Come on, moms, you know you are all experts at this game.

So here’s today’s challenge: I just found a small ziplock bag containing two vials of green food coloring, in the middle of the floor in the back of the van. How did THAT get there (and what was someone planning to do with it?)

Interrogation of the children on this subject will commence immediately after school today.

TheDad just told me about this shark that was caught on Flagler Beach in Florida.

6 years ago, we visited that beach. TheDad took Middle Sister and Big Brother swimming there. There are no lifeguards. He had just gotten the kids out of the water and was giving them something to drink and helping them dry off, when he saw the fin–and, farther back, the tail. Needless to say, that was the end of the swim.

After Mass today I headed over to the doctor’s office to have blood drawn for my thyroid workup. I had called yesterday, and was told I could come in without an appointment, anytime between 9 and 4.

I got there at 12:20, pulling into the parking lot behind a small car with a carseat in the back. We parked one space apart from each other, with an empty space in between. I could see a cute little baby waving her feet and her toys around back there as I gathered up my purse and double-checked to see if my prescription was in there.

Then I saw the young mother, who barely looked old enough to have a driver’s license, get out of the car and hurry into the doctor’s office. But her baby was still in the backseat! All the car windows were open. I closed my car door and opened my windows, and pretended to read a newspaper that was in the car, keeping my eye on my little parking-lot neighbor. I could hear music coming from the car–and then I realized that the mom had left the car running.

I sat there until she came back out, got into her car, and left the parking lot.

Then I went into the doctor’s office and found out that the tech who does blood draws has lunch between 12 and 1. No one told me that when I called yesterday.

I grumbled my way back to my car and started it up, and then realized that maybe this was not a wasted errand after all. Maybe I needed to be in that parking lot, at that time, making sure that that baby was safe until her mother returned. I’d say that was worth the time and gas I spent repeating the trip to the doctor’s office after lunch.

A little more than an hour ago, Middle Sister woke me up because her Best Friend, who’s here at the beach with us for the week, had a stomachache.

Hmmm, maybe those 2 slices of Sicilian pizza plus a whole tub of cheese fries and a Coke were coming back to haunt her?

Or maybe she just misses her Mom, Dad and brother? Totally understandable.

I don’t have any medicine here for upset stomachs, and I don’t like to medicate other people’s children even if I did. The best I could do was tell her to have some sips of water and try to find a way for her to be comfortable.

After a while she relaxed enough to lie down, curled up around a bucket “just in case.” I thought she fell asleep and tried to remove it but she wouldn’t let it go. So I tucked her stuffed penguin behind her head and covered her arms and legs with the blanket.

She’s asleep.

Middle Sister and I are awake. She’s worried about her friend. I’m figuring the worst is over, but the visit might be too.

I’m also not ashamed to admit that I’m glad the worst might be over, since I tend to get queasy myself just thinking about someone else’s stomach woes….

Or what’s left of it!

My brother- and sister-in-law gave me some puzzles for my birthday.

Both of them are rated “extreme” on a scale of “beginner” to “ultra extreme.”

This one is mostly coffee beans. The extreme difficulty here will only be enhanced by the fact that I’m assembling it on a brown coffee table. I’m still sorting out the “edge” pieces.

And I’ll have to buy some bigger furniture before I can make this one. At the very least, we’ll have to drag in a sheet of plywood to put this puzzle together, as it’s 39 by 27! It’s so big it comes with a poster to help you figure out how it should look.

Anyone up for a puzzle party? I hate to suffer alone. But I’m powerless over the lure of the jigsaw.

Why is it that Father Daren’s quote from the life of St. Francis makes me think of Weekend at Bernie’s?

Take a corpse and put it where you will! You will see that it does not resist being moved, nor murmur about its position nor protest when it is cast aside. If it is placed on a throne, it will not raise its eyes up, but cast them down. If it is clothed in purple, it will look twice as pale. This is a truly obedient man. He does not judge why he is moved; he does not care where he is placed; he does not insist on being transferred. If he is raised to an office, he retains his customary humility. The more he is honored, the more unworthy he considers himself.

Obviously I need to take greater care not to let the secular invade the spiritual….

It’s so nice having everyone back here where they belong!

This morning was a typical normal Monday with TheDad off to work, Little Brother asking where Daddy is, me indulging Little Brother in an extra round of “Trouble” since he is sad about Daddy being at work instead of home playing with him, all the usual stuff.

And this morning I climbed into my van for the first time in more than eight days and viewed the world from my familiar driver’s seat. I adjusted my seat and steering wheel, then used the mirror-setting tips I read about on Bettnet to get everything set up for maximum comfort and road-viewability (when you’re as short as I am, having a bird’s-eye view of the road is not an easy achievement).

Then I turned on the ignition and was assaulted by TheDad’s music selection (the 80s station on XM). I fixed THAT really quickly. The 70s is my decade of choice, thankyouverymuch, and I seriously missed my commercial-free musical nostalgia while driving TheDad’s car all last week, though I did enjoy zipping around in a little sedan, easy parking, and how quickly the air-conditioning cools the hot car interior.

But I’m definitely a creature of habit, as my family would tell you, and it was comforting to me to have my car back, even if it does carry a good bit of Virginia soil on its exterior and more than a few Dr. Pepper bottles are rolling around the interior. I think a couple of Boy Scouts owe me a car-wash and detailing.

I’ve been convinced all day long that today is Monday, that this is a new week, that I should be doing all my “Monday routine” chores. I’m having a little trouble convincing myself that it’s actually THURSDAY and that trunks are due at Boy Scouts in under 4 hours. You know, those trunks that Big Brother and TheDad have “not yet begun to pack.”
I took care of the batteries and the bug spray, though.

It was almost time for our grocery-shopping trip, and Middle Sister walked out the front door sporting Little Brother’s toy handcuffs dangling from her right wrist. (They’re a pretty good, metal pair, that we bought when Big Brother went out for Halloween as Martha Stewart, the Convict.)

I told her that I didn’t think handcuffs were appropriate accessories for the supermarket, but then she said that she couldn’t get them off.

After she found the key we kept trying, but something appeared to be jammed in there, so I took care of it with my trusty Swiss Army Knife.

It’s the right tool for almost every job.

Unfortunately, mine is a little smaller than the one pictured–but it does fit well in my purse.

Little Brother no longer owns handcuffs, though.