STRESSY! Stressy Stress Stress.

Tomorrow is Easter. Yay! We have the family coming over: DH's parents; his sister, her son and fiancé (and maybe his two kids?); and DH's great aunt and cousin. Plus our six, of course. MIL is bringing the bulk of the meal, and SIL and I will round it out with some sides, so I don't have to worry about a lot of cooking.

I do have to worry about making the place presentable, though. My kids have been out of school since mid morning on Thursday. They've gotten into EVERYTHING.

And it's raining. Not the Dancing Around Lampposts kind of rain, but the Holy Crap Where's the Ark! variety. The kind that makes the basement flood. DH's very kind uncle just came over and helped me slurp up and dump ~192 gallons of water (about 12 fill-ups of our 16-gallon WetVac). The rain has slowed for now to a steady mist, but when it starts pouring again -- which it is forecast to do many, many times between now and next Wednesday -- I'll have to keep up on it.

DH is at work; did I mention that? Luckily he does have tomorrow off, but for now it's just me and the kids.

Speaking of the kids, Cuatro has a cold. All the lovely phlegm that isn't in her nose gets stuck in her throat, so she coughs it up -- along with heaping helpings of spit up (which she's good at doing anyway, but she's in overdrive now!). Tres slammed her hand with the lid of a trunk we keep Little People toys in (I'm surprised it's not broken, but she can wiggle everything so she did not get a trip to see Daddy in the ER). Dos just now screamed from the other room, "Thanks a lot, Uno! Now I'm bleeding!" I wonder what that's about.

I have been asked to speak in church tomorrow about the Atonement. I have no idea what I'll say. I am incapable of speaking off the cuff, so I will have to find some quiet time before 10am tomorrow to sit and reflect and write out something profound. Because I have just oodles of quiet time, you know.

Also, Primary: My counselors in the Presidency and I rotate through several duties each month; April is not my month to be in charge of the singing practice, but the person whose turn it is will be out of town so I will fill in. This month she chose to teach the children a fancy song! Beautiful Savior, divided into parts. It will be gorgeous if we can do it, but it's not easy teaching harmonies to the 11-and-under set who have little to no musical background. And what kind of song leader can I be, when I seem to be physically unable to hear or process anything but the melody? Even when you play nothing but the alto line, I don't get it; my brain doesn't understand it somehow. If it's not melodic, it doesn't stick. I suspect some of the boys, who will be singing that part, have the same problem.

So.... Yeah. I think that's all. That isn't much, is it? 15 people coming over; house to clean; manage flooding basement; keep children from killing themselves or each other; write a decent talk; figure out how to teach music I, myself, don't understand.

Oh, and I have to drag all four kids with me to Walmart in a bit. And I need to finish up a graphic design project a friend of mine has commissioned for her preschool (she'll pay me and everything, so I can't let her down). And Uno needs me to type something up for a school project of hers.

Plus I need to feed us every now and then. I want to get fast food or take-out, just to simplify things, but I reviewed our recent expenditures this morning and am appalled at how much we spend on Meals Not At Home. My waistline is also appalled. I weighed myself yesterday: I am ~50 lbs heavier than I was in high school. Ugh. Granted, I was underweight in high school, but seriously -- fifty pounds?? Sometimes I wish I had the self control for an eating disorder (anorexics are crazy strong-willed!). That's not nice to joke about, I know, but I'm only about 20% joking.

Sigh. Anyway. I guess I better get down to business. Lots to do.


~RCH~