If you recall, I’ve spent most of this summer in school, which meant I haven’t spent it doing normal Mom things, like putting away dishes. There were days where I arrived home long enough to catch a few hours of sleep and then leave again. If I was lucky, I managed to see family members while I was there.

On Monday, I was walking through my kitchen and noticed my plates weren’t right. In an aside, have you ever had anyone help do dishes at your house and for a week later you’re still trying to figure out where they put something? Yeah. Hate that. Anyway, I looked in my cupboard and realized my plates weren’t where they were supposed to be. They were in the right spot, technically, but they weren’t right.

"Autumn, the plates go red, blue, green, yellow."

Autumn looked at me. She looked at the plates. She didn’t bother looking at me again. Instead she turned to her dad for help.

"Dad," she said with lots of sarcasm plus a bit of a whine all mixed in with an eyeroll. "She’s color-coordinating the plates."

That’s right. I am. And I’m serious too. I spent more than a year before I found a set of dishes that I liked. In the end it ended up being four sets of dishes that all look alike but are in four different colors, all which complement my kitchen. I have 16 plates, bowls, small plates and cups and they have an order. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. They are kept in a hutch in my kitchen and you can see the color through the glass door. They are stacked up on the center shelf, perfectly precisioned in decorating order. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow.

And when I went to the cupboard Monday, they weren’t all Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. They started off right, but on top it went to pot. And we had Red. Blue. Blue. Green. Green. Red. Yellow. Yellow. It was just…. WRONG. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow. Say it with me.

That’s the way they go. Period.

That doesn’t make me weird, right? I mean there’s lots of things that make me weird, but this is normal. I believe. I like order. I think that’s why I like my camper. Because everything a family of six needs is there and it all has a certain place. We haven’t even owned it that long and I already know where everything goes. And even better, the kids know.

I considered, briefly, to change the place where the kids store their clothes, but then I realized. I can’t. They know. They automatically put their underwear and socks in the basket under the one bench of the table. They know what cupboard to place their clean clothes and where to dispose of their dirty clothes. It’s too late to change. Everything has it’s place.

My house, I try to make that way. But I realized this summer that while it is perfectly clear to me. Red. Blue. Yellow. Green. My family was never clued in before. Do you know how many times I ‘ve showed Autumn the "proper way to fold towels" this summer? Sure, it’s great that she is doing it and there’s that wisdom out there that doing it is half the battle and I shouldn’t worry that it isn’t exactly the way I’d do it…

But face it, we’re a family of six and we have lots of towels. You have to fold them a certain way to get maximum storage possibilities. So, that said, there is a RIGHT way to fold towels. Even if I don’t do the folding.

What I need to figure out is how to get my family to learn all of the quirky little right ways that I know but I’ve never shared. Like the plates. Red. Blue. Green. Yellow.

Tonight, I went into the kitchen and I was cooking dinner. When it came time to grab the plates, I turned around and looked at my plates. There were wide bands of color. Four red plates. Four blue plates. Four yellow plates. Four green plates. I grabbed the two green plates off the top, already yelling Autumn’s name.

"What do you want Autumn for?" Steve asked from the living room.

"My plates."

He laughed. "Autumn didn’t do it."

It’s just not right for a husband to mess with his wife’s mind. That’s something we save for the kids.

"Yeah, Mom?" Autumn asks.

"You’re grounded. Three weeks."

"What did I do?"

"Look at my plates."

I think they’re still laughing at me….

Thanks for playing.

I turned 35 on Saturday. To celebrate, my husband and I and our kids went camping for the weekend. On Friday we went to Michigan’s Adventure. We arrived at 10 (the rides began at 11) and stayed until the park closed at 9 p.m. The kids had a blast (and so did Steve and I).

Steve corrupted my sweet little girl Maxine. On every ride she went on she put up her arms even the park’s largest ride when she sat in the very front with her father. Everyone won something during the day. We had fun at both the amusement park and the water park.

I even learned to fly. What better way to spend my last day as a 34-year-old then by freefalling from 18 stories high and then doing a pendalum sort of swing back and forth? There is no better way. You can see the ride I went on with Steve at www.skycoaster.com Click on the Media link and you can see a video. We also invested in a DVD of Steve and I doing this.

Our children watched from below. I was responsible for pulling the rip cord. Amanda, my 10 year old, thought I pulled the wrong thing when Steve and I began to plummet head first. She couldn’t watch. Then we were caught by the cords and began swinging. It was a blast. I’m glad Steve convinced me to do it, and I really liked that he was there with me too.

More blogging later.

My mom, as my daughter reported in comments earlier, was not lost. She was being an adult and apparently either on the phone chatting to someone and ignoring/not hearing her call waiting and/or out of the house and downtown. I suggest Mom gets a cell phone for the sake of Dee’s sanity.

I was also not lost, although I have not been blogging.

See, the great thing about having the camper is that within an hour you can decide to go camping for the weekend and pack up clothes and food (everything else is already packed) and leave your home and on your way to a campground. We picked a campground that is described as "rustic" which means no electicity or water, but we have a battery and holding tanks and a generator to recharge said battery. It was nice and fun. Then we returned home to LAUNDRY. Only to do it all again. Right?

Spontaniety is the spice of life (spelling optional).

So, this is a quick blog because I must make dinner.

I am starting week two of my three week summer vacation. So guess what I did today? I went to school for pre-semester meetings. Again later this week too. I’m not complaining. I love the start of a new school year. I’ve already started buying my school supplies.

Later Gator.