The trepidation was paralyzing me, and then, a moment of clarity and peace came when a friend said, "I am just spending time with my kids and I'll worry about getting everything done tomorrow." I know we don't always have 'tomorrow' but this time I did.
I had spent the previous day getting packed and such, and ignored the kids completely, so I had 'tomorrow' and I am so glad that I did. The day before we evacuated, friday, August 29th, I decided it was time to defrost the freezer. Seem silly? Well, really it was necessary, it had been a year and if I didn't do it, Gustav was going to do it for us and flood the garage in the process, so, I beat him to it and we had a blast.
I love my kids and their ability to adapt to any situation; they seem to have a blast no matter what. They helped me unload and then got right to work making a 'new land' out of the garage and all the extra playthings due to stowing it all away for Gustav. There was; lilypad lake, the music place, concert stage, show town, and somehow lilypad lake morphed into a video game where someone controlled your moves and tried to get you to your goldfish. Oh ya, the restaurant; oranges, water, and goldfish were served in the play pots and pans (they happened to be taking a break from serving as the drum set at the music place) and I am not sure if I have ever seen my kids share so nicely with one another over a communal dish of anything, hooray for Gustav. Who knew I would be so glad Sam talked me into keeping those old pots and pans for play things. Not only do they keep Addie out of my 'real' pots and pans they serve many uses in all of their play. What a smart husband I have to see that sometimes my need to get rid of and clean out is a bit short sighted.
They traveled the world and never left the garage. We even got to give our plants some good drinks with the recycled water from the freezer frost. Good thing too, because as Zack profoundly stated, "We wouldn't want to drain lilypad lake to water our flowers and plants. I am so glad we have this snowcapped mountain runoff to save our lake. Mom aren't we good recyclers?" "Yep, you sure are."
The absolute best moment was when Jacob was desperately trying to form snowballs from the frost he was scrapping and eating. He stopped, turned to me, and excitedly proclaimed, "Hey Mom! We have snow in Louisiana, it's right here in our freezer!"
Were there things left undone? Of course, cleaning the bathrooms, mopping the floors, having a few more overwhelmed freak out moments, you know, the usual. Am I sooo glad I ignored those things? Yep! Did Bobby (our cat) clean the bathrooms and floors while we were gone? Nope, still have them to do actually. Do I care? Not so much; we made memories and I am confident my kids will remember the adventures of getting ready to go more than the dirty floor or bathrooms. I am so glad for moments of clarity that I can grasp, so many slip by me, and we really needed this one.
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