Earnest Parenting.com logo

Encouraging Heroes. You can be one too.

Oh. My. Goodness. This week was CRAZY for me.

Sunday we took the older boys to camp for the week. This was about 45 miles round trip.

Monday morning I took the younger ones up north and handed them off to my in-laws, then scooted over to a town nearby to help a friend with her house all day. Got home around 9. 110 miles, round trip.
Tuesday morning I went to the church office and painted, then came home to spend the afternoon doing chores. About 15 minutes later the pastor called and asked if I could come back in and do some high finance work (read: write a check he needed), so I went back in. Wound up working on some other things while I was there, and then did some errands. Spent the evening w/ my hubby. Thankfully, we only live 3 miles from the office. So 6 miles, round trip. Oh. Twice. Make that 12 miles.

Wednesday I went out and met my parents and we picked about 85 pounds of sweet cherries. I got home around 5. Darling husband wanted to go to a movie but I was too tired. This time, I’d driven 120 miles round trip.

Thursday morning I started cleaning and pitting cherries. My cherry stoner wasn’t working right so I didn’t get much done before I had to drive out to help the pastor and fam unload the moving truck and do some unpacking. So I took the cherries with me to share. Hubby and I got home around 10. Yesterday’s mileage: 50. Round trip.

Today, I got up and started some cleaning, laundry, and the sprinkler. I looked at the 40 pounds of cherries still sitting on my counter. Then I panicked when I remembered it’s Friday already and ran to town to make the deposit and check the PO box before driving to pick up the older boys from camp. Brought them home, unpacked them and continued the laundry brigade. I think I’ve done 10 loads since yesterday. Dragged them outside to help me dump all the mulch out of the trailer and told them to take a dip in the pool because it’s been left too long and the iron has settled to the bottom and needs stirring up so the filter can catch it. One boy got in, the other declined. It’s not all that bad, really. But he didn’t want to swim.

Fed myself dinner and headed to the office by 6 to practice music. Hubby showed up with the boys at 7:15 and we headed out to see Evan Almighty. FanTAStic movie, btw. I highly recommend it for all ages. Younger children won’t catch all the hidden meanings and inside jokes, but they’ll love the action and humor. Today’s mileage total was 75.

Tomorrow morning I’m going to drive to the next little town to pick up a dishwasher. We will then stash it in the garage and hurry up North again to meet the in-laws and pick up the younger boys. We’re supposed to meet at McD’s for a late lunch. Estimated mileage: 140
When we get home from child retrieval….I still have those cherries to think about. Ay yi yi. I’m hoping to con hubby and the boys into helping me. And maybe they’ll deliver a dishwasher too.

So. All told I drove (or will drive, including tomorrow’s estimate) 552 miles. Sheesh. In a normal week I might drive 10 percent of that. Several people have asked me how my week without children was. To be truthful, I’m looking forward to them all being here now so I can relax!

Earnest Parenting: help and encouragement for frazzled parents.