The dentist went well for the girls. For me it was an hour and a half of wrestling Noble on my severely diminished lap. I took all the kids to the school and carried Noble in to check them in for the day. An hour later I returned to pick up Lauren from Kindergarten. By this time I was exhausted. I fed Noble and Lauren lunch and then put Noble down for a nap. Lauren and I fell asleep in the family room for a bit.
After Noble woke up it was time to pick the kids up from school and take them straight to their violin and viola lessons. Normally my mom takes care of Noble and Lauren for me while I go with the girls to their lesson. Suzuki lessons encourage parents to attend lessons so you can help the kids practice during the week. But this week my mom is out of town. So I took the kids with me to the lesson. This is no problem with Lauren. She had fun doing crafty things with the teacher's daughter who is Annie's age.
For me this meant another hour long wrestling match with Noble. He loves new places and just wants to go explore. His normal entertainments are no comparison with new places to explore. I ended up with lots of lip gloss all over my face as I let him put it on me. He ended up with lots of hand sanitizer rubbed into his hands drop by drop. At the end I carried Noble and the music books and my purse out to the car. Did I mention I am 7 months pregnant? Yeah.
We raced home to change in to Sunday clothes and eat a quick dinner (luckily my dinner group takes care of bringing me dinner on Wed. and Thus. so I didn't have to cook). Then I called Jon to see if he was on his way home to come with us to the special program at the church to recognize Sabrina's work on her goals and introduce Ann Marie as a new member of the girls activity group for girls aged 8-11. He answered the phone sounding frazzled and overwhelmed and told me he wouldn't be home till after the store closed. Too many employees are out sick and they were getting slammed before closing.
So I got all the kids back in the car and took them to the church for the program. I asked the girls to help me out as this was not going to be easy for me. I was in for another wrestling match with Noble. By now I was in pregnancy belly pain and having contractions and my little baby inside was stretching out to see what new yoga positions he could master. About 20 minutes into my wrestling match with Lauren tired and needing more attention than she was getting, Annie's tummy started to hurt.
Annie laid down on some chairs and then fell off them and hit her head on a leg of the table at which we were sitting. Mind you this is all during a program. So I gave Noble to Sabrina and tried to pick Annie up from off the floor and under the table. This was less than successful with the basketball sized belly in front of me. I finally managed to get her up. She was crying and trying hard not to. That usually means she is really hurt. So I picked her up and took her out of the room.
I spent 5 minutes calming her down and loving her in the foyer till she had her eyes dried and felt better. Then we went back into the program to try to get my other kids to sit down and take over Noble who was squirming. All the while Lauren is doing whatever little disobedient thing she can to get attention. How can an hour be so dang long? Somehow this hour seemed eternal. I would have just packed the kids up and left except that I didn't want Sabrina and Annie to miss their parts on the program which were last.
As soon as the "Amen" was said for the closing prayer I grabbed my kids and we headed out of there. I was barely holding it together. I hurt.
Once I got the kids settled at home (homework done, piano practiced, reading time done, punishment doled out for disobedience during the program, Noble freshly diapered and put to bed) I sat in my recliner with barely enough energy to get up and get a drink. All I really wanted was homemade cookie dough. But I didn't have the energy to make it. So I had a bowl of Life cereal instead. Jon was finally home and so we watched a bit of TV and then went to bed.
Today I woke up refreshed in my wonderful bed that makes me almost forget I am pregnant after a good night's sleep. I had a really good talk with Lauren about how important it is to learn to be obedient when you are 5 so it will be easier to do when you are 15 and it really matters. I was able to explain how my punishments now are given because I love her so much and want her to learn this important principle now while she is young and it is easier. It was a really good talk and one I needed to have with her.
After I got the kids ready for school I realized my cravings for cookie dough had not gone away with my sleep. So... I did a little mixing and got this:
The extra to go into the fridge to eat in times of future cravings.
The mini sized cookies waiting to go in the oven.
The big cookies baking.
The mini cookies cooling.
The big cookies on a platter.
All the cookies.
I like my chocolate chip cookies. They are seriously the best. I have fine tuned the recipe from an old one I used to use - "the Scott Porter" recipe, and a secret recipe my friend Britt shared with me and my own tweaks here and there. I would share it but I can't reveal the "secret" ingredient from Britt's secret recipe. But, to me at least, they are ... the best. Today they are helping to make it all okay. Along with a plenty of rest, they may possibly be the cure for a really hard day.
