Hey, the kids are still alive, I still have a job, AND I got to have Chinese food last night.

In addition, I made it in to work for half a day, Monkey is somewhat better (must have been that single ounce of juice working its curative power), and my parents are here visiting and buying Chinese food and entertaining my children and having actual mealtime conversations with me that do not involve 1) burping, 2) discussing the relative merits of the different skills of the Teen Titans, or 3) declaring that they will not go to sleep and I can’t make them, so there.

So life is pretty good.

Soon we will head down to Trader Joe’s to buy yet more food, because lord knows we haven’t had enough to eat yet, plus you can buy so many wondrous things there. I may experience an avocado overdose, and I may not even care. Woo!

Things I have learned in the last 24 hours:

1) Balance is tricky by definition. Assuming that I will achieve it in this lifetime is laughable. My goal instead should be to keep the stress at a manageable level in the meantime.

2) I have some of the best friends in the entire world. Including a friend who will watch a sick child for me all afternoon and take such good care of him, he doesn’t want to come home.

3) Any time I utter the phrase, “I bet the kids will love…” in regards to a food they haven’t had before, someone should shove a chopstick up my nose as a handy reminder that my predictive powers when it comes to my offspring and food pretty much suck.

4) No matter how exhausted I am or how much I want to just crawl into bed, I always end up staying up later than I mean to. This is never a bad thing. My biggest distraction is my favorite part of the day. (So there.)

5) When my son considers his grandfather and then myself and starts waxing poetic about Grandpa being very old because his hair is all white and Mama being “just sorta old” because of her hair getting kind of white, too, it’s time to think about washing that grey right outta my hair….

6) If I run into the grocery store “just for bread and milk” I will emerge with over $50 worth of groceries.

7) While the official party line about mentors and confirmands meeting in public places is an excellent idea, in theory, I defy anyone to show me the person who is comfortable saying the Lord’s Prayer in McDonald’s.