The Power of Pinterest

Sponge balls. Took awhile to make them, but wow. They were "water balloons," grenades, and best of all, cleaning devices! The kid wash, aka the sprinkler, is also an idea from Pinterest! We are having a great summer! Good mixture of coming, going, playing and relaxing. :-)
PS, E and K had friends over. I didn't pick up two more kids.

Summer, Day One.

10:00 AM, day one of summer vacation. K says "I have a problem. I don't know what to do." Meanwhile E is already working on the leftover pages in her math book, and K has obviously decided to play with B because I hear "mommy! He won't give me the Squinkie I want!" Ok. So plans must be made so I can keep my sanity this summer. So what do we do? Wash the van, of course! (Note to self, plan to "WASH the van WEDNESDAY....") Then they wanted to jump on the trampoline to "dry off" after our spontaneous water fight.... which led to soaping up the neighbor's trampoline and having a slippery good time. They are currently surfing on the trampoline as I blog from my phone. Life is good!

Screams, Sighs, and Giggles....Part 3 (and last post of series)

2:00 - Arrive home. Get DS out of the van, grab his scooter, a shovel and whatever else will entertain him while I unload the van. Start the process of unloading the van, and realize that my nicely stacked boxed goods are no longer nicely stacked. Guess I took a corner to close or something. Who knows. I glance at all of my "goods," and make a plan of attack. I get in the swing of things, only to be interrupted because DS needs help with putting on his helmet. What mom can get upset over that kind of interruption? A 3 year old making sure he is safe and protected? Awww.... OK. Back to the van. I organize into groups: freezer, fresh, boxed, cans and meat to separate into smaller portions to freeze. Luckily I still have my 4 coolers to help keep stuff cold. So I get all these "piles" formed in the driveway, and what does it start to do? RAIN. RAIN??? The sky isn't dark or anything! It hasn't rained pretty much all summer, and the moment I get a month's worth of groceries organized in the driveway, it starts raining. *Sigh....* so I start grabbing stuff to pull under the breezeway and so at least it's covered... and closer to the door. Why don't I just take it all inside, you ask? Simply because DS is happy outside right now, and I will not go inside if he is outside, so for the sake of his happiness, I do my organizing outside! Even it's 101 degrees. (Guess it's "cooler" in Arkansas than in Texas.)
2:35 - A UPS delivery, scooter-ing up and down the driveway, putting all the freezer stuff in the deep freeze and digging up all kinds of stuff later, DS is ready to go in. (Yay!) I haul everything inside while he plays on the computer. Now comes the fun part... putting away. DH, DD, and DBS come home in 50 minutes, so I make a lofty goal to get it all done before then. #FAIL. I'm only just beginning to divide stuff into smaller portions when they get home. DH and DD are ELATED that there is NEW food in the house, so much to choose from! DBS, on the other hand, is grumpy because nothing looks good to him. So 4/5 of us have a snack, and we go our separate ways. We won't be needing dinner for a bit, so I dive back into my project.
4:30 - DBS starts whining that he's hungry. "Get a snack!" I say. (Groan, groan, groan, whine, whine, whine is all I hear from him.)
4:35 - I ask DH when he wants dinner. He replies 5:30, to which DBS whines even more. "I'M STARVING!!!" "GET A SNACK THEN!" DH and I both reply. I go back to my project and DH goes back to his TV and laptop-ing.
4:50 - DBS has been boo who-ing for 15 minutes, and I've had it. I get out the steaks for DH and myself (DC don't like steak, and DH had been craving it terribly), and ask him to go ahead and start grilling them. He gets up, puts on his flip flops, looks at me and says "I wasn't ready to start grilling yet." He then quickly walks outside to start the grill. Good thing, because I think I would have reached across the bar at that point and punched him. While he's been off in virtual and TV lala land, I've been dealing with a whiny 10 year old who won't stop having his pity party. Even though I'm doing a good job of ignoring his pity party, I'm annoyed as all get out. I scream inside my head. Apparently DH and I had a miscommunication, I took his 5:30 dinner time for "food on the table, ready to eat" not just start grilling. :-/ I scream in my head, again.
5:15 - Kids' food is ready to be served. DH and I will wait for our food to be done before we eat. No big deal. Now we have 3 happy kids, so let them dig in! Make that 2 happy kids. DS is stressing because we aren't all sitting at the table for the blessing. I think we have a future religious negotiator on our hands. I don't know the official term, but his lawyer-ing and prayer requesting skills at 3 are better than many adults' that I know. So DH (who is back and forth between the kitchen and the deck) and I pause for the blessing, it is said, and all is well with the world.
5:30 - DH comes in with our steaks. The gas on the grill finally ran out... in the middle of grilling. Of course it did. So we have to finish them in the microwave. There is nothing like a microwaved steak. *Sigh...*
7:15 - Food is eaten, baths and showers for DD and DS have been taken, chores are finished, and it's finally time to wind down for the day. They are in their jammies, and I read them their Bible story. Then we talk about it. Prayers are said, hugs and kisses are given, I sing to them and tuck them in. Such precious times. DBS comes in to read to them, which they all love. It's so cute!
7:35 - I go outside to water my very thirsty beloved plants.
8:00 - I come back in, all sweaty and yucky, to find DS standing at the top of the stairs saying he was so sad because he couldn't find me. He was "looking an' looking for you (me) but I could not find you! Sniff, sniff.." LOL. He's so cute. But dang it, he is supposed to be sleeping! I give him hugs, and tell him to go back to bed. He says he needs to hear twinkle twinkle. Realizing he won't ask for this much longer, I head to their room to sing to him. Make it them. DD is still awake. (This causes a little stress for me because she has to be rested for Kindergarten!) So I "Twinkle, Twinkle" them, and off to night night land they go.
8:10 - I feel like it's midnight. I think about what a day we had, Thank God for my wonderful life, and decide that I should blog about my day. One this good just NEEDS to be shared. By 10:00, I'm jotting down my day for post #1, and falling asleep while writing. Apparently I hit "publish," because when I woke up at 11:30, with the laptop still on my lap, I "woke up" the computer and it said "post published!" Oh good gravy, did I "add" something while I was sleeping? Too tired to figure it out, I decide I will do so in the morning. If I'd only known I'd be up with a not-feeling-so-great little girl 30 minutes later, I'd have gone ahead and checked. Oh well, so goes the life of this momma. I love it! (Giggles, Grins, and sighs........) :)

Screams, Sighs, and Giggles... Part 1

6:00 AM - "BEEP BEEP BEEP BEEP" DH drags me out of bed. Literally. It's the only way I won't go back to sleep. (Seriously. I promise.)
6:05 AM - Hit the shower.
6:15 AM - "Hi Mommy, I heard you in 'da shower so I came in here." - The most adorable little Buzz Lightyear stands before me, watching me dry off. (What about privacy? Oh yeah. I'm a mom.)
6:17 - get dressed. Tell DS to go potty.
6:20 - Attempt to brush my hair. But it's too tangled, so I spray detangler in it, pull it up in a messy pony tail, and brush my teeth.
6:23 - turn on my Keurig. Pull some waffles out of the freezer for DS. Microwave 1 minute. Butter, no syrup. Pull out another set for DD. Microwave 1 minute. Butter and syrup. Add two prunes. She loves them. Pull out another set of waffles for DBS. Throw them in the toaster, but don't toast them. Wait for him to do it whenever he is ready. Which this morning, took a LONG time. That kiddo piddles around and gripes for about 20 minutes every morning. More than anyone else I know, not counting, ahem, ME of course..... Trade out my K cup, pull out some french toast, microwave for 20 seconds, spread some peanut butter on each piece, and hit the large mug size so my coffee starts brewing.
6:30 - Time to wake DD. "Knock, knock, knock..." and after a few stretches, she's up.
6:34 - 3 of us are eating breakfast together. In comes DH, dressed and ready to go for the day. (I don't get it!) He sits down at the table with us.
6:40 - DBS finally comes over to eat. With a blanket on his head. DC think this is HILARIOUS. Me, not so much. DH is ignoring it all.
6:41 - DS is practically dancing in his seat. I say, AGAIN, "GO POTTY!" Off he runs.
6:41:32 (or about) "uh oh Mommy...." all I can think is "CRAP!" I walk down the hall to the bathroom, where I find PEE everywhere. E.VERY.WHERE. Up the wall. All over the toilet paper roll. On the floor. EVERYWHERE. I accidentally let those inner voices out of my head and replied with "AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHHHHHH! STOP PEEING EVERYWHERE! Hit the WATER! Not the WALL!" Oops. Didn't mean for that scream to get out. But it did. So I grab a towel, and start mopping up the pee. Groan, groan, grr, grunt. Straight to the washer with that pee-soaked towel. Wash hands. Clean up DS. Wash hands again, steer DS and DD out of the bathroom (she appeared when I started screaming. Yay.) In comes DH with the 409. Bless his heart.
6:45 - DD's turn to go potty, brush teeth, and wet her hair so it's easier to fix.
6:50 - DD is still in there. I open the door, there she is, standing just as I left her 5 minutes ago, and hasn't done anything. She was just looking at and talking to herself in the mirror. *sigh*
6:51 - after a little talking to...DD is finally doing as she was told.
6:55 - get DS and DD dressed. Good thing I laid their clothes out the night before.
6:57 - Where did I put my coffee?
7:00 - Get backpacks and lunchboxes together.
7:05 - realize my travel coffee mug lid is all messed up. Dump out of that mug into another, and microwave for 30 seconds.
7:06 - Fix DD's hair.
7:10 - DH and DBS leave for school.
I don't recall what happened during the next 20 minutes, but something had to have happened, because we were all in the right place at the right time.
7:30 - DD, DS and I leave to take DD to school.
7:40 - arrive at school, to wait in the car-rider drop off lane. Kiss, kiss, hug, hug "Have a great day DD! Love you!"
7:50 - get out of the van at the park. Instant sweat. Can we say humidity? 7:55, we're back in the van, because DS saw a large flying insect that he wasn't fond of. Mommy to the rescue. Windows up, A/C on, we're both happy.


**Part 2 will continue tomorrow. I'm so sleepy, I can't keep my eyes open. Stay tuned for funny stuff!**

Kindergarten

So, it's happened. My baby girl is officially in Kindergarten. Mommas always say they grow up so fast, they seem like they were just born yesterday, etc. Yes, they do grow up terribly fast. While the two of us have been through a lot together in her short 5 years, those years really have flown by. Maybe not each day, but definitely the years. I can remember the minute she was born like it was yesterday. I can remember the feeling of our bodies separating. Yesterday, my lil' girl entered Kindergarten. I will forever remember that day, just like the day she was born. I will always remember the feeling of leaving her in her classroom, and how happy she was. Neither of us cried. Neither of us cried until the moment she was "given" back to me at the end of the day, then I got all teary, my nose tickled, I felt all stuffy in my head, and I was so happy to hold her in my arms. Just like the moment when I held her for the first time. What an amazing feeling that is... and I'm so thankful!

Then, today.... I didn't walk her to her classroom. She got out of the van, I pushed the button for the door to close, and off she went. My lil' girl. She loves school... she's so awesome. I am so very proud of her and how she conquers life. Oh, and, she is already making herself known at school with her amazingly cute, contagious personality. A teacher walked up to me while I was getting ready to drive away and told me "That lil' Emmie is a HOOT! She is HILARIOUS! I'm so glad I get to be (an assistant) in her room this year! She had me rolling........" That made my day. I love my baby girl so much... words can not express how proud I am of her!!!!

Now if I could just get her to go to the bathroom at school. She holds it ALL day! (rolling eyes....)