Fun with Boys

Today was the first day of summer, much to our collective relief. It's nice to have a change in schedule--no rushing around in the morning, no lunches to put together, no dashing off at 11 to get Seth and at 3 to get Zac. We woke up with some excitement this morning, however...thunder and lightning! I was about to get dessed at 7:15 when there was a great crash of thunder and all the electricity blinked out. The boys (primarily Blane) were a bit freaked, but we lit candles and I called the power company. The boys discovered that many things can still be done by candlelight and we had power restored in an hour.

Our plans for the morning included a trip to the Nazarene church at the top of the hill, which was having a big garage sale. Scott had an errand for me to run and I needed to run to Hy-vee for a few groceries, so we got everyone ready and piled in the car. We got everyone into the church and I told them in no uncertain terms that their upper extremities were not to come in contact with anything without my permission. They listened. Fortunately, the prices were great and I found some books and a pillow for the living room. I told each of the boys they could pick out a toy, which each of them did pretty quickly.

As we neared the checkout, I looked at the furniture. Up against a post leaned the an old, beat-up, fabulous tabletop made of weather-beaten boards. I looked around and to my delight found four squatty turned legs with this incredible grey-green patina. Ooooh! I asked how much it was--they didn't know--so I gave them $5 for it. I paid for everything and told them I'd be back in about an hour to pick it up. The BoyAngels were still outstanding at this point.

Then...we had to go to Hy-Vee. I thought this would be an in and out deal. After all, my list wasn't that long. The younger boys got in the police car cart and Zac offered to push. Great so far. But soon, problems arose. First, there was conflict in the front seat of the police car. Seth thought it should be his turn to "drive", so I had to tell him he could not overpower Blane and force his way into the driver's seat--he would have to wait until we were half-way through the store and then they could nicely change places. So, pretty much every minute, Seth would yell, "MOM! CAN I DRIVE NOW?!" Zac as cart-pusher was also a bit concerning--that thing is hard enough to control when you are an adult because is very unwieldy, AND, the average shopper in Hy-Vee at 9:30 am this morning appeared to be VERY geriatric and tottering. Everytime we all barreled around a corner there seemed to be a little old person in our path. I should have known, because there was a retirement village van parked out front. And of course, my crew was all over the place. I did keep the running around to a minimum (!) but, it was like we were a carnival wagon weaving around in the aisles, dodging frightened old people. About 1/4 of the way through, Blane decided to get out of the driver's seat and hop around outside the cart. Seth, seizing the opportunity as only a rival sibling can, slid over and grabbed the wheel with a smile. A small scuffle ensued after Blane came back and realized what he had forfeited. I told Blane it was Tough Bananas for him, because he got out of his seat. He decided to try to push Seth out of the seat, which of course was not well received. I made Blane sit in the corner while I made Zac and Seth park on the next aisle out of sight. Blane pouted for about 2-3 minutes and finally gave in. Meanwhile, I had sent Zac in search of the cheapest package of sugar he could find. He made a very logical decision to get powdered sugar (much cheaper!), so I had to explain I needed granulated sugar, which he then found with no trouble. At this point, I just wanted to leave as quickly and painlessly as we could.

As we rounded another corner, I looked down in my hand--my list was gone. I looked in and around the basket, then sent Zac to the next aisle to look for the list--nothing. Wonderful. I spent the rest of the shopping trip desparately hoping I remembered all the important things. Of course, I also meant bouncing back and forth across the store as I remembered things. Bickering was starting to simmer again in the police car and we were still narrowly missing retirees. We finally got into the check-out line, and Seth insisted that he help Zac and me in "bucket brigade" of passing groceries from the cart to the belt--a distance of about 3 feet. At that point, I was not willing to argue about the efficiency of that set-up. On the way out, Blane and Seth asked if they could ride the free horse ride at the front of the store. This is usually my behavioral leverage point, and I looked straight at Seth and told him that they had not earned that privilege today. Blane had a meltdown and I carried him from the store while the older guys followed me out.

We straggled back to the church and loaded the table in the middle of the van (I put the boys in the back). We DID arrive home safely. Whew! And we did it all before noon!

I have no idea yet what we are going to do with that table. It's a coffee table height, but needs lots of clean up, sealing and assembling. If I don't use it in the living room, I'll probably put it outside (where it clearly has been for some time anyway). As the little old lady "guard" said to me when I bought the thing, "The legs alone are worth $5!"