Busy Blessings: Wednesday to Forget

Wednesdays are one of the hardest days of the week for me.
The kids have a large amount of homeschool that has to get done THAT day, in order to be turned in at school on Thursday.
We also have AWANA on Wednesday night, which means Eli and EK need to have their weekly AWANA work completed.
So its just usually a looong day.
Yesterday, we had 2 friends from school at our house. Their mom was out of town so they came to our house to do their schoolwork.
The day was actually going pretty well. Around 11:00am, we were over 3/4 of the way done with everyone's schoolwork.
I was thinking about what I'd feed 6 kids for lunch, as well as getting the 2 friends back to their house and then bring my 4 back home in time for Z&Z's naptime.
Speaking of Z&Z, they had been upstairs in the playroom & their bedroom playing while I did school with the other 4.
Zander came running to the top of the stairs and excitedly proclaimed, "Mom, my shirt is wet."
Of course, I asked why.
Still excited, he said, "because."
I asked "where is Zane?"
To which Zander excitedly replied, "He getting wet in Emmy Kate's bathroom."

Uh-oh.
I ran upstairs and found this....

and this....

and one last view...

Apparently they got bored with the playroom and their bedroom, so they went to EK's room and bathroom. I wish I'd had a hidden video camera going so I would know who started it, how it started, exactly how much t.p. they put in, and how many times they repeatedly flushed.

But, alas, our house isn't set up with video monitoring. :-)

After I took pictures, I got all the school kids settled back down at the table to work. As I was going to get towels to start soaking up all the water, one of the kids had a question relating to their schoolwork. So I got sidetracked.

While I was helping with schoolwork, we heard a strange sound.

Sort of sounded like rushing water.

We went toward the sound and found water POURING out of this light in our living room...

I felt that up until this point, I had been pretty calm and collected about the whole situation. Let me backtrack and say that I never yelled at the boys when I found the initial mess in the bathroom. I sternly told them that what they had done was being bad boys. To which Zander replied, "Momma, you happy?" I said "No Zander. You and Zane playing in Emmy Kate's potty does not make me happy." His response was, "But I want you be happy Momma."

So back to the current situation....

When I saw that water from the second level of our house was pouring out through the light/ceiling of the 1st level, I pretty much lost it.

I immediately called Philip at work. I was pretty hysterical (and not the funny kind of hysterical either). I knew he couldn't come home but that is what I was pleading with him to do. In his very calm voice he simply told me to get towels and soak up all the water in her bathroom and that even if he was home, he wouldn't be able to do anymore than that. Humph. We hung up and I did as was told. The water did not immediately stop coming through the light, but it did stop GUSHING. It was more of a slow leak for the next 15 minutes. (could it really have only been 15 minutes? Seemed like at least an hour)

But, before the frantic phone call, I had already put buckets in the floor underneath the light....

so everything that leaked was going into the buckets rather than the carpet.

We once again, started working on school. Finished that up. Fed lunch to 6 kids and then packed them all into my car to take our friends back to their house.

Came back home and boys slept while I had some quiet time. (much deserved I would say). I'm actually glad I did take a little down time for myself because the day's fun wasn't over yet.

Around 4:30 I told Eli and EK to start working on their AWANA work. They did which was followed by them needing to eat, brush teeth, etc... Emma Kate had been to gym that morning and still had on her gym clothes (which for the record usually means a leo with yoga pants and a jacket over it.) Upon telling her to make sure she put on matching clothes, she threw herself a little hissy fit proclaiming that there was nothing wrong with the clothes she had on. I proceeded to tell her that the clothes she was wearing was appropriate for gym and home, but not for other places.

Fast forward to 5:45. She is still sprawled out on the floor throwing her fit (in her gym clothes). I told her that if she wasn't dressed in matching clothes by 6:00, that she wouldn't be going to AWANA. Well, I immediately saw the lightbulb go off in her head. (she's thinking "aha. I can get out of going by continuing to throw my fit and not change clothes.) Which is exactly what she did.

Little did she know that I had a trick up my sleeve.

We took Eli to AWANA and got home around 6:35. As soon as we walked in, I told her to go take a shower and get on her pj's. She questioned me, but she did it. Then as soon as her shower was over, I put her to bed. This was about an hour and 10 minutes before her normal bedtime. Wow-wee, this incurred another hissy fit. Which resulted in her being the recipient of the spanking spoon and then crying herself to sleep.

I put the little boys to bed at 8:00 and went downstairs to start fixing everyone's lunches for the next day. Philip had just gotten off work and was picking up Eli from AWANA on his way home.

Around 8:10, I opened the refrigerator door...