In which it all balances out

The girls like to play outside, and I like it when they do.

The rainy season, however, is in full swing and yesterday they rediscovered the joys of mud.

Now. I'd like to think that I'm not a "keep your clothes clean" kind of mom. I'm entirely reconciled to the fact that Julia, unless I'm much mistaken, has no unstained clothing whatsoever. Dirty kids? That's what water was made for.

Unfortunately, I didn't live up to the full potential of my laid-back mothering skillz yesterday when they came in at dusk, with Robin still wearing her school uniform, leaving the front door looking like this:



and the bathroom floor at least as fancy, with the greatest amount of mud (by volume) to be found on top of Julia's head.

Most of the time, all of that (well, except for the school uniform part) would really not be that big a deal.

It's just that we have had no hot water - not even lukewarm water - in this house for several weeks now. Alex has been heating water on the stove and taking bucket showers. I have been taking my own showers at the gym (where there's also no hot water, but whatever) and bathing the children at Yolanda's house every few days.

I hadn't made dinner yet, it was getting dark, and Lisa had arranged to call and read to the girls, so they needed to be ready for bed in about an hour.

Anyway. We dealt with it.

Today I stopped by the grocery store after picking the girls up at school. I asked them what they wanted for dinner and the both immediately said macaroni & cheese. We got some of that, but while we were picking out fruit for their lunches, they spotted something else they both absolutely had to have for dinner tonight.

It was this:


Kids. If nothing else, they'll catch you off guard.