So, I actually remembered that today was Thursday, and even before noon! This is significant because a: wow! I knew what day it was!, and b: thursday is story hour day at the local library. Since I found out about it a year and a half ago, it's been on my mental to-do list. But, being the champion scatterbrain that I am, and a medalist in the procrastination event to boot, I never got around to it. Til today.

I talked Kat into running a brush through her hair, got the clothes on Monkey-boy that he picked out, and we were off. Half an hour too early as it turned out, so we picked out some books for Kat, and looked for midwifery books for Mommy. Something I might be interested in doing. Dunno yet. Anyway, we wander around, killing time, and while the kids are looking through the books they've chosen, I'm watching the other mommy/child pairs filing in. They all have perfect hair, perfect makeup, perfect clothes- even the kids look like they just rolled out of a magazine ad. Yikes. Nobody told me I had to dress up for story hour, or make sure Kat's clothes matched. (They didn't. They never do. I wouldn't have it any other way.) But just when I was feeling very schlumpy and wanting a makeover very much, it was announced that there was a special treat planned for today's story hour. You should have seen the deer-in-headlights looks of horror on these women's faces. Especially when it was revealed that the surprise was cookie decorating. While watching to make sure my children didn't glue the books within arms reach shut with frosting, I stole glances around the room, and realised mine were the only ones decorating their own cookie all by themselves. And I felt so smug. Isn't that horrible? But it felt nice to know that my little ones, even though they were the only set of siblings, didn't get less attention. They got more chances to satisfy that "i doit myseff" that resides within us all. Mommies, let them doit themseff once in awhile. Please? No matter how clumsy the result, the confidence and sense of independance is sooo worth it.

Am I being graded on this???

Apparently I am, whether I know it or not. And I got both a positive and a negative review all in one day yesterday.

During church, my six year old acolyte made all kinds of interesting faces at the congregation and spilled the candle oil all over himself. My four year old read Dora books, pushed her baby brother down, and dropped the thingies you kneel on-loudly. (yes, I know there's a name for those thingies, and no, I don't know it.) The baby decided to try to dismantle the gate at the altar, and when that proved too difficult, tried to take apart the heater along the sides of the church. This, believe it or not, was a very good morning in church for us, as Daddy was working and could not help. However, I did not harbor any delusions that this was good behavior. Someone seemed to, though. A sweet little old lady that I don't think I've ever seen before walked up to me after the service, looked at me very hard for a moment, and just when I was good and terrified of what she was going to say about my rowdy bunch, said simply, "You're a good mother.", and walked away. Wow.

Well, apparently the Lord didn't want that to go to my head, as I got my reality check from my Opa the same evening. My six year old was being especially defiant, while at the same time demanding that I take him to a Christmas pageant. The only discipline that seems to get through to him is the threat (or action) of throwing a toy in the trash. So, I made the threat, and then had to carry it through when he tried to call my bluff. Opa overheard all of this, of course, and commented, "Boy, you sound just like your mother!" This is just what every woman wants to hear from the grandfather she adores, about the mother who barely admits she exists, isn't it? It doesn't help that Opa was right. Aaaack!

I think I'm over whatever was getting to me in the previous post. I had a great time with my kids this weekend. On Saturday, we went to a Christmas Jubilee at one of the Elementary schools, and the kids sat on Santa's lap. Santa told Keeghan that he's got a crystal ball to help him keep an eye on them. On Sunday, we all went to church for the first sunday of Advent, and Keeghan was an acolyte. They even published an anouncement about him being an acolyte in training in the bulletin. Then we all took Grandma and Grandpa with us to the Nurses Bazaar. Lots of great stuff there. I wish we'd had more money to spend. We also went to the LDS church to view the Creche exibit and join in the Messiah sing along. However the Messiah sing along was not very interactive or kid friendly as I'd hoped, so we bowed out of that one early and we'll get the cd. It was a great weekend!