Wednesday, May 23, 2007

What a Day!!



So, one of the things that held me back from blogging previously to this is that all the blogs I have been lurking around and reading have been full of "meat." I didn't feel that I could offer "meat" to any reader because I'm still stuck on "baby food" around here!! I just read Liz's post about Laurel's baptism (which choked me up, especially since I couldn't be there!), and I realized once again, that most bloggers deliver "meat." I still want to do this, so I'll just give you the warning now: most of the time you will be reading "baby food" and maybe some day ... some day there might be "meat" again in my written words.... Until then, here's my day.

Our friend, Jenny, is expecting a baby any day. Knowing how difficult it is to continue to care for toddlers while at the end of a pregnancy, I offered to take two-year-old, Megan, for her today while she went to her doctor's appointment (hopefully for the last time since the baby is due soon!) and then suggested that she just stay here until Chris is off work and can come pick her up on his way home. Last week when she was here, the kids had such a great time and I figured it would be the same today. Well, today is also a very beautiful day outside! I HAD to get out there and finish planting some flowers and some of our vegetables (carrots, zucchini, cucumbers, beets...the peas, beans, onions, garlic and spinach are already sprouting!). I'm thankful today that the boys are early risers because we got all the planting and watering done before Megan came.

Besides offering to keep Megan for the day, I also promised Jenny that I would have supper ready for Chris to take home with him tonight. I started that this morning BEFORE the boys woke up! Can you believe that I just now got it done and it's almost 3:00 in the afternoon! All I needed to do was shred some cheese, boil some noodles, open a can of cream of mushroom soup and cook a bit of chicken and onions in a pan. Who would have thought that it would take me EIGHT whole hours to do that?! Sigh. What took me so long? I'm not sure. Maybe it was the six dirty diapers, four changes of clothes, ten fights that had to be broken up, one very banged up shin to be "rubber banded" (Timothy's word for Band-Aid), one preschool, two toddler and one infant lunch to be prepared, served, monitored, and cleaned up. Maybe it was the intense need for dress-up outfits to be brought out, fought over, put on and played with, or the Wiggles game that someone forgot to explain to Megan and is now missing 1/3 of it's pieces. Maybe it's because Timothy decided at naptime that he needed to hide in the bathroom closet, and the shower in our bedroom, and under the bed, and into Christopher's room, except that he was snagged by me before he could get in there. Maybe it was the laundry that kept buzzing at me from the washer and dryer all morning or the fly that needed to be captured before Stephen could re-enter the house (Go figure! There's more outside where he was hanging out waiting for me to exterminate one fly!) Who really knows what it was that caused me to take eight hours to make one simple and easy to make casserole. All I know is that I also promised Jenny dessert ... so I'm going to pull out the watermelon and give her half. That's easy enough.

On the positive side, I was able to do a lot of good things during those eight hours. I got to plant flowers with my boys and explain how God created plants to need dirt, water and sun to grow, but people need food and water (not dirt!). I got to watch them get excited about putting zucchini seeds in the ground and then cover them with dirt. I got to help them fill up the watering can with our rain water and show them where to pour it ... and watched them as they had a blast pouring it into their own dirt piles to make muddy rivers. I got to giggle with Stephen when he climbed onto the couch for his rest time and we both heard the TV turn on spontaneously and we were looking all around to see who did it. We never did figure that one out. I got to put the cow mask on Timothy and run around the house moo-ing with him. I got to laugh with Megan while she bonked my head with a balloon and giggled like it was the funniest thing she'd ever seen. I got to carry Christopher outside and show him the birdies and the flies and the flowers and the other kids. Ahh, yes. I DID get a lot done today ... just not what I had on my list.

So as for the meat here ... all I can offer you today is a bit of cooked chicken that finally did end up in my casserole.

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