Friday Free For All

I am so very happy it's Friday. It's sunny, cool and crisp outside. Doug is off today, which was planned, then unplanned, then magically happened at 5 pm last night. So, I had him take the big kids to school with the twins in tow, took a long, hot shower and started the first of eleventy bazillion loads of laundry that I do on a weekly basis. Hell I even got to shave my legs! It's a good day indeed.

I'm glad he's home today because the kids have been nightmares lately. Everything is a battle with them. They won't put away their toys, or take their dirty clothes to the laundry room or wash their hands when they come inside. I'm constantly refereeing wars between them over one of the thousands of toys we have, or where they will sit on the couch to watch their very limited tv. It's exhausting. I may have to take my mother-in-law's tactic of threatening to give them to the Indians, except that is so totally not PC, so maybe I'll just give them to the gypsies. Ok, that's not PC either, so would it be bad if I just left them in the woods aka Hansel and Gretel? No? Crap.

Tomorrow we're leaving them with our excellent babysitter Erika and going with friends to see the Red Sox play the Yankees. The last time we attempted such fun with these friends, we got this. Guess what the weather is predicted to be in Boston tomorrow? RAIN. COLD. Sigh. I guess it's our destiny. At the very least, we'll get a beer and a sausage sandwich from a street side vendor and have some fun.

Sunday is Mother's Day. Mother's Day hasn't always been kind to me since I became a mother. There was that Mother's Day in Rome, where Meg had a massive meltdown in the middle of St. Peter's Square because we wouldn't let her get in a fountain. We actually videotaped her "act" and replayed it to her in the hotel so she could see how horrible she had been acting. Then the Mother's Day a couple of years ago where we had to cancel our family brunch because the kids were acting so awful while we were trying to get the house ready and we just couldn't imagine having people come and deal with them. This year ALL I want from my kids (of course I want lovely sentiments from Doug) is for them to treat me, and each other, nicely for that one day. I want a day of not having to yell at them, of not having to separate kids while they're pulling hair and scratching faces, of not hearing how my kids hate me and want me to go away. Maybe I should go away for the day instead of setting the bar so high. It seems like a pretty lofty goal.

I'm going to enjoy some of the lovely weather with my girls. They like to help water the gardens. I have them get their sand buckets or empty pots and fill them with water and they get to water the bigger bushes while I water the rest. It appears to be a good project for them to help me with, except for when they pour the entire bucket of water on their pants!  Enjoy Friday!