Close of business thoughts for today...

It's been a productive day but I'm pooped! Here are the highlights.

7:00 - 10:00 Try to feed, clean, and dress kids in semi-matching, semi-clean clothes in order to take a picture for my mom for Mother's Day.

10:00 Load three kids into the van to go and take the picture. It was like having Laurel, Hardy, and Sponge Bob in a photo shoot. Without my realization, Grant was pondering the shoot part (as seen in this photo). In less than 15 minutes, I had over 100 shots and probably only about 5 that were truly gift giving material. Oh well. I checked it off of the list!

11:00 - 1:00 Time warp sucked this part of my day away. I really can't account for it! Hmmmm....

1:00 - 3:00 Nap time for everyone including myself! This was a much needed luxury! Whew!

3:00 Hair cut (For the first time in my adult life, the silly little smock they ask you to wear when you get a hair cut buttoned all the way down. Wow! The stress diet beats out Weight Watchers for sure! Maybe I should devise a point system for different stressors. Annie having a tantrum would probably be at least 2 points while dodging flying chairs would be more like a 5 point splurge! I also was able to buy my first pair of Old Navy jeans off of the rack back in December. It's the little victories that make me so happy)!

4:00 Begin planning dinner. Kids begged to go "out." Do you know what it's like trying to eat out with Annie? Even when I'm not outnumbered, it's still not fun! I succumbed to the peer pressure though and we looked through the coupon box, got online, planned what each person would eat, wrote it down, and headed for the restaurant. You laugh at my lack of spontaneity but everyone in the restaurant was very grateful that we had a plan to get in, eat, and get out as quick as possible!

5:30 Groceries, ugh!

6:00 - 8:00 The kids just needed to run wild for a while and I was tired of them doing it inside the house and adding to the chaos! They say, "If you love it, set it free," right? I set all three kids free on the playground and was determined not to strap anyone back into the van until I'd seen them at least yawn three times and beg to leave at least once.

8:00 I realized that the groceries were still in the back of the van. Oops! Believe it or not, everything frozen was still in a semi-solid state and the milk was still cool to the touch so we're just going to pretend like there was no extended field trip involved for the frozen stuff!

8:15 Had to run by dad's to pick up some rope for Grant to work on making knots for Scouts. I was very concerned when the first thing he did was to make a noose. After he goes to sleep tonight, those ropes are going to disappear for my own sake! :) At some point, though, I realized the "rope stop" was taking much longer than intended. Annie's 7:00 bedtime was long gone, too! I gave her a quick bath at dad's just to rinse the grit off of her from the playground and then stuffed everyone back into the van.

8:45 Drove the long way home with the sunroof open and my tunes blaring. As Annie drifted in between la-la land and the reality of knowing she was exhausted, I was tempted to just keep driving and enjoying the peacefulness. I do some of my best thinking in the car under those conditions (usually minus the kids but, hey, it works)! Tonight's train of thought revolved around making an analogy to my current mess and a hit and run accident. One car accidentally (hopefully) crashes into another one causing damage. However, the one with the least damage flees the scene leaving the injured car to deal with a wrecker, insurance, and possible injuries. Hmmm.... Not sure this fits perfectly but it sure helped me file some thoughts in my head into neater piles. Kind of scary to realize that these were the thoughts in my mind as I was driving around with all three kids asleep in the car!

9:15 Everyone is showered and in bed. Whew! Now I can move on to checking off the last few items for the night. Laundry and dishes. Or, maybe I'll just leave them until after church tomorrow and see if the house keeping fairy will stop by tonight. I keep hanging the door sign out requesting service but for some reason, she keeps skipping this house. I'm wondering if I've been black-balled in house keeping fairy land!

Note to a weird-o:
If my daily notes as to my whereabouts and musing bug you, I apologize. Actually, no I don't. Just click that little X button at the top of your screen and stop reading if I'm bugging you! I make note of this because I've gotten several comments over the last few days and weeks that are almost of a threatening nature regarding my blog. Since those comments are anonymous, I'm not sure who they are coming from (duh, isn't that what anonymous means?). However, my daily babbling here is simply therapy for me. It helps me take my mounting emotions and thoughts and dump them into one area, organize them, and then move on. I'm not posting this stuff in order to have a following of folks feeling sorry for me. I have no need for anyone's pity or even charity. It took two of us to get into this mess and I will gladly admit to my share of the issues. However, no where along the way have I solicited help or anything else. So, in closing, to the nut case that continues to post nasty notes on this blog that I have to delete in the wee hours of the morning, feel free to continue doing this if this is your method of therapy. However, I will continue this path of self-therapy, as well, since most therapists in the greater Atlanta area would take a look at me and run for the hills!

If you're not the weird-o stalking me on my blog, then I apologize for ranting. Why are people so ridiculous? As the kids watched some show on Animal Planet last night, there were two wild cats (who knows what kind) fighting each other. They were ready to fight to the death. Dasha was mortified. However, I think humans are even worse. They don't fight to the death. They just fight to maim!

OK, I've officially decided that the load of laundry in the dryer will stay there for the night and the dishes in the sink will just get an extra few hours to soak. I'm going to bed.

Happy Mother's Day to everyone!