Thursday, April 29, 2010

Things I Ought To Consider Before Participating in Today

It's raining. That's going to mean another indoor day, after becoming accustomed to the freedom and happiness of moving outdoors into wind and sunshine, sandbox and trampoline. More specifically, it means absorbing the shock of volume bouncing off of four walls, toys strewn across the basement floor, and nagging the kids to stay off the stairs.

Yesterday we attempted happiness indoors, and it was quickly apparent that we'd all become addicted to the "pediatric runner's high".

We needed our exercise.

So, with a slight drizzle not dampening our spirits, we headed out. Now, the kids I care for are pretty special little people. They know the drill. They know that they can run ahead of me, but never go around the corner because we need to see each other. So off they ran. They stopped at the corner and waited for me and the stragglers. We reconvened at the corner and off the ran again.

But yesterday something happened for the first time.
They decided they knew it all, and after noting that there were no cars, they proceeded to cross the street. While it should be noted that we live in a very quiet neighbourhood with not a lot going on; this still made me freak out in many, many levels. This is brand new fodder for award- winning nightmares for years to come. Anxiety spikes as I think of what might have been. Gears whirl, imagining how to adequately communicate the gravity of this to my poppets.

Even though we spent the rest of our scamper lecturing, lecturing, I fear that they didn't really get it. Any more than they've recently mastered my insistence that whacking friends on the head with chalkboard erasers is unacceptable social etiquette.

So, maybe rain today isn't such a bad idea. Gives me time to breathe again.
Besides, I need to buzz around the place and declutter before Brian's pallette teasing tapas this evening.

Right.
I've still got a pack 'n' play full of vomit to deal with.
And the damn dog peed in the house again. On the foamy that I just washed, last week, out in the sun. That kids sleep on. Yuck.
There's soccer equipment a'plenty all over the porch.
I have to phone U of Winnipeg lost and found. Daughter left her new spring jacket in their gym last night. (She was playing basketball, I was meanwhile driving all over the west end looking for 211 Spruce Street. Turns out that it was 211 BRUCE street. neat how that rhymes.)
And I feel crabby.

I'll try to look on the bright side, even though negativity seems readily available to me of late.
Coffee is officially a legume. Vital to my health.
Brian is making me breakfast- fruit smoothies this morning.
Tapas is tonight. Good drinks. Better food. Funny people.
The grass is turning brilliantly green.
Cheri will come for coffee this morning. We'll spur one another on.
I joined a book club. (wow. I'm so current.)

Besides.
There are no basketball tournaments this weekend, no weddings, no obligations.
Might give me the time I need to find that happy place again.
(ahhh. happy place. buttons that Brian found for me at the thrifty stop last Tuesday)
(Post Script:)
(Wow! This looks like a classy place to leave my kid!!)
~
(Oh yeah? Well. You should have been here last week when it was all fresh and clean and dry again. After the OTHER TIME the DAMN DOG urinated on it.)
~
Classy.
That's what we are.

6 comments:

Anonymous said...

Joyce, just add more coffee, and file the pack & play. Happy Friday to you! bbnm

tanya said...

I say toss the pack n play, surely you can find a "new" one (or a dog kennel will do in a pinch) at a thrift shop somewhere...okay maybe that's why I'm not in childcare, but work at a hospital where someone else does the laundry and the disinfecting.

janice said...

Tee Hee Hee - I am laughing. (At you? With you? You choose.) Yes, I too love my dogs, and they do pee on all sorts of things, and I would totally leave my kid with you if she needed leaving. We have an even 'classier' place than yours - a happy dog place, maybe not safe for young children.

Judy said...

I LOVE you Joyce!

Please promise me that we can be neighbors in Heaven. PLEEEEEASE?

joyce said...

you like neighbours with rot holes in their deck and pissy dogs?

oh, it is so good to be laughed at/with and loved in such unloveable times.

thank you for not taking me too seriously. It always worries me deeply when I'm taken too seriously. (except when I'm being serious, and i get laughed at. I don't like those times much either...)

jenn:) said...

Hey! Is that my pack and play?