6 loads of laundry sorted
2nd load in to wash
Living room cleaned
Important phone calls made (3)
Bedroom swept with a broom & vacuumed
Plenty of hanging out w/the kids accomplished
Now I’m gonna pierce Diantha’s upper lobe & run to WM for brownie mix to bake for Veronica’s youth small group tonight…
I ate part of a steak and some garlic mashed potatoes.
I did three tattoos today, one a fairly large cover, one a complete rework… and not one person tipped me.
The kids are in the throes of nighttime chores
Which means there is a foreseeable end to noise.
I have knitting.
Wolf hasn’t talked much the last few days, as his girlfriend left him.
I think he’s feeling better today, because he texted me a recipe for baked macaroni treats (thinking of food).
We’re baking brownies.
I’m going to send him some in the mail.
To scroll thru my dash and see that so many people I follow had a good and/or happy day.
Mine was, em, not that good.
Maybe I will write about it later. Or maybe I won’t, having had enough tears in the day without rehashing it.
But meanwhile my house needs a LOT of fixing and I have parents coming from out of state tomorrow to stay several days. Time for chores.
Though I’d rather go to bed and be done.
I was sooo sleepy. Catatonic, practically. I had a 2.5-hour and a separate 3-hour nap the night before and was running low, to say the least.
And bedtime chores and settling were going particularly slow. In fact since several of the kids wanted to camp out in the living room, the process took a couple hours. During which I wanted to fall asleep sitting up.
Along about midnight and the end of my patience, Miss Betsy rubbed something into her eyes. She doesn’t know what. But her eyes started swelling.
I had antihistamine eye drops but in the manner of all things, somehow the bottle ended up under the couch (empty). So the next best thing is saline. It does sting to first put the drops in but at least it washes the eyes out.
Betsy was having NONE of it.
So past midnight I find myself battling a raging, scared pre-school aged hellion, trying to get eye drops into her tightly squeezed shut and incredibly puffy eyes.
I ended up having to hold her head between my knees. I’m sure if any neighbors were awake, they thought there was a homicide in progress at my house.
Within minutes, her eyes looked better. I let her sleep in my room, just for the comfort factor.
Right before she fell asleep, she petted my face and said, “Thank you for taking care of me, Mama.”
I love my kids.
Finished work. Today I did one tattoo and 3 navel piercings. Rebagged and sterilized 60 pieces of body jewelry. Mopped floors, and scrubbed Miss Hannigan’s tub so she could make some more gin.
The x had the kids for the evening so when I got off work, Artemas and I went to the laundromat. I just washed the clothes there. Drying 4 loads will take about 3 hours at home but still be cheaper than the Dryers of Dysfunction at the laundromat.
Sometimes I am so glad to get home. Most times, really.
Even though my room is now covered with a fine silt of drywall dust. That’ll wait til tomorrow.
For right now, I have kids in bed, a movie to watch, a beer, and knitting.
Life is good.
I’m supposed to clean house in case we have company this week, who I can almost bet aren’t coming.
But what I want to do is load the kids all in the car & head to Autumne’s house in the mountains so we can see the puppies.
We’re gonna bake some muffins. Do a quick tidy while they bake. Then take off. Shhh!
[Wow you shoulda seen them spring into action when I said that if we’d do some quick chores we could go see puppies.]
At work I scrubbed and sterilized tubes but didn’t get to tattoo anybody.
After work I helped Veronica unbury about 75% of her bedroom.
Then I mowed the back & side yards (Wolf mowed the front today).
I’ve been up since 6:30 AM.
Think Ima call it a night.
- This week was LONG.
- I slept late and then felt weird.
- B and Wolf both wanted grilled cheese sandwiches for breakfast
- I’m going to work on the back porch/future studio room because it’s a mess
- But what I really want to do is sit in the sofa and knit.
- The Entire Day
Sorting laundry in the back hall and working on the back room
Whereupon I realized I didn’t take an antihistamine so my chances of being sick from doing this are pretty high.
Then I got a text that I have to go pick up Di in Knoxville.
Then I have to take my x to work at 3:30
Then I have to leave again at 5:30 for church.
Looks like a day of interruptions from here on out.
It wasn’t enough
To just drive 1/2 hour into Knoxville to pick up Diantha.
We then went past the new Publix at Northshore to see if they had job applicant info on the doors (they didn’t).
Then we went down Northshore along the river and the back way into Farragut.
Stopped at Fresh Market, which is a grocery specializing in fresh foods, European foods, and bulk foods in bins. They even had Juggalo snackage. Very upscale but their prices are reasonable.
We bought bits and pieces of stuff and a Vernor’s ginger ale in a glass bottle.
Got back to town in time to pick up my x & take him to work, at which time he said, “oh the guy upstairs loaned me his car for the day. I texted you but it went to the wrong person.”
I have two more hours before I leave for church, to work in the back porch.
Wow I’d rather have a nap.
• go to the x’s house, get his truck, go pick up the air hockey table I bought yesterday on my adventures.
• return the truck in exchange for getting a couple kids back
• drill the holes if I can find the right bit & put up clothesline crossarms. Run clothesline.
• put new fill valve / flapper kit in the kids’ toilet
• see what’s wrong with and fix Diantha’s bed frame
• at some point, mow.
• sometime during all this, Michael is supposed to come work on fixing cars.
• go to the Saturday evening service at church at 6
• return the truck in exchange for getting a couple kids back Done.
• drill the holes if I can find the right bit & put up clothesline crossarms. Run clothesline. — Drill found, bit found, holes marked. Bit is 1/16” smaller than bolts I bought. Have to return bolts for the smaller size.
• put new fill valve / flapper kit in the kids’ toilet
• see what’s wrong with and fix Diantha’s bed frame
• at some point, mow. Got part of mowing done. I’m almost heat-stroking. The humidity is too high to evaporate sweat. Have to take a break about every 15 minutes to cool down and drink.
• sometime during all this, Michael is supposed to come work on fixing cars. Michael is here, doing his thing while I’m mowing.
• go to the Saturday evening service at church at 6
• Also I cleaned out an area of the back porch to put the air hockey table in.
•And had a “cheese tasting” with the kids, of some specialty cheeses we bought yesterday at the market
1) I went to bed at after 3:30 AM and got up about 9:30. I had NOTHING on my agenda today. I could actually sit and knit if I wanted to. WTH is UP with that?
2) I made honey-wheat pancakes and turkey breakfast sausages. I ate my pancake with peanut butter and maple syrup.
3) then the Baptist-youth-pastor neighbor, trying to be kind to a single woman, mowed half my front yard with his riding mower. Making it necessary to now mow the REST of the yard.
4) in mowing the back yard, I came across a half cement block, which I needed to put around the pressure regulator by the water meter.
5) when I put the block there, I realized I needed to fill in the hole around it. Which my x dug 2 yrs ago before he left and never filled in. Grass was beginning to grow up the edges of the mound of dirt. So I spent 1 1/2 hours breaking up dirt and filling a hole. Wolf mowed the rest of the front yard because it’s not right I should sweat alone.
6) when I started to mow the back yard again, I happened upon the nest/colony of tiny black ants that has invaded my house. So I had to stop and go to the store for lawn insect control. By the time I got back home, it was too hot to finish mowing til evening. So I took a shower and taught Di some math and put B to sleep for a nap before leaving for church. So much for getting any knitting done. :o/
