Slice of Suburbia

Jumped into my mama minivan this morning to take Audrey to school and forgot my cell phone. Ran into the house to grab it and retrieved a message from a client confirming our 10 a.m. interview with a local business journal editor. I was in a baseball hat & jeans. Thank God I had showered. I totally spaced about the appointment. I flew up the stairs and threw on a skirt and four minutes later we were off.

After the meeting I had to get to Olivia's class to edit scripts for the "Living History Museum." An hour & a half later I raced home to answer client email and tend to a handful of their needs. Then I grabbed the little signs I'd made for Audrey's class pic for her teacher's birthday celebration and raced to the grocery for ice cream cups.

All was well yet all I really, really wanted was something to eat.

Hooked up with Carrie at school pick up this afternoon and we decided to treat the kids to ice cream cones while we finally had a chance to get something to eat ourselves---yummy BLTs and avocado sandwiches, salads, and lemonade from Honey Bear Bakery. It was heavenly.

As soon as we arrived home the children were hankering to play outside in the wonderfully warm sunshine. They donned their swim suits and I filled up the kiddie pool. Moments later they'd grabbed beach buckets and were engaged in a full-fledged good old fashioned water fight. It was childhood at it's best.

Carrie had retreated to her household chores by now and I was applying the second coat of paint on our outdoor dining table.

The bustling energy of suburbia was zapped just minutes later as Audrey was yelping in pain and needed assistance which required tweezers, a steady hand, and a promise from me not to tell anyone why they were needed. Thank Heavens I managed to save the day...for just a moment.

Meantime, Olivia had come inside to get some shoes on and banged her head on the corner of the counter. She melted into tears.

As this went on inside, Alice the dog who was tied up outside, managed to get her lead wrapped around the gallon can of paint and dump the nearly full container on the lawn. On cue Frib traipsed through it and then bound into the house and onto our bed.

At this stage Audrey announces she'd just had an accident and needed my help (I wound up throwing the underwear out.. so need I say more about the severity of the accident?) Olivia's two friends were at the screen door calling for her because apparently she had just had an issue with them ("I will apologize to them but I will not tell you what it was about", she coolly commented to me.)

As I stripped the bed I tried to count my blessings. All I could come up with at that moment was, "Thank God all this chaos happened on a full stomach."