well, I'll take one of those!

 Scrolling through the intern this morning, I found a listing for a house, I think in Wisconsin, with a bathroom with...three toilets in a row, and three sinks.  The comments were hilarious, because who would want a bathroom like that?  Well, not too long ago, I'd have taken one ha, although I would prefer to make privacy stalls around them.  I would have liked a huge-0 bathtub too, and one of those giant showers with a few shower heads...and a few more washing machines and dryers, although for several years we had that washer that wouldn't spin out half the time, so at that time, just one that worked would have been nice.  A double oven, I'd have taken that, a second refrigerator, sure!  

It all happened so fast...the babies year after year, the house filled to the brim...our kitchen tables packed full at dinnertime, three pounds of pasta with the meatballs, barely enough...nine or ten kids at a time in school, with their homework, and projects, and permission slips to sign.  Lunches, snacks, supplies (you need a poster board TOMORROW?!  WHAT?!  I TOLD you, Mom!   oops.  Yes, you did.).   

It seemed like it would always be like that, knee deep in small children, dreaming about the elusive five minutes of peace and quiet.  

I remember calling my mother while I made dinner one evening, as per usual, and it was noisy and crazy in here, it was my little break, as the kids got semi-used to me talking on the phone.  My mother said, "Some day you'll miss having them all there, and the chaos."  ha.  ha ha ha.  I did NOT believe her, no, not one little bit.  I thought of her sitting there in her house in her comfy chair, with just my dad there, and their two dogs, and I couldn't picture it for me, no way, no how.

But here I am.  Yes, there are still four kids at home, but they are quiet, mostly, and so responsible.  They all do their own laundry, and help with things...and yes, I have ten grandkids, when they come over it can get a bit noisy and crazy in here, with toys strewn about (I love it!).  

But, here I am.  I am turning into my mother...in my big comfy sweater, in my big comfy chair, with my slippers, shuffling out for more coffee...oh dear.

Okay, so here's a thing:  for Christmas, we got Paul a smoker.  When he and Adrian took it out of the box to assemble it, the top was bashed in, so they sort of pounded it out, said the door still closed, and were heck-bent on using it...it was Christmas Eve, and we had Christmas dinner to smoke!  So, we used it.   Since then, I took pics, sent an email to the company, and they're walking me through the process of removing some things from the body of the smoker, including cutting the cord, so they can send a new body, and we can put our original "innards" into it, and use it.  Now, don't you think that's a lot to ask of us?  I'm glad they ARE sending us a new body, but jeepers, if Paul wasn't involved, I'd be saying NO WAY, I can't assemble this thing!  But then if it's less waste, I guess we can put aside our laziness and grumbling and be thankful we'll have a shiny new dent-less exterior....harrumph.

I've been trying really hard to smell things.  It's awful but it's hilarious.  I can clean the entire kitchen with the bleach based cleanser and not smell a tiny whiff of it, put together a pumpkin pie the other night, nary a hint of the cinnamon, ginger...but I think I can detect just a tiny bit of aroma from the coffee beans, all ground up...just a tiny hint, but shh, it might just be that I really want to smell it.  (I've been drinking up the older coffee we had in the cupboard, don't want to waste all of our good fresh Christmas gift coffee, since I can't taste it anyway....)

We are leaving for the airport in a few hours, as Miss Sonja K. is going out to Oregon for a week.  She's brave to travel by herself, 19 years old, but then she traveled back from Germany alone when she was 16, so she certainly is capable.  I told her to make sure she tells everyone she's traveling alone, ha.  No, I do worry, and I remind her to keep track of her things (she lost AirPods on a trip to California last year, she did the track my AirPods  thing and they were in Chicago, but the airline couldn't find them...)...I tell her to walk straight up tall and confident, and watch her surroundings, and be smart.  

It's hard to let your children go.  

Ophelia's birthday presents came in the mail, I'm excited to wrap them...a toddler scooter, so cute, a 3 wheel-ed thing, all pink and sparkly...and a Care Bear...I didn't know they still made those, I guess they're trying to bring them back?  It's Tender Heart bear, so cute...I got her a little sweatshirt and matching pants, and a little gift for Lydia too, as it's hard to be the big sister when little sister gets presents.  

I'm planning to make a nice beef stew for dinner.  Beef prices are ouch, and I think they'll be getting worse before they get better, but I only paid $4.49 a pound for this...shh, I could've bought the beef roast for $3.99, and cut it up myself, but I decided to splurge a dollar fifty, and get it all cut up and ready to brown and make a stew.  It's not much more expensive than hamburger right now, and I've been craving stew...stew that will be steaming good, and I won't even be able to taste, ha, what am I thinking!!?  Can you believe it?  I keep forgetting that I cannot taste anything!

Oh dear....