A Day Off

Also known as - Life with Kids ...

After more than a week of full days and late nights of production and putting out an unprecedented 2 papers and 1 Real Estate Guide in 10 days, the old gal just shut down. Yesterday I was a walking zombie after working until 5 a.m. - and let me go on record here as saying that the Gazette would NOT have made it out the door at 5 a.m. if David Still hadn't been on hand Tuesday afternoon to help with the Photoshop work involved in this project - Bleary eyed all day and emotionally tender from the physical exhaustion - I just don't recover as quickly as I used to during my Disco Diva days! Oh, I still got my 2nd wind around midnight when I was so exhausted I could have slept around 9 p.m., and was clear minded until I sat down on the couch to await the alarms going off so I could get the girls to school. Slept right through them all, but everybody made it out the door in a timely fashion despite my lack of participation!

This morning I woke up feeling even worse - with one of those summer head colds - lovely.

Got the girls to school and napped on the couch until around noon.

But as many of you may or may not know, when looking to re-energize myself, after spending just a bit of self-indulgent nap time, I surround myself with kids. Thank Goodness all of my friends have many kids and don't mind handing them off for a few hours! Princess Robin ate a bad taco right before P.E. today, so I had to retreive her from Cooper around 1:30, so at least I had that one with me for the afternoon and didn't have to borrow a Still or anything. The Woodard twins rode the bus to our house this afternoon, I picked up Chrisie from the bus and Robin's friend Elizabeth spent a few hours here as well, so it was definitely Girly Girl Central around here! Silliness ensued and I feel like a new -old-woman. Still tired, but definitely more clear-minded.

What is it about kids that can make us feel loved, wanted, tired and tried, crazy and fulfilled - and I guess - ALIVE!

So yes ... you'll often see photos here or references to my "posse" or passel of kids - the Bacons, the Woodards, the Stills, our neighbors with Katie, Corey, Lindsey and Jacob. My mother was much like this and still is. Nothing makes her happier than a house just full of kids to love, gripe at and coddle.

I claim Cori and Robin and David (when I can) - they're mine because God gave them to me ... the others are mine to love by choice ...

Forget the spa ... give me a dose of youthful enthusiasm, some 5th grade geography and a term paper to edit ... I'm a happy camper!

O.K. ... maybe just a few hours in the spa ...