We Shall Now Celebrate "Removal Day"

     The kids survived their surgeries! It was rough for the first week or so, but, Lexi and George both seem to be improving daily.
     Thankfully I had Kaila with me to help out. She was able to stay with Lexi while I waited for George's surgery, so I could be there when he was done. George was getting wheeled up to recovery as Lexi was getting wheeled down. We met in the hallway and switched kids, which worked out perfectly. It was after Lexi's surgery, when Kaila and I were marveling over Lexi's green/yellow palor and utter stillness, that I let George play with my phone again. You would think I would have learned, but, clearly I have not. He managed to put through an entire Amazon order, pay for it with my account, and confirm it after sending, before I knew what he was doing.
     His order for a gold fidget spinner was canceled immediately, by the way.


     It was so nice, actually, getting to stay at home with my kids for a week. The envy I felt for stay at home moms was huge, as I got ready to come back to work the first day. Which was compounded by several sobbing phone calls from George, begging me to come home and be with him. And lots of "I neeeeeeeed you!!!!" "I need you here to snuggle with me!" "You need to come home right now!!!!!!!!" Which, of course, ramped the "mom guilt" up considerably. So, I gave the kids my coveted password to my Notebook. That same password has been happily repeated by George to anyone who would care to listen, and, which will be changed as soon as possible. The Notebook distraction seemed to work long enough to get George through the worst of me going back to work during painful recovery.


     While schedules seem to have settled down around here, we are still pretty busy overall. Yesterday, Bearded Man and I went grocery shopping and stood in the grocery store, mentally calculating the cost of strawberries there vs picking them in one of the local fields. "Jasin. I think it's actually less expensive to get them here. We could buy two flats of strawberries here for the same cost as one flat that we pick."
     "So. You want me to put them in the buggy?"
     "I don't know. We are going to be so busy - I don't know when I would make jam."
     "So. No strawberries, then?"
     "Well. You really can't beat the cost... and they won't last long here at this price...."
     "So, put them in the buggy?"
     "Well. It really does come down to time. When am I going to make jam?"
     "So. No berries, then?"
     "I hate to pass them up..."
     "So, berries?"
     "No time!"
     "No berries?"
     "I really should get them though. I love homemade jam! I would have to get lots of sugar, and lids for the cans. And pectin, which costs a small fortune, in order to make huge batches of jam..."
     "Are we getting berries or not??"
     "I am going to really regret walking away from these berries."
     "Make. Up. Your. Mind."
     "Jeez, Jasin! No need to get grouchy about it!"
     "Why don't you think about it, and we can come back if you want them?"
     "Okay."


     I didn't get the berries, and I am still regretting it. So, to try and squelch the guilt from that, I took the three older kids to go picking peas yesterday. We love fresh peas so much. Especially Joe, who could eat them all day every day. But, just peas that we've picked. Never store bought. Because, he's Joe. That's why.
     We picked 26.5 pounds of peas yesterday. And, conversations went all over the place, as we bent over the plants.
     "Mom. You know, we don't have 'birthdays', right?" remarked one child
     "What?"
     "We weren't really birthed."
     "I happened to be there, as you were all ripped screaming from the womb, kiddo."
     "Exactly. We were removed, not birthed, because we were all C-sections."
     "True. I suppose you were removed. Forcibly, at that."
     "So, we should celebrate 'Removal Day' instead."
     "I would write that on a cake with zero hesitation."
     "It just sounds so harsh! Like, 'Hey, this baby has to go, so, we are going to hack it out of my body'"
     "Like a growth." I agreed.
     "I like the sound of "Removal Day" piped up another kid. "It just sounds cooler"
     "It kinda does, really."
     "But it also sounds like we were an unwanted tumor, too." argued another one
    "You do realize that, if your were birthed the normal way, you were going to come out anyway, right?"
     "It's like you didn't want us in your body anymore. We were unwanted."
     "Seriously? I love all my little tumors so much, and am happy you were all born/removed safely. Which was the point  of the C-sections."
     "You're kind of crazy, mom."


     Anyhow, we talked and we laughed and we picked peas. And then we went  home and sat outside for a few hours, shelling all the peas, and listening to music. Kaila offered to DJ the proceedings with her speaker and a playlist. Every so often I would hear "Oh! That's a bad one. Profanity and stuff. You can't listen to that one." as she skipped songs.
     "You know, Kaila. If you can't listen to it in front of your mother - you probably shouldn't be listening to it. Just saying."
     "I know. They just sound different when you hear them in front of your parents..."
     "I felt the same way the first time I watched "Grease" with my kids. I still cringe thinking about it."


     Overall, it was a good day. Next up: Wedding stuff! Two of my little brothers are getting married (I say little, but, really, while I am older, they tower over me at obscene heights.) One is getting married this weekend, followed by a bridal shower for my youngest brother's fiancé. All of this will be a little bitter sweet, as, we acknowledge the one year anniversary of our Dad's passing, all on the same weekend. I am so glad that we will be together this weekend, and celebrating the happy. I think he would have appreciated that.


     Anyhow, these blogs are choppily written in 2-5 minute segments around breaks at work; that being said, I realize they are often crazy and riddled with mistakes that I cringe reading when I look at them later. And, since break time is once again over - I need to close it out and hope for the best once again.
     Have a great 4th of July!