A VERY Long Week--Part One

Last week turned into a very long, hectic, holidayish week. To give it full justice, now that I'm semi-recovered, I thought I'd divide it into parts.

Monday--I love Mondays. Usually. It's a chance to begin again, a new start to fix everything that went wrong the week before. That being said, it doesn't always work out that Monday is the best day of the week or the easiest. We began with school, moving along quite well. Things fizzled out of control very quickly when I had to stop to rush on errands in town. This is never good. Rushed to town, rushed home and got the boys moving. They go to the Knights club on Monday afternoon so we needed to leave. We technically had plenty of time to get there on time until we encountered an accident. Okay. We can be patient. We wait. And wait. And wait. Finally we are allowed to proceed on our way. Five minutes later, at another intersection we find another accident. Patience ebbs fast. We wait and wait and wait. We are now in the teeth grinding, we better get there on time or else, mode.

I make it five minutes before Fr. S. arrives. The boys jump out, eager to play games in the freezing cold. I rush to meet my cousin who needs me to pick up her boys. They jump in the car, we rush back to the park, they get out and I wait until I'm sure they have caught up with the group. Rush back to my cousin and we proceed to the Library where I sometimes volunteer with the Girls' group. My cousin and her daughter follow me.

In the interest of scouting up people to enter the December, "Cookies and Milk" contest, I ask if anyone wants a copy of our latest contest. They do. Run into the library from the meeting room and find the copier---the only copier--is OUT OF ORDER. And gee, everything was going so well up to that point!

The girls make Christmas cards. It's a relaxing activity after so much rushing. Later, I pick up the boys and my cousin decides to follow us home. Houseguests! Two of the boys ride with me and we listen to the Christmas music channel on the way home.

TUESDAY---All six children wake up early. Very early. Jarrod and Miah are ecstatic. Company to play with. No school work and a free day. I spend the day visiting, picking up, washing dishes and planning for a field trip the next day. My sanity ebbs fast. In the afternoon, my dear friend, Erica, calls and I'm able to make it through the rest of the night. THANKS! You'll never know how much I appreciated talking to someone over twelve, not crying, yelling or spilling toys.

Tuesday evening was the first night of the Merry Money store at our local library. This year the library decided to "pay" children for every 30 minutes they read during the holiday season. The fake bills--$1 for every 30 minutes--could be spent only on three dates at the library. Until we got there and saw the amount of merchandise, I had no idea it would be so well planned and such a blessing. The idea was for the children to purchase gifts for Mom, Dad, Grandparents, Teachers and siblings. Jarrod and Greg (his cousin), found several teacher gifts for their joint teachers at Leaves of Learning. (Despite several hints that I was his teacher 3 days a week, I don't think any of the nice mugs or sewing kits I pointed out made it into his shopping bag.)

Miah decided to get a nice tiara for Gemma (his cousin) because she hadn't signed up fo the program. He found a folk art Santa made from thread spools he couldn't resist for himself.

My Tuesday ended by going to the laundromat so we'd have warm clothes for our field trip the next day. Which brings me to the end of this post---conclusion in Part Two.