It's all in the pressure

Sometimes you can have a lot of things going on, but if you have the time to do them, it's easy to handle it and keep your cool. Today I took four kids to the dentist, and they were actually pretty good, even though a couple of them have to go back for some fillings. (It is really not fair--my daughter brushes her teeth a lot more than her brother, yet she's the one with a big black one in her molar.)

Then we spent the rest of the day cleaning. Which I hate. But we didn't have to go anywhere else, and that made ALL of the difference. Yes, we clean, but it's more like, today we'll get this taken care of, and tomorrow this. When you have five kids and it's summer vacation, sorry, the house is never clean all at the same time. But occasionally you do need it ALL picked up at the same time, like if you're babysitting or having someone over. And tomorrow I'm swapping with a friend and we're going to see Harry Potter in the morning while she watches our three youngest, and then we're watching her two kids in the afternoon so she can see it. Thus the cleaning. The kids were actually pretty helpful here, too. I think they are getting older. They are getting more relaxed about a lot of things, for which I am very grateful!!

Now it's 10 pm and Perpetual Motion Boy is asleep!! And I have two books to read (that I'm already halfway through): The Crown of Dalemark (a reread) by Diana Wynne Jones, and The Thirteenth Child, by Patricia C. Wrede. They both deal with alternative history, which makes them a nice pair to read together. I really like how DWJ has this whole world with ancient past, and mythology, and 19th century, and present day, and how they all mingle together. Nice world-building. I really relate to the whole western expansion bit in Thirteenth Child, being the child of Idaho pioneers myself (well, on the one side, anyway). However, I do admit that there is this odd...void, I guess, where there are no Native Americans? I think the book is supposed to be a series, so I will hold off judgment for now (considering I'm only a third of the way in, I can't say too much about the book, anyway). But I keep wondering--what about all the people who live in the rest of the continent? Where are they? I agree with Betsy Bird that it is also reminiscent of Orson Scott Card's Seventh Son series--except that I find Wrede's magic system friendlier so far.

Anyhow, I'm off to read so I can still get to bed on time. Good night!

Well--not quite to bed yet

First I get to play Tooth Fairy one last time to Oldest Son. I can't believe it--he has graduated. It is a strangely sad moment!

When I was small, my dad was the Tooth Fairy. The Tooth Fairy didn't just leave you a shiny dime and take off. No, in our house, the Tooth Fairy was cool enough to be a cartoonist. He always left a cartoon with the dime (actually, I didn't care about the dime--just the cartoon). The Tooth Fairy actually was a man who worked for an entire corporation with people like him--men with these teeth sticking out of the top of their heads. And they always had interesting adventures going to pick up the teeth.

Well, naturally this had to continue! I guess I wasn't thinking much of what I was starting (or that by the end, I will have to do this 100 TIMES). Uh, there have been some substitutions by the Tooth Fairy Who Brings Mind Teasers Instead of Cartoons from time to time. But mostly, it's been me. And just so you know--times have changed, and there are both men and women who work at this factory now. But they still all wear teeth on the top of their heads.

Sniff. The last tooth. His certificate of graduation is under his pillow.

Good thing I still have 59 teeth left to go.