Day Off . . .

When I envisioned this day, I envisioned watching movies, sitting around, and in general doing nothing.  A day off--not only for the kids, but for me too . . .

Yeah.  So it was actually an insane day. Did sleep in until 7am (wahoooo!) but then proceeded to do some sort of insane torture routine on you tube (I don't think I'll be walking tomorrow) and then frantically writing Henry and helping Phoebe with some letters she needed to send and other fundraising efforts (THANK YOU everyone who so generously helped! YOU ARE THE BEST!).  I threw in a quick shower (because the insane work out--holy hannah do you sweat!) and I was off again with Phoebe to look for shirts and dresses for Spring.  Oh bless the Outlets to Heaven and back. Phoebe found just what she was looking for and Piper, who despite a lot of side comments, actually found some clothes that she's been needing too (for killer prices).

I can home, so excited that finally I could sit my sweet little bum down, read and relax, but low and behold there is John in my front yard doing the miserable heinous hair cutting of our little bunny grasses (mounding grass--it looks just like Finnegan when he needs a hair cut) and trimming the lavenders.  Yeah, I've been begging him to do this for a week or two . . .

So when I got out of the car, John beamed at me and said, "Look what I'm doing!  And now, if you could finish the lavenders, I'll go grab the truck (John's grampa's truck) and we can get this all done today."

Seriously.

I wanted to cry.

I didn't.

But I did say, I will AFTER I eat something and just SIT DOWN for a few minutes.

And exactly a few minutes later, I was out doing this . . .

 

Here is the work in progress . . .  

And while I was trimming away until my arms, hands, and shoulders shook, I heard a noise behind me and there was Finn zooming by with Tessa on the back of his scooter.  I ran around the corner and caught this picture . . . Oh my heck--is this a portent of things to come?

 

John came back in time to load the hair (grass) trimmings and lavender stalks into the truck--with Finn and Tessa dancing and jumping to pat down the load. Bless their grassy hides . . .

 

Then we all came in and for the next two hours made 10 batches of kettle corn and 8 batches of caramel corn for Phoebe's fundraiser.  

There are times when I think, I can't believe I HAD children.  I repent!  I didn't mean it!  How can I send them back?  

And then, there are times, like today, when they are all working their little fannies off and being so happy and so willing to work hard (even my adopted daughter Tessa) to help their sibling.  It boggles my mind that they could be so happy to spend their whole Day-Off Day in the kitchen or in the garden helping us.  It warms my heart, literally, and I feel full of hope and think, for at least ten minutes, maybe there is hope for them.

It never lasts, but for this moment, this day, I'm feeling so grateful for their good hearts and their willingness to get their sister to "the new york!" as Piper tells everyone.

So even though it was a busy day and I can't feel my hands, arms, or legs and I didn't do anything remotely like sitting around, and I ate at least twenty pounds of mind bendingly delicious caramel and kettle pop corn,  I call it a FANTASTIC day off.