what do you call a mom who....

knows that her kids are out in the front yard with a shovel?

I am taking another break...after cleaning up and sweeping and putting some things where they belonged, I joined the kids for a nice swim. I outlasted them and got the pool all to myself, trying to ignore the voices in my head which were asking what the heck were they doing in the house without me in there....I swam as hard as I could, for as long as I could, and it felt good. I watered the garden, pulled out a few weeds, put the hose in the pool, and picked up some items scattered around the yard on the way in, like water bottles and sandals and a towel. Then for some more cleaning up, and then my lunch: an English muffin, toasted until quite crunchy, a small bit of mayo, and the first tomato from the garden, sliced up with bacon bits on top...and pepper. Oh, it was so so good. I enjoyed every bite. The kids have had a few breakfasts and a few snacks, and I am going to make them in a treat in a few minutes, fried dough. The dough is rising on the windowsill.

I saw a lady buying a deep fryer the other day, and thought it looked fun. But I do not want one. No sir, that would be bad. Too much fun, too much fat. I only deep fry things very rarely for a treat. When we were growing up, we could buy packages of frozen bread dough, five loaves for a dollar. We used to make all kinds of thing with it, including fried dough with cinnamon and sugar, and fried dough with pepper and cheese....

I hear screaming. Girl fight. Seriously, if you want to have some fun, have five girls in five years. Evelyn kept slapping Sonja. Sonja has slapped Evelyn today too. Oh, they always have a good reason to do these things, and it is never their fault. Evelyn was getting dressed and Sonja would not get out...then the girls were calling Evelyn "Meg" and Sonja thought they were calling her "Meg", which I have no idea what the signifigance of that is....they are done fighting now. Oh my goodness the drama. I guess Evelyn was going to call her friends and tell them not to come over on Sunday for her birthday party....then she said she wasn't really going to, would she cancel her own birthday party? No, she just wanted to make Sonja feel really bad....okay, whatever.

Our older kids didn't fight like the five-girls-in-a-row. It is just because they are girls and so close, I think. Or because God knew I needed some salvation. They usually do get along well though, and I think they are darned lucky, or should I say extremely blessed to have so many friends to play with all of the time. It isn't easy to learn to get along, sometimes they just have to rub elbows, but they are learning good lessons and forgiveness , hopefully anyway!

Funny thing: Kathryn, who is twelve, and sort of a tomboy, asked me this the other day, "Mom, if I were a boy, would you have named me Alex?" I answered, "Of course I would have, honey...", and she screeched, "YES!! I LOVE that name!!!"