they more than survived!

Benjamin...when he puts his mind to it, he is amazing! (aren't the trees pretty out the window in the background?).....yes, I am easily distracted...anyway, Benjamin was the number one babysitter last night, he didn't go to his friend's grandmother's house after all. He was going to make the kids hot dogs on the grill, but SURPRISE, Mirielle had taken the gas bottle with her to the dinner the girls were putting on....so Ben was the ultimate babysitter: he built a fire out back and they roasted their hot dogs. They also had corn and green beans, AND roasted marshmallows. When we got home, the first thing Charlotte Claire said to me was, "We had marshmallows!" Except for Miss C.C., the kids were all tucked into bed by a little after nine, and sleeping when we got home. And this morning they were happy, telling me about their fire. Benjamin, 21, Joseph, 19, and Samuel, 14, are good babysitters!!!

Of course there is a down side, which I am not complaining about, but just to keep it real...the house was a mess. Not just because of them, it was nice out yesterday, I hung lots of clothes out on the deck to dry, and didn't bring them in before I left so I did it when I got home last night, the floors HAD beens swept yesterday...but. The counters ...rrr. And so on. I seriously don't expect them to clean and take such nice care of the kids....somehow I am suppposed to, but I don't always do a great job either. So I have learned a little mercy. And thankfully, to hold my tongue a bit, so I don't come in the door and just see the things that are out of place and start growling.

Evelyn Joy skipped school this fine day. She says they aren't doing anything in school. I find that slightly hard to believe, but she has tons of energy and says she is going to help me today. She has already cleaned up the living room and is now preparing her fishbowl. I promised her two goldfish. She thinks they will actually defy the odds stacked against goldfish that enter our home, and survive. hmm. She is using a huge Snyder's Pretzel tub for her fishbowl, and putting all sorts of rocks and things in the bottom....I hope goldfish don't suffer too much when they expire.......

Our dinner was excellent last night. Grilled lemon chicken breast, lemon zest pepper red potatoes, mashed, and asparagus with some sort of sauce on it. We brought Camille-The-Helpless, and she was happy as can be. She sat in her stroller, she sat with me, she sat with Daddy, and she sat on the floor on a blanket. She visited the girls in the kitchen, and she ate gum.

I have to go out and see if I can turn the pool filter on....one of the hoses disconnected yesterday, so we turned it off.....if we leave it off for too long the pool will turn green again....pools are so much work, but so much fun.

I finished getting all the wet clothes sorted and cleaned up, from the laundry room. It is hard to take when something like that happens and adds volume to the work load.

Getting the kids ready for school this morning.....frustrating! I found Jonathan matching socks, and a nice outfit to wear...they have lots and lots of nice clean clothes hanging on hangers, all their "bye-bye" clothes get hung up. But I am very behind in matching socks. Anyway, the shirt I got out for Sonja was "way too small", Jonny lost his socks, Suze didn't like her shirt, but she wore it anyway. Suze lost one of her homework papers and is going to ask her teacher for another one because this one "disapeared into thin air", according to Suzanne. Suzanne also needs another waterbottle, because hers "falls off my desk all the time"....how a new one will remedy that is beyond me. Anyway, they managed to get on the bus with clean teeth and brushed hair and clean clothes and matching socks and snacks and waterbottles.

My peeves for the day:

If the kids wear sandals to school, which are dear to this mommy's heart because they require NO SOCKS, they cannot play on the playground. Even if they are the nice comfy safe sandals with the strap around the ankle.

High school kids are not allowed to bring water bottles because last year a girl brought vodka in hers.

And that about concludes my rantings for this morning. I believe we are going on a shopping expedition today. We are baking those 800 chocolate chip cookies tomorrow, 24 batches. We will probably break it down into 8 triple batches. Wrapping is the hardest part. Individually. rrr. But it is fun to do, and they are so yummy. Today we need to get the ingredients. So I need to get out of this comfy chair and get moving.....