Just Another Manic Saturday

Matthew organizes his weeks thus: a day is either daycare, store or Bible class. This is not dissimilar to how I remember childhood: school, cartoons or Bible class. Today was "store" day and tomorrow is "Bible class" day. He's always excited about Bible class until we get there, and then he doesn't want to stay and I have to pry him off of me while the teacher tries to distract him so I can leave.

We started the day off shopping at the local mall. I bought some new sheets for Matthew's new "big boy bed" and we looked at furniture. We could use new living room furniture. In the thirteen years we've been married, we've been through 3 couches. In talking with the furniture sales woman today, I discovered that the furniture industry deems those types of couches "throw away couches" (her words), since the cushions are often attached and you can't replace the foam inserts when they become worn. I always knew there was some type of furniture lingo and subculture that I was missing out on.

Our problem has not been with the foam inserts, but more with the kids and animals we've had in our house and stains and tears from said kids and animals. Frankly, though, I don't want to buy another "throw away couch" and just have to replace it in another 4 years. I'm tired of cheap furniture. So now I have to decide if I want nice furniture that will last, or if I want to just get another couch that will find itself at Goodwill in a few years. I'm kind of leaning towards getting the nice furniture and forbidding the children from even looking at it until they are able to vote or consent to their own medical procedures.

Anyway, all this furniture shopping made Matthew very tired. It must be exhausting to be strapped in a stroller and wheeled everywhere. So after he demonstrated that he was tired of looking at furniture by screaming "I DON'T LIKE IT!" at the top of his lungs, we took him home and put him down for a nap.

The nap only served to wind him up like the Energizer Bunny on Red Bull, and he spent the remainder of the day running around and touching everything he could find. At one point, he was transferring his drink from one cup to his brother's cup by way of taking a drink and spitting it out into poor Brandon's cup. Just as I discovered this, he spit his drink onto the floor.

That was enough. I got him ready for bed, brushed his teeth and then Chris and I spent a few minutes laying down with him, trying to get him to calm down. After reading the "truck book" and telling him a story about Matthew's escapades with Harry Potter, I finally laid him down in his bed and he went right to sleep. It was about 7:30, so I'm sure he'll be up at 5:00 or 6:00 tomorrow morning. At least I have a few minutes of peace and quiet right now.