Random Stuff-- Weather, Being Busy, and Gettysburg

This morning the air is delicious.  Cool (for June), not too humid, and sunny.  And, as if my luck couldn't get any better, Colton woke up early enough for me to feed him before it was time to take Bentley to school, so we were all able to walk!  It's been forever since I managed to walk Bentley to school with all the kids, and the times I've tried it have usually gone badly-- Colton cries, Kendra whines, and it's so humid that by the time we're home I'm drenched in sweat.

But not this morning.  This morning was perfect.  Kendra skipped happily ahead.  Colton slept soundly in his ergo carrier, drooling against my chest.  And Ryder sang his Mommy Song to himself.  And we didn't have any plans, so there was nowhere we needed to be rushing off to go (which seems to be a very rare thing, these days).  It was so nice that we went the slightly longer way home, giving Ryder the opportunity to see the Blue House (recently every time we go anywhere he asks that we take a detour so he can wave to the it).  As we walked-- and waved-- I noticed that under his breath, Ryder was telling Knock Knock jokes: "Knock, knock, who's there?  Blue House.  Blue house who?" and then laughed uproariously at himself.

It's so rare that the stars align so well.  I enjoyed every minute of it.

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Yesterday was a long day for me.  Colton woke up a bunch in the night, so I started out already pretty tired.  I needed to hit Target in a big way, but struggled to get out the door.  All year, most mornings have been pretty scheduled: Bentley needs to get to school by 8:55 and then I'd either have exercise class or Kendra's preschool at 9:30.  This is hard, because the time between those two things is just enough time that you can't go from one to the other (no one's pleased to see you show up for preschool twenty minutes early!), but it's not enough time to get much of anything done between the two.   So I'd end up dropping Bentley off, rushing home, and then frantically trying to feed Ryder and the baby and then get everyone's shoes on (again) to head out the door again.  It's been a lot of stress for me.  But, now, on the rare occasion when I have an errand without a specific time for it, I really enjoy NOT WORRYING about the time or being late.  If Ryder wants to kick his shoes off 30 seconds after I've put them on, I don't need to control my temper and try not to scream at him.  Because it doesn't matter.  We're not going to be late, and I don't care.  And that was how I handled things yesterday, even when Ryder hid behind the baby's carseat rather than getting into his own booster seat.  I think it took us over an hour to get everyone fed, shoed, and out the door.  But I. didn't. care.

That was kind of nice.

But it was still tiring.  And then Target didn't have any tomatillos, so I had to run by Harris Teeter, also.  And then I was making this for dinner, which is a WONDERFUL summer meal, but you have to make the corn bread and the salad dressing ahead of time, so I was busy with those.  Then pick Bentley up (plus his friend who was coming over).  Make the rest of dinner while the kids play, take the friend home, and then eat dinner with the kids (only half of whom liked it) because Craig had to work late.

So, yes, a long day.  After all the kids were sleeping, I laid in bed and counted how many times I'd buckled or unbuckled someone into a 5-point harness.  The answer was 24.  24!!!  That is a lot of buckling and unbuckling.  No wonder I was exhausted.

And no wonder I'm so happy today, when I was able to skip the 5-point harness altogether and just walk, with nowhere to go after.  How lovely!


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On Monday, I met up with my sister Natalie at Gettysburg.  After everyone was here for Colton's blessing last week, my Mom went to stay with Natalie in Hershey for the rest of the week so she could help her get organized for their upcoming move.  That was all fine and good, but Mom was still flying out of Dulles, so we needed to get her back to DC by Tuesday.  Normally when Natalie and I meet up, we go to a park that's fairly evenly situated between us.  But Natalie wanted to see Gettysburg one last time before her move, so she asked me to come up a bit further to meet her.  (I grumbled a bit that I was tired and it would make for more driving for me, but Natalie managed to slip into the conversation the fact that her nearly-3-year-old still wakes her up and she'll be driving to Kentucky and back twice in the next couple weeks.  So I shut up.)

I managed to get out the door at the time I'd planned and, despite the rain, made good time getting there.  But unfortunately, it was still raining a lot at Gettysburg, and rather than making the place empty, it meant that there was no parking at the Visitor's Center.  So I had to park far away, and just as I was getting the kids out of the car, it began pouring on us.  Colton cried the whole miserable walk up to the center, and I will admit that I was pretty grumpy by then.

Fortunately, nothing cheers me up like my family (and poor Natalie had been wandering around in the wrong parking lot-- also in the pouring rain-- trying to find me so she could help me out!), so I got over my bad mood pretty quickly.  We let the boys run around in the Visitor's Center for a few minutes while we came up with a game plan: McDonald's.  Not my favorite place, but there was really nothing to be done about all the rain.

We headed over, getting soaked again, and let Mom buy us lunch (thanks, Mom!) and took our time eating and enjoying one another's company.

At one point, some old guy wandered up to us and began mumbling dirty and sexist jokes to us.  It took me a minute before I could figure out what he was saying, but once I realized the nature of his message, I waved him away, telling him that was the last thing my kids needed to hear.  I was pretty annoyed and thought about going back to where he was sitting (alone) to tell him so, but decided it wasn't worth the bother.  Later, I found a corner to sit in and feed Colton, and nearby me were two old ladies who admired Colton and told me about the road trip they were taking-- they were neighbors in Texas, and had decided to drive all the way to Canada together.  They cheered me up immensely and more than made up for the dirty old man!

Finally it was time to get going again.  I hugged Natalie good-bye and wished her luck with the move, loaded my Mom's suitcase into my car (no small feat, since my trunk was broken) and drove straight back to Virginia, this time enjoying my Mom's company.

It was a weird day, and I sure wished it would have been sunny for us, but what can you do?

All the more reason to enjoy today's beautiful weather, I suppose!