Oh, innocent Tayten!!!

This was too funny not to mention on here. Why do I have a picure of a sanitary napkin dispenser on my blog? Well, I will tell you.

We went to the Rec center on Friday to go swimming with the boys. They require that you rinse off before entering the pool. Well, they have rooms that are for family use so we grabbed one of those and we all went in to get ready to swim. The room had one of these dispensers on the wall. I didn't notice it, I'm used to seeing them, but the boys had never seen them before. They were taking turns rinsing in the shower, and I hear Tayten say, "mom, give me a quarter. Do you have a quarter? I need a quarter. I want to buy a napkin", and he was pretending to dab his face with a napkin. I said, "What? A napkin?", not paying attention to what he was looking at. "Yah, look! 'Napkins, 25 cents', he reads. I laughed, hard, and told him it wasn't the kind of napkins he was thinking of, that they were for girls. He said, "why would a girl want to buy a napkin from a machine and have to pay 25 cents for it? That's dumb! Well, do you have a quarter? I want to buy one!"

Kids are hilarious!!

Life's A Breeze...???

I thought this post would be good for those of you who might be thinking of taking the plunge and having another baby. While it does always seem more challenging the more kids you add to your family, you don't realize how much easier you have it if you have just one less kid than someone else. For example, I was down a child for 5 weeks and WOW was it a lot easier!!! I have a friend who has 5 children and she looks at me and says, 'what do you have to complain about? 4 is nothing compared to 5!' I look at people struggling with 3 and think, 'what do you have to worry about? 3 is a breeze compared to 4!' I've heard that after 3 it doesn't matter how many you have, it's the same stress level. I highly disagree with that!! Every child added is a whole other person that has cares and needs and wants and you need to fulfill those just as much as all of the other children.

Spencer was 2 months shy of 6 years old when I had Ethan, so I was taking care of 4 young kids, and not one of them had full independency yet. It was SO hard (go moms who have more!!) and I couldn't wait until they got older to make it a little easier for me.

Well, Spencer is now 8 and a half and Ethan is 2 and a half. Easier? In some ways. I'm finally to the point that I can take them to run errands with me, etc. and I'm ok going by myself, no other adults. Also, Spencer can help me out with things I need when my 6th and 7th arms aren't working. But that's about it. I am more busy than I have ever been in my life, and this brings me to an example of my day yesterday.

First off, I got up in the morning and got Spencer and Tayten off to school. Why does it take an 8 year old boy 45 minutes to get ready for school? I will never know. I finished getting myself ready because it's Thursday, and on Thursday I go to Tayten's class and read with the kids at 9am and then I go to Spencer's class and read with the kids at 9:45am until 10:30. Jonny was home to watch the two youngest or else I would've had to take them to the neighbor Jan. So I texted him while I was at school to ask him if he would get them ready so that we could go to the store when I got home. So, when I got home, we went to the store. We were taking the groceries inside when we got home, and the neighbor across the street pulled up. Well, I really needed to ask her for a favor, so I ran over to talk to her and Jonny finished taking the groceries in. When he was done, he yelled to me that he was running to the plumbing store because our gas line to our water heater was leaking and he needed to fix it. I came back from talking with the neighbor to find the groceries all over the kitchen floor, in the grocery sacks still. So, I proceeded to put them away. Afterwards, I made the boys lunch and put Ethan down for a very needed nap. Kade and I went and sat on the front porch and ate ice cream cones. Sitting on my porch and staring at my lovely garden of pretty yellow flowers (dandelions) made me want to pull a few weeds. So, I pulled a few while chatting with Jan, cleaned off my porch so that I could display my new mat I got for a birthday gift, and went back inside. Once inside, I realized I didn't have much time to get things ready for the rest of the day, so I did it right then. For those who didn't know, Jonny was jobless for the past 2 and a half months, and just started a new job a few days ago. Because he is the "new" one, this job has him starting at the bottom of the chain, and therefore he works crazy, crappy hours. Well, before he knew he would be working, he committed to substitute coaching Tayten's soccer game. He works until 11pm. How will this work?? Looks like I get to take over. Great! Just what I wanted. My 4 boys and coaching a soccer game. Not happening. I scrambled for a babysitter and found one. Just then, my phone beeps. It's a text from the neighbor down the street and he's wanting a haircut. "Ok" I told him, "if you can make it here at 4, I can do it cuz I have to leave at 4:15." He shows up, I cut his hair, load the kids in the car, and take the 3 to the babysitter and off Tayten and I go to the soccer game. I coach, he plays, it's working out kinda well! After the game, we had to rush to pick up the kids from the babysitter so that we could make it to the elementary for Literacy Night. We got there on time (a rare occasion, being on time) went to Tayten's class first and then Spencer's for the end. The boys each made a book with their class, which was published, and they each got to take a copy of it home. Afterwards they fed us pizza and then we went home. Since the second they got home from school they had to rush around and do other things, there was no time for homework, so now we have to do homework. I got the 2 younger ones in the shower, and a few minutes later I hear them screaming. I go in the bathroom, and they had decided that it would be fun to string their gum all over each other. They both had it stuck to their furry little bodies and in their hair! I had to grab the scissors and cut it all out. After that lovely occurance, I was able to get them to bed and the 2 older worked on their homework. I then realized that the next day was picture day. Crap!! The boys need haircuts. So after homework I cut their hair, faux hawk for one, spikey for the other, and they showered and went to bed. I was doing dishes and cleaning up the kitchen when I realized that I had coupons for like $20 in free food that expired at midnight that night (not worth passing that up) -it was 10:30pm!! So, I called the trusty next door neighbor and she was very willing (as always) to come and sit with the sleeping boys while I ran to the store. I got back, threw the groceries in the proper place (yes, to the store twice in one day. You start losing your mind at this age and with 4 kids) sent the neighbor home and sat down on the couch to eat one of my four basic food groups; oreos and milk!!! I deserve it after a day like that!!

You are reading this and thinking, wow, what a busy day. Guess what? This is my life every day. I use to have Jonny around at night to help me out cuz who in the world can do all that on their own every day?? But even with 2 of us doing the daily duties, we still look like chickens running around with our heads cut off.

I'm not trying to scare(for lack of a better word) anyone out of having more kids, but this is reality. I somehow miraculously make it through, you can too. Good luck in whatever choices you make with the kid thing, and to all of the mom's out there, whether you have one kid or 8, you are awesome! The world would not function without moms.

HAPPY MOTHER'S DAY!!!