young maid

Last week we started off on Monday with a messy house.  Seems like Mondays are always messy.  I knew I had a full week ahead, and was already tired.  Not a good combination, I'm afraid.  Besides that, sometimes I feel like shouldn't have to do all the work, you know.  So.  Being that we were in somewhat of a desparate situation, I devised a game.

It was awesome if I must say so myself.  (And I must.  Cuz I don't think anyone else around here thought it was very awesome.)



First, I had to set the stage.  I announced with great enthusiasm, "After the Family Home Evening lesson I have a fun game planned!"
Yayyyy!  (This was very exciting because we don't do FHE games, or fun treats that match the lesson, or anything else cool like that.  We just have a lesson.  Period.  And sometimes we throw in an ice cream cone if we're feeling crazy.)  After my little announcement, excitement was high.

As promised, we had a brief but meaningful discussion led by dad.  Then?  The game!!!  "OK, mom!  It's time for the game now!  Remember?"

Oh yeah, I remembered. 



Here's how the game went.  "This is such a fun game.  I made it up myself, and it's really fun.  You know the game 'Old Maid'?  It's kind of like that.  But this game is called 'Young Maid'!  Doesn't that sound fun?  It's really fun!  (Insert big, convincing smile here.)  This is how it works.  We are going to have two teams.  I've got this list of 'tasks', and you 'get' to be 'young maids'!  And who ever gets their list done happily wins!  Doesn't this sound fun?"

Silence.  Blank stares.


"And if we are all happy while we play the game, we will all get ice cream!  Won't this be fun?!!!"



They loved it.   Oh, they might have resisted a little at first.  There might have even been a few, "Mom!  This isn't a fun game!" remarks.  (Which I contradicted with an oh, contrare!  it's fun for me!!!!)  Dad might have even been less than enthused.  But really, my game was a hit.  Half hour "young maid" = semi-tidy house.  We wrapped up the night with ice cream in our freshly cleaned kitchen and I, at least, was happy as a clam.

I think I'm gonna market this idea.

mr. sam goes to work with daddy

 

 

 

 

When Courtney had to drive around and check out some jobs one day, he asked Sam if he wanted "to work" with him.  You've never seen a little boy get dressed and out to his carseat so fast.  I have a feeling that working with daddy is going to get increasingly exciting as time goes by.  What little boy can resist a ride on daddy's "quiptment"?

and then he proceeds to use his shirt as a pocket

Can I just say that we find the coolest stuff inside Sam's clothes?

the best medicine

The other morning got off to a rotten start.  I felt more nauseous than normal and had a pounding headache to go with it.   After we got the big girls off, it was just Sam, Claire, me, and my throw-up bucket.  Oh, and The Little Mermaid.  Thank goodness for Ariel on rotten mornings is what I say. 

Well, it turned out that I got feeling just better enough to do some running around because I'm a pretty good chauffeur like that.  Still, I felt pretty icky.  I walked back into the house after ballet lessons that afternoon, trying to rally myself for the whole dinner and bedtime routine.  What I found was Miss Claire, gussied up in a baby blue ballgown, high heels, and a fur shawl.  Of course, I proceeded to tell her how lovely she looked.

"Why, thank you.  I was going to marry Sam, but he wasn't good enough for me."


I laughed.  Out loud.  Laughter really is the best medicine. 

i told him so

We've had soooo much snow this year.  (Thankfully, it's almost gone.) 

It must be said that I'm a fair weather fan regarding snow.  I like it from about oh, lets say about December 1st through New Years.  And then, I'm kind of like, okay, that's good- I'm ready for Spring.  That wasn't exactly how it went down this year.  That being said, it was pretty fun for the kids.  I was really holding out for a snow day a few times, but grrrrr.  I don't know what it would take for us to get a snow day around here.  I would have just kept the kiddos home to play for a day, but knew they'd be missing a bunch of days for our family vacation.  It just seems like there isn't enough time in the day.  I know education is great and all that, but that darn school day gets in the way of being kids sometimes.



Quite a few years ago Courtney fulfulled one of my deepest wishes and got me some cross country skis for Christmas.  We went only once and I loved it but then I got pregnant, and had a baby, and then I got pregnant and had another baby, and- well, you know the rest.  So I've mostly just puttered around the fields with my skis.  The last few winters I've tried to tell Courtney that I thought the kids would love to learn how, but he was not a believer.  Thought they'd hate it, he did.

So.  Then Grandpa J. lets Ryenne borrow his old skis and Kate tries out mine and they love it.  Even Emmy stuffs tissue in the boots so they would stay on and falls around the yard on my skis.  (It was pretty hand actually, because whenever she fell and got all tangled up, she'd just pull her feet out of the boots and get them all straightened out again.)  And then I got to tell Courtney "I told you so", which always brings me great joy.  I also make him say, "yes, you were right and I was wrong" because I like the sound of that sometimes.