So Far So Good

Yesterday went pretty smoothly doing absolutely nothing. Actually, I totally cleaned my room so I didn't do nothing, but that's what the kids did. We were invited to the Johnson's for dinner and FHE. It's always impressive when someone has the courage to feed and entertain my family! The kids had a great time and as always, the company was so enjoyable. We were home by 9:30 so the kids went straight to bed.

They were up bright and early ready to work this morning. The only hitch is that in the past, when I make big lists, I try to break them down into really small jobs. Not this time. They went at them thinking they could accomplish it in 10 minutes, then move on. Not this time. They did it with very little complaint or prodding. I gave them a half hour "recess", then it was back at it. I think the jobs done at the end weren't done quite as well. I may have to redo some of them. You wouldn't know we cleaned all morning by looking at my house though! While we cleaned, the little ones played so there are toys everywhere. But check out my ceiling fans and baseboards! We got the walls and doors, the laundry room, the cabinets and the stairs. It all looks great! Tomorrow we are just left to finish the baseboards, a few more wall areas and all the shutters. That's a big one. I told them we could go to the pool if they kept up the good work.

I also went Visiting Teaching today. I came home with a broken heart. One of the sisters I visit is kind of in a bad way. They are both unemployed and highly under-educated. There home is dirty and smelly and very unsanitary. All that is sad enough, but when we went in, we found her two little ones, a 3 yr old and a 7 month old, playing alone with the dogs and cats. There was a dried up puddle of pee that the baby was sitting next to. Neither had been fed yet and it was 10:45 am. The mom woke up and came out, they had had a rough night with little sleep. I begged her to let me take her kids for a while so she could get some rest, but she wouldn't let me. It was so hard to leave them there like that. How do you even begin to help someone like that? She must know how bad that is for her kids, don't you think? She said maybe she would bring them over later while they went and did something. So hard.

Lastly, Happy St. Patrick's Day!! What the heck are we celebrating? Yes, I have a green shirt on, but I have no idea why. Isn't this an Irish holiday? I don't think we celebrate every country's holidays, so why this one? What relevance is it to us? I think American's will just take any excuse to drink more beer. That's the world according to Laurie.