Just one more plate please

I had scheduled to watch three kids ages 11, 7, and 2 at about 12:00 so their mom could go get a perm today. At about ten o'clock the neighborhood kids began knocking at the door asking if they could play, so I couldn't seem to get the house moderately neat as I needed to. The mom called to chit chat and she said she was still planning on arriving at 12:00 but at 11:25 the doorbell rang again and I expected to have some minor controversy such as getting bikes across the street or someone falling down as usual, but instead I found myself stammering, "You're here early!"

As the mom and I visited for 45 minutes I continued to clean here and there. Then after she left I told the kids to get their swimsuits on. Sensing the inevitable attraction of children to noise and water I immediately went out in the front yard and yelled across the street to the others that they were invited to get wet too.

Besides my three kids and the visiting three kids, the usual crew was in full effect: Brooke, 10, Jillian, 10, Ana, 10, and David, 7.

I gathered them all over to me on the deck for a conference. After I made sure I had the eye contact of the occasionally naughty ones I said, "You are free to play as you like and choose whatever games you can think of as long as you follow my one rule. I only have one: You can't do anything that someone else doesn't like. If someone is not happy about how you are playing then you have to find something else to do." I made them repeat the rule back to me. Before they departed I took a sharpie and made a disposable cup for each child with their name on it. That excludes the youngest who can't read, for whom I drew pictures of their choice. A heart, a horse, a house, and a girl playing basketball, and then I took no more requests. Get your own water from the hose, I ordered.

Since I was in-mode of making lunch I knew that the others might also be hungry, and I ended up making a total of 7 turkey sandwiches, and an extra one for the two little girls who shared a whole because when they had gotten up from their little table out on the deck, Penny, our dog, moved in and confiscated them clean and clear for which she was loudly scolded by yours truly into her kennel for over an hour (efficiently making her regret it). I also made a couple sandwiches for myself about an hour later (because that's when I got around to it). That makes ten.

I then spent a half hour sitting on the deck mashing a banana and feeding it to Elijah while being watched by four of the older girls sitting in a row, who loved to talk about babies. They were so inspired that they decided to join forces to make themselves completely devoted to meeting every one of Elijah's needs. They took him all over the house, putting him in his car seat and swinging it back and forth (taking turns), then taking him outside and sitting with him and playing with him, showing him toys, all the while talking to me every minute about their ideas of how to take care of him. As a result, I nearly finished the regular house-cleaning tasks. It was beautiful.

I made four bowls of grapes which were wiped out in about ten minutes. Lijah was completely exhausted from the attention and when I took him upstairs for some mommy time he went right out. The visiting seven-year-old girl has decided that vegetables are not for her, so I pressed her through the day to choose one that she would eat. She chose corn. Dinner time approached and I raided the pantry but only came up with two cans. Tee hee. Pulled the green beans out for back-up ammo. Heated up some baby weiners and I think I made, no less than two loaves of buttered toast. That's because, about an hour before the mother returned three Spanish girls from down the street whom I dearly love, chose today to come over and play. I had been hoping for this and had waited all summer. They are Yesenia, who is 5, her older sister Maribel, who is probably 10 or 11, and her best friend also named Yesenia and is the same age. Little Yesenia is so adorable, I've known her since she was an infant. She speaks very poor English as does the older Yesenia. They know only some basic words, but the little one wants to know the name of everything. She takes me by the hand and insists that I come and answer her questions about whatever she sees. Her questions never cease and she is unfortuantely amazed at the toys and the things to do since she comes from a poor family.

For dinner I made... 12 plates of it for the children, and another for the mom since she hadn't eaten yet. But since it was just me doing it the pressure was on. The three visiting children needed to get back in their car and go home, so I had a priority to feed them first. Little Yesenia said she was hungry. I wanted to take care of those special girls and they were also important to feed first. But because Lijah had woken up and the toaster is slow I was trying with some difficulty to make everything as streamlined as possible. Eventually whatever anyone was lacking they were stuffed over with by toast. Toast is always awesome like that.

I cleaned up the mess I made and all the plates left out, fed Lijah remainder green beans and started real dinner for Ben and I on the grill, then visited some more with the children and, one by one, the kids dropped off, said goodbye and went home.

I realized, looking back, why it was that I am so exhausted. With that many kids my mind just goes into crisis mode. Once that happens I see everything like Schindler's List. Oh, I could have filled the remainder dishes in the washer. Oh, I could have wiped up the water tracks a little faster. Oh, if only I could have spent some more time sitting with the girls and letting them try and teach me Spanish. If only.

About an hour after "real" dinner was done, I laid back into the couch next to my husband, and laughed at the tv. It felt good to have met needs as best I could.

If only every day I would be so challenged by 13 kids, maybe the house would always be clean!