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I've been feeling ambitious lately.  Maybe my spring cleaning impulse got delayed by the un-spring-like weather I've been whining about mentioning for weeks.  Who knows.


*  I did about a bazillion loads of laundry last weekend, taking advantage of the warm and breezy days.  Love, love, love that fresh smell of line-dried laundry.  Did not so much love the musty smell in someone's closet before that.  Several more loads today.  Duh.  With three boys, it never ends.

*  Wyatt and Tate mowed the entire yard without direct supervision.  The grass mostly got cut (except for a few places... need to work on that overlap),  and - more importantly - nobody is missing any digits.  Hurray, boys!

*  I cleaned every single cupboard in the kitchen yesterday, inside and out.  Okay, the boys helped with the outsides.  And I filled a large garbage bag of stuff to take to Goodwill.  Yay, me!  Floors have been mopped, stripped (the mudroom), and waxed.  Some Fridays I'd link up to my blitzing, Organizing Mommy friend, but she is excused from blitzing this week.  She's had her first homeschool graduate and almost lost him, but for the wonderful grace of God.

*  Tate, being sweet, thanked me for being a good steward of the house and not letting it go entirely to seed.  He is busily constructing a model of the battle of the Alamo in his bedroom, using his special soldiers.  That will probably show up in a later post.

*  We had a family game night.  It got off to a rough start when we realized that the boys had removed the dice from all several of the games to play some kind of Lego game they invented.  Bad move.  But after we restored order to the game cabinet things began to look up.  Everything was pretty calm during Clue, but descended into hysteria with Apples to Apples.   Bedtime, how I love you!

*  And...  I'm listing this with my recent accomplishments just to give you all a laugh.  At my expense.  Because really, I'm so together.  I'm on top of it.  Yah.



Last week I took Wyatt and Tate on that wonderful field trip to NASWI.  We carpooled with several other homeschoolers.  And as we pulled up to go through the gate at the base my memory kicked in.

You know that law about having proof-of-insurance in your car at all times?  Yah, that one.  So, two years ago we decided to visit the Ft. Lewis Military Museum.  On a Sunday.  When normal businesses are closed.  As we stopped at the security office to get whatever paper or sticker we needed to drive onto the base... you can guess where this is going.  I probably had 20 proof-of-insurance cards in the van, but not the current one.  It took about a half hour to get someone on the phone that could fax something impressive enough to the security guys.  Because, clearly, a family in a minivan filled with dirty laundry and seashells is a threat to national security.  Live and learn, right?

Not so much.  As I waited at the NASWI gate, I saw the drivers ahead of me handing over papers to the guards, and I realized something.  I could see myself sitting at my desk and paying the bill for the car insurance a few weeks ago, and happily filing the papers away with the other month's bills.  Not so much putting the current little proof-of-insurance paper in the van.

Two cars ahead of us.  I'm frantically calmly searching through the glove box, the bin between the seats, the overhead pocket, not wanting to provoke a freak-out from all the boys in the back...

One car ahead of us.  I grab the latest insurance slip, expiration last month, and fold it up in the registration, and try to look cool.  And harmless.

Give it to the guard.  Smile.  Don't speak.  Pray.

And he waved us through.

Woo-hoo!  We're in, baby!  And would you believe I actually started remembering stories I've read to the boys about brave missionaries smuggling Bibles into closed countries?!  Because clearly my lack of planning compares to their courage...  (feel free to roll your eyes here.)

Kind of reminded me of, "You didn't slay the dragon?"  "It was on my to-do list."

Go ahead.  Laugh at me.

You're welcome.