Didn't even have to use my AK

Today I managed to get the kids on the bus. It was mostly out of necessity thought since I needed to get to the doctor's office before 7:30 to get a same-day appointment.

Success! I got an early appointment and went to the library to work for 5 hours while I waited on my lab results and my prescription.Kinda sad since it's my last day of work that I know of for a while. It was a beautiful day out today and I always enjoy driving something other than the minivan, so aside from the reason for the trip, it was quite a nice drive :)

It's a Monday so when the kids got home we worked on homework.  Well, R & C worked on homework and O spent several hours being distracted.

I built the kids a fort while they were doing their homework.  O moved in there to work but R took it over when the younger two started getting reading for bed. I came back in hearing the sounds of a mumbled out-of-tune version of Rock You Like a Hurricane coming from the fort. I sneaked around and snapped this:

Yes, his head is blurry because he was headbanging to the Scorpions. While playing a logic puzzle.

Here's a better view inside the fort:

After I took these pictures. O mused, "I have noticed you've been taking a lot of pictures lately. It's because Dad's gone isn't it?" I explained that he was right because Daddy misses us and he wants to still see what's going on and what we're up to.  

Of course when R found out the Pats were playing Monday Night Football, he insisted that he be able to watch the whole game so he could tell Daddy how the game went. Well played, Dad.  Congratulations on raising yourself a sports buddy. :)

Best laid plans

Today was a beautiful day so the boys and I took advantage of it and we all worked on some outdoor chores.  I started out giving each one their own assignment. 

O was sweeping the front porch, removing the cobwebs and picking the leaves out of the flower beds.

R was assigned the front yard.

And C and I were to tackle the side yard together.

Well crap. Where's C?

He ended up in the front. 

And then there were several fights.

And then everyone ended up everywhere and no one ended up doing anything. A cute chore list and tiny child-sized rakes didn't prevent this great idea from failing. 

So I scrapped the assignment and we all did all the areas together. We raked every inch of the yard and bagged it all up, ending up with five big bags.  They hated every second of it and protested the whole way. Until the last 20 minutes or so, when they accepted it and started making it into a fun game.

The kids ended up doing such great work that after our fantastic dinner of leftovers we all played a family game of Mario Party after showers and pjs and they all went to bed with no issue and on time. All's well that ends well :)

Childhood karma

It is amazing how soothing sitting next to a sleeping baby while I type this is, even if that "baby" is 6 1/2. :)

Today we all woke up surprisingly well, especially considering we all had a pretty late night. O was up earliest as he had received prior permission to play computer when he woke up. He gladly took the opportunities afforded the early riser while R was out of the competition at his sleep over and played Civilization for several hours.  They have had so little screen time the last year, especially compared to their peers that it's just okay.  It makes it an even easier decision when I consider how much O takes after his Dad when it comes to hobbies, more specifically of the electronic kind. It could also be considered a quasi-educational game as well I guess.

R came home around 9:30 from a friend's house.  I let them play Wii for a little while while I finished getting the things together for the box to send out to APO-Land.  We drove out to the post office and I collected pity-laden stares from others at the post office.  From there we went to Game Stop and Pet Smart.  There were some super super adorable kittens there! I feel bad that the kids can't have a pet right now. They sure do want one.

From there we went to Chick-Fil-A for lunch while I had a meeting with a friend about the new military non-profit, Ally Research (you can see more about it here: http://allyresearch.org) Afterward we went to Starbucks with a buy-one-get-one holiday drink offer.  I couldn't pass it up when I had been dying to try out these Starbucks Butterbeer recipes with the kids.  This was the only way I could do it!  R was the only one who liked them though, which made me wonder if he was just sucking it up only for the Potter factor. O also took this time to mention he was having a really horrible day and so I agreed with him. After all, who can bear a day filled with hours of computer games, a pet store visit, a spicy chicken sandwich lunch and some playplace time, a new Wii game and a whipped cream covered beverage at Starbucks?

This whole episode made me think a few things:
1. It must be absolute torture to listen to me complain about things all the time
2. God gives you children with your faults so you can see just how ridiculous you are in time to realize you've wasted your life being ridiculous.
3. We should all call our mothers and apologize

We came home after that and the kids played wii while I scrubbed the pot I inadvertently burned macaroni in AGAIN yesterday when I was trying to fix lunch for the kids while being on a work call. I am now grounded from making macaroni unless I remove it from the stove, turn the burner off, and set a timer. I took the opportunity to also scrub the stove clean. Yuck.

Dinner was vegetables and mac & cheese (that I tried yesterday but failed). So so so thankful my kids devour their vegetables!!! Even plain steamed Normandy Blend with no salt or butter. Seriously... how did I get so lucky?!?

We ended our moderately pleasant night with a few rounds of bedtime math and some cuddles.