6:30 am wake up. Eat a bowl of cereal because I'm starved. Go to Food Lion for another box of raisin bran because I know what kind of morning it's going to be and the needed pots and griddle are still dirty because of the kind of day yesterday was. I think about washing them using them and washing them again and grab the keys - Food Lion is just 3 minutes away! Call C to prepare her that I might not be able to carpool - Nathan has poison ivy around his eye. Home and urge boys out of pjs and in front of cereal. Time to start chores and lessons. Call the doctor because it's now 8:02. Wipe down the bathroom because guests are coming and Joseph is the one whose been cleaning it all week! Wipe down the cleared table, urge a couple of boys to finish chores and swap out laundry.
Take Nathan to Dr. for poison ivy around his eye, drop of his perscription at pharmacy. Drive home, sweep and steam mop floor while little ones color themselves red on the screened porch. Clean them up (sort-of - these markers are not washable). Start baking cookies and wiping down the kitchen between pans. Biology carpool guys arrive and I find them desks. Check the cookies - they are sticking to cookie sheet. Try to have a history tutorial while the littles have tears with one another upstairs. Suddenly realize it's time to leave for biology and no one has eaten lunch yet!
I stash the cookie batter in the fridge while they all dig out their lunch bags. The biology guys finish the crumbs of their lunch and cookies on the way to class (I'll grab the little ones a hamburger on the way to the library) and are walking up the drive way at 11:30 (that's when class starts). Drive to pick up steroids from pharmacy and have to wait 10 minutes even though it was supposed to have been ready in an hour. Give Nathan his steroids in the car. Wait a long time in another drive-through to buy the littles hamburgers to go with their bottled water that I keep in the car.
By the time we get across the street there is no time left for the library so I dry tears as we walk into Nathan's speech therapy appointment (he's still carrying his hamburger). The boys sit in the waiting room without their games and things to occupy them for an hour - all they have is the bag of library books they had planned to exchange for new ones. They wait by themselves as I go in with Nathan. They were very well mannered and patient in spite of it all and Jesse read the same book again, and then again. I give thanks that those tense sibling moments of the morning seem to have passed. And try not to worry that most of them are red at least in patches.
Nathan's appointment goes well in spite of the fact that his Benadryl makes him sleepy and I was told the steroid would make him hyper. The insurance company still hasn't responded to the claim forms the therapist filed so as soon as I get home I have to call them because it's been more than 4 weeks now. We are out of the office at exactly 1:30 which is what time biology is finished.
Drive to biology to pick up Jonathan and pick him up at the end of the driveway at 1:47. Drop Jonathan off at home so he can work on lab reports and grammar. He's learned that if he doesn't keep working after co-op and biology classes it's near impossible to get all of his work done even if he works at night and on the weekends.
We head to the library. Last night when planning Jesse's weekly assignments I look up the next book for his literature class. Of course it's the only one of a whole stack of books that he's reading that we don't have a copy of and he has to start his reading tomorrow in order to finish by Tuesday. We ordered it 3 weeks before co-op began but it's still back ordered. Thankfully, when I checked the library website they had a copy - but it was at the Matthews branch. I live in University - close to a 30 minute drive!! We hop on 485 and drive straight in to a blinding deluge. We arrive in Matthews where the truck dies three times while we're trying to get through the red lights. We make it to the library without getting totally soaked in spite of the fact that none of us have rain coats. I head straight to the bathroom. This pregnant Mommy can't remember the last time she went, but it was way too long ago.
Matthews library is lovely and we all settle in. They have great book selections and James loves their kids science section. At our library he always ask me to take him to the big science shelf (the adult section). We found some old favorites including Cranberry Thanksgiving before all the copies get checked out and an Alfie book that our library doesn't have a copy of. The boys are very cheerful - after their long day they got their library time after all. We sit around a table and I examine each of their piles, weeding inappropriate titles, and paring down the books till each of them are able to manage their own piles. I pass around library cards and they go to the desk and wait patiently in line while a real person checks out their books instead of a computer. We stack the books in the truck while they run up the ramp and around the Chamber of Commerce into the little red caboose. They each climb up into the high seats to look out the window and we pile in the truck amidst the books to head home. (It feels strange to have one son too old for all of this - old enough to be home alone writing a lab report!) The pace of the day is slowly beginning to wind down, but so am I!
I have peaches to slice and freeze but need to stop and get freezer bags. I decide to buy another roll of parchment that I have run out of before finishing the rest of the cookie batter so we don't have to deal with cookies that stick to the pan and burn. While I'm plannig my list at the store I look back at these boys who've been carted here and there ALL DAY. I make a quick call to Jonathan and he's made good progress so I drop them off at the driveway before heading to the store alone. They joyfully splash inside happy to be home. While at the store I decide that the best plan for dinner is Stoffer's lasagna and pick up a loaf of french bread for toast. I make another mental note to try and get something else in the freezer besides meatloaf and carry the bags to the truck.
Jonathan hears me pull in the driveway and rounds up all the little ones to carry in the groceries and they put things away. It's so nice when they are thoughtful! Relief. Pop in the lasagna and it's 4:50 - just enough time to call the insurance company. They haven't received any claims and have no records of any of Nathan's visits to speech therapy so a call to his doctors office get's slated to first thing in the morning. They boys are watching Richard Scarry and I sit down to check my email while lasagna is in the oven. There are lots and lots. Sigh. I put up my feet and just 'Do the Next Thing'.
I call about a van that David sent me a Craigslist post to check into. It's big enough and actually within our budget and looks like it's in good condition. There aren't many details. So I call and Hector answers. He uses it as a work truck. How many miles does it have? He bought it four years ago and hasn't had any problems with it. I ask again. It had almost 100,000 miles on it when he boutght it, but it runs great. He doesn't really want to sell it but he's going back to his home country. He asks why I need it then says he's taken out the seats but knows someone who has some in storage. He can drive it over to let us look at it - he's only a couple of miles away. I ask again, How many miles? He finally says 330,000! But they are all highway miles he says this several times and it still runs great - he drives it Chicago and back twice a week!! Oh, Hector, good luck selling that van!!
David is home before I know it and we've had dinner and talked. I'm again sitting with my feet up. As soon as the little ones go down for bed I think I'll start on some of the peaches. Now I think its time to try and squeeze in a couple of those library books amidst listening to Joseph's very first whistles! One more mental note to crank the truck early in the morning and try to locate the source of that vacuum leak that we hear under the hood. Then whether I can find it or not brave a call to C&S to ask Jeff if they can try just one more time to find it...
