Life is Rich

I am going to start using a different word than "overwhelming" when thinking about our family life.  We are so incredibly blessed, and I need to keep that perspective when I start to freak out and feel like I can not keep up.  Life is rich.  Dave used that expression a couple times over the last couple weeks as we've had both sides of our family over to our house.  A quiet boring house would be just that...quiet and boring.  Instead I have three joyful smiling children who keep the house buzzing with activity who make me laugh and cry all the time.  As a mom, my prayer and thoughts have been...LEAD BY EXAMPLE.  My words don't mean anything unless I am showing them the behavior I expect from them.

Yes, we're busy, but that sounds stressful.  Instead, we are blessed.

I have on my mind so many things in a day...I'll write them down just for the sake of it.  Maybe it'll help me unload:

- meal planning
- feeding kids
- laundry
- getting clothes that fit the kids
- cleaning (this entails a lot, I'll just leave it at that)
- appointments we need to be at (doctors, financial guy...)
- grocery shopping
- planning for things coming up (trips this spring/summer)



Dave has on his mind:
- work
- the dog, Solomon (feeding, letting him out, training)
- meeting with his friends for coffee and lunch re: accountability, friendship
- deacon responsibilities at church
- teaching Sunday School weekly

This morning I made a point to get up earlier than the kids so I could take a shower.  But my plan was thrwarted by Violet waking up earlier than I anticipated at 7 am and telling me Vanessa was screaming.  So I got Vanessa out of bed to feed her, and in the time I fed her, Violet and Calvin were both in my bed.  My shower went out the window.  So we migrated downstairs to have breakfast...2 hours later, the kids were dressed, but ended up fighting too much so they got some individual time in their rooms.  In that two hours I managed to get diapers out of the dryer and fold them and put them away.  Vanessa got hungry and tired, so while the kids were in their rooms I fed her and put her in bed for her first nap.  Once I got her in bed, I dropped everything to take a shower.  The kids obeyed and stayed in their rooms until I got them (yay!) so I made a deal with them.  They could watch their Little Einsteins video if they helped me clean the house and pick up toys.  They agreed ~ but fought over which toys they were to pick up.  I sent Violet to her room for being snotty and told her to come back downstairs when she was ready to be nice.  Calvin happily picked up toys, he did great.  He put the beads away, and all the large megabloks.  Violet wanted to do the small duplo legos because she wanted to use a dump truck to put them back in their storage container.  She came back down when she was ready to pick up so she did the small legos.  At one point, there was one large megablok left on the floor, so Calvin says "oh! one more big block!" and runs over to put it away.  Violet just had to correct him and say "Its not big!" so I taped her mouth shut with packing tape.  I am sick of her constantly correcting Calvin.  She just can't stand it when he is excited, or is correct about something.  I told her she was not allowed to speak to Calvin that way and being intentionally mean is wrong.  When I took the tape off her mouth 15 minutes later she seemed to have gotten the message. 

i'm gonna have to finish this blog later...if I get to it...their video is over and I need to start lunch!