I'm having an "Oh %$#@" kinda day

Hey! School starts today! Yahoo! Simon started at 8, Tori not until noon, and Daniel doesn't go until Friday. 'sokay, though, we're falling back into a routine, and I looooove routine.

7:10 - I pulled the load of laundry out of the machine that I had the foresight to run last night so I could get it on the line BEFORE school this morning. My machine has a "whitest whites" setting - an hour and 20 minutes, super hot water, extra rinse. I love it, but it takes a long time. I open the door and start to pull out pink t-shirts, pink socks, pink underwear... and the tie-dye t-shirt Tori had wrapped up in a pair of white, now pink, shorts. Okay, take out the offending shirt and reset that to wash again.

7:49 and Simon's ready to leave for school. 7:50 he walks back in the door. "Mom, my bike's dead." Get out the fast pump, pump the tire up, and listen as all the air leaks immediately back out of the valve stem. "Hop in the van, I have to go over there to pick up paperwork anyway." Decide a trip into town my be warranted - several of the kids need new underwear, and Simon now needs an inner tube.

7:52 "Daniel dressed?" "No, he's on the toilet - he's got diarrhea." Of course he does. But I wiped him up, threw some clothes on him and hit the road. The floor mat can get washed later. :oP

9:30 Return from school, get those whites on the line, another load (bathroom mats) in the washer. Daniel hangs out in the next-to-the-clothesline garden. When I walk around the corner with the laundry basket, he's just dragging his excavator over to the mud. Oh, I do NOT think so!

9:40 Back inside, I suggest Daniel get some books to read. First choice? "Cooking with Clifford." "Can we make COOKIES?!" Ugh. Sure, let me get the Clifford cookie cutters down. The cookie cutters are on the top shelf of the cupboard with the baking supplies. Makes sense, right? Well, also on that top shelf was an empty canister, and one shelf below was an open carton of cornmeal. Cornmeal into canister? GREAT idea. Open container of cornmeal, second shelf from the top. Me, on counter with empty canister in one hand. Arm extended, reaching for cornmeal with the other. You see where this is going. Within moments of cogitating my GREAT idea, I had successfully breaded my counter, floor, cat food and water dishes, and the area under the front of the fridge. Add cornmeal to the shopping list.

9:43 Haul out central vac hose to clean up that mess. As I'm sucking cornmeal off the counter, I move the phone book to clean the bit underneath.

9:44 When you knock over the bottle of SuperGlue, even if the top is on, DO NOT just put the phone book on top of it and pretend it didn't happen. Seriously. I have no idea how long it takes the earth to make stalactites - I'm guessing hundreds of thousands, maybe millions of years. However, the creation of a sculpture comprised of a plastic bottle poised atop a 1/4 inch "puddle" of solid acrylic can't take more than oh, 24 hours. Today being Wednesday, the kitchen got a thorough once over yesterday and I don't think I missed that spot.

9:45 Tube of SuperGlue remover (oh, yeah, there IS such a thing) is empty. Of course. This trip to Kmart is fast becoming a necessity.

9:50 Put away the vacuum hose, wash and refill the cats' water bowl (they can eat cornmeal, right?), discover Daniel has chosen the cookie cutters he wants to use. %$#! He remembered. Biscuits are faster, less mess, AND there's a recipe in Clifford's book. Joy!

By 10:00 we're punching ...er kneading the dough and while there is flour on the counter, floor, and preschooler, I don't much care. 7 Easter Bunnies, 9 Valentine hearts, a rock and a snake later, we have a rack full of biscuits, and you know, they don't taste bad at all! And Scott has offered to run into town for me. Maybe the tide's changing.