How was your day?

Two of my guys are away tonight.  Sid and Sidney left for Raleigh this morning for a job.  We miss them dreadfully but kept busy to make the time go by faster.

Sid almost always asks me every evening, “How was your day, Love?”  Since he will probably be too tired to talk much tonight, I decided to write about our day, highlighting the major things he missed . . . . . . . . . .

We cleaned up the schoolroom, and I got the girls started on their workboxes.  They loved it.  I left Lincoln to his own devices, and he chose to stay near us in the schoolroom and read. 

After doing some school-related paperwork/filing and lunch, I relaxed by singing “The hills are ALIVE with the sound of muuusic . . . . . .” in a Grover-like voice.  I practiced several times and then asked Lincoln if I sounded like Grover.

“Who?”  he asks.

“Grover.  That blue furry monster on Sesame Street.”

“I don’t know WHAT you are talking about,” he punctures my bubble.  I mean we all need to feel good at something, even if that something is singing like Grover.

“Come here,” I say.  Determined to get him to admit my Grover-singing-greatness, I pulled out an old Sesame Street video that Sid and I used to watch in our pre-kiddo days.  I fast-forwarded it to a Grover-singing-scene and made him watch it. 

I called Rachel and Prairie in to watch too.  Rachel has developed this charming habit of saying “That’s a good idea, Mama” to almost everything I say.  I figured I could count on her for support if Lincoln proved difficult.

“Okay,”  I said.  “Now, listen closely and tell me if I sound like Grover. . . . . . . . .The hills are aliiiiiiiiiiivvvvvve with the sound of muuuuuuuuuuuusic.”  Singing like Grover is hard on the vocal chords, by the way.

“Eh,” he said.  “Maybe a little.”

“Mama?”  my dear little Rachel asks.

“Yes, dear?”

“Will you stop singing so I can hear the music?”

“You want me to stop singing?  So you can hear Maria sing instead?”

“Mmm-hmmm.”  She did look apologetic.

While the kids watched “The Sound of Music,” I made bread, cinnamon rolls, mixed up muffins and cleaned the kitchen.  All this food prep reminded me of the Thanksgiving/Christmas pounds that I need to shed.  My plan was to wait until tonight to exercise, but it was 4 o’clock, tonight was hours away and I felt a driving need to purge myself of pounds right away.

So while doing my kitchen work, I tried walking the T-Tapp way, toes forward, knees bent and pushed out toward little toe, butt tucked in tight, shoulders back.  It was awkward to say the least.  Catching sight of my reflection in the deck doors, I immediately decided it wasn’t a good idea to be caught doing something that goofy looking.  So I’m back to my original plan — T-Tapp at night in the dark with the shades drawn tight.

One really funny thing that happened tonight — the girls were in their room getting ready for bed.  I heard laughing and squealing and peeked in their door.  Rachel was sitting on the floor with her tights and pants tangled around her feet.   She had worn tights and snug cotton pants on over them today.  She tried pulling them off by grabbing the waist of both garments and yanking down.  Predictably, they got caught on her feet.  Prairie also sat on the floor, pulling and tugging on the tights/pants, grunting, determined to free her sister from her tights/pants prison.

It was too hard though.  She finally looked around at me, defeated and asked pitifully, “Will you help?”

Now all is quiet.  Children are in bed, bread is baking in the oven, and I am sipping my kombucha and blogging our day.  Looking forward to welcoming our guys back home tomorrow.