What's in a day?

One of the main reasons that I keep this blog is because I want to have a record my kids' lives. Memories from their childhood recorded here so we can go and look through and have reminders of what our life was like. So today I came up with an idea. I'm starting this post at 7:30am and will add paragraphs throughout the day about what goes on. I've thought of doing this before, but never thought I'd get a 'typical' day...because every day is so different...but I've realized that different IS typical. This may be a really boring post for most of you. Although you never know. It might be an interesting day!

I woke up this morning at about 5:15am. Don't know why, but I was wide awake. Josh got up around then to get ready to leave for men's fraternity at church and I laid in bed for another hour, thinking about different things until 6:30 when I got up to get the boys up for school. Picked out their clothes (it's supposed to be an unusually warm end of September day here at 94 today). Got them ready- they decided in the 3 minutes from when the bus passed our house the first time, that they'd prefer to have cold lunch instead of hot. So we threw in a couple lunchables and some cookies for them to take to school and rushed out to the bus. The bus driver was a substitute today. He waved hello to me as the boys got on the bus. I went back into the house and looked at myself in the mirror to find that I still had messy bed hair and makeup smeared under my eyes. Nice. Oh well. Grabbed a piece of toast and some coffee and checked facebook/blogs and began to write this. Now I'm going to stop so I can get some bible reading done before the girls get up. (I'm trying to memorize the entire book of Colossians...I've been slacking in spending time doing that and need to work on it some more.)

Okay, it's now 10am. I got my bible reading done, and another couple verses added to my memorization. Then I went upstairs, gathered up all our laundry and took the sheets off the bed (it's Tuesday so it's bedroom cleaning day), tidied the room and came downstairs to start a load of laundry. Then I worked out (Hip Hop Abs) and then went to take a shower. Finished my shower, dressed and then went to let the girls out of their room. When I opened the door, I found their ceiling light hanging from the cord in the ceiling. It's a chandelier...And now it's like 3 feet from the floor. Nice. I washed out some sippy cups for the girls and got their morning cocoa. They each get 2 cups of cocoa in the morning...but don't worry, it's very watered down. And then I put on a 'show' for the girls. It's our normal morning routine. Today they wanted to watch "Buzz Light". While they watch the show I'm changing laundry, cleaning up from the remainders of dinner last night, dumping poop from the potty chair into the toilet, stopping the girls from eating spoonfuls of sugar and from dumping out bottles and bottles of spices onto the counter.

At 10:15 Kynden begins throwing a temper tantrum which begins because of cereal and continues because of underwear. It lasts for a full 8 minutes before I help her find a pair of underwear that is acceptable to her. She wanted ones with bugs on them.

Alright. It's now almost 3:30. Nothing really all that eventful happened, but here goes anyway. I've folded about 4 loads of laundry while the girls watched their show...Oh and I talked on the phone for about 30 min. And I figured out where to put the "new" armoire that we got last night...it's going to go in the girls' room...and I started organizing their clothes in the drawers of the armoire. The girls ate lunch about 12:30 and then we went outside to play for about an hour between 1-2. At about 2 I came in and put another load of laundry in the wash and start getting the girls ready for nap time. But then I realized that the chandelier was still hanging 3 ft from the floor, so I called Josh in to help me with that. It's fabulous having a husband who works from home! He just took it off because whatever part kept the light attached to the ceiling had broken off and we might just need to get a new light. Bummer. So then I got the girls' milk and put them down while I read a book in their room. It took about an hour.

So now it is about a quarter after 6. Let's see...shortly after my last paragraph, my mom came by. She is leaving tomorrow morning to go to Kansas for my cousin's wedding and wanted to see everyone and say goodbye. She stayed for a bit, helped me fold some laundry and just sort of visited for a while. The boys came home from school while she was here and the girls woke up from their nap. Except for Ellyanna, who slept longer than the other two...she was the last one to fall asleep. Really not much to report. At 5 Josh got off work and I made dinner for everyone. In just a few minutes, I will be leaving the house for the evening to go and meet with Natalie. She's a pretty cool 18 year old from church that I've been meeting with to watch the Peasant Princess series. Not sure when I'll be home, but I won't add any more for today.

So now you know! A typical day! A pretty boring and unevenful one at that.

A day late and a dollar short....

This is how I feel my life has been for the entirety of my summer. From having my cousin Lea come and live with us for 2 months in June/July and everything that went with that, to Bryce's birthday, to the girls' birthday, and every one of my kids being home day after day after day and trashing the house with no hope of ever getting it clean....yeah, that pretty much sums up my life the last 3 months.

But now....school has started and I'm feeling like I've at least in part, gotten my life back again. Allison just posted about Macy going back to school and asked if you were a summer mom or a back to school mom. I had to think about that for a while...it's actually kind of a hard question for me to answer. I like the summer time. Naturally I'm a very laid back, go with the flow kinda person so it's nice to be in my "element" of no structure, no schedules kinda living. But on the other hand, the kids (boys mostly) fight and argue and I'm never alone during the summer. Ever. And I really DO like structure and schedules but can't keep one on my own...so it's nice to be forced into one. So I guess I would say that I'm a back to school mom. September is turning into a time of "new beginnings" for me. Coming in with the bite of fresh fall air also comes my motivation to do something....anything! I get to start over. Regroup.

Part of the reason (okay, most of the reason) that I haven't blogged for so long is because I feel like there's been so much to blog about that I'll never get caught up. And it would be terribly overwhelming to try. So I'm going to go through some highlights of our summer. Then I can at least feel caught up. And then I can go back and re-visit some of the events if I want to add more details. But let's be honest. I probably won't.

*The first highlight that happened was my cousin Lea coming to visit. She lives in Kansas and I hadn't really even seen her in person for like 15 years or something like that...so she was little. But we've been instant messaging/emailing for several years back and fourth and knew each other fairly well. So it was very fun and interesting to have her come stay with us. She's 18...I knew her pretty well on the inside, but not on the outside. Such as what she liked to eat for dinner, etc. So that was fun trying to figure all those things out. Lea is at a pivotal point in her life. I felt like God used (and is using) Josh and I in her life to help her get some things figured out. I don't see an end in sight yet...but it is exciting and humbling to experience God working through you.

*Bryce turned 9! Ahhh! When did my kids get so old? Because last time I counted, I was like 24. For Bryce's party, we asked my mom to host so we had a little bbq and water party at her house. It was a great time and lots of people came out to celebrate with him. His big present from us was a rabbit. He had really wanted one and we decided that he was responsible to be able to keep one. She is all black and really very sweet. He named her Cali.

*From about May to the middle of August, I lost 14 lbs! Whoo hoo!

*The girls had their 3rd birthday. **sniff** It's so hard on me that they're getting older. However, I do have to admit, that so far 3 is shaping up to be far better than 2. They each got a little two wheeler bike with training wheels for their birthday and helmets to go with of course. They got the idea of riding right away! They were super excited about the bikes. We celebrated their birthday at Blue Lake park.

*Potty training is in full swing and honestly just about completed! It was sort of a natural progression. I knew they were ready...they'd been ready for a long time, but I wasn't ready to deal with it. But one day I just stopped putting them in diapers in the morning and they just sort of did it. Sounds easier than it was. But they're learning now that there are bathrooms in places that we go away from home, and they tell me when we're in the car and they have to go and I can take them out of the house now without too much fear of accidents. The only thing that is still a struggle is Ellyanna with her poop. It's a very dramatic thing each day. She fights the idea of going in the toilet or potty chair. I think the issue is mainly that she stands to do it...and obviously she can't stand to do it while on the potty chair. I'm kinda ignoring it for now and 'hoping' that eventually she'll figure it out.

*Kynden had surgery! We found out that Kynden had a hernia almost a year ago. They had told us that she needed surgery to get it fixed but that it wasn't super urgent. So we waited. Mostly because we were trying to juggle health insurance etc....but for the last few months, she was obviously in pain or at least discomfort when she needed to poop and we felt so bad for her. There was a LOT of drama and tears. So we decided we needed to do it sooner than later. It was an outpatient surgery, lasted less than an hour and boy was she funny on those relaxing drugs that they give before the surgery. Josh and I were laughing so hard at her that I got tears in my eyes. And lo and behold, a few days after the surgery, she pooped without any crying, or drama and she's been going in the potty chair or toilet ever since! We're thrilled!

Well, I know there's more, (such as the church camp out in August that Bryce dubbed as the "best weekend of my whole life") but I won't make this any longer than it already is. Looking forward to writing a current blog post pretty soon!