Dode was in Las Vegas for spring break and I was at the ocean with the kids. We reunited at home on Friday night. Saturday we were right back in the thick of life. We started out the morning with produce.
Produce Snafus
The driver was an hour late. You'd think that would mean that we'd get to sleep in an hour. Unfortunately, I was awake and waiting for the call that he was here. When he didn't show up, I started worrying that something had gone wrong. When he finally called, I gave a sigh of relief, chaos adverted. How little did I know!
I had plenty of volunteers and we soon had the baskets ready for people to pick up. Then I got my first inkling that something was amiss. One of the volunteers couldn't find her name on the check out sheets. I went inside and sure enough, she'd ordered. She'd ordered the first day that ordering was available. I have to download the information about the orders by date and I realized that I'd missed her day. I looked and fortunately, she was the only one to order that day. I had an extra organic and extra Italian pack to offer her, crisis averted.
Nope! It soon became apparent that I'd not just missed the first day of ordering, I'd missed the first 3 days. Yikes! 8 people had ordered during that time. 8 people that I had not purchased produce for. 8 people who would be showing up at my house with nothing for me to give them. I sat down inside and started writing out refund checks. I wanted to hide to avoid telling people what had happened but I stiffened up my courage and went out to face the music. Most people were pretty understanding, but I could tell that they were quite disappointed. I felt terrible. One of the people picking up tried to cheer me up by saying, "Even if you're accurate 99% of the time, that still leaves one or two orders every time that you'll mess up." I told him that it had been six months since I'd made an error. He told me that's better than 99% accuracy. While that was encouraging, it still didn't make me feel a lot better. I guess everyone needs to be reminded that they're human from time to time.
Zumba tri
After the co-op was over, Anastaya and I headed down to the YMCA for a Zumba Triathlon. It was a 2 1/2 hour event. We did regular Zumba, Zumba toning, and Aqua Zumba. They had door prizes and I won one of the best ones, a Zumba party for 25 people complete with pizza (better work hard to earn those calories!), t-shirts, and party bags. How fun! Dode wonders how I'm going to get 25 people together to Zumba. I don't know that I will but it'll be fun to invite people.
with our finisher's medals and holding my prize
The instructors at the event were super energized and made it a lot of fun. I'd never done Zumba toning or Aqua Zumba and enjoyed them both.
Dogs and Rods
While I was busy with the co-op and Zumba, Dode was busy preparing for a church party he was in charge of. It's called "Dogs and Rods" There's a chili and ice cream cook off and a pinewood derby race. The race is open to anyone who wants to build a car. During the planning stage, Dode had asked me what I thought would be a good way to keep the children occupied. I suggested an extra track the little kids could play on without an adults saying "don't touch", "quit walking over the track", or "go down the track not up."
You would never see this at an official pinewood derby!
We had a track Dode built me last year for our covered wagon races at day camp. We'd stashed it in the garage in case we ever needed it again. Dode says someday he'll learn that when I ask him to build me something, it will end up getting used more than once and in different ways and maybe he should put a little more care into it. It worked perfectly. I heard one of the little boys run up to his mom and exclaim, "I'm having a blast!" Most of the kids didn't get to play with the track though. Their dads wanted their cars set aside until the official race. I told Dode that next year we'll need to supply some durable cars the kids can play with. Miriam's friend from church and school, Wyatt, was allowed to race his car on our kid track. After racing it down the track dozens of times, he decided to see how it would do going up the track. It was quite exciting for the children to watch that car sailing off the top of the track into space. Pretty soon he was down to three wheels, then two. His car didn't make it through the night but it sure was fun for him to play with!
Dode thought that since he was in charge, he needed to participate in all the contests. He entered a cast iron pot full of Nalley chili in the chili cook off. He made a batch of vanilla ice cream for the ice cream contest. He made a derby car. He's a tinkerer so he made his unique. He used acrylic, lined with mirror vinyl and put small LED lights inside. Then, he added as much weight as he could to the car. The thing was 2 1/2 times the traditional weight limit. Dode was racing in the unlimited category where you could use extra weight and strange wheels.
all the cars lined up and ready to race
Anastaya's is 5th from the left on the back row
Elizabeth's is 2nd from the left on the front row, #23
Dode's is lucky #13
Dode's car
three cars tied for best of show
Dode's car would have won if Miriam or William (or Dode) had voted for him!
the crowd at the race, notice how the children are kept at a
safe distance by the ropes
Dode put me in charge of the children recognition. While stopping at Dollar Tree on our way to the beach, I'd looked for something I thought the kids would like. I found small trophies in the party supplies. The kids at the derby were thrilled with their small trophies. At 8 for $1, it was an inexpensive way to make the children's night special.
Anastaya made a zebra car, Elizabeth made a wedge with lightening on the side and Miriam and Isaac collaborated on a rainbow car. I would have enjoyed the event more if I hadn't started having an allergic reaction. I sat there feeling prickles all over my body and soon my skin was covered with a rash. I ran through what I'd eaten that day to see if I could figure out what had caused it. I finally remembered that I'd used a new soap for my shower just an hour before the party. It was a natural soap, with peppermint oil in it. I really liked the smell but I don't think my skin liked the formula. I couldn't wait to get home and take some benadryl but I didn't want to have to take the kids home early with me and have them miss out on the fun. Once the race was over, I wanted nothing more than that benadryl but Anastaya reminded me that we had Redbox movies to return. So, at ten minutes to 9:00 pm we dropped off a few of the kids at home, picked up the movies, and raced to Redbox where Anastaya cut in front of the line of people waiting to rent movies so we could get them returned in time.
Arriving home a little after 9:00 to finally take my benadryl and get my skin to calm down, our very busy Saturday finally came to a close.
Easter
With just getting home from vacation and our busy Saturday, making a traditional Easter meal that the kids wouldn't really care for and I wouldn't eat didn't sound very appealing. So, I took the easy way out and did an "every man for himself dinner". Vegan lasagna for the vegans (Jacob, me and Anastaya as a vegan for the night), pancakes for William and Miriam, and English Muffin pizzas for Dode and Isaac. It was a perfect Easter meal for our family this year.
We always do our egg hunt at night. I've read about community egg hunts where organizers spend hours hiding eggs only to have them snatched up in less than a minute. By doing the hunt at night, we spend 10-15 minutes hiding the eggs and the kids spend an hour looking for them with flashlights. I like that kind of return on our effort! It's always a laugh to watch the kids run right by an egg in the middle of the grass while chasing after their siblings who have just found an egg. It takes a lot of years for them to learn to not run around in a big mob of children. Our rule is, each egg they find is worth 25 cents. The kids usually end up with about $5.00 each. That's all they get for Easter; no new clothes, no baskets, no candy, so it's pretty economical for us. Whatever eggs are found the next day (and they have missed eggs every year) aren't worth anything.
When we started the hunt Miriam found a few eggs and exclaimed in disgust, "They're in the same places as last year!" It's kind of difficult to find new hiding places when you still live in the same house! Jacob helped with the hiding this year so there were some new spots. He took half the eggs and Dode took the other. They both laughed that they'd spy a great spot to hide an egg, go to set one there, and find an egg already there.
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