Today I decided that I should be a mom and housekeeper and thus gave myself the day off from my campaign director job- besides contacting Alan Keyes and setting up a radio interview for Martin with American Vision, and answering some Ann Coulter chat questions. Other than that, I spent the day doing laundry, dishes, preparing food (for the next couple days) and cleaning out storage closets. I had to leave the house at 4:30 to take Jonathan to a 6pm birthday party off of 85 in Gainseville! Yikes. That was a labor of love. But what was worse is that at 4:15 amidst running around throwing a last load in the dryer and checking on the crockpot (I fixed chicken and rice to take to my mother-in-law's for tomorrow night's dinner since she is watching the kids all day), I told Caroline that we were leaving in 15 minutes, as soon as I was out of the shower and dressed. So what does my incredibly useful child do? She goes and sits in front of the TV for 15 minutes, not even mentioning to the other four kids to get on their shoes, etc. Gabriel, of course, loaded his diaper, Charles was sound asleep, Jonathan was wearing sloppy shorts and an undershirt, and Oliver- well he was just watching TV looking rather vegetative with bare feet. When I got downstairs fresh and happy, I took one look at the room full of slackers and Mt. St. Mom erupted. 15 minutes later we were on the road with somber children reflecting on the meaning of "we are leaving in 15 minutes." Vivian, having had a long, deep sleep was in high spirits, clinging to her blankie and chewing on her dolly with gleeful noises. It contrasted sharply with the mood of the car.
We got to the party a little after 6, dropped off Jonathan, and then I reflected on what to do with 5 children for two hours in a strange part of town. I spotted a Wendy's and decided to feed the kids dinner there. Charles said that Wendy's was not dinner food, it was only lunch food, and he would prefer spaghetti. There was an italian restaurant across the parking lot, and quite frankly, I would have preferred spaghetti, but we were out voted.
After spending an hour watching the kids pick at their food and play with their toys, we headed back to the Laser Tag place. By the time we got Jonathan at 8, and were back home at 9, the idea of a Corona and quiet was exceedingly- EXCEEDINGLY- appealing. I think that I'm beginning to average 5 glasses of wine or beer a week. How long, at that rate, would it take to get a beer gut. I might have to dig up the Billy Blanks tapes, and start doing those every morning, besides the jumping on the trampoline work out program.
