James just said the lunch prayer: "Dear Heavenly Father, thank you for this food. Thank you that Mommy's not annoying me anymore."

Tonight I got really annoyed with Jared. I have asked him repeatedly to call me when he's going to be late so that we don't sit around the table waiting for him. Tonight we waited and waited, then finally ate without him. I would have left him alone, except the missionaries called and asked if they could come over, and still no Jared.

So I finally gave in and called him. I decided before I called that I wouldn't be annoyed, and that I would be patient and kind. It didn't work. I was really witchy (appropriate for upcoming Halloween!) When I called he said that he was almost home. I said "What happened? Did you get held up at work? Couldn't you call?" He said "It's really hard to be on time when you send me around after work. I assumed you knew I would be late." I was totally confused, so I said "What??? I didn't send you anywhere!" He said "Yes you did! You needed wheat bread and eggs!"

For just a brief moment, we were both totally confused. Then Jared said "If you didn't need bread and eggs, why did you have Joshua call me and ask me to pick them up at Safeway?"

It all clicked into place then. Joshua checked out a kids cookbook from the school library. He has been dying to make some of the recipes in it. Unfortunately for him, I haven't been to the grocery store this week, and we are out of just about everything. As I was scraping dinner together, Joshua started asking me if we had ingredients to make the recipe he picked out. I kept telling him no, no, no. I finally told him he couldn't make anything until I went to the store. Joshua took matters into his own capable 8 year old hands. He picked up the phone, went through the caller ID until he found Wachovia, dialed and pushed 0 twice, then asked the teller for Jared. He then asked Jared to go to the store on his way home for wheat bread and eggs. I have yet to ask Joshua which recipe called for wheat bread and eggs.

Last night I asked Jared to go to the library for me. He was driving right by it, and honestly I can't stomach taking children into the library. Babies look around and for whatever reason think it is the perfect place to shriek. I tried taking James as a baby. He screamed until I pulled out cheerios. Then came the librarian. You would think I was the library version of a terrorist. Imagine! Cheerios, being put directly into a baby's mouth, in the library! The horror!!! So now I don't go to the library. I figure the older kids who really need new reading material get it at the school library, so I spare myself the effort and guilt and don't take the little kids. Besides, last time I braved the library (in August) James picked out Diego books, and then was devastated (I am being literal) when I returned the books. He told anyone who would listen that 'Mommy gave MY DIEGO BOOKS to the library!' He was upset until Grammy got him his own set of Diego books, which I now have memorized from reading so much.

Anyway, I digress. Last night, I asked Jared to pick up a book at the library. I have learned it is a secret, wicked trick of authors to put exerpts of their coming books in the back of the current book. I get hooked. I read an excerpt recently and couldn't put it out of my mind. The only reason I didn't get it sooner was the said aversion to the library. So I asked Jared to get it for me. And then I read it. All. Today.

It wasn't too bad. I let James watch TV the entire day. I let him feed cheerios to Daniel while in front of the TV. I let him watch Daniel and keep Daniel from crawling down the stairs. I let him eat lunch by himself and put himself down for a nap. I did go to the effort of carrying Daniel up to his crib for naps (pat myself on the back, Mom of the Year!) I figure that I spend all day every day doing nothing for myself, so a few times a year I have a reading day. On my reading day, laundry and dishes accumulate. Dust settles. The TV stays on. Children more or less live without me, and I realize something. I go and do nonstop, and it all seems so important. Normally, I wouldn't dream of ignoring all my responsibilities, because of course the world will fall apart. Even though I feel lazy and selfish doing what I want all day long, it is good for perspective. It helps me to see that all the things I stress about are not as important as I think. I can relax, enjoy life, and save having a reading day for another three months.

Daniel is by far my most coordinated baby. He is crawling like a pro, and has been for a while. Not only does he crawl, but instead of sitting, he chooses to kneel on his knees! It takes quite a bit of balance to do that. Lately, he has started pulling himself up to everything. Today I was sitting on the floor, and he grabbed my knees and stood up. He then kept trying to let go and stand by himself, but didn't quite have the balance yet. He stands up in his crib and walks along the side. This baby is not yet 9 months old. What's going on here?????

Tonight I cleaned the boys' room. I put Daniel in his bumbo seat while I cleaned. I realize I left something downstairs and ran to get it. Can you believe it - the stinker got out of the bumbo, crawled away, and fell down the stairs! I was only gone for 30 seconds. I heard a massive thud and found him in a heap on the landing. Luckily our stairs turn, so he only fell down about 6 stairs, but still! He must have looked around, saw that I was gone, and thought "What am I doing sitting all alone in this stupid chair?" He was a little shaken up by his fall but recovered fairly quickly. I have a feeling he'll be an early walker. And then a big climber. The pediatrician's recommedation at Daniel's last checkup was only to keep him alive until the next one. Easier said than done.

The kids are growing up, and I love reading what they write. It is really funny to me to realize that when they say words wrong, they really think that's what the word is. It comes out in their writing, when they sound out the wrong word (for example, Joshy wrote about something being "smooky" instead of spooky!) Yesterday I was getting Daniel dressed, and Claire said "I love it when he's only wearing a womsie!" It took me a minute to realize she meant onesie.

This morning Claire had a massive temper tantrum because I made her put on tights, and it messed up her carefully planned outfit. She defiantly told me that she would take the tights off as soon as she got to school, so I told her that if she did, I would pick out her outfits for the next two weeks. For Claire, this is about the most severe punishment I can give out! She kept the tights on.

We had James' preschool at our house today, and I am exhasted. I am "order pizza for dinner" wiped out! The kids were all wonderful, but there is something about having six three-year-olds for three hours that will really take it out of you. Plus, Daniel decided not to take a nap. So, tonight I will go to bed early (at least in theory, it won't really happen!)

I'm off to fold laundry. If you've heard the song that never ends, laundry is the chore that never ends, yes it goes on and on, my friends.....

It is wonderful during the day when the big kids go to school, baby naps, and James and I have time alone together. Today we were making lunch together and I said "Mommy needs to go to the store." James looked a little confused and said "Whose mommy needs to go to the store? Are you talking about yourself, Candice?" I suppose I have become a little too used to refering to myself in the third person.

Another odd mommy habit - I am never alone and always have someone to talk to. So the other day when I went to CVS alone, I found myself saying aloud "Where is the curling ribbon? Is it by the greeting cards? Here it is! Did I bring my gift card? Oh good, I found it!" At least I wasn't looking for condoms or laxitives, so I guess it could have been worse.

The basement is again habitable. Jared's spraying for bugs really worked, in spite of my dousing the bug spray with Lysol. Also, the dreaded Virginia humidity has subsided, so now it smells reasonalbe down here, instead of like basement. I am working on getting the basement organized. My problem down here is twofold: first, we have way too much stuff. Second, in order to arrange it, I need to buy organizers. I know it could be pretty and everything could have a home, but I don't want to spend money on organizing. However, I do love when I have a problem spot in my home and find the perfect solution. It just makes my day. My most recent find fixed the dirty laundy in the living room. With our tiny bedrooms full of bunk beds, there is no place to change a baby. Therefore, I have resorted to dressing children in the living room. Then comes the problem: where to put the dirty clothes???? I didn't want to haul dirty clothes upstairs, only to have to bring it down to the basement, so I started throwing clothes down the stairs. Only then I ended up with the stair landing full of dirty clothes, and no one could get through. The solution? A corner hamper on the landing of the basement stairs!!! Then I throw clothes at the corner, they slide nicely into a small basket, and my house is no longer overtaken by dirty clothes!!!

I used the beautiful hamper solution as a justification yesterday when I bought an art supply lazy susan. I got tired of the kids art projects, glue, markers, pencils and take being in HUGE pile in the kitchen. Seriously, it was like Staples overtook my art little counter. So this lazy susan tucks everything away nicely and even looks cute. So now I am in my basement thinking that with just a little bit of $$$, I can organize my house. Hence a solution to my next problem - too much stuff. This problem stems from another problem - only one little girl. I have felt the need to buy her EVERYTHING that I would ever want to buy a daughter. I bought her SO MUCH STUFF that I never even gave some of it to her. Hence, I have a bag full of toys that are still unopened. Imagine my surprise when I looked on ebay and realized I had $400 worth of dolls (not that I paid that much - dolls I paid $17 for are now selling for $150. What can I say, I have fabulous taste!) I am going to have a big sale, and use the proceeds to pay for all the clothes/toys/girl stuff that I still feel the need to buy. Maybe it would be different if I had been blessed with more than one girl, but my little mind rationalizes everything - if you don't buy it for Claire, you'll never get to buy it for anyone...

I am amazed at how many of my weird quirks are coming out on this blog. Someday maybe my grandchildren will read this and say "Wow, she was seriously hung up." Maybe it will explain things for them....