Coming Down for the Landing

Shawna is so right....

It really, really, is a full time job just to "do what I do."

I am particularly noticing this after being away for almost a week. Sean, age 14, got chickenpox, and since Aidan is immunesuppressed, we decided that I should take an older kid (first Liam, then Clare) and spend some time with Aidan up at his grandma's cabin by the lake. So the house was being run mostly by kids -- teenagers, but still kids, and one of them down for the count.

What I noticed first is how incredibly easy it was to maintain tidiness, nice little meals and that kind of thing with only 2 kids with me and only one at the messmaker age. As Shawna would say, News Flash! I may still be a bit absent-minded but I'm actually quite naturally tidy. I even had extra time to play and talk. Life slowed down.

Now I'm back home. Not only was there a child with chickenpox here, but the new washer and dryer came when I was gone, which meant that Kevin and Brendan and others had to move all the bookcases and books out of the hall, and they are still not back. Then in addition, Kevin has been extremely busy setting up the paperwork for his new business.

Mess is not the word for the results. "Just moved into a fixer-upper" is more the decor description right now. I haven't taken pictures yet, but I may just do it now and edit this entry. Almost guaranteed to make your house look like Martha Stewart's. Even though I've been straightening as I go ever since I got back here yesterday.

Though I have a lot to do and life will continue to be crazy (3 other children still to go with the chickenpox and so another trip to grandma's cabin for Aidan is upcoming any day), plus Kevin has more business things to accomplish. --- it is just a teeny bit encouraging to see that on all those days when it appeared "nothing got done," I was actually doing quite a bit just by my presence. And for a couple of days at least, now Sean is over the infectious stage and the other kids haven't started, we are all together again.

Life is beautiful, even when the house definitely isn't!