a good day

Yesterday was a good day.

Claire slept through the night, hooray!  When we woke up, I was telling Courtney how it  seemed like she hadn't slept through the night in forever.  He laughed and said, "What's it been, a week?"  Well it seems like it's been forever, so there.  (I don't know where Ryenne gets her drama from).

Speaking of Claire and Ryenne, I'm thinking we are nearly mended from our tonsil foray.  No meds yesterday, and the two of them pretty much ate whatever they wanted yesterday (as opposed to nothing, which is what they've been eating for the past week).  Plus, we didn't even have one incident of daughter number one clutching her throat, writhing on the ground, crying/moaning, "I felt better when I had my tonsils inside of me!"  Hallelujah for that.

But that's not all to our good day, it gets even better.  I went outside early to mow the lawn and tame the weeds.  Believe you me, the weeds needed taming!  (Before I go on, I just have to say that Courtney hates it when I mow the lawn when I am nine months pregnant.  He insists that he do it, but I do it anyway.  He is powerless to my charms (or is it my will?).  I tell him not to worry, I'm just going to get a shirt that says "MY HUSBAND MAKES ME DO THIS".) 

Anyway, about our good day.  Before I headed outside, I left the girls a list of jobs that needed to be done.  Can I just say that this slave working thing is no picnic?  No picnic indeed.  Many a time I think of what my sister-in-law once told me, "A lazy mom does everything herself".  Amen to that.  Sometimes I am quite sure it would be easier to send everyone out to play while I worked in quiet solitude and got it all done the way I wanted.  The first time.  But yesterday?  The girls outdid themselves!  After working up a sweat, I came inside to a clean house!  Amazing, it was!  Other than a few arguments that required a referee in the early moments, and a bare-naked Claire running around outside who had to be corralled and pantied, all went smoothly.  And chores almost never go smoothly.  What's more, they not only did their jobs, but they did them well!  I didn't have to send anyone back for a second try!  AND.  Ryenne cleaned the bathrooms, which were not on the list.  AND.  The kitchen looked glorious.  It has never looked glorious after being on "the list".  Not on the first try, anyway.

I was praising their efforts to Courtney last night and he said, "See!  All the tears are worth it."  (By tears, he means the "Mom!  Why do we have to do everything?  Can't we ever have a day to just relax?" kind of tears.  Mostly, the girls think I derive some sick sense of satisfaction by watching them work their poor little fingers to the bone.)  So, when he said that I thought to myself, "Yes!"  Today was a little payday.  Even if I only have one of those every so often, it was sure fancy of the girls to make it happen.

I want to remember it, so you can bet I'm gonna write it down. 

Wait, there's more!  The girls had friends over, which we haven't had time for all summer.  This makes them happy, which makes me happy.  We've needed a good, old-fashioned summer day.

PLUS.  We had a party last night at our house for Shawn and Kelsey's friend, Nigel who has been visiting from Australia.  Nigel is an old (meaning in-the-past, not over-the-hill) missionary companion of Shawn's who comes to spend his "holiday" here.  (In the past three weeks they have squeezed in Lake Powell, Grand Canyon, Las Vegas, and NYC.  Can you blame him for equating those two with the word 'holiday'?)   He is leaving today and so they held a barbecue on our patio in his honor. 

It was fun and it felt like summer.  Grilling, watermelon, and kids running across the lawn at dusk.  We had a great time, and last night I thought to myself, "We created a night for the girs that felt like summer". 

I thought I'd better write it down.

On a side note, Ryenne met Nigel at Grandpa's shop a week or two ago.  Besides being quite taken with his cool accent, she thought he was very nice and funny.  She came home and asked excitedly, "Mom!  Do you know who Nigel is?"  To which, of course I smugly replied, "Well, yeah.  The seagull from Finding Nemo."  Then she rolled her eyes (she is eleven, you know) and said, "No Mom!  Not that Nigel, Shawn's friend Nigel!"   For a minute, I thought he may have gotten his nick-name from the movie, being that he is from Australia and all.  Nope.  Nigel is his real name (his parents are English).  And now that I've met him, I agree with Ryenne.  He comes complete with a cool accent, and he's funny, and he's super nice.  We had a great night.

So a day in review:  No sick kids.  My slave working gig seems to be working out after all.  And a fun night complete with everything summer.  Plus, the guest of honor was a complete hit.  The girls think he is the coolest thing to ever happen to the U-S-of A and hope he comes for holiday every year.  A good day all the way around.

I'm not done yet!  Last night as we laid in bed, I asked Courtney if he'd take me on a hot date this weekend.  (I'm forward like that).  He wondered if I maybe wanted to go to a movie.  I can't remember the last time we went to a movie, but I told him I'd be thrilled with dinner and Wal-Mart, if that's all he could muster up.  He chuckled and said that he thought maybe I had something more romantic in mind.  "Heck!" I told him.  Give me a date, and I'll be so happy that even Wal-Mart sounds good.  I'm nothing if not easy to please.  So, to top it all off,  I ended the day looking forward to Friday night and pondering about what we'll do on our hot date . . .

Not every day is like that, you know.  But yesterday outdid itself.  As my mom would say, you can bet-your-bottom-dollar that I'll want to remember a day like that.

And so by golly, I'm gonna write it down!