Theme It

Once again, Jenni has given me a topic and gotten me out of my blogging slump. Otherwise you'd just get a post about sick kids...again. Jenni is great at giving each year a "theme" and then focusing her attention on that particular theme. I've never been much of a theme kind of gal but I like the idea of it. I do. I think it's good to live on purpose and not just float by. It's SO easy to just exist and let the days roll past and then wonder where in the world the year went. When I was a kid it seemed like the years took forever to pass by. Christmas just took way too long to get here...I literally counted the days (and for my birthday too). Now it seems I turn around twice and I'm decorating for Christmas again already, then it's gone. (When asked your age...am I the only one who has to think about it for an embarrassingly long while in order to remember? I'm 31. No, wait! I'm 32...I think. Or am I 33?)

So, if I were to give my years themes I would probably have to go by the school year and not a physical year for this up-and-coming season of my life called "raising school-aged kids." So this year's theme would be "survival" hands down! I know I just raved about living on purpose and all that, but sometimes that means surviving...as opposed to sticking your head in the sand and waiting for it to pass. I know we've all been there at some point(s) or another.

This isnt a "bad" year by no means and nothing tragic has happened, praise the Lord. It's just one of those years. We have 4 kids on 4 different schedules. (And I wont even go into Stan's constantly crazy schedule! It's mind boggling!) The 3rd grader's is the easiest...go to school, come home...most days. The Kindergartener is harder...drop everything in the middle of the day and take her (dragging along the other 2 kids) to school for half-day Kindergarten. The 5 year old gets dragged around everywhere stays home and we do pre-school at home because the school doesnt offer it. Hey - Kindergarten isnt even "required" in Montana...and the big stink of this year was some schools went to full day K. The nerve! LOL! The 18 month old also gets dragged around everywhere stays home and we try to get those all-important naps scheduled in so he's not a little bear all the time.

That's just the basics of our schedule. On top of the mid-day Kindergarten run, two naps a day for the baby, pre-school for the 5 year old, cooking, cleaning, grocery shopping, banking, and other normal errands and appointments, throw in a month and a half of basketball practice and games for the 3rd grader, weekly Awana for the older 3 kids (where I run back to town after school, pick the kids up and take them immediately to Awana, let the baby get a nap, then go pick them back up again), weekly speech therapy for the 5 year old, weekly ladies bible study (in the morning so the younger 3 all get dragged along too...but they love going), daily tutoring online, and weekly small group bible study with other families...it tends to get a little insane hectic. (And yes, I know that other people have way more crazy schedules than mine and that mine will get worse as the kids get older...I'm not trying to compare.)

Oh and not to mention that the 5 year old who was born with some kind of destructive gene has been on a rant of finding something to do nearly each day that she knows is wrong and knows she'll get punished for - putting coins in the baby's car seat slots so I cant buckle him up and I have to dismantle the whole thing, as we're trying to leave for something...pulling on the curtains and ripping the screws out of the wall that hold the curtain rod...drinking out of her sick sister's cup (that had a straw) and so getting sick herself and spreading it to the rest of the children in the house...coloring on the cabinets with black crayon...sneaking gum that she's not supposed to have, chewing it, then sticking it to the underside of the bar...squashing grapes ALL over the kitchen floor that took 4 times to mop to get the stickiness out...you get the idea. Same child who pulled down the Christmas tree year before last and also managed to break the glass top of the coffee table on top of her head with only one small scratch to her lip and millions of tiny shards of glass everywhere. Yep. Same kid.

I tried whining about this year's schedule for the first few months. I really did. Gave it my best shot - whining and feeling sorry for my selfish-self. But God has been showing me that I need to be resting in him and letting him fill my cup. When I do, things are so much easier. When I dont, I feel the whole weight of it all, and then some. I'd like to say that I turn to him more often than not, but that's not always the case, either. He's still working on me.

So there you have it. This year's theme is survival.

If I can plan ahead a little...I would like to suggest that this coming summer's theme would be FUN - hiking, swimming in the river and the pool, camping (with a toddler? we'll see), enjoying the area we live in.

And next year's theme...hmmmmm. I really, really tried to force get this year's unofficial theme to be "simplify" because we need it and I want it so badly. Maybe next year. We will have 3 kids in full-day school and just one at home.

Brave

Last night, about 10 minutes after we put the kids to bed the electricity went out. You'd think it wasnt a big deal considering they were already in bed. But we have a little fan in Jake's room to help with noise, so he protested when it turned off. The girls all share a room and Mackenzie has a lamp on her bed so she can read for a little while, and there's a night light in there for Jessica (otherwise she's been known to cry out in the middle of the night, run over and turn on the light to their room, then go back to sleep). Oh, how dependent we are on electricity!

So when the lamp and night light went out, they weren't happy campers. This morning they were telling us their version of it all. First they asked, "Did you know that the lights went out last night?!" LOL! Um. No! Really? Then they were telling us how Rebecca started to cry. Jessica promptly said, "I didnt cry. I was brave...like a little girl in church." I about fell over!

But you know, I guess for a little girl church is the easiest place to be brave. Ok, not just for a little girl, but big girls like me, too. And big boys.

There's so many times when I feel like I'm a complete failure as a mom and I'm going to totally mess them up forever. (Pause while I go pull the 17 month old out from under the bathroom sink cabinet. Dont call CPS on me though...there's only towels down there. But he's also a potty swisher, so that would be his next stop.) Then there's times when they say something so cute and funny...and true...that I'm so very glad God is filling in the gaps for me.

Oh, and since this is Montana and it's winter and the electricity went out for a good while during the night...we were ALL very thankful that we stayed all roasty and toasty because of this:

Yes, this is from a previous year, but I didnt take a picture of it this past year. Each spring we chop and stack wood...so it looks the same each year.

Picture Time!

Ok...I havent posted pictures in a while so here goes. Yes, they are from December. No, I havent taken any pictures since then. Well, that's not true. I have. But I choose not to post them for the world to see because they are of my darling son getting into certain bathroom items he shouldnt. 'Nuff said! ;o)

Oh and we got more snow yesterday so maybe I'll have more sledding pictures soon.