Cathartic

Wow, this is post #499. A milestone of 500 will warrant some sort of celebratory post which, of course, will scare me into not posting for forever so I will try to stay focused and put out a really good #500.


In the meantime, this post will be a cathartic one. I have come back to the roots of why I started this post and it was brought home to me tonight in spades.

First, of all, Conrad took the girls with him to his soccer game which wasn't supposed to start until 7 which meant that they wouldn't be home until 9:30 or so which is late for a school night but, I had to work late and so this is the arrangement he made. That was fine with me. I would have some much needed "me" time and I appreciated his willingness to handle things. So, I came home, ate and relaxed, watched the latest TiVo'd Grey's Anatomy and all was well. Then, around 7:45 or so, here come the troops. Hmmmmm...

Then the girls played outside for a little while and then I made them go in to get ready for bed. I was talking on the phone to a friend and it took awhile so when I went in, I found Madeline making pancakes. Now, this is something she is able to do and has been wanting to do for a few days, the timing just hasn't been right. It would have been right tonight, had they not gone to the soccer game (that was cancelled, Conrad just didn't know it) and already eaten once tonight. So, I tell her that I really don't have a problem with her cooking but not after I've already told her to go to bed. So, I am a little hacked off at this point. And, frankly not handling it as well as I probably should have because I blamed it all on their father who was ensconced in reading his internet news and not paying attention to what his children were doing. (Of course, neither was I, I was on the phone, remember? - but I blame it all on him - so would you, don't kid yourself!)

So then, I go to take clothes out of the dryer which have been in there for a day and a half now (this is where the origin of the blog comes in) and notice that the already fed cats now have overflowing cat food in their bowls. Now, we have started giving the cats very little food (about 1/3 cup (each) two or three times a day. This is to keep all the strays out of the house. Well, that doesn't really work because they've (the strays or maybe a raccoon) figured out a way to get the seal off the Tupperware container we keep the food in. Smart animals!

Now, used to be, I would have taken a picture of this awful mess and put it on the blog and put with it the fact (and this is true) that Anna said when asked why she put so much dang food in the bowls "the bowls were almost not full" which, I will admit, was funny and would have been funnier if I had caught it on video (and, of course, I would have posted that as well) because the earnestness with which she said it was too cute. But, no, tonight? Tonight, I had to get all uppy-settey and fume whilst I cleaned up said mess. And, I'm sure Anna felt horrible about making the mess since I was fuming and fussing the whole time I cleaned it up (well, I can pretend she did anyway). And it was while I was cleaning up this mess, I realized, this - this was a perfect blog moment. The very thing I used to post about. The very thing that would drive me crazy but when I turned it into the amusing story that it already was if you looked at it from the blogreader's point-of-view then it was manageable. I could even find the humor in it.

So, dear readers, I apologize for not getting a picture of that dang cat food. For getting away from all the funny things that would happen daily in the life of the Wangler family. I'm sure they still happen, I've just been to busy to notice them or I just haven't found the time to post them and haven't had my camera at the ready like I used to. I'm sure my children would appreciate a little more of that mom that used to kinda laugh at the messy or crazy things they would do, because if I said "stop - let me take a picture of that" then I had to acknowledge that it (whatever it was) wasn't the worst thing in the world. I could use a little more of her. She was kinda fun to be around. I'm sure my kids kinda miss her, too.