Women's Retreat Strikes Again

So Tara decided that she needed to go to women's retreat this year. I did not fight with her about this decision because 1) she would cry, 2) women's retreat is good for her, 3) she needs to get away from the kids once in a while, and 4) she would cry. And I would still end up taking all the kids while she goes.

So I planned carefully for the blessed event by putting it on my calendar and then being thankful that it wasn't me who had to get ready to go somewhere (I hate packing for anything... don't know why, I just do.)

Friday afternoon at 4:30 we swapped the kids at church. I headed to Grandpa's house to get Evan and Tara headed to the retreat to get rejuvenated or revitalized or whatever. Women do weird things at their retreats, including leg and ankle massages and making journals with foofy covers. But I digress. After letting all the children see their grandfather for a bit, I loaded up their sorry carcasses and headed for the farm. Of course it is now pushing toward 6:00 and I still have to make dinner. But Tara had promised me a note on the refrigerator which would presumably give guidance in that direction. And it did. It said "Friday night -- make frozen pizza from the outside freezer". So I did. And things went well that evening. Scam came out a little before 7:00 and brought with him a veggie pizza.

Now I need to talk a little about the veggie pizza. To me, it just seems ridiculous. I mean, it's basically a glorified salad on top of a pizza crust. Would you cook a salad? Of course not. But this gourmet veg pizza you cook for 10-12 minutes until the veggies are no longer truly vegetable matter. Then your pizza is ready.

So Scam ate the lion's (rabbit's?) share of his veggie pizza and I helped a little. The crust and cheese made up for the veggies. But Evan and Aidan looked at it with distrust. I guess they couldn't imagine why someone would want to waste a perfectly good pizza by covering it with vegetables.

One thing I wasn't looking forward to was dealing with Avery after 10:00 p.m. She usually wakes up during the night for recreational nursing once or twice. Of course I am not good at recreational nursing, either giving or receiving. So when Avery got up at 10:30 I knew it wasn't going to be fun. I will spare you the detail, but at 12:05 I finally told her that she was fine, sleep was a necessary inactivity for both of us, and I would see her when she turned 14 or 7:00 a.m., whichever came first.

Well, I don't know how long she cried, but I do know that I was on the couch and able to sleep through the initial protest. And she slept in till after 8:00. Take that, offspring!!

Of course the boys came down at 6:47 to begin their exciting day with DADDY. At least Evan and Aidan did. Toby decided to sleep in; I don't think we saw him until after 8:00. So I willed myself to awake and made waffles for our breakfast. They were quite tasty.

Around 10:00 I managed to get outside. As I was passing through the mudroom, I looked down into the cat box, and there before me was Scruff and A KITTEN. A KITTEN!! Yes, Scruff was in labor, bringing new critters into the world right there in the mudroom. Of course this did not catch us completely by surprise, but on the other hand, there's nothing quite like the wonder of watching a new life come into the world. Scruff did it with style and had three of them popped out by mid-afternoon.

During the process she ate the placenta, which Evan watched. Try explaining that one to a seven-year-old.

So congratulations to us. We now have three grandkittens. And Tara made it home safely from women's retreat.