Bringing Home a Surprise

Last week is a blur.  Between sleeping more than the average bear and trying to get my suitcase put away I was spent.

I had planned to get some small projects done when I got home from all of my travels, but instead I mostly listened to my kids tell me stories they made up and ask me if I know where their toothpaste went.

It’s questions like these that make me realize that kids really think their parents aren’t human.  I know they think I have the power to know where the toothpaste is despite being gone for 5 days, but the sad truth is that I can’t even find my own toothpaste so we’re all out of luck.

If you haven’t guessed, no projects got done, unless you count that I actually did get my suitcase unloaded and put away in less than 5 days, which might be a new record.  I am pretty good about the unpacking, mostly because I need the stuff that’s in there.  But actually tucking the suitcase back where it belongs can be a long, drawn out process.  It creeps from the bedroom, to outside the bedroom door, where it stays for a couple of weeks.  Then I ask a kid to take it to the kitchen, where it waits for me to notice it again and then, maybe in a few weeks, gets put away.  Typically a 6 week process.

But somehow despite my extreme laziness the suitcase was out of sight before the weekend.  I may have to celebrate this victory with a nap.

This week I think I may actually get a few of those unfinished projects done.  I bought myself some “leave-Mom-alone” time yesterday by bringing home a ping pong table.

I was in the nearby super-center and they were putting out the table they had used as display for half price.  We’ve been wanting one, so I snatched it.  Of course, I was driving my minivan and no, it wouldn’t fit inside.

The nice young man that was helping me agreed to put it on top of my van for me while I went back in to purchase some twine.  When I came back out he had it up there in a weird way, but I was too polite to say anything about it.  So I drove through town at 12 miles per hour while men were flagging me down and saying things like it was tied up there wrong and “How far do you have to drive like that?” and that I needed to stop and fix it.

It was pretty scary actually.  At one point the table nearly slid off the van and into oncoming traffic.  I pulled over and tied it up some more until there were more knots than were probably necessary.  Clearly I was never a scout.

I am not gifted in the area of tying things to my car.  My husband cringes.

But I made it home with the table still strapped up there and the kids are so thrilled to have a ping pong table they they will be playing it all week and not notice that I am ignoring them, so it was worth the harrowing drive home.

They love it so much that the three youngest boys begged to sleep under it last night.  They lined their blankets all in a row and acted like it was the most comfortable place they have been since we let them sleep on the trampoline one night last summer.

This I do not understand.  If you ever need to torture me for information, just tell me I will have to sleep on the floor under the ping pong table and I will spill all my secrets.

This week, in addition to those projects, I will be planning my Thanksgiving meal and trying to figure out how to fit all of my guests around the ping pong table which is now in my dining room.

The good news is if we don’t have enough places for people to sleep….we can put some of them under it.

Have a great week!