sometimes, there are days when there’s just not time to stop and snuggle.
luckily, those are the days my kids seem to need them most and remind me those are the days i also seem to need them the most.
whew, what a weekend
Weekends are usually busy, occasionally totally laid back, and every now and then, down right exhausting. This weekend has been one of the ones that leaves you needing a weekend to recover from your weekend. Yesterday Brad officiated a funeral in the morning, a wedding in the afternoon, and the family attended a baptismal birthday party in the the evening. Full day! Good day, but full. Today has also been a busy one with an appreciation lunch for all our Student Edge volunteers following service this morning. Brad called just now as I typed to say that he’s finally on his way home. Hopefully the rest of this day can play out to be very low key and very family oriented. Hope your weekend was amazing!
And because what’s a post without a picture, here’s a picture of the kids all reading the other afternoon while I folded clothes:
put us down in pencil
Although I know kids can change your plans quickly and often at the last minute, I’m still a planner. It’s just the way I’m wired. I like to put things on the calendar well in advance. It’s not that we’re so busy we must plan 3 weeks in advance (although the bigger or kids get the quicker the days do fill up), but there is a certain peace I have in knowing things are planned.
We planned Nate’s party for Friday the 20th. His birthday was on the 11th, but the Friday before and the Friday after wouldn’t work for various reasons.
So, when he came home Wednesday not acting like himself I let the kids just turn on the tv and veg. It was a much more peaceful option than letting them play and listening to a very crabby Nate get upset over every little misstep of Jilly and Laurel. As we headed up for bedtime, I noticed Nate’s forehead was burning up. Brad mentioned that he thought it felt hot when he had gotten home from work. I’m assuming crabby Nate was probably running fever since before I picked him up from school.
Thursday, fever won’t go away. Must make a decision about the birthday party. Party canceled, well technically rescheduled. Friday, woke up with no fever. Yay! Oh, no, it’s back. Must have just still had some ibuprofen in his system. Glad party is postponed. Saturday, fever still hanging around. Trip to doctor. Fever should ended Sunday. Sunday, very slight fever. Glimmer of hope! Oh, what’s that Jilly? You say you have a headache. Yup, and a gradually increasing fever to go along with it. Joy.
So, today was suppose to be a day of celebrating Nate and Brad’s dad’s birthdays, but no go. We’ll have to pass on that one too. At this point, I’m just hoping that this is all out of our house by this coming Thursday when we have Nate’s party rescheduled for.
We’ll see. Never can tell for sure with kids.
At least it’s nice enough to still get outside some.
And, flowers are blooming which always makes this girl just that much happier.
a case of the mondays
usually i am a pretty pro-monday kinda gal. i actually love ‘em. since most weekends are pretty busy for us, monday has always been such a nice relief. prior to school starting this fall you would 9 times out of 10 find the kids and i hanging out in our jammies the entire monday long. it’s the perfect reaction to an on the go weekend. school has some what changed the pace of our daily life, and mondays are quite so laid back anymore. i still tend to enjoy them though since the girls and i are able to maintain a pretty low-key monday existence.
then came today.
it’s bound to happen. we’re all going to have one of “those” mondays from time to time. i guess i had finally come back around in the rotations of handing out cases of the mondays.
i decided i would help myself out a bit by bathing the girls this morning since i knew brad had a meeting at cornerstone tonight. only having one child to bathe tonight would definitely be easier than three. laurel is first up so i can get her bathed and down for nap before needing to get her up in time for our stroll intense walk around walnut creek at 10. all is great until i spy it. i had let her have 3 toys in the tub, but now there were more than 3 objects in the tub. yup. poop in the tub. every mom’s dream nightmare. out of the tub comes laurel and out come the bottle of cleaner. scrub tub. (yay for a clean bathtub!) refill and reinsert laurel for a second attempt at a bath. transition to nap goes smoothly. jilly is bathed with no extra drama. yay for two clean girls.
fast-forward to lunch time. laurel and jilly are both happily eating lunch. i’ve just begun working on my sandwich. jilly (as is her norm) announces that although she absolutely, beyond a shadow of a doubt had no need to go potty before lunch now must use the potty. i send her off and add cheese to my turkey sandwich. then screams of “mommmmyyyyy!” i don’t even have to move to know what’s happened. as i enter the bathroom, i find that yes, the contents of all 5 great lakes now reside in a puddle on the half bath floor. jilly’s bath is now null and void. i take the easy route and give her a baby wipes thorough wipe down and scrubbing. jilly is now redressed and back at the table finishing lunch. i soak up the great lakes and figure a clorox wipe floor scrubbing will have to do until naptime. back to fixing my sandwich that by now i should have finished eating.
fast-forward to nap time. you know, i’m thankful for my scrubbed tub. after working through my bsf day 5, i decide it’s time to mop. if i’m going to pull out the mop, i’m going to go ahead and mop the kitchen, dining, entryway, and the peed in bathroom. i’d been wanting to mop yesterday and am now so thankful that i ran out of time before small group came over. so, i mopped. and felt good about now having mopped floor to go along with the scrubbed tub.
fast-forward to post dinner. we hit fazoli’s for dinner. in all my unplanned cleaning efforts, i forgot to pull anything out for dinner. a nonchalant mention of fazoli’s to my fazoli loving family, and we had our minds made up. (oh, and i decided to wash my van real quick between brad coming home and heading out for an early dinner since way too soon it’ll be time to pay for car washes once again.) jilly always requests lemonade when getting a kids meal. she’d had her milk at home already because she will only drink skim and most places serve 2%. she never finishes her lemonade. it always comes home with us. (i think this is intentional.) after the happenings of the day, i’m a little leery that next up might be nate getting sick and throwing up all over the carpet or furniture, well, because that would just fit in with how the day had gone. then i hear a strange noise. laurel is missing. laurel is in the kitchen. sitting in a big pool of lemonade holding a fazoli’s kid-size cup which had been left too close to the edge of the kitchen table that our littlest is now big enough to reach things placed close to the edge of. yay. now, a kid and a floor i’ve already washed today are both a sticky mess. (can i crawl in bed yet?) clean kid with baby wipes. clean floor with clorox wipes. pray that bedtime come very, very soon.
let’s hope my turn at a case of the mondays doesn’t come around again for a long, long time. (and that i don’t get awakened during the night to find vomit somewhere in the house!)
a sore arch
a sore arch is what i have.
they say “learn something new every day”.
yesterday i learned you can bruise the bottom of your foot.
how?
see this:
innocent paci clip?
paci clip, yes. innocent, no!
it use to be straight rather than at a close to 90 degree angle.
it was at the bottom of the stairs.
i didn’t see it.
but i sure did (and do) feel it.
been busy
lately:
the skies have been fairly blue
the grass is greening
the leaves are budding out
the perennials are making a comeback
which means we’re:
going on walks
lots of walks
rolling in the grass
fighting the wind
and loving every minute of spring’s return!
treading water
to say that parenting has been a stress, a struggle, and a sanity stretcher lately would be a huge understatement.
i just found myself walking through our house, which is currently enjoying the peacefulness of quiet time, wondering why God doesn’t give us our most challenging child first so we know we’re facing the toughest of it. it seems when talking with many friends our second child has thrown us for quite a loop after pretty easy-going firsts. i know this is not always the case for everyone, but wow!
don’t get me wrong, i love my jilly mae with a most immense love which would go to the ends of the world and beyond for her. it breaks my heart to see her cry, and she melts me with her springy curls and dimpled cheeks. and nate is by no stretch of the imagination a perfect child who is always obedient.
we have just been through some of our toughest days yet with jilly, and i feel like i am drowning in the sea of parenting, bobbing up and down gasping for breath thoroughly exhausted. brad and i have often noticed that really tough patches with either child seem to come in two week segments. for roughly two weeks one child will test us to the point where we just don’t know what else to do, and then there will be a return a more regular balance of behavior/attitude/emotion after that time frame.
i think it’s getting to me more this time because i worry about how much harder these times will be when we have gunther here in a few weeks. am i really ready to handle 3 kids? should we have spaced our kids out more to give each one more attention in these younger years? how can i do a better job of being the calm, collected parent who deals with things in a rational way?
it’s been a rough few days, and i suppose i’m hoping putting some of my thoughts into written words will help me somehow.
silver and gold
make new friends
but keep the old
one is silver
and the other’s gold
well, we packed up and shipped moved out.
we’ve gone from this:
to this:
i love the new house. for some reason though, i miss the old one. i look forward to the new one having the sense of familiarity and comfort that i feel when i think of the old one. luckily, i know it will come with time. i know we made the right move for our family, but i think i’m still in transition.
in the meantime, i’ll continue the endless work of unpacking boxes, organizing stuff, and trudging through the mucky new sod to move the sprinkler. (ross, totally expect a call at some point regarding self-installing a sprinkler system.)
and for those who’ve been asking for some pictures of the inside, here’s one to somewhat satisfy your desires.
we’re still tweaking things, and getting things like we want, but we’re starting to get things figured out. we’re hoping to do some painting of the kitchen on friday. i’ll post pictures once we get it done.
rainy crazy
It’s like they know it’s cold, rainy, and momma ain’t taking ‘em anywhere today.
Our day so far?
A battle for the goldfish which I think the crumb covered couch was the big loser of that battle.
A child found sitting upon the coffee table. (Not going to say if this was following watching a parental figure do a similar thing.)
Missing child.
A dragon shaking his booty.
A tiger trying to escape.
Underwear/Diaper-only children running through my house.
Bath-water soaked underwear thanks to “helpful” little sister.
A stool hiding in the sink from a certain little miss who thought it might help her get in on brother’s bath time.
I think I’d better stop documenting this day, and let it be one of those “don’t tell daddy” days.
