Cold and busy

Today was not supposed to be busy.

Then it was.

Bored yet?

The only things I planned on doing today were tidying up--not full-on cleaning--and keeping the laundry moving. Then I wanted to read my book in the times between playing with/taking care of the kids. All of this changed when I realized that I had to go to the store. Had to. But since I was going, I made the "real" shopping list because we were in great need of things since last week's sickness fest.

So we braved the cold. And by cold, I mean the kind of cold that goes down in the record books as the coldest day in the history of this place. The forecast said it was 30-something, but I can tell you with utter confidence that it was no warmer than 15 degrees today. Maybe 5 degrees. Windchill is a beast!

Anyway, our Walmart trip climaxed with me forgetting my debit card in the van and trying to use a two-years expired credit card. I felt quite sheepish. So I had to take the kids out in the wind, back inside to stand in the customer service line to pay for my stuff, and back out in the wind to load all the stuff. Did I mention it was cold? And windy?

At this point I realized that it was 2:30. I had signed up to bring a salad and buns to a faculty dinner at Gavin's school, and I had to get home, unload all the stuff, make the salad, and be back at the school by 3:00 to drop off the food and pick up the kids. I guess I should have skipped showering. Or taming Paige's hair. Or cleaning my bathroom counter. Or I guess I could have just bought pre-made salad. Or at the very least, pre-washed and cut lettuces.

Rush, rush, rush . . . salad made, kids picked up, food dropped off,  . . .

You should have seen my house at this point. It took me a long time to dig through the piles of groceries before I could get started on actually cleaning the kitchen ("first-world problems"). My goal to have dinner on the table quickly dwindled as time drew nearer for me to leave for my parent-teacher meeting. But who can make dinner when the counters are covered? Okay, some people can, but I can't.

Leif got home at 5:03 and I bolted so I could make my 5:10 appointment. Karen-jane had lovely things to say about Gavin, except this: "He's become quite the chatterbox." She said since everything they've been working on "clicked" in his head, she thinks he got kind of bored and joined the chatterbox club. He giggled when I talked to him about it. Giggle=guilt. Silly kindergartener. She also said he is very attentive when other kids are sad or hurt and that most kids his age aren't. Proud momma moment.

Why is this turning out to be the longest post ever?

I stopped at Lin's to grab one thing I had forgotten, where I chatted with Callin and Nicole before standing in line with the rest of the town.

Dinnertime had commenced without me at home. I put together a little birthday gift for a friend, then we were off to Jordan and Tasha Rich's to help figure out their furnace problems. I thought it would be fun to take my family home evening plan there to share with them, but the evil one thwarted my plan and decided it would be hilarious if Dax puked all over instead.

I forget that it stresses me out royally to take my kids to non-kid houses. This was me: Should they take their shoes off? . . . Stop running! . . . Don't touch that! . . . Or that! . . . Just don't touch anything in here. Sit on that couch quietly and don't move until it's time to go home! . . . Stay away from the fire! . . . (and then it happened) Do you have an old towel? My baby just threw up all over your house. I promise it's not real throw-up. It's from coughing so hard.

Crap. I just remembered I have a garbage bag full of puke clothes I need to wash.

Family home evening did not happen. But she felt so bad, so we rescheduled for next week.

The Church is true.

(Honestly, as far as legitimately busy days go, this one wasn't that bad. But when you're recovering from an illness and all you want to do is crowd control and read a book? Too busy. Wish I hadn't forgotten all those school obligations on the calendar.)