Cartoons to the rescue
Kate, (a woman with infinite patience and so many children that if she gets one more there's not enough room on her picture for them in her 15 passenger van and they will have to go on the luggage rack), wrote a post that I could relate to more than I wanted to this morning.
I've just recently started letting my younger kids stay alone for a bit if I'm out locally. I'm glad I have my cell phone, but during the first few months, more than once I was tempted to throw it into the street and wait for it to "accidentally" be ran over by an oncoming semi. Note I was talking about the phone - not myself.
That first month they were left to get along without a referee disguised as mom at home, my minute usage went up by over a thousand minutes. Now lest you think I was on some shopaholic binge, it was during the time that Sherie was remodeling her store and I was not shopping, but putting down floors, tiling floors, painting, hanging ceilings, etc. Not shopping.
The constant onslaught of the "he said - she said - can we - why can't we - did you say NOT to" calls was enough to drive a sane person crazy so you can imagine how it affected me.
But yesterday was the first day of our Christmas break from school and I had a long list of errands to run since we've been rather preoccupied with Keegan lately. I knew I didn't want to do them over the weekend though and today I have 5 cheesecakes to bake, so yesterday was THE day.
Andi and I had a discussion of the pros and cons of taking Sophie and from the moment we agreed to go ahead and leave early in the morning till we actually got into the car.......... 1 hour and 40 minutes. This, of course, prompted her to wonder how people ever get to work early in the morning that have twins.
But back to my original post - the cell phone vs. peace of mind. In a moment of pure inspired genius desperation, I told the kids they could watch cartoons while I was gone - something that just doesn't happen around here.
At that point they were quite helpful, ready for us to get out the door and be gone so they could plop like vegetables in front of the big screen TV. Jacob and Ryan didn't even seem to care that they were once again holding hands in brotherly love. Jacob was kicked back in the recliner and Ryan was sitting beside him on a chest, with his head leaned against the side of the recliner - perfectly OK with this because he knew at least he was going to get to watch cartoons.
As we back out of the garage, I remember something I needed to tell them, so I call home. As we drive along, we think of something to add to our list -- which is at home on the desk. I call home again to have Jacob read the list to me so we can copy it and there was a hint of sarcasm in Jacob's voice as he said, "Sheeesh, Mom, and you say we call you all the time."
