magic tricks for adults with too much on their plates

Want to know how to turn this...

into this?

Well, you need a whole lot of this:

We had a wood stacking party, or an earn-yourself-pizza-and-beer party, yesterday and wouldn't you know the brawn and determination that showed up.  Personally, I think the wood slide had a lot to do with it.

(Maya would only slide her wood down if Matt was there to receive it which meant that she would pause and yell insistently to him while the adults had arm loads of wood scraping our arms to pieces while she held up the line.)

Every year we get 2 cord of wood and it takes a month or more to get it in, arm load by arm load, into the basement.  I remember the year that Sandi was pregnant with Maya I did it all by myself.  Patti installed the handy slide down to the basement but when you are working alone it is just easier to walk down the stairs rather than drop the wood and then pick it up again at the bottom of the slide. 

Can I just tell you how FAST the 3 cord of wood disappeared this year?

Maya and Anna stood in wonderment over it.

Truth be told, though, you do get very dirty.  And sweaty too.  When I finally made it to the shower and peeled my sports bra off, wood shavings and dirt dropped all over the floor.  It is never less than 80 degrees with full humidity when we load wood and yesterday didn't disappoint in that regard.

Just in case anyone is inclined to call the child labor law enforcer, rest assured it wasn't all work for them.

I had hopes we might get it all done in one day but I had no idea we would be so speedy.  Mindy and Charissa came right at 10 when we planned to start (god love 'em).  Mindy, pregnant with twins (!) made us delicious food while the three of us filled the upstairs wood closet and then started on the basement.  By the time the Smiths and Manharts came around 1 we already had 1 cord in and we had stopped for lunch.  Two more hours and all those hands and the other 2 cord was done. 

Sandi said she and Charissa, working the end of the slide, noticed that my loads got a lot bigger "after the boys showed up."  What can I say?  I'm inherently competitive, although I am sticking to the story that my back felt more capable the more wood I loaded.

We had music blaring and laughter in the air.  We were a perfect example of "many hands make light work."  Loading wood was never so much fun.

We were quite proud of ourselves.

We paid the kids in cookies and dollars and they were quite proud too.  (And don't you love the way Brady is holding Ella in this picture?)

The adults sat around on the patio for another 2 hours after the tarp was folded and the lawn raked clean of all the wood debris.  The kids played so contentedly it almost didn't feel like they were there.  As we sat there soaking up the last drop of a summer weekend, I looked around with immense gratitude at my friends and had two thoughts.  How is it that people love us enough to spend their Labor Day weekend Sunday helping us load our wood?

And why haven't we asked before?

When everyone went home, and I was scrubbing the girls clean in the tub, Ella asked, "When is our next party?"

Girl after my own heart.