Weekend Top Five 7/27/09

As I sit here on Sunday night trying to put together a Top Five, I truly cannot think of what we did yesterday. Seriously, my mind is a TOTAL. BLANK It's actually a little scary. I don't remember yesterday. I think that's a problem. I think I'll go think about it a little more.

Okay, it's about an hour later and it took looking back at my camera to remember. Pretty sad, huh? I guess it's related to my first one below. Here it goes:

5. Sick Mommy
I get sick every year during the week of VBS. I'm not sure why. A couple of years ago I actually missed Wednesday, but luckily I had taught all the motions to the youth so I wasn't really missed.
This year, it waited until Thursday afternoon after the final morning of VBS. My throat started hurting so badly, followed by nasty sinus congestion. The sore throat lasted all the way through Sunday night, only subsiding with massive doses of Tylenol, combined with Benadryl.






4. Friday Bedroom Stand Off
It was just a VERY BAD situation. I sent the boys to their rooms to clean at around 1:15 in the afternoon and I told them that at 2:00 if the rooms were clean, I would take them to the pool.

I will leave ALL details of the horrible day out, but the short of the story is: 6 and a half hours later, Aaron's room was finally picked up, hours of crying had taken place from both mom and child, and Aaron was finally eating dinner and being tucked into bed.

Too many factors contributed. Remember the story Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day? That's how I will remember last Friday.



3. Playworld
Knowing that we needed to get out on Saturday after the SIX HOUR STAND OFF on Friday, we headed to Playworld to run off some steam. Usually we got to Playworld with other kids, but I was glad that this time we chose to go just us. Rather than playing with others, the boys actually played with EACH OTHER and I think it was good for them to really enjoy each other instead of all of the bickering that has been taking place lately.

While the boys were running around, I had thought ahead this time to bring some cards with us. So for two hours while the kid ran, jumped, crawled and bounced around, Steve and I played TONS of games of Uno, even altering the rules A LITTLE to make it more fun.





2. Noah's Personal Library
While hanging out on Aaron's bed for six hours on Friday, I had a very long time to think about come changes that could be made in his room to avoid this circumstance again. One of the thoughts that came to me was the need for another garage sale that I need to pull together very soon.
So Sunday morning while we were supposed to be at church (I just wasn't feeling all that well yet) I started an all out war against the plethora of books in the house. I sorted them into numerous piles, including living room (hardcover only), Aaron's room (Clifford, Little Critter, and Froggy books), garage sale, and Noah's room. Along the way, I rearranged (yes, again) and brought a small book case into Noah's room. While I returned upstairs to once again work on resorting Aaron's stuff, Steve and Noah set about putting the rest of the books into the book case.
Noah was NOT HAPPY about having to actually do work (imagine that?) so I told him that it was like having his own library and he had to line them up neatly in order to be able to see all the titles, just like at the real library.

He was indeed inspired and ran to not only make a sign for his door, but also proceeded to lead Aaron through how to "rent" a book from his room to take back upstairs.





1. Mommy/ Daddy/ Boy Dates
After so many sibling fights over the last few weeks, and quite a few squabbles between me and the boys, I felt the need to separate them for awhile on Sunday. As I have mentioned before, I LOVE taking Noah on outings with just the two of us. It is special time that we never get together anymore. Aaron and I still get time together while Noah is at school, but I rarely get any one on one with Noah anymore.
So while Steve took Aaron to the zoo, I took Noah to a movie and ice cream.
We saw Monsters vs. Aliens, which I really didn't want to see, but it was cute and Noah LOVED it. Some somewhat inappropriate bathroom humor, but nothing that we couldn't talk about if it comes up at another time.
By time we all got home, Noah and Aaron were happy to play together nicely the rest of the night and a good day was had by all.


The Week Ahead:
At this writing on Sunday night, I am still felling a bit yucky, but I am definitely on the mend. I am hoping that tonight will be the last night to take medicine to survive the night. My bell ensemble is starting rehearsals back up for the coming year next week so I have A LOT of work to do this week to prepare. There are two neighborhood churches holding VBS programs this week. I am hoping that at least on of them will be free of charge so the boys could go do that this week while I am doing bell work. It really isn't any fun for the boys to tag along while I am working. I am also hoping to see my parents this week.

I hope I can make it a good week with the boys. I only have a few precious weeks left with them before school starts and I want them to be great for all of us.