Lights, darks, and pudding cups

While pulling out dirty laundry from the hamper to wash, I found a pudding cup.  A new one.  Not half eaten or empty.

This morning, Adalyn woke apologizing that she helped herself to a bowl of cereal after we all went to bed.  So I'm wondering if the pudding cup was her stash for tonight.  Or Alivia was getting into the pantry again.

Dream results in some action!

About 3 weeks ago, I had this dream that I went in to labor and we weren't ready. So I made myself a "To-Do" list of about 5 things:

1. Clean out the deep freezer, then stock it with easy meals for when Alivia arrives.
2. Pack the diaper bag and our hospital bag.
3. Have groceries available here for our girls and their caretakers while we are in the hospital.
4. Clean the van.
5. Do some deep cleaning of the house and get all the laundry caught up.

• The first thing we did, was got the diaper bag all packed. There's nothing more fun than washing clothing for the one that's not here yet. It stays clean!!! Then we packed our hospital bag. I originally packed a summer dress to come home in.  then I changed my mind,  have you ever tried to nurse while wearing a dress?  It's been about 7 months since I've had to think about that.   So we bought me a pair of drawstring capris because I couldn't pack up a pair of maternity pants and not have use of them for so long. Both bags, and the car seat have been in Louis' van for 2 weeks.
• We then hit the grocery store. Twice. One night for dry goods as we passed through Albany to Somerset to go to Bob Evans to eat. We always forget they are an hour ahead of us. We pulled in the parking lot 15 minutes before they closed at 9 (their time) and you should have seen the looks I got from the employees when I walked in to ask their closing time. We drove all that way for Bob Evans, and by goodness, we were gonna eat at Bob Evans. Louis' comment made me change my mind, and so we headed to find another place. I was sure Frisch's wouldn't spit in our food because they closed an hour later.
• The next day, I had to pick up donuts, and so I hit Save-A-Lot in Albany again for all the cold stuff. It helped my legs to break up the shopping like that. And pyschologically, it felt like I spent less. My receipt total was $77 for the first night and $140 the next day. Not bad. (I would have felt bad if I saw the total at $217.00). Hehe.
• As we unloaded all the groceries, I had to kind of rearrange cabinets to accomodate everything.  I made special food baskets for the girls that has been off limits until Alivia is born.  For a few days they were saying, "I can't wait til Alivia is born so I can eat that food".  It's fun kid food like ravioli, spaghetti-os, fruit snacks, pudding cups, and pop-tarts.  Not stuff we generally buy, but stuff that would be easy for someone to get out for them.  I have no worries, that Abigail and Anna will go for that as soon as we head to the hospital. 
• Then I had a cook day (that lasted 2 days because I ran out of energy).  Abigail and Anna helped me clean out both freezers.
• After spending two days in the kitchen, I turned around to notice our house was turned upside down.  So when Monday rolled around we spent about 3 hours cleaning.  I made out a game board for them that had tasks written out above circles that led to a Game Over box at the bottom.  Once they completed their tasks, they could color in the circles that were below the written tasks.  They loved that game.  Then when they all got to the Game Over, they got to eat popsicles outside and play for 30 minutes,  Then I painted all their nails after their baths.  At the end of the day, we had our clean house again.
• A few days later, we had a "Sure" Day (where I just said "sure" to the girls' requests.  One of their requests was to wash the van in their bathing suits.  Cool...it'd check off part of my list. 



Below the microwave are the 2 red food baskets.   Our older 3 girls are very proud of them and super protective of them.  Adalyn discovered them Thursday and helped herself to some of the fruit snacks.  You've never seen more upset sisters! 

So it took about a week to check off the 5 things.  But it felt good.  I felt like THEN we could go in to the hospital and have a baby because all of that was done!  The fridge and freezer were stocked, the bags and carseat loaded, the house was clean and the laundry was caught up.  These days, I feel like we're gonna eat through our stock and by the time we finally have this girl, the house will be a wreck and the laundry will be piled high. 

Being productive

Last night:

• I pulled off the off-white blanket from our bed and washed it.
• I disassembled and vacuumed out a picture frame.  
• I pulled Adalyn out of the tub and she went poop on the potty chair!!! 

Because...

• Adalyn spilled her grape juice on the blanket.
• Trying to get her basketball, Anna stepped on a picture frame out in the garage (doesn't everyone store those on the floor when you're going through a box of frames?).
• I noticed a floater in the tub among the bath toy Adalyn was playing with.  If she'd had her whole basket of toys in there, I probably wouldn't have noticed the thing.  Love draining a tub, cleaning the whole thing out, then putting your kiddo back in the tub for the rest of her bath.

Dead battery

Well, another thing Louis would do is jump off a car battery.  The Lord is teaching me to be more independent, I just KNOW it!  The propane guy came to haul away the tank today, and asked me to move the blue van so he could get his truck in there.  Sure!  I go out to start it, and nothing.  DEAD!

So I think, "When's the last time I drove it?"

Oh. it was last Friday...

...when I moved it from the driveway to the water hose so we could wash both vehicles.  I parked it back on the driveway just in time for it to get rained on.

So I am the last one who used it...and I probably didn't get the door closed all the way.  Just another one of my contributions to making Louis feel like he's needed.  See, I did it for him.  

In my defense, my brain probably wasn't functioning completely at the time I didn't get the door sealed shut.  Afterall, Louis reminds me that while pregnant, my brain shrinks 3-5%.  That's love.  He's really just reminding me that it's not all my fault. 

Now this:

it's what happened while I was caring for our patient the DAY BEFORE we washed the vehicles. 
Yes, our little zebra used a big, fat, permanent marker. 

So in my mad dash to park the vans back, before the rain came, and to BE SURE no one was getting into mischief while I was doing so...I didn't seal the door completely.

 Now see- that changes everything, doesn't it?

There's this guy...

...who does a lot more around here than I realize, like: 

• mowing the lawn.
• taking out the trash.
• hauling off the garbage to the dump.
• making sure all the lights are always turned off in rooms we aren't in.
• going around and checking all the doors to be sure they are locked before bedtime.
• killing a spider crawling on the ceiling.
• catching a toddler from falling off the barstool, and then lifting her back up to sit again.
• getting glue traps disposed of when they have 2 salamanders stuck to them in the basement (I have allowed a mouse to have free reign because I can't even bring myself to set out a glue trap to catch the crazy thing.  WHO WOULD THROW THAT LIVE SQUIRMY MOUSE STUCK TO A GLUE TRAP AWAY?  "Not I", said the scaredy cat. 
• tickling, and letting the girls climb all over him right before bedtime, which always seems to make sleep come sooner!
• making his own bowls of cereal and getting his own drinks.  You'll never believe how many times I've checked on this poor guy and offered to fix him something then got distracted by one of the girls needing something, and forgot all about what I was supposed to do for our patient. 
• unloading all the groceries from the car.    
• filling up the gas tank.  I guess I'm just spoiled, but Louis ALWAYS pumps the gas.
• driving out to pick up whatever is needed if I'm in my pjs (which is 75% of the time).
• driving out to get dinner if there's a hankering for something specific (like the cheeseburgers tonight).
• running downstairs to check on crying (sister mediation v. an accident). 
• just being an extra set of hands, feet, eyes, muscles, etc.

These are just things I've discovered in the past 5 days!

To those who don't know, Louis had back surgery Wednesday.  He can't drive, do steps, reach too high, twist his back, lift more than a gallon of milk, and can't really get in and out of bed on his own without feeling pain.  Most importantly though, he can't bend down to pick up a glue trap to throw it out for me. 

We really need you around here, Louis...despite what you may think.  I couldn't run this household without you.  I know that now.