Nobody yell at me, but I might not be blogging much in the next few days. There are more thunderstorms on the way and we're shutting everything down in the next few minutes. It's supposed to storm for a day or two, so I guess we'll see what happens. In any case, it's not my fault if I'm not around. Just so you know. :-)

It's been a good and bad day today. The kids act like we just got back from a three week trip and they're all wiped out from it. In other words, tired and crabby. It must be all of that spontaneity I was talking about before! So today we stayed home (except for the quick trip to Aunt Sue's store to settle our account and return stolen goods) and tried to get things back to normal. We've had a terrible time really getting into the groove of school lately and I finally figured out one of our big obstacles: my office. My office seems to be the catch-all for the whole house and is continuously trashed. I, personally, have never been able to concentrate on anything in a messy room. When I was a teenager I used to go somewhere else in the house to do my devotions when my own room was a mess 'cause I just couldn't read and pray in there. I menioned that to Mom today and she said (in a rather unfriendly tone, I might add) "Yeah, you'd go to some room your mother had cleaned up." Well, I'm sure it will please her to know that my time has come. Now I'm the Mom and paying for all of my old messes... 3 times over. Anyway, I think the messy office adds to the stress of school and I spent some time today getting it nice and sparkly clean. Again. I just did it last week, but it seems to pile up so fast! I had the kids clean out their desks, too. You wouldn't believe what all they cram in there! I was helping Sam empty his and out drops a frog (only plastic, thank goodness), several miniature army guys, a pistol... No wonder we can't get anything done at school time! Anyway, we did school this afternoon once everything was cleaned up and it seemed to go better. Or maybe I just felt better about it! That was the good part of the day.

The bad part was this morning. Like I said, the kids were just sooooo crabby! Joe had been sent back to bed by 10:00! I never do that, but he was bursting into tears over every tiny little thing ("Joe, go clean up your room" -- "Bwaaaaaaaaahh!!" Weird!!!) so I didn't know what else to do with him! Everybody was just whiny and bickering all morning. So after lunch I sent them all to bed--no books like they usually get--and told them to GO TO SLEEP. Katie never did drop off, but the boys got a good, long nap in and it seemed to help quite a bit with the rest of the day.

James brought home that elusive yellow rose bush, so I went out and planted it a little while ago. It's going to be so nice once they all grow and fill in a little bit. Most of the flowers are still hanging in there, so that makes me happy. :-)

I had a crazy dream last night about the General Assembly and Dad making some weird appointments. I called him this morning to make sure he didn't have any funny ideas (ha!) and was telling him about who he appointed where in my dream. I was listing them off and he said, "Slow down, I'm trying to write this down--who goes to Colorado?!" Ha! He's such a nerd!!! He just laughed. If only it were that easy to find God's answer for such things. Wouldn't that be nice?! Ha!

Well, I'd best get going. I don't know what I'm going to do with the rest of my evening. It was going to be laundry, but we're having some drain problems and things are backing up and flooding the utility room floor every time the washer tries to drain. We'll probably have to call good old Plummer Mike in the next couple of days. We try to see him at least a few times a year so we can do our part in helping a nice guy with a business of his own stay afloat. It's only right, don't you think? ~sigh~ Like it or not, that seems to be the way it goes. Anyway... Maybe I'll just loaf around and catch up on some reading tonight. That would be nice. I've got 8 or 10 magazines that have been piling up on me and I haven't had a chance to read through yet. Maybe I'll make some hot tea or cocoa and enjoy a nice, quite evening curled up on the couch. Yeah... Bless that wonderful clogged pipe of mine! :-) G'night!

~Rebekah~