Facebook

I have a confession - I check Facebook way too much. I have a busy brain and it is the perfect busy mindless task to take up time and space in my head. Let me explain how this works....When I have entirely too much to do and I don't know where to start... Check Facebook. When I am in the middle of something hard for work... Suddenly stop and check Facebook.  Look at the messy kitchen...check Facebook. Quite honestly, I don't know what I go there for. I mostly follow pages rather than people. The people post a link to something, I follow the link, that link goes somewhere else, and before I know it, I have a head spinning with information and got nothing done. 

I am addicted to information and Facebook is nothing good for an information junkie. 

In an effort to break the cycle, Emilee and I went cold turkey. We signed off until April with a rule: each time we sign on during the next month we have to put $1.00 in a jar and at the end of the month Angie gets all the money. Horrible, right? Now if that isn't a deterrent, I don't know what is.

It has been a little over a week and I cannot lie, it has been hard. I have even considered paying my $1.00 a time or two. I can't respond to a friend request, I can't reply to a message, I can't see what Food Babe has does recently, I can't look at my boot camp group page which tells me who is coming to my yoga class, and I don't know the latest home remedy that I could be using. It is amazing that I am still alive actually.  

So as we move into April, I am curious what happens. I am over checking it all day long, just because. But, can an information junkie with a jumpy brain check it once a day or once every few days?

I have a feeling the Facebook money jar will be around for awhile.  Not wanting to give Angie the money may be my only hope and works like a charm. (Especially after seeing her joy in the prospect of so much money... I must prevail!!)

These funny little people of mine

I had to get something done for work tonight, so I asked the kids to go lie down. Autumn had fallen asleep earlier and was already in bed. I was almost done and came up to check on them. 

I laughed as I saw Autumn lying there in what she calls her ballet dress. She insisted on taking off her jammies and putting on her dress. In fact, earlier I had walked away only to return to find her with her jammies off and her dress over her head with one arm in. 

I laughed as I looked at Ivy fully engrossed in an art project on the bed. (At 9:30 nonetheless) She was sitting there surrounded by crayons, markers, and scissors, with a lovely paper placed gently on my pillow as she dabbed a bit of glue on her project.  I saw her little feet sitting there covered with tights which are on under her pajama pants. This because she was convinced putting on her tights now would help her get ready for tomorrow. 

I also laughed as I looked over at Owen with his iPad on his legs blasting his new song- Party in the USA by Miley Cyrus. We had made a deal earlier in the night that I would buy him the song if he worked really hard on his homework and stopped complaining. With homework done, he was lying next to nighttime art project girl singing his heart out with his song on repeat.  As I walked in he smiled and kept singing.  He was not happy when I asked him to turn it down. 

The best part about all of this is the fact that none of this is out of the ordinary. Try as I might, I seriously have to wonder what a normal bedtime routine looks like.  

The rascally one

Autumn.

She is a character.  In fact, Angie and I even call her character.  She is teeny tiny, hardly has any hair, talks up a storm, and is full of sass, even at 2 and almost a 1/2. 

Last night we were lying in bed with the other two kids.  They had fallen asleep a few minutes earlier and I was sooo tired.  I kept begging her to lie down and go to sleep.  She on the other hand, kept turning my lamp on and off, on and off.  At one point I said, “Autumn, turn the light off, I don’t want it on”.  To which she replied, “Well, I do” and turned it on again.  I tried to stay stern but her little sassy words made me laugh.  I kept falling asleep and would wake up to click, click, click.  When I didn’t respond I heard a little voice and could hear the smile on her face as she said slowly, “Look what I am doing”.  Click Click Click. 

And it isn’t just me she loves to torture.

The other day Owen was holding something that was clearly his and she wanted it.  She was following him around the house crying, with Ivy by her side.  He started crying, cause she is so big and mean of course, saying that it was his and she was trying to take it.  He stopped in the kitchen to tell me what was going on and while we were talking, her small sleuth like self snatched the toy out of Owen’s hand and then she raced over to Ivy with a look of sheer joy on her face and proudly said, “Ivy, I got it!”.  Ivy looked so pleased with her.  I turned back and looked at Owen, crying, empty-handed.  It all happened so suddenly.  Owen causes them grief, but I am beginning to realize that one day (maybe a day not so far away), he will need as much protection from them as they do from him (and maybe more, those girls as a team may be serious trouble).

 

Rules to Live By

The kids were all going outside to play the other day.  As I was helping Ivy get ready to go out, I said, “Be careful outside and have fun, and don’t get lost”.  She turned to me and said back, “I know not to get lost”.  And with a small pause she finished by saying, “And, if a dog walks by, run in the house.”  Yep, that is right.  Be careful, have fun, don’t get lost, and if a dog walks by, run inside.  I think she has thought this through before.  

A Light Dusting–(This post was written in part in 2013 and in part today and yesterday)

THIS IS A SCATTERED POST!

That is all it really takes to cancel school around here.  I have been begging for the day to come when we had a break from school and I made it down to the last day… that is until they canceled school.  Doesn’t the school district realize that for the first time in my life we had teacher gifts ready to go to school today?  Homemade teacher gifts of lip balm and vanilla, complete with handmade cards by the kids that will now sit in little bags until January 6th.  I also wish the district would know how excited I was that we completed optional homework and it was packed up and ready to go in Owen’s backpack.  It was packed up the night before, this is big news around here.  We made it to the last day before winter break and we were ahead of the game… and now we are home.  I am cursing this day enough now and rest assured, when the end of June comes and we add that extra make-up day, I will curse it more. 

So what now? Well, I can’t be awake at 6:00 for nothing, so my blog at least deserved a post, especially considering I only have 11 days to remember 2013 as something other than the worst blogging year of my life.  I find with each child I have less room in my head to remember anything.  As new tasks and memories enter my head, old ones leave.  It is sort of like my head is full and something has to leave to make room for something else.  So thank you snow day for making me write stuff down…

Things worth remembering:

* Autumn loves eating “ficken” and “feese” and I adore making her say both.  Chicken and cheese sound so much better when they start with an f.

* Some words are cute when they start with an f, other words are a tad more dangerous.  For example: Chocolate Milk.  Out of Autumn’s mouth, it sounds a little like – fockit milk.  And yes, if you say that out loud, it sounds like you think it might.

* Owen made me mad this week last week and I lost all ability to parent nicely.  He was mean to me and wouldn’t practice piano.  He told me it was too hard and that we give up when things are hard.  It was late, I was tired. I transferred $60.00 out of his account into mine to pay for his lesson.  Sometimes you have to do what you have to do.

* Ivy is so competitive and loves to be perfect.  Evan did soccer this summer and after watching his first game, Ivy announced “You did good Evan, but you didn’t score any goals”.  And then there was the time Lyla couldn’t wait to tell Ivy that she learned how to buckle herself in her car seat.  Ivy looked at her and said very seriously, “Good Lyla, but can you unbuckle yourself?”.  She has good intentions, she just has has a heart of gold with high expectations.  Her poor little cousins.  She is taking gymnastics, swimming, piano, dance, and can’t wait for T-ball. 

* Greg is probably started a new job in Seattle.  I was very scared about the commute, but it is turning out ok.  He has to leave about an hour earlier than he used to and he rides the bus, which he says he actually doesn’t mind.  His work will reimburse him for the bus pass each month, which makes the commute almost free.  Greg seems happy at the new job and I am pleased to say we are settling in to the changes. 

* It is time to dust off the yoga mat…. teaching yoga starts started again on January 4th.  I cannot lie, it has been harder than I thought.  Having your own life with kids is not the easiest of tasks.  In fact, after we started teaching, Ivy moved to a two day a week gymnastics class that ends at the same time yoga starts.  Greg started working in Seattle instead of down the street.  We signed up Evan, Ivy, and Owen for T-ball and baseball and I signed up Greg to coach both of my kids’ teams and truth be told,  we have no idea how that will work! Everyday is a work in progress and thought. 

* Autumn needs a stylist.  Her clothes are awful and most days they are jammies.  The night before last she picked out yellow pajama pants with frogs on it, pink work out type shorts over the top, a blue shirt with a monkey on it, topped with a little pink hooded vest.  She wore that to bed, for her clothes yesterday, and last night.  We are hoping she gets dressed today, but really, that is up to her.  I don’t force the issue, I have places to go and trust me, we would not go if I intervened with her dressing plans. 

* Every single pair of Ivy’s pants has a hole in the knee, even the same knee. 

* Ivy and I got our hair trimmed the other day (Autumn invited herself in for a haircut as well and I am pretty sure she cut nothing off…it is hard to cut nothing off nothing) and Ivy is obsessed with it. 

* The kids are all still sleeping in my bed. (Owen comes and goes…comes when I let him, goes when he is in trouble)

* The kids love to “hip hip hooray” for things.  For example, “Mom, I earned a Frog Pride at school, we should give me 5 hip hip hoorays”.  And then we do that.  Autumn is my favorite…”Mom, my coughs are gone, let’s hip hip hooray for me”.  And then she throws her arms in the air, jumps up and down and cheers, hip hip hooray. 

* Owen wanted one thing more for Christmas than anything else…a suit.  My dad gave him a three piece suit complete with a pocket watch. 

* And finally, the kids went to the dentist the other day and had no cavities.  In fact, the older two have places we were watching and then dentist said the trouble spots were gone.  I almost died a little. 

And for the sake of finally posting.. the end. 

Long overdue pictures (and not enough)

Tea Party

Crazy Hair Day!

New Year's Eve!

A group of babies asleep on the stairs

Mystery phone selfies

George

Autumn loves watching Peppa Pig. They have Mommy Pig, Daddy Pig, Peppa, and George. 

The other night in bed, lying in the dark, Autumn said: "you are Mommy Pig, ok? and I am Vorv, and you can actually call me Vorv". 

"Ok, that is fine but you have to go to sleep Auttie."

"Call me Vorv."

"George, please go to sleep."

"Ok Mommy Pig."

"Do you need your blanket George?"

And in the dark of the night, I continued to be required to commit 100% to calling her George. 

George finally fell asleep, but continues to be George at least two or three times a day.