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This morning I turned our front room into a staging area. This is done by clearing out all the clutter and then filling all the newly created empty space with piles of stuff that needs to go with Howard to Comic Con. Around 2 pm Howard and I looked at the pile that had begun to accumulate. We were both mentally calculating how it was all going to fit into his Volkswagen Beetle. I turned to Howard and said “Why don’t you take the van?” Taking the van gives Howard plenty of cargo space. It lets us pack things for ease of transportation at the other end rather than compressed for size. It might even let him pack along a full sized dolly to help him wheel boxes of merchandise around. We hadn’t considered it before because I’d been planning to pack the kids and travel while he was away. I’m no longer planning to do that because my kids will be spending time with their cousins the first week of August. So now Howard is taking the van and I’ll be left with the Beetle. This means I can’t go places with all of the kids at the same time. They don’t all fit in the Beetle, but in an average week I don’t do that anyway. If we need a family outing, we’ll walk to a park.

In order to get the van ready for the trip, I took it to Jiffy Lube. It was a very long wait, which is to be expected at 4 pm on a Friday afternoon. I can tell I haven’t been out of the house or away from the kids enough lately because sitting in the Jiffy Lube waiting room for two hours was soothing. Now I just need to kick myself into gear and get the rest of the packing done.

On the list of “parenting things I’m glad to be done with” I think child immunizations tops the list. I’ve written about this topic before. In fact I write about this topic every time I have to take a child to be immunized. I have to write about it, because the experience is an emotionally laden one and I always need to process the thoughts and emotions. Patch had his Kindergarten shots today. That means I am done. I will never again have to hold a crying child in my lap while helpful, but potentially toxic substances are injected. They’ll all need boosters at age 12, but that is a whole different ball game. Twelve year olds can be logical about the need for shots.

I’ve generally been of the ‘talk things through in advance’ school of thought for immunizations. I like to warn my kids they are coming, why they must be done, and how it will all be handled. I have not had the brainspace to do that for Patch. I should have started weeks ago to prepare for today. But today arrived and I realized that I had a window of opportunity in which I can deal with potential post-shot reactions before life gets really crazy again. If I wait until after the craziness, I’ll have to stand in long lines with other parents who are in a rush to get the shots done before school starts. So I sprung the shots on Patch. I took him out for “errands” without clarifying that County Health Office = shots for Patch. I didn’t want to completely ambush him though, so I did not wait until we were faced with the row of needles before telling him. I told him in the waiting area.

It is a measure of Patch’s trust in me that while he cried and asked to be taken home, he did not flee. He huddled in my lap and tried to convince me not to make him get shots. It was hard. I don’t want him to have to get shots either. The nurses tried to help me distract Patch with stamps and coloring pages. He was smarter than that. He did not want a blueberry scented dog stamp, he wanted to not get shots. But he did get shots. The nurse was very quick. After it was all over, Patch and I talked about how scary it was before the shots, but afterward the shots did not seem scary at all. By the time we got home, he was happy to show off his bandaids and eat cheetos.

Now I get to bite my nails and feed him tylenol and watch for any frightening reactions to the injections.

This morning the library called to tell me that I had two items being held for me. This reminded me of the pile of books that were likely overdue. Going to the library jumped up to the top of the priority list, so I loaded Gleek and Patch into the car and we went. On the way to and from the building I avoided cars, made sure not to step in mud, and navigated curbs. Gleek and Patch avoided hordes of goblins, skirted a mire of doom, and rode a griffin across a bottomless chasm. Their world is far more interesting than mine. We dashed and sneaked our way through the library, picking up books along the way. At the end I checked all the kids library accounts, paid fines, and renewed books. Then we traversed back to the car for the journey home. On the drive home there was much discussion of goblins, seeing stones, and hobgobin spit. (We’ve been reading The Spiderwick Chronicles.)

I had over a dozen hardboiled eggs sitting on my kitchen counter. I’d cooked them this morning with the intention of making egg salad for lunch. The egg salad was abandoned in favor of speedier PBJ, so the eggs sat waiting. I pulled out an empty carton to put the eggs away for later. Whenever I stow hardboiled eggs in the fridge, I draw little smiley faces on them. This allows us all to know at a glance which eggs may be peeled and which are a mess waiting to happen. The eggs always look so cute with their row of smiling faces. I started drawing faces on this batch. It is interesting to me how the quick little smiles develop personalities. One egg looks sweet. The next looks goofy. By about the seventh egg, I started to feel sorry for these little faces smiling at the people who will crack them open and eat them. Perhaps not all of the eggs were happy to be boiled. The next egg looked a little worried. The one after was surprised. One ended up mad. One looked like he was hatching a plot to escape from the fridge in rebellion. I think he needs to be the first to go. I don’t like the way he’s looking at me.

Despite being incredibly busy, I’m feeling happy and optimistic. My sister-in-law and I hatched a plan that takes care of the kids while I’m at Worldcon with Howard. The older kids (Kiki, Link and three cousins) are going to fly to California. I’ll put them on the plane at this end, my mom will meet them at the other end. The younger kids (Gleek, Patch, and two cousins) will drive to California with my brother and sister-in-law. This gets everyone to grandma’s house for a visit, and doesn’t put small people on a plane with inadequate supervision. I love this solution. I’d been feeling bad that the kids have been stuck at home all summer and this gives them a nice vacation right before school starts again. Of course I’ve already spent one night laying awake worrying about all the things which might possibly go wrong, but I do that even when the kids are all at home in bed.

In other good news, I learned that Hold Horses is eligible for Caldecott nomination. The odds of being recognized for that prestigious award are slim to none, but applying puts my book into the hands of 16 notable librarians across the country. That’s a good thing. I’ve got my eye on a couple of other awards as well. I should probably also look up children’s book reviewers and submit copies to them as well.

My sister-in-law and her kids headed home this afternoon. I’m so glad that they got to stay the extra two days, although I wished they could have stayed without having car trouble. It was so nice to just sit and talk. The kids all ran off and played together all day long. And I got to hold their little baby. Baby snuggles are good.

I feel like I’ve been too busy to think for three days. We’ve started to pick up the pace heading into Comic con. Howard leaves in less than a week.

This week July 14-20:
Prep for comic con. (This is a huge comprised of a thousand small tasks)
Ship magnets (hopefully we’ll get the full order this week.)

Next week July 21-27:
Howard at Comic con
School shopping (won’t have time later)
Prep kids and house for absence
Prep Kiki for girl’s camp

July 28 – Aug 3
Post Comic Con accounting and unpacking
Pre World Con preparation and packing
Help kids pack
Hug kids lots because I’m going to miss them

Aug 4-11
Howard and I at Worldcon
Kids at grandma’s

Aug 12-17
Post Worldcon accounting
Unpacking
retrieving children

Aug 18
School starts

This weekend offered one of those moments where I realize exactly how much I’ve changed in the last decade. Howard’s brother and family made arrangements to come to my house for Saturday afternoon. This is happy since they’re visiting from Georgia and we don’t see them often. This represented an influx of two adults and five girls 8 and under. Add that to our household count and we were planning on 4 adults and 9 children. Howard’s other brother also wanted to come visit since brotherly togetherness is a good thing. He brought his two girls ages 5 and 2. (5 adults, 11 kids) Then on Friday night my brother called. He and his family were driving through on their way home. They wanted to stop by and spend the night. Without batting an eye, I told them it was fine. (Total people: 7 adults, 16 kids) I was fully prepared to feed and entertain everyone and wasn’t the least bit stressed over the influx. When did I become comfortable feeding and housing big crowds on short notice? I remember that kind of thing used to be stressful.

Perhaps the lack of stress is in part because I’m so glad to see everyone. My kids had a great time. The adults got to do some talking, but not as much as we would have liked. Cranky little girls pulled Howard’s brothers away to where they could put kids to bed. They left before dinner, so I didn’t have to feed everyone after all. (Only 4 adults, 9 kids fed) My brother’s family is extending their stay due to a vehicular breakdown, so I get to have company through Monday. I’m glad. I love talking with my sister-in-law and my kids love playing with their cousins. Even better, we may have hatched a plan that will provide child care for the kids while I’m at Worldcon. There are a few more consultations to make before everything is set, but it looks really good right now.

I got out of my shower this morning to see that the steam from the shower had made an unusual pattern on the mirror. It was two stick figures facing off in battle. Apparently Link has been doing some creative artwork on the mirror after his showers. It made me smile. The figures have faded now, but I know they’ll be back again and again until I get around to cleaning the mirror. Invisible testament to my son’s boundless imagination.

Today I got two emails from people who ordered Hold on to Your Horses. They were both delighted with the book and wrote to tell me about it. This makes me very happy. Also in the “happy things” column is sending off my two girls for a camping trip with their Dad. I’m so glad they get to go.

Howard has been incredibly stressed this week. Last night he was stressed to near incapacity. So many things were pressing on his mind that he couldn’t see how to get any of them done. He took a few minutes to write them all on a list. I’d been hovering nearby, hoping to be able to help. I peeked at the list. He’d written it in four columns. One column was the list of tasks. The other three were labeled “big,” “important,” and “now.” Each listed task got check marks in the other columns. It warmed my heart to see that the only task that was checked as big, important, to be done now, was “Daddy Daughter campout.”

Howard was still stressed this morning. When Howard is stressed, I am compelled to do something to make life easier for him. It is my nature to do things for people I love. I was prepared to take his list and arbitrarily knock items off of it so that he did not have to worry about them anymore. Part of me wanted to knock the Daddy Daughter campout off the list. It is a church arranged night at a campground. There are activities for kids, and breakfast is provided. It is a happy thing to do, Gleek is really looking forward to it. Kiki is less enthusiastic. I was less enthusiastic. There is so much work involved in prepping for a camping trip. Surely Howard and the girls could do some other activity instead and have it be just as good? Then I remembered Howard’s list. There is something about camping that is different than other bonding activities. It forces everyone to really unplug from regular life and pay attention to different things.

I realized that I could push for a cancellation of the campout, but Howard would feel guilty, I would feel guilty, and Gleek would feel sad. Not a good choice. Instead I turned around the other way and turned into campout facilitator. I made the girls help me get out the tent and taught them how to set it up. I inflated our air mattresses inside the tent to make sure they would both fit. I went and bought an adapter so that Howard can use electricity from the car to run the pump that inflates the mattresses. I bought all the food necessary to cook dinner at the campout. I bought batteries and checked flashlights. Tomorrow I’ll throw myself into food preparation and packing up the van so that they can go. I’m taking all the workish bits so that Howard and the girls can just jump in the car to leave and have fun. It will be good for them all and I think they will be glad they went.