What A Day for the Gospel!

Oh my. What a day it has been. I said “d*%n” in front of my three, soon to be four year old. Yes. Way to go, I know. It’s been a long day. T worked night shift last night. At 1:30am, MW came downstairs to tell me she’d wet the bed. I got her cleaned up and into fresh pajamas and then headed upstairs to the mess that was waiting…I changed the sheets and came back down to get her. She begged me to let her sleep with me…and I gave in. The only problem is that she’s been running fever and coughing. I put her in my bed, but she was too awake at this point…so we curled up on the sofa and watched The Count of Monte Cristo (skipping a few scenes here and there) and around 2:30 or 3, we piled back into my bed. MW was still wired. Finally, at 4 am, I couldn’t take it any longer. I was exhausted and so I took her upstairs and made her sleep in her bed. She was back in my bed by 5 am. T came home around 6:30 and carried her back to her bed.

I got up a little before 8, as I had committed to bring a salad to the Senior Graduation Luncheon after church (and obviously, between MW’s cough and fever and our all nighter, we wouldn’t be attending…). So I’d made arrangement with a neighbor to deliver…rush rush, make the salad. T3 starts crying…neighbor calls…she won’t be going to church today, but her hubby will, so he’ll swing by around 8:45…it’s 8:50, no neighbor’s hubby…T3 is really going now…I carry the salad and dressing down the street in my pajamas…just as I near the corner, hubby comes driving up…

I walk back home and get to pass another neighbor – lovely, as I’m dressed in my finest.

I walk straight in the door, grab T3 and have just settled him in his high chair when MW comes into the kitchen needing me to hold her. T3 gets going again…

Finally, both children are content, for the moment. MW is on the sofa with sprite and oj, hacking up a lung and still running fever. T3 is teetering about the house – I have all rooms blocked except the kitchen, breakfast room, hall, and den, where he’s roaming. He walks out of the den…and back in with a bag of berry cheerios…fine. He is happy. He is reaching in the bag and eating the cereal, not the bag. I am going to take a second and enjoy just sitting. My head is beginning to throb from lack of sleep…

How do you describe the sound of half a bag of cheerios being dumped on a hardwood floor? I’m not sure, but that’s what I heard, followed by T3’s scream of delight and then a fit of giggles. I round the corner to see him sitting in the pile, shoveling handfuls into his mouth, using his tongue to chase a stray cheerio stuck between his index and middle fingers. Oh whatever. Pick those battles. He’s happy. I’m tired. MW’s cough is louder and more frequent…I’m going to sit down. A few seconds later in teeters T3 with cheerio powder stuck all the way down the left side of his leg. Cereal is everywhere. I made a bad call. Should’ve dealt with the screaming and cleaned it up while it was contained. Point taken. I carry T3 outside to brush off the crumbs, but they’re stuck and wont’ brush off. I strip him down to his diaper, toss his pajamas in the wash and grab the vacuum. I get everything sucked up…from the breakfast room through the hall and into the den. All I lacked was the other hall and laundry room (yes, cereal was actually spread that far!) So I’m going full speed with the vacuum and it begins to sound funny, like it isn’t working. I stopped and emptied it, cleaned the filter and got back to work…and then it started smoking. Yes, smoke was coming out of my vacuum cleaner! I rushed to unplug it and ran it out to the garage where it’s still sitting.

I make my way back in, sweep up the rest of the cheerios and then use my bissel wet dry vac to suck up the rest of the crumbs. I’ve just finished and gotten everything clean and I even went the extra mile and took apart the bissel and scrubbed the filter – which needed it. After all, I shouldn’t be needing to bissel the floors again today since I just did such a thorough job… I walk back to the den just as MW drops her bag of beef jerky on the floor, and T3 snatches it up, upside down, spilling it’s contents! Now the vacuum is out of order, the bissel filter is wet, so it’s out of commission until the afternoon, and there are little bits of beef jerky stuck in the rug. Where’s Ramsey when I need him? Right about then, MW spills her sprite and orange juice all over the sofa. In my rush to get a towel, I stubbed my toe and shouted the “d” word…

Finally, time for T3 to nap! I settled MW on the sofa for a movie, with the new rule, “food stays in the kitchen and water ONLY in the den!” And I took a shower all by myself! I EVEN painted my toenails! I was almost dressed when…

“Waaaah, waaaaah, waaaah!” cried T3. “Mama, PLEASE hold me” begged MW. All I wanted to do was finish putting on makeup. I haven’t worn makeup since Thursday! I AM a married woman! I would like to look somewhat attractive every once in a while!

So I get T3 out of bed. Finally I get him settled. He’s playing at my feet while I put on my makeup – then I burned my hand on my flat iron (yea, hadn’t fixed my hair since Thursday either!). T3 decided he wanted to play with a bar of soap. We went through this last night and he ate some of it and spent thirty minutes spitting. I was determined not to go there again, so when he reached up for it and said “uh, uh” I cut him off with a “no.” His immediate response is noted in the above photograph.

Fast forward to this afternoon…I had to apologize to MW for my bad attitude and shortness. My emotions were a little on edge. I took both children upstairs to play…MW kept coughing and coughing. T3 was fussing. It was like nothing could make either one happy and I was growing more and more frustrated. I dressed MW and grabbed T3 and took both downstairs. It was 2:15 and we woke T. I gave him the choice of staying home with T3 or taking MW to the doctor. He chose MW and off they went. I put T3 down for a nap…which he did not take. We wound up outside. He found a pink plastic cup from MW’s tea set and filled it with water from the hose and chugged it….again and again and again. (I was watering the boxwoods…)

T and MW make it home…she’s got croup! Ugh! She asks to water the plants. I agree on one condition, spray the plants, ONLY! She sprayed me. Then it started raining. We played in the rain and had such a fun time. Oh…the pleasure!

Inside to dry off and prepare dinner…oops…Escape from Corregidor wound up in the toilet…by none other than T3! (To make matters worse...I waited to take it out because my hands were full with T3 and "fishing" just wasn't a good move...and I forgot it was in there! That's all I'll say about that!) We sort of have “potty problems.” MW has trouble remembering to flush the toilet. Add in T3’s fascination with playing in the toilet and Scout’s nasty habit of sampling from the pot (yes, so sorry if that offends!), not only is flushing EVERY time a necessity (MW!!!), but so is putting the lid down. For a while I tried merely closing the doors to the bathrooms, but we’re in an older house and the doors are a bit hard to open at times, so MW had a little accident while trying to open the door…she doesn’t take too well to those doors being closed, so we decided to stick with putting the lids down…But now that doesn’t even matter. The second time T3 put his hands in the pot he got to it by LIFTING the lid! After disinfecting his hands, he teetered out of the bathroom while I cleaned the seat and other infected areas. I was two steps behind him…two steps too far…he unrolled my entire roll of T.P. and lifted the lid on my toilet and went to splashing! Three times in one day!

I also found T3's missing sippie cup. I'd turned the house upside down in search of it...it disappeared a few days ago, right after I filled it with fresh milk. It was lurking between trays in a cabinet. As I removed the lid and the yummy smell of chunky sour milk filled my nostrils, I instantly flashed back to being pregnant with T3 and opening one of MW's sour milk cups...and immediately running to throw up in the garbage can. So thankful not to have that response tonight!


Oh well…tomorrow is a new day and the ending to this one was pretty sweet. MW fell asleep at the dinner table, T transfered her to her bed and she slept about thirty minutes, during which I took T3 outside and took some pics of what's growing in the yard...very fun and so beautiful! Later, MW and I curled up in her bed and read together. She’s now drifting off to sleep (I hope!), T3 is asleep, and I am off to pick up the house and finish that year book, thus concluding yet another long, rambling post. I suppose I’ve pretty much abandoned journaling. You’re getting most of it right here…