so. incredibly. tired.

I am not cut out for having a full time job and a full time family. I am beat down. School started and things have been crawling along.
Work...laundry...clean...cook...laundry... bathe little people...laundry...paperwork... laundry...stories...bedtime...laundry...pack daycare bags and lunches...shower...fall into bed hopefully at 10...alarm at 5:30...repeat. Funtimes.
Then The Wild Indian and I were gifted the stomach virus. Now...I just can't catch up. Grrrrrr.

Summertime

It has been soooooo incredibly hot this summer. The farthest they have gotten from the AC this week has been trips to the back porch to blow bubbles. Really, it is too hot to do much of anything outdoors, even the fun park pool. I am bribing the kids with a pool trip tomorrow IF they help get their room clean today. I have high hopes :)

This has been one busy summer. It seems I have accomplished much of nothing. Repaint the house project= epic fail. Get organized project=epic fail. The big thing I did get done was getting my pesky gallbladder out. I feel so much better. I highly recommend gallbladder removal :) In my extremely incoherent, relaxation cocktail state, I asked them to save my stones so that I could show my mom. Now I have a pee cup full of gallbladder stones. What do I do with them now? Jewelry has already been suggested. Um...no.

During our hot, hot summer stuck in the AC, I have been making observations. I thought I'd share a couple. When a toddler runs, they look like a person doing an over the top impression of a drunken, gay man running. Apparently, 20 pairs of underwear are not enough to last a 3 year old 2 days, because you are supposed to change them every. single. time. you go to the bathroom.

He's Found His Calling

JT appears to have aspirations to become a painter. He did this in less than 10 minutes. I was making the dinner of champions, DiGorno's cheese pizza, and he was creating a masterpiece. He had announced that he needed to pee, because it is necessary to announce it to everyone in earshot when you are 3. I realized that he had not come back to announce that he was "done" and he was quiet. NOT good. So I send the Wild Indian to go check on him. He comes running back into the kitchen yelling, "JT is in BIG trouble!" I began to smell the stench of trim paint about halfway there. Here is what I found. Note the discarded jean shorts and resistance ball on the floor. I ave NO clue how he got the paint opened.

The conversation went a little something like this.

Me: "WHAT DID YOU DO!!!???"

JT: "I painting."

Me: "WHY" (Like a 3-yr-old can tell you why)

JT: "I helping."

It is high-gloss trim paint. I washed as much off as I could (off of the wall AND off of him.) Now I have to sand, prime with a sealer stuff, and repaint. Yeah me!!!!! Its been 3 weeks and I just don't have the fortitude to fix it yet.

Blocks

Just have to say that it is wonderful to watch the little boys paying in a tub of assorted building blocks that belonged to the big boys whe they were little. Now if they would just stop busting up the creations with a toy hammer and drumstick, I might be able to think.

Another Poop Post

I remember the days when there was absolutely NO way I would ever have discussed something as gross as poop. Well, that was before kids. Hello...even though it may not appear this way, I was raised to be a Southern Lady. Southern Ladies don't sweat or poop and only curse during college football games. Just so we are crystal clear on the matter, but I digress.



Fast forward to life in a house full of boys. OMG. If we could get through 30 minutes without discussing bodily functions, it would be a miracle.



Yesterday the pre-child unimaginable happened. Poop...and lots of it. Yup, poop happened...during nap time...and I guess Southern boys don't like poop very much either...so he took off his diaper...full of poop...and then stood there wailing.



This is the point in the afternoon when I called my husband and told him that he needed to come home, and that when he got home, I was crawling in my bed and he could manage the children for the rest of the day. I was done. Do you hear me? D-O-N-E. Cleaning up the mess was the straw that broke my back. One container of Clorox wipes+ two loads of laundry+one unhappy baby in the bathtub= one undone mama.Thank God I have a wonderful husband that will do this when I ask him to. I don't know how single moms manage to parent and stay sane in the process.



Today, I am sane enough to look on the bright side. At least he didn't play in it:)


Damn disposable diapers!! grrrrrrrrrr.

Yes...I am crazy

A lot of my friends think I have lost my mind. "Why?!?!" They say!! I swear, it is almost a dirty little secret. Yes, I cloth diaper. Yes, I am the only person I know that does. Yes, I have tried to convert some friends. Alas, they didn't take the plunge.

I get it. It can be nasty, but not as nasty as the 8am blow out that was so incredibly vile that Baby Boy had poo in his hair by the time I got his clothes off of him. There is nothing like a crap-tastic explosion to start the day. Now I have to disinfect the bathtub. sigh.
Here is an old picture of a very little JT in his very first cloth diaper. It is a medium sized fuzzi bunz that Baby Boy had on yesterday.
Cloth really isn't that bad people. They are super cute. You don't feel like white trash when your kid is running around in their diaper. You are saving Lord knows how many tons of crap (literally and figuratively) from the landfill. It's two extra loads of laundry a week. In a house with as many people in it as mine, two loads of laundry is NOTHING.

Check out some of the stores that specialize in cloth diapers. Trust me, it is NOT your mother's cloth anymore.
Try http://shop.thegoodmama.com/ for super duper cute fitteds. Unfortunately also way out of my price range.
I first took the plunge with a sample pack from http://nickisdiapers.com/
Check out http://www.cottonbabies.com/ the original home of the Bumgenius.
I think I am going to replace some of my shot favorites with some Blueberry pockets. http://www.blueberrydiapers.com/

My one true love is no longer available for purchase. That is a good thing. It seems that the fabric they used has a tendency to separate. Really now? When I washed last time I discovered, to my horror, that all but one of my breathable Haute Pockets have separated (aka. lost their waterproof layer) Half my stash, gone!!!! The big decision is to replace with something else or not? I don't know if I can justify purchasing a partially new stash for a kid that is almost 18 months old and doesn't use cloth at day care.

Too bad I didn't have girls. JT told me yesterday that "Girls don't poop." Hmmm. That's a mighty high standard you have for your future mate, big guy.

Appetite for Destruction

Welcome to the Jungle
We've got fun and games!

Or so they seem to think. Seriously...how many things are they going to break and/or damage this summer?
Two weeks ago, Baby Boy disovered the real purpose of crayons...wall decoration...window decoration...floor decoration. I love Magic erasers.
Last week, the Wii was dropped...twice. Now it wants a break, so it won't spit the most boring game we own out.
Yesterday, in the ten minutes it took for me to take a shower (with Baby Boy locked in the bathroom with me) he squeezed a half tube of Desitin everywhere and mangled my glasses. I recommend never putting Desitin on a scalp issue, because it is NEVER coming out of his hair. My bathroom is going to have eau de diaper rash for the next year.

I need to go back to work. I need a break.

A Week in the Life

It has been a busy week around here.


Monday was my birthday. It was a great day. I went to the hardware store to gather things for the 'repaint the house project' with NO little kids. Daddy made a fabulous dinner and surprised me with a new DVD for family movie night. We all watched a movie together while eating popcorn, half of which ended up in the floor, but that's what vacuum cleaners are for :) I made a dent in the HUGE laundry basket full of mismatched socks after Baby Boy went to bed halfway through the movie. I am a PARTY animal, the hardware store, a movie with the kids, and sorting socks on my birthday ;) The best gift of all was a picture of me with ALL of the boys and no one looking miserable!


Baby Boy learned what crayons are really for (not eating as he had thought previously), and he was delighted to show me...on the walls....on the floor....on the french doors....on the windows...You get the drift. If the 'repaint the house project' been running on schedule, I might have killed him.

Wednesday I had a Doctor's appointment. I have to go and get gallbladder testing. WOO-HOO! Having Baby Boy jacked it all up and it's been killing me lately. Fun times there.

The 'repaint the house project' started in the boys' bathroom. I swear to GOD, I felt like I needed to wear a hazmat suit to deep clean it. I am planning on getting to the trim today. It was on the schedule for Tuesday, but you see how that went.

We are sticking close to home today. I am waiting on Daddy's Father's Day present to be delivered. If I left for 5 minutes, that is when they would show up. Naptime=trim painting.

Hello Summer

It's officially the first day of summer vacation. Yes, last Friday was my last day of school, but today is the first day that I didn't have to get up at 5:30 to go to work! Hallalujah!


I am a bit discombobulated. I have gotten to the point that I NEED a schedule. My life needs to be scheduled or I end up getting nothing accomplished. I have worse ADD than my kid. I think today's plan is to plan June. I can not believe I am saying this, but I'm gonna write a lesson plan for June. Movie trips, beach days, Splash Zone, Library Summer Program, painting the fingerprints off of the walls, grocery shopping, and stay home and do nothing days. Spontaneity be damned!

yeah, yeah, yeah

You try working a full time job, raising 5 kids, and maintaining a blog. hhmmppphhh.

I've been catching some slack about not keeping up with this thing. I'll do better this summer, but I'm not making any guarantees come August. Just sayin.

Well, Wednesday was the last day of school for the students. WE WERE SOOOOOOO CLOSE, to not being sent to the Principal's office this year. Yeah, that was MY kid sitting there having lunch in the Principal's office, while all MY students' parents were signing in for Honor's Day. That write up will go in his baby book. Maybe I should start a file and this can be numero uno.

What, pray tell, did he do to earn the privilege of lunch in the office? Shooting birds. Yup, that's my boy, flipping off his classmates on the last day of school. I am so proud.

Really, I was expecting many such trips this year. One out of 180 really is pretty good.

On the other hand, he's getting to be pretty good at baseball. This t-ball season has gone well. He has all the makings of a star...including the trash talk. He could probably go head to head with a senior in that area. :)

Weekends

Why can't weekends be relaxing? It seems as if the weekends are filled with run, run, run...clean, clean, clean...laundry, laundry, laundry... I wish I could take the weekend and do nothing. That's right, nothing. My selfish version of a weekend would be something like this. I could sleep until whenever I wanted to get up, instead of being woken up five times in 15 minutes until I get out of bed at 6:24 on a Saturday. Maybe even stay in bed, by myself, and read a book that doesn't have pictures. I could watch something other than Dora, Diego, Super Why, or Thomas. Eat something other than leftover mac and cheese or chicken nuggets. The unselfish version would include a trip to somewhere fun, lots of play-doh and paint, lots of books with pictures, hide and go seek, checkers...but no damned laundry and scrubbing of bathrooms.


Unfortunately, I must be productive. 7 loads of laundry done today, floors mopped, clothes put away, children fed, children clean, fights averted, boo-boos kissed.

Dear Child Sized Clotheshangers,

I would sincerely appreciate if you would stop planning mass escapes from my house. Thank You.
P.S. Please tell the patterned socks to return home as well.

2010

Christmas has come and gone. We had a wonderful Christmas. I really ...

Well, I thought I would have time to blog at 2am, but apparently JT could sense me doing it in his sleep. MOOOOOMMMMEEEEEEEEEEE. It seems his nose hurts, as does my own. Which is the real reason I am up at 2am.

I guess it will be February before I post Christmas pics.