Every which way

Have you seen the air freshner commercial with the mother octopus who is doing at least six things at a time. That is exactly how I felt last night and this morning. Today was another Friday (see Fridays from Hell for clarification). And things were worse than usual. One reason was my husband was working late and not home to help. Another is that we are taking a road trip after school today and needed to pack. Thirdly, we were planning a coffee for after mass to celebrate the Priest's birthday.( of course I was in charge)

Last night I was making chocolate pumpkin suckers for my daughter's class, frosting a cake, making dinner and doing the dishes all at once. I was exhausted. A few more legs or arms sure would have helped. By some miracle I got everything done and everything went smoothly.

Smoothly is a relative term. My son only disappeared once. My mother said he was sitting by my daughter and when I looked , he was not. So here I am with a frantic look running around the school trying to locate him and praying he did not go outside. Another father noticed the look and did a lap around the school while I searched within. Why does it seem like it takes hours to find them when in reality it is only minutes? I am humbled every time one of my children is not with in sight and I fear the worse.

Halloween is fast approaching and I promise you pictures of the entire family dress-up together. I will not say what, you will have to wait and see.

One more thing checked off the list today, I blogged.

Just a Quick Note

There are days when you feel all fired up and ready to go. There are days that you feel as though you are dragging yourself and everyone else through. Today, and yesterday, are those sort of days. You are having one of those days if......

• your head weighs 50 pounds
• The children are fighting every single minute
• your potty breaks are interrupted five times each
• Is it still only 10 a.m.?
• Yes, there is more laundry
• you are running out of corners to put the children in
• the children are spending more time in the corner than out
• The feed, burp, change, sleep, repeat for the baby isn't working
• you are cleaning up breakfast and realize it is time for lunch
• you have reheated your cup of tea five times and it is still getting cold before you can drink it

This list could go on, but duty calls and so do the poopy diapers. Cheer up there is always tomorrow.

Monday, Monday, Monday

I wanted to be up by 5:30 this morning. I work out in the morning. I love to run when everthing else is quiet. I love the feel of being the only one on the planet. However, when my husband took a managers position half an hour away from home that all changed. He will leave for work between 3:30 and 5:30 in the morning. This means that Supermom, who has been hard wired to wake and work-out, has to wait until he returns in the evening to work-out. My sleep has suffered greatly. If you work out to close to slumber time it makes your slumber restless. Well at least it does mine. And consequently by the time I feel I am sleeping well it is time to get up. So I have been waking late in an effort to take advantage of the good sleep I get when I should be up.

It is horrible. I spend most of the day feeling sleepy and achy. Today I was hoping to get up and lift weights. Needless to say that did not happen. Perhaps I can hit the weights during nap time. Or better yet, I might nap.

I am a creature of habit. Like I have already said I plan and when my well laid out plan is up rooted I have to juggle. I do not juggle well. Here is where Elasti-girl has everything over me. I try to improvise, but my body is not fooled. Clearly I am not as flexible as I need to be.

I propose a new movement. Mom's unite to have everyone's life revolve around them. Not the other way around. Why must we be the ones who have to wait? Why must our schedule be modified to suit every other family member? Why must we be in charge of all the appointments, sitters, and shopping? Mom's need to rise up. Pass on some responsibility to the older children, to the husband. Rise-up and have a little me time. Then hold on to it and do not negotiate it away. Only when we are cared for can we ever become the true Supermom they need us to be.

blog action day

Today is Blog action day. this means that many blogs written today will be talking about climate change. I would like to pose this question? Is this another way of saying Global Warming?

I have always thought that "Saving the Planet" was ridiculous. The planet had been around for thousands of years and never seemed to be in danger of blowing up or shrinking away. So why be healthy? Why recycle?

I think what needs to be addressed is the fact that humans haven't always been on the earth. We can't live in every climate on the earth. Therefore, what we need to fix is the way we alter the climate. If we do so drastically, it will become a place that we can no longer inhabit.

There is a great more to it than that. God gave us this planet. He made us stewards of his creation. This means that we are responsible for it. Failing to do so in any way possible is a failure to our creator.

I find that there are even more evils at work here. There is a great push to go green. This is awesome because we have more natural products than ever, more recycling, and new ways reuse all kinds of products. The bigger problem is that now we are being charged heavily for wanting to use those things. Green products are more expensive than traditional ones. Us Supermoms who want what is best for our families can't afford to pay the difference! We need to flex our consumer muscles to get companies to drop prices on what could be really great products. After all, if the prices dropped, more people could afford them and buy them and wouldn't the world be a healthier more natural place for all of us.

Little boy wonder

My husband was mortified the first time my son picked up his little sisters pink, sparkling purse. My son was only five months old, but we were in public. My husband did not want any one else at church that Sunday to see his son playing with a "girly toy".

Since then he has played dress-up with the girls on a regular basis. He puts their dresses on and accessories just like they do. When we play salon to paint our nails, he is the first in line to have his done. I am not the least bit concerned that my little boy will one day grow-up to be a manly man. I think that he is a perfect example of how children will play with what ever they happen to have.

He also tends to do things my girls never would have thought of. For example he has tried to shoot his sisters with Mr. Potato Head's arm. does it look that much like a gun? And yesterday he found a stick in the yard that was twice his size and was making firing noises as he tried to maneuver around the yard. While I don't like the children playing with sticks, I tried to give him a smaller one that had less possibility of tripping him. He gave me a funny look and promptly returned to the oversized bazooka.

There is something to the saying, "boys will be boys". I think in a way it is truer that boys will be boys even when there isn't a single boy toy to be found. They will simply make one.

The Plan

I am a planner. I always have been. I plan my grocery trips by aisle. I plan my workouts. I planned my wedding day down to the minute. I had a plan for my life. The plan went something like this: I am going to be a great artist and never get married. I planned to adopt three children by the time I was thirty. I wanted to have it all and a house to put it in.

But let's face it, life doesn't follow plans. I am some what pleased to report that my life looks nothing like the plan I had. I fell in love with the first man I ever really dated. (We dated for four and half years before the wedding.) We were married after sophomore year of college and on our first anniversary we were blessed with our first daughter Abigail. We continued to work our way through college and the summer my husband graduated Lily was born. Maximilion came just a little over two years later. We all share a tiny two bedroom apartment and my art is little but a side note in my life. Let's face it , three children leave little time for hobbies.














The only part of the plan that looks similar to my life is the part about having three children. I can assure you that I gave birth to all three. Adopting was not in our budget. I don't regret a sinlge part of my life. There are times when I wonder if my kids have everything they need? Or if we would be happier if life were a little different? I very quickly am reminded by my children's laughter as they play together, or they way they all snuggle together under blankets on the living room floor on movie night , that they are happy and they have everything they need.

At some point we have to step back from our life and stop planning. We have to let God lead us where we need to be. We need to realize that need and want are two different things. We learn that wants will never make us happy and needs are much smaller than we anticipate. I never got everything I wanted, but I do have everything I need and I am happily learning to embrace every moment. The upside is that I can clean my entire apartment top to bottom in less than 60 minutes! Now if only I could get a dryer that I didn't have to run four times to dry my clothes.

Fridays from Hell

Another day of chasing children and fighting off the evil bad manners in an attempt to raise well balanced members of society. Fridays are rough. I teach Art classes in the morning for 3-8th graders. Doesn't seem to bad until you factor in four children under four that I drag along with me.

Every Friday morning I ask myself, what was I thinking when I signed up for this? It is difficult enough to get students to pay attention and even more difficult with four small ones playing around you.

I got up and ran three miles this morning, in the dark. again, was I thinking? I should have known that every time the classroom door was left open even a centimeter that my son's radar would go off and he would bolt. Did I mention that my three year old niece would not be far behind? Why you ask? I do it all for the children who would not have art otherwise. And let me tell you that getting through a Friday is a great accomplishment. I love the feeling of coming home after working so hard and putting on my Pj to have movie night with my kids. Supermom would definitely do that!

Average woman

This is the first of what I hope to be many posts. I am a young ( i am using this term more loosely every year) mom of three. I have been married for almost ten years to the man I started dating Sophmore year of highschool. Yes, it is possible to fall in love with a highschool swearheart and live happily ever after.

This brings me to why I am blogging. No one lives happily ever after every day. It is a struggle and a lot of very hard work. There are good days and bad days. And if you are the average woman, which I am, than the dream of being Supermom will give you something to work for. Who doesn't want to have it all together all the time? To be the mom is calm and prepared for every situation? The wife who is always there and supportive of her husband?

These are all things that I struggle with everyday amid the poopy diapers and the laundry. Perhaps if I do the chores in my underwear and tights I may feel more like Supermom!