Day 4

So after watching the kids for four days and having a fever, I get whatever I want, right?

Na. I can't do it. I can't play cards. Besides when Mr. Sloth came home the house was perfectly clean, the kids were bathed and I was wrestling the boys while we had a movie night.  Even though I had a fever clearly I wasn't that sick.

I do want take out though.

Here is how today played out.

I woke up this morning and realized whoops I put my earplugs in out of habit last night. Well I don't know about the kids but I had a great night sleep. I decided to "sleep in" until 6:30am. My cuddle bug Rooster joined me at 6am.  I turned on Disney Jr. for the older kids while I got ready for Mass. Then I ironed the kids clothes and brought them downstairs for them to dress. Their reward. A granola bar.  I eventually had to wake King up. He was tuckered out last night. Thankfully he wakes up happy all the time. I love that kid.

Things were good. I was patient. Kids were compliant. I thought this Mass thing might just happen.


Not so much.


Our routine is to get to Mass ten minutes early and while I hang coats up Mr. Sloth takes all the kids to bathroom to cut down on bathroom trips during Mass. Clearly I didn't have Mr. Sloth today. As I hung up coats King bolted. I asked Demand to trail him but she just stood there. Turns out he saw his Wednesday night care taker who also happened to be a reader today and therefore a part of the procession so Mr. L brought him back to me.

First embarrassing moment.


I attempted again to hang the coats up. Again King bolted. This time Rooster went after him and when Rooster goes after you, you stop. All I know is I came around the corner to find our pastor who is not so much kid friendly (God Bless him) stopping a fight between King and Rooster and trying to keep King from screaming.  Clearly he doesn't deal with one year olds very much.

Oh, brother this is going to be fun.

So at this point I assume that everyone has used the bathroom and is ready to head into Mass.

Nope.

I may never know what they were doing in the bathroom all that time but it wasn't using apparently using it.  So I spent the next 10 minutes supervising bathroom usage. (Have you done the math yet? Yes Mass has started.)

Finally we were on our way. I'm not ashamed to say that we have quite the relationship with our ushers. They know and expect our needs and we appreciate that.  They may no have known where Mr. Sloth was but when I motioned that we would just head to the cry room they told us they had a spot in back for us. Good call.

I should have taken the cry room.

I didn't realize it at the time but Rooster is having a hard time without Mr. Sloth. He was a naughty thing. Constantly sticking his tongue in peoples faces being squirrely. It was rough. Then there's King. I almost always spend the Mass in the lobby with that guy.  By the end of Mass I had taken away every right a mother could think of it was a rough go. Somehow though everyone got a doughnut however there were consequences when we got home.

Everyone was sent to their bed until breakfast was ready.

That was the only real low point of the weekend though.

Things looked up after that. We had a lovely breakfast and then we cleaned up a bit before nap time. Nap time was glorious. I laid down with Rooster. I realized he needed some parental cuddle time. I love my little cuddle bug.  I was out for two hours. King went to sleep just fine no fight or screaming today. And remember, I have a cold....did I tell you I woke up with a fever. Yeah.......

After naps it was a bit more cleaning up before dinner and then I told the kids they would take baths, get jammies on and we could watch a movie with popcorn.

Almost there!!! Mr. Sloth is almost home!!

Halfway through the movie I realized the boys needed a good old fashioned wrestling.  Then I realized I had missed a call from MR SLOTH! He was done and on his way home. Yippee!!

He came home and put the kids to bed...blah,blah,blah, I don't know I took a bath. Now he is out retrieving take out for me.

Feels good. :)

Day 3-Part 2

Day three is over. At least I think it was day three. I have a head cold remember.

Here was my list of activities I wanted to accomplish yesterday

Morning plan

-breakfast
-everyone dressed, etc
-start laundry (probably Happy's sheets)
-pick up babysitter for the morning.
-continue cleaning/organizing
-lunch
-return babysitter
-head to Sam's club
-home for quiet hour (I might do school with the kids or give the playroom a good cleaning and start in on the fourth bedroom)

Afternoon


-After naps I'm planning on taking the kids to the Science Museum as a treat.
-home for dinner. I'm not sure what we are having but I have a running list of all the items we have that the kids enjoy so we must have some food.
-baths
-lay out clothes for Church
-books
-prayers

Pretty good over all. A few hiccups along the way like the fact that going to Sam's Club at 1pm on a Saturday in -0 temperatures is an inner most ring of hell. Thank goodness I brought the babysitter with me and I'm glad I went but it was miserable. You have to park miles away. I'm actually convinced that they have fake cars just taking up spaces. An apparently retail stores are not allowed to plow their parking lots but instead leave inches of snow to turn to a bump ice obstacle course with a layer of slush for good fun. 

We survived though. After I dropped off the sitter it was time for naps. Or so I thought. King as I mentioned before has suddenly started rejecting his naps. He screamed for over an hour. An hour that was supposed to be my break but I also was trying to get Rooster to sleep as well. It's bad enough that King didn't nap but we were heading out for the Science Museum and pizza after naps. We survived though Obscure came over and helped me take the kids out for pizza and then to the museum. He even bought me fresh squeezed grapefruit juice for my throat. It was so yummy!

Here are some pictures from our evening. 

King enjoying some chocolate milk at our favorite pizza place, Cossetta's

Rooster trying to cut up his large slice of pizza.

Happy showing us how it's done. 

Here's a picture from the Science Museum. King is learning how to wash dishes. No water thankfully. 

Rooster learning about sound waves. 

Demand exploring with light and shadows. 

I'll save my Sunday morning adventure stories for my next post but today my only plans are to survive until 9pm. Keep the house as clean as it has been. Clean the homeschool room and playroom. Plus King dumped a whole bottle of milk on the carpet in the play room so I have to steam clean that up.  I over course plan to nap and if the kids let me I'll cuddle up with two books about keeping a home up and running. I'll start to re-read  "Large Family Logistics" which I own and then start "The Well Ordered Home" which I borrowed from the library.  

Eight and a half more hours to go! 

Day 3

This weekend is brought to you by bribery. Desperate times call for desperate measures and I knew I wouldn't survive the weekend if I was to battle the children.  First our "yes, mama" game is going well the older two are really getting the hang of, Rooster is sort of getting it, and King just says "Mama" and gets candy.

I had kids eat their pizza downstairs so I could keep the kitchen clean and they ate their pizza on the couch and didn't make any mess. Even King! I was impressed. I'm going to clean the couch today so didn't care if they smeared red sauce on it last night. I had discussed with them that since I was having friends over I couldn't do our usual bedtime books but I would give them dessert. They LOVED it!. Demand even said, "That was really delicious Mama. Thank you so much for letting us have dessert."

Wowza.

Then they got in the jammies and got to watch a show. King asked to go to bed just before my friends arrived but I let the others stay up for a bit longer. When their show was done they went up on their own and brushed their teeth. No nagging. Begging. Pleading. Demanding. They just did it. I encouraged them to be super quiet and not wake King and not to come out. I only had to go up once and tell Rooster to quiet down. I didn't expect it to go so smoothly.


I had two friends come over and we talked until midnight half way through the night I thought wow I haven't spoken with friends in a while my throat is starting to hurt.

Nope.

I'm sick.

By the time they left I couldn't wait to crawl into bed. My throat was so swollen I took some IBprofen before heading upstairs. Thank goodness it didn't take me long to fall asleep however I was woken up at 2:50am. First I heard a bang. Then the boys door open. Happy came staggering out on the verge of tears. He was so upset he couldn't even tell me what was wrong but finally he cried out that he was all wet. Something went wrong with his pull up and he was soaking wet.  Happy if very linear. He likes things one way. I said it was no problem that I could get him a new pull up and thankfully there was a load of clean clothes in my room I hadn't put away yet. He was fine with that but when I suggested he sleep in my bed he said no, he wanted to be in his bed which meant I had to stealthy fix his top bunk bedding without waking King or Rooster, in the dark, at 3am.  Deep breath. It worked out. I threw a blanket on top of his bed for him to lay on and found another blanket for him to have on top and he was happy and no one woke up. No one, except me. Once I'm up, I'm up.  It took me a long time to fall back asleep. So frustrating when one is sick.

I survived though. I'll be tired today but I'll get stuff done.

Morning plan

-breakfast
-everyone dressed, etc
-start laundry (probably Happy's sheets)
-pick up babysitter for the morning.
-continue cleaning/organizing
-lunch
-return babysitter
-head to Sam's club
-home for quiet hour (I might do school with the kids or give the playroom a good cleaning and start in on the fourth bedroom)

Afternoon


-After naps I'm planning on taking the kids to the Science Museum as a treat.
-home for dinner. I'm not sure what we are having but I have a running list of all the items we have that the kids enjoy so we must have some food.
-baths
-lay out clothes for Church
-books
-prayers

I'm not sure what I am doing after the kids are asleep. It will depend on how I am feeling I guess. If I'm up to it I may work on the fourth bedroom or any of the rooms downstairs. Again, it all depend on how I am feeling.

Day 2-Part 2

After a smooth morning of cleaning and such I dropped the babysitter off at her home and headed to the gym for my noon class.

It. Was. Interesting.

I usually like to be right up front next to the mirror. First so I can if I'm doing everything correctly, second so I can see the instructor, and third if I'm in front of everyone in the class I'm less likely to collapse in a heap mid circuit or switch to lighter weights. Pride has it's privileges. Well I arrived just before class and saw a big spot available near the back, there was a guy near by doing yoga but I assumed he would leave when class started. I assumed incorrectly.

I definitely wouldn't have picked a spot so close to him if I thought he was staying.  I don't know how to describe what he was doing but he was doing yoga and the class at the same time. I actually feel like he was watching what we were doing and then implying he could do it in a cooler yoga-y way.  It was uncomfortable for me. He would randomly do handstands against the mirror.  One time he fell. Completely. If you were watching the class in the mirror you would see everyone in sync and then one random set of legs flying in the air. I think he started dancing at one point.

He also wasn't the most modest of men. Occasionally we would have to twist to the back or something and there he would be. Doing something yoga-y with short, loose shorts on.  Argh.  Is this what men deal with on a daily basis with immodest women? Good grief.

After class the kids and I stopped at the store to pick up a few needed items like milk, coffee, bread, etc. I knew it would be tricky because it was after nap time but man-o-man Rooster let his true colors shine.  The best store to make a quick stop has those kiddie carts.  You know the ones meant to sanctify mothers and all customers who encounter these children in the store.  Sure enough tired Rooster wasn't listen at all. He wasn't watching where he was going, playing with cart, climbing on the cart and the last straw was when he ran into me. I took his sucker away (the store gives the kids suckers when they return the kiddie carts) . Well he immediately started fighting me. Then at check out when the kids all get their suckers he got one, and I wrestled it away from him. And it was ugly. He lost it. Screamed. Yelled. Punched. Kicked. He kept trying to push me in the parking lot but ended up falling on his face in the new fallen snow. (I laughed). You know what? He survived the whole experience. And I don't think we'll see that tantrum again anytime soon. It was embarrassing and hard to do but worth it in the end.

After losing his sucker Rooster was wise enough not to mess up nap time and although King fought it at first he napped splendidly. I was able to take a shower while Demand and Happy finished some chores for me. I had them spot clean and wipe down the living room furniture and clean the playroom.  They did a great job especially with the magic of the "yes, mama" game.  I never did do any school with Demand. Oh, well.

My house has gotten crazy clean today. It's almost uncomfortable how much more productive I am when Mr. Sloth is gone. Or maybe its endearing that we don't get anything done when we are around each other. Hard to tell.


Here's our "dining room". I'm surprised that the kids haven't questioned the title of this room before. Its more of a puzzle train room. I love having and empty room for the kids to get creative in. Plus its in the corner of the house and no one has to walk through it to get anywhere.

I got creative and added a pretty touch to the guest/main floor bathroom. At Trader Joes' this week I bought some flowers for myself because I needed some spring in my life and splurged on some lavender hand lotion. I decided to take a few of the flowers from the kitchen and put them in the bathroom. It looks so cute in there!

A clean kitchen all ready for my guests. I have white and red wine, plus blood orange soda in case anyone wasn't drinking. It's hard to see the treats but I have cherry cheesecake bites and lemon tart bites, a really yummy champagne cheese Mr. Sloth has me hooked on, rice crackers, and super light, crispy lemon cookies. I kept it simple and it paid off!

I moved the vase of flowers from the kitchen to the living room to make room for food and see while we talked. It looks so nice and inviting right now. I know, that blank wall is hard to look at isn't it? We know what picture we want to go there we just haven't the courage to fork over the money yet. Mr. Sloth wanted to hang a few pictures we already have there so I may do that this weekend and surprise him.

As a bonus since I was on an cleaning, organizing roll I redid the front closet. It dawned on me that my friends would need a place to hang their coats and our closet was embarrassing.  Coats hung in haste, piles of bags on the floor, dust bunnies, random items that had fallen out of bags, and I every baby carrier I owned in there and rarely use them anymore.

I cleared everything off the door so guests are welcome to hang their items. Feels good not to cross my fingers and "hope it closes" now.

Here's the top of the closet. My backpack diaper bag and two picnic baskets. The baskets might get donated when I start 40 bags in Forty days next week. (Can't wait!) I rehung all the coats that should be in this closet and relocated what didn't need to be there. The closet it really tall I want to figure out a way to utilize that empty space above the baskets.

This is what is really exciting. I looked up coat closets on pinterest and realized I could get a shelf or cube and have better use of space for bags. Hooks only broke off the wall so I needed a new solution. I had every intention of dragging the kids to target to find a solution when I remembered I had this cube in the homeschool room barely being used. Mr. Sloth's computer bag and my diaper bag (not pictured) go on top. Underneath we have my adoration bag, and Demands Little Flower bag and Religious Ed bag. I still may get baskets to make it look neater but it works for now.

 I'll update you on how Night two went and my plans for Saturday in the next post. 

Day 2-Part 1

1:30am I was woken up by a distant beeping. An alarm I had never heard before. Scared the heck out of me. Someone was playing with a Rocket shaped alarm clock before bed and managed to set an alarm. Good grief.  Of course with Mr. Sloth gone I had to go check out the creepy sound. Thank goodness it wasn't the carbon monoxide detector. That would have been a nightmare! Wake up kids time to sit in the -10 degree van while we wait for the fire department at 1:30am.


It's Day 2.  I have a plan.

Morning

It's off to a good start since I woke up early, dressed, and made my bed. Now I'm making breakfast for the kiddos. After breakfast we'll start our next round of "Yes, Mama" the kids are excited to earn some more candy and I'm excited to have some peace.

-Dress kids/brush teeth/comb hair
-make beds
-pick up rooms
-start laundry
-pick up house or start school with Demand
-9am pick up Mother's helper for the morning
-9-11am either clean or do schoolwork with Helen
       -cleaning: start the Lenten purge early so I am done by Holy Week
       -school work. Review Math, one History lesson, one writing lesson
-11am quick lunch then drop babysitter off at her home
-head to gym for Noon class
-stop at the store to pick up a few necessities like coffee
-home for quiet hour

Afternoon

Hopefully nap time/quiet hour go better than the last few days. King has abruptly declared war on naps and it's bringing me to my knees. So the behavior of my two youngest children effects the climate for the rest of the afternoon.  I could be grumpy with a chance of yelling if no one naps.

-put Christmas wreath away. Yep. Christmas wreath. Mr. Sloth had our ladder at our rental home for a while and I need it to put the wreath away
-throw out dead Christmas decorations from outside. No excuse for that one.
-10 minute pick up of laundry room
-10 minute purge of the refrigerator
-vacuum main level
-mop main level
-clear off all surfaces
-dust
-clean guest bathroom
-put away dishes
- make lovely meal of frozen pizza for the kids
-clean up dinner
-get dressed for my friends coming over
-kids in jammies
- set out food
-welcome friends
-put kids to bed
-drink wine
-enjoy company
-go to bed late

Packed day. I also need to shower at some point. I may try and do it at the gym since the kids will all be in childcare. I'll cross things off my list as the day goes.

Day 1

It's been 10 minutes.  Ten minutes since Mr. Sloth pushed himself out the door on a four day silent retreat. I practically had to make him go.  He's feels guilty for leaving me with the kids for so long.  Fair enough but I really am fine in fact I'm a little excited. Not because he's leaving for four days, that sounds miserable but it gives me an excuse to work on projects that I've been wanting to get done for months now. And I don't really have to stress about having the house clean at 5pm every night. Ha. Like that matters.  I've made a lot of plans and detailed schedules to get me through the next four days. The trickiest time by far will be Sunday Mass. That is by far a two man team. At least. Probably could use more.  I'd say bare minimum  "you're looking at a Bowski, a Jim Brown, a Miss Daisy, two Jethros and a Leon Spinks, not to mention the biggest Ella Fitzgerald ever!"*

So here are my plans for today and tomorrow.

Tonight

6pm: Dinner. Trader Joe's Orange Chicken with pot stickers. Gotta go with what they love. I only had 3/4 cup of rice to serve with it and wouldn't you know it like a story out of the Gospel of St. Matthew the kids made 3/4 cup of rice turn into many cups of rice on the floor. Unreal.

At dinner I instituted a method to help kids be respectful and listen that one of my friends suggested
a month ago. I got creative with the concept and made a "Yes, Mama." game. I ask the kids to do something and they say "Yes, Mama." and once they do the task and return to me and say "Mama, I did it, I _________." I then say, "Thank you for_________". I'm putting a piece of candy in your cup. The kids ran with this game and caught on quick. I had them clearing tables, babysitting, sweeping, unloading the dishwasher, returning items to their places around the house. It was beautiful. Just the break I needed. Pax, er, Rooster was so proud of himself every time. I'm sure it was what he needed too since he's had .....some......problems recently. Yeah.

The next part of our evening got tricky. Mr. Sloth usually puts the kids to bed. In all honesty most days I punch the time clock the second my fork hits the plate after dinner. Sometimes I stick around to show good face, but I'm really just counting the minutes until he puts everyone to bed. After dinner one of us usually cleans the kitchen while the other sets out the kids clothes for the next day in our bedroom. Since all our kids wake a different intervals we have their clothes in our room so as not to wake other siblings. Rooster, aptly named, is up at 6am Sometimes earlier. He's our first child to sleep in our bed after they are done nursing because he's so naturally loud he'll wake everyone. Sometimes on purpose. It honestly makes a world of difference in the morning if we have the kids clothes all set out for them ahead of time. Even Demand has requested we set her clothes out, which is a great idea considering her fashion sense. (Yowza)

Once the wheels are in motion for the boys bedtime routine I usually announce that I am taking a bath. With computer, wine, and whatever spa luxuries I have on hand I head into the bathroom with the intention of never coming out.  I watch Netflix on my computer by the way, in case you are creeped out, which you probably still are. Remember when I used to watch "Friends" when I was taking baths and one time I dropped a brownie in the tub? Man. That was when I was pregnant with Demand! And had an awesome tub! Good times. Good times.

So, back to my original point, I am now in charge of bedtime for the next few nights and I have no idea what I am doing. The kids hate when I do bedtime because I am usually so exhausted that I say. "One book. Short. Now Guardian Angel Prayer." Mr. Sloth takes his time. Reads them a few pictures books then a read-a-loud  then asks their feelings about the day.......blah, blah, blah.  Mommy's tired.

I tried to start something new while Daddy is gone. I tried reading Laura Ingalls Wilder's "The Long Winter". We were in the middle of "Little House in the Big Woods" albeit months ago but it seems appropriate for now. Well the kids were wired, unresponsive, talkative and expecting their candy so I shut it down.

We moved upstairs to get jammies on. Now this is an honest question. One that might confirm the weirdness of my family, but does anyone else have children that wander around half or fully naked and swing their clothes CONSTANTLY as they are trying to undress/dress? Soooooo annoying. And we wonder why it takes so long to put on clothes. Not to mention the scatter of dirty clothes throughout the house.  So after wrangling the boys to get dressed and brush their teeth I gather them all in our room for prayers only to have one of them remind me that they didn't get their promised candy.

$&!%

I headed downstairs to retrieve CANDY for the overtired kids, who just brushed their teeth, who are late for bedtime. (Shutter) As they ate their candy we talked about where Dadddy went.  What is a retreat? A silent retreat? How Jesus retreated, etc.  Then we talked about trying to practice being quiet while Daddy was gone when Rooster chimed in that he planned on being louder when Daddy got home. No doubt you will be, Rooster, no doubt.


8:00pm: At this time Happy is sound asleep as is expected. That kid is a sleep champ.  Poor kid got the boot on naps because of logistics but used to take record breaking naps on a regular basis. He still needs them but now that he has a taste for freedom rejects all offers. He is always asleep within minutes and nothing wakes him including his brother who seems straight out of a frat house and his trusty sidekick King. Those two will scream and play and bring the walls down, but Happy is sound asleep. Lucky man, that Happy.

Demand was gracious and played on her own quietly until her bedtime when I tucked her in and allowed her to read chapter books until her hearts content. (Mr. Sloth is currently reading the Hobbit to her right now at bedtimes.)

So that is day one. My plan for tomorrow includes, a mothers-helper in the morning, gym class at noon, naps, cleaning, possible outing, and then I'm hosting a Mother's Night Out for which I .  Can. Not. Wait.  That should get me through until Saturday which is half way done. Yeah!!!


See you on day two. I may be organized enough to have pictures.

* It's an Ocean's 11 quote. If you don't recognize it. It won't be funny. Let it go.

Reoganizing the Reorganizing

Early last summer I finally got around to organizing our laundry room closet.  I worked so hard on it and loved the results. Then the house flooded and everything was hastily removed to replace the floors. (Insert super sad face) Bouncing back from major house work takes a bit of time, especially when you have four little ones, and short Minnesota Summers that need to be enjoyed.


Here's how my closet looked before the flood.

Here's how it looked last week. If you are guessing that we were just randomly shoving things in there and hoping they wouldn't fall down on us, you would be correct.

I also managed to collect three-thousand plastic bags.

We also realized the problem of winter storage and needed to revamp our winter gear situation before we were knee deep in snow gear. Seriously.  So here's what the back of our laundry room door looked like before  the mini make over. Just two hooks, one up top for aprons and one below for extra storage. ie: adoration bag or Demands Religious Ed bag.





Our previous  storage system was a decorative laundry basket with lid in the kitchen for all shoes, coats, gloves, etc, great for a while but with four plus sets of everything now it's too much for that poor little laundry basket. Four 3M hooks later and we have a solution for the coats that all little hands can reach. ( King's hook is below Demands)

Thankfully I had taken a picture of the closet when I organized it in the summer so I could recreate the master piece.  Except this time I was adding rolling carts below for storage of more winter gear.

One day last week I decided it would be fun to take all the kids to Target and get some storage solution for winter clothing. I think you know where this is going. First off these two carts do not fit in a cart, especially a cart with children. Well it kept our trip short and sweet anyhow, lets leave it at that.

Mr. Sloth requested some labels for the newly organize closet and I was much obliged.  In fact Prophet really likes the system. He was more than happy to put a stack of gloves and mittens away today knowing exactly where they went.

The newly organized closet complete with labels. Top shelf  Bread/Beer making supplies, meat slicer. Second shelf roaster, desposable goods. 

Top shelf meat slicer, ice cream maker, and ice cream cones.Second shelf Baking supplies, electric griddle and, ahem, left over Halloween Candy.

Ahhhhh! My curtains can close now!!

Here's a bonus , nothing to do with the closet, picture of Prophet "doing science". After patiently watching his sister play with rocks whilst learning to be a geologist he insisted on doing his own science. Pinterest to the rescue!! Within three minutes we were having fun with ingredients from our kitchen.  Vinegar, food coloring, baking soda, dropper.....happy boy.

Rooster just had to get in on the action when we woke up from his nap.