Daily Diary

Yesterday afternoon I dropped the six kids off at Margaret's where large quantities of the Jones prodigy were still hanging out. Curtis took care of Vivian, Margaret watched Gabriel, and the other four were given over to "general population" where they are observed in a general way but capable of taking care of themselves for the most part. I made a quick zip over to the Capitol where joy of joys, the security guard at the handicapped entrance remembered me, had found my backpack and had it safely stowed in the Security guard office. I was immensely relieved and grateful. Even my water bottle was still in the side pocked. The guard said he had noticed it soon after we left. Unfortunately, we couldn't discover this via phone though Bobby and I both made a number of phone calls about it. I'm glad that I decided to go down there and check things out for myself.
We had dinner at Jon's parents house last night. i'm not sure how many people had dinner- I think close to 40, if not more. I can tell you it was incredible chaos due to all the little people. Vivian went to bed right before dinner and stayed asleep until we left. Gabriel had the occasional melt down if a family member told him what to do- but other than that, our crew was self-sufficient. We didn't get home until late.
Tonight we are celebrating Passover. I'm making a "quick" trip to Harry's to get a few things including the ingredients for Gefilte fish. My recipe for it is wonderful- nothing like the nasty jarred stuff Publix sells. Yak! Maybe I should post the recipe.

Daily Diary

I didn't even think about the fact that today is April Fools until I was sitting in church listening to the prelude. But then I promptly forgot, and never did any practical jokes. Bummer.

Jon's family reunion to celebrate his grandmother's 90th birthday was this weekend. 78 people gathered at his parents' house- are you sensing the chaos? 29 of the people were under 10 yrs. old. Fortunately, several of the family units within the large family are childcare saints getting sippy cups, cleaning hands and faces, giving out snacks, taking kids potty, etc. Caroline couldn't bear to part with her 2nd cousins that she only sees once a year if that, and is spending the night at her MorMor's house for the 2nd time tonight.

I finished my sewing project for the most part this afternoon. I ran out of elastic, Margaret went to the store to buy more, and the store was out of elastic! So i need to locate 3/4" elastic somewhere in Atlanta tomorrow and put it in 24 pair of shorts. Why is one shorts called a pair of shorts? But the hems and waists are in, so that will be a quick task.

In other news, my sister bought a house- I went to go see it last night. Very great first house. I'm quite proud of Lou- she turns 24 this month. So in all my spare time I'm going to throw her a big house warming/birthday party.

I left my "in constant use for the last six years" diaper bag at the Capitol on Friday! Man, was I annoyed. Technically it was Jonathan's responsibility, and he took it off somewhere by the bathrooms (it's a black Lands End diaper bag backpack with our name monogramed to the front). I didn't realize the thing was gone until I was sitting on 75 at 4:30 that afternoon and asked for the backpack. By then it was too late to cross 8 lanes of standstill traffic and head back to the Capitol. I made a lot of phone calls as soon as I got home but to no avail. I'm hoping for better providence tomorrow! Plus, I had all this important information for a bill that I'm going to be working on so that's even more annoying. Sigh.

Off to bed....

Family Circus

This morning the kids were giving me "good morning" hugs, and after Charles stepped back he said, " You know what's funny about you mom? Your arm pits always smell good."

Daily Diary

Good grief. Where has this month gone! This is the week of good intentions. Basically we are a bunch of slackers over here in kid-dom. Mmm. Now that I look at that and reflect, I think Kid-dumb would be more to the point. We are catching up on a lot of stuff housework and schoolwork, but are not yet caught up. And we leave next week for Florida! I think that perhaps we are going to have to do math flashcards and Greek & Latin classes on DVD in the car. Jon will be so pleased! His personal favorite is the phonics songs CD.

Tuesday night is company night. We had a rather large group. I set the table for ten and was 3 short. What we really need is a table that seats 16 comfortably. Marla, a friend from church, came over and happily fiddled with Jonathan and Caroline for awhile. Shucks, I didn't think to get a picture. She's quite a Jack of all Trades, and has built her own Teardrop, which she took to Alaska. I love Teardrops, and she generously offered to let us borrow hers. I think I'll be taking her up on that!

Wednesdays we have strings lessons and Greek class. Tonight I'm going to take dinner down to Jon's mom's house where some of the clan will be gathered. Then after dinner, I'll head to the sewing room to finish up this huge project.

Must go back to the realm of insanity. Have a good day!

Family Circus

This morning at breakfast Charles was elaborating on some topic to Oliver who listened for awhile and then finally said, "Charles, stop talking to me. You're putting too much brain into my head."

Daily Diary

This weekend was crazy! Friday I got some serious Costco shopping accomplished. The fill up the freezer kind of shopping where you buy meat in bulk, come home and package everything in Ziplocks and then fit it all into the freezer. It was a job that I'm glad to have done. Friday night after dinner, I worked on sewing shorts for several hours. Put in a lot of hems and waists. Grunt work. Saturday morning we were up very early trying to get stuff done. Left at 10:16am for Panola Mtn. State Park. It was a bit more of a drive than we had expected, which meant no time for hiking-somehow Jon was not disappointed about that. We hooked up with Jonathan's orchestra director and his family. Jon grilled brats and hotdogs, and I had made simple things to go with it. The kids played happily, and were sad to go. After that we hustled Jonathan and his orchestra friend Samantha to Myso practice in downtown Atlanta. The rest of Atlanta was there-Jon said something about basketball games-is there a final four?, and it took a long time to get back on the highway! Ugh.

While Jonathan had three hours of Myso practice, the rest of us headed to Jon's parents' house in Dunwoody so I could sew and the kids could play. The kids basically know we love them when we take them to Mormor's-playland and candyland rolled into one. All too soon we headed back to crowded Atlanta, picked up Jonathan, and then drove north to our church for supper. We were finally back home around 9:15- it was a beautiful night. We put the kids to bed and sat on the back patio with a glass of wine, admiring the stars, and just talking. Very nice.

Sunday was the day of Maya's departure. Unfortunately, Caroline, the shiba rescue lady, could only take Maya at 11am. It was incredible the load of dog accoutrements we had! Caroline immediately guessed the breeder where Maya was purchased-Free Rose Farm. Apparently, Shibas are notoriously bad with kids and are runners! If they get out the door, there's no getting them back until they are good and tired, even the well trained Shibas. I was annoyed that the breeder had not told us this, and felt better about our failure as Shiba parents. But we lasted almost 4 years, and the first two were very pleasant years. After we bid Maya adieu, Vivian and i joined up with the rest of the family at church.

Caroline's final orchestra performance was Sunday afternoon, and she was pleased that the entire family was in attendance. Generally, Jonathan seems to have Myso stuff on the same day and only one parent comes to Caroline's performances. After the performance in Buckhead, we hustled back to church. Unfortunately, once church and supper were finished, we didn't get home until 9pm. Ugh. These are frustrating weekends. Thankfully, Jonathan, Caroline and I did lots of laundry Friday afternoon-10 loads-folding it all on my bed, while listening to an Eliot Engel lecture on the Bronte sisters-(it was a rather fun way to do a boring job). So we may be tired, but at least we have clean underwear for the week!

Old Mother Hubbard

Meal planning and preparation can be a rather arduous process, not to mention the cost of groceries. Sometimes I wish we could take care of things Jetsons style and pop a pill that equals a meal, or maybe a three course dinner in a piece of gum Willie Wonka Style. Think of the time I would save not dealing with food.

I've experimented with every possible type of menu planning, and by far the most successful was the once a month cooking plan. By Thanksgiving, I was out of free weekends in which to purchase, prepare and freeze all those meals. If I was in the kitchen all weekend, the housecleaning and laundry were not taken care of, which caused problems during the course of the week. Perhaps the kids can get away with running around in a bathing suit for days were it July, but by December that sort of thing is generally frowned. So, meals become a last minute magic show. To the common observer the fridge is bare. After scrounging a bit, some tuna and macaroni surface in the pantry and it's a tuna casserole night. When desperation really hits I fall back on pancakes for dinner. When even the eggs and buttermilk are no more, there's always angel hair, olive oil and garlic.

If only groceries could be delivered to the door, like milk in the 50's, that would really improve the fare around here. Should we skip math and head to Publix. Sigh. We are already a lesson behind, and do I really want to drag six kids through the store. Oooh, look. I just found another package of Ramen Noodles.

Of course, making the list is a whole other saga. When it is finally prepared and put on the back counter, death to whomever moves it! There's nothing that matches the frustration of loading up the car and making a quick run to the back counter to grab the list and ---it's gone!

The sense of accomplishment felt when the menu is organized, the list made, the shopping complete, and the refrigerators and freezer are full is really quite something. Then I find myself on the prowl for whomever might be a menace to my meal preparation and eat up some important ingredient as a snack. Labels on food containers abound: Do Not Eat. Injest and be Shot. My brother gives me a reproachful look. "Gee, Jenn, I just wanted a glass of orange juice." I glare, " it is not breakfast time. If it were, you could have 6 ounces, but certainly not the 12 ounces you just poured yourself. Do you know how much trouble it is to run out for more orange juice mid-week with six kids in tow and three grades of homework to accomplish?" This is the kind of miser I've become.

My husband does regularly ask if he can stop at Publix and get something for me. My mind is not on food. "Nope, don't need anything," I say as I'm holding the phone to my ear and checking a spelling test. " Do we have milk?" He asks. " Ah, no, we don't," I respond. He sighs. " What about OJ." Let's see, are there two c's in occasion, I'm thinking to myself. "Oh, OJ? No, out of that," I finally respond. Back and forth we go, until Jon's got quite a list in spite of my initial, " I don't need anything." Think of it this way, if you'd been home all day long dealing with six kids, would you prefer your husband to come straight home for adult conversation or go grocery shopping?

Enough about the food, think of the dishes! By the afternoon, there's bowls, lunch plates, glasses, bottles and some pots and pans overloading the sinks and counter. Sometimes I feel like a shovel would be most useful in plowing through the carnage.
"What's for dinner, mommy?" How about I just clean the kitchen and we all have a nice hot cup of tea and go to bed. You guys are looking a little fat, let's all go on a diet. SlimFast anyone?