quick post...

I am leaving very soon, in a half hour or so to go shopping with my brother...and Ashley and Mirielle and the two little girls. They are still sleeping, so I am considering leaving the two little girls with Joseph. He starts college classes on Monday, so I will no longer have that option after today.

My couch monster is growing again, drat... I couldn't imagine OUR family on a reality t.v. show. Ha, that would be hilarious. Kids pounding on the bathroom doors, the pile of library books and Emily's New York City puzzle on top of the dog cage, with Margaret's art project. We have no room in the cupboards for all the baking dishes and pans, so we store them in the oven, so when the oven is in use, those pans are stacked on the counters...the counters which I battle the battle of clutter with every single day. And they always win. The top of the microwave has a pile of things I cannot throw away, I might need them. Like report cards and coupon books and letters from the department of motor vehicles.....our whole laundry room is like a bomb went off.....this morning I was in there with Sonja, and she knocked a bunch of stuff down, and didn't even notice. I picked it up. But when I am not in there, clothes fall down, and get walked on....I organize the hampers...we have one for darks, lights, towels, socks, mediums...but the kids like to play the put-stuff-in-any-hamper-they-feel-like game....I never seem to get the hampers fully empty. Ever. Never. But...here I am, alive and well.

And I should be getting ready to go. Charlotte Claire is up and wants to go, I think I shall take the two little sweetie pies....I always think, "how much trouble can they be?" And on every excursion, not too much time goes by and I start remembering just how much trouble they can be...but they are so cute and sweet and full of wonder about everything, I just love having them along. Except of course when Camille refuses to buckle, and doesn't want any help...or when she wants to walk, but is dragging and sitting down on the floor every ten feet....or when the both of them get what I call "full of the devil", and start touching everything and running around and laughing their heads off. I do not allow them to actually behave like that, but they are bound and determined to test me sometimes. Oh, I am sure the other kids did things like this when they were little, but then I also had toddlers and babies...wait, how did I manage? Anyway....I shall bring them today, and they shall promise they will be really good, then they will forget....