Blog Therapy

It's the only reason an otherwise sane person would be blogging at 1:00 in the morning. When I'm swamped the most is when I seem to need the "release" of blogging the most. Dumb. Why is that? Why don't I feel like blogging when I'm bored and have nothing else to do? Wait... when's the last time that happened? Hmmm...

I won't lay out all of the details, but I will say that it's been a very full couple of days packed with lots of paint, wallpaper, polyurethane, paint speckled hair, filthy fingernails, hands that are dried out and cracked, beat up knees, one splinter firmly lodged underneath a fingernail, achy arms, and as of an hour or two ago a kid throwing up all over himself, his pj's, his pillow, his blanket, and the rug. Twice. ~sigh~ He seems to be resting soundly right now, so I'm hoping it's all over with for the night. Time will tell!

I do have one kid story to impart. Let me just start by saying KIDS ARE SO DUMB. Yesterday morning while I was wallpapering I suddenly heard the most terrible scream from outside where the kids were playing. It was one of those bad ones--the real thing. I made my way out of the house (no easy task in it's current condition) in time to see all three kids walking toward the porch of their own accord, no broken limbs and no blood, although Joe had a rope wrapped around and around him securing his arms to his sides. Upon seeing that they were all still alive, I became rather unhappy with them. I get on to them all the time for yelling and screaming and otherwise acting like a bunch of crazed Indians--it echoes all across the mountain and I keep telling them that the neighbors simply don't want to hear it. Well, this was mid-morning when all of the other kids are in school and the neighbors should be able to expect some peace and quiet. Nope. It was Joe who had been screaming bloody murder, I could tell by the tear drenched face. And the rope was a pretty good indicator, as well. When they got to the house I told them that I didn't want to hear it. "Just calm yourselves down, find a book and sit down somewhere and be quiet!" It only took a minute for me to reconsider. Since the scream and tears had been so impressive it seemed like I should at least find out what happened, so I asked Katie. I was still rather upset as she began, "Well... Joe had this idea... that Sam and I should tie him upside down from the swing set..." !!!!! Mad or not, when I heard just that much of the story I lost it. Just cracked up. That's all I needed to hear--I could just see the whole thing!!! HA! How could they be sooooooo dumb?!?!? Katie started giggling, too, and Joe (with tears still coming) started laughing with us. Sam declared that he was the one who accidentally let go of the rope. I told them all that it was a STUPID, STUPID, STUPID thing to do and how Joe could have been very seriously injured, but I had to repeat the lecture later once I had regained my composure because the first time around it came through my own tears and laughter!

By the way, pray for Joe! About an hour after the incident I noticed him walking around the house with his head down, chin near his chest. His neck is real sore and sometimes even his back hurts a little--and his head hurts. (Imagine that! From what I can gather, he was probably two and a half feet off the ground--with his arms tied to his sides, mind you--when he was...released.) Anything that jars him at all (even just riding in the car and going over a bump) seems to hurt his head. It's not severe, but it's definitely bothering him. He's NOT the one throwing up, just so you know--that was Sam. Still, I wonder if perhaps he suffered a mild concussion. ??? I don't really know anything about them. I told the horse lady about it today and she wanted to know if it has helped! Ha! We were discussing Joe's absentmindedness and terrible short term memory last week and she asked if he'd ever hit his head real hard or anything. No... But now he has, so she wondered if perhaps it helped him out!

Joe wanted to ride today and practice his reining, but he didn't stay on too long. It was sad and not sad all at once. It meant that I got to finish the rest of his lesson for him! Wa-Hoo!!! I got to ride Daisy for a few minutes today and trot a bit. :-) Life is so grand. Though I do feel bad for Joe. I hate it that he's hurting... but I'm really hoping he's learned a lesson through this! ~sigh~ Bunch of idiot children!!!

That's about it. We've got one more day of breakneck speed work to be done, then on Thursday... THE CARPET COMES!!!!! Wa-Hoo!!!!!!!!! The beginning of the end! It's truly here! They're coming! I'm going to have carpet and be able to MOVE IN to all of the parts of my house that I'm NOT moved in to right now! Currenly my living room contains two couches, four wingback chairs, a rocker and a recliner, as well as a coffee table and piano. Half of the furniture belongs in other places in the house and it's just a wee bit cramped in here. My bedroom stuff is truly stuffed (!) into my bathroom, and as of today Katie's closet stuff is stacked, piled, and strewn all over her bed (all three kids are sleeping in the living room, on the floor and one couch--yes, somehow there's room for that in here!) and floor. Tomorrow things will get even worse, if it's possible, but once we get carpet in on Thursday it should very slowly begin a grand and glorious recovery of every room in the house, even the new ones. :-) If I can just hold on for a few more days in the chaos... I've been handling it amazingly well, I think. Usually chaos doesn't set well with me, but nobody's gotten hurt yet. Except for Joe, and I don't think it was related to the mess. ;-)