did i wake up early?

Ha. I am such an idiot. I thought all the kids were waking up TOO early this morning when I heard them right after Paul got up....but it was 9:45 and he is staying home today! I thought it was seven o'clock....he twisted his ankle yesterday and it is swollen, he can barely walk...so he is working from home....which is interesting all in itself....the kids have to be reminded not to ask Daddy to make them an egg, or if he wants to see a picture of Charlotte Claire and Danielle.

I am taking Mali again to get her permit. This time we will remember to bring her I.D. The thing is, I have taken six kids to get their permits, I should know these things.....

We are also going to buy some candy for the church summer conference candy store.....and some cheap school supplies at Staples. And we are stopping at Walgreens to print up some pictures. I need to bring some children with me so that it is more peaceful here. I am driving the minivan since it is here, it gets better gas mileage and has air conditioning. That means Mali and I can only bring five other kids.

Benjamin was a nice big brother last night, he brought Margaret, Kathryn, Evelyn, and Suzanne to the drive-in. They went in the pick-up truck, so they sat in the back on sleeping bags. They arrived back home at 2:30 am, which woke up Rosie, which woke up Charlotte Claire....but they had lots of fun.

Uh-oh, Camille is being bratty. She doesn't like the dress Kathryn got out for her. I had let her wear it around the house the other day, so now she is saying, "That is NOT a bye-bye dress!"

Kathryn is brushing her hair now, Camille has decided she will wear the dress and be a good girl.

Jonathan is trying to ride the trike around, and it scares Rosie, so she barks when he gets too close. He wants to put her outside...I told him he should just go outside and ride his real bike. He says it is too hot. I told him to set up the slip-n-slide...he said that is too cold. (It connects to the hose....)so he is riding the trike and Rosie is barking.

Now I need to get going.....perhaps one of these days I will write something more interesting than this.....(like how I am trying to excercise, ha, and how I am trying to resist things like ice cream cones...how much I miss my kids who are out of the country...how much I really love Paul...how nice it was that Emily came over last night....how absolutely funny my older kids are....How sometimes it drives me crazy, the things that need to be done around here but I just ration it out in my mind that it doesn't really matter, and I make myself come to peace about it.....how most of the time I really enjoy our home and it is fine how it is.....how we cleaned under all the furniture yesterday and found pennies and matchbox cars and hair clips and dollhouse people.....how much I enjoy it when the older kids take time with the younger ones.....how sweet it is when Rosie-The-Pain-In-The-Neck puts her head on my lap for a cuddle.....)right now Charlotte Claire has a red pen and a green dollhouse bike. She is using them as stop and go signs for Jonathan, who is cruising around quite spiffily on the little trike.....she must be feeling a bit better.....

And now I REALLY need to get going....

what a day!

Today I had some places to go and things to do....first thing: take Mali to get her permit to drive. Not that she will be getting her license any time soon, but it doesn't hurt to have lots of experience behind the wheel...but after we parked the big van downtown, fed the meter, hauled the kids into the motor vehicle building, and Mali started filling out the papers, I realized I had forgotten all about bringing her birth certificate.....oops.

Anyways, after a few more places we stopped into Aldi and Charlotte Claire wanted to ride in the cart...I put her in the back, then when the good stuff like marshmallows and eggs and milk and spinach and yogurt started piling up, I told her it was time for her to walk...she just started crying and said she was too tired.. I tried to lift her out, and lo and behold, she was burning up. Mali so nicely carried her for me as I hurried toward the register. Well, I DID get some orange juice and apples and strawberries and blueberries and a watermelon and a honeydew and a cantaloupe and some onions and some popsicles quick....

Her temperature: 39, which is 102.2....my brother's kids had something like this last week, so I am not totally surprised. It does interfere with our plans to go out to the camper tomorrow.....and I feel sorry for poor Charlotte Claire, having a fever when it is so hot....it hit ninety yesterday, and 87 today.

We had some chicken and mixed veggies for dinner, along with the leftover pasta salad. Then I cut up all the fruit I bought today and put it into containers and baggies in the 'fridge. It will only last a few days, but it is oh-so-good. Abigail is here, so I am going to send some home for Emily and her.

There are lots of kids in here, so distraction reigns...

woo hoo, quiet in here!

I have nice pictures to put up, but it was taking forever for just the first one, so...not now. Joseph must be downloading something...

Abigail stopped over this afternoon after work, she was going to bring Charlotte Claire home with her for a visit...but Miss C.C. had just fallen asleep on the couch, so Ab just decided to borrow a swim suit and take a dip with the kids, then she stayed for dinner....I grilled the chops, and made a pasta salad with peppers and black olives. (the pork chops were SO good. Marinade is the key, and smoking them on the grill...oh, they were good.)

Then Emily came over! Benjamin was playing basketball with the younger girls, Emily came and sat outside on the deck in the nice cool breeze while the little girls played in their new houses...it was very nice,(except for when Kathryn shouted that Camille had pooped in her undies, and it was leaking out...poor child was crying and saying, "I do NOT want to poop in my undies, I want to poop in the TOILET!"....obviously she had very loose bowels, and couldn't help it...I told her it was okay, it happens to everyone once in a while...but I put a Pullup on her after that, just in case....) and I thought to take a picture of the 13 kids who were here, but it just didn't happen. Right now Emily, Mali, Margaret, Kathryn, and Evelyn are on an adventure to the small city. They were thinking of getting a movie, but I don't know what they will end up doing. What lucky girls to have so many sisters to hang out with.

Jonathan asked me today why God lets kitties die when people love them. Hmm. I just plain said, "I don't know....but probably so we can realize that life is short....." He just does not think it is fair that Mali brought home such a delightful thing as a kitten, and it went and died. I am almost wondering if I should just start to be on the lookout for another kitten for him. After all, he won't be six years old forever, and it is HIS childhood, not just my life that is important. I am willing to be inconvenienced for him. Wait, who the heck am I kidding, I love kittens!! I love when they can't seem to get close enough, and they snuggle right beneath the chin, purring and pawing and snuggling....I just LOVE that. Then watching them play and run in circles, and jump in the air and twist around, attacking dust particles in the air and every other moving object....yes, what a hardship that would be.....(yes, I do have that niggling voice in the back of my mind, that stupid voice of reason that says things like, "what about cleaning up cat poop and hairballs? What about vet bills? What if it is a kitty who only drinks running water out of the sink in our bathroom, like the cat we had for all those years, the one who always knocked on the door so that it was impossible to have the bathroom to oneself....?What if it gets hit by a car, like Norrie Cat, and we have to bury it quick so the kids don't see how mangled she was? " Oh dear, I hate that stupid voice of reason.....

monday....and the natives are restless...

They have this really good idea that they want to go to the drive-in....blah, I don't feel like it....I stayed up too late last night, I need an afternoon coffee.

We went in the pool for a good long time, then I went to pick up a nice Little Tikes playhouse for the little girls, one without a roof. Friends of ours put it out by the road to sell it, and someone cake along and stole the roof off of it! So they gave it to us. Now the little girls have two playhouses on the deck, and they have been fighting over the new one. Sonja BIT Charlotte Claire, so she had to come in and go into her room, no more playhouse. Then Charlotte Claire BIT Jonathan, and she is sitting on the couch, no more playhouse.

So no quiet afternoon here.

We are, however, having a good day. Kathryn just made me a coffee, and we are each having three chocolate mint cookies. The biters are not happy because I have chewed them out, appropriate, eh? Charlotte Claire is sorry, sorry, sorry. hmm. I am glad she is sorry, but she is NOT going back out the the new playhouse yet. (it is one thing to put my foot down, but keeping it down it the hard part.)

I washed lots of clothes and bedding and towels today, it is perfect weather for drying things outside on the deck. We swept up and cleaned up just a bit, and at one point I was getting the vacuum cleaner out and I decided not to. It is summer!

Paul has to go to a meeting tonight, but I am going to make a nice dinner. I have pork chops marinating in lemon pepper sauce. Rice and veggies? I like grilling, now that I have the time to do it, no baby fussing for me...wah...no more baby fussing for me! I would take the baby in a second! But since there is no baby fussing for me these days, it seems easier to do things like grill....and take kids in the pool, and go shopping.....Camille is getting more and more independent and grown-up. She still likes to cuddle with me, in fact this morning she woke up singing and playing with her dolly, and I called her to come into bed with me. We snuggled up under the covers and I showed her pictures on my phone. That is one nice thing about summer days, no hurry to get up.....

Margaret is playing the piano, Joseph is loading the dishwasher, Kathryn and Evelyn are trading silly bands, Suzanne is playing in the playhouse with Camille, Charlotte Claire is sneaking out there, Jonathan is riding the trike, yes, in the house, Sonja is lying on the couch......Mali was considering going for her run, but it is very warm out right now. Benjamin just left with his friend....

My sister is back from her trip to Norway, so we talked on the phone for a long time today. She liked the bread over there, it is hearty and truly whole-grain. She said the warmest it was there was in the low seventies...but it is lovely country and she saw good friends and made new ones. Plus she heard good encouraging things, and she saw many nice prams.

It is so distracting in here, and these distractions have names. The distraction named Kathryn has Camille's princess crown on, the distraction named Evelyn has the phone in her hand and is asking if she can invite her friends over....the distraction named Camille is crying her eyes out.....Suze took her into my room to play night night, but she does not want to play that game. The irony of that is that she is crying because she NEEDS to play that game....oh well. No afternoon quiet today.

some quiet time...

wow, I have not had the house to myself in a long time! Well, they are all here, but they are sleeping. Even Rosie, sprawled at my feet. The rest of them are not sprawled at my feet, they are in their beds. If I were smart and practical, I would be in bed too.

I had a remarkably wonderful evening. It was a spontaneous outing up to Lake Ontario to watch the sunset... my friends Angela and Patty, and I. We sampled some fried food (onion petals, yum!), then after the the pink sun sunk into the water, leaving a sherbet sky, we had ice cream. Then we drove to the grocery store because Paul texted me to "get Pullups", those expensive things that I swore I would never use, that the diaper companies invented and convinced us that we couldn't live without....I have four kids who use them at night.....so naturally, since we were three ladies in a grocery store, we shopped a bit....cereal, a bag of popcorn kernals, some chicken, pork chops...it was great fun with great friends....but at the register I almost cried...there were some people, rather large people, not that I am anyone to judge, but their daughter, who looked to be two or three years old, was so fat she could hardly walk. And this is the sad part: it was after eleven o'clock at night, and they bought her one of those little bottles of spray sugar candy. They were buying ice cream and chips and dip and soda, just junk in their cart. Then they were parked next to us, she was sitting in the back of the cart spraying the sugar stuff into her mouth...I just wanted to cry. It is a free country, people can eat what they want....but this poor little girl.....she is headed for so much suffering.......I know what you're thinking, no, I didn't forget that I just had ice cream and fries.....

Tomorrow is supposed to be ninety degrees again, and sunny. Lovely summer weather, we will stay home and go in the pool....I really need to do some work around here one of these days, too. I did make them a nice dinner tonight, spaghetti, before I went off with my friends....(did I mention how nice it was to go skipping out the door to pick them up? Just me and my purse?)

Well, I am tired and well, just plain tired.....

silly bandz

Trading silly bandz....Kathryn Sonja

Camille

Charlotte Claire

Camille....oh, she is a sweetie....

Silly Band Fever has hit our house....

happy birthday to me!!!

Mali likes ice cream cake... Rosie likes ice cream cake. At least, she thought she might like some....she didn't get any.

She did not take her eyes off Mali...wait, what eyes?

Jonathan is a little brown bear this summer....

What the heck? I am used to finding strange things that NO ONE knows ANYTHING about...then I realized they were trying to feed Kitty water with a dropper....

A birthday picture....




A birthday card....I don't really know what "don't fanny around" means....(although Emily told me that in England "fanny" is a bad word, here it just means rear end or backside.)

So....how can I not have a good day...?