a dark stain on our memory

So, I have a few phrases up on my mirror. One of them is 'expect opposition', cause sometimes I think life should just go along fine, and want to remind myself to expect things to not go fine, and be ok with it. To be patient and willing to deal with the frustration and sorrow and disappointment as well as the joy and excitement and peace. Today was kind of a light-hearted microcosm of that opposition. We had one of the best dates ever today. Awesome fun morning going to the farmer's market, finding perfect pain au raisins and listening to RD speak french to the owner, sampling local fruit, sausage, and baklava, getting a sack of local cherries, and trying a cup of local brewed root beer with a hint of wintergreen, licorice and sassafras that was unique, delicious and refreshing. Strolling around with hands clasped, no kids to count or say no to, was so fun. Then we floated the Boise river, something I've wanted to do for awhile...

 There were a few diversion dams that created some little 'rapids', that RD loved going over, and made me a little nervous, but I got better after the first one :)

Floating down, laughing together and working together, going through a 'trust exercise'  ;) together was fun and exciting.

That part of the day was the joyful, happy, re-energizing part of the day.

When we got home, as soon as Bree saw us she started crying for the route 44 in RD's hand. Then one kid came in and told us everything wasn't going well, and another came in crying that he'd been shot by a nerf dart in the head. The babysitter, who the kids like, especially Grace, told us there was an accident in one of the bedrooms. We took her home, and sat down with the kids eating cherries and sharing the slush, and talking about our days. Kids begged to go to the pool, so after we cleaned up, we went into the room to get swim stuff, and WHOA! What the... this was not just an "accident". This was like a tornado, dark stains flung all over the floor. How could it even spread around this much!? How could this much be in clothes AND the floor!? I tried to retrieve the offending article of clothing from the laundry, searching for any other contaminated items, then desperately threw it in the laundry to rinse, extra rinse cycle, definitely! After debating whether to cancel the pool to clean up, we went to the pool anyway. The kids had fun, and we came home.

To the room.
And now the washing machine. All that those rinse cycles did was spread "the mess" to the washing machine. After giving up and disposing of the clothes, I got out the wipes and cleaned out the washer. It was like the funnest part of the day. Ugh.  Then I ran a rinse. then put bleach in the rinse.
Then RD pointed out to me the paint chipping on the legs of the dining chairs I just finished painting a week ago.  Great!
Then we read scriptures, and as Cameron threw himself onto the ottoman to say his prayer, it tipped over as one of the legs buckled and came off. 
I had to laugh. or else I would've cried.
After putting the kids to bed, carefully carrying some of them to their beds,  we got out the washcloths and 99% proof alcohol (rubbing, that is) and both went to work on the floor. For half an hour. 
Which was even better than cleaning out the washer.
Somehow RD was able to want some dark chocolate after all this, and now we are going to try to erase this dark stain on our memory with some quality cocao, and go to bed. After I put on some more aloe on my sunburned legs and neck, that I did put sunblock on. I'm exhausted from all this opposition.
But, it was totally worth it.