Jammie Day

Jeff went to help a friend move on Saturday. Hewoke up at 4:30am and was on the road by 5am. It's a long drive to Minnesota and he wanted to by there by 9am to help pick up the U-hual. The move was a success and he surprised us all by being home in time for supper.

Meanwhile, the kids and I had the whole day to

ourselves. We started it when they climbed into my bed and put their very tiny and absolutely

freezing hands and feet on my bare skin. I woke up quickly and cranky. We snuggled for a short time. But the kids were hungry and made it known. I tried to distract them with TV. It only partially worked. Grumpily, I dragged myself

from beneath my down comforter and trudged to

the kitchen, opening the sliding glass door for the dogs on my way.

Then I searched the cupboards and refrigerator for things that could be eaten in my bed without spilling or leaving crumbs. I settled on string cheese, drained mandarin oranges, and granola bars. I put their milk into water bottles and headed back to my room. They were ecstatic! TV and cartoons in bed. Nothing could be better. I wasn't quite as thrilled, but plenty happy enough to be laying down underneath my covers again.

And so the morning went. Eva lasted through two

cartoon shows before giving up on the TV. "Mama, do you want to play little people with m

e please?" No. I want to stay in bed and do nothing. Besides, the little people were still all laying in the bottom of the bath tub filled with water. "I want to go out there. Come with me mama." Ugghhhh!

"How about you

get all the little people in a bucket and bring them in here. Then I will play with you." It was worth a try. She had never said yes to this type of proposition, but what could it hurt! She looked at me and then turned around and walked out. Three minutes later she returned with a bucket of little people and plopped them on my head. Xander continued to watch cartoons while Eva and I pretended the bucket was a swimming

pool that each little person took a turn filling up. In other words, I shook the water out of them one by one while she threw them in the bucket over and over again while saying phrases from her swim class. "Time for jumping in." "Time for monkey walks." "Show me your big

belly." "Chin up."

Two and a half hours after the children tried to freeze me to death, I finally grew bored of being in my bed. Xander was instructed to turn the TV off after the cartoon ended. Eva and I headed out

to make smoothies for snack. Smoothies

accomplished, we sat down and played some Thomas Bingo. That's when I decided we should do a photo shoot. No one agreed with me. No one would dress sup in silly costumes. So, we made silly faces instead. (If you are reading this, you undoubtedly have seen some of the results!)

Time passed quickly and we moved on to Legos

and then lunch. Xander is figuring out how to build all kids of Lego things. He made a car, a spaceship, and a mini-city protected by a duck and rhinoceros all before lunch. Eva built towers and roads. All of their creations were fabulous. I sat at the table, helping when necessary and trying to figure out the finer points of conjugating the verb 'ser'.

Lunch was more of the spoil-the-kids-day-but-

only-in-ways-that-allow-me-to-be-lazy. Chicken nuggets, french fries, peas, and ketchup. Mmmmm-mmmmm. Xander's third favorite

meal. After we cleaned up, we played board games and made more silly faces. I did laundry in between the kids fighting. I was surprised by how much of the day had passed when Jeff called at 4 and told me he was only 2 hours away from home.

The kids and I had snack, read some stories, and ran around the house just because we could. Then we made tacos. In the end, we did almost nothing constructive. It was really nice. Wish we could have more of those days. Sadly, its back to the chaos we call life on Monday.