Embracing the Crazy

Spring is such a busy time of year. Everything is growing, including my kids.

This guy is wearing clothes Nick wore last summer. They're 2.5 years apart!

I just realized that I haven't posted since May 2nd. Not surprising, I suppose, since this month has been so crazy. This month I'm teaching two evening graduate school classes each week in addition to my regular job, plus sporadic tutoring as well.

Nick dressed himself, including an old pair of my glasses, his purse, and a pair of Mardi Gras beads.

Today I tried to get caught up on a lot of errands, and my two "helpers" came along for the ride. Their patience wasn't horrible, despite the fact that we got stuck in the Meijer for over two hours, partly due to my huge shopping list and partly due to a very heavy downpour that delayed our departure. I found sandals for both boys, and brokered a quite intense argument over what kind of Oreos we should get.

I'm usually too cheap to buy rainboots, much to Henry's despair.

After our shopping I treated them to a fancy lunch at the Meijer counter, with a donut treat for dessert. I made a serious error, however, when I told them they could pick out "anything they wanted" from the donut area.

These were the messiest donuts in the whole world. The frosting was insanely drippy and bright.

Much of the reason I keep a blog is to have some sort of record of my family's life. I want to remember what this part of parenthood is like, years from now when they're teenagers and I'm worried for other reasons. I want to remember the good, the bad, and the crazy. Today was crazy, but I embraced the crazy and just went with it.

Seriously, you could give these donuts to the children of your worst enemy with only a single napkin.

In addition to our regular shopping, I dropped off 9 bags and two boxes of donations to Goodwill. We also went in and looked around. Nick has been asking for "man shirts" lately, and since he needed new shirts anyway we picked out a few button downs with front pockets, plus a Batman shirt for Henry and a couple pairs of shorts for Nick. Apparently a pocket on a shirt makes it a "man shirt," at least to Nick. Who knew? At the Goodwill, I often let them pick out a toy. Today Nick picked out a dry erase board and Henry found a magic wand that lit up.

I also somehow managed to do 7 loads of laundry, start switching out the winter and summer clothes, make a loaf of bread, and do several hours of grading and lesson planning. I even made time for an extra-long storytime tonight. Nick asked to read a story about the Titanic, and I tried to gloss over the parts that might cause nightmares. Let's hope it works.

I think I need to embrace the crazy more often. It didn't turn out half-bad.