Last night was such a long time ago.

Right now, Monkey and Tiny Baby are sleeping and I have the older two in the basement, working at the craft table. We are making handprints for Mother's Day. They are driving me bonkers. Aside from the fact that every adult in this house slept in this morning and STILL didn't get enough sleep and as a result are terribly grumpy, the kids are still in rare form. I guess it's not that rare, since it is practically a weekly occurence. For myself, I would never stay in a religion that encourages lack of sleep in children week after week. If I didn't have Christ, I would be a Monk, because they encourage strict routine and order. Also, silence. Anyway, yesterday was a long day. All morning I cleaned the few things that our new super-maid didn't get to on Wednesday. I sorted through my growing pile of clean laundry with no home and even folded some of it. In the afternoon, I took the stroller and R and walked the seven minutes to J's school to pick him up. Since My license was supposed to be all clear by the time the baby was born and is not, I have been doing this on nice days and T still does all the running by car on crappy days. We've had mostly crappy days as far as the weather goes. The sun didn't shine here all week and just when we were all on the verge of sinking into deep, dark, weeping depressions, the sun came out on our walk. Which was strange because my little phone told me it was going to thunder storm. Instead, the grey sky turned blue and the sun shone the whole way to his school and all the way until sunset. I went into J's Jewish school, which is in the temple, and went to his classroom and peeked inside. He didn't know I was coming and when his eye caught me his whole face lit up. I love it. And him, when he's quiet. We went home and stayed outside in the muddy yard until dinner time. I fed the rascals Shabbat dinner early and then when E got home and the family sat down we gave them each a bowl of chips and had the most splendid, peaceful gathering at the dining room table that we've ever had. T was so happy she started pouring she and I merlot and then kept it coming the rest of the night. Around 8, her sister came over with her kids and we unleashed all six of the beasts on the basement playroom. E paid me in merlot to keep them down there as long as possible while he had his whiskey. It was an alcohol themed night. When the rugrats finally escaped to the main floor, we put on a movie and they all sat down to watch. Monkey got bored of Peter Pan and went to bully his girl cousin, who is a few months younger than he, for a while. She held her own, screamed in his face, hit him and ran away while I laughed from the couch, helpless to intervene. At some point they all went home and we all passed out in various places around the house. This morning started sometime after 9. I got up and dressed at 8 ish because my bladder insisted, but then I snuggled up on the playroom couch until whenever the kids came downstairs. To silence them, I made chocolate chip pancakes. I also made the mistake of holding Monkey's boiled egg in my hand when instructing Willie to go outside and potty. This dog loves three things: sitting on my feet when it's over 100 degrees in here, carrots and eggs. I had to put the egg down, shoo him out the door and down the porch steps and then insist that he pee before trying to come back up the stairs. He's being groomed now and it's lunch time, which is, I suppose, why these kids are bothering me again. I'm off to feed them and then trick them into napping.