and tomorrow we have to get up and do it all again.

pick up the boys from an overnight with grandma, get a coffee & cocoa, come home to find the exterminator waiting, who'd been here twice already - both times before the time he gave me, parked across the street b/c the wood for my porch reconstruction was in the driveway,shuttled overnight bags, drinks and other essentials across the street, carried 50 lbs of 2 boys while holding Sam's hand across the street and over the plywood plank remaining as the porch, strap on the booster seats, pour juice, get goldfish snacks, strap 'em all down, go back down to deal with my crusty old exterminator, while downstairs, Sam trips over the threshhold and spills his cocoa and whipped cream, melts down, is placated when I reveal the whopper tub of kool whip from the freezer that I keep hidden for my coffee, which is as yet untouched, construction workers come, can't turn on the power, trips to basement, hoping against hope that nothing * else* will happen while I run to the basement, switches all on, still no power, babies had tossed pillow onto surge protector and turned it off,

can't take it. going for a walk with Esther.

triple jogger has flat. go for air and feel the air shoot out of the tire onto my face. grrrr. old gas station mechanic offers to fix it, $7.50 later, we're off again. for 15 precious minutes they are contented, somejuice, cheese sticks from our saviour, aunt esther, we're briefly all happy.
Sam gets out to run, exhaustion takes over and he neither runs nor comes back to the stroller. has the biggest, most intense, long lasting fit EVER. crying. kicking. yelling. 45 minutes later, I've finished the walk, strapped them all in, taken apart the jog stroller, drive home, dragged everybody in again, sent Sam to bed, gotten the babies lunch, cleaned up the babies and their lunch and Sam finally stops crying.

we all recovered. sam and I cuddled for. 20 minutes. I patted myself on the back for not having a meltdown myself and thanked God emphatically that Sam had 2 hours of quiet time in his bed before falling asleep for 2 1/2 more hours. I bleached the kitchen floor. Aidan & Noah throw dinner on it.

And tomorrow we'll do it all again.