I brag about my kids a lot, and I’m sure some people get tired of hearing about them. Thats fine, but that is a regular thing that you get on here, so it can’t be too surprising. This week has been interesting with the kids, to say the least. I can tell that my stressing out is stressing them out. They scrap more than usual, which I can deal with, but sometimes they just reach “that point” where they can’t seem to come back from it. I haven’t seen that in this house for quite some time, but recently, it happens a lot. I’m learning that, even though I’m feeling productive, the kids really do need my undivided attention sometimes. Don’t get me wrong, they play on their own beautifully. Dekker and Laela both always have played well independently. They’ve never had big “PLAY WITH ME!!!!!” breakdowns. But I’ve noticed them suffering a bit in the last few weeks. Maybe “suffering” isn’t the right word, but you know what I’m saying. Struggling? So I’m accepting this and working less while they’re awake. Playtime is important.

This morning, same as yesterday, Dekker was sweet as pie when he got up. He ate breakfast very well, and used his manners more than usual, which is saying a lot since I’m a bit of a manners nazi around here. When he was done, he took his dishes to the sink, pushed in his chair, and went straight for the bathroom. Right now, our bathroom door is closed 24/7 because we have a big Rubbermaid tub filled with cleaning supplies in there, and I don’t want anyone to have too much access to it. Its always closed, but just in case it got left open or they figured out how to open it, we keep the bathroom door closed. At least Laela can’t get into it. But Dekker can, and did. I’m not too worried about it, but I wandered over to see what he was doing in there, and he met me at the door as he was closing it behind him. He had a Swifer. “I want to help you, mommy,” he said. I told him that would be great. He wandered the upstairs, “sweeping” everything with his duster. That included the table, and counters, and everyones tummies. Lots of sweeping to be done. While he swept, I did some dishes, got the bed made, and did a few other normal morning chores. After I had finished all of the obvious stuff, I leaned on the counter and looked at my list for a bit. I don’t know about you guys and lists, but I like mine to look pretty and intentional. If they’re messy, I hate them, and less gets done. Not even kidding. So I had a few different colors of pens out and I was trying to decide what color to use to mark out a few specific jobs when Dekker asked to draw with the different colors. I gave him some paper at the table and he came back and forth to the counter to get new colors. Finally, he invited me to draw with him. I asked if I could color on my list with him, and he agreed that would work. So I sat down at the table with him so we could share pens, and he looked up and me really sweetly and said “This is really nice, mommy.”

It was in that moment where I decided I was done work for the morning. Instead, I pulled out a craft. A craft. Yup. I will be straight up. I like crafty things, and it makes sense that I should want to do crafts with my kids, but I don’t remember ever pulling out a pile of craft stuff with them. I’m not sure they’re at an age where I should be too embarrassed about that yet, but I know there are TONS of moms who regularly rock crafts. I haven’t before, but it felt like a good time to start.

I’m not going to tell you what the craft is yet, because it’ll come up again soon I think, but it was a HUGE success! Dekker did almost all of it by himself, even though it required a little muscle. He shared with Laela and even though it was out of her league to help, she was included and seemed to enjoy herself watching from her high chair.

When we finished up, Dekker helped carry the supplies back to the closet, and then we made lunch. He requested we eat upstairs instead of our usual downstairs, so we did. Its nice to finally have a cheap little coffee table to put their food at their level. I know, they could eat at the table, but their lunch is always just a good sized snack, and they always eat it freely while playing toys. I didn’t want to confine them longer if I didn’t have to. Once their snack was basically done, I pulled out the Windex and began shining up some of the stainless steel appliances and cleaning mirrors. Dekker, once again, wanted to help! So he followed me from room to room with a roll of paper towel, tearing off sheets for me when I asked for them. He loved this job, and pointed out each and every shiny surface he spotted so we could clean it. Honestly, it was actually super helpful because I never had to put the Windex bottle down where the littler, mischievous one could get her hands on it. She is one that walks up to the tub, finds the shampoo on the ledge, and pumps it until you catch her. You can imagine the fun she’d have with a squirt bottle. About a half hour before nap time, Dekker asked to go downstairs. So we went downstairs and had some nice lazy time, watching a bit of tv and playing quiet games.

They went down beautifully for their nap. Once they were settled, I brought Rowan in his seat into the bathroom to hang out with me while I started slicing the old silicone off from around the tub and shower. He lasted a decent amount of time, but became bored and I had to abandon that job. But hey! He is also my kid, and also needs cozy time with his mom. So we cuddled into bed and he had a tiny bit of milk before dozing off. My immediate reaction was “Perfect! I can put him down and get stuff done!” But he is not having it. He’s not wailing and whining, but he isn’t resting soundly at all. Therefore, the work day is on pause likely until this evening, and I think thats ok. I mean, part of me does. The other part of me looks at our list and wants to throw up with how much we have to do.

It’ll get done. Saturday is going to be positively monstrous, but hopefully wildly successful as well! Wish us luck!

We had a great work day today! My mom came out and helped me get some of my priorities accomplished, which feels pretty much amazing. Maybe they wouldn’t be other peoples priorities, but of the things on my list that I can do without Bradys help, they were bugging me the most.

Mom read stories to Dekker and Laela while I puttered around the kitchen a bit, and then we got them fed. Rowan slept almost all day, so if I don’t mention him much, its because he wasn’t exactly participating. We all sat and relaxed for about a half hour before the kids went to bed, so we could all have some food and snuggles and relaxed time. Once the kids went to bed (and Rowan kept sleeping) my mom and I checked the list over and began! We got the basement bathroom beautifully cleaned, scrubbed a stain out of the rug, and dressed the guest bed. Then we moved upstairs and absolutely killed the upstairs bathroom. The water here is pretty hard and, I won’t lie, the toilet and tub were in rough shape. Rough. Really not good at all. I can’t stress this enough. My mom is an incredible sport and was eager to jump on those really big, gruelling jobs. Once she had made a ton of headway on the tub, we swapped and I jumped in to work on the tub while she started cleaning the toilet. I thought that there would be permanent stains but little did I know that calcium buildup comes off! Yes, it requires an absurd amount of elbow grease, but it does happen! Our bathroom is positively sparkly! We still have to replace the tub faucet so it doesn’t drip anymore, but thats pretty much it and the bathroom will be done. I even washed the walls! After bathrooms, I did a bit more wiping down cabinets and doors around the house. I had no idea those little areas around the doorknobs and light switches could get so filthy, but my goodness, it looks so fresh and new around here. I’m so pleased with whats come out of all of this hard work. While there is still lots to do, it feels better, and like we’re actually making progress. I’ve been nervous about getting this all ready, but now I feel ready and motivated. I have much bigger and more pivotal things to be afraid of at this point :/ Merp.

I’m so pleased with today. Not only did we work really hard and get the big ugly cleaning out of the way, but the kids were peaches. Dekker was incredibly helpful and friendly today!! When I go back over it in my head, I feel like it was easier for me to have compassion for him because he had less of an attitude, but maybe he had less of an attitude because I was softer with him. Either way, he was so sweet and loving today, which made my day so much richer. Laela was a bit more snippy with Dekker than usual, which makes me wonder how many of their fights she starts, haha! But she was beautiful and entertaining as all get out, as per usual. And Rowan did exactly what I needed him to do, and slept all day long. I’m a bit nervous about what our night will look like, but he had some wakeful time this evening so hopefully that helps. I guess we’ll know soon…

Rowan decided to give us a run for our money and keep Brady and I up almost all night last night. We were able to joke through it a bit, and I commented that this probably officially makes us parents now, since this was really our first ever night like this that we can remember. Gruelling, though. I was not a fan of that fun thing where Ro would cry and I’d rock him to sleep and then he’d wake up the second I’d lay him down. Not a fan at all. Luckily he’s super adorable, and I’m pretty sure he was just hungry. This kid is growing at warp speed. I feel like his milk intake increases drastically every single day, and I’m just never ready for it! I’ll be very interested to learn what he weighs at our appointment next week!

I’m sure no one feels particularly motivated after a night like that, but as I will say another hundred times before this week is up, there is a LOT to do! But I learned very quickly that everyone was feeling fatigued, thanks to the littlest one, and it was not a day to leave them to their own devices while I tried to get stuff done. Instead, we did our normal morning breakfast and took our time, and then we all went downstairs and I listed my butt off. I mentally went through my house room by room, and made lists and lists of jobs that need to be done. While the list is huge and I’m completely overwhelmed by it, its good to see how many jobs I’ll actually be able to do. I struggle in the evenings to think of small jobs that I can do while Brady does the big ones, or the ones with lifting, or the tall ones. I have lots of places to clean and prepare! Its good to have it on paper now. I love crossing things off.

This evening, I am so looking forward to concert choir! I know, the busiest week in the world and I’m bailing for a couple of hours to go sing in a group. But I committed to it, and missed three weeks around Rowans birth. I must get back into it! And a little break will be nice. Not that I can do too much work in the day with all the kids around me, but I think my brain would appreciate a break from thinking about the house and all the stress that comes with it. I felt absolutely sick about everything yesterday evening, and then after such a short (or long, depending on how you look at it) night, a change of scenery will likely do me some good.

I hate titling these posts. As I sat here with my post idea, and tried to figure out what to name the stinking thing, I said to myself “I wonder what this week will look like.” And from there was born Wonder Week. Its not a short form of the question even, but what I am officially naming this week.

Welcome to Wonder Week 😀 Its a busy place.

This week, we are planning to absolutely kill it around here! We want to finish up our home so it can be ready to sell. One week. We really don’t have a ton left that I can do on my own, and thats left me feeling at a bit of a loss. There are some heavy duty cleaning jobs that need to get done, and I can definitely do those on my own, but I can’t have all of the strong chemicals out while the kids wander the house, or inevitable, wander around my feet while I have Rowan hanging off of one arm. Its just not possible, leaving the evenings after Brady gets home very, very busy. Its ok, we’re both ready and willing! But I sit here in the day, itching with anticipation to start working, but instead, twiddling my thumbs. Grrr! I am not always in favor of house cleaning, and its weird to finally be in the mood to do it but not be able to. The older two kids are sleeping, and Rowan is in and out, needing a bottle any minute now. Also, while I feel decent, the fact is my body is still at least a little bit in postpartum mode, and I’m tiring out pretty quick these days. My back is sore, and my right leg is still just as useless as it was when I was pregnant. Not ideal.

So here’s what I’ve accomplished so far today. This morning I did a bunch of emailing to several realtors as well as a mobile mortgage specialist from our bank. I have an appointment set up to meet our mortgage specialist later this week. Also, of all of the realtors that I wrote to, one called me almost right away and actually has already come by and taken a walk through of our house!! I’m looking forward to hearing what he has to say for ideas and plans for our house, but he is in full support of our desire to get on this whole thing really, really soon. I feel relieved after talking to him, and also scared that it will all look so great and be all ready, and then never sell. *shivers* God is bigger, God is bigger, God is bigger.

Strangely, after that meeting, I just felt tired. I think I just have so much put into this that I’m always nervous and stressed, even when I don’t feel like I am. So instead of taking a break right away, I did a nice scrub down of the stove top and face with all the knobs. It is completely caked in grease that we have neglected for way too long. I got the majority of it, but I’ll need to run over it again before the big day comes. But after leaning over the stove for those ten minutes only, I know that my body is begging to rest. Sooo annoying, but I must listen before I break. I broke the other day after we worked a bunch and I could hardly move the rest of the day. I don’t want to listen, but I know I need to.

Welcome to Wonder Week.

This whole situation feels gigantic.

God is bigger. God is bigger. God is bigger.

We haven’t had whats felt like a “normal” Sunday in quite some time, and today felt pretty darn close! Except that we were late…

Our church service starts at 10:45, and we live about a half hour away. We always aim to leave around 10:00, knowing it always takes longer to get the kids into their coats and out the door than we bargain for. Its usually five or ten after. Today we were just in the van around 10:15, and in case you’re reading this years later, our third day of spring this year gave us tons of snow and freezing rain. Our drive took longer than usual and we just about made it on time! I believe the music had just started when we arrived. It worked though. Other people were still filtering in, and it gave us a bit more space to get the kids out of their stuff.

The service was the absolute smoothest service we’ve sat in maybe ever. I say “sat in” because we didn’t have to haul anyone out once. Laela played happily and fairly quietly the entire time. Dekker was especially cuddly and gave us tons of hugs and kisses the entire time, but was very happy, rather than giving hugs out of discomfort. And Rowan slept in his bucket the entire time!!! We never bring his bucket into the service because he always wakes up when we arrive but he slept until the very literal last minute of the service, and started to fuss while our pastor prayed us out. It was crazy, and awesome.

We visited a bit after the service, as usual. This was only Rowans second appearance at church, so lots of people still hadn’t met him personally yet. But besides that, Dekker was in a great mood! All of a sudden he has this newfound confidence, which does my mother heart a lot of good. Not like he was striking up conversations with people he’d never seen, but he was just less shy, and suddenly a bit more playful and endearing. The crowd didn’t seem to put him off at all. It was refreshing and exciting to watch. I have to wonder if his new glasses are at least partly to thank. He loves those things. The prescription is the same, so its not a matter of his vision being any different, but I think he feels like a rockstar in them.

After church, we ate lunch and had to put the very sad kids down right away for their naps. It seems a bit cruel maybe, but we all visited at church for quite a while, and then we ate lunch for so long because it was so yummy, and by the time that was over, it was already a half hour past their usual nap time. Yet, they obviously needed the rest, and both older kids slept for about two hours. Rowan had a couple really nice wakeful times but his naps were long and snorey and sweet. Both of my parents got some nice long cuddles with him.

Everyone woke up at the same time and we played a bit more before supper. Once again, we seemingly ate forever, and talked about all of our plans about housing, and what the next steps are. The steps include basically killing ourselves over the next little while to get things done, basically. Brady needs to make another run to our container to store some more stuff, I need to do a bunch of emailing and calling to make contact with a few possible realtors, and we have our same fixes and cleaning to do that keep getting pushed back. I know that things don’t have to be perfect, but I want to be able to photograph my house in a way that will show off how beautiful our house really is, and will create a really solid listing.

Dekker and Laela are in bed, and Rowan is having a bottle. Next on the agenda: work!! Sooo not in the mood right now, but its gotta get done and we don’t have much time. Goals are goals!!!

Brady had to work this morning, which is not our favorite thing, to say the least. But luckily, he finished up his stuff in just a few hours and was home before lunch. When he got home, we had the Tims breakfasts he brought for us, and then very seriously got to work around our house. I’m sure our “very seriously” isn’t everyone elses “very seriously” but it was a really good day for us. People speak of this rewarding feeling they have after a solid day of work, and I can rarely relate to such a feeling, but this evening I am SO sore, and while its incredibly painful (pelvis still out of place, and now angrier than ever) it proves that I really put my back into it today.

Our main focus was the entrance to our house. The floor is just basic lino but it had a seam directly in the high traffic area. It wouldn’t have been quite so bad had it not gotten so freezing. It all curled up and chunks of it kept breaking off and tripping people. It needed replacing. So we bought some other basic lino a while back, and today was the day to swap it out. Peeling the old stuff off was going to take forever just using a pry bar, and we debated just laying the new stuff overtop, but instead, we opted to do the best job we could do, and did some research. We didn’t have a heat gun, but I offered my hair dryer, and it worked pretty well! It took two of us to get it all removed and all the glue up, but it was fun to actually do one of the bigger tasks together. I am sooo thankful for our relaxed kids! Dekker, our self-appointed “tough worker” wanted to help for a while, but when his toy saw wouldn’t do the job, he and Laela just stood in the doorway and watched.

We realized after a few strips of flooring that we were melting glue, and it really smelled like it! So we completed this job towards the end of the kids naps. (Conveniently, I’m not pregnant! So no big fume worries for me!)

In the beginning of nap time, we didn’t want to make too much noise with the dryer constantly turning on and off, so we decided to do some of the jobs that were more on my list next. We cleaned out our bedside tables, which has desperately needed doing for so long, considering our bedside tables are open shelving units, so no mess can be hidden. We tidied up a few piles of random messes that had been accumulating in our bedroom. Our room was pretty much the first room that we considered to be finished, but it really wasn’t. It was the most finished, for sure, but there were still big messy piles of mostly garbage. So we got those taken care of, finally. Our room looks pretty much awesome now, if I do say so myself.

Once the kids were up, Brady lay the new flooring down in the entrance while supper cooked. We had these delicious sweet and sour meatballs over sour cream mashed potatoes. Our church has graciously given us a bunch of meals over the last week or two, to help us out after bringing Rowan home, and what a tasty help they have been! While those things were going on, I grabbed a magic eraser and cleaned the front of our cabinets. They used to be white, and then they were grey, and now they’re white again!!! However, the doors and drawer fronts alone used up a whole magic eraser!!! Its not a big deal, as in we have tons of them, but those things usually go a lot further! Turns out our cabinets really really needed help! I haven’t even touched the door frames or the space around the doorknobs yet! I also cleaned inside the washer, the outside of the washer (how does a “washer” get so dirty?!) and put a load of laundry through.

Supper was unbelievable. Dekker loved it, which is not common with anything new or even new looking. Laela ate it happily, as she does with everything. And Brady and I ate lots too. It really hit the spot after a day of chores. After supper, I did the dishes and Brady nailed the entrance baseboards back on. Then, it was almost the kids bedtime and they really needed baths. So Brady bathed Dekker and Laela together in the tub and I took a stab at bathing Rowan in the kitchen sink. He’s a bit tall for it, and tried to stand a number of times, but luckily, I was expecting that and prevented many head bonks. It was actually a pretty adorable bath.

Now everyone is in bed, except Brady and I, but we need to soak in the tub first. Priorities, guys!

Speaking of priorities, we have a goal in mind for our house, and when we want to list it. I’m always scared to share that kind of thing because its so much more embarrassing to fail when so many people know, so I won’t this time. But we’re very seriously getting on these last few jobs, cleaning, and preparing. In a BIG way. So if we’re not particularly available over the next little while, don’t take it personally. Or just come to us and be prepared to work!! We welcome all 🙂

** On the not of listing this place very, very soon, I need tips and names and information from you guys who have, in fact, done this before! A realtor we could afford would be great to know, as well as someone to appraise the place. We’re hoping to sell privately, but we’re also sort of scratching at the door to get this show on the road, and I’m not sure we’ll last too long!! Advise us!!!!!

***** 1000 POSTS!!!! Thanks for being such loyal readers and keeping me motivated to write! I cannot believe its been ONE THOUSAND POSTS!!!!! *****

Instead of 6:00am, Rowan bumped his early morning feed til 7:15! He must love me. On a normal day, I DO NOT feel ready to get up so early, but for some reason, I felt nice and rested this morning!! I knew getting up early would give me the opportunity to get a lot of work done around the house but, for whatever reason, I was blanking on what job I could really even start on my own. I wrote a status update on Facebook saying how rested I felt, and was thoroughly blessed by a text very soon after from a friend that resulted in a date! An honorary sister of sorts from high school had a baby a few months back and I had yet to meet him. Also, having not seen each other in forever, she had never met any of my kids!! It was more than time for us to get together, so she packed up her son and made the trip.

We had such a nice afternoon together, if I can be so bold. It was so nice to catch up! Well, I don’t even know if I can call it that, because we didn’t go too terribly far back. Just to the point of having kids, basically 🙂 It was fun to swap stories and experiences and opinions. I think we agreed on a lot, which isn’t a necessity but is always pretty refreshing. The kids were very comfortable with her around, to the point of Dekker asking her to read him stories. Her little boy was SUCH a ray of sunshine, and seemed to really have eyes for Laela, never without a smile just for her. He took a really nice long nap while we all had lunch together downstairs. Its so nice when our guests are comfortable enough to eat in our basement on the sunken couches.

Eventually my kids went down for naps too and we chatted a bit more while she fed her babe. But the show must go on, and she had to head out soon afterwards. But it was such a lovely, refreshing visit for me! It was so nice to have someone in the house to talk to and relate to. And it was great to fill a good chunk of the day with something/someone much more important and enjoyable than housework and planning and stress.

Friend, you know who you are 🙂 Please come again!! You were such a bright spot in my day!!

We have waited for today for the last week, and it finally came! We got our call yesterday evening that Dekkers new glasses arrived! However, the call came in shortly before closing, so we couldn’t exactly race into the city to pick them up. However, we had plans to come in today anyway, so it worked out.

Rowan had his newborn hearing test at 3:00, and without mincing words, that whole experience was a bit of an ego hit. I brought our entire family to the wrong hospital. I brought Rowan in on my own, because you’re not supposed to bring other kids, and thank the good Lord we only made it as far as admitting before we figured it out. Of course, they called their audiology department and they laughed at me and told me they’d call the right audiology people at the right hospital. They also did me the favor of giving the right people my cell number so they could promptly call me back and laugh at me some more. But it was ok. I rolled with it. Such is life, right? The receptionist gave me directions for how to get to their offices, and told me that my being late wouldn’t cause any problems. A relief, right? So Brady and the kids picked me up and took Rowan and I to the right hospital. Where I got us lost almost instantly. I knew the directions in my head, but I went down to the ground level too soon, and my goodness, that is most definitely not the right way. I asked numerous people (in scrubs and white coats!) where to find audiology and NO ONE KNEW!! They all kind of kept pointing me in the direction I was already going, and said things like “It makes more sense for it to be that way than going back.” Helpful, right? Helpful until I found myself in the ICU. I think it was at that point that I officially looked just as lost as I felt, and someone came to my rescue. I told her where I was trying to go, and she began saying “Ok, go all the way back.” I think I wilted a little bit right on the spot, and she just gave me a really sympathetic smile and said “Why I don’t I walk you there?” I didn’t backpedal, or worry about her inconvenience like I normally would. I just responded “Yes please!” and off we went. She took me just about all the way, and pointed me down the right hallway. What a relief! And wow!, had I been in the wrong place! I went to register Rowan and the receptionist brushed off my apologies for being late and awkward and weird and having a bad sense of direction. She said it was incredibly common and not to worry about it. We didn’t wait too long before we were taken into a room about the size of my closet for the hearing test. I LOVED the girl that ran the tests! She left Rowan quietly sleeping in his car seat while she checked him all out, and we had a good laugh about my adventure getting there, as well as the joys of having kids and how things change from one to the next. It was really comfortable, and nice to sit for a few minutes! When we were done, she walked me to the end of the hall and directed me how to get out. And guess what. I didn’t get lost. It was stupidly, embarrassingly easy. So like I said in the beginning of this post, my pride definitely took a hit today, but I think thats good for us once in a while anyway, so I laughed about it and called it my exercise for the day.

When we got back to the van, Dekker asked immediately where we were going next. The twinkle in his eye was unmistakable. He knew.

“We’re going to get your brand new Lightening McQueen glasses, Dekker” I said. He burst out laughing.
“Thats pretty silly, mommy!!!”

I don’t even need to really say how that pick up went…

I tried to take a nice, outside picture of him but clearly, it was MUCH too sunny 🙂  

Lightaqueen!

He was SO thrilled! He wore them beautifully throughout the evening, and by his attitude, you could tell he felt like a million bucks!

We wanted to celebrate the excitement and go out for supper as a family, but it was around 4:15, so a bit too early. We had very few things we needed to get from the city at all, but needing to stall, we decided to get all four of the things off of our grocery list from Superstore. Judge if you must, but the free cookie makes everything better, and our kids appetites don’t appear to be spoiled by it, so we just go for it. Never at home, but Superstore is an exception. So we grabbed our few items, plus a couple of makeup things for me, and then headed over to the bakery for the kids cookies.

Happy kids 🙂 Cookie kids.

And the cookie kids cute little feet!

We finally headed to supper, at the Broadway Cafe. Fast food is sooo much easier, and I never have to worry about the kids being kind of noisy in a Wendys, but Broadway Cafe is yummy and also kid friendly, but nicer. And they actually did awesome! We all had really yummy food, and besides Laela’s really loud, high pitched, happy screams, we stayed relatively under the radar and were just a normal family, eating supper.

Dekker had so many questions about the pictures on the walls and what the cars were named.

This was Laela’s first time eating supper just sitting on a chair instead of in a high chair. She did awesome! And yes, she still has chocolate all over her face from the cookie.

Aaand thats the extent of what Rowan did through supper. He didn’t make a sound. He sat in his bucket beside me, and fell asleep. No soother used, no rocking of his seat even. Just slept.

It was a TOTALLY successful day! I’m very happy with Rowan and the positive results on his hearing test. I’m excited to see Laela understanding more and more every day, and starting to pretend. And I’m thrilled with Dekker’s new glasses, and how much he likes to wear them. He looks awesome and he knows it, as he should.

I had a different blog planned out for today but, to be completely honest, today was sort of a gong show, and I don’t have too much left in me. Not enough emotion or patience or really desire to write something out well. So instead, I will simply tell you that the kids were a special group today. Dekker was probably in trouble more than he was out of it today. Because of his crazy actions that put him in trouble, Laela was freaked of him, and screamed like crazy every time he approached her. It made it hard for him to right his wrong when he couldn’t get near her. And then when she would approach him, he would freak and whine and completely shut down from listening, resulting in further trouble. It was never ending.

Rowan was incredibly user friendly today, which was both wonderfully refreshing, as well as ominous. He was quite so easy because he has slept all day. It sounds great, but I’m a bit nervous for tonight. We never have a problem getting him back to sleep after a night feeding, but he hasn’t slept this much in the day for a while. Nerve wracking. But it was a squishy, cuddly day with him.

Once everyone was napping, I gathered up a ton of the craft stuff and office supplies that was spread out all over the house, and started organizing. It honestly took most of the afternoon, but of course the job spread. So not only do I have all the office supplies tidy and by the desk, but I also have all the craft stuff tubbed, the junk drawer under control, and my bedside table looks great. Its been sooo messy and held so many things for too long. Now, its pretty again. Oh, and I took out a ton of garbage.

I hid from Dekker and Laela until Brady got home. After a day like that, I had a pretty unbelievable headache. We whipped up some leftovers for everyone, and ate all together. Dekker broke a big rule towards the end of the meal and I sent him to his room. I don’t revel in my kids being punished in any way, but I had to laugh. From the dining room, we heard him wailing. He used to just cry, but now he says all kinds of things. Today, he said “Aw, that was sad!” and “I’m super sad!” I had to laugh at his perspective, but I was also incredibly proud of him expressing how he was feeling with words instead of through screaming. We have working towards that for so long!

There wasn’t much time left in the kids day by the time we were done with all the time outs and supper, so they played in the kitchen a bit while Brady and I did the dishes, and then we brought them downstairs to tidy toys up. They did pretty good through that, and we even convinced them to “race” up the stairs and to their room. It was relatively smooth, but I feel completely drained. Which is so strange to me! I’ve felt quite 100%-esque for the last while, and I’m finding myself at a bit of a loss with these feelings! I’m certainly not panicked or even really anxious, which in and of itself is refreshing, but I may be getting my first real taste of the exhaustion that so many moms feel at the end of the day. Interesting…

Tomorrow, the kids and I will venture into the city for Rowans hearing test. I didn’t even think of it, but when we left the hospital so soon after he was born, he didn’t have his newborn auditory screening. Whoops! So we were sent a scheduled appointment for tomorrow afternoon. Luckily, its late enough in the afternoon that Brady will probably be done work and be able to come with us. Also, just this evening, I received the exciting phone call that Dekker’s new glasses are in!!! I told him about it just before supper, and he headed for the door. He’s really excited to get them and wear them and be all fresh and shiny. I’m pretty excited too, honestly. I found them online and just love them more and move every time I go look at them. Just you guys wait!

Sorry about the somewhat angsty post. I love my life exactly as its been given to me, but some days I just get the shivers, and then a headache. The tub can’t come soon enough!

I went to concert choir tonight for the first time in a long time. Jerilee and I have missed the last three weeks! I had Rowan three weeks ago, so the hooky started there, the Tuesday the week after was filled with appointments that filled the day enough, and the next week Jerilee couldn’t speak a word without hacking out her lungs. So we’re finally out of survival mode and back into life, and it was sooo nice to be back!

We were freakishly early but stalled for a little bit in the parking lot before going into the school. When we finally went in, we chatted a bit with a few people and eventually found seats. It was SUCH a good evening for singing!! I know we’ve missed those weeks but it was nice to come into a more confident sound, thanks to the singers who had attended more diligently and learned their parts. It was so easy to get right back into the swing of things. I am completely excited to perform the songs in April. You should really all come. Its going to be epic.

After practice, we doddled a little bit, waiting to speak to the director to see if we needed to get any new music from the last few weeks, and ended up visiting with her for about an hour and a half! She is a woman who Jerilee and I both hold quite dear, and it was good to finally get a solid visit in with her. We learned more about how concert choir is going to look the day of, which made me even more excited, but we discussed life, an depth, and real things that made me sooo happy we stayed late!

I left my house at 5:30, and expected to be home before 9:00, but I was finally in my room at 11:11. SO worth it! Now to get some sleep before tomorrow is in full swing. My plans for the day fell through, but maybe I’ll get some cleaning or tidying done. Just a few little problem areas in my house that insist on being out of place for some reason. Dang you, countertop. You’ve got a lot of nerve being so conveniently placed and willing to hold everything I own.