The facts: I love my children dearly. I am grateful I get to be home with them most of the time. I wouldn’t change my life a bit. I admit that while I may complain about the school dropoff/pickup routine, sadly, I find myself missing it. For one simple reason- adult contact and conversation and above all, commiseration.
The evidence:
-Monday, chose to take all four children to lunch and shopping at Costco with my oldest sister and her five children. Highlights: Jimmy and my nephew Stefan playing chicken with customers pushing their fullcarts out of the checkout lines while the rest of us scarfed down our pizza. My sister witnessed two ladies cursing each other out in front of the food court area to the point the manager had to break it up. Was it worth it? Definitely- where else can you feed 9 children and two adults for under $15?!
-Wednesday, ended up sitting through an alarm system salesman’s close to one and a half hour pitch for us to upgrade our system amidst screaming children who were leaping around the couch while the dog barked at the lunch leftovers that were still out on the counter. Highlights: I am fairly certain that the young whipper snapper of a salesman equated my life to when he ran an afterschool program at a YMCA in Boston; the other young guy who installed the upgraded equipment got to witness me plead with Jimmy to keep his shorts on because he wanted to “be naked” and then practically wrestle him to leave them intact as well as several other choice phrases/happenings that occurred during the time he was here. Was it worth it? Yes, we got some nice upgrades to the alarm system and can now control it all from our iPhones. One of the freebies included was a camera similar to a nanny cam which we are still debating the best spot for- the entertainment value alone is priceless!
-Wednesday night, I went solo to dropoff dinner for a woman from our church who is homebound right now. Highlight: I ended up staying over an hour to visit with her. Was it worth it? No doubt. She led a pretty cool life and turns out she was an RN so I got to reminisce about my days working in hospitals.
-Thursday afternoon playdate at a friend’s house. Highlights: I am pretty sure there were moments that Jimmy was yelling things about his “wiener” and the boys were running circles through my friend’s house by the end. Was it worth it? Always and I got some nice catch up conversation in with my friend.
-Thursday night, trying to get two oldest children to calm down and get sleepy while watching a show since A.J. was out working on his mancave. I got a call from one of my best friends that a family member of hers is sick. Trying to have a serious conversation with Jimmy and Josie beating the heck out of each other and hurling themselves across my bed where I had gone to get some quiet space. Thankfully my friend is awesome and bears with the chaos while I try to be “present” for her and also “present” for any impending injuries.
-Friday, after Bart’s 9 month appointment where all three of my older helpers came along, I rewarded the kids with a trip to A.J.’s office to see the cool fish tank and get some candy from the lobby. Sawyer managed to open the door into a training session and the boys later started wrestling near the cubicles outside A.J.’s office. Thankfully, the cubicles are stronger than the ones in “Office Space” and didn’t come crashing down like dominoes as Jimmy threw Sawyer into one. Was it worth it? Always enjoy seeing my Hunky in the middle of the day and seeing how all of the kids’ faces and his face light up when they see each other. Plus I got to chit chat with some of A.J.’s coworkers on the sales team who are all very cool and let me interrupt their day with my four little goonies.
So a big thank you this week to all those people who humored this mom on some of the most mind-numbing days of summer and spent some extra time talking about nothing and everything!
