A Day of Rest

Saturday was pretty intense. We tackled the dirty piles of a much neglected home. The kids were put to work, despite their complaining. We offered several times to switch job lists. After lunch they went outside to play and our efforts continued late into the night when the last batch of laundry in the house was put in the dryer. Shem worked his domestic magic keeping the washer running all day while cleaning the kitchen and bathrooms and I used my muscle to work our neighbor's tiller through the garden soil. (Yeah, sometimes we like to switch around the typical roles at our house.) We fell into bed that night and slept like babies...except for the hungry baby that woke me up and the frightened daughter that needed her dad to squish a spider at 3:00 a.m.

We tried to sleep in a little on Sunday morning, but eventually dragged ourselves out of bed to get ready for Stake Conference. We made it in time to find a cozy bench in the dark chapel (we watch a broadcast of the meeting at our building). The theme of the conference was Temples, and like my tendency to enter into a peaceful slumber during temple sessions, I found myself drifting away. Holding a sleeping baby in my arms kept me from curling up on the bench like a three-year-old.

We managed to get everyone home and fed and down for a nap. Is it because God commanded that we rest on the 7th day that Sunday naps are the deepest sleep I ever achieve? It must be divinely sanctioned. Well, I slept for 2 1/2 hours (minus the two minutes in the middle it took to get crying baby and allow for unconscious feeding). I forced myself out of bed to get dinner ready for our guests. (J & A - it was totally worth having to wake up to have you over for dinner!)

Last night was much like the one before, minus the spider. Again with the late night feeding. (Who knew Women's Conference talks are broadcast at 4:00 in the morning?) And then dragging myself out of bed in the morning.

All my other kids were sleeping through the night by now. I haven't been able to keep Colin on the same sleep schedule as my other babies because we are always running somewhere, doing something, or more often than not someone is screaming and slamming doors - trying of course, to keep anything from sleeping.

This afternoon I managed to "nap" on the couch for 15 minutes while I bounced Colin in the bouncy seat and directed Adam on what chores to do.

Will I ever catch up on my sleep? I am tired.