Chapter 14 - Made It Maid

A few weeks after the birthday bash Evelyn caught her mom between loads of laundry, and asked if she'd teach her to drive.

They had just bought the families first car, an economical prius. Alicia thought for a moment, none of her older children had ever expressed an interest in learning to drive. She was exhilarated at the thought of being able to teach her children a new skill, plus she would be able to send them to the store to pick up eggs, milk & bread every time she ran low. She agreed to teach her and told her they'd begin after lunch on Saturday.

Evelyn was a quick learner; Alicia started in residential zones, telling her not to go past 20 MPH. They worked on lane changes, checking mirrors, coming to complete stops, and generally becoming comfortable being in control of a large machine.

Alicia called it quits after about 3 hours of teaching and told Evelyn that they'd continue the lesson the next morning. On Sunday, after only 2 more hours of being taught Evelyn was ready to head down to City Hall and take her driver's test. She passed with flying colors and received her license that afternoon!

Eric had no interest in learning to drive, he was much more interested in the musical instruments. Alicia had noticed that once her children aged and became teenagers they all seemed to be interested in the items she had placed an age limit on, such as the musical instruments (which only the teenagers were allowed to mess with due to the price and how fragile they could be).

Gabriella & Glen spent the weekend playing with various toys but seemed to truly enjoy the block table which they spent quite a bit of time at, chewing on the wooden blocks and babbling away at one another.

As responsible as Evelyn seemed to be, she was still a teenager and greatly enjoyed pranking Felix. On this occasion she gave him a nightmare elixir that she concocted via the chemistry set. Let's just say he spent that night terrified in Alicia's bed!

The next morning Eric, Evelyn & Felix ate their pancakes in silence... Felix did not like his sister's pranks and while he had quite a bit to say to her, Alicia always taught her children that if they didn't have anything nice to say, they shouldn't say anything at all.

Felix had installed a video game on Alicia's computer while she had been out teaching Evelyn to drive that weekend so when she went to write after the older children had headed off to school she became quickly distracted and thoroughly enthralled.

After playing the video game for a while she was jolted back to reality by the cries of her hungry and very awake toddlers upstairs.

Alicia headed upstairs and scooped them both up from their cribs, she let them use their potties and then brought them downstairs for some breakfast!


While they ate she sat down with a nice hot cup of coffee and thought about new story ideas. She also pondered the idea of hiring a maid. It would give her more time to write, paint, work on the garden, and maybe even take up another money making endeavor. She thought about it while sipping the vanilla frappe, until her thoughts were interrupted by a large crash and squeals of joy coming from Glen.

She shook her head as she went to make sure they were both alright... A maid would be nice about now, that was for sure!

After cleaning up the mess that Glen had made, and making a note on the shopping list to buy some toddler-safe bowls for breakfast time, Alicia took a bit of time to begin teaching Gabriella to walk.

After a morning filled with cleaning, teaching, and playing, Alicia opted to take a nap when the twins did; Shiloh even joined her!

After waking up from their naps Alicia set the twins up in the play room and headed out to the garden to work, however Shiloh quickly distracted her. It seemed to be a day for distractions!

Felix seemed to make friends easily, or at least a friend, this little girl came home with him every day after school to do homework and gossip for a week straight. Is love in the air?

Before bed that night Alicia & Evelyn worked with the twins to continue developing their skills to walk and talk.

Within a week Alicia broke down and pulled the paper out, she scanned the classified ads tediously, searching for the right maid. She had requirements, her main one being that the maid HAD to be a female... she didn't want to build a relationship with someone and then end up using them as a donor, and thus having to fire them!

She quickly found what she was looking for and set up a working interview... this one seemed to be a keeper, for only 75$ a day she cleaned the house top to bottom, including laundry and toddler potties which left Alicia with loads more time to not only bring in more income for her ever growing family but scout out new donors and spend time with her children.

The kids used the extra time that they were given (from not having to help clean the house) to socialize and interact with one another, and of course to work on building their life skills.