In-choir

The kids riding their bikes while Mindy sings I woke in a hurry. Eyes open – feet on the floor. But honestly, that’s pretty common. It was 5:40am by the time I made my way down stairs after brushing my teeth. I felt pretty good too. And by the time I finished my exercise routine I felt like a million dollars. As Ykraps and I ventured outdoors, I could see that we were shrouded once again by cloud cover and the streets were wet from even more over night rain. I was happy for the rain. Number one, I fertilized the grass, and number two, we really need the extra rain after the extended August dry spell. The lawn’s just now beginning to heal in all the typical dead/dry spots. The west facing slopes take a beating in my yard. We could use two good rains per week to keep the soil moist through the remainder of the growing season. Last year the grass stayed vibrant and green up through Xmas. It sprinkled even as Ykraps and I finished our walk. When I returned to the house I gave Ykraps his treat, made Mindy and I each a cup of coffee, then took hers to her bedside. She’s so spoiled! I asked her not to fall back asleep then returned down stairs for some meditation & morning prep. Pretty much a repeat of every other work morning. I had my usual 20 minutes of peace while I showered and dressed. I’m going to have to use this time more wisely; perhaps throwing on some extra loud music from time to time. But today I spent the extra time tidying up the kitchen. Don’t tell anyone! I left for work at 7:40am. I stayed really busy at work, and had a day chalked full of meetings (four in total). I begged out of the fourth which took place after my run so that I could eat my lunch. I left for a run at 1pm. It was tweener weather. I ran with my long sleeve running shirt and shorts. I began to sweat more than I wanted too. But with about a mile to go it began to rain rather moderately. That cooled me down but soaked all my running clothes. That’s two days in a row I returned soaked. I worked hard all day. But I still managed to leave right at 5pm since I wanted to fetch a hair cut on the way home. I meticulously selected the Saturday’s at Tuttle Mall, assuming it to stand the best chance of being sparsely populated upon my arrival. I guessed that because I’ve never had to wait there regardless of the time of day. I took the new roundabout to get there. There were two people sitting getting haircuts when I arrived. She told me it would be 10 minutes so I went next door to the Verizon Wireless store to browse around. When I retuned after five minutes she was ready for me. Wendy cut my hair today. She was fast and efficient. She cut it longer than usual. When I mentioned it, she offered to take off more but I declined thinking that I’d give a longer cut a try, while at the same time reducing the length of time I’ll need to apply gel. I was out of there by 5:40pm and on my way home. Traffic was noticeably light for a Wednesday rush hour. I made it home before 6PM. Mindy was walking Ykraps as I pulled in and had been grocery shopping too. In addition, she had roasted rotisserie chicken ready for dinner. We had some leftover green beans and boiled potatoes too. I had temporarily forgotten that Mindy had choir practice again tonight. Ignore the fear! After we cleaned up the bulk of the dinner mess, I left Mindy go finish getting ready. I finished the clean-up job. I asked her to once again review the rules with the kids before leaving to prevent any problems like last week. After Mindy left and I finished in the kitchen we took to the backyard to play some kiddie games. We played some kindergarten shark game and regular ol’ tag. In between games I topped off the hot tub. It was a couple inches low. Next, I convinced the kids that riding their bikes would be a good thing. They bought it. We went out front where they could ride and I could relax. I pulled a folding camp chair from the Trooper, grabbed my camera, and clicked some pictures while the kids played. We had fun. We stayed out there until 7:38pm – later than Mindy had loosely outlined. But since I was in charge and the kids were being good and having fun, it was no big deal. We eventually found our way to the house. As luck would have it, Bella had a bit of a melt down after being asked to retrieve her bike and put it in the garage. She wanted to leave it out and simply go in. She threw a fit. I threatened the time out thing, but mistakenly gave her the choice. She then told me she couldn’t decide. Decide what? Whether she wanted to accept a timeout or walk 20 feet back to get her bike. Duh! I then used psychology on her. I told her that I knew what she wanted to do. She asked what that was. I told her that she wanted to get her bike and avoid time out. She said, “OK”! Trouble averted! Inside Jacob was already upstairs readying himself for bed. Bella joined in the fun too, but as always, she wanted to make a game out if it. The good news was that they didn’t need a bath. However, I still had to get their jammies on and get them to brush their teeth. That went pretty well after chasing Bella down to get her dressed for bed. She asked me to brush her teeth. I willing did. I put them to bed without their mother home. That's not the easiest thing for them to endure. Don't know that it happens much except when thery're with their dad. While the kids slept, I began blogging. Mindy arrived home shortly after i began. We spent the rest of the evening sharing stories of our day and the coming weekend. Mindy went to bed around 9:30. I followed fifteen or so minutes later after doing som light reading.