Day in the Life--March 16

I woke up this morning to find my den, kitchen, and parts of the hallway entangled in James' "booby trap." He had taken a ball of Dori's yarn and wound it ever-so-carefully around every possible knob, handle, or hook he could find. This is my future CIA agent, I suppose. He does make me smile.

It was cold when I woke up, 60 degrees to be exact and I decided to start a fire in the wood stove, even though I knew it was supposed to warm up later. I couldn't resist the opportunity to take the chill off in the family room and kitchen because I really don't like a cold morning. The fire did not take long to get going and we all sat down to eat a quick breakfast of cereal and coffee, of course, for me. We had our Bible reading time and I reminded the children that our friends Mrs. Ann, Mrs. Pam, and their children would be coming today for a visit, so they needed to get there morning chores and school done quickly in order to have plenty of time to play.

I checked on the fire after breakfast and then cleaned Judson off and dressed him for the day. I started a load of darks and started running the mental checklist of things I needed to accomplish before my friends arrived.

Dori and Micah worked on their rooms for a while, since they did not want to be embarrassed by their friends seeing a messy room. This always work in my favor, when people visit. James tagged along with me most places I went to which included my bedroom to make the bed and tidy, and of course, get dressed for the day. I used some diaper wipes to "dust" all the flat surfaces in our bedroom and put away a bunch of clothes.

Dori and Micah got set up with their schooling in the kitchen and surprised me by completing their lessons without too much involvement on my part. I checked Micah's phonics and discovered he had a problem with one section, so we worked on fixing that and he went back to his room to continue straightening.

I forgot to mention that Judson hung out in baby jail for a while. That is the playpen for any non-parents out there. He had his bottle (I know, I'm a bad mom) and his books and a few toys so he was content.

Dori got angry with James over the yarn incident that occurred earlier and I had to break up an explosion. There were many more explosions to come between Micah and James, but that is normal.

I was able to quick clean both bathrooms of anything unsightly (cringe) and freshen everything, thankfully. I vacuumed Micah's very clean room and three other rooms, and thanked God again for my Dyson.

James spent most of his morning time playing with the playmobil and fighting with Micah. Then they played together. Then they fought. Then they played together. Then they punched each other. Whew. BOYS.

Dori quietly sneaked away into her now clean room and worked on various "projects" she has going on. These include knitting, scrapbooking, writing, journaling, reading, making a purse, and beading. She is a regular Martha Stewart!

Around 10am I frosted the cake I made my friend Ann. Today was her birthday, so a cake was needed! After that, I released Judder from baby jail and let him roam and play, which he did nicely. I stole a moment in time (or several moments) and went to the piano to work on a song I recently wrote. I stayed there for a while....well, at least until I heard screaming coming from the family room.

Jason called to check in.

Tried to drink more coffee but realized we were out of creamer.

Called Ann and begged her to stop and pick some creamer up for me.

She agreed.

And then around 11:30 the children began the incessant, "when will they be here." This lasted every 3 minutes until our friends thankfully arrived at 12:30. I was so happy when they got here.

My friend Ann made pulled pork BBQ and it was SO GOOD. ALL CAPS so good. My friend Pam brought cole slaw that was really great, too, and she won major brownie points with Jason, b/c she left him a bowl.

We all gathered and ate and it was just so delicious. The boys commenced sword fighting and pirating and robin-hood-ing. James broke up the fun every so often with cries that someone was being unfair to him. Poor guy, he struggles handling life right now. Such a sensitive lil feller.

We ladies chatted and laughed and had a great visit. It is so nice to get together during the day with other women. I was so blessed to relax and have a good time with Pam and Ann.

Sometime after 3pm the sun peaked through the clouds and we all rejoiced! The children went outside and ran through the woods, leaving poor Maggie crying her eyes out and scared. Dori rescued her by running to me and Ann telling us that something was wrong. Of course, Ann and I thought the worst and took off like two wild women screeching and yelling to the top of our lungs and surely raising some eyebrows at my neighbors house. HA! Ann grabbed her cell phone just in case we needed 911...she's so on top of things like that.....so unlike me!

We were greatly relieved to find out that Maggie had only been scared, but the boys got a tongue lashing about leaving her alone and everyone had to come in closer to the house so we could see them.

After Ann left, I got the children seated at the kitchen table for dinner and Jason came home. I shoved a quick bite in and then left for music practice at our church. We are doing an Easter musical presentation, so we've been having extra practices on Monday evenings.

I left a tired Jason in charge around 6 and took Dori with me, because she was invited to spend the night with a friend.

I met my friend Angela in the parking lot of the church and said good bye to a very excited Dori.
Music practice took about an hour and a half and I enjoyed it, as I always do. I wear these really goofy looking headphones so I can hear the keyboard and sometimes we play tracks and I can listen through my headphones really, really loud. Tonight we were listening to a rockin' song called "Hosanna" and I was kind of zoning out with it so loud in my ears. It was so good!

After practice, I called to check on J and everything was fine. It was quiet. I drove home and loved and kissed all my boys.

It has been a great day. I'm thankful to God for this day.