Thursday, September 20, 2012

Today Was Epic

[We've been staying in someone's guesthouse for the past month and a half while we finish the last work on our home remodel/addition project. The whole experience has been, well, stressful.]

September 20, 2012

4:40 am - The alarm goes off. Aaron hops in the shower. I put his pillow over my head.

5:15 am - Aaron kisses me goodbye.

7:30 am - I find A, lying on the bathmat with his pajamas around his ankles. "Good morning, Son."

8:00 am - E asks for breakfast "right now" for the third time. N walks in with a droopy dirty diaper.

8:17 am - A complains of stomach pains.

8:24 am - A throws up in the kitchen.

8:25 am - N unscrews his full sippy cup and dumps the entire cup of milk over his head and onto the queen bed.

8:30 am - Laundry time.

8:31 am - E asks about breakfast...again.

8:42 am - N unloads the dishwasher and finds a knife for each hand. Because of his siblings' "excited" reaction, he begins running through the house with said knives.

9:00 am - A throws up (in a bowl, this time).

9:17 am - Everyone enjoys breakfast, sans A.

9:23 am - E clogs the toilet.

9:25 am - A, sitting on a kitchen chair with the up-chuck bowl, looks at me with wide eyes and starts screaming "potty! potty!" I scoop him up and hurriedly run him to the bathroom, pulling his pants off as I run. We arrive at the clogged potty in record time, make a quick dismount, see our mistake, and then haul like crazy across the house to the other toilet. "Hold on little guy! Can you squeeze it in for a second more?" We make it--just in time.

9:30 am - Everyone gets dressed.

9:40 am - E wonders if he could "have a snack."

9:41 am - I start H on some math work. He complains and spends the next fifteen minutes crossing out math problems and throwing his math book.

9:45 am - I try to ignore H while E and I do his reading lesson in the living room.

10:00 am - A throws up again. I retrieve the bowl from the dishwasher just in time. "Let's just keep this thing out for the day, shall we?"

10:30 am - H finally finishes his math work. E finishes his reading. A emerges from the bedroom seeming brighter. "I feel much much better, Mommy!"

10:40 am - I find N unrolling the end of an entire roll of toilet paper.

10:45 am - I gather the kids in the car for our long trip of errands for the day.

10:50 am - A throws up in the car (in the bowl, thankfully).

10:51 am - I stop and empty the bowl.

10:55 am - Unbeknownst to me, H gives an apple cinnamon breakfast bar and a bottle of juice to N.

11:02 am - A throws up again.

11:05 am - We stop at Daddy's office for an errand. I empty the bowl and clean the apple cinnamon breakfast bar off of N, the car seat and the window. I stuff an extra shirt around N to sop up the spilled juice.

11:10 am - I eat the rest of a can of Pringles as I drive.
----

2:30 pm - We pull up to Lowe's, spend ten minutes getting the children's shoes back on, and wonder "what that horrible smell is..."

2:35 pm - E discovers the source of the odor (while I am trying to get him to find his shoes). "It's A's carseat Mom!"

2:36 pm - I ask A if he had an accident. He thinks for a minute and says "No." After some prodding, he replies, innocently, "I just passed some gas, and then it turned cold...like cold gas" Hmmmmmm.

2:40 pm - We hurry into Lowe's to make our return and then hop quickly over to Target to buy new underwear and new shorts for A.

2:50 pm - H disregards all direction I give him and leads his brothers directly into the path of oncoming traffic.

Mom is not happy. Not. Happy.

2:52 pm - H pouts in the car and refuses to come into the store.

3:38 pm - I buy a giant cookie and rice krispie treat.

----

5:23 pm - We arrive home. The air conditioner in the house appears to be broken.

5:25 pm - E asks if dinner is ready, for the fourth time. "No, son, I just barely walked in the door..."

6:00 pm - We have a quiet dinner without Daddy (again) while watching "Chopped." Everything is quiet for a few minutes.

6:39 pm - Aaron comes home. The kids play outside.


Clean up

Do the dishes

Finish the laundry

Bathe the kids


8:00 pm - Aaron walks over to the neighbor's house (the owners of the guesthouse) to have an awkward conversation about the broken A/C unit.

Neighbors were more than sweet. "Someone will be by first thing in the morning to fix it."

8:10 pm - Aaron leaves to go work on the remodel.

8:15 pm - I put the kids to bed with wet washcloths on their backs, open the windows, and set their fans to full blast.

At least it is not July--it might actually cool down outside at night.

9:33 pm - Aaron calls from the remodel. Our painter has just spent the last three hours painting the doors and trim a light pink color. "Wait a second....that's not exactly the color we asked the paint store to match..."

9:35 pm - Aaron pays the painter and they both call it a night.

9:47 pm - I can hear all of the kids still tossing in their beds. It is 86 degrees in the house.

Wednesday, May 09, 2012

The...Classical Academy for Boys


Several months ago I decided, definitively, to homeschool the children. We have been talking about it non-stop ever since and yesterday I dropped a LOT of bones ordering various items and curricula.

I cannot put into words how excited I am to take this step with my boys. They are brilliant and eager to learn, and I am eager to learn with them. Last month, in order to make it a little more fun for us all (we all need a little more fun, right?) I decided upon a name for my little school: the [Family Name] Classical Academy for *Boys and I have dubbed myself the illustrious Headmistress. We are currently toying with a few different ideas for mascot. Hahahahahahaha. The boys were full of lots of great ideas. Oh my!

Tomorrow, when I am feeling more serious, I will post some of my reasons, hope and dreams for this life-changing endeavor.

*Obviously this ending is negotiable and can be scrapped altogether if a feminine addition to the family ever surfaces (bless her heart). But in the meantime, it has a cute little ring to it. Don't you think? Adds substance (or false credence, maybe!).

One a Day

Last night some friends stopped by to help us load roof tiles onto the house--onto the addition. Pretty soon, some other friends, who were out for a walk, stopped to help. Next, someone from our ward drove by, noticed the party, and stopped to help. This was followed by another family in our ward and then our neighbors to the side. What was going to take Aaron and me several days of boring and back-breaking labor, took about two hours to accomplish.

People are so generous and so good.  And I am overwhelmed by the kindness.

Monday, February 06, 2012

Post-Christmas Post

Highs:

  • Watching the boys romp around outside in shorts in the lovely mild December weather
  • Going to a buffet and eating only one moderately sized plate of food. Deborah FTW!
  • Overhearing one of the boys making "curried chicken" and "caviar" with their play dough
  • Finalizing our home-addition plans
  • Finally deciding to homeschool the little men--giving them a classical education (Latin anyone?)
  • Disneyland with everybody for three beautiful days
  • Attending Eliz's fabulous Christmas piano recital (tear up every time I go--she's THAT great)
  • Starting to exercise at 5 am again and LOVING it
  • Blogging less and reading more
  • Watching Aaron get promoted at work
  • Having a happy four-year-old (best age ever)
  • 9:00 am church!
  • Starting to have success with the YW planning their own activities
  • Sharing a fabulous Christmas with my Father-in-law and Mother-in-law, both of whom I love very much
  • Being happier than I ever have been before


Lows:

  • "A" constantly wetting his pants (Though he somehow completely avoided this problem during our week in Disneyland. Laziness, maybe?)
  • 90 minute wait times for rides at Disneyland--are you kidding me, people?
  • Fattest I Have Ever Been. EVER.
  • "A" biting one of the Christmas lights (I found him screaming in the living room spitting out blood and glass)
  • Seriously moving into the life of the middle-aged middle-American--everything is full priced and heavily taxed
  • *The fighting, the fighting, the fighting (scratching, shoving, biting, etc)
  • Unhappy (and full out crazy) three-year-old (worst age ever)
  • Wow, I tell you, laundry NEVER ends
  • Home additions cost a lot of money
  • Cement costs a lot of money
  • Lumber costs a lot of money
  • Everything boring that goes into a house costs a LOT of money