When thinking about the last few months of my life I can't decide whether to compare them to The Wizard of Oz, or Barnum & Bailey's 3-ring circus. Let's take the past 9 hours for example: I woke up at 4:00 a.m. and tossed and turned until 5:00. I felt a little nauseated, still very drowsy, yet eerily coherent. I decided to grab a blanket, a pillow, my robe, and a book and head up to the loft. (The nausea was due to one too many on an empty stomach, the drowsiness was because I can never get enough sleep, and the coherentness was a direct result that I had taken an hour nap at 4:00 that afternoon).
I tried to read as much as I could and then finally succumbed to sleep...the good kind. Couch sleeping is the best...something about the security of the back rest, the idea that you are alone, and the fact that after 13 years the springs have sprung and the cushions and I are friends. At 6:30 I heard the crashing and banging, clanking and clunking noises of my husband moving about in the kitchen. Our home has an "open design" which means when one breaks wind the others are fully aware. While I "played dead" beneath my pink blanket I tracked my husband's every move with my highly developed sense of hearing. It was not hard. There was the slamming suck of the refridgerator door, the spoon bouncing off the bottom of the sink, the hard plastic slam of the microwave, the high-pitched beep of the microwave's numbers, the loud whirring of the microwave, and, finally the long beeeeeeep! alerting him (and me) that "breakfast is served." Of course, he still had to reopen and reshut the microwave door. I heard the jingle of Roo's tags signalling that somebody better let her outside. I heard the jangle of the door knob and then slam of the door shutting thus touching on just about every one of my pet peeves.
I forced myself to go back to sleep knowing that it was only 6:30. Before I knew it I heard clomping on the stairs as my nephew and son were coming up to the loft to build a Lego city. (Have you ever heard the noise a thousand Legos makes when a child swishes his hand back and forth through them to find 'just the right piece'?). Down below my daughter is starting to stir and then calls out in as pathetic a whine as possible, "Maaaaaaawwwwwwwwmmmmm....my throat hurts."
By 8:30 our house was in full swing. The boys were upstairs playing with Legos, my 3 year old niece was running back and forth to the toilet, my daughter was gargling salt water and spraying Chloraseptic, my sister-in-law was trying to feed her daughter breakfast, and I was trying to find my happy place.
When I looked out the back window I noticed that my large beach bag was in a different place/position from where I left it (I had to leave it outside because it was full of ants). I also noticed that my straw mat was strewn across the backyard with one of our large rocks atop it. After a quick inventory it was determined that I was missing two mesh bags. One of them was filled with snacks and the other was filled with something I can't remember...hopefully nothing of great value). We have had run-ins with raccoons before but this time it affected moi instead of only the hummingbirds. Later in the day I found one of the mesh bags--it was dangling on our back fence behind some trees...it was empty.
All of this before lunch time! Tonight I can look forward to a trip to Walmart (by myself-God willing). We are getting a few sprinkles (the first in months--we are in the middle of a terrible drought). This will help keep the dust out, but it will also allow the mud in. While I am extremely grateful our floors are concrete I am just a little sad that they are yellowed brick.
While there's certainly no place like home...there's also no place like my home.
I tried to read as much as I could and then finally succumbed to sleep...the good kind. Couch sleeping is the best...something about the security of the back rest, the idea that you are alone, and the fact that after 13 years the springs have sprung and the cushions and I are friends. At 6:30 I heard the crashing and banging, clanking and clunking noises of my husband moving about in the kitchen. Our home has an "open design" which means when one breaks wind the others are fully aware. While I "played dead" beneath my pink blanket I tracked my husband's every move with my highly developed sense of hearing. It was not hard. There was the slamming suck of the refridgerator door, the spoon bouncing off the bottom of the sink, the hard plastic slam of the microwave, the high-pitched beep of the microwave's numbers, the loud whirring of the microwave, and, finally the long beeeeeeep! alerting him (and me) that "breakfast is served." Of course, he still had to reopen and reshut the microwave door. I heard the jingle of Roo's tags signalling that somebody better let her outside. I heard the jangle of the door knob and then slam of the door shutting thus touching on just about every one of my pet peeves.
I forced myself to go back to sleep knowing that it was only 6:30. Before I knew it I heard clomping on the stairs as my nephew and son were coming up to the loft to build a Lego city. (Have you ever heard the noise a thousand Legos makes when a child swishes his hand back and forth through them to find 'just the right piece'?). Down below my daughter is starting to stir and then calls out in as pathetic a whine as possible, "Maaaaaaawwwwwwwwmmmmm....my throat hurts."
By 8:30 our house was in full swing. The boys were upstairs playing with Legos, my 3 year old niece was running back and forth to the toilet, my daughter was gargling salt water and spraying Chloraseptic, my sister-in-law was trying to feed her daughter breakfast, and I was trying to find my happy place.
When I looked out the back window I noticed that my large beach bag was in a different place/position from where I left it (I had to leave it outside because it was full of ants). I also noticed that my straw mat was strewn across the backyard with one of our large rocks atop it. After a quick inventory it was determined that I was missing two mesh bags. One of them was filled with snacks and the other was filled with something I can't remember...hopefully nothing of great value). We have had run-ins with raccoons before but this time it affected moi instead of only the hummingbirds. Later in the day I found one of the mesh bags--it was dangling on our back fence behind some trees...it was empty.
All of this before lunch time! Tonight I can look forward to a trip to Walmart (by myself-God willing). We are getting a few sprinkles (the first in months--we are in the middle of a terrible drought). This will help keep the dust out, but it will also allow the mud in. While I am extremely grateful our floors are concrete I am just a little sad that they are yellowed brick.
While there's certainly no place like home...there's also no place like my home.
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