Descriptions

I was having Aliza blow her nose and her ears must have been popping.
"Mom, wait". She pushed on both ears with her fingers. "My ears were inside out".

The other day we stopped at Chick-Fil-A and as we were walking in, I asked the girls what they wanted. Adalyn said she wanted a cheeseburger. After repeating the options again so she could alter her request, she said. "Ugh, I guess I will just have a chicken cheeseburger."

Timely pictures of an untimely project

This shelf looks simple enough, right?  This was actually the last and easiest.

  

The crazy-can't-hit-the-studs-and-can't-find-short-screws-so-they-don't-poke-books shelves.  

Things that make me go ahhh

There's just nothing like:

• Windows open on a warm, breezy day. 
• Clean sheets on my bed.
• Towels folded perfectly and shelved with the soft bunchy side turned out.
• A knock-knock joke from the kiddos that makes no sense at all that you laugh at anyway.
• Turning out the lights in the kitchen at the end of each day.
• Watching 4 washing machines wash a week's worth of laundry at once (it's just too bad you have to fork out so much at a laundry mat for this "cheap" thrill.)
• The sound of quiet, but also the sound of giggles.
• Seeing her understand something in school after so long of it being a mystery.  
• Mulled cider candles
• walking across a bare floor and not feeling any particles on your foot. 
• Hearing your kiddo recite a memory verse. 
• Having Louis walk in through the door.
• Putting meals in the freezer. 

Projects and such

You know you're a mom of many, if it takes two solid days of changing clothing out for a new season and you're still not done.  You know you're crazy or stupid if you attempt to change out clothes, declutter, pack things away for a yard sale, rearrange some furniture, and finish a project all in the same three days when you have five kids.

Today, I needed a break.  I picked up the three shelves that have laid up against the wall in the hallway since Louis served on the women's Emmaus Walk.  (I don't even remember how long ago that's been now).  That's a problem I have.  I imagine something to do, and think I can accomplish it in a 2-hour block of time and the reality is, it takes a lot longer to complete than I envisioned.  You wouldn't believe how many half-completed projects I have in my head (and laying around the house).  

So I said to myself, I'm not going to work on clothes switching today...or at least I will get this shelf project done and then pick back up on the clothing deal, afterward.  Because afterall, it should only take an hour or two.  

So anyway, a few weeks back, I picked up three pieces of wood from Lowe's, sanded it, stained it and then it was still tacky to the touch so I left it leaning against the wall to dry for a couple weeks hours. In the meantime, I got some L-brackets, spray painted them "Oil rubbed bronze" (which take time to dry in between turning them over to coat the other side).  

So today, I would attach the dry L-brackets to the untacky stained shelves and hang them up on the wall.  Easy enough.  An hour.  2 to actually put things on the shelves.   

Gathering tools at our house is always a job (because of all the unfinished projects I start and can't seem to complete).  Can't find the tape measure.  Can't locate the drill.  The list of can't-finds is never-ending.  

On one of my jaunts to the garage to get something for this project, I catch sight from the kitchen of Alivia (by the pantry) who has the bag of pancake mix upside down and I see it pouring powder all down to the floor.  I pull a gazelle, leaping across the floor to grab it from her. She managed to dump half a Sam's Club bag (do you KNOW how much that is??!!) of Pancake mix that we just opened yesterday when we had pancakes before CBS.  

So, this is a huge job to clean up. Time consuming.  Tedious.  Dusty. (Have you SEEN the Sam's Bag?)  HALF, I tell you...on the floor.

I'm wanting to get back to my project, so I sweep most, but leave the vacuuming of the runner for later.  

Back to the project at hand,
Feeling pretty DIY-er, I grab the stud finder, locate studs, take wall measurements, transfer the measurements on to the boards.   I attach the L-brackets to the places on the boards where the studs will match up.  I go to attach the shelves to the wall and my screws go through drywall.  I took them out and moved it a hair over.  Still not hitting the studs.  So I had to repeat the process again (unsuccessfully) and finally resorted to removing the L-brackets from the boards and attaching them to the wall first then attached the brackets to the wood.  And you know this all happens without dropping your screws, your level, and the pencil a dozen times each, right?  

The only screws I could find to attach the shelves to the L-brackets on top, were too long and poked through the shelves (thus, creating hazards on top of the shelves).  At this point, I really didn't care because my 1-hour project was well into it's 3rd hour and I hadn't even reached the fun part of putting things onto the shelves yet. After all the long screws were in, Louis comes in from mowing and points out that the screws are sticking out on top of the shelves and told me he had shorter screws I could have used.  I DID scour the toolboxes pretty well I thought.  So then I am off to replacing the screws...because who wants screw tips sticking into books or finding an unsuspecting finger once a year when I dust up there? 

So, now its done.  All three shelves.  Hung.  In between this now, daunting task, was tending to kiddos, fixing lunch (and we did have some awesome 3-minute microwave cream cheese dip, and Louis and the girls ate shrimp cocktail).  What a fun lunch!  I also decided to run some water in the microwave to steam it and wipe out later.

SO while I had tools out, I decided to go ahead and hang up five frames that I spray painted red a few weeks days ago with another project in mind.  Let's do this!  Let me also in between this process, grab things from here and there and add them to the shelves.  Oh, and let me hang up these few frames that have sat here since we moved in.  Oh, let me change out the mantle a little.  Oh, yeah, I wanted those Willow Tree Angels out of the curio and on the new shelf.  ADHD, much?  

Stopping. Something wreaks.  I must follow my nose (and trust me, it wasn't to find Froot Loops).  I come to hands covered in what looked like a paraffin wax hand treatment, only it was brown.  I get Alivia to the bathtub and start the process of cleaning her up and gagging in between.  

I go the family room and apparently, she had done the deed right under her sister who was rocking in the rocker, who casually shrugs, "I wondered what that smell was".  It was also smudged into carpet and smeared onto Aliza's devotional book.  Art.  

Pictures soon (of the project at hand, not the one who tried her hand at art). Surely I can carve out 10 minutes to do that tomorrow.  Along with actually wiping out the microwave instead of running it four times with the bowl of water in there and forgetting to wipe it. 

My Voice

Today has been an unusually busy-with-good-things day. Fortunately, Adalyn's soccer game for 9 a.m. this morning was canceled yesterday.  Phew.  While we do really enjoy her games, I knew today would be busy and that helped lessen the load a bit. Louis left the house at 7:15 to drive to Sparta for a monthly men's breakfast.  I got up, divided up some potato cheese soup into 3 dishes for a lady (and her family) who had surgery a few weeks ago.  The girls did their traditional staggered waking and stumbling through the house.  We got some oatmeal going and everyone got dressed and sat down to eat. We left and headed out to the nursing home to sing and visit with the residents there until about 11;30.  After that, Louis left to visit with a church member at the E.R. The girls and I went to the other church member's house to deliver the soup, visit and pray with her.  Afterwards, Louis and I conversed on the phone and thought it best to grab lunch in town.  We agreed to meet at Wendy's.  He beat us there.    If there's any feeling of loss of control, let the girls stagger out of the van and catch a glimpse of their daddy in the windows at Wendy's!  One yells, "Daddy" and they all follow suit darting across the parking lot in front of the cars in the drive-thru (with no sense of order, and definitely not stopping to look both ways).  So I holler at them from the driver's seat where I'm turned around getting Alivia out of her car seat, "You didn't look both ways!!!!"  So they trickle back over to the van (again not looking both ways) to repeat the procedure the right way.  (Which wasn't necessary at all at this point. I'm like- just GET OVER THERE SAFELY AND STAY OVER THERE!)  Then as I see them (half who are running back to the sidewalk to get into Wendy's and the other half who are still running back to the van to "do it the right way"), I also see all these faces staring back at us.  These are people eating their lunch in Wendy's dining room.  There's no worse pressure like that of feeling like you have an audience and no worse judgement than feeling like your large family is out of control. Typing it out now, makes me want to throw up at the feeling it produces.

Anyhow, lunch was enjoyed by all, thankfully.  We got home in between rain showers and got busy getting the van cleaned out.  Ya know, single socks, papers, trash, long forgotten sippy cups...anything that gets left in the van when every time we've arrived home in the last week, it's been to a rain shower.  I even got to (finally) vacuum up crackers from our commute to and from CBS Tuesday.  By today, they had been not only stepped on and made into cracker meal, they were also somewhat soggy by the week's rainy forecast.  Thank you.

We got the whole job done in around 30 minutes and we booked it to our first birthday party at 2.  It was misty and the playground equipment was wet, but that didn't stop the birthday party or the fun the kids had.  We ended up with one injury from a slippery slide, and lots of grass, mud, and wet clothes.  But hey- our van was clean,  Bring it!

We booked it home with an hour and 10 minutes to spare before the next birthday party was scheduled to begin at 5 p.m.  Enough time to crank out 5 showers, right?  While the first 2 hopped in the shower together, I ran all the wet clothes to the washing machine and prepped it to begin after showers were over.  After the first two got out, I put the last 3 in together.  They got everything in with a little more assistance from me (getting shampoo and conditioner rinsed out completely).  Then I needed to change because my outfit was damp and there's nothing more pet-peevish to me than being in wet clothing.  We located new outfits for everyone (which is huge considering I'm pretty behind on laundry).  Got hair done.  Ran out the door as Louis left to get some grocery shopping done for us.  Got to the party and I just sat.  I ate, and sat.  And sat.  And talked.  I couldn't move from my chair!  Through this whole day, Alivia NEVER did find herself a nap.  If we take a day trip, she has no problem falling asleep in the car, but today, she never did that.

So at the party, she kinda zoned out.  Sitting next to me, she snacked on candy, party food, and her sister's Sierra Mist.  Cuz like I said, I was talking.  And not paying much attention to her sipping, until I'd catch a sneak sip or two.  So then she agreed to let some of the older girls "help" her along and run around the party scene with them.  Once I could get enough wind back, I got up and went into the gym and played ball with her.  She had a huge plastic bat which she attempted to golf with. It was fun watching her cute little run and I just got caught up watching her toddle and dodge the older ones who were running and playing Dodgeball.  Somehow, the 2-year-old never once got bumped or hit with the ball while she ran after her ball, apparently lost in her own little world among the kids playing their own games in the same shared space.   As she ran, I secretly imagined an easy transition to bedtime.  Afterall...she had no nap!  And she's played hard at two birthday parties!

We left the party a little after 7pm.  I'm walking on Cloud 9 as we get into the house.  Clean van, clean kids, and no showers to get.  It's 7:15 and I slip into the massage chair for a bit.  The girls are all completely silent as they watch a little Disney Jr on TV and then they all get ready for bed.  The older girls transition super well into bed and are all quiet.  They are exhausted from a full day of fun.  But not Alivia.  She's pretty wired.  Louis takes her to off to get her to sleep while I go out to the garage and work on my notebook some.   Louis and I have an understanding.  If he has her, I try not to make a peep, because if she hears my voice, then she gets worked up and cries for me....which can be a big setback if he's trying to get her to sleep.  So after about 45 minutes or so I come in from the garage and hit the dryer on.  I immediately hear her call out, "MOM".  She can't see me, I know that for sure.  But while I said nothing at all. she heard my voice.  My voice in this moment was the dryer tumbling.  Doing laundry. It's part of life.  It's part of me.  

Earlier in the day, I felt I had no voice, when the girls were running across the parking lot at Wendy's when I've told them over and over and over to look and why that is so crucial to their survival.  When I reminded Alivia not to drink her sister's Sierra Mist and I kept catching her sipping.  When I reminded the girls this morning about taking bowls to the sink and cleaning up their areas after breakfast (things I feel like I say over and over again).  That's the voice I want them hearing.  I'm speaking.  It's important they listen!

But tonight,  I used no words.  When I quietly creeped into the laundry room (the room between the garage and the rest of the house), I simply tapped the "on" button.  The sound of laundry sliding against the drum and the the dull squeak of the rotating barrel...the sound of laundry getting done...that was my voice.  She heard me.  She knew it was me.

Sometimes, I get discouraged because I want so badly to hear the voice of my Father.  I don't hear Him.  He outlines his expectations of me in The Word.  He "says it over and over again", and I miss it.  I don't listen.  He calls me out.  He repeats His instruction.  He corrects me.  Then as I make a request, a petition, I get impatient.

me:Why isn't it "yes", Lord?
Alivia: Why can't I have Sierra Mist, Mom?
She can't have it because it's not good for her at this stage in her life.  

me: Why don't you answer me?
You don't listen.   

It is the non-traditional forms of communication that often gets my attention.  His voice comes in answered prayers to getting to the gas station when I'm burning fumes.  It's the right song on the radio at the right time.  It's the phone call and message shared when I needed to hear it.  It's the unanswered prayers. It's in the provision.  It's in the unexpected, gentle hug from your non-hugger kiddo.  It's in the beautiful changing leaves in the rainy, foggy day.  That was you, wasn't it?  And the warm feeling arrives instantly.  The comfort.  He's here.   I may not hear His actual voice but His ways and habits are everywhere.  He's at work in my home and I don't even pay attention or give Him credit.  Alivia knew me by the sound of my work, even when no audible word was said.  My work was my voice. The Lord IS at work here in my home.  I simply must listen to His work.    

My sheep hear my voice, and I know them, and they follow me.  -John 10:27

Reading lesson with a 4-year old....Take 1

I started "Teach Your Child to Read in 100 Easy Lessons" with Adalyn.  She's always asking me how to spell words she wants to write and doesn't even know all of her letters or how to write them yet, let alone read them.  The book will teach her both.  Anna is an exceptional reader and Aliza is getting there.  Adalyn is definitely the youngest "reader" but if she's got the will, I know there's a way.

Part of the process is saying parts of words to them slowly and asking them to say them fast.

Our first encounter:
Me: Sis-ter (sounds are slowly drug out). Now, say it fast.
Adalyn: SCISSORS

Me: Let's try that again.  Sisssss-teeeeeer
Adalyn, with more enthusiasm jumping out of her chair with arms up: SCISSORS!!!!!

SCISSORS
SCISSORS
SCISSORS

Ok. So maybe she's not ready to read.