I promised myself that I would never live in the mini-van.  I promised myself that I would limit our family to one extracurricular activity per child.  That we would try to leave some space in our schedule to just BE.  All very good intentions.  Reality is, though, we are filled to the gills with running here, there and everywhere.  And today was no exception.

This morning we finished up Power of a Praying Kid and the three oldest memorized their verses for AWANA.  So neat to see the way that each of them memorizes their verses.  Up to now, all our memory work for any subject has been done through music.  What an awesome tool!  They also worked on math and added another page to their Amy Carmichael reports.  Oh, and their journals, too.  All this was done lickety-split because we were, as usual, in a hurry.

Gobbled down lunch so we could go meet up with friends at an indoor park to hang out for awhile.  *Lemme give a quick shout out to my dear friend - you know who you "R" (You're supposed to envision my baddest gangsta' pose here)  Anyway, we all had a wonderful time!  The boys ran around in Star Wars fantasy mode, the girls made some beaded jewelry, the moms spoke to each other in full sentences and the little ones sort of filled in the gaps.   Lots of fun!

Then, I rolled everyone up and stuffed them in the van as they gobbled down a snack on the way to the Y.  Once there, we rolled back out of the van so that I could check the kids into their classes.  Then, onto Salsa!  Muy Caliente!!!  It was a wonderful workout again.  My caboose will never be the same.  Afterward, I sashayed my sweaty self, plus the four gremlins back into the van where they ate a pre-packed dinner on the way to choir practice.  Drop two kids, that leaves me and the little ones to go to my favorite craft store to buy BEADS for more jewelry making.  Drool.  Drool.  Pick up two kids, that makes four again.  Stuff everyone back into the van and head home.

Here's where the yelling begins.  Ava has reached her limit on activity.  She begins to scream and we still have 20 miles to go.  I've never heard so much diplomacy from my other children.  They all were scrambling for her favorite things, her blankey, food, milk, whatever it was going to take to keep her quiet.  Even Ella was in on the coaxing.  Finally, I put in a really loud cd containing the Christmas music from our kids' choir.  Within 5 minutes Ava was singing along and had forgotten all about whatever it was that had ticked her off in the first place.

We arrived home all in one piece with Ava sound asleep in her carseat (A gift of love from the Father above).  The rest of the kids and I had a meeting before bed.  I asked each of them what was their favorite part of the day and what was their least favorite.  Their answers were so sweet, personal and unique.  The bottom line was, they liked being busy.  They liked living in the van today.  Everything they did was "their favorite part" of the day.

So, I guess that settles it.  We're packing up and moving into the mini-van. 

Too bad we have to sell it to pay for the gas.

Later.