We had a busy weekend starting on Friday with the annual Fall Carnival at my daughter's school and my cousin from Dallas arriving to spend a couple of days with us.
The Fall Carnival was much bigger than it has been in past years. Our experience so far was half a dozen games involving tossing bean bags or digging in the sand, a petting zoo and a bounce house with eats in the cafeteria.
This year, there was an inflated hamster ball, a gyroscope, many more games to play, a game where you could pop a big balloon full of water on a staff member and a LOT more people. Scott and Will spend a lot of time playing on the playground where Will got covered in dust from the gravel under the equipment, both kids had sticky faces and hands from cotton candy, mostly because of a shortage of napkins and we all got sweaty.
As the kids were having a bunch of fun, we let them stay up late to play and they skipped bathtime in favor of getting in bed.
Saturday, we took my cousin to our favorite burger place and for ice cream afterwards. While we'd made the kids use napkins more than we usually did their faces and hands got sticky again.. After my cousin headed back to Dallas in the afternoon, we went to a Halloween party at a friend's house where we knew there'd be lots of other kids for them to romp around with. Our friends had recently installed a zip line in their backyard that, surprisingly, Zoe loved. She zipped down at least twenty times, sprinting the pulley back for a friend to have a turn. Will ran around with the pack of boys, all dressed as super heros, with a plastic gun assisting in saving the world. It's great when Will has boys his own age to play with, surrounded by girls as he is most of the time and the females don't like to save the world they like to decorate it. At least the girls that come to play at our house like to decorate it.
And, since they were having a lot of fun, we let them stay up late to play. And we skipped their bathtime in favor of getting them in bed.
Sunday, we headed off for our annual trip to a pumpkin farm about an hour outside of town, a tradition we look forward to every year. We take a hay ride, pick a bouquet of flowers, have a picnic, indulge in home made ice cream and paint small pumpkins before selecting the gourds we'll turn into jack o' lanterns. This year, it was windy and a lot of dust was kicked up, enough that I had it between my toes when I took my shoes and socks off at home.
By the time we got home form our outing, all four of us were coated with a layer of grime. The kids' faces had black splotches from dust sticking to the spots where they hadn't gotten all the ice cream wiped away and when I scratched my neck as we were waiting to pay for our squash, my fingernails were black when I took my hand down.
We did not skip bathtime last night. Usually, we let the kids wash themselves, but last night we supervised making sure they scrubbed the places they usually skip. Both of them had their hair washed vigorously and Zoe still has corn dust in her hair this morning. I brushed out as much as I could but I am a little worried she'll get pulled into the nurse's office to be checked for lice.
As I was doing this cleaning of my children, I wondered something about myself. I don't always take a shower in the morning. Between getting Zoe to school, making lunches and starting my chores for the day bathing doesn't move to the top of my list. What I wondered, is how long I could go without bathing before someone said something to me and would wearing clothes make a difference? Should I tell anyone I was conducting this experiment or keep it a secret? What if it was winter and I didn't sweat all that much? Could I reduce my dog smell by kicking the pups out of our bed? Would I be able decrease the amount of time I could go without soaping up by walking on the treadmill every day or should I do a lot of sitting on the couch?
Hmmmmmmmmm, that's interesting. It would certainly make life easier, not having to spend 20 minutes bathing daily. I could watch an entire episode of Judge Judy in 20 minutes and do the maintenance needed for my Farmville crops at the same time. I'd be able to mix up a batch of pumpkin bread and get it into the oven in that amount of time.
Or, maybe, I was very tired and my brain was going places it shouldn't.
Amanda's beauty tip of the day: A razor is only good for shaving a man's face five to eight times, making a woman's razor only good for shaving her legs, three to five times depending on how thick the hair is. Replace your razor regularly.
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