A Day Late and a Dollar Short

Yep...that's me. "Why, oh why do you say that?" you plead. Well, I'll tell you why.

When I was coming up with my new-and-improved I'm-gonna-be-more-disciplined-and-start-whipping-the-house-into-shape plan, I left out one small detail.

The kids have 10 days off from school starting Friday.

So, instead of 19 hours per week of time to be oh-so-very-productive, next week I'll be spending my afternoons herding small people to nap time, making/serving/cleaning up lunch for 7-8 people, and generally basking in the fun of having all the kids home.

That's ok. I won't have to get up before the crack of dawn, either! No Homework From Hell, like Jake the Great had this week. Nope. It'll just be me hanging out with my home boys and girl. Fun a-plenty.

Speaking of fun a-plenty, I'll tell you about a little bit of fun that's been cooked up around here.

The other day the kids (with help from the hubby) rigged up a zip line of sorts. They had a long rapelling rope tied from one tree, at about 4 feet off the ground, to another tree, tied approx. 12 feet off the ground. Then there was a dog leash that they had tied to make a second handle on. They were climbing the tree to the point where the rope was tied and then wrapping the dog leash over the rope, holding onto the handles, and then jumping out of the tree and making a somewhat-less-fast-than-normal decent to the ground while zipping along the rapelling rope. This rigged up entertainment actually worked quite well, although it wasn't the type of thing that I enjoy witnessing my children do. (Well, I enjoy it just fine once they get through it and aren't hurt. I cheer very loud and clap when they are unscathed at the end of an adventure like this. It's the watching them climbing the tree and knowing what they are about to do, and seeing how far from the ground they are that gives me the willies.....)

They did have one little problem when Jake the Great got up there and instead of just holding on to the handles, actually roped the handles around his wrist. I guess he was afraid that he might not be able to hold on. Great plan, except that for some reason, once he jumped away from the tree, he stopped sliding, so was just hanging from the tree by his wrists. The kids were calling for help and so of course I went racing out there and got to do a little circus act, balancing Jake on my shoulders while Sullen climbed up the tree to try to release his brother's wrists. What a hoot.

Do we know how to have a good time, or WHAT?