I Could Get Used to This!

Shortly after Luke was born, my SIL and BIL gave us a day of housecleaning services as a baby gift. I had several options of when I could use it. Before or after Christmas when all of my family was in town? Before I went back to school? After going back to school?

I decided to wait until after heading back to school, and today was the GLORIOUS DAY! I left for school with a relatively clutter-free house, but boy was it dirty! I really didn't know what to expect since we've never had an outside person come in to clean, but I figured anything was going to be better than what it was, and even better...I didn't have to do it!

My expectations were completely exceeded! The basics of all of the floors, bathrooms and dusting were done very thoroughly. I also noticed windows were Windexed, the microwave was cleaned, a downstairs bookshelf that I probably haven't dusted since we moved in 8 years ago was dusted, lamp shades were dusted, kitchen chairs wiped down, the house smelled fresh...

What a great way to start the weekend! I only wish it could stay like this forever and I wish I could hire them to come back every week!

Thank you so much, Kate & John!

Funny Matt Comment

Matt's teacher has been in Puerto Rico all week. (I'm guessing she doesn't have 4 kids and I know she doesn't work part-time, but that's beside the point.) I asked him how things with his sub had been going this week. His response:

"She's nice, but I don't think we've been doing too well. Every time we move on to the next activity she says, 'This isn't an invitation to talk.'"

Cracked me up. I can relate. My students assume they have lots of invitations to talk, too!

Tomorrow's Friday! Can't believe I've been back at work for 3 weeks already.

Kentucky Blue

About a year ago, my BIL, Robert, moved to Kentucky. He & Brian have always been big fans of UK Basketball. Brian recently requested to have some Kentucky blue sent our way, and Rob and Grandma didn't disappoint!

We have plenty of cool blue now for all of us!

Thanks, Rob & Grandma.

Even the cardboard cutout of Rob is wearing UK gear!

The 6 of us (I'm still not used to saying that!)
Aren't his cheeks great?!

He's 8 Today! *Pix Added*

Matt is 8 today! I say it every year, but I can't believe how fast all of them are growing up. We're having a pretty low key day today, but that's okay with Matt. He worked on some legos from Grandma who's here visiting, he's watching a couple of his favorite cartoons, and tonight we'll have cake and ice cream with family.

Matt's in second grade and enjoying it. He loves math and struggles with reading. He likes playing with Star Wars guys and is our biggest movie lover. He eats toaster strudel almost every morning for breakfast. He's looking forward to playing baseball this summer and has declared that he's done taking swimming lessons. He's easily frustrated and the first to give a caring hug to someone who's hurting or sad. He's a rule follower. He still is working on saying his 'r' sound. He's got a loud, booming voice. He's very neat with his handwriting. He's got the most contagious laugh you've ever heard. He looks cute with his glasses.

He is uniquely Matt and we love him very much!

Reading a letter to me recently at his 2nd grade Valentine's Tea



So excited to be 8!

His Timing & Grace

It goes without saying that life is busy right now. It's also quite evident that I am a person who struggles with transitions. So when a car needing brakes, a 2nd car whose power windows went out, a baby who's been exposed to RSV, 2 nights of conferences for me, and an early release day for the boys came on top of all the other things happening during our week, you would think I would be a total wreck.

I truly believe it's because of God's timing and His grace that I haven't been all that affected or stressed by these things.

One our cars needs some brake work done, so Brian arranged to do some car shuffling later in the week when his mom comes into town. Perfect! We'll have another car around if we need it.

On Monday afternoon, Brian put the window down on the other car to grab the mail and it wouldn't go up. How nice that it happened during an unseasonably warm week and right in front of our house. If he needed to be out and about with his window down this week, it wouldn't be too inconvenient. He called around and it looked like it would be a $350+ repair. Bummer.

The boys were scheduled to have a 2-hour early release on Tuesday and I had conferences that night. Brian had planned to take the day off to ease all of the juggling stress. Who would have known that the night prior to this, Luke would come down with a horrible cough after having been exposed to RSV. No problem, Brian already had the day off on Tuesday so neither of us needed to scramble to put sub plans together. Brian was now able to be home with a sick baby and home to greet the boys when they got out of school at 1:30.

Since Brian was home in the morning, he decided to call a co-worker from the high school auto department. They were able to take the car with the broken power windows and agree to fix it for about $100, so Tuesday morning while both of us were home, we brought the car to the high school to be fixed and picked up an extra vehicle from my parents' house. Again a potential stressful event that worked out very easily.

Since Luke's cough was sounding pretty bad, I decided to try to get a dr. appt for him. I was able to get in quickly and decided to plan for a sick day on Wed. How nice that Wed. happens to be the day where I have a 60 min prep in the afternoon and am only responsible for about 60 min of student contact time. Easy and quick to leave sub plans. Very little stress.

After Wednesday, Grandma Marilyn will be here for 6 days and will be able to help out with Luke while Brian and I have school. If she didn't have plans to come, we'd be taking turns staying home to be here with Luke. What perfect timing to have her come and help us out!

So, at the cost of one pre-arranged day off for Brian and a planned ahead sick day for myself, we're now able to have Luke home for almost a week, get two cars repaired, enjoy this beautiful weather we're having, but most of all, realize that God takes care of all the details, big and small, in our lives.

I am very thankful for His timing and grace this week!

**The dr. didn't do an official swab for RSV, but feels pretty certain that's what he has. She checked his oxygen levels which were fine, no sign of ear infections, no temperature...just some heavy congestion. He's eating and sleeping normal (8 hours a couple of nights ago and 6 hours last night), so we're just supposed to keep an eye on him. Again, it could have been so much worse, and we're so thankful that it's not!

And for those of you who are wondering, he'll be 4 months on Friday and he weighs 17 lb 9 oz.

Sleep is Overrated

Sunday night:

*Luke conked out by 9:00. Decided to let him go, thinking maybe he would sleep until 2:00 or so. I couldn't have been more wrong.

*Luke up at 11:00 to eat.

*Ben up at 2:00 sleepwalking. He's done this only once before in his life.

*Luke up at 3:30 to eat.

*Luke up at 5:45 to eat.

*Adam up at 6:15. Fortunately he climbed into our bed and fell right back asleep.

*Tired mama up at 7:00 for the official start of her day.

Can't wait for Luke's 4 mos appt next week to ask the dr. about starting this hungry fella on cereal!

What's On My Mind

Lots of random things going on in this head of mine:

What I'm happy, thankful, proud of tonight:

*meals planned out for the entire week

*had a good weekend while watching Holly's 2 kids overnight (I know a couple of you have 6 kids of your own. You are amazing, amazing people! I couldn't do it!)

*played outside and made snowmen this afternoon

*my parents helped out while we were watching Holly's kids from Sat-Sun. They came and hung out for dinner with us. Mom did a grocery run for me and dad cleaned 2 bathrooms!

*Learning to multi-task even more than I used to (pump + lesson plan, pump + cut coupons, pump + blog, you get the idea...)

*I was in the 140s pound wise pre-pregnancy. I won't tell you exactly where. I'm in the 140s now. I won't tell you exactly where.

*haven't cried this weekend

*house is picked up every night before bed

*Holly and I ran 3.7 miles today at a 9:30 pace!

*I'm signed up for a 10k in April. I'm optimistic I'll be able to complete it in a respectable time.

What's stressing me out:

*why does it feel like there is NO OTHER mom who has 4 kids and works outside the home?!?

*Luke not sleeping the greatest and not pooping regularly

*I let my mind jump ahead to if/when I am working FT and I about lose it!

*Negative self-talk telling myself I can't be a good teacher with 4 kids. Too busy.

*hate how at 8:30 pm my stress level goes from whatever it's at to 100x that instantly

TGIF!

It's Friday. I made it through week one. Tough, busy, lots to plan, but it's over.

Now I get 2 days to "relax" and then tackle it again.

Tough day today at school. My 30 5th graders have had a routine with the teacher who taught for me, and now they're seeing what they can get away with. It's going to take some readjusting for all of us.

Luke slept a total of 1 1/2 hours between his two naps today. Not enough.

Adam just fell off our bar height kitchen chair.

Brian and Ben are skiing tonight, so I'm on my own.

It's 6:45 and Matt, Adam and I haven't had dinner.

We're going to McDs!

Day 2

First of all, thank you, thank you, thank you for all the prayers, emails, texts, phone calls, and even an encouraging card to help me through this time!! They are so appreciated and are really helping me keep things in perspective.

I promise I won't update my daily work reports every day from now until eternity. But for now it's therapeutic, and hopefully one day I'll look back at this and say, "Really? Was it that big a deal for me? I hardly remember that!"

Day 2 went well, despite the fact that Luke didn't sleep or eat much at daycare. That I understand. Sometimes he doesn't eat or sleep well here. I know he's in good hands.

What my routine is looking like so far:

*Feed Luke sometime in the night, usually around 3:30

*7:00 shower

*Finish packing lunches, eat bfast, get boys up and start their bfast by 8:00

*8:00 wake Luke and feed him

*Finish helping boys get ready to be out the door by 8:40 for school.

*Sometimes drive carpool, sometimes not

*Tues/Thurs bring Adam to preschool at 9:00

*Luke down for nap 9:30-10:45 (on a good day!)

*Clean, cook, school work, get bottle/pump stuff ready, get ready for school while Luke naps

*Wake Luke at 11:00 to feed and change

*11:45 start loading up for daycare

*11:50 drop off (she lives just up the block!)

*noon leave daycare and drive to school

*12:10 arrive to school

*4:00 walk kids out to bus and head in to pump & pick up classroom

*4:30 head home

*4:40 transition to home stuff (Brian home by 4:30 with Adam & Luke)

*5:00 homework w/ Ben & Matt

*5:30 supper

*6:00-8:30 family time, baths, Ben at bball with Brian, feed Luke, dishes, etc...

*8:30 tuck Adam & Matt in

*9:00 tuck Ben in

*9:30 feed Luke (hopefully he settles in for the night, but not always)

*until 11:00 - finish picking up, make sure backpacks are set, school work, etc..

*11:00 LIGHTS OUT!!

I have more thoughts in my head right now, but the biggest idea jumping out at me is, yes, things are busy, but I am SO FORTUNATE with so many things on this list!! I am really working hard, hard, hard, to focus on the positive!

On a different note...Brian dropped the police lego city down the stairs tonight and about 1/2 of it broke apart. I didn't even get angry...now that's progress!

Our Day

Monday is over and we are all still alive. Sometimes it feels like just barely, but we're here.

The good news:

Luke did great at daycare. I gave Kari, our provider, some times with when I thought he would nap and thought he would take a bottle, and he did both within 5 min or so of what I thought he might do. She said he couldn't have had a better day.

Adam was happy to be playing with his buddies at daycare for the afternoon. Right now he's the one child I'm least concerned about.

Matt & Ben did fine with coming home after school on their own.

Brian and I were both home by 4:30. I had dinner planned ahead of time and we had most of the homework done and dinner together before Brian and Ben had to leave for bball practice.

School was fine. It kind of felt like the first day. Relearning some of the routines and even some of the kids' names!

The prayer requests:

Finding time to do school work

Finding time to pump at school

Dealing with school anxiety...it's pretty bad right now. I think I'll be talking to my dr about it

Sleep

Priorities

Adjusting to this new schedule and waiting for it to feel "normal"

My emotions...all over the place

Back to Work

Tomorrow is the day. My stomach is in knots today. All the mom guilt. Wondering how Luke will do at daycare. Juggling the school responsibilities. Feeling bad that the older two come home to an empty house for 45 minutes each day. Figuring out when at school to pump. etc, etc, etc...

Thank you for the words of encouragement and prayers. I appreciate them and need them.

Part of the Jesus Calling devotional for tomorrow, Feb 7th:

Remember that I can fit everything into a pattern for good, including the things you wish were different. Start with where you are at this point in time and space, accepting that this is where I intend you to be. You will get through today one step, one moment, at a time. Your main responsibility is to remain attentive to Me, letting Me guide you through the many choices along your pathway.