Summer: less than 3 weeks

I'm hiding in my bedroom. And for good reason. I have 8 children in my not very large home today and I spent the morning cleaning up last night's dinner dishes (I'm not fond of grocery shopping with any let alone all of my kids so I went immediately after dinner last night while Brandon got everyone in bed), picking up Kate and a friend from tennis class, dropping Will off at his best friend's house (he's Indian and has been in India all summer long so this was a happy reunion), getting gas, stopping by the Asian grocery store for onions, Asian pear and East West salad dressing (there was none), and taking "the girls" to Juice It Up. Not a bad day by any means, but when I got home around 11:30 I found my mailbox had been relieved of it's contents by someone other than myself. The flag was still up but the mail carrier hadn't come yet and my mailbox that held over 10 bills with hefty checks included was EMPTY! WHO DOES THAT?

I spent the next hour off and on the phone with my bank discussing canceled checks, identity theft and a new checking account. Not to mention I need to contact the 9 online business that I have automatic billing with and re-write the 10 checks that were stolen even though I no longer have the envelopes and payment slips that come with the bills. This was going on while kids swirled all around me voicing requests or complaints while I made lunch and cleaned up breakfast dishes.

We are leaving town on Friday and I really don't know when I'm going to make all those calls. Maybe I should be doing that right now but I'm hiding. Hiding is infinitely easier than trying to make business-y phone calls with kids underfoot. I need a secretary, or a wife at the very least. That's what I always tell my husband: I need a wife. Someone to take care of the house and kids so I can get some things done that would require office hours and a staff of people for anyone besides a full time mother.

I'm starting to get the same feeling I used to get in the summer when I was a kid and I was spending a lot of time with the same friend day after day. I just want to read my Judy Blume book and work on my friendship bracelets all by myself in my own room.

Back to the kids . . .