Welcome Home Hope and Chi

I didn't have high hopes for today.  I didn't have any hope for today if I am to be completely honest.  I decided the day's fate somewhere between 4:00 and 7:30 a.m. while I tried everything short of counting sheep to evoke sleep.  The steroids I'm on for this mysterious, unsightly, red, itchy rash that is covering a conservative 80 percent of my body make me wired and edgy.  Add to that combo the histamine blocker that makes me stop dead in my tracks sleepy and you have one confusing cocktail.  I went to bed so completely exhausted at 1:00 only to wake up at 4:00 raring to go, yet not at all bright eyed and bushy tailed.  I refused to get up and I fought every urge to scratch my skin off, and then all the sudden I woke up and it was 10:30.  Let me tell you 6 1/2 hours felt like a gift.  It was Christmas in August as far as I was concerned, and the day that seemed so dead on arrival was busting at the seams with goodness.

I found the kids lounging in the family room watching a riveting episode of Say Yes to the Dress.  I'm not kidding...I cannot make this up.  During commercials, they would meet on the floor to resume their wrestling match.  That is what I found most entertaining.  I made a hearty brunch that met everyone's approval and we chatted about the day.  The conversation went something like this:

T. Bone: What are we going to do today.

Me:  Umm nothing.

T. Bone: Yesss!  Awesome!

Miss Bit:  Awwww.

T. Bone descended down to his boy cave to play video games...something he's done very little of this summer so I was very much more than ok with him wasting away a few hours wasting zombies.  First he suggested that we watch Meet the Fockers.  Last night we watched Meet the Parents while Miss Bit was away for a sleepover that turned into a sleepunder, which was all for the better.  T. Bone found much humor in Gaylord and Jinxy and definitely wanted more, but it's not exactly appropriate for a new 8 year old so I told him another time.  And for the record, brutal Nazi warfare is absolutely appropriate for an almost 12 year old...NOT.

Miss Bit's Awww quicky turned to an Awesome when she decided that hanging out with Mom would make for a good day.  I put on some tunes and we spent time crafting, singing, hanging out.  She decorated Barbie clothes and then we finally got going on our mosaic trivets.  They turned out really great if I have to say so myself.  It's a good thing too seeing as how I hacked up our kitchen counter top and through my favorite fancy dish towel while hammering the plates to pieces for the project.  Then my girl asked me something that was sweet music to my ears.  She asked if we could bake something so I turned her loose on my Pinterest Just Desserts page.  Of the 100 or so pins, she chose one that we didn't have an ingredient for so we went to the grocery store and also the craft store for another project, which is on tomorrow's agenda.

T. Bone geared up for football practice and Coach and I went for a much needed walk.  I have been couped up in the house since Saturday night save for a doctor's appointment and I needed the fresh air and the endorphins.  Miss Bit and I made the cookie bars she requested and then she left me to clean up the mess while she took a vase of flowers to our neighbor and then went to play with her BFF.  For the record, I was way fine with that too.  She was not fine with the fact that I turned the frosting pink.  She thinks the white tastes better, and my girl...she's right.  Hopefully, Coach's coworkers have less discerning palettes since the pretty in pink bars are trayed up for him to take tomorrow morning.

I tucked the kids in a little while ago.  Coach and cats too.  We're making a concerted effort to ease bedtime back to normal in these last weeks of vacation.  Believe me when I say that it's just as hard for me to realize that these loosey goosey days of summer freedom are going to come to an end all to soon.  T. Bone asked me to write a word on his back.  I traced Gaylord Focker cuz' I'm appropriate like that.  He chuckled and asked for another.  He got Love You.  He said with a smile in his voice, You too.  And yes, I realize that's 4 words.  She was all sweet fading smiles too.  Miss Bit said the same thing she says every night as we part, Say a prayer for me.  I said one for you.  And I will, I do.

And all this mundane minutia (much of which I've spared you mind you)...it's the big littles.  The small stuff that adds up to plentiful joy.  It's a truth I live by...attention to the extraordinary ordinary, but as we all know sometimes it's harder to live our truths than others.  I'm happy to report that today, slightly sleep deprived and still itchy, was just not one of those days.  Today I felt the chi...I felt the love...I felt my groove.  They've been missing the past couple days so I was more than ready to welcome them back.

The house is quiet.  I feel the peace of a good day and a little time to myself.  I'm not the least bit sleepy and that's good.  I figure if I can make it until 2:00, I'll sleep until 5:00.  There's something less lonely about waking up at 5:00 when the birds are already chirping as opposed to 4:00 when it's so eerily quiet and it dawns on you that you really are up before the birds.