8 minutes

She tells him to go upstairs and get his underwear on and brush his teeth.

She sets the timer for 8 minutes.

He hears, go upstairs.

So, he does.

He wanders into the bathroom and looks around.

He decides to brush his teeth.

He carefully smears the toothpaste on his toothbrush the counter.

Then puts the toothbrush and the glob of toothpaste in his mouth.

And spits.

Resulting in a pile of toothpaste in the sink.  Stuck to the side.

Happy with his fresh breath and sparkling teeth, he wonders into his room.

Thinking he'd like to please his mama, he takes off his pull-up and puts on underwear.

His pull-up lays abondoned on the floor.

Then he sees some legos.

And lays down to build them.

In his underwear and pajama shirt.

His mama calls sweetly in a sing-song voice up the stairs "So-on, what are you doing?!"

He yells "I have to poop!"

Alarmed and sighing to herself, she starts up the stairs and goes into his room, flinching, wondering what might be awaiting her.

She sees that little boy laying on his stomach, in his underwear and pajama shirt building legos.

She says "Well, go poopy!"

She walks back downstairs to check the rest of the kids.

She hears him yell "DAD!"

And thinks, "Phew, I don't have to wipe him!"

25 minutes after she sent him upstairs to brush his teeth and put on underwear, he comes downstairs.

Still in his pajama shirt and underwear.

Brown Bag

The house is quiet.

Lunches are in the fridge.

Dishes have dripped dry.

Dishwasher is delayed.

Too many lights on.

Drew had a meeting at 8, left at 7:15.

The throes of showers, picking up and nursing Annika.  It was relatively calm when he left.

Sage in the shower.  Kolby on the computer.  Levi watching Kolby.  Annika nursing snoozing.  Me iPadding.

It stayed that way for .25 seconds after he walked out the door.

Life.

I get really flustered on home school days.  I just want to get all the school work done.  And quickly!

Sometimes, I need a brown bag to breathe into.

I want to say I drop to my knees instead.

Sometimes, I bark at them.

Do your handwriting!

Levi, be quiet! I'm teaching your brothers!

Where's Annika?

Are the bathroom doors closed?

I'm learning.

They're learning.



Linking up with just write.

Distractions

A leak in our pool

A left behind homework folder

Stolen car seats

Algae growing in our pool

Annika throwing up and then waking up STARVING in the middle of the night

Levi throwing up

Temperature gage coming on in the van

Hitting a parked car

Not all in that order but all things we've dealt with in the last couple of weeks.  Six of them just this week.  And it's Thursday.

It's like Satan is trying to see what he can throw at us to get us off our course.

It's exciting!

It's exhausting!

By the grace of God, we're making it.

By the grace of God, we'll continue to not just make it but to thrive.

Here's what I'm grateful for this week:

1.  The leak being reasonable to fix.

2.  Having the correct chemicals in our garage to clear up the algae overnight.

3.  A husband smart enough to deal with the chemicals for the pool.

4.  A friend lending us a car seat so we could order some new ones.

5.  Having the means to order new car seats.

6.  Annika getting sick after we finished school on Tuesday.

7.  And waking up for a longer period of time in the middle of the night when I didn't have to teach at home the next day.

8.  Levi being the easiest patient ever.

9.  Throwing up in his bowl all day long.

10.  Chrysler Helffman Dodge not charging us to look at the van and fixing the leaky coolant thing.