Friday Morning Musings - 1 Week Down, A Whole Bunch More To Go

Our first week of summer vacay is coming to a close. It has been...well, like this:

I have always had a summer schedule for the kids. Like we always go to the library on Wednesday, they can have friends over on Tuesday, we swim on such and such day. It was just a known thing and I had never really put it on paper for the kids to see until I read my friend Megan's blog and saw the calendar she made for her kids. So I made my own. The kids loved being able to see it and know exactly what we were going to be doing that day. Here is our calendar for the week:

The schedule has been working great. My children however, have been fighting constantly. It is about to make me insane. By Tuesday night I was a total basket case. I was thinking, "It has been 2 days. 2 days and I'm about to hurt someone. How can I make it all summer?"

Zac has made it his personal mission to make his sisters scream constantly. He pretty much leaves Emily alone because he knows she will kick the crap out of him. But Aubrey. Oh Aubrey. If I hear her scream and cry one more time....He has found a way to really do nothing, but make her scream. He gives her these looks when no one else is looking and she just goes ballistic. It's just so much fun to watch the sibling love goin' on around here.

I started a park day in our ward here. It was overcast and sprinkling on park day this week, so we only had a few others come. It was fun though.

A while back, my mom was talking to someone and she was telling them about how when they lived in Dallas, Thursday night was dinner night at our house. My parents signed up to feed the missionaries in our ward EVERY Thursday night. As we got older, our friends quickly learned that Thursday night was feeding night at the Snow's. We always had a house full on Thursday night. It got me to thinkin'. I should have known better, but I didn't. I kept thinkin'. I decided I wanted to start our own Thursday night tradition. It had kind of been forming in my head for about a week and around 4:30 yesterday afternoon, I said, "Hey everybody, wanna hear how stupid I am?" Ok, I didn't really say that. I told everyone that we were starting a new tradition called, "Thursday Night, Pasta Night". And every Thursday they could each invite a friend over for dinner. So we made some last minute calls to get friends over. Aubrey called and her friend came right over. And they were playing so nicely together. Zac couldn't get a hold of the 2 friends he tried, and he refused to try anyone else. Emily wouldn't call anyone I wanted her to. She also couldn't get a hold of anyone she was trying to call. She wanted to go to her friends house that she didn't have a phone number for and invite her over. That where the madness began.

I said, sure Em. Hop on your bike and drive over to Gabby's house and invite her over. (Sigh) Oh, sweet Emily. When you are reading this, just realize that my love for you is unconditional. That means I love you no matter what, and nothing will ever make me stop loving you.

(sigh)

Emily came home, not with Gabby. She came home with another friend who she happened to ride past on her bike. Her friend had attachments. One was her sister, the other two were her neighbors. I had met the friend last week when Emily went to her Birthday party. I had never seen the other 3 in my life before. I saw the five of them riding their bikes toward our house and thought, my parents always welcomed everyone into our home. The more the merrier, right? I thought, it'll be great. GREAT.

Do you know what happens when you have 7 girls together. Screaming and running. That's it. SCREAMING. and RUNNING. And the screaming was made even better with the help of Zac, who, like I said before, has made it his personal mission to keep his sisters screaming all summer long. My nice little dinner, yeah. Didn't happen. And when you have that many girls together screaming and running, they don't listen to a word you say. They just keep on screaming and running. There comes a point when you just have to give up. So that's what I did. I gave up trying to have any control. I sat at the table, near tears, watching the clock, rocking back and forth, thinking it will be over soon. It finally came to the point where I couldn't take it anymore. I said, Emily, your friends have to leave now. So they all got their stuff together and went out the front door and got on their bikes. You would think it would end there, right? Oh, you would be so wrong.

Zac and Emily followed them out and got on their bikes as well. They made it down the driveway and onto the street. Now, we have had rain all week. And we are surrounded by dirt. So out in the street in front of our house there is a big muddy puddle. One of the girls slipped and she and her bike fell in the mud. Her shoe came off and she couldn't find it in the mud puddle. So they are all trying to help her. I look out the door and see them all out there and tell Zac and Emily they best get their behineys in the house if they know what is good for them. They explain to me what happened and my first reaction was to say, WHO CARES! GET IN THE HOUSE AND LET THEM DEAL WITH IT! But I decided that wasn't very Christlike of me so I told them to hurry and help her find her shoe and THEN they better get their behineys in the house. I went inside and started doing something else.

A while later I realized there were no behineys in the house, so I went outside to yell again. Oh. That's when I saw the disaster. Everyone was covered from head to toe with mud. As soon as I got out there, one of the girls started crying and said, "My mom is gonna be so mad at me when I get home!" Suddenly I had all 6 of them yelling and trying to explain to me what had happened. Apparently Zac was in the muddy water trying to get the girls shoe and then all the girls starting pelting him with mud. So Zac started pelting back. Only he is a much better aim than they are. I am talking hair totally encrusted. Clothes, arms, legs, shoes, bikes. Everything is covered with clods of mud. You think I was mad before? Oh, you should have seen me then. I turned to Zac and Emily and in a voice drowning with venom I said, "Take your bikes right now and put them in the garage and go in the house. And if you know what's good for you, the kitchen will be spotless when I come back in."

I did the best I could to clean those four girls up before I sent them home. I am sure their mothers were furious when they showed up on their doorsteps that way. I was fully expecting some angry mother I had never seen before to show up at my house and demand to know what kind of children I was raising. So far though, there has been no sign of her. Whew!

I went in my house and walked into the kitchen. Zac and Emily were just finishing up with their making the kitchen spotless. I very calmly said, "Well, I hope you enjoyed our very first AND very last Thursday Night Pasta Night". I sent them upstairs to take showers and put themselves in bed.

Then I went into my room and sat in my chair and pouted.

It's now Saturday morning as I am finishing this post up. Enough time has passed, that I can now see some humor in the situation. I have decided not to give up on Thursday Night Pasta Night so easily. It is a good idea. It just needs a few kinks worked out is all.