Reboot

The Sloths needed a reboot this summer.  Two weeks ago I had the priviledge of going on a retreat. I had written a long post about it but never finished nor published the piece.  (Piece? What am I a journalist now?) Anyway the retreat boiled down to a few bulletpoints. 

1) Silent, which was surprisingly wonderful and easy for me. 

2) Fruitful, at least I hope it is, time will tell. 

3) Penetential, not only did I not sleep while I was there,

 but I consumed some spoiled food. 

Don't get me wrong though, it was peaceful and intimate. The retreat was planned well because I returned home on Sunday night and Monday morning was the first day of Vacation Bible School. At first this made me nervous. The kids clothes would have to be set out the night before, we'd have to leave the house by 8am (which is gasp-worthy for homeschoolers like ourselves). Turns out it was a great way to ease back into the real world since I wouldn't have Things 1-3 for the mornings. Just me and the 'baby'. (Yep. He's a baby and I'm sticking to it.) 

The only downside to my retreat is, well, how do I say this delicately, Mr. Sloth put the house on survival mode. Actually, he put it on entertainment and survival mode. The night I left he had about twelve people over for a cookout including his brothers family who stayed at our house for the weekend.  I thought I would have time during the week to catch up with housework I was rather crunched for time.  I did get to take King to the little zoo for an hour or so and run some errands that aren't "Wow-are-they-all-yours" friendly.  Mr. Sloth on the other hand was having a horrible week. His stress was becoming quite visible so by Friday I made an emergency plea to Obscure to watch the kids while I take Mr. Sloth out to dinner. I realized half way through the day that it was a Friday and no longer during the Easter Season which means we don't eat meat. All I had was luxury fish sticks from Trader Joe's. Mr. Sloth hates fish. Mr. Sloth hates fish sticks. I don't know how he feels about Trader Joe's. When I told him we get to go out to eat his first words were, "Can I eat meat? "

Yep. 

I was able to convince him to head a favorite restaurant that is known for being an oyster bar. Mr. Sloth has been there many times for drinks but never really to eat. I reassured him that there was at the very least a burger on the menu (as well as duck, and pork, and lamb....) It was an ideal night for dining outside. It's a French Restaurant that even has the outdoor chairs you see all up and down Parisian Streets. At the last minute we both "settled" on steak. We had the Pommes Frites with Bearnaise sauce for an appetizer as we always do but I was pleasantly surprised to find out they came with my steak as well. More potatoes? More Bearnaise? Yes, please!! 

It was sometime during this week that we realized that we had completely forgotten to plan our vacation. Huh. Didn't make lodging reservations or even concrete plans. Huh. We decided to postpone our trip until later in the summer. Then all the kids sports will be over, we'll have more time to plan what we actually want to do and we'll be able to find affordable lodging. It wasn't long before we realized how providential this decision was. Some might be disappointed that they can't go on their vacation when planned but God's timing is perfect and I prefer to just go with the flow of the Holy Spirit. In my mind I thought, "Oh, well. We'll make it work sometime." 

Sunday ended up being the most awkward Father's Day yet. It started out normal but on the way to Mass King started fussing in the van for what seemed like no reason. I turned around an noticed that he had spit up his Cheerios a little bit. That was odd, but he didn't have a fever and it didn't smell like vomit. I decided try and hold him myself all through Mass in case he did throw up, I didn't want him throwing up on Mr. Sloth. Half way through Mass I realized he wasn't drinking his milk which is NOT like him at all. Then I started to kind of smell vomit. At the Our Father King insisted that Mr. Sloth hold him instead of me. Two minutes after Mr. Sloth and I did the prisoner exchange of King for Rooster King burped and threw up ALL OVER Mr. Sloth. 

Hello fellow parishioners. That just happened. 

I don't know what the etiquette is for cleaning up vomit during the Consecration but I'm apparently a trail blazer for standards.  The good news is that it turns out it was just something he ate, probably too much popcorn the night before. He was feeling better by 11am just as the clouds were breaking. We thought it was going to be storming all afternoon and we'd have to miss German Fest. At the last second we packed up the family and head to the city for our beloved once-a-year family event. It was so much fun. Perfect weather! It was pouring rain last year but we went anyway so it was nice to have great weather. 

Monday I was finally able to get some good house cleaning done in the morning before we went to get groceries. Then it was lunch and naps before we drove to private swim lessons. The daughter of a friend of mine is a lifeguard and they have an in ground pool in their yard. Perfect set up for private swim lessons. Even though I have to drive 40 minutes I can get their lessons done at the same time, one on one and pay a really decent price. I would have taken pictures but King LOVES being in the water so my hands were rather full. Thunder rolled just as our lesson was wrapping up so we packed up and started the trek home in a storm. Being rush hour and having to make one slightly out of the way stop we took a bit longer getting home and had a quick dinner thanks to my crockpot that had chicken tacos waiting for us. 

Today the house was still nice and clean so I treated the kids to a day at the 'small' zoo and some early afternoon ice cream before heading home for late naps. It's already time to make dinner. Time flies when your having summertime fun! 

Here's some pics from the zoo & ice cream. 

King at the water table in the Children's Learning room. 

Rooster showing me what the tiger eats. 

Happy & King looking for koi in the conservatory (there were none) 

King looking adorable in the conservatory. 

King enjoying some Italian ice. 

Rooster enjoying his Sour Apple Italian Ice. 

Demand enjoying her Birthday Cake Italian Ice. 

Happy needed to try every single flavor in order to make a well informed decision which is why I don't have a picture of him by himself. He finally decided on mango. The kids are already plotting how to get back to the ice cream shop to try out some more flavors.