So, it's already evident that updating my blog on a daily basis is not going to happen :(
Which will lead to REALLY long reviews of the previous days . . . But at least I'll have my record of this time for myself, right?

Wednesday, the boys had a half day of school. I have often said that I would love it if they only had a half day, every day. I'm sure I'd change my mind if that was actually the schedule, but I really like having those extra hours with the boys on those short days. Our friends just moved back, so after picking the boys up we made plans to go visit them. We came home first, to play and I made some banana bread to take to our friends. (It's one of their daughter's favorites) I also made some breakfast bars for our kids. Breakfast is an important meal to me, especially because Luke seems to have some blood sugar sensitivities. I have burnt them out on various reproductions of eggs for breakfast. In an attempt to give them some variety for breakfast, I searched out some new recipes to try. After the baking was done, we loaded up and headed out. The kids played for a while at their duplex, but they don't have their furniture moved up yet, and there's not a lot to do inside. So, we went to an awesome park in Rochester, where the kids played for a while before we had to leave for church. One of the selfish reasons I love Wednesday nights is because we eat dinner at church. That means, I don't have to cook on Tuesday's, or Wednesday's, during the school year! Woo, hoo!

Thursday, John dropped the boys off at school for me. This gives me a few extra minutes to get things done around the house. I did a load of laundry and cleaned up breakfast before going to Pilates. My neighbor and I go to Pilates on Tuesday's, and Thursday's at the YMCA. It always amazes me, how hard it is, when we are moving soooo slowly! She has a son, the same age as Mikayla, so they love going to play in the nursery together. Mikayla cracks me up because she calls the YMCA the "COA". She gets so excited that she gets to play with Tadgh (pronounced like the first part of Tiger, Tig with a long I). Her car has been in the shop, so I've driven the last few times and she offered to drive today. After Pilates, John came home for lunch because he really wanted to get a hair cut before he headed up to Lincoln to work on his paper (his hair was really starting to look like Kramer's from Seinfeld), so I "worked him in". Well, if you read back through my Thursday, you'll notice that I didn't have to drive the van all day. When it was time to get the boys from school, I discovered that one of the van doors had been left opened and the battery was DEAD. I instantly had a flashback to the morning, "get out the door shuffle". Thurday is library day at school and Luke couldn't find his book. He can't handle, not having things in order, so he instantly panics during a moment like this. I was pretty sure I'd seen his book in the back seat of the van (for SOME reason he had checked out Harry Potter?!?!? Luke's a very good reader, but that's pretty ambitious for a first grader, so it had sat in the van for a week, unread). I sent him out to find it, and knew that he was the culprit who had left the van door ajar. The worst part was I had pulled into the garage, so we couldn't even use jumper cables, because the van was pulled in forwards. It was too late to walk to school, so I called my neighbor and drove her van to get the boys. I was without a van Thursday night. Not that I was planning on going anywhere, but still . . .

I'm pretty sure that recording the events of our day, will reveal where my real parenting weaknesses lie. Here is one right here . . . Since John was gone and I had to make dinner, I decided to push back our homework time from 4:30-5:00 to 5:30-6:00 (it's still a half hour and it's the amount of time I'm concerned about, not WHEN, right?). I was finishing up dinner preperations at 4:30 and then put it in the oven around 5:00. Dinner was going to be ready to come out of the oven at 5:50, so I let the boys play outside, and I talked with the neighbors, from 5:00 - 5:30. As I was getting ready to come home at 5:30, I learned from one of my neighbors that over the weekend some of the kids on the block decided to play in the back yard of another neighbor, who was NOT home over the weekend. Apparently the kids had left a mess of toys in the yard, and a bicycle behind. I had not been home Saturday, when the offence took place, so after I got home, I asked the boys if they had been playing in ___________ backyard while they weren't home. Immediately, Luke bursts into tears, "It was __________ plan." (______ is an older boy on the block). And, of course, it was Luke's bike that was left in the back yard. So, homework time turned into, homework/write an apology letter to our neighbors time.

I make dinner for one of our neighbor's on Thursday's. So, after we walked across the street to deliver dinner, we went next door to make our apologies and retrieve Luke's bike. Thankfully, our neighbor's were very appreciative of our apologies. We got the bicycle back and hopefully the boys were traumatized just enough to avoid that same offense again! (Or at least to clean up and take their bikes with them next time!;)

I had decided to make one of John's favorites for dinner, before I realized John wouldn't be here for supper, stuffed green peppers. Of course my kids had decided upon first sight, that they DID NOT like them. But, Luke tried his and decided he really like the "stuffing" but not the green pepper. Logan, threw a full blown, groaning, crying, coughing, fit! I really wanted to grab the video camera to capture the moment, but knew that would spoil the authenticity of it. We've instituted a new "rule" for our meal time. If someone is not using good manners during dinner, then they get moved to the closet in the guest room, where a TV tray is set up for them to finish their meal in isolation. So, after Logan had been moved to the closet (it's a BIG closet and right off the dining room, so it's not really as torturous as it sounds), he regained control and was invited back to the table. By this time, I had moved on to dessert, vanilla pudding with bananas and cool whip. That was the exact motiviation he needed. One look at my pudding and he took a bite of his dinner, and to his surprise, and my amusement, he LOVED it. It was so funny! He ate it up, and even liked the green pepper. He's really NOT a picky eater, he's just a control freak and food is always a good opportunity for his to exercise his control.

I have been fighting off some kind of chest cold this week, so by the time dinner was cleaned up, I was ready for the kids to go right to bed. (And my guilty pleasure is watching Grey's Anatomy on Thursday nights) They boys went up to put their pajamas on, and I gave them the option of watching American Idol from 7:00-7:30. Again, this was a fairly selfish decision because I really needed that half hour to clean up in the living room. Mikayla had been playing a game earlier that has these little plastic balls and I had seen several roll under the couch and TV console. When I slid the couch over, I was greeted by the piles of dust bunnies that are regular residents under furniture in a room with wood floors. I knew I needed to sweep the room and that half an hour would be just perfect for finishing that chore. What I didn't realize was that the boys' room was a complete disaster! So, when I asked them to get in bed, and I got a, "UGGHHH we NEVER have very much time to play!" in response, I was angry. So, after an "in one ear out the other" lecture, I let them know that they needed to make a plan and decide how they were going to get their rooms clean. I always feel guilty putting them to bed on a bad note, but not guilty enough to miss the beginning of my show. I did go in a pray with them during the first commercial, does that make me a less horrible mom?