My Post-Company "Zen"

Well, I guess i've figured out that blogging is really hard when there are 13 kids and 4 adults trying to squeeze every ounce of fun out of 4 incomplete days together. :) My sister, her husband and 7 kids came up for the teachers convention on Wed. The kids went tobogganing a lot. They vowed to stay outside all day yesterday so that they wouldn't have to do math. (It didn't work. haa haa) They played fiddles together, made beaded hair sticks. (practicing the craft for medieval camp this summer) Ate pots of spaghetti, piles of bread, batches of cookies and gallons of milk. Steph taught me how to knit baby slippers in the wee hours of the evening while i complained of it's arthritic effect on my tense fingers. My brother in law suggested that i was a whiner and perhaps i should do some stretches before i attempted something so strenuous and stressful as knitting. (haa haa) This morning after a tough night, i got up to find my rippling muscled brother in law at the lap top. He had a microwaved coffee filling a random "Pirates of the Caribbean" mug, two babies tucked onto his lap, children like popcorn all around him. When he got up to help someone gain some freshness in the pantal area i sat down at his computer and saw what he was reading: "Finding Zen Moments as a Family" Something to that effect anyways. It was someone's blog with lists of peaceful family ideas. *SMILE* I started delegating morning jobs to the kids and got the strong fresh coffee on. I'm feeling a little "zen" now myself. You know what makes me feel that way? The sound of my husband taking the helm of the vacuum cleaner and directing it's massive sucking power to each nook and cranny of the basement. The sound of children cleaning their rooms. The sound of the dishwasher sloshing and the sight of laundry room puffing out warm fragrant clouds to the outside. The sound of my littlest son, breathing like a feather into his sheepskin. I'm going to go get my most comfortable socks on and get cracking as well. AHHH! Funny that on the list of Zen ideas was tobogganing, making REAL hot chocolate, baking bread... we did all of those things this week, but this is my kind of "zen" for today: Cleaning the house together. :)