A Full, Rich Day. . . Make That Week

Well, today has been what I think of as a full, rich day. I know that is an expression that I picked up in my reading, and I wish I could remember who to credit it to, but my mind is not the steel trap that it used to be. You know, they say that when you are pregnant, many of your brain cells go down to the baby, resulting in the ever-so-common "Mommy Brain." I've also heard that you regain those cells after the baby is about two years old. Since my two babies were only seventeen months apart, I figure my supply of brain cells was so depleted, it'll take me about 20 years to get my mind back. At least that's what I keep telling myself. Anyway, I searched through my favorite blogs to see if I could find that term, but I can't. If you know where I picked it up, please let me know and I'll credit them for it!

Anyway - to define a full, rich day, let me tell you about today. The girls and I got up late, having gone to bed ridiculously late last night, and went about quietly making pancakes since Daddy was asleep on the couch. He had an important "thing" at work, so he was up late, late, late last night dealing with that, so I tiptoed around in the kitchen doing my best to make pancakes quietly. Why, I don't know, as Gracie has never learned to lower her voice below a scream when they are playing, and Jerry has been known to sleep through storms, smoke alarms, and freight trains going by in the night.

After pancakes I got dressed and went to look at a FSBO house in the neighborhood. It was cute and well taken care of, but it had room for neither a craft room or our office furniture, (and it had leopard print carpet on the stairs) so it is out of the running, I think. Unless we downsize considerably, it was just too small. I've got appointments to look at two more tomorrow, so who knows?

Once I got home I got the girls up from their descent into the Disney Channel and into their Girl Scout uniforms and we headed off to an event that celebrated the 100th birthday of Oklahoma and 95th anniversary of Girl Scouting. The girls got to try their hand at cattle roping, play with games that were popular in 1907, learn a dance from an Indian Fancy Dancer (Creek Tribe, Muskogee Nation), see a magic show and a mad scientist show, take a ride in a horse-drawn wagon, and play on the playground. Whew! Then we went back home and rested for awhile before heading for a long-promised dinner at "the McDonald's with the palm trees in the play land." Lastly we stopped at Target for some bananas and hit the Halloween half price sale. Maggie picked up some pom-poms and has since been chanting around the house, "Give me an M! Give me an A! Give me a G! Give me another G! Give me an I! Give me an E! What does that spell? Maggie! YEA!!!!!" She did all our names, plus "Girl Scouts", but she left out the U. When she yelled, "What does that spell?" I yelled, "Girl Scots!" and she was a bit confused, but I thought it was a riot. I foresee an extremely enthusiastic spelling test review this week.

So, that was it for today. As I said, a full, rich day. As for the rest of the week, it was also jam packed, but not so much as today. Here's the highlights:

Thursday was Parent Teacher conference night for us. We were fretting a bit about having to take the girls with us to this, but Monday, my dad called to let us know he was going to be in town on Thursday evening after business meetings. I jumped on that opportunity, "Hey Dad, how would you like to babysit that evening?" I think that was more than he bargained for, but he was a good sport and agreed. On Thursday evening the girls inquired how I was going to go to the Parent Teacher Conference - "Are you going to leave us at home by ourselves?"

"Um - no. Have I ever left you by yourselves? No. I got a babysitter."

"Really? Is it a boy or a girl?"

"A boy."

"It's Daddy, isn't it?"

"No, Daddy is going with me to see your teachers."

"Is it a stranger, or do you know them?"

"Like I would leave you with someone I don't know! I know them."

"Do you know their name?"

"Yes."

"What is it?"

"Robert."

"Robert. Oh." They ran off, contemplating a new sitter named Robert. When Dad got there and rang the door bell, they yelled, "The babysitter's here!" and cautiously peeked through the window, and then went berserk when they saw their Granddaddy. What a big surprise! They had a great time while we were gone, reading books and such.

While both girls are doing well in school, and working hard, Gracie is having some trouble overcoming some issues concerning fine motor skills and letter reversals, so we are going to be going to school 15 minutes early every day for extra practice on the computer. We will also be seeing about having her tested for any learning quirks. It was very interesting to compare the two conferences by the two teachers - Maggie's teacher is relatively new, this being her second year of teaching, while Gracie's teacher has 28 years of experience. Both are good teachers, but Maggie's teacher is still very much in learning mode.

Wednesday, of course, was Halloween, and I'm sure everyone wants to see my little princesses - you just knew that was what they had to be, right? Here they are: Okay - the big one is me. Gracie was Ariel, the Little Mermaid and Maggie was Barbie as Rosella (The Island Princess). Both girls begged to have crowns/princess hats as part of their costumes, and I caved. On Halloween though, I braided Maggie's hair to look like Rosella's does on the video, and then she didn't want to wear the hat because it hid her braids. I figured that I had paid $5 for that hat, and somebody was going to wear it! I even wore it into Barnes and Nobel with Maggie to pick up a Children's Dictionary for her on the way to the Halloween festival that we went to. We also went around the block trick-or-treating. Gracie totally cracked me up - after each house she would say very emphatically, "They gave us even MORE candy! I totally LOVE this night!!!"

Tuesday I helped out with the children's program at Bible study. I observed something while watching the kiddos. We were teaching the story of the good Samaritan that day - the leader told the story, and they play-acted it out so nicely, and then the leader asked them a few questions to see if they had understood the story. As she read the questions, she would never get very far into the questions before someone's little had would shoot up and an eager voice would shout, "GOD!!!!" And it made me wonder - when and why is it that as we grow up we stop thinking that "GOD!!!!" is the answer to all the problems?

Well, I think that's about it - I spent most of the remainder of the time this week in bed or on the couch resting - I got the crud that is going around. I think it's whatever Maggie had on our trip - I don't feel sick, just nauseous. Most folks that have had it says it lasts a week or two, but I'm ready for it to be over. I'm already feeling much better though, so perhaps I'm on the upside. I hope so! Enjoy your next week - I hope it's a Full, Rich one!