Well, we got out of the house

but we never made it to work out class. It was just a craaaazy morning and it was 9 am before we were even ready to put the kid's shoes on. So...we scrapped that idea since we didn't want to walk in 20 minutes late and not get in a good work out. It had to be worth it for that much effort! Its nuts how a 1 minute car ride to the gym takes SO much longer with 4 kids in tow. Anyway...we made a purposeful detour to Cup of Joe, grabbed some mochas to help us wake up, and took the kids to indoor park at the rec center again and let them run around and play for almost 2 hours. I sat and talked with a bunch of ladies that I knew from MOPS group - it was fun to see them there and talk. Calvin mostly climbed over soft blocks and roamed around. He wasn't scared to walk across the entire length of the gym and get involved in something with out having to be near me, it was nice. But hard to keep track of the little guy. He's quick! He got pretty tired at the end, just wanting to sit with me and wiggle around, but for the most part, he was crawling up and over all sorts of things. He liked to sit on a little red car with 4 wheels and push it back and forth. Violet liked to sit on the rollercoaster toy and share with the other kids - she is so good with sharing and letting other kids take their turns. She also roamed around in the toy cars and climbed up a castle wall and went down lots of slides. Austin wanted to throw a basketball into the hoop but never made it in. Renee was all over the place...doing everything. Its crazy. Need I use the word crazy again?! ha! We fed them a little snack of crackers/raisins/juice, took potty breaks for the older two, and then let them play even more. By 11:30 we were ready to go, so we got them home, fed them lunch (grilled cheese and tomato soup), and Carrie got herself showered and packed up her vehicle. I helped her vacuum out her van and reinstall her car seats. Somehow Renee's car seat harness straps were all twisted so I took the seat apart and rerouted the belt and made it straight and reinstalled it. She left by 2 pm. I got an exhausted Violet to bed at 2:30, but just then Calvin woke up screaming. I couldn't do much to help him get back to sleep, so I reluctantly got him up and let him sit in his chair hooked onto the counter and eat a snack while I prepared a casserole for Joan and Wendell. I cooked bacon, chicken, and noodles, while chopping an onion, celery and green pepper all at the same time. Calvin munched on shredded cheese and raisins (probably a good combination of food, they balance each other out comin' out the other end, lol). He got all fussy so I tried putting him back in bed, but he wanted nothing to do with it. I finally got sick of dealing with him because I knew we had to pack up the car and take the casserole to the Ferguson's soon - so I plopped him on the couch propped up with pillows, his favorite blankie, pacifier, and a baby movie, and he happily lounged on the couch and watched his video for 20 minutes. That was a needed break. I was just hustling around the house, cleaning up after my cooking mess, picking up toys, getting the house somewhat in order - and then I got a call from Dave saying he got a call from someone asking if we could host small group at our house. I just figured - why not - the house isn't clean anyway - go for it. So - it was just fun, but more craziness to add to the day. The NICE part of having small group at our house was being able to put Calvin to bed at his normal time - 7:15 pm. And he was READY. When I got his PJs on and put him in bed, he snuggled right into his blanket, made his happy cooing noises as I laid him in bed and he was out in 2 seconds. Violet had SO much fun running around the house with all her friends, so it was a fun night. Need I say how crazy the day was? I'm ready for a little down time, some silence, and mayyybe a glass of wine. Ahhh. Oh - another thing. I got asked to prepare a 10 minute little devotion to share with the girls at the MOPS meeting next week. Something immediately popped into my head - and it was to encourage the moms to start their day with prayer for help with the day. I think I will be speaking to myself more than anybody else in the room. Its hard to establish new routines, especially for myself because I'm not very schedule oriented. I plan to tell the story of my frustrating Walmart trip and how even though if I had prayed at the beginning of the day, maybe the same frustrating things might have happened, but I would have probably handled them in a better way knowing that God was helping me through it and giving me grace for each moment, rather than me huffing and puffing through the store complaining, not giving my kids a good example to follow. So I hope that goes well - if you think - pray for the time that I share that devotion that the Spirit would speak through me and the words I speak might hit home with another another mom and encourage them a little. Yes, parenting is VERY hard! There are awesome times of blessing mixed with tough stuff. God knew it was going to be tough, so he promises to give us enough grace for each moment of those times. Thanks mom and dad for making it through the tough stuff with me!