I'll just claim temporary insanity

That's what I was feeling about 5pm Saturday night. My sister had called on Friday to ask if I could take her 3 girls (13, 11, and 6) for the night and she'd reciprocate and take 3 of my girls the next night. The girls have been trying to get together forever (actually since they were here last time LOL). I told her my house was a mess but to call at 4pm and I'd let her know if I could or not. I told Carrie and Liz the deal...clean your room and your cousins can come spend the night. THEY DID IT! Within an hour they cleaned it all up (including under the bed). I was exhausted from barely sleeping and shopping the Black Friday sales so took a nap while they cleaned and didn't touch the main living area.

My sister called me back and I told her to bring them over. Then I yelled for the kids to hit the main area while I did the dishes and worked on the kitchen a bit. I wasn't ready grocerywise to have extras. I really needed to go shopping but thought we'd make due with what we had until next week/payday so I could use the money for Christmas shopping. I think my neices were a little surprised as usually when they come here I'm well prepared with tons of goodies to eat. It was a job and a half trying to get enough to feed them all. We had a hodgepodge of things for dinner...eggrolls, sloppy joes, and lemon chicken (for picky neices). The kids had fun for the night and weren't really a problem. We had the occassional...she won't play with me, she said this and that, but that's about it.

Saturday was the day I lost my sanity. Michelle and Val asked if C and F could come over and I agreed. When Jake heard that C was coming over he asked if little C...C2 could come too (little C/C2 is C's younger brother and Jake's bestfriend since Kindergarten). I agreed again. I think that was the start of my insanity. C2 and Jake are two peas in a pod...energetic goofballs who don't know the meaning of the word QUIET! It was chaotic but tolerable here. What got to me was the dishes and the cooking. I didn't think I could be bothered by cooking but I felt like no matter how much I made it wasn't enough. Just me and my imagination really. Not having any paper plates and limited real ones kept me shoulder high in dishes most of the day. (that was after doing them for 1.5hrs Friday night to catch up)

My sister came for the girls about 5 and I finally sat down for the day. I must have looked tired because my sister asked me what was the matter. I said nothing, just relaxing. She's one of those people that I feel I can't "admit" my family size has been anything but positive...even if it's only for a second. By the comments my neices have made to me while here I can safely say I'm sure she's voiced things about my family size to them. (mostly about ALL those kids, ALL that work, being able to handle it, etc)

After the girls left I took a little nap. C2's mom came to get him and then we were down to only C and F, well Allison was here too but she's always here. LOL Drew, Allison, Olivia and I ran to Save-a-Lot to grab some essentials. I now have 30lbs of flour and 16lbs of sugar...Atkins be damned! At least we'll have bread and cookies for the week. LOL

We got Luke and Jake to bed and Michelle tried to keep Olivia busy in her room. Drew brought in our Friday morning purchases from his trunk and Allison and Val teamed up to wrap most of the bigger things up. So I do have presents wrapped!!! I think this is the earliest, now to keep it up.

My sinuses are packed! I'm afraid I'm starting to get a sinus infection again. I'm figuring since they're already stuffed up I may as well dive into my room and go through some bags. The other motivating factor is that around the time that Drew threw the clothes into the bags, Tom lost his wallet!!! He hasn't found it in weeks and really needs it. I don't know how he's surviving without out it. Luckily his work ID badge wasn't in there or he probably couldn't have. I also have to get some bazaar stuff done NOW! The bazaar is Saturday and I haven't gotten anything really done done. Looks like I'm heading to a week of little sleep again...so much for trying to be organized and ahead of the game. I guess it's just not in me.