The Invasion

It all started out innocently enough, a few toys here and there. You know the usual thing…but then, they slowly and ominously started to take over the house! First it was the kids’ room, then the back room. From there it progressed to the garage, until finally, there was no room left untouched! We decided that the invaders had to go. It was a tough job. Broken toys that were thrown into the trash mysteriously kept finding their way back into the house. Toys that were designated to the “donate” pile were found hidden behind sofas and under beds. But in the end, we were successful! However, all is not yet well. Next, we must tackle….mom’s books!

Thoughts on working from home

I am so very lucky that I am able to work from home. I work as a customer service representative, taking calls. This means I can’t have any background noise, or phone calls coming in while I am working. It is such a blessing. However, it does have its ups and downs.

When you tell people that you work from home, they don’t always hear the “work” part. Everyone seems to hear something different. Friends and family hear “I’m home, call me or drop by whenever you want.” When I tell the hubby and the kids I’m taking phone calls, what I am trying to say is, “Please keep the house quiet. I need to create a professional environment.” My sweet little girls hear, “Mom’s working, yell at the top of your lungs!” My son hears, “Mom wants to be serenaded with blaring rap music while she’s on the phone.” I my darling husband turns up the television volume all the way, so that the ringing of my phone doesn’t disturb him.

The only way to resolve this issue is to work in the wee hours of the morning, or what Ani poetically calls “the butt crack of dawn.” So I stumble out of bed anytime between 4:30 am 5:30 am to work. Well, I have to be up soon, so I’d better get ready to call it a night…

Haley Loses Her 1st Tooth

Yesterday I lost my first tooth, and I am very excited. I put it under my pillow in a little bear tooth fairy box. Then when I woke up this morning, I had a dollar! I love to get money from the tooth fairy. I have an empty medicine bottle, and I put my dollar and all of the rest of my money into it, but I want a better container. I made a notebook with a story about my first loose tooth. Bye! It was nice telling you about my tooth.

What do you mean you want me to cut the grass? It’s almost winter. Lawn mowing season is over! (Christopher- the sports fanatic)

Time Warp

Today started out like every other Sunday, with the usual frantic activity getting ready for church entails. Shane and I had the usual arguments about who would dress the girls and get breakfast ready. This was a good Sunday. I actually had time to put on some make up, so I look pretty cute. We rushed off to church, to minutes early as usual. (Shane hates to be late). He was a little crankier than usual this morning, because it is the first Sunday of the month, and we are fasting. Kaeyln managed to sneak out of the house wearing her pink Sleeping Beauty slippers, but we didn’t want to go back home to change her shoes.. We got in some exercise, going from door to door, trying to find one that wasn’t locked. The chapel was still dark, and the church was empty.

People slowly began to trickle in. Either church was going to be really late this morning, or almost no one was planning to show up. Our friend, Betty arrived, “You’re here rather early.” Yikes! Daylight savings time! We forgot to set our clocks back! What would we do with our extra hour? Because we are fasting, we couldn’t even go out to breakfast. “Great, now I have to go an extra hour without eating,” was Shane’s comment. However, every cloud has a silver lining. We were able to go home and exchange Kaelyn’s slippers for a more suitable pair of shoes.

Impending Grandparent-Hood

As I am sure I have mentioned, Ani and Alvin were married in April. It was a beautiful wedding, culminating with a honeymoon in Hawaii. My daughter was, of course, the most gorgeous bride in the entire universe. (I may be just a little bit prejudiced) Alvin looked pretty great too!
Just a couple of months after the wedding, the kids announced that we were going to be grandparents. But the real surprise came when we found out Ani and Alvin are expecting twins! Of course, the entire family is thrilled! Ani and Alvin are to be the proud parents to little Amaya and Alvin.
The kids invited us to view a 3D/4D ultrasound of the babies. I was so thrilled! We all crammed into the ultrasound room where soothing music played in the background. Both babies were facing Ani’s spine. The nurse conducting the ultrasound gave her some lollipops in the hopes that the sugar would induce the twins to move. However, those are stubborn little ones! They refused to show their faces. Little Alvin did go to great lengths to insure that we know that he is definitely all boy! The technology for these ultrasounds is truly amazing. We saw Little Amaya’s foot, and it was so clear! You could tell exactly what it was, you could even count the toes. Ani and Alvin were very disappointed because they really wanted to see their children’s’ faces.
I, on the other hand, found the whole thing very exciting. You could even make out the textures on the umbilical cord. I have to say, though, it did look rather crowded in there….

Time

My friend Mary emailed me a poem she wrote about time. This got me thinking.

Several weeks ago, I went to see a psychiatrist. I told him I was depressed and needed drugs. He thought this was hysterical. He advised me to forget about the drugs, and try getting some rest! Now it was my turn to be amused. After I picked my self up off the floor, I decided to follow the doctor’s advice. I came home and made a list if my responsibilities and priorities.

I home school the kids, and this is important to our family. Giving this up is not an option. I thought about giving up my small home based business, but then how would we be able to afford gas? I thought about giving up picking up my niece and nephew after school, but then they would become latch key kids and grow up to tell their therapists awful things about me. After exploring all options, I decided that housework was the only thing I could afford to ease up on. But wait! What about my adoring family? Surely they would help! Plan A: I told my loving family what the doctor said, and asked for some help around the house. My son was still laughing on his way out to shoot hoops (after filling the sink with his dirty dishes). My three little girls haven’t gotten over the nightmares…
To be completely fair, my husband did try to help for a minute, but the lure of the television was just too strong.
So I went on to Plan B: Just let the house go! This worked out okay for a while, but then visions of Children’s Services showing up, taking one look at the sink full of dishes and the toys strewn all over the house inundated my mind.
Right now, I am working on Plan C: Nagging the family to death. So far, this plan has not been successful, but I am not giving up without a fight!
In the meantime, the psychiatrist has offered to set up a bucket and hose in his office so that I will be able to fit in a shower during my next visit to him…..

Hip parenting?!

Ok, so as if I am not under enough pressure…today I found an article called “Hip Parenting”. Under the caption is a picture of a proud father with his son….dad is sporting tons of tattoos and a Mohawk haircut. Great…just when I thought I was getting the hang of the whole parenting thing, (it’s only taken 24 years), now I find out that to be a good mom, I have to be hip! In the 80’s I found out I needed to work outside the home to be a good mom. After all, what kind of example was I setting for my daughters by wasting my time at home? In the 1990’s, the catch phrase was “quality time”. That was an interesting one….it doesn’t matter if you only spend 10 minutes a day with the little ones, as long as it was well spent. And here I was, convinced I needed to put time and effort into parenting! Now, I find that I need to be a cool mom, or my kids could be warped for life. If I don’t get my nose pierced, my daughters may decide to join a cult, or may need years of therapy! According to my kids, I don’t even know what hip is! Maybe I need to wear belly baring fashions. Although I don’t think it might look too attractive after 5 kids, it works for Brittany! Oh wait…she lost custody of her kids. Maybe instead of playing the “Wiggles” CD in my minivan, I should be exposing the kids to “Sublime” and taking them to church meetings on the back of a Harley. After all, Madonna is actually writing books for children now…
I think it may be hopeless. I am just not “edgy”. I will never get the hang of being a perfect parent.

Musings

We have so much to be grateful for today. Shane's mother is doing much better, and is on the road to recovery. She had surgery yesterday, and a pacemaker was installed. Last week, when Shane received the call telling him that his mother was on life support, we were convinced that Shane would loose his mom! Today, she has been moved from the ICU to a regular room and is doing much better.

I am so grateful to all of our family and friends who remembered Barbara in their prayers. We are convinced that your prayers made the difference. Thank you.