What a Day!

Today has turned into one of those "whew" kinds of days, and it's only 4:45. I started the laundry, got the grocery shopping done (yea!), took Joseph, Steven, and Ryan over to school to finish registering and find out who their teachers are (like we know any of them, anyway), and made it to Cubs only a few minutes late (I'm the assistant den leader). Today we just played in water and had a small birthday party for one of the boys. It was fun. The wind was blowing hard enough that the candles wouldn't stay lit, so we let the boys take their candles home if they wanted. Steven brought home a couple of extra to share. After we got home and unloaded everything, I let Steven and Spencer each light a candle. Take my advise, learn from us and don't ever do that. Spencer tipped his candle too far and caught a paper towel on fire. He tried blowing it out, but it just spread (on the paper towel). That scared Steven who dropped his candle onto a paper towel and, lo and behold, caught it on fire. You know, when paper towels are on fire in a camp fire ring they seem to burn out almost immediately. When they are on fire in your dining room, they seem to burn for hours. I was beating the towel with the mail in my hand (approval of our life insurance of all things!) and Spencer grabbed the spray bottle out of the bathroom and finally put it out. Whew!! All that remained were a couple of soggy brown paper towel fragments, a slight discoloration on the carpet (most of which washed out), and a whole bunch of jittery nerves. We all now understand a little bit more why we don't play with fire! I'm having second thoughts about ever even having birthday candles again.

A few minutes later the mother of one of the scouts called to apologize. Today was her son, Allan's, birthday and she just found Steven's invitation on the table by the front door. The party was starting right then. Could Steven possibly make it? They're going to see Prince Caspian and then swim. They'll be back at 8:30. Why not?! He was still wet from the water activities at Scouts, but he changed into his bathing suit (which was dry because he insisted on wearing regular clothes to play in the water at scouts) and a dry shirt, grabbed a dry change of clothes and a towel, and we were out the door again.

Now, I'm sitting here collecting my thoughts and taking a breather before I head off to start dinner. It's amazing how typing for 10 minutes can calm the nerves and relieve the stress. I guess that's one reason journals are such a good thing. Get all the stress out and onto a piece of paper (or into a million 1's and 0's) and move on. I'm not even going to think about the laundry that's still sitting in the washer. It can't go anywhere and if the machines aren't on, they can't do any damage! I will finish putting the groceries away, though. We're going to eat some of them tonight. Rest time is up. Hope the rest of the day is a little less exciting.