Too Much

Well, it's been crazy around here. School has all but gone out the window, it seems. I am just so glad that we worked on it this Summer. I'm sure I sound like a broken record, but we have had so many interruptions.

Last Monday, I hosted a MNO at my house. I love hosting those. It makes me feel good that all those mommies were having a good time at my house.

The week before, we spent reorganizing our kids' bedrooms. It took a full 3 days! We bought a set of bunk beds (I should have pictures, sorry--you are lucky I'm even taking time to write about it. I don't have pictures of anything!) and put them in the purple room. The big boys claimed that room, so we moved all their stuff in there and moved Z's out. Z moved in with Iz in the green room. We completely cleaned out that back room with the bathroom, leaving only empty furniture and blinds. The boys have been dumpster diving for a while, so that was quite a chore. We ended up throwing away quite a bit away. We have 3 trash bags for Goodwill as well. Some things went in the attic.

Then, I spent that weekend deep cleaning. It was long overdue. I did it for myself as much as for the MNO. Monday afternoon, our babysitter moved in. That's a long story in itself, but to make it short, originally we were going to host her as a student/intern-type thing for the church, but they cancelled the program. Allister and I still had it on our hearts to host her and felt like God wanted us to do that. I cleaned out that back bedroom in faith that she was going to decide to move in. Now I am teaching her to drive and hopefully she will be able to find a job soon. She isn't moving in as our full-time babysitter.

The same Monday evening, Allister took the kids out so we could have our MNO. The van broke down while they were out and I had to leave the MNO to pick up the kids. The tow truck was in a major accident on the way to pick him up and he had to wait a very long time for another one. Of course, this was very stressful because he was set to leave for Honduras at midnight and he was not completely packed and still had homework to finish and turn in! He finally got it towed and to the car dealership and got home at 10:30 pm. He was able to get his work turned in and pack just in time.

Allister had a good trip to Honduras. They were able to minister to many, many people who have been displaced due to flooding. They visited the only hospital for a town of 150,000 that hasn't been updated since the 1940's. They passed out care packages, cooked and fed people, taught classes on basic cleanliness, and just blessed people. He was gone for a week. He came home Monday night.

Monday afternoon, my sister and her friends and 7 kids between them came for an overnight "field trip". I had cupcakes and presents for ZL's birthday. They went to the Science Spectrum, took my kids with them, and left me alone with the baby. It was a nice, quiet afternoon for me, so I spent it calling my friend, Sharon. Afterwards I took them to a big park here, that has some lovely hiding places for cheeky little kids like Iz and Ca. They hide and had all the mommies looking for them. Of course, their mommies knew what kind of kids they were and were not scared, but the other mommies were! We found them and went to Chuck E. Cheese.

Yesterday, I made entirely too many pancakes for breakfast and we all got ready to go to the corn maize. Again, I'm so sorry, Mom, but I don't have pictures. I cannot tell you how blessed I feel that I still have my head attached at this point. I took our babysitter and one of Z's new friends, whose mom had other things to do. It was a good time. Although, I think I liked it better in previous years where we stuck together more as a home school group. It was still good, though. Robin stuck by me and I was able to visit with a few of my friends. The weather couldn't have been better. One thing I did this year that made it better for me was that a few weeks before I told my kids they needed to be saving up for it because I was only paying for the hayride and entrance fee. So, there was no stress about them wanting me to pay for stuff because they had their allowance and paid for stuff themselves. . . I did buy a few pumpkins, but I fully expect Chef M to make me pumpkin cheesecakes with them!

Whew! That was a lot to say. I am so glad we have a vacation coming up. I am tired and I need one badly. I don't think I was built for such a schedule! It is all so fun, but so fast! I'm not sure how I'm going to get everybody packed and all of that stuff in my van. I don't know what to do about my share of the food preparations. But. . . I am looking forward to sitting in a cabin in the mountains doing puzzles with my family, hiking, breathing fresh mountain air, observing all the beautiful changing leaves, drinking coffee with my mom, laughing with my sisters, listening to my 6 nephews (well, 5 that come, I guess) and 1 niece talk about what interests them now, watching my kids play with their cousins, and all that family stuff that is so relaxing and refreshing.