Friday Afternoon

It was a blissfully slow Friday afternoon.  I decided to grab the camera and snap a few pictures of what everyone was doing at the moment.  

 A bit later, the kids all decided to bring Eleanor stuffed animals to 'play' with.  She gets lost in the pile :)

Tall Tall Hair

Alexander is very particular about the way he wants his hair done lately.  I try to help they older boys with their hair before they leave for school each morning (in all actuality this probably only happens once a week).  When Zando sees us in the bathroom wetting, combing, and gelling their hair he is very quick to join in.  However, he won't accept any of my help...he wants complete control over the combing.  He says things like "Zando tall tall hair...Zando pikey (spikey) hair tall...Zando hair pretty (and when he says the 'pr' in pretty he buzzes his lips)."  We have been seen in public quite regularly lately with him sporting this hair-do.  I have gotten a little bit smart about it, though, and try to keep the gel out of his sight.  If he doesn't get gel in his hair, the spikes fall out pretty quickly.  I think he is pretty handsome either way :)  

A Typical Day

A few weeks ago Clarissa (my niece) and I were chatting after sacrament meeting at church.  She looked at me and very sincerely asked, "What do you do at home all day?  Do you just play games with your kids all day long?"  I chuckled a little bit and assured her that there was more to my day than games.  I kept thinking about the question and her sincerity in wanting to know what I did as a mom.  I decided to keep a notebook handy and jot down things as they happened during one day.  This day happened to be a Tuesday.  I might have gotten a little bit carried away...there is a lot here, but I really didn't feel like I was writing down EVERYTHING.  There was so much more than this happening...things like answering the constant questions that come from a 5 year old, repeating back everything a 2 year old says so they are satisfied that you understood them, kissing and squeezing a 6 month old every second she is awake because you know how soon she will be crawling and walking and not wanting to be held anymore.

Once the kids were in bed and I looked back over the things I had written down I was pleasantly surprised to see that I actually had done some things during the day.  Most days end and I am just not sure I did enough.  I often feel like I am failing in many areas and if I give attention to one thing then something else starts to fail.  I continually evaluate how I am spending my time and everything just seems so essential to me. It was nice to look back over the day and realize that I didn't waste time doing things that weren't important to me.  I do wish I didn't need to take a nap most days.  That is a time sucker!  I just get SO tired and if I don't nap then I get a headache which makes it really hard for me to be a happy mom.  I am hopeful that will change as my kids get older and I am not pregnant or nursing a baby.

I would like to do this every year so I can look back and see what my days were like during different stages of life.  I am sure I will look back on this busy time and miss many things about it.  I think I will also be glad that it is past for some reasons also :)

600        Hear Jackson's alarm, drift in and out of sleep while he gets ready and leaves to teach cello lessons

630         Alexander climbs into bed with me.  We sing songs and snuggle and he begs for pancakes.

645         Get up, make bed, start breakfast, unload dishwasher

700         Wake up Thomas and Nicholas.  Feed them breakfast, finish making lunches, sign planners, find shoes and things for school

730         Load 5 kids into van, drive boys to school

800         Get Essie and Alexander busy with something, nurse Eleanor, change 2 poopy diapers, dress Nori and Zando, start a load of laundry

820         Start making bread, clean up breakfast, help Essie practice violin

845         Knead bread, start granola

900         Put Eleanor down for a nap

915         Read stories to Essie and Zando while granola is cooking and bread is rising

920         Stir granola, give Essie and Zando a snack, put wet laundry in dryer, and start another load

925         Clean up enormous mess Zando made with the snack while I was doing laundry for 2 minutes.

930         Clean up table from snack

935         Do breakfast and baking dishes

945         Shape bread and set to rise

950         Do more dishes

1000       Get Essie and Zando busy doing something, jump in shower. 

1005       Zando realizes where I went and comes to join me.  He begs to come in the shower and starts pulling off his clothes.  I put up a weak protest and then consent because that is much easier than what would follow if I said no.  Essie begs for more snack.  Hoping for a moment to wash myself (even if there is a 2 year old holding on to my legs) I say yes, but tell her she has to clean up every little bit.

1010       Decide to wipe down shower while I am in there.  Get out, dress Alexander again, get myself dressed.

1020       Eleanor wakes up.  Turn on oven to bake bread, nurse Eleanor.  Watch Zando poke himself with a pin while I am nursing.  Ask Essie to get him a bandaid and try to remember where he dropped the pin so I can pick it up when I am finished.

1030       Do some cub scouts planning.  Encourage Essie to finish her snack and clean it up.

1035       Do reading lesson with Essie while holding Nori and trying to protect everyone from a wild climbing and jumping Zando.

1045       Take out bread and breathe in the delicious smells.

1050       Get shoes on everyone

1055       Change out laundry

1100       Call County Extension Office about a soil sample

1110       Load everyone in the van, run four errands

1145       Stop at the park, fill out Caprock Kindergarten packet for Estella

1200       Load back in the van

1210       Drop Essie off at playgroup

1215       Get home, put Nori down for a nap, make lunch

1220       Nori is still fussing.  Decide she is hungry earlier than usual because the last feeding was interrupted by pin drama.  Nurse her and set her back down for a nap.

1225       Sit down for lunch sith Zando

1230       Jackson calls about library books

1240       Read Zando a story

1250       Put Zando down for a nap

1255       Sit down for a scoop of ice cream while reading an herb gardening book

100         Zando is crying.  Help him, then decide I need more ice cream.  Eat it while checking email and blogs.

110         Leave lunch dishes and lay on bed reading herb book.

120         Decide to take a nap so I am not grumpy when big boys get home from school

240         Wake up

245         Make copies of music for a friend

250         Start Caprock survey

255         Essie comes home, make her a snack

300         Zando wakes up.  Hold him and work on survey

315         Do lunch dishes, bread and granola dishes, give Zando a snack

330         Welcome boys home, get Zando dressed to play outside

335         Start another load of laundry, throw (and kick) all toys downstairs in a pile on the rug to be sorted later.

338         Nori wakes, nurse her while visiting with Thomas and Nicholas

400         Start Nicholas practicing, luck up living room while Nicholas is doing reviews

413         Change Zando diaper, tidy his room, clean up table from snacks, get grossed out by the food crusted all over the chairs that must have been there for weeks without me noticing.

419         I can’t get the crusties out of my mind, so start scrubbing them off while continually reminding Nicholas to “roll back…pull your cello in closer to your neck…play in the highway…circle bow.”

425         Nicholas is rushing a song.  Make up a story for him about a royal king who marches everywhere he goes.  Dust the living room while marching around the room like this royal king to help him keep the tempo.  Rescue Nori from Zando sitting on her.  Keep dusting and straightening bookshelf while helping Nicholas.

436         Stop dusting and focus on practice with Nicholas

445         Nori is sleepy.  Put her in bed.  Finish practicing with Nicholas

450         Nicholas done.  Find Thomas to start practicing.  Feel very thankful for leftovers in the fridge.  Get kids to start setting table while I get dinner ready and help Thomas as needed.

500         Work on scout stuff while helping Thomas, stir dinner, change laundry, fold laundry, get Nicholas started in homework.

510         Have Nicholas read Zando a book

520         Play 2^nd Seitz accompaniment with Thomas to get ready for Talent Show

535         Everyone melting down…hungry.  Daddy not home yet, try to hold everyone off.

545         I can’t take it anymore, start eating without Dad.

554         Dad gets home.  Kids are finished and can’t sit still, excuse them and visit with Jackson while he eats

605         Gather everyone to help with dishes, dishwasher is broken so we do them by hand, rinse and load in dishwasher to air dry.  Wipe surfaces, vaccum under table, sweep and wipe down kitchen floor.

630         Everyone wants a treat.  Make peanut butter bars.

645         Bars in oven, feed Eleanor

705         Bars out, write a few emails

715         Sing our scripture gathering song, read scriptures as a family, have family prayer

730         Read with Nicholas, put Eleanor in bed

745         Help Estella to bed, tidy up house a little

755         Write cub scout email

800         Kiss boys goodnight and breathe a sigh of relief…everyone is in bed!

After the kids are in bed, Jackson and I usually talk for a while and then work on projects or watch a little something together.  If I haven't fit scripture reading in to my day, I read before I go to bed.  

Stuck in Her Hair

Thomas and Nicholas each bought a Lego Chima racer.  They love them and play with them a lot.  I watch them play with them.  They seem so safe and fun.  I have no idea how this happened.  Even after hearing explanations from all of the witnesses, I still don't understand how this happened!  It was seriously stuck.  I couldn't pull it more than 1/8 of an inch off her scalp.  I sat her down and gathered any tools I thought might help.  After I had been working at it for a while, Thomas asked if he could take a picture.  I told him he could and he started snapping away.  I think he did a pretty good job!  

I got some of the hair unraveled one strand at a time, but in the end I gave up and just cut the rest.  Right now it isn't noticeable, but it might be for a while when it starts growing out.  Oh well...it will fit in with the rest of her hair.  I haven't mentioned it, but she cut her hair again a few months ago.  I had done a small braid  with the hair in and around her bang area and she chopped about half of the braid off.  I decided not to fix it. I mention now and then that we can't do this or that to her hair because of the funny short pieces.  I think she is realizing that she doesn't want to do that again....at least I hope so.  I actually don't really care all that much if she does cut it again.  I just want her to begin to see that her actions have consequences, and it is nice when the consequence doesn't have to be administered by me.  

Random Pictures

Nico and Nori

Pinewood Derby

Thomas's second pinewood derby was a success.  He designed and cut his own car.  He painted it and Bubba helped him weight it correctly and get the wheels put on just right.  He won a race or two and lost a race or two and then was out of the running.  I was very proud of his good sportsmanship.  I have mixed feelings about the pinewood derby.  It is so hard for me to see so many boys disappointed.  There were about 25 boys racing cars.  Each of them had put so much time and effort and emotion in to making their car the best they could.  They all wanted so desperately to have their car be the fastest.  It is so hard for me to see 24 boys feel like failures and only one boy feel like a winner.  I do think there are good lessons to be learned through it, but there are also a lot of dashed hopes.  Maybe it would be better to not build it up so much.  Maybe we should all come the night before and have the same 2 hours to work on the cars and then race in the morning.  That way there wouldn't be so much emotional energy built up.  

It was a fun morning and I really am glad that Thomas has a loving grandpa who takes the time to work with Thomas on his car.  He is a lucky boy.  Those memories with his grandpa are the ones I am happy for.

Last Year's Family Pictures

This is yet another testament to my ailing mind.  I SWEAR I posted these pictures back in October.  I was just about to upload my 2012 blog book to be printed and while I was looking through it one last time I realized...these family pictures were not there!  I am glad I realized it.  I would have been sad to loose these in my deep dark computer hole.  My wonderful friend Shelley and I traded family photo sessions again this past year and she did a wonderful job as always.  I didn't plan as well as I should have...we were in a rush to get ready and then we were late and it was cold (quite cold) and we lost light fast because I was late.  We rushed and did it quickly, but really none of us were comfortable and I can tell in the pictures.  Because of that, I haven't printed any of these for my walls, but I still love them and am happy we did it.  Thank you, thank you my dear Shelley!