Today

Today:
Awakened by a phone call reminding me that I’ve committed to taking Kiki and Link to visit their friend a 90 minute drive away.
Scrambled out of bed to make two kids pack for overnight. Also to arrange babysitting for Gleek and Patch since I don’t have enough passenger seats for all the kids in Howard’s VW.
Drove 90 minutes to friend’s house.
Drove 90 minutes back.
Retrieved cranky kids from neighbor.
Plunked cranky kids in front of videos because I know they’re over tired and it was the activity least likely to inspire sibling warfare.
Spent 5 hours packaging magnets for shipping. It is good to get this done. It would have been nicer to get this done last week, but the magnets did not arrive until yesterday. I’m still not done because I already need to place a re-order.
Let the kids run wild with the neighbor kids while a neighbor lit pioneer day fireworks.
Got kids into bed far later than they should have gone. Hopefully they’ll sleep in late tomorrow.

Usually I spend significant energy trying to get the kids to bed on time during the summer. This year I’ve just let it slide. Some nights they’re in bed by 9:30 others by 11:00. Now, after several 11:00 nights in a row, I’m really feeling a need to assert an earlier bedtime. I”m tired of the daytime crankiness. I’m really tired of the cranky-induced defiance. Both Gleek and Patch threw tantrums at my neighbor’s house today. I really need to stabilize life for them before I hand them off to relatives for a week.