I just want to stay home! November 29, 2006

Okay, I’m bugged!  Danny had his 2 month well baby checkup yesterday and was supposed to get his shots.  I get there and they say “Oh, we don’t do shots here anymore because most people’s insurance isn’t covering it anymore.”  Okay. but MY insurance DOES cover them and so now I have to cart ALL of my children down to the Health Dept to get shots.  So its just one more thing that I have to leave the house for.  Maybe I’m just lazy but leaving the house is something I try not to do very often.  I’m really really happy if I can get by with only leaving the house once a week to do my grocery shopping.  Any more than that and things start to go a little haywire.

Because I’m homeschooling, I am finding that I (and the kids) need to be on a fairly regimented schedule so that we get it all done in a timely manner and so that I still have time to do my chores.  When we have to leave the house too often, that whole schedule really gets messed up and I have cranky kids, a disastrous mess of a house and a husband that wants to know why I haven’t been doing school with the kids.  Yeah.  I can do without that stress.  Therefore I try to avoid leaving the house at all costs.  Now there are some people out there who say that not leaving my house isn’t healthy. ( you know who you are too, I don’t want to hear it.)  I disagree, what is unhealthy is for me to neglect doing the things that are necessary to keep my family running smoothly.  My family is the ministry that God has given me and if I neglect to take care of them the best I know how, I am not fulfilling the purpose God has given me.  Staying home helps me to keep things in order and get things done.

All of this rambling to say that I’m really frustrated that I have to go to yet another appointment for something that I really should have been able to take care of yesterday.  But since there is really nothing I can do(other than just not get him his shots and yes Becky I’m seriously consideringit), I’m going to suck it up and go out yet again in the cold.

Well, madness calls and I better not ignore it. 

Can I be so proud?!!!? November 21, 2006

Just a quick YIPPEE!!!  Becca is reading!!!  we’d been struggling so much and today something just clicked and she got it!!!

Ready to roll November 19, 2006

Well, I’m back from my stay at the hotel and I accomplished so much.  I got my schedule made and I got lesson plans made for the rest of the school year.  I’m rested and I think that now that I’ve got all that squared away I won’t feel like I’ve got this axe hanging over my head.  I definitely didn’t plan well enough for school.  I will need to start prepping for next year as soon as we get our curriculum in April.  Well, I knew this would be a short blog.  Are you all ready for Thanksgiving? 

I have a wonderful husband!!! November 18, 2006

My husband – God Bless him – is sending me away for a day of rest.  He got a hotel room for Daniel (baby) and I for a night.  So I am going to gather all of my homeschool materials and my scheduling sheets and get ourselves organized and on track for the remainder of the school year.  And while some of you out there may not think that qualifies as relaxing, it really is for me.  I rarely get to work on these things without someone or something interrupting me.  Daniel is on a schedule so he won’t be an interruption, he’ll just be some company so I don’t feel too alone.    I am so blessed to have a hubby who looks out for my mental well being like that.  So that said, see you next week and hope all of you have a great weekend.

Would you rather have a dog…. November 15, 2006

… or a kid? November 15, 2006

Okay, for those of you who know my kids (and wonderful they are) know that this isn’t all that far fetched.  Those of you who know me also know that this would put me in a full blown panic attack.    So far so good, but I think I’ll make sure I don’t let the boys see these pics.  I’d hate for them to get any ideas. 

Snow is in the air. November 10, 2006

Well, its officially winter here in Iowa.  While I would never really want to move, right now, I could use some warmer weather. 

I don’t want anyone to think that I don’t enjoy being a mom.  I do.  I love my kids to death and I wouldn’t trade them for anything.  (not even a little bit of sanity.)  But I got woke up this morning at 6 AM to screams of “Its snowing, ITS SNOWING!!!!!!  Mom, get up its SNOWING!!!  Can we go out to play, please please puhleeze!!!!!”  All of this before I’ve had a chance to smell the coffee brewing in the kitchen or even get fully out of my leftover dreams.  And then when I said no because I had a chiropracter appt and they had to go to grandma’s this morning – you would think that I had just told them they had to eat slugs for breakfast.  Now, I do understand their anxiousness to go out and play in it.  Its the kind of wet snow that was going to be melted before nap time and they know that if they don’t go out first thing, its not likely that they’ll get out before its gone.  And now, its afternoon and the snow is mostly gone and all that is left is the mud and soggy leaves.  I feel genuinely bad that they didn’t get to play in the snow.  But…what can I do?

My other rant is one that I think every parent in snow territory will understand.  Trying to get coats, hats and mittens on 3 little kids that are absolutely overcome with the excitement of going outside where the snow is.  Even if it is just a walk to the van to leave.  Of course, its not just a straight walk to the van.  By the time I’ve gotten out there, which, mind you, may be as little as 2 or 3 minutes, at least one but probably both boys have rolled down the hill, someone has managed to lose a mitten and is crying because their hand is freezing, and another is trying to get as much snow into their pants as possible so that they can cry and whine the whole way to where ever it is that we are going.  Ever see the Family Circus cartoons where it shows one of the kids paths to do what should be a really easy quick task?  Its alot like that.

With that in mind, have you ever seen the kids depicted on tv or books or whatever that absolutely cannot stay clean for even a minute?  I thought it was a gross exaggeration and (unfairly) thought that their parents just didn’t have their kid under enough control.  Well, I have one of those children.  James absolutely cannot stay clean for a minute.  We were getting ready for church on Sunday, and managed to keep him clean all morning.  We even made him stay inside until we were ready to walk out the door.  We walked outside and the first thing he did was slide down the dirt on our front yard.  Out of the entire front yard that has lovely green grass on it he picked the 1 foot strip of dirt in the yard to slide down.  And this isn’t an isolated event.  I’m realizing that I need to keep reminding him not to get dirty but also resign myself to the fact that he is a boy that has dirt hardwired into his brain.  And be willing to brush him off and just let him be dirty.

Naptime has arrived and I must get them laid down.  Ahhh…maybe now I can get that cup of coffee….

Entry for November 06, 2006 November 6, 2006

Hi out there!  I think I am only talking to my sister since no one else knows this is here.   

My neighbor asked me how I was coping with four children and I said it’s no big deal.  Then I have days like today.  The baby never stopped fussing, I’d sit down to nurse and Ben would declare “I have to go potty!!!!”.  And then at some point I realize I don’t hear them at all and they have all gone outside BAREFOOT!!! Its only like 40 degrees.  But thats okay, I’m actually starting to like being insane.  I don’t take things quite so seriously anymore.  Tomorrow has to be better.