Today is a day, if ever there was a day, when I could use Harry Potter’s Lucky Potion.  Well, sometimes life with kids is just like that.  Things were rolling along rather smoothly until that dreaded moment, at about noon, when I announced, “It is time to go outside and work.”  No, not play, I said that childhood swear word, “work”.  This evoked a number of irate and unhappy exclamations from my children, especially, numbers Two and Three.  Number Four is still away visiting her dad.  She will return tonight.  Number One was already commencing her chores when I made the announcement.  The work ahead of us that seemed so distasteful to my children was the pool cleaning project and mowing the lawn.  Somehow, this lawn of mine seems to take joy in annoying my son who ends up mowing the lawn each week.  He should feel lucky.  We skipped mowing it last week because I was out of town, so he got out of most of his chores since we all weren’t here. The lucky kid!

The pool has not been well maintained this summer.  I just haven’t had the time, energy or motivation to be at it every day like I’ve needed to.  I also haven’t had the money since what little extra discretionary spending I’ve had has been dissolved quickly with car repairs.  I’ve had to stretch the chlorine and other chemicals to the point that they are beyond out before replenishing.  And, I haven’t been consistent with, well, anything regarding pool maintenance.  I guess it is because I’m not just a little ticked off that my kids are perfectly content to let me work myself to death everyday even though I never get in and enjoy it with them.  “And why’s that?” you might ask. “Because someone still has to do laundry, clean the garage, fix the meals, shop for groceries, see to it that cars are maintained and lawns watered, and that the kids are completing the few tasks each day that they are assigned.”  Thank goodness one of those tasks is dishes, because I often think, one more thing these days, would just do me in.  Of course, I know intellectually it really wouldn’t because I’m a survivor, but on a feeling level, that’s just sometimes where I land momentarily.)

The lucky potion would have helped me today.  It would have advised me to phrase my announcement about going outside to work differently and it would have helped me change my own attitude about the whole process.  You see, I wasn’t in the best of spirits to begin with myself.  I was feeling a bit unhappy (a whole blog to itself, I suppose, and a juicy one at that maybe), somewhat agitated and I think my children picked up on this and became agitated themselves.  The Luck Potion would have reminded me to approach the entire project as a fun thing to do together instead of the mess I was quickly making of it for all of us by being tense and edgy. 

The way the Lucky Potion works, at least as outlined in J.K. Rowling’s sixth book, “Harry Potter and the Half-Blood Prince” is that it takes only two teaspoons but it does wear off after 24 hours. It makes you lucky, though, and anything you accomplish goes well for you.  Hmmm, what a thought.  If we had a lucky potion, what day would we use it for and what would we attempt to accomplish in that time?  No fair, making more.  It takes six months to brew the stuff.  Even so, the idea captured my imagination today as I finished the sixth book in the Harry Potter series.  (Note to readers:  One of my goals this summer was to read the entire series.  I started at the beginning of July and have read six of the seven books.  When I was out of town earlier this week, I picked up a hardbound copy of “The Deathly Hallows” for half price at a wonderful used book store only half a block from the Hilton that I stayed in.  No, I didn’t stay on my own nickel.  It was a conference I was attending to prepare me to teach struggling 4th grade readers in the hopes that I, and I alone, can prevent them from being struggling 5th grade readers.  LOL!  Anyway, I will begin the 7th in the series today and I estimate I will finish by Monday evening at the latest.)  Back to pondering the Lucky Potion question:  What/when would you decide to use the Lucky Potion if you had just enough to last 24 hours and why? 

I think I’m just going to leave it at that and see what people suggest, if anything.  I’ll include my own ponderings in a separate post.  I’d love to hear what others would do with the Lucky Potion if they could.