friday morning....

And I am a bad mommy today. Sorry, teachers at school. My kids are good negotiators and I stand there listening to their good reasons for staying home, ignoring that niggling thought in the back of my mind that says, :"JUST send them to school. All of them! " So, since I ignored that little thought, they stayed home. Margaret is here, and Suzanne, Sonja, and Jonathan.

I think they got wind of a shopping trip to the suburbs far away. Although we all know that as exciting as it sounds to them, the actual grocery shopping will be.....hmm....how will it be? A few of them will ask me over and over again if I am almost done. One or two will have to go pee when we are as far from the bathroom as possible, especially the one who did NOT have to go when we stopped in there when we got there. They will start asking for their balloons, and their cookies, and the two that ride in the car-car cart will fight over the one steering wheel....then they will start telling me how hungry they are, and wondering if we are possibly going to McDonalds, because they haven't been there in a long long time.....and they are STARVING.

But it is so much fun. When I remember to stop and smell the roses, that is. And when I remember to include them in the shopping and try to see things from their points of view, instead of just dragging them along, scolding and snapping.

Last evening was SO much fun. It is hard to explain just how nice it is to have so many older kids to sit around the table with....when we tucked the younger ones in, I heard Jon say that it was going to be too noisy to sleep.....and it sort of was...that was partly why I let them stay home today....

Today is another fundraiser at the Dome, the first official college basketball game of the season. Paul and Emily and Abigail and Mirielle and Aaron are going. (I had to go get a parking pass from my sister's house last night, and of course stayed there for an hour...we were looking at the precious things she sells on ebay....little doll baskets with hoods and matching buntings and quilts and matresses.....)(plus we talked about everything else...)(when I got home, after midnight, Emily was still there, because I had taken her car....so we talked for a while, she is nocturnal and was going shopping....I was tempted to go with her, but then I remembered that I am NOT nocturnal and I had to get up in the morning....so at almost one o'clock, I said goodbye to her and got into bed...)

It is cold this morning, frost on the pumpkins for sure. The world sparkled with it when I took Rosie out this morning. Yet is supposed to go up to 54 today, with sunshine...it is indeed a good day for children to skip school.

I have lots and lots to do today.....laundry, first off.....