6 boxes. Seriously?

Yesterday Dan brought home a bag from work with 6 boxes of Girl's Scout cookies.  Someone's daughter at work was selling them, so he thought he would help out the Scout and surprise me with them. Except that I wasn't super happy.

"Whaaaat?  6 boxes?  Are you serious?"

Because, as we have previously established, my ability to resist certain sugary items is very, very weak. And I'm trying to resist them and eat foods that are better for me, because I feel really healthy when I do. But, it is has been very, VERY difficult. First I used all of my available willpower over the past few weeks to keep myself to only two big bags of Valentine's candy hearts (minus the green ones), and that was difficult. I thought I was out of the woods, but then we came to Valentine's Day, which is full of temptation. Especially since I bought a groupon for fudge from a store in downtown Vancouver, and it turns out that the fudge is very good. And the groupon entitled me to 5 huge squares of fudge.  Let's see . . . 3 squares for 3 kids and 2 for . . .  me.  All which I consumed yesterday.

And I deserved every last bite. The day began with our discovery of an ant infestation.  When Bailey woke up for early morning Seminary we discovered ants crawling all over the kid's backpacks in the mud room (attracted by the remains of their lunches, I'm sure). So, at 5 a.m. I vacuumed backpacks and shook out schoolbooks through bleary eyes before getting Bailey out the door.

Then the other kids got up and we dealt with a myriad of I-forgot-to-do-my-homework and my-tummy-kind-of-hurts issues before driving them both to school and getting them there barely on time.  I got back home to discover that the ants have also found the treasure trove that is our pantry (yum - lots of crumbs left on the floor and shelves by foraging children).  So I spent an hour cleaning out and vacuuming the pantry. Before tackling the rest of the depressingly messy house. And spending a few hours doing some preparations for a big Young Women's activity the Mia Maids were in charge of that evening.

I had just showered and settled down for a nice phone visit with my sister when . . . . what do you know? The elementary school was calling.  And Joseph (who was the one with the my-tummy-kind-of hurts issue) had thrown up at school.  Right in front of his friends.  All over the wallball court during recess.  I dashed to the school to retrieve my sickie and then spent the rest of the day cleaning up throw-up messes  - one of the things that makes motherhood just super duper fun.

And then I got dressed in some non-throw-up clothes and ran to a meeting for Joseph's new baseball team (sans Joseph), and then directly to Young Women's, where I helped pull off a chaotic but fun activity.  And then I returned home and dealt with more parenting crises until . . . midnight. Yes, midnight. And then it was back up again at 5:30 this morning.  For a day which involved more parenting challenges, another sick kid, an even more depressingly messy house, two orthodontist appointments, two pick-up/drop-offs of kids at activities, more ant infestations, an evening soccer game, and a Stake church meeting after that. 

Which brings me back to those darn Girl's Scout cookies. Because when days are like this - and they are certainly like this often - I do not reach for carrot sticks. I reach for sugar. And the only thing that keeps me from reaching for sugar is not having it in the house.  So I am going to have to give away the boxes of Girl's Scout cookies.  Any takers?