Carrie: "Mom, can I have something to drink that's almost like Diet Coke?"
Me, slightly confused: "Um... you mean sweet tea?"
Carrie: "No, orange juice."
Me: "Okay, but how is that almost like Diet Coke?"
Carrie: "Well, it comes from the fridge."
All righty then. 
For a while I was posting the cute things my children said on Facebook, instead of on my blog. The problem with that, I finally realized, was that while the Facebook posts were saved, they are not accessible. I want to be able to re-read the cute things my kids say! I suppose if I scrolled down to the bottom of my profile and clicked "More" enough times, I might be able to read into the past, but what a pain.
But now they have this cool "On this day in..." feature, in which old posts are shown in the sidebar. So I've decided as these pop up, when I see cute things I should have blogged, I'll post them here.
Today's "On this day in 2010" post:
So I was reading the kids a story and doing my best sound effects, including a big loud BURP by some animals. They all giggled and Logan shouted, "How do you do that big burp, Mom? Do you have to really push from your diagram?"
Love that kid!!!
Yesterday was our first day of classes for the 2011-2012 school year! Carrie is in first grade this year, and Logan is in third. Carrie has been so excited to start that she's been begging for weeks. Logan, on the other hand, was still working on finishing up math until a few weeks ago, so he wasn't so anxious to get back into the swing of things. But I wanted to start by the end of August to give us plenty of time for the inevitable unforeseen delays which seem to befall us every year. I'm glad I started so early... I think.
It has only been two days so far, but already I am exhausted. I know plenty of homeschooling moms who have as many or more school-aged children, and as many or more littler ones, and they manage to make it work. I wonder if their homes are anything like mine during school time.
Today I was trying to teach Carrie her math lesson, but she got irritated by something I said and ran to the other side of the room, where she sat, glowering at me. Kayla was trying to climb into my lap and play with the manipulative blocks from Carrie's lesson. Feeling her little body scrambling all over me while I was trying to explain something (and trying to get Carrie to come back and listen) made me want to scream. Meanwhile, Logan was alternating between asking for my help with something he was working on, and trying to help out by talking to Carrie - which was only making her more annoyed, of course. And during that period, the baby in the jumperoo went from happy, to content, to whining, to crying, to screaming, all in a matter of about 30 seconds. In the background, the running dishwasher, washing machine, and dryer added to the din (for me, more noise = more stress). Meanwhile, I was realizing that I had forgotten to do some of my planning the night before, so I was not fully prepared for the day's art project, nor Logan's geography assignment. I was thinking I was crazy to believe I could manage all this. I wanted to run, screaming, out the door.
Then came time for Carrie's reading lesson. She started reading aloud a story from Frog and Toad called "The Story." It was the cutest, funniest little story, and it got everyone in the house giggling - not to mention I was beaming with pride at the ease with which she read the story. When she was done, everyone felt better, and we finished our school day in relative peace.
But it was still exhausting. Even when everyone is behaving and working hard, I'm expending endless energy to keep things going that way. And even when school is done for the day, the chores don't ever stop. I'm sitting here blogging when there is a sink full of dishes, a dishwasher to be unloaded and reloaded, an entire pack 'n play overflowing with clean laundry waiting to be folded and put away (not to mention the load in the dryer), and there's a general messiness around the house that we were finally starting NOT to see after several months of adjusting to a new little body in the house. I still have more planning to do for tomorrow, I'm behind on grocery shopping, I have my part-time job to attend to, and two of my girls need baths before ballet class tomorrow afternoon. I can't help but feel like I am sinking. I am not good at being this busy. I am used to having a quieter, simpler life. I guess with four children, that just won't be possible for a while. I guess I am going to have to suck it up and get used to it, but also find a way to enjoy it all. And to find my moments of peace and calm amid the chaos.
It is only the second day. I have plenty of time for us to find our rhythm. I just hope I find it soon.
This past Saturday, Kayla turned three. THREE!!! This is actually a documented miracle, since I'm positive that I remember she was just born a few weeks ago.
The morning started with presents.
She definitely liked them!
Then we had a sort of low key day, with lots of treats and pampering, and then we had dinner with my parents at Applebees.
I had hoped to make her cake with a beautiful buttercream transfer design, but it had been a hectic week and I just didn't have time. No matter... she LOVED her Kroger cake, and there's always next year, right?
I even caught her blowing out the candle!
Happy birthday to my sweet princess!
I've seen stories like this written as a joke, but this is how my morning actually went today.
I was paying bills at the computer (and feeling proud of myself for being so on top of things on the first of the month) when I realized I needed my checkbook so I could enter into Quicken a few checks I'd written. My checkbook was in my purse out in the car (oops), so all I had to do was go out to the garage and get it. But I had to walk through the laundry room to get to the garage, and there I found a pile of dirty laundry blocking my exit. No problem, I'll just throw the load in the washer and be on my way. Except there was already a load in the washer. It was done washing, but I couldn't move it because there was also already a load in the dryer.
No problem. I brought the clean, dry laundry to the bedroom and dumped it into the pack-n-play (i.e., my Giant Laundry Basket). There I noticed a few folded towels that had not been put away yet following my morning attempt to tackle all the clean laundry in the Giant Laundry Basket. I knew if I left them there, there was a high probability a child would find them and un-fold them. So of course I had to put them away. Then, not totally forgetting my original purpose, I went back to laundry room. I loaded the dryer from the washer, but I needed to empty the lint trap before I started the load. That's when I noticed there was no trash bag in the trash can (and hence, nowhere to put the lint from the trap). As I put a new bag in the can, I struggled for a moment to connect exactly what this trash bag had to do with my original goal of getting my checkbook from the car. Oh yeah, lint trap. Dryer. Washer. Laundry on floor. Right. So I cleaned the lint trap and started the dryer. Now I could load the washer, thereby clearing my path to the garage. But the laundry didn't fill the washer, so I decided I needed to check the rest of house for more laundry to add to the load. As I left the laundry room, I saw my computer by the couch and decided to blog instead. So here I am; the laundry is not started and I haven't gotten my checkbook yet.
I still think I'm doing pretty well today. 
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