If I was a good mom...

...my daughter would never have to clean her own room.

...my kids would do crafts and have fun and not watch so much TV.

...I wouldn't hear "I hate you" and "I hate being in this family".

...my house would be clean, and all the clothes would get put away.

...the babies would nap, instead of being little nap-dodgers.

...I wouldn't feel overwhelmed so often.


But we take the bad with the good. Last month of pregnancy is always a struggle. I welcome any suggestions for coping.

BFF

Having Shawna around and having my new BFF Laura has motivated me to get a ton of things done around here. Last week Shawna and I cleaned up the front room completely. This task included re-organizing and re-bagging up the "too small" clothes and taking them to the DI trailer (approx. 15 white "kitchen" bags became about 9 black "outdoor" bags). Then, the same day, we cleaned out Rick's side of the garage and piled up the recyclables. We haven't gotten the recyclables to the Recycler yet, but we'll get there! Talk about PRODUCTIVITY! Today, Laura came over and decided (for some reason?) that we needed to paint. She even brought paint. So we painted the staircase. Well, the walls along the staircase anyway. Makes a big difference, especially as the paint covers the dirt, fingerprints, and marker drawings that were all over these two walls. Amazing. And I found our old paint from when we originally painted the walls and she did some "touch up" painting of marker drawings downstairs. So nice. So so so nice.

Now I'm tired, but Laura has taken Jason and Hattie with her to play with her kids. So Shawna and I just have the babies for a little bit. Nice little break. Sorry we let Breanna nap earlier. That would have been even more perfect. :-)

Random Thoughts, Some Days...

I don't even know how to start this. I spent this morning "motivating" the children to clean up upstairs. Their rooms got cleaned (twice now in a week!) and vacuumed, the hallway upstairs and the playroom also. Then Shawna and I moved the playroom furniture back into the playroom - reorganized to block off the portion I intend to use as a classroom. Rick will be building a wall (soon) so that the classroom is a real room and can be protected by lock and key. Until then we will have to make do. I am feeling exhausted and sore but accomplished.

Still have to head to the store and get a few little supplies to get things set up on the most basic level. Still feeling optimistic.

My next dr appt is tomorrow morning. 30 weeks. Can hardly believe I am almost there! Feels good though. And 5 definitely feels like a LOT!! haha...

Oh well, better eat something before I make my trek to the store. Luckily babies are down for naps and I can leave them with Shawna. Only two more weeks left before Shawna heads home. What will I ever do without her? :-)

Homeschooling, etc.

I am following through with enrolling the children at Julian Charter School for their Home Study program. Just need to complete the enrollment paperwork and get moving. Now I struggle with where and how to set up the classroom and when I can/should get started. Summer is quite busy in general, but I guess I'll have to learn to work around life and "stuff" at some point... Plus I'm deciding whether or not to keep Derek enrolled at a separate preschool. There are definitely pros and cons. I welcome opinions...

Seriously??

I slept really well last night. I had a nice hot bath, and then my lovely husband was kind enough to painfully rub the "walnut sized" knot out of my shoulder before I zonked out. His willingness was fortunate for me since it was already almost 11 when we crawled into bed. I am so grateful because it allowed me to relax enough to get a thorough night's sleep - and THEN the children all slept in. Well, Breanna did wake up at 5, but I (which this never ever ever happens with her!) was able to get her to fall asleep in my bed. Then she slept until like 7:30. Seriously! And Derek didn't come in to wake me up until 7:15! So I felt like a queen this morning. Good thing. It was a long day.

First off, Wednesdays are always long because Rick goes sailboat racing every Wednesday now. Usually the day is broken up by Hattie and my singing lessons in the evening and "the babysitter" will feed, bathe, and put the children to bed before we get back. Makes it not so bad. However, our singing teacher is on vacation this week and, therefore, we were all on our own today. Jason did have a Dr. appt, for which we got a sitter, but that was at like 3pm - no help at all with bedtime.

Sooo, since I slept so well and woke up in a pleasant mood, I thought I might take the children down to the Edwards movie theater for the "free kids movie". Today was Hotel for Dogs, which we haven't seen, and I wanted to see... I also decided to invite some extra children on the theory that they would keep my children happy in the movie and I could take care of the babies. Well, after the ordeal of getting everyone up and dressed and out by 845ish, I got to the children's friends' house and had to wait for them to get ready. Once we got to the movie theater they were sold out. I think this depends partly on the popularity of the movie, since in years past I have shown up last minute and still gotten seats. Or maybe there are just more people catching on...

No movie, I decide to take the children to the park. This, however, turned out to be a brilliant idea since they ended up playing PEACEFULLY at the park for over 2 hours. They could likely have continued that way until this minute if we didn't have to go feed them lunch and take Jason to the doc. Jason, it turns out, which I already figured, has a cyst on his back. The doctor said we could leave it or cut it out. Hmmm, my 5 year old voted for leaving it, so we'll just let it be for now. If ever we decide to, we can always get it removed. No biggie. Good to know.

By the end of this it is hot and I am tired and the evening activity (dinner, bed) is looming. Now I have barely survived all of that and have not yet heard from my husband. Usually I get the "I'm on my way call" about now. But his dad and brother are supposed to be on the boat with him today, so that could be distracting him from his wife-call. I will refrain from further comment.

My children were particularly annoying AND particularly adorable today, so I will take the good with the bad. Now that they are sleeping, they are all my favorites and I can get ready for a new day. I hope Daddy calls soon, since the call usually means another hour and a half before he's home.