School Papers

I am constantly amazed and frustrated by the amount of paper that my children bring home each night. Most of it appears to be busy work, but you never know how much that busy work means to a child. I try hard to keep a few things, but many need to be discreetly moved to the recycle box during the night. Sarah comes home the other day with no less than 12 different paper items all of which she is extremely proud of. I asked which things she wanted to keep in the keep box for school papers. She carefully went through the pile and moves all of the papers to the keep pile. After that she says, "Can I have my own file folder box to keep things in, I just can't trust you, you throw things away?" Nothing like a child to keep you honest. Meanwhile that trader of an oldest child is discreetly laughing at my situation from behind her back. Her own box seems like a good idea to me.

Silver Lining

We were planning a great trip to Kentucky for Thanksgiving. After having had a sick baby and myself being totally laid up for a day and a half that felt like a week, I dragged myself from the bed and began to pack for the trip. I accomplished miracles. I packed everything and left the house in decent order, better than before illness. We picked Jay up from the airport and were on our way. No real traffic for the Wednesday before Thanksgiving. We made it to the West side of Charlottesville, almost 3 hours from home when the baby threw up and we turned around and came home. It was very sad and many tears were shed, but there was a silver lining to this dark cloud. It is Sunday night now and our Christmas Tree is up, there is a pretty new wreath on the door, our furniture is rearranged and looks better than it has since we moved in, I have a new rug in the family room and those are just the obvious improvements. Now the baby still doesn't seem quite right and I still have an iffy stomach, but we accomplished much. Oh and not to forget, Jay and my dad completed the shingles on half of the garage. We did very well.

In Sickness and In Health

Jay has been able to come home and join us every weekend since we left him in Rhode Island at the end of the summer. We have been having a wonderful time. We work hard most of Saturday and watch a movie and football Saturday night. Then Sunday he plays games with the children and lets me have a bit of alone time with my pillow. It really has been good. Since last weekend had an extra day for Veteran's Day and next weekend is a long weekend for Thanksgiving, Jay didn't come home this weekend. We did well without him, no tears since he will be here Wednesday night. Last night, I was working hard on the laundry and had just told the big kids to go to bed when at 9:15 what should I hear but the sounds of throwing up. Nathan was doing the projectile thing big time. I won't go into details because that is just gross, but I will say that this is why children should be raised with two parents. There are other good reasons besides sickness, but that one right there seems good enough for me. One parent can't clean the child, comfort the child, rock and sooth the child and do the laundry at the same time. By the way, my washer takes 52 minutes to do a super duty wash and 2nd rinse. I have timed it now. We made it through and I received lots of good snuggles from the sick baby who still isn't feeling great. I just couldn't believe of all the weekends Jay missed this one. He was very sympathetic over the phone though.

Dancing in Red High Heels

Last year inspired by Kelly Pickler's song Red High Heels I went out and bought a pair of Jessica Simpson 4 inch red high heels. They are my daughter's favorite thing to play dress up in. Rarely are those red shoes neatly in my closet. Most of the time they are in different rooms scattered throughout the house. Today tops it all. Thursdays are crazy here. Dance and piano follow school very fast on Thursdays. I told Sarah to go to the bathroom and wait for me. Bathroom time is very important right after school and there is usually a line. So while Sarah waited for me she got undressed to get ready for dance. I found her practicing her dance completely naked in my red high heels with some random jewelery on. My first thought is I can't believe this, it is so funny I need to get the camera. Quickly followed by my second thought, I can't take a picture of this. So my third thought was I have to share this moment. No picture to go with this blog.