help, they are SO bored!!

My kids never get bored....or at least not until today. Today they are bored. They just want to DO something. School playground. Shopping. Can we bake something? hmm. I have created some monsters. As I was cleaning up this morning, they a few of them asked if we could DO something, to which I replied, "I AM doing something."...and of course they said, NO, SOMETHING FUN!!!

Now, I totally understand this whole predicament. It is my fault, because I am the Queen of Wanting To Go Do Something Fun. The Queen of Drop Everything And Leave. But today Paul is home, puttering around. He already took a trip to the dump, and he is pumping Jonathan's bike tires and watching him in the road. I cleaned up after the pancake/eggs and sausage breakfast I made for lots and lots of people....21, I guess, and swept the living room and kitchen and did some laundry and picked up a bit...and now I am sufficiently tired out. And it is just a bit past noon. Oops, it is almost 1:30. Where does the time go?

Suzanne is hungry, no wonder! Rats, lunch time already. I just finished cleaning up breakfast. This is a youth conference weekend, so the morning rush was signifigant. Abigail stopped over for breakfast and picked Joseph up for work, and Mirielle, Aaron, Mali, Sam, Margaret, and Kathryn went to the conference with the four guests after breakfast. That is a lot of people showering and getting ready. I think this is why my younger ones want to do something fun. There are only six home today, and it seems quiet and lonely. Through the years, I have often done fun excursions on these kinds of weekends. Paul used to be gone too, he was the youth leader for a long many years.

I have discovered a thing or two in my years as a wife and mommy, and although I do not consider myself an expert about anything, here goes.....

1. It all starts in the thoughts. If I am standing there doing the dishes thinking how difficult my life is, then my life will be difficult.

2. There are times when it is so incredibly crazy, usually involving a newborn and a toddler and possibly other children, that it seems totally impossible to manage. Those are the times when one needs to drop all expectations, simply survive and endure. (and watch those thoughts!!!) And not care what others think. (this is a good time to seek to please God, and Him only)

3. It is never a good idea to be keeping that mental list of What I Am Going To Do Next, when I get done with what I am doing. Especially if that list is long. Because life interferes.....

One of the girls who is staying here is one of ten children. She said to me, "My house is messy too." I said, politely, "Oh, not as messy as our house." She replied, "No, but it IS really messy." hmm. Thank you?

Well, as always, there is something I should be doing rather than sitting here writing about life. Jonathan just ran over Evelyn's foot with his bicycle, and the way she came screaming in here one would think the foot was removed from the body......Evelyn is slightly dramatic. Sonja is in here yelling out the window that Suzanne cannot ride her bike, then she changed her mind and told her she could, now Suzanne is still mad that she couldn't, and Sonja is trying to apologize....see, it isn't all roses here. I need my striped shirt and whistle.....