Another weekend bites the dust

It usually happens around Tuesday night. After the normal running around to accomplish soccer practice and dinner, baths and pajamas, teeth brushing, bedtime reading, kissing, hugging, and one-more-drink-of-water getting...that's when it hits. Right around that time, I start to yearn for the weekend.

And so, I slog through pre-school pick up on Wednesdays, throw together a snack that will compete with all of the other mommies at MOPS on Thursday, keep the house in groceries and the kitties in litter and the toilet scrubbed, and then finally at long last, I greet Friday with a cheerful optimism tinged with exhaustion. The weekend. It's arrived.

And then it all goes to hell in a hand basket.

Seriously man, having kids is tough work. Having kids who have a social life? That's even harder!



I mean, first of all, there was no school on Friday. Some crap about Oregon teachers needing a day to enrich themselves. I want to know when I get a day to enrich MYSELF. Then again I don't have 30 kids. I only have three. And they wipe the floor with me on a regular basis - I know you're thinking that the darling four year old in that picture can't possibly be naughty but trust me - sometimes the devil inhabits that child. So I had three kids bouncing around who were completely and totally off of their normal routine. Fun stuff huh?

It gets better.


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Ok. To be completely honest, I just sat here for five full minutes trying to remember what we did on Friday. I know that I kinda cleaned up my house. I know that my mother-in-law was in town.....but the rest is kinda a blur.

WAIT! We went apple picking! DUH! How could I forget apple picking? I mean, how can I forget spending two hours keeping an 18 month old off of ladders, petting goats, and filling a metal bucket with 25 pounds of apples for fifteen bucks? SERIOUSLY. My brain totally just fried temporarily.

Let's start over - on Friday we went apple picking - by we I mean my mother-in-law (MIL) and my kids and myself. It was fun in that sweaty hectic way that having fun with kids seems to entail. After the cranky orchard lady with the crazy eyes showed us where we could pick, we had a blast taking pictures, keeping track of Chunk (I was irrationally terrified that I would lose him in the several-hundred acre orchard and subsequently in the Oregon wilderness) and helping the girls fill our bucket with galas, jonagolds, and golden delicious apples. Then we stopped at Packer's Farm for giant cookies (five for five, baby) and detoured through the pumpkin patch before heading home to collapse.


So that was fun. And exhausting. I got some awesome pictures of the kids, which can be seen here: http://picasaweb.google.com/freckledmama/AwesomeAutumn2008#

After apples we came home and met up with Skippy and made my famous potato soup before we crashed for the evening. And while we were finally going to bed, we wistfully commented that maybe the kids would let us sleep in a bit on Saturday. And miracle of miracles, they totally did!





At 8:30 on Saturday morning, I was up and ready to go (I told you they let us sleep in). Our entire morning revolved around getting everyone up and out and ready for a birthday party we were invited to at one for some friends' five year old twin boys. This necessitated a trip to the store with the girls, where I paced the aisles, called Charlotte and my Mom with questions concerning what on earth to buy for five year old twins boys before finally settling on hot wheels tracks. (My apologies to Nicole if she is now stepping on hot wheels everywhere she goes.) And then we shot back home and after a flurry of wrapping and ribbons and bows and clothes on the kids and a clean diaper on the Chunk, we headed out to the park and had a rockin afternoon with the birthday boys.

As you can see, Skippy especially had fun. (I realize that the sarcasm doesn't transfer to print very well, but I know you can feel it - this is me rolling my eyes) And once the cake was cut and the gifts unwrapped, it was time to load up and head back home once again. Amazingly, back at home everyone took naps. Except me and Banana. We went down to Charlotte's house where she (quite gracefully) played emergency seamstress for me, using industrial strength thread (or perhaps twenty pound test fishing line, I'm not sure) to secure yet another button to yet another pair of Skippy's shorts -- note to self, no more Target shorts, there is a reason they were on sale.

And let's get something straight. It's not that I can't sew on a button. Because I totally can. But it takes me an hour, two failed attempts, and a bottle of tequila. So it's safer to go let the craft goddess that is my girlfriend Char do the dirty work. Plus it gives us girls a chance to dish, which is important, because that's when we realized a magical coincidence - by some mysterious aligning of the cosmos, we both had babysitters lined up for the coming evening!

Not too long after that, dinner plans were made that involved not only us, but another pair of good friends who were also miraculously kiddo-free for a few hours. So I took a shower, put on my GOOD bra, and went out and noshed on Mexican food, margaritas, and wonderful conversation that revolved around everything from politics to parenting to retelling painful college stories. Unfortunately, curfew comes early for those of us with munchkins - by nine o'clock Skippy and I were wandering around Hollywood Video, determined to bring the movie theatre home with us. *Side note, we watched 21 with Kevin Spacey - good flick if you haven't seen it*

And much too quickly, it was Sunday. Today dawned bright an early around seven. I heard Skippy rustling in his closet squirrel-style while he packed for his next trip out of town. I heard the girls fighting over the remote. I heard the Chunker singing Maaaa-maaaaa from his crib. The dog barked. One of the cats parked itself against my face and purred. And for a brief, beautiful moment, I pulled the covers over my head and pretended I was a single chick. Then I got up and started my day in the real world.

Kbear and my MIL Dixie took airport duty and buzzed around Ptown for a bit after dropping Skippy off safely. That left Banana, Chunker and I behind contemplating the only-somewhat messy house. And then we did what any responsible people do on Sunday morning - we picked up our Sunday paper and went out to breakfast. Then we spent approximately twenty six dollars in quarters vacuuming out the minivan, feeding at least a full bag of pretzels, several stray M&Ms, four crayons, and one baby sock to the bowels of the SUPERVAC before we headed home to gear up for soccer Sunday.

Soccer was rockin' today. The weather was gorgeous, the parents were in rare form, and the girls were showing off because they knew Grammy was watching. Neither of my girls scored a goal this week HOWEVER, no one scored for the other team like Kbear did last week either so we'll consider it a successful Sunday of soccer. Then my husband's mother took pity on me and took us out to an early dinner. We came home. We did baths. We did books. We did teeth brushing. My husband called to tell me he was finally safe on the ground in Atlanta. And finally, I got them all sleeping.

So that's it. That was my relaxing weekend that I waited all week for. Every little second of it was spent on the run in one way or another. And now, I'm tired.

Someday I know that I will be sitting in my rocking chair with knitting in my lap (because someday I fully intend to finally learn to knit) and I'll be feeling a little bit melancholy because I don't have anything to do, anywhere to go, or anyone to see. Except of course for Skippy, who even in his old age will be somewhere in our big rambling house playing computer games and neglecting the dishes that I asked him to wash. Someday my weekends will blur completely in with my weekdays. And I'll wonder where it all went. I know that as crazy as it all is, someday I'll miss this terribly.

But right now? Dude, right now I need a nap.