All in a day’s work

September Writing Challenge - Prompt #28:

Today

It’s after 10:00 p.m. at the end of a long Sunday. Most Sundays are long, but today felt a little longer. It’s one of those days where you think back on your morning and wonder how it’s still that day.

Here’s how today went…

(Yes, this is going to be an in-depth description of my day. Brace yourself).

I woke up around 6:45… or maybe it was past 7:00… I don’t remember. It was so long ago. Zoe always wants a German pancake for breakfast on Sundays. We need to make two pancakes to feed our family. That takes 10 eggs. But I also needed to save a few eggs for Daisy to make cupcakes. Scotty did egg inventory. We were good to go!

(Admit it… this is everything you’ve ever dreamed of!)

Scotty made two German pancakes. I cleaned up some leftover messes from Daisy’s “friend” birthday party yesterday. I thought doing crafts with 12 pre-teens would be easy - I could just set out a bunch of supplies, and they would entertain themselves while I made a fabulous dessert to take to game night.

Instead, I ran from girl to girl… “I need help tying this!” “I need to glue this!” “Can you help me cut this?” “I need more teal paint!” “Why isn’t there any glitter?” I was dripping in sweat while all the girls complained about how cold they were.

There was no dessert for game night.

But that wasn’t today! That was yesterday! So I need to get back on track.

Today was Daisy’s “family” birthday party. Daisy wanted to have a potato bar and snow cones, but I’ll get to that later.

First, let’s go back to the part where I was cleaning up messes. I scooped craft supplies by the armful into a garbage bag. Then I needed to move a folding table and chairs to the back yard for Daisy’s family party this evening.

Back inside, we ate the aforementioned German pancakes. Syrup everywhere. It’s tradition.

Then Scotty and I started ushering our kids one by one to the shower. Even though they are getting older, getting them showered continues to be a chore. Nicky is fine, but the girls all still need help. Daisy can shower on her own, but sometimes she doesn’t get all the shampoo and/or conditioner out of her hair. Sometimes I’m not sure she washes her hair at all. And then she needs help brushing her hair. 

Zoe and Eva still need help turning on the water. Then they get soap in their eyes eight times each. They need supervision washing and conditioning their hair. If I don’t check up on them, they sneak out of the shower without washing. They need help getting out of the tub so they don’t slip and fall. I feel like they should be beyond all this, and yet… this is still my life.

We got all the kids showered and then Scotty had 15 minutes before his first meeting of the day started, so he showered in 30 seconds flat and ran out the door.

I went outside to pick a few cherry tomatoes for a salad I was going to make later. Then I showered and got myself ready for church. I did Eva and Zoe’s hair. And then Eva reminded me that I’d promised to make her a choker necklace. She was right… I had promised. So I took a jewelry-making break and before I knew it, my whole kitchen was covered in arts and crafts… very reminiscent of the mess I’d just cleaned up. 

Sigh…

(You’re loving this, right? Please say yes. Please tell my my life is the most fascinating thing you’ve ever read about on internet). 

I found myself tying and gluing the knots of a dozen bracelets. then I had to break up a few fights between Zoe and Eva regarding best friend necklaces and who-really-knows. 

Eva wanted to make a card for Daisy for her birthday. Then she made a card for each of her primary teachers (which I later noticed were left on the floor of the van). Zoe made necklaces for her primary teachers and a friend. 

All this before we even went to church.

At 10:45 Scotty got home from his meeting and we went to church at his Mom’s ward. While I was getting ready for church, I ripped both armpits of my shirt. How does this happen? I dunno. But that’s pretty typical of me. Rip my shirt before church? Sure. Just another day in paradise.

Scotty’s mom and step-dad spoke in their sacrament meeting. Then we headed to our ward. 

I rearranged the primary room and got everything set up for singing time. We worked on singing “Choose the Right” and played handbells (this is one of my favorite activities - the kids seem to enjoy it. But it’s not something we can do very often because it only works with songs with no sharps or flats, and I only have bells for one octave, so I was excited to get to use them with CTR). By the end of singing time, I was drenched in sweat. I had a ten minute break, and then I had to go to nursery for singing time… where I sweated some more.

The theme for today is sweat. Just wait… there’s more coming…

After church was dismissed, I came home and made the kids the lunch of champions… dinosaur chicken nuggets!

Then I made myself a grilled ham and cheese sandwich because I was craving a panini thanks to cousin Cyndi and her ice cream shop that serves paninis… I sneaked a peek at her panini photos during church. 

(Cyndi opened an ice cream shop! For real. She had a dream, and she’s loving it! Isn’t that awesome?)

Anyway, we ate lunch. Everything got messy on top of already being messy. I loaded some crock pots with chili and cheese so they could warm up for Daisy’s party. I also went outside and filled a cooler with drinks and ice. The oven was still hot from making chicken nuggets, so I had Daisy start making her birthday cupcakes.

I’ll save you a few paragraphs of reading and just show you a photo of the outcome…

Okay… so, like showering, Daisy still needs some help with baking cupcakes. We opted for a do-over, so I asked Daisy if she wanted to use a lemon cake mix I had on hand or if she’d prefer pumpkin cupcakes. Pumpkin was her choice. The recipe I use for pumpkin cupcakes uses 8 oz of pumpkin to make 12 cupcakes. I needed 24, so I had to double it, but the cans I have are 29 oz, so obviously I tripled the recipe as not to have pumpkin go to waste. Because I am a crazy person.

Oh, but I forgot we were out of eggs! And not only that, I didn’t have any cupcake liners left. So I had to ask my mom for cupcake liners and eggs and, oh shoot! Candles too! Because I hadn’t even thought about birthday candles!

That’s when Scotty left home for another meeting. 

At that point I was stalled for a bit because I needed eggs and my mom was going to bring me some. I decided to lay down on the couch so I could cool off (the sweat!!! I just can’t!!)

My girls all started fighting, and I realized I was in over my head trying to get the party ready by myself while Scotty was gone, so I begged my mother-in-law to come save me. She came and got my girls, and while I was outside bidding them farewell, my neighbor Daniel, who’s about 4-5 years old, came walking down the street and wanted to show me his quarter. I went across the street to see his quarter and make small talk about piggy banks and bubble gum machines, and then my mom pulled up with eggs, cupcake liners, and candles.

Back in the house I went to bake three batches of cupcakes. At 4:30, I needed to start baking the potatoes, but I still had a pan of cupcakes to bake for 20 minutes. Just then, Scotty got home, and I had to confess that I was in trouble. Scotty ran the cupcakes up to his mom’s house to bake so I could get the potatoes in the oven. Then I got to work on making a pasta salad. 

Somewhere in there I knocked a can of lemonade on the kitchen floor and had to clean that up. This is very like me - to be in crisis mode and then spill a lemonade. 

Story.

Of.

My.

Life.

Anyway, I made a pasta salad, got a bunch of potato fixings put into bowls, basted the potatoes with melted butter, and made a double batch of frosting for the cupcakes. Scotty got the backyard set up for the party.

I remembered that yesterday, Daisy had made a sign that said, “Daisy’s party out back” to indicate to her friends to go through the gate on the side of our house. It ended up being a downpour right at the time of her “friend” party, so we had to do everything in the house. I found her sign tucked in the closet and went outside to hang it up, figuring we might as well use her sign after all her hard work. I was going to hang it on the garage, but then I worried people wouldn’t see it once cars were parked there, so I hung it in front of our front door. Then I realized I was locked outside because I’d hung a sign over my front door. Luckily I was able to get in through the garage and didn’t have to go yell over the fence to Scotty that I was locked out. 

You’d think I was stressed enough, but no. I needed more! So I decided to put some marigolds and basil in Mason Jars to put on the tables for Daisy’s party. I went out into the garden and cut what I needed. Then I decided that sunflowers would be nice, too! So I cut some sunflowers to put in jars as well.

Guess what comes with sunflowers? Ear wigs! 

I’m not even going to tell you the rest of the ear wig details. But if that’s not enough… I split the back of my skirt while getting sunflowers. 

Eventually our family arrived. We ate. We talked. Daisy opened presents. We made snow cones. I served cupcakes. The whole bit. 

I was drenched in sweat. I snuck in the house twice during the party and laid under the swamp cooler.

After everyone left, I cleaned as much as I could tolerate, but as I lay in bed now, I have two sinks heaping with dishes. And every surface of my counter and table are covered in stuff. 

Scotty and I put the kids to bed. While I was in Nicky’s room saying prayers with him, I kept catching a whiff of something gross. I went around his room sniffing everything to see what stunk. Later, I smelled something stinky again right as Scotty climbed in bed with me. I sniffed him but couldn’t distinguish whether he was the culprit. Finally, I had to admit that it must be me. The smell was everywhere I went, and I’d sweated enough to fill a 50 gallon drum. I took my second shower of the day for good measure and then played a quick round of Wingspan against Scotty on our phones (I won). 

Now here I lay at 11:14 p.m. utterly exhausted and still in disbelief that today is the same day I went to church.

That was my day.  Hope you enjoyed this report of my exciting life!