adventures in mommyland

just remembered this afternoon that i needed to pick up some prescriptions from target before they got reshelved (previous experience has taught me that scripts get reshelved ten days after being filled).  this is right after i put the younger two down for naps.  so i whisked them back up just as they were falling asleep, hustled everyone into the van and drove over to target.  ended up getting one of those enormous carts with extra seats in front and super-wide turning radius so the older three could sit while jonah was strapped to me in the baby carrier.  went inside, tried to ignore the stares as we made our way to the pharmacy and waited several minutes while the two employees continued talking about something behind the back counter.  argh!!!  tempted to tell my behaving kids to start misbehaving with screaming unruliness so that one of the employees would hurry up and help me get out of there.  you know the saying about squeaky wheels?  anyway, i chose not to, finally got the prescriptions, made it back out to the car and felt a HUGE sense of accomplishment.  it's the little things, right?  got everyone buckled in, drove back home, got everyone inside the house, when i realized i forgot my phone in the bottom of the cart back in the parking lot at target.  hustled everyone back into the car, rushed over to target (but not too fast since i am a law-abiding rule-follower.  also because i now forgot my wallet back at home), prayed the whole way there that the cart was still in the corral where i left it.  found the cart where i left it and praise God the phone was still in there.  retrieved the phone, got back in the car to the cheers of my small children.  we talked about how God is good even in these little things.  made it back home where i discovered i forgot to close the garage door on my way out.  now i need about a 27-hour nap.  the end.

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now, before i had kids, the story would have gone more like:  picked up prescriptions at target, came back home.  the end.

at least you could say my life is never dull!  ha ha. 

 

 

bubbles

phil texted to say that he has been officially hired by county.  actually, he was official as of yesterday, but they didn't bother to tell him until today.  after 7 months and 21 days of waiting for this news, it was, well, a bit anti-climactic.

the up side is that phil has a job!!!  only took 10 years, 7 months, and 21 days to get to this point.  God is good.

the down side is that we still feel like we're living with a huge question mark looming over our heads.  i'm not sure that phil really even wants this job aside from the fact that it's a secure position and it allows us to continue to live in this area we've really come to love.

but, i don't want him to take this job if he doesn't really want to be there.  i keep telling him i'm okay with moving away if that would give him opportunity to work somewhere he would actually enjoy.  this current job he has means he'll be working upwards of 60-80 hours a week.  so, back to being single mom a lot of the time.  add to that the myriad ways some of the 'higher ups' keep trying to make his life miserable.  he's been moonlighting there in the interim while waiting for the official hire and they keep having him take overnight shifts since they're severely short-staffed.  and they keep pawning off the extra workload onto him so that he ends up coming home completely thrashed and exhausted the next morning.  we've all been sorta miserable lately.

so the big question is if he should stay there or if he should look elsewhere.  and if so, where?  and now that he's finally got the job, do we continue the house hunt (we've started but so far have come up with nothing) or wait a bit longer?  and if we wait any longer, i may actually go completely crazy living in the tight space we're living in.

i'll admit, i've been pretty darn miserable lately.

i would have never guessed that the most stressful, uncertain times for us would have come after phil completed medical school/residency/fellowship.  wasn't this supposed to be the easier part?!

man, being a grown-up is hard.  (remember in the movie "up" when russell slumps onto a log and sighs in defeat, "tents are hard."  that's about how i feel right now).

phil concluded his text this morning with, "i don't know whether to laugh or cry."  and i'm right there with him.

so, that's where we are right now.  kinda wishing God worked through billboards, like seeing one that says, "phil and michelle, I want you guys to live _____, work _____, and _____school the kids.  thank you for obeying me.  continue on and I will be with you and go before you."  but knowing that God doesn't work that way, we're still trying to determine what to do.  so we'd definitely appreciate your prayers for us!

sorry to be debbie downer on this one.  i think i need a break from adulthood.  thankfully, i have four precious little ones who do a great job helping me to lighten up, to remember all that i have to be thankful for, and all the joy that God pours into my life when i remember to look for it.

and what could be better than being a little kid blowing bubbles in her pajamas with nary a care in the world.

and when that little kid invites her weary mommy to come enjoy the bubbles with her?

well, that certainly is an invitation not to be turned down.

because she'll only be this little for the blink of an eye.

so the cares of the world can wait while i revel in her littleness.

this is when she started trying to feel the bubble on her cheek.  it popped immediately on contact.

she kept trying though, cuz she's persistent like that.

and that's something i really like about this one.

her face is another thing i really, really like about this one.

and just like that, i'm already feeling a bit better.  thank the good Lord for little ones, for they truly are a blessing and a gift.

project 52, week 7

my boy was invited to his first ever sleepover party last weekend.  he was beside himself excited.  i packed the stuff he would need into a reusable state farm bag that we got for free because i couldn't find his backpack because it was packed away somewhere in one of our gazillion boxes stored in the garage.  he didn't mind.  i wondered if we would get a late night call from our friends telling us mikey was homesick and wanted to come home.  because uh, that may or may not have happened to me at my very first sleepover.  turns out i needn't have worried.  he came home pretty tired the next day and told me all about the grrrreat time he had and informed me that he was having too much fun to miss me very much.  but he concluded that he still likes sleeping at home in his own bed best of all.  oh, and he confided later that he did miss me a little even though he was busy having so much fun.  :)

my boy.  growing up too fast in my opinion.

my little valentines

no sooner did this guy get over roseola...

then he goes and picks up a congested head cold complete with ooey gooey runny nose. all. day. long.  with ramped up crankiness to match.

whew, what a day.

and even with phil away at work tonight, i still wanted to make valentine's day special for the kiddos with a little dinner party.  albeit a very simple dinner party.  it would also be a perfect time to have them help cook since they all really enjoy doing that.  only, it never quite works out to have all three in the very small kitchen space with me, so i decided to put each one "in charge" of one part of the meal.  it worked fabulously.

allie was in charge of making brownies for dessert.  i have no idea what came over me, but i threw caution to the wind and even let her crack the eggs all by herself.

she did it perfectly.

except for the final maneuver.

this is when she discovered that eggs are slimy.  she doesn't like slimy too much.

but she recovered nicely and got right back to work.

"no jonah, you have to wait until it's all done!"  check out that little hand on her hip.  she is definitely the 'little mama' of our bunch.

she did every step herself, down to pouring in the batter.

then it was mikey's turn.  he was in charge of making spaghetti and meatballs.  his favorite.  (at this point, jonah and his fussiness demanded to be held so picture-taking had to slow way down.)

and lauren was in charge of making smoothies.

she ended up eating as much yogurt off the spoon as she put in the blender.

finally it was time to eat! 

and enjoy the fruit of their respective labors...

they were each so proud of their contribution.  it was a wonderful dinner and something i think we'll have to do again sooner than later.

and even though my valentine had to work tonight, he still didn't forget to pick up a little surprise for me this morning.

and that's why he's still the best in my book.  :)

happy valentine's day, friends~ sending lots of love from us to you today!

project 52, week 6

this is my boy.  while running around outside, he accidentally knocked over little sister #2 and she ended up skinning her knee.  she cried.  he helped her up, brushed her off, and gave her a hug.  but still she cried.  so they brought her over to mommy.  while she cuddled on mommy's lap, my boy sidled over and said he still felt bad about his little sister getting hurt and wondered what he could do to make her feel better.  after brainstorming a few ideas, he declared he would draw a picture just for her.  he sat right down and began drawing the house from the movie "up", complete with all the balloons coming out of the chimney.  because seeing that would warm anyone's heart.

and the house with the balloons was pretty cute, too.  :)

project 52, week 5

i'm a week behind again.  i'm sensing a recurrent theme going on around here.  but i did have a good reason this past week for falling behind.

this dude...

decided that last week was as good a time as any to go ahead and catch a bug.  daddy initially suspected an ear infection.  but the high fever followed by the telltale body rash and mommy knew it was roseola.  which meant lots of extra fever meds, extra fluids, and extra cuddles.  since he's normally always on the go and doesn't usually want to sit around with me anymore, the extra snuggle time was actually very sweet.

but not so sweet when combined with trying to homeschool and keeping the rest of this funny farm going though.  enough to where i was looking up our schooling options for, like, tomorrow.

but that's another story altogether.

at least this week, he's on the mend and thankfully it wasn't anything more serious.

but now lauren seems a bit feverish today.  ah, it never ends.  that's why i bookmarked those schooling options.  just in case.  ;)

a crib for baby

when a new baby is about to join a family, a flurry of activity to get ready for the little one's arrival usually precedes the big event.  a nursery to be decorated and made sweet for baby.  a baby shower.  a carseat to be installed.  a name to be decided on.  and all the many stuffs to gather-- lots of baby clothes, lots of baby gear, lots of baby dipes n wipes.  it all makes for good times.

except it's not exactly like that when you're baby number 4.

when you're baby number 4, your parents view the hospital stay as more of a "mini-vacation" than anything else.

when you're baby number 4, you get to sleep in a hand-me-down pack n play stuffed into a corner of your parents' room.  if you're lucky, they'll blow the dust off the basinet insert first before letting you sleep in that.  that is, if they can find the basinet insert.

when you're baby number 4, you get to wear the same onesie for two, sometimes three, okay four days in a row.  and the rest of your clothes are shoved into a laundry basket next to the pack-n-play where you sleep.

when you're baby number 4, you finally get a plastic bin to hold all your clothes when you're four months old.  still shoved next to the pack-n-play where you sleep.

when you're baby number 4, you get to stay a whole nine months in that pack-n-play in your parents' room before they finally get around buying you a proper crib to sleep in (because the crib your three older siblings slept in didn't survive its fifth move).

and because your parents waited til you were nine months old before buying you a crib, you don't look like such a teeny tiny peanut lost in a great big bed.  and you immediately sit up too, because you are nine months old, after all.  and you are ever so grateful to your big brother for offering you his beloved baby bear to help ease you in to your new bed.

so you do your best to look impossibly adorable as you try to figure out what you're supposed to do in here.

also, you aren't quite sure why your parents feel the need to place you behind bars all of a sudden.

then you look over and realize you finally made it into the party room.

with party animal number 1.

party animal number 2.

and party animal number 3.  along with the OG party animal thrown in there for fun.

then you gaze adoringly up at your big brother and telecommunicate to him that if you will be sentenced to sleep behind bars, then you'd like him to lift you out of bed and take you downstairs every morning so that the two of you can have brother bonding time.  because you two have a secret pact to be the early risers in the party room.

it's a long message so it takes a while to transmit the whole thing. 

luckily it got through loud and clear before your parents realized that you are also able to pull yourself up in your brand new crib because they waited til you were almost not a baby before they finally got you a baby bed.

baby number 4 makes for lots of good times too, just on a completely different timeline.

and that's alright, right?

ps- yes, all four are currently sleeping in one room.  and no, i don't recommend it.  :p