The Damsel in Distress

"Fair Maiden's Guide for Handling Household Mishaps"

Dear Mr Clean,

Please accept my apologies in advance for giving away the magical secret ingredient in your magic erasers. I assure you, I stumbled upon it quite by accident.

Yours Truly,

Fair Maiden

Today, a mean little fairy visited my house and challenged me to 3 mothering tests. 1) Your precious princess just climbed onto the table and scribbled all over it in permanent magic marker. What do you do? 2) When you fix test #1, how do you prevent it from happening again? 3) When you fail test #2, how do you learn from your mistake?

So I cleaned up the permanent marker with baking soda, vinegar, and paper towels. Then, I moved the markers to the kitchen counter and scooted all of the chairs away from the table so she could climb up again. Unfortunately, I also scooted one of the chairs into the kitchen. So, Little Miss Peach climbed up when I wasn't looking, grabbed that same marker, and colored all over said chair and counter top. So, I cleaned it up again. (By the way, it's easier to get black marker off of faux marble than finished wood.) Then, as I was walking away, I remembered not only to move the markers to an unreachable area, but also to put away the vinegar and baking soda in case my precious princess got any more bright ideas.

The whole experience reminded me that I haven't cleaned my bathroom in a month, so, after I doubly bested test #3 by putting Princess Peach down for a nap, I took my soda and trotted off to the bathroom to scrub the tub.

Royal Road Trip

OH my goodness. I'm so grateful my carriage is pulled by 4 very powerful horses, averaged 40 miles to the gallon this trip, and has A/C!!!

Unfortunatly, all the A/C in the world couldn't stop Peach and Plum from making ugly faces at me after the 5th hour of Royal Road Trip 2011.

Charming had wildly wonderful ideas of leaving at 3:00AM so the girls would sleep through the first few hours. It worked!!!

Everyone stayed happy until I tried to ride in the front seat with Charming. No Way, Jose!!!
Plum especially wanted to SEE that I was actually in the car. My enchanting singing voice has no power over these two after 2 straight days of carseat-o-rama.

Boy are we glad to be home.



True Love's Last Kiss

For weeks I've watched the king sweetly tend to the queen's needs as her condition steadily worsened. Each time he came in to help her, or just check on her for any reason, he would greet her with true love's kiss and kiss her again before he left.

Often their kisses were also accompanied with sweet words and tears. I will never forget one particular kiss and the sweet words they both exchanged. I'm sure that when my mother died last night around 8:00 she took the memory of that sweet kiss and those sweet words with her.

Part of living a Happily Ever After life is knowing that our happily ever after doesn't end when we die. I know that the love the King and Queen share will continue for eternity and they will someday be able to be together again. I know I will see my mother again. Until then, she will still be able to love me and help me as Charming, the Princesses, and I work through our own Happily Ever After.

In the mean time, I'm sure going to miss that winning Royal smile.

Happy Independance Day

Being at the castle on the 4th of July has it's perks. Of course the parade route runs right in front of our place. So, we all enjoyed a great beginning to a special month. This was Princess Peach's first parade experience. She wasn't quite sure about the whole thing. After the fire truck rolled by, she wouldn't leave my lap, not even for suckers. She'll learn!

This is kind of an off year for the Fairy Tail Family. Each night the queen gets a little bit worse, which is a surprise since each day we talk about how we can't imagine how she can get any worse. Last night Plum woke up at 11:30 PM with a fever, the queen woke up, also sick at 12:00 AM, and Peach woke up at 1:00, just in time to cling to my leg as I helped the queen get more comfortable. At 2:00 Plum was up again and with so much excitement in the middle of the night, Peach refused to go back to sleep until 4:00. Thank goodness The Dukes and Duchesses were visiting this weekend. They saved the day all weekend, holding, feeding, and chasing the princesses while I took care of Royal Business.

The whole situation makes the happiest month of the year a little bitter sweet. my emotions are definitely on overload. I mean, come on! Who tears up during a neighborhood 4th of July parade?

Have I mentioned that I miss Charming? Life just isn't the same without his help and hugs and kisses.