Excuse: n. a plea offered in extenuation of a fault or for release from an obligation

I haven’t blogged in a while. You’d think I’d have time. I mean . . .  I don't work outside the home. I’m kind of a lousy housekeeper so there’s not a lot of time spent in that useless, never-ending endeavor, I don’t lounge in front of the soaps in the afternoon—in fact the T.V. is never on during the day. The meals I cook are healthy yet simple so there’s not a lot of planning or prep time.  So yeah . . . you’d think I’d have tons of time to post a blog or two from time to time.  

Oh, but wait . . . I have one of these: a Senior Varsity Football Playing Boy Scout. Yep . . . I've got an SVFPBS. And because I have an SVFPBS, I’ve spent my potential blogging hours in different ways. Like running kolache /doughnut interference for a bunch of sweaty Boy Scouts as they sawed, hammered and screwed boards into frames. See, Ronnie’s Eagle Project was to build three cages for the Texas Wildlife Rehabilitation Coalition. 

Which was a pretty cool project! And while the boys worked, I made sure they were fed and hydrated, found myself schlepping filtered water in and out of the house because basically, I refuse to buy a bunch of plastic bottles . . . they’re the bane of  our current existence. I was also responsible for spraying the boys with the concoction of their choosing,

“Bug spray anyone?”

“How about sunblock?”

Next it was a whole day of installation. I was designated historian, out there in the 100 degree temps taking pictures while the boys delivered and installed the cages they’d built. Each cage took a little over an hour to assemble in the yards of the selected rehabbers.  The pictures will be installed too… into the Scout Scrapbook I’ve been working on . . . as soon as I find time for that!  

I turned my attention away from scouts on Monday and attended a Project Prom meeting, signing up for a couple of fund-raising teams. If you’ve never heard of Project Prom here’s a little bit about it: it was invented by some brilliant parent a long time ago who realized that kids have a tendency to go out after prom and work on perfecting their partying techniques. Teenagers being what they are, this sometimes means drinking. And sometimes driving. And sometimes this night of celebration can turn tragic instead. So Project Prom provides a safe place for them to hang out after prom. The kids get bussed to a large lock-in where they have all night to play all sorts of games, win stuff and have a bunch of fun before being bussed home, tired, happy and best of all, safe. Project Prom is a ton of work and cost a lot of money but . . . hey, we’re saving teenagers! Definitely a worthy cause!

Later in the week, I donned my creative thinking cap and created a JPG file from a picture of Ronnie when he was just a baby, all diapered up and reaching for a football. I added some verbiage to it, cut it to the right size and then grayscaled it for an ad that will display in the program for local varsity games.  

Concurrently, I was rushing to the dollar and craft stores for stuff to use to decorate the Varsity locker room before the first game. I bought a bunch of crepe paper and football themed party stuff. And I spent a bit of time making about 90 cute little magnets for the boy’s lockers.  

Then, on Wednesday night, some of us moms and dads sneaked into the locker room and gussied it up a bit.  First thing we did was to hang about a gazillion of those little scented trees because, well . . . ewwww! I learned that we actually are supposed to do this for every game! Great.

Thursday night we were at the first game of the season which didn’t end until after 10:00. (Our guys kicked butt by the way). It was out for a quick dinner till 11:00 or so, then home, exhausted and having to get up at 5:30.

So that’s my excuse for not blogging . . . it’s all because of my SVFPBS. Even though I’m actually blogging about the fact that he’s the reason I’m not blogging. Hmm . . . sort of nullifies the whole excuse thing, doesn't it? Guess I'll have to come up with something else.