Making The Best

It's been a long few weeks.  Most recently, Himself was out of state for the entire long weekend (visiting a friend who will soon be moving to the other coast) and then Tuesday as well, for work.  I was longing for a bit of peace and kid-free quiet today, but then the stillness of the house was shattered around 5AM by the sequential phone calls from Thing One's school and then Thing Two and Petunia's...first that there was a delayed opening, then an hour later, a change to outright cancellation.

&^%*^%& &%*%$^&ing snow.  Not much, mind you, but just enough to muck everything up.

Oh well, on to plan B. Vacuumed the house, made a quick run to town later in the day for a few essentials and craft supplies plus a scheduled appointment to have my tires rotated, spoke with a dear friend, did some laundry, and blessing of all blessings, finally found the proper motivation to induce Petunia to clean her room! That child, adorable as she is, is a grade A, world class slob.  Ugh.

Her vice of choice at the moment is YouTube videos, specifically craft ones.  Could be a lot worse.  She has had a bee in her bonnet for days now about making soap, of all things.  As I left the house to run my errands, I told her that I would stop and buy soapmaking supplies while I was out, and that if I could actually see her bedroom floor when I returned, we'd give it a shot!  Whatever works.  It's amazing what that child can accomplish given the proper inducement: I was actually able to find her carpet to vacuum it when I got home, miracle of miracles.  We spent the afternoon making both traditional bar soap (purple, in flower molds, of course) and glitter-filled soap jellies, which are very strange.  If you are familiar with Knox Blox, envision a version made with unflavored gelatin, liquid soap, coloring and scent poured into silicone or plastic molds.  I'd never heard of them but apparently they are a thing these days.  They are much the consistency of Jell-O when finished, rather squishy even with (as we tried with the second batch) the quantity of gelatin in the recipe doubled.  I'm not at all sure how one uses them to wash...perhaps you mash one into a washcloth?? but she was happy, we had fun and we managed to keep the glitter bombing of my kitchen to a minimum.  It took me back to my kids' preschool days, when my car seats were always sparkly due to the glitter falling off their school craft projects!  

On the whole, it turned out to be a much better day than I expected.  Petunia and I had some good mother-daughter bonding time.  Thing One, who is fighting off some sort of bug, got more sleep last night and a day's rest out of the snow day plus a bellyful of homemade chicken soup for dinner and is appearing slightly more human today (SO glad I made the executive decision that he was skipping soccer practice last night!)  Thing Two has had a week's worth of video games, but it is what it is.  Luckily, tomorrow he has a basketball game, so it will all even out.  (Did I tell you that he made the school's basketball B team?  He's so proud.  I think he's also happy to be playing a team sport where he's out with everyone else instead of always in the goal by himself!)

Another exciting day in these parts, as you can tell.  Not a bad one.  But if it snows again tonight I will not be responsible for my actions!!