Oh, the pressure

Well, it seems that Marci has awarded me this Friendly Site Award. I'm alright with that because I'm a friendly kind of gal. Thank you, Marci. BUT then she said "I really enjoy her humor and wished she lived near me."

So, I've seen pictures of her part of the country and it is gorgeous! But I am not particularly feeling humorous this evening because............

After spending the day hearing of one horrible thing after another that can and does happen to kids everyday, I come home to my own healthy, adorable crew, who was supposed to have their school work done with the help of the substitute teacher (dad) today.

Hmmmmm. Let's review what happened in actuality and how that plan went wrong.

On the way home, I get a call from Tina, asking if I can make a meal for Cheryl's family. Certainly. No problem. So I stop by the grocery to get some chicken, planning to come home and prepare a double batch of the delicious chicken stew from last week's cooking class. We can have it tonight, Bill can have it for lunch tomorrow and I can send some to Cheryl.

Instead, I come in and on the floor by my desk are a pile of opened school books - which means nothing has been checked at all. Picture a big sigh here.

I go through the books and grade them. Wesley tells me he didn't do his reading because he can't find his book and he has looked everywhere. I tell him to go find it NOW and he miraculously finds it in about 11 seconds. See, miracles happen everyday around here.

I ask if everyone wrote their spelling words they missed. Ryan did. Jacob and Wes did some, but not enough times. Carly said she wrote hers, also. I asked how many times and when she can't "remember", I send her to find them. Turns out she didn't write them at all and she just told another lie to me. I was really not in the mood to deal with that, so she had a quick dinner and was sent to bed. Fiddle dee dee. I'll deal with that tomorrow.

As I am making dinner, Ryan is disgusted that he is being forced to eat what I am cooking when all he really wants is a can of generic spaghetti-o's. I tell him we are having a delicious stew, which will be ready in a minute and he stomps off toward his room. Down the hallway, with every stomp he accents it with a single word, "I DO NOT LIKE THE DELICIOUS STEW AND I DON'T WANT IT!"

Not to worry - he didn't have it. As a trusted caseworker once told me, "No child ever died from missing a meal." We are testing that theory tonight as Ryan stomped his way right into bed without dinner. He will, however, be having delicious stew for breakfast, at which time, I am thinking he will be loving it....or at least keeping his opinions to himself.

Quickly catching onto the dwindling number of children in the room, Jacob and Wes, not only ate their delicious stew in record time, but asked for seconds. Because it really IS delicious.

From that point on the evening got better. School work got finished. The three of us watched Charlie Brown. A new House was on and Sophie is spending the night. So if you came over from Marci's blog, looking for humor, sorry. I'll try to do better.

In the meantime, I will just leave you with a list of things you will never hear me say:

1. I'm thinking of putting the kids in school so I can go back to work. I really miss it.
2. Of course you can watch Cartoon Network all day. Why bother even asking?
3. All of our socks are white on the bottom. I bleach them daily.
4. Here, honey, let me iron that for you. I'm here to serve you.
5. No, I really don't feel like eating out tonight. Let me cook!
6. Hillary for President.
7. Sure, let's go get a bikini wax.
8. Do I look fat in this? Tell me the truth.
9. Why, no, it's not humid enough for me.
10. You guys just sit and relax. I want to do all the chores myself. It's my job as your mom.