(Almost.)

You guys. YOU GUYS. I love you all. Bright, shiny Italian leather shoes (purchased on clearance) for everyone! I am so overwhelmed and THRILLED at the reception you gave Want Not today. It’s been in the works for a long time, and I was sort of experiencing that whole “I’ve stared at it for so long I can no longer see it” phenomenon. And so I sent it out into the world last night and promptly FREAKED OUT, worried that my baby was loose in the cold, harsh world and a bully would shove her off the monkey bars.

And what did you do? You patted her on the head and fed her cookies and told her she was pretty. *sniffle* I’m going to discontinue the metaphor here before I hurt myself, but perhaps you get the idea.

Anyway, not knowing how it was going to go, and having a fair amount of stuff to do today, I kicked it into overdrive from the moment the alarm went off this morning.

Chickadee had Field Day at school today. Field Day with–get this–a Hawaiian theme. Oh, nothing about the ACTIVITIES was Hawaiian, you understand (we’re far too white for that, dontchaknow), but the kids were invited to dress Hawaiian. I told Chickadee all of her grass skirts were in the laundry, and pulled out her Hawaiian shirt and sung its praises. (“It’s so Hawaiian! It’s the Hawaiianest shirt that ever there was! It has pineapples! It has palm trees! It has islands! In fact… I think it has HAWAII!”) She was completely thrilled with the whole theme thing. While she brushed her teeth, I rummaged around in the dress-up chest and found her a lei. She asked for braids and I agreed, happily, patting myself on the back for the excellent job I was doing in preparing her for this day, head to toe.

Braids were braided, lunches were packed (including a veritable shmorgasbord of freshly-chopped veggies, because when you launch a new web site it seems like a really good idea to chop vegetables at midnight), breakfast was served, backpacks were loaded… it was one of the smoothest school mornings we’ve had in a while. Both children left me with happy, smiling faces, excited to start their day.

It wasn’t until I’d returned home and was getting ready to mow the lawn mid-morning that I realized I may have been the only mother who remembered the lei and FORGOT THE SUNBLOCK. Um. Whoops? Surely there would be some extra sunblock floating around. She’d be fine. Yes. I would die a thousand little deaths of GUILT, but she’d be okay. And that lei was really the crowning touch on her outfit. All of those kids who wouldn’t be getting skin cancer probably didn’t have LEIS. Suckers.

While in the grip of this realization, I sprayed myself with some continuous spray sport sunblock (such as might have been prudent to put on the FRUIT OF MY LOINS, if I only had a brain) and marvelled at the excellent coverage. I just discovered that spray stuff, and I’m a convert. I don’t know why I was surprised, later, to discover that I had ALSO covered the entire downstairs bathroom with sunblock. I am pleased to report that the counter didn’t have even a single freckle. Also that I cleaned all the bathrooms tonight.

Once I was sun-ready, and went out and mowed the lawn until I tired of the mower wheels sinking down into the soft, damp soil. I don’t think it’s ever going to dry out around here. I’d already known I had to skip the area where my pump is (still) churning out (thousands of) gallons of water through the garden hose. But even the front yard was a mushroom wonderland, with the mower feeling twice as heavy as usual.

Back inside, I did three loads of laundry, made some phone calls, did some work, and obsessively checked comments on and posts about Want Not. (My favorites so far: Karen at Verbatim said “have a few yucks, save a few bucks!” And Karen Rani of Troll Baby not only did an awesome job as my designer, she characterized me with a hilarious little bit which ended “Wham, Bam, I saved you a few clams.” The moral of the story is that people named Karen are good with the cheesy humor. Karen? Care to prove or disprove, as the other Karen I know? Heh.)

After a shower, it was a quick trip to the bank, then off to pick up the kids. Chickadee was blessedly unburned, other than a bit of pink along her part. (Note to self: Next time I’m a negligent mother and forget the sunblock, have her wear her hair down or take a hat.) Monkey was, as usual, free of sunburn on account of he was coated in a layer of sand and pine needles. We chatted about the day as we drove home, I dispensed snacks, and they went to play outside while I finished up working.

For dinner, I decided to barbecue because THE SUN WAS SHINING and that hasn’t happened for a month and it’ll probably resume raining tomorrow. But my deck! It was infested! I called the finest caterpillar handlers I knew to come clear out my work area. They came running with a bucket, and I tried not to laugh while Chickadee directed Monkey. (“Pick up THAT one first. Okay, good. Now that one over there. Oh, there’s one! Good job, buddy!”)

And I cannot describe to you what it’s like to be cooking up some chicken, enjoying a cool breeze, thanking the lord above that it’s NOT RAINING, when your son comes sidling up. Clearly he had important matters on his mind, my boy did. He gestured for me to lean down. I complied, and he whispered that he and Rainboy are working on a plan to switch bodies, but that I shouldn’t tell Chickadee. I pledged to keep his secret. And told him that barbecued chicken has been clinically proven to promote bodyswapping.

Dinner was lovely. Afterwards, I cut Monkey’s hair while Chickadee read us “The 500 Hats of Bartholomew Cubbins” (Monkey’s request). I vacuumed up the hair while Monkey showered, then vacuumed the rest of the downstairs while Chickadee showered. Later, we read together and then they went to bed without a peep.

I can only conclude that I should launch a new website every day, both because it gives me enough energy to get everything done (including doing the dishes right after dinner! woo!) and because it seems to make for a delightful day. The only problem I see is that… ummmm… well, that sounds like an awful lot of work. And it also seems to result in one child having a burned head and the other one having a buzz cut. That could get messy.