Grand Funk

Woke once around 4am but then not again until a few minutes after 8am. Before I could slip away, Mindy asked that I bring her coffee as soon as it was ready. She had a breakfast date planned with her friend Teri.

I was in the kitchen starting coffee when I was joined by Landon and Rocky. Didn’t appear that I was going to get the quiet, alone time I crave. They asked for coffee but I refused. As soon as it was ready, I took Mindy a cup. I could soon hear her up and getting ready for her breakfast date. The boys were a handful, and certainly not interested in being quiet, but then again, what 5 & 9 year old is?

Not sure the time when Mindy left to meet Teri, but until then it hadn’t dawned on me how or when I might get away for my run. Ugh! She expected to be gone for a while. I’m thinking she left just before 10am. A few minutes, once I heard Jacob up and stirring, I let him know that I was leaving for a run and to keep an eye on the boys. He agreed. It was 43 degrees, a little too warm for what I was wearing. I was in my typical winter gear. I ran the usual three mile weekend route. The whole time, I worried about what I might find upon my return to the house.

Thankfully, my fears were largely for not. The only problem was that one of the kids had been in the garage and left the entry door opened. I asked Rocky if he had been in the garage. He denied it, instead blaming it on Landon. I just wanted him to come close it. Jacob soon told me that Rocky was out there getting a drink box, which I had no problem with whatsoever. What I did have a problem with was that he lied to me about it. I didn’t let it pass. Instead, I called him out. He finally fessed up but also told me that Landon was out there too. So as it was, both lied to me. I put both in time outs separated from one another. At the same time, Jacob headed out to play with Evan. Rocky was especially disappointed.

While in time out, I reminded both that asking to get up would only add more time, and that I would let them know when it was time to get up. However, despite my warnings, Rocky ended up asking me two or three times. I extended his time out by five minutes each time. And when I told Landon he could get up, he didn’t want to. He was enjoying relaxing in the recliner. 

I let Rocky up after about 20 minutes. He soon ran off to find Jacob and Evan. Landon eventually followed too. No sooner had the boys headed out when Bella and Makayla came in from the back door. They tracked muddy footprints all through the kitchen. I gave them hell and made Bella clean up the mud. She wasn’t happy about. Makayla apparently didn’t want to help or wait. She quickly dashed off for home.  As soon as Bella was done, she bolted for her room. After giving her a few minutes to sulk, I headed up to talk.

Mindy wasn’t home until 2-230pm. I heard Bella whispering to Mindy, telling her about the mud episode. Too funny! Not too much time passed before the boys were back for lunch. Rocky complained to Mindy about the time out I put him in. I was under siege!

I didn’t do much of anything all afternoon. I watched a little football and took a couple brief naps while the kids went in and out. After Mindy made the kids lunch, she and the girls whipped up a batch of sugar cookie dough. A couple of times she asked me what our dinner plans were. I had nothing in mind, and frankly wasn’t at all hungry. In the back of my mind, I thought about slipping away for some Xmas shopping and perhaps even a stop at Barley’s, but ended up doing neither. Instead, I made like a lazy lump of humanity, sitting around all afternoon and early evening wondering where my weekend had gone.

When I offered no options or decision on dinner, Mindy opted to make the kids spaghetti & meatballs. The only problem was, we didn’t have any meatballs. They ended up having pasta and red sauce. Not sure if it was before or after dinner when Mindy and a few of the kids baked cookies and decorated the Xmas themed gingerbread house. I think it was Bella, Makayla, and Landon. Rocky & Jacob showed no interest. At one point I woke from another nap to find Lane & AJ over too. We had another house full.

It was around 730-8pm by the time Mindy cleaned up the dinner mess and started decorating cookies with the kids. While they did that, I finally got up and made myself a snack, summer sausage, cheese, hot pepper rings on crackers. I snapped a couple photos of the cookies the kids decorated. I also enjoyed the last of three beers I put in the fridge the evening before. I put two more in the freezer for later.

The plan was to watch the Muppets Xmas DVD Mindy brought home. However, since switching around the audio cables to accommodate the new Time Warner cable box last week, the audio output from the Blu-ray player isn’t working via the Digital Audio In cable on the receiver. With little investigation, I determined that we need to order another fiber optic audio cable.

I helped Mindy by getting the boys started with baths. Mindy agreed to finish up with them. After baths and showers, instead of watching the Muppet DVD, we watched a couple Xmas programs on the Time Warner cable line-up. Jacob didn’t have any interest and headed to his room. The boys quickly fell asleep during the program leaving me, Bella, Makayla, and Mindy to watch.

We woke the boys for bed once Mindy declared it her own bedtime. Landon can be sound asleep but somehow manages to leap to his feet and head to bed almost on demand. Good thing. He weighs a ton – impossible to carry. Bella, Makayla and I stayed up long enough to watch SNL. After napping most of the afternoon away, I seemed to catch a 2nd wind. SNL opened with the NYC children’s choir singing Silent Night, presumably in honor of the horrific tragedy in CT the day before. The girls watched about 40 minutes of SNL before heading off to bed. Soon after they headed to bed, I did so as well. It was well past midnight.