And...........GO!

A couple weeks ago my mother had surgery. She knew it was coming, but she was kinda hoping to wait until later in the summer, or maybe even December. I was planning on farming out my children to hapless generous neighbors and going to help her for a week.

Well, that plan went out the window when she had her surgery much earlier than expected. I couldn't leave right away because I was planned to the hilt. And then school got out and I couldn't bring myself to ask some unsuspecting mother to take on my five children when all hers just came home for the entire day. So, there was much compromising and I went to Washington for a weekend.

Luckily, and I won't call it coincidence, my parents had taken on a border for just a few weeks and this blessed lady, Pam, happened to be the perfect answer. She works doing home hospice work. That is the perfect match for someone coming out of surgery. Pam did all the things for my mom that I would have liked to do if I had been there. And then she moved out the day I came to visit. I didn't even get to meet her, but I already love her. 

I could only stay for a short time, but I had such a great visit. I did laundry, ran errands, and cooked lots of meals and my family was so kind and helpful. As I cooked, the dishes were magically cleaned and ready to use again. (Okay, I say magic, but I know Tim and Miranda were doing double duty since I was messing up twice as many dishes.) Mom was fun to chat with while she rested. We played some games and I certainly wasn't ready to come home. But home I came...

And I can tell you this. One mom is much easier to take care of than five little girls. Sheesh, I was wiped out today. And the wicked summer schedule started for REAL today. (I didn't make Tyler follow through on Monday—that seemed too cruel after leaving him with all the monkeys.)

But, we did it. We played hard. Pearl did NOT nap. I cleaned up a dozen messes she made. I got practically nothing done. We did visit IKEA and use their 'Kids eat free on Tuesdays' deal.* I almost unpacked my suitcase from the trip. I played Fantasy Forest with June. I read a story to everyone. (Except Pearl, who was hopefully going to nap. You already know how THAT ended.) It was a good day. I am so tired. And I still need to go shopping since we are plum out of vitals.

Oh, and in case you were wondering about our Tuesday treat...

...we made The Best Creamy Peanut Butter Chiquita Banana Smoothie Recipe.** Whew, that is a mouthful. You could probably just call them Peanut Butter Banana Smoothies. They were certainly delish and everyone slurped them down. Here's what we put in a blender:

3 frozen bananas
9 oz. yogurt. (1 and a half containers)
3/4 cup milk (although I added a TB or so more later)
1/2 cup peanut butter

Blend it up. Yum.

That was a doubled recipe. The original is here. Oh, I even took a picture, totally late. I remembered that I wanted to blog about these summer days, so I grabbed the camera. It really doesn't do the smoothie justice. It was so thick and creamy.

And here are two more pictures from the day.

Yep, that there is Raman. The dinner of champions, or really frazzled mothers whose husbands are not coming home for dinner and who have no food in the fridge.

Don't worry, it should be worse tomorrow since it is field trip day. Wait, going to IKEA was practically field trip day today. So, it should be about the same. Wish me luck.




* Pearl was pretty good considering she didn't get to visit Smalville and she was stuck with me the whole time. Although she did have a moment of anger that resulted in her chucking her chocolate milk on the floor. (After we left the dining area of course.) I can testify that it takes over 20 non-absorbent napkins to clean up a fair sized puddle of chocolate milk. I wish I didn't know these things. But I am thankful for the four runners who were happy to travel back to the dining area to obtain said napkins. (Multiple times.)

**Remind me to tell you about my amazing husband and how he simultaneously destroyed and reconstructed my treat plans. Oh, and also about my really cute welcome home gift.