Teen Army

I'll preface this with, my brother-in-law will likely kill me after reading this.  But, what he has to understand is that this is the most interesting thing that's happened to me in about 3 1/2 weeks...since surgery.

I was on the warpath.  I was dealing with some difficult issues at work...stuff that just makes you angry because you don't see the logic...and I received my first "description of benefits" from our health insurance related to the injury/surgery.  I was in no mood.  Luckily, thankfully, my father-in-law dropped off the cavalry.  At 8:50 this morning, Jude and I got Aunt Emily, 13 y/o with a shitload of tolerance, complete with D&D donut holes.  Yay!  She entertained Jude for most of the morning, fed him lunch, and catered to his (almost) every whim.

Then, one of my best friends from Jude's school came to the rescue, and supervised a trip of his kids and Jude (and Emily) to the park for some much needed outdoor time.  No injuries, and it allowed me to yell at the insurance company a little bit without any witnesses.  I imagine that is going to be a regular occurrence.  That said, it was good for them to be out while I was busy losing cool.

At about 3:30, enter Jake, my 16 y/o vunderkind, Jet fan extraordinaire, journalist, and really decent ad-hoc chef.  He was able to take over for a worn out Emily and get dinner prepped for the kids around 5:30.  And he made Emily dinner.  And he was going to cook something better than I could do for myself (obviously).  

Also, around the same time, in came Emma, our 14 y/o mother's helper.  This girl is effing invaluable.  By herself she's a tour-du-force, able to nuke the kids dinner, get them bathed, and brushed, and washed and to bed.  But, with the teen reinforcements I'd already enlisted, this was cake. 

Like any good general, you divide your resources to their strengths: Jake was on meals as previously indicated; Emily was on table detail...run napkins, milk, water, etc.  Plates and cups.  You get the idea.  Emma was on bath duty.  Get Johanna and Jude clean and washed, and to bed.  MOST importantly, to bed. 

And, with my Teen regiment, we got it all done.  Kids were fed.  Emma rocked Johanna's bath.  Emily took Jude. Jake found enough for a hodge-podge Mexi-meal complete with guac and veggie quesadillas. Emma moved to dishes.  Jake rescued the recycle and took out the trash.  Emily took care of Jude, got him dressed and ready for bed (and shared an M&M cookie with him).  By 7pm, all the hard work was done, I was ready for a percocet, something stupid on TV, and my wife to come home from the workshop she was running so that we can eat for another week.

As a Jew, I don't celebrate Good Friday, but I get it, and with the concerted team effort I got today, I'm really thankful for all I've got.  If you're with your families this weekend, I hope you enjoy their company as much as I get to enjoy mine.