Our friends left a few days ago and we have been busy picking up the emotional pieces since. During their stay, a phenomenal thing happened. We found ourselves not being nearly as strict as the kids are used to. I didn't constantly count heads to see they were all accounted for. I made sure the ones that need to be watched were assigned to an appropriate guardian but didn't obsess about every child,s every move. We didn't follow normal routines such as bedtimes and bath times. Meals were by the seat of our pants. My children did extremely well but the aftermath is not fun for any of us.

Patches flew off the deep end last night and told me, make that screamed from the top of her lungs, that I'm a terrible mom because I let her get away with too much when they were here. The crazy thing is that I had been worried that maybe I was harder on her than the others during their stay and if I just let up a little, she would come around. She had 3 rages while they were here. Nothing over the top but frustrating for both of us. In the end, she has been able to share with me that she is just overwhelmed and not sure what to do with her emotions. What a big girl she is turning into.

We have a little more drama adding to their emotional roller coaster. My sib group's favorite uncle was in an accident on Friday. He rolled his truck and was thrown clear from it. He was life flighted to a trauma center and was put on a ventilator. They have tried to take him off twice but he can't breathe on his own. We are trying to minimize things for the kids hoping he will recover quickly.

Please forgive all the misspellings, I can't use spellcheck.