Last Week

Just when some of you thought I was back blogging more regularly again, I went and disappeared. Last week just ended up being a little different week. If you're interested in reading about it, I'll enlighten you in this post, and if you're not, feel free to move along to a blog that has far more depth or entertainment than I'll ever provide. I won't be offended :o).

Last week Sunday, I went to bed with the distinct feeling that there would be no school on Monday. Sure enough, the freezing warning had just ended very shortly after all the buses for our county were cancelled. In the country cancelled buses means no school, which in turn means that I had seven children home. There are still days where I am floored by the fact that I have seven children and Monday was one of them.

Although I had a gut feeling that Monday would be a home day, my brain did not bother to process past that point, so my entire day was thrown off. I accomplished very little if anything. I think in the end, I gave up trying to do anything of great significance and spent most of the day refereeing, knitting, and reading. Had I planned on that I would not have felt so frustrated by the end of the day, but unfortunately, sometimes I am not much of a forward thinker.

Tuesday arrived with every intention of going to my morning Bible Study group, but those plans changed too. This change was my own decision though, and was an enjoyable day. We all slept in which posed a bit of a problem as Beans was supposed to be at school at 7:20 am to go with her team mates to the Big City for a basketball tournament.  Let me preface this next part to say that this girl can not stand basketball. (She comes by it honestly as I never liked it either. It's an aggressive sport with no logic or order to it for some of us with particular thinking/learning styles.) She calls it, "the dumbest sport ever." These feelings about basketball played out for days before the tournament. She was whiny, weepy, argumentative, and super sensitive about everything. The day after the tournament she was her normal happy self again. Pretty crazy! Makes me wonder whether she should have had to play at all.

Anyways, after getting her grumbling and complaining self out the door in the nick of time to be at school, a friend and I decided we would go to the tournament and watch our kids. I was a little worried Beans would have a meltdown at the tourney, so I thought it might be beneficial to be there. Thankfully she was in a better mood by the time us moms arrived. We left shortly after noon as I had to be home to make phone calls to parents about when their children would be arriving back at the school for pick up post tourney,  and my friend had to take one of her other children for a dr.'s appointment.

In the evening our family had a visit with our church district elder. It was very positive and very encouraging for us as both as the Engineer and I are in a place right now where we are not involved in any extracurricular church life, and I personally still battle a little bit with feeling guilty about that. We were in fact encouraged not to be involved for a couple more years -- unless it's something we really want to do. It was good to hear our elder say that because even though I know I need to be home with the kids more than anything right now, I always tend to think I have to be involved in other things as well when really, I just love being home.

Just before our elder left, I had to clean up vomit, not from one of our children, but from a friend who was over yet. (Remember the Ebb and Flow). Par for the course of kids. Her mom arrived to pick her up just after things were cleaned up and I dashed out the door for a school committee meeting for which I was very late. We rarely double book ourselves, but this time it happened. I got home just before midnight. Normally these meetings are done before nine, but we're working on a big fundraising project, and we had to get stuff done!

Wednesday was spent cooking and baking for a few different things. The Engineer and I had a company dinner to attend, so I had to make sure the children were fed. We were also going to be gone two evenings later in the week, so I needed to have meals started for those nights, and a friend of ours slipped on their ice rink she was soaking and fractured her skull. Yes, you read that right. That's how quickly and strangely accidents can happen. She is coming along, but needs lots of prayer for healing and patience. She's normally a very busy Momma!  So, I was making a meal for her and her family. The day flew by and it was certainly nice after cooking all day to be eating an elegant dinner out with adults and adult conversations for the first time in a verrrrryyy loooooong time.

On Thursday, Bub and Peach each wrote their last exam of the semester, and as promised we went out for lunch (just Mc Donalds -- there is no Chick-Fil-A in Canada) and did some shopping. I think Bub is more of a shopper than Peach and I, but happily they were both able to get all the things they needed for their new semester and we were home and had things put away before the rest of the brood came trotting up the lane from the bus.

Friday was do a couple quick (if you can call my washing machine quick *eyes rolling*) loads of wash, pack, get a few things organized yet, scrub a couple bathrooms, and give final instructions when the younger girls arrived home, so we could set out for the north country and some skiing with our youth group. A big thank you to Gramma and Grampa who looked after the four youngest (Beans was at her friend's house), so we could have fun with the teens. We had a van full of ten youth. What a fantastic bunch of kids! Everyone had a great time, no one was injured, and it was a long rather treacherous drive home at times, but it was so good to get away for two days.

Peach and two of her best friends.

Sunday we were in church in our small town as Bub is a Junior Counselor in the boy's Cadet Corps there and it was their special Sunday. I was seriously hurtin', but made it to church too. I was very happy that their church starts at 10:00 and not 9:30 like ours. It gave me extra time to duck walk between heads of hair and other things needing to be done before church.

The afternoon was quiet. One girl was at a friend's. The rest of the children were busy reading, playing, and in a couple cases napping. I napped and read, the Engineer napped and worked (sadly yes, he has to work on Sunday lately).

Now it's Tuesday. I'm still hurtin' but tomorrow, I'm sure I'll be almost back to normal. Well, there you go. That's why I've been absent again.