Just Another Monday

My girls are currently (right this minute) sorting through all the clean laundry into these piles: girls, big boys, little boys, mom & dad, towels. This, to me, is the hardest part about doing laundry --the sorting. Honestly, the folding doesn't bother me as much. And since they are doing this in order to go play for hours and hours, I am content.

It's been a crazy weekend. The kids have been out of school since Thursday, and they go back tomorrow. Fall Break usually means vacations for most people, but for me, it just meant a whole lot of home stuff. Like:

*My mom came to visit --it was her 35 year reunion at BYU
*Laundry, laundry, laundry
*Playing at the park with my sister, nephews, mom, and kids.
*BYU Homecoming game (we lost, *sniff) and Homecoming Spectacular
*Piano lessons
*Chores, chores, chores (in fact, here is a Facebook status update about our epic chore experiment:

"Contest with the kids: I clean the entire upstairs (3 bedrooms, 2 bathrooms, office, kitchen, living room, laundry room). They clean the entire basement (2 bedrooms, play room, family room, 1 bathroom). First one to finish wins their choice of treat and movie. You would think I have the short end of the stick, but you have not seen our basement. We have paused for dinner (yes, it's late, I know), but they are soooo excited about the fact that they are winning. *insert evil laughter here*"

And they won!)

*Let's see... oh, yeah, piano lessons and Masterclass 

*We decorated for Halloween and finished deciding on costumes (3 ninjas, 1 Diego, 2 clowns, and 1 undecided)

*I got the nastiest bruise on my upper left knee when I accidentally slammed it into the side of our living room table. 

*Family movie night (the kids won ice cream and a movie --they chose "Mirror, Mirror" and I had heard people say it was dumb, but it was actually quite cute. Perfect for the family!)

*I taught Gospel doctrine on Sunday, played the piano in RS (subbed), accompanied choir practice, and took a meal to a woman in our ward who just had twin boys (so cool!). 

*I forced my family to go on a family walk yesterday evening. The air, as I came out of church at 2PM, tasted delicious --like crisp apples, you know? --and as I drove the meal to my friend, the sun was too bright and the weather too perfect NOT to walk in it. So we did. And it was lovely!

*Slipping in time to read Shannon Hale's "Midnight in Austenland" which I actually found to be better than "Austenland" and simply delightful. Truly, it was so fun! 

And now I'm spent. I'm sitting on the couch, in my bathrobe and p.j.'s and the baby is fussy and the toddler wants ice cream and the 8 year old claims he's sick and the 5 year old just wants to watch Ninjago (much to the joy of the other boys). The girls have finished the laundry sorting, which means my job now begins (if I can get the baby to calm down) --also, that they have left to experience all kinds of adventure with their friends. 

Oh, and we FINALLY found the 5 year old's shoe. It has been missing for over a week, and he's prayed to find it, and I've prayed to find it, and today, we finally found it and where was it? Behind a rollerblade next to the bins of shoes that everyone claims they have searched. Sigh. I didn't react very well. But then, when do I ever react well?