Laundry

I think there is a special place in Heaven for those of us who dredge through the daunting task of Laundry.
And not just any old Laundry, Family Laundry.
Those who boldly go where no one wants to--
those who are willing reach into mysterious pockets,
to turn right side out peed in pants,
to separate, sort, spray and pre-treat.
Those who devote countless hours, who day after day, week after week, month after month, load after load continue on; carrying the torch of clean apparel for their loved ones.
Those who are willing to accept the fact that this job will NEVER be done.
Those who continue to nurture and care for people who do not seem to understand the intricacies of clean verses dirty clothes.
Those who continue to cherish people who place dirty clothes in the closet or under the bed, people who return clean clothes to the hamper.
Those who gather, sort, treat, wash, swap, fold.
Repeat. Repeat. Repeat.
And to those who iron on a regular basis or do
 "farm clothes" laundry....well,
.....I think you should be exalted right now.
Laundry-doers across the Globe: I salute you.
Take a bow.

And now, go do the Laundry--
your chariot awaits.

The Joyful Week. Recap.

So, all in all a pretty decent week I'd say.  The couple of really hard days were hard because there was hard stuff with my kiddos.
Case in point: Saturday.  Wow.

Honestly, mostly just one of my kiddos.  

This kiddo is a

'Go Big or Go Home'

kind of a kid.

And it's always Go Big.  What ever happens is BIG.
Big happy, Big sad, Big excitement, Big frustration, Big anger. Big talent. Big.
It's all Big.
Big Brilliant possibilities.
The sky's the limit for this kiddo, and they can have it all....
if we can all just manage to stay out of the rubber room until they reach adulthood.
;o)

And btw, the YW lesson on Sunday was good.
Two quotes pretty much summed it up.

1)    
"Happiness does not depend on what happens outside of you but on what happens inside of you."
-President Harold B. Lee-

and

2)
"If your not where you are, you're nowhere."
-Colonial Potter-

The Joyful Week. Day 6.

Day 6 = Fairly Brutal.
The Joyful things today would be things like a beating heart (to feel the adrenalin while I try not to loose my temper and my mind), eyes that see (to look the other way), ears that hear (to listen for the sound of silence)....you get the picture.
Some days are just tough.
And that was today--well, yesterday.
But today will be better.
I hope.

The Joyful Week. Day 5.

Once again I am reporting on yesterday today.  Since the Joyful Day 6 is already waiting for me let's just do a quick little recap of Day 5, shall we?

Here we go, in no particular order, 3 joyful things--Day 5:
*Elsie Girl and Grant Delish playing the whole live long day together, having a sleep over in a fort made by yours truly with very minimal drama and melt down and waking up this morning still happy to be together.
  Love it.
Joyful?  Check.
*Being resourceful.  "Use it up, wear it out, make it do or do without".
It's my mantra and I am a pro.  More on that later.
Being resourceful = Joyful.
*Ending the day with a visit from a fellow P-town original
(she grew up in Franklin...literally a few miles from me ),
St. G friend and neighbor
(we met 3 years ago when she moved into the ward)
 -who btw- is actually named Joy.
I'm not even joking.

The Joyful Week. Day 4

It's actually the beginning of Day 5, but I didn't get to this last night....so here you go.
Day 4:
*No school for the kiddos today.  Our normal 3 day weekend is a 4 day weekend.  Today that was joyful, by Sunday night I might be singing a different song.
*The weather was beautiful.  Started some work in the yard today; planned where we are putting the garden, the kids (mostly Adam) started digging holes for some trees we are transplanting from my mom's. 
I began the project by asking Adam if he had read the book Holes.
 'Yes.' 
Was it a good book? 
'Yes.' 
Did you see the movie? 
'Yes.' 
Did you like the movie? 
'Yes.' 
How would you like a real life experience? 
'Nice, Mom--very sneaky way to get me to dig the holes.' 
Thank you, Dear.  I thought so too.
*The calves were out this morning.  The girls and Grant collected them (and they were quite scattered) and corralled them at the end of the corn pit until we were ready to get them back where they belong. 
*Hard working kids bring me joy.
*Excedrine.  The ability to curb a headache, even for a few hours, brings me joy.  It's already starting to work again this morning....yeah for the good drugs!

That's it for now, off to find the joy for today.
:0)

The Joyful Week. Day 3

So, I've decided my plan for writing about the Joyful Day at the end of the day is not such a great one.  Seriously, by the end of the night I am pooped!  I'm flying solo in the evenings these days, which brings me to my joyful news....
Are you ready??  Are you REALLY ready??
Mike got a part time job.
Can I get a halleluiah?
CAN I GET A HALLELUIAH THANK THE HEAVENS ABOVE?!?  
Let me hear you say it!!
It is nothing glamorous, just a forklift driver at Peppridge Farm- working the swing shift.
Really, though, so perfect.
It's not going to wear him out physically, the swing shift means he's not up all night and has a good part of the day to attend to what ever else needs to be done and the pay is actually pretty swell.
Fan-diddly-tastic, right?
Sometimes a gal (and a guy and their kiddos) just need a little something to work out.
And this did. 
This is not the solution to all of our troubles, but it's a start and it feels awfully good.

The Joyful Week. Day 3:  A Paycheck.
(wait, is that when you go work
somewhere and then they pay you?
and then you work some more and
they pay you again? and so on and so forth
....yes?!?....
well, then- this will be great!)

The Joyful Week. Day 2

Sometimes the most joyful part of the day is having it come to a close.
Can I ask you a question?  Has it really only been just over 6 hours since 'The Big Yellow Ticket to Solitude' dropped my chiltlens at my front door?  Really???  Cuz it feels more like 18.
What an afternoon/evening!!  WoW.  That's all I can say.
Oh...and I can also say that I rock.
It's a long story.  A really long story.  The kind I said I wouldn't be divulging here.
But you should know that I rocked it.
At least that's what I think.
But my brain is fried, so I could be wrong on that.
Eh, well.  Either way....tomorrow is another day.

Peace Out.

The Joyful Week. Day 1

Day 1 the Joyful Week:  Success.

I had every intention of writing a little something about the day, but right now I can't really put two thoughts together because there is a computer game (a game that if shut off might kill one of my children...they desperately need me to leave it on! cuz, you know they almost have it all figured out) on mute (but who are we kidding???  mute does not mean NO SOUND, it means just enough sound to bug) and I am also listening to some fairly loud music coming up from the basement.

On the bright side the music isn't too terribly annoying- thank goodness they like classic rock and not rap, could be worse.  And it means I have kids here.  And I like that.

I had a good 2+ solid hours of cleaning today.  That always brings me joy.
I made cookies this afternoon.  Really, when do cookies not bring joy?

So there, cleaning and baking bring me joy.
Everyone who is surprised stand on your head.

p.s.

update on the music from the basement:

word on the street is there was a jam

session going on in the boys room

complete with 5 year old break dancing

and all sorts of other shenanigans.

Glad I ignored it...

I love it when they have fun together.

Cool with being Uncool.

So, I've been noticing something...I don't think regular old blogs are cool any more.  If you have less than a massive following, it's just not that cool.  So for me, I'm 16 followers down and a thousand left to go???  Am I right?
Regular Old Blogs = Not Cool.

Hhmmm....Well, here's my thoughts on that:

First of all, I've never been a really cool person anyway.  I mean, I'm cool in my own kinda quirky way, but quirky does not equal cool.  Don't get me wrong I would choose quirky over cool any day of the week and twice on Monday (the day you know your getting a treat thanks to FHE).  Remember?  I'm the girl who thinks cleaning is cool.  So I'm no judge of what's cool and what's not.
And, BTW just the fact that I am now noticing that maybe regular old blogs are not so cool means they have probably not been cool for quite some time, cuz I'm just that uncool.
Guess what?  I don't want 1,016 followers.  That sounds like too much work and not nearly enough anonymity so that's not what I'm saying...or thinking.  I guess I'm wondering why do I blog?  It's not to be cool.  We've already established that.  And it's not to make a family blog book, which I think is really cool and a great reason to blog.  I think I blog just to blabber randomly.  Is blabbering cool?  I think it's quirky, so I suppose that fits.
The truth is my blabbering has had to change a bit.  My life has not been what I anticipated, my kids are getting older and I just don't feel right about publicizing all the craziness that goes on around here (although I have thought of an "Alias Mom Blog").  So if I don't divulge all of the stories of raising 5 kids ranging from 16 to 5, and believe me there are plenty, and I don't just want to complain, and I'm not using this blog as a way to track our lives all that's left is the random blabberings rattling around in my head.

Things like this:
If your house has a really funky smell and by funky I mean sorta wood stove related but down right stinky, boil water with a bit of vinegar in it and it will neutralize smells in your house. IT WORKS.  Cooking bacon and don't want to know you cooked bacon three days from now by the smell in your house??  Boil water and vinegar.  It's awesome.  Almost as good as cleaning the bathroom with rubbing alcohol.  Yes, it's that awesome.
And:
If you take your kids sledding and underestimate the damage the sun can cause to your fair skinned child's face, and said child wakes up with a swollen face and eyes that she can barely open cake it with mustard and let it sit for 15 minutes.  Do that right after you enter the mother of the year award. (Let the record show that I DID put sunscreen on the little hoodlums....clearly not enough)

See, random blabbering.  So I think I'm cool with not being cool.
Quirky is cool enough for me.

p.s.

next Sunday I am teaching

a lesson on finding joy now.

my goal is to find as much joy as

I can this week.

...thinking about blogging that randomness.

wish me luck.

p.s.s.

for the record,

I include finding humor

as joy.

otherwise I might die.