In the Midst of Living

The boys are allowed to watch PBS cartoons each morning while they devour their cereal. This is often how I sneak away to hygienically enhance myself each day.  I turned the Cat in the Hat off for a minute so we could pray together. Coy gave a sweet prayer.  He fills in the end of each of my sentences.  He hits the most important parts:  day,Dad,Mom, Emery, Addie, Dashle, Coy, food, safe, Jesus, amen.  As soon as "amen" was said he excitedly pointed to the TV and said, "up!"  Somehow he believes this to be the magical word for "on" and somehow we follow through without nary a correction.  Dashle realized a part had been skipped in the plot and cried,"That's not the part we were at! You have to go back!"  Apparently he knows there is something to be desired by owning a  DVR or TIVO machine. 

This morning I hit the snooze 3 times.  I heard the girls' alarm go off at some point, but  the apple doesn't fall far from the tree and Emery hit her snooze, too.  Needless to say, but I'm going to say it anyway, we got a late start.  The girls were flustered and worried they would be forking out some dough to hitch a ride to school from their scrupulous mother.  (If they awake at their normal set time and then proceed to dilly and dally, which makes them miss the bus, they are required to each pay a quarter for a ride to school via the family taxi van.).  The song, "Put me in the game coach. I'm ready to play," kept running through my head.  Amidst conversation with the girls the tune kept going and going and going.  I'm pretty sure I didn't dream about Major League Baseball last night.  I told the girls to be diligent, but not to rush. I would not require a penalty fee this morning.  Their late awakening was my fault and mercy would be extended. Obviously this was my bottom of the 9th inning anyway. I have a lot of Murphy's Law floating around in my life.  The boys decided to sleep longer than usual and I had to wake them.  Addie's hair still looked quite ratted even though she made adamant claims of brushing it.  Emery is often insistent about wearing snow pants. She's cold. She's logical.  This meant I had to squat down and help pull her jeans through the bottom of the snow pants. I just had emergency surgery last week so this proved a bit of a challenge.  (More on the "going under the knife" experience later.).  But, this is what makes me a clutch mom on mornings like these...throw anything at me and I'll do my darnedest to knock it out of the park. Or knock the kids' heads so they'll snap out of daydreaming and get a move on it.  It depends on which causes my ears to smoke and my eyes to spit fire more.  Put me in the game coach.

Coy's nose has been running incessantly the last two weeks. I must really love this kid because I'm still addicted to smooching him even though I have to maneuver around his nasal area to stay clear of the slime.  As we knelt for family prayer last night I said to him, "Come kneel down SnotRod."  Mr. Handsome thought it quite humorous and suggested I put it in a post on the blog. I can't think of anything clever to say in regards to Coy's temporary nickname for the constant seepage on his face. So, Mr. Handsome, I put it on the blog. You're welcome. 


I was thrust out of my deep dream around 4am by a soaked up to his shirt and down to his socks 4 year old. Cold plus a stinky wet apparently isn't very tolerable.  After the morning mad rush of loading the clan in the van we returned home so I could survey  the damage on the D-man's bed. My mother would have taken care of the soaked sheets in the middle of the night and changed the bedding out.  Sadly, I am not as devoted to mothering as my mother or maybe I'm not as devoted to cleanliness. Whatever.  When Dashle wets the bed he gets the VIP spot in a sleeping bag next to my side of the bed.  I was disappointed to find the brand new WATERPROOF mattress cover was not WATERPROOF enough for Dashle's night time drizzles.  Thank you Walmart for compelling me to pay $20 on something which was falsely advertised as to its effectiveness.  Did I mention I really love to clean mattresses?  Enter sarcastic smirk here.  I guess it's time to Saran Wrap the mattress and Dashle's hips before he goes to bed each night.