Cold meds, first birthdays, and first world homeowner issues

I have a cold. I took Sudafed. And ibuprofen. Then I gave the boys haircuts. Bad idea. Very bad. One dear boy got clipped sans comb guard.

Oops.

I’ve mailed off five mei tais. (Without taking medications before/during sewing. That… just no. Apparently not.) I have one more in the works and then I’m caught up with the materials I’ve received. Someone asked me if she could give friends my name when they ask where she got hers. I cringed.

Ellie Adelaide started cruising around furniture. She still doesn’t crawl, slithering across the floor on her belly instead – usually under duress. She added ‘eat’, ‘Ellie’ and ‘bye’ to her vocabulary. ‘Momma’ remains the elusive only-when-she’s-furious word. She celebrates her first birthday on Sunday. The kids have decided the cake she’d love best is rhubarb. She hasn’t learned ‘no’ yet so I guess she’ll be getting rhubarb cake.

My mom was here for a week and a half. She left this morning. I had to school children and clean up all by myself today. I may have had a mini pity party.

The septic is having issues. Again. It’s been fabulous since June. Ugh. I really prefer using water as liberally as needed. Ruby kept a tally of our flushing for the day. She says we’re at four flushes. Blaine says perhaps a fifth might have been in order, since he had to get the plunger out tonight.

The good news: I didn’t have to laundry by myself today, with mom gone. I couldn’t. The bad news: laundry not done for a day or three is a very bad thing around here. The good news: it doesn’t start snowing tomorrow until 9am. Also good: tomorrow is Saturday. Blaine’s off from work and he owns a shovel – and he’s not still in South Carolina. Praying, hoping it’s something stupid and inexpensive. Anything short of needing a new septic tank suitable for nine house occupants would be amazing.

Pierce’s pants were wet a few days ago. I asked him why. He didn’t even miss a beat. “Sterling picked me up and he PEED on them!” His face fell in mere moments. He realized his excuse didn’t sound good, even to himself.

Tonight when Blaine was scolding Pierce for trying to feed Ellie a domino, he asked Pierce what he ought to do to remind him to be kind to his sister. Pierce suggested jail over anything Blaine suggested. I think Pierce does not understand what jail entails. Blaine opted for a sincere apology.

I got my smartphone. Problem: dumb user. That’s been a learning curve. I’ve learned one lesson painfully well: proofread.

Tonight’s supper contained mystery meat. Eden grabbed an unlabeled ziploc containing what she thought was chicken breasts from the freezer. I went to start supper, and the ‘chicken’ was looking highly suspicious. I wondered if it were wild turkey from Blaine’s coworker, but fixed it like chicken. It was tough. Really tough. The mystery was solved when Liberty bit into a piece of shot. She was unimpressed. Ruby and Charlotte asked for seconds.

I’m going to go attempt a fastest shower ever. Hoping this doesn’t backfire. Literally.