It's been one of those days...

You know, those days where you are ready to reach for a glass of merlot and sink into a hot bath...

I woke up and enjoyed a hot cup of coffee...
helped prepare breakfast and pack lunches and make sure boys brushed their teeth...
headed out to take kids to school... dropped of two boys at middle school and two at the elementary school...
came home and started washing up some dishes, instructed Cody on some homeschooling, started a load of laundry and then ran Shasta to work.
After that I took Stephen to his classes and came home to do more homeschooling and prepare some art supplies for Joseph's project...
and then went to pick up Stephen.
When we got home we realized that it was a minimum day and Zoey was waiting for a pick up.
As soon as we got in and I swapped laundry loads, it was time to go get the young boys because they always get out early on Wednesdays... this makes it extra wonderful for those moms who love to keep getting in and out of a car.
We were now home and could relax a bit... yep... Joseph and I built a paper mache mountain range on top of a shoe box for his Alaska project. That was fun. I like art. It really was fun.
A couple of boys began to play chess. I worked on an email. Zoey asked if she could go to Barnes and Noble and Joseph wanted to meet friends at the school park, so we headed out and dropped them off. After swapping the laundry and getting a glass of water it was time to pick up Joseph. He is still too young to have longer "hang out at the park" days, so he played about 45 minutes and his friends were with him.
We got in from picking him up and decided to start the grill. Stephen is my go-to guy for grilling. He let me know that the briquets were locked up in the storage shed and Scott has the keys and is out of town today. SO, we got back into the mini-van and went to the store.
This is where is gets really fun.
We bought briquets. I DID ask Stephen if we needed lighter fluid. He said we had some at home.
We came home. Stephen tells me that the lighter fluid is locked up in the shed, too.
We drove back to the store and bought lighter fluid and matches... just in case we needed matches.
We got home and Stephen successfully started the grill. He came in, happily getting the brats and heading to the back yard. He opens the brats.
He puts them on the table at the patio.
He decides to come inside to get tongs.
AND the Jack Russell Terrier gets onto the table and knocks down the brats.
The brats are consumed by one happy little dog and Baloo... the big queensland.
Stephen and I happily get back into the car and drive to the store to buy brats.
And this great guy tells me, "God has something to teach us in this."

Stephen has now grilled the brats.
I would eat and take a bath and climb into bed, but then I'd have to get up and get into the mini-van one last time today to pick up Shasta from work.

Oh, and somewhere in all of that the tops of the mountain range were painted white for snow...
and little birch trees were painted... maybe in between eating dinner and picking up Shasta the trees will be mounted.

And then...



off to sleep.