Camille went, while Charlotte Claire stayed up for a few more hours, and I got a nice long phone call in to my sister.