I woke up Tuesday morning with zero interest in cooking or cleaning. When this happens it is so hard to get going! I tried to simplify. I showered, got dressed--then I asked the kids what they wanted for breakfast because I was out of ideas. They wanted sausage and eggs, so I made that and then I did all the dishes. We had leftover beef and broccoli in the fridge that I planned to heat up for lunch and I was so grateful to my past self for making extra on Sunday! After all that I did feel a lot better. We read books! Reuben picked I'm Trying to Love Spiders and Chirri and Chirri in the Tall Grass and Becky picked The Rabbit Children and Woody and Little Pip. Esther nursed one side through the first book and the other through the second book and then was a regular menace through the last two. She likes to grab the books or start singing at the top of her lungs while I try to read. Toddlers are wonderful but crazy.
We had a doctor's appointment for Reuben and Rebekah for Osteopathic Neuromuscular Manipulation after Becky's Piano class, so I told Reuben to pack the Nintendo switch because these appointments are usually long. But the last one wasn't long so I was hopeful this one wouldn't be. You can laugh with me later.
Anyway, the hour before piano I kicked the kids out of the house (nicely, I am nice...I simply told them they would be given a chore if they didn't go outside...) and I did a bunch of chores. Then we heated up the leftover Beef and Broccoli and I wanted everyone to eat outside but they said there were too many bugs so I let them eat inside.
Piano in the summer is hard. I half forget to practice with Becky and sometimes I even forget we have a piano. I need to make it a priority because she has a recital coming up in 4 weeks and she's seven, so I am her motivation. We had three practices at home this week. It's slightly embarrassing to give the sheet to the instructor. It's like, here is evidence of my total failure as a mother. Please enjoy my ineptitude.
Becky plays so beautifully and I love to hear music in our house! It's wonderful to dream that maybe she can teach her own children or play in church or whatever she wants to do with the gift of music. Sometimes it is quite the struggle for both of us, there are tears and often she wants to quit. If we wrote a memoir about it together it might be called Death by Piano or Things My Mother Makes Me Do. Okay, sometimes she enjoys it. But sometimes she doesn't. It's a good life lesson for both her and me.
After Piano we had about 40 minutes to kill before our appointments. We went to Hobby Lobby and somehow I ended up spending $59. I got Reuben a lunch box for camp next week and a Bluey placemat for Esther that she loved and a squishy ball for her that she wouldn't put down and some beads to make a friend a necklace for her birthday and some chains that Becky wanted and some pipe cleaners Becky wouldn't put down, and somehow instead of that being 22.59 it was just shy of 60! Things really are expensive. And the beads were 50% off!
We all left feeling happy. Retail therapy is good for the soul.
The doctor's office is right next door to Hobby lobby and we were there for two hours and twenty minutes and that was so long! It is worth it--we love the doctors over there and they have worked wonders for the kids, but it is a lot! Becky went first and there was a doctor in training who told me he thought she had scoliosis and I was worried for about 30 minutes before the regular doctor, Allison Bardowell, said she didn't. What a relief! THEN when Allison was working on Reuben he was having really bad pain in his neck (he fell out of a tree and landed on the back of his neck!) that she wanted to give him an X-ray to make sure he didn't have a fracture in his spine. He was stressed to hear that (and so was I but I was trying not to show it) when Esther fell off the stool right onto her head and started screaming at the top of her lungs. So then I had to pop my boobs out in front of everyone to nurse her, which was just great and awkward while holding a crying sobbing baby and trying not to cry myself.
The X-rays (I wonder how much that will cost?) were thankfully clear, no fracture for Reuben. Both kids feel so much better after their adjustments and we finally got out the door and I bought everyone French fries from Chick-fil-a and Esther took one bite of hers and fell asleep holding it. Then I called my friend who lives only a mile from Hobby Lobby and asked her if I could stop by to pick up some homeopathic X-Ray in a 30c. She said yes because she's a gem and I don't deserve her, but it really made me feel better to dose Reuben after his electromagnetic bath.
Anyway I felt like I had just taken a ride on the emotional roller coaster and by the time we got home I, and everyone else in the car, desperately needed a mental break. Thankfully it was hot and sunny and I was able to transfer Esther to her bed where she napped for an hour and a half, and the older kids set up their slip and slide and had a blast in the back yard. I cleaned the whole house and put away 3 loads of laundry and washed two more and made pizza for dinner. After dinner, Esther woke up and the kids all had ice cream and watched Rapunzel. I took the movie time to sit down to begin The Mysteries of Udolpho and was all ready to relax when daddy came home an hour early! That was nice but he had a migraine which was not nice.
He woke up with an even worse headache and still had to go into work this morning, poor Brian.
What a day. I can't even imagine what the rest of the week will hold...what a day, what a day. God is good, but what a day!
