Love is a many splintered thing...

It is so quiet here. (Surprisingly) I can hardly stand it! The little guys, Fellers and Eighty-Eight Fingers are all asleep. Big J is, as ever, out with friends. The Girl is away this whole week camping with her best friend and family. And Hubz is away at work. The TV is off. I am not even playing any music. The only sounds I hear are the fan blowing, the cats whining for more food (it wouldn't be home without someone whining for something!), and my fingers clicking on the keyboard. I can actually hear myself think! What a novelty.

Time for some small notes on life at Abode MacBoudica...

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Hubz and I had our one free night (well, not exactly free if you count up all the favors we had to cash in to get childcare arranged for all these kids and all the work that went into packing them up, etc...) of blissful and riotous adult time. It was perfect. We spent the whole day Sunday through Monday afternoon together talking, walking, eating, drinking, and feeding our senses with beautiful scenery, glorious music, soft caresses and a freakin’ amazing double whirlpool tub! Oh, gods, I think I died and went to heaven.

By two o'clock Monday, I knew I was home when Hubz immediately had to leave for the grocery store, take Big J somewhere, the crabby grandparent-spoiled-napless and sleep-deprived children attempted to burst my eardrums with ferocious cranky screams, the fruit fly population--unchecked and unswatted for 36 hours-- had soared (those bastards are impossible to annihilate!), the fat cat had stopped grooming herself and was stinking up the house (she seems to get depressed when we leave for any overnights and doesn't groom--weird), the cat litter needed immediate attention, laundry needed doing, and so on...

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Who is ready for back to school? Not me, not me, not me. I am the Mom running to Walgreen’s at 10PM the night before stuffing every ransacked, dented-up notebook they have left into my basket and swearing up a blue streak about how the cheap bastards are out of everything. I am even more out of sorts with getting my shit together as we have one more kid entering (you know all about my dread over EEF's immanent schooling). And my GAWD the fees! Three kids in school and we are out over $400 in fees--not counting extracurricular and supplies. We are going to have to mortgage the house to send the twins to school.

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On the subject of EEF (kind of), I need to mention how absolutely, amazingly wonderful Hubz is. On Tuesday the little boys, Fellers and EEF alike, were still recovering from their spoiling and sleep-depravedness. EEF had been sent to his room for something (I forget what, exactly--if I had a penny for every time...). I got involved in some laundry or cleaning task and kind of forgot he was in there (sorry EEF!). After a few minutes (he had been in there for maybe 15 minutes total) I checked on him. Shite! He had fallen asleep, which threw off the whole schedule/procedure. The correct procedure is for all the kids to nap at the same time giving me a few minutes of respite to regroup. This is especially necessary on days like that one where they are all crabby as heck. So Hubz, hearing me complain rather voluminously about EEF's untimely nap, offered to take him out on errands with him so I could have my quiet time. That was so cool, so wonderful, so nice, so sexy! And it worked. The Fellers went down for a nap, EEF was out with Daddy, Big J was socializing in typical teenaged fashion (that is--continuously), and I had a few minutes of peace. I was a much nicer Mommy the rest of the day.

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I am looking forward to tomorrow. I am finally going to take EEF out for a Mommy and Me outing. I am taking him to see Monster House, which he has been dying to get to ever since he saw the first commercial for it.

He said the sweetest thing tonight when I told him we had a date for tomorrow (I didn't tell him what we were doing, only that it was a surprise). He said, "I don't want to leave everyone alone! I want the Fellers to go with me!" You would think he would be delighted to get away from those squirmy, attention-grabber, toy-hoggers from time to time. But, no, he does love his baby brothers after all.

Not five minutes later he was busted hoarding blocks from his brothers causing them to shriek.