Seminary and Winter

This week is killing me.

First of all, the kids had no school on Monday or Tuesday.  I kind of like it when they have random days off like that-- it gives me a break from getting up early to pack lunches and it's fun to not have a schedule.  But Mondays are not my favorite day for that to happen since that's my grocery shopping day.  So we spent a big chunk of Monday at Costco and Food Lion, my current stores of choice.  But on the plus side-- we had gorgeous weather in the 70s AND Craig managed to come home for lunch AND leave work early!  So Monday was fabulous.

I was getting excited to take the kids to a park on Tuesday since we'd finished our errands, but then the temperature dropped thirty degrees (WHY, EAST COAST, WHY????), so that was no longer appealing.  I took everyone with me to vote and then we went to the library instead.

I turned my back on the little kids to help Kendra find a book, and when I turned back, they were playing "Bus" with a bunch of other kids!  Camille seemed quite pleased to be the driver...

We stopped by Craig's work on our way home-- the kids always enjoy getting to see Daddy's office.  Then they mostly tore the house apart for the rest of the afternoon while I chased behind them trying to put it back together.

I was kind of a stress case by then, though, because I was worrying about the fact that I had to teach seminary* the rest of the week, Wednesday through Friday.  I'd agreed to substitute without much thought, but I hadn't realized the kids would be home for the two preceding days, so I somehow thought I'd have time during the day to look at lessons.  Ha!  Then I thought maybe I could work on lessons during YWs Tuesday night, but then our president was sick and so I was in charge, so that didn't happen either.  I got it done after everything else that night and it was fine, but that wasn't a great way to get it done, you know?  I felt like I had it looming over me for those two days and it was exhausting (as was not sleeping well the last few nights thanks to many mean factors working against me).

So anyway, this week I'm getting up early and showering.  I'm making sure my entire house is clean for the girl who comes over to babysit ("girl"-- she's a mother of two, she's just a lot younger than I am, so I feel like she's still a girl; is that totally anti-feminist of me???).  I get myself all pretty and actually dressed in a skirt (!!!) and then make those lunches.  At 7:25 I go down to the basement to wait for the students to arrive-- we had four kids today, so that's better than last year when our numbers dwindled to two.  Seminary only lasts fifty minutes, so within an hour I'm back upstairs and done for the day and then...

Then I don't know what to do!

I'm already showered and dressed.  The house is clean.  It's cold and dark and rainy outside, so I don't particularly want to go anywhere...  I just want to turn on my electric blanket and snuggle in my bed with a good book (currently: Essays by E.B. White).  But that doesn't really work too well for Colton and Camille who seem to think we should do more interesting things than watching mommy reading.

So that's where I am.  Tired and cold.  And looking forward to the end of this week when I won't have seminary hanging over me.

Basically, winter hit at the same time as seminary.  And that's a little much for me.

I'll do better next week.  And if I don't, well, then we'll be driving to Houston for Thanksgiving so that's one way for me to escape temperatures in the 40s for a bit!



*Astute readers might recall that I was a substitute teacher for seminary last year.  Ironically, I only ended up ever teaching a couple times-- my friend and I were supposed to have to cover for 6 weeks, but then that was too much so the mom of the seminary students just did a home study with her kids instead.  And then after that was all over, they released me from that calling.  But then they needed a sub again and didn't have anyone called, so they asked me.  But I actually prefer it this way, since now the stake won't bug me to go to their inservice meetings on 8am on Saturdays!