"Too many days to count...in 10 minutes or less."

When I started this blog, it was with these good intentions:
1.  For my kids to look at and know how much I love spending everyday with them
2.  For my Missouri family to read and get a look at our daily lives
3.  To remind myself of how special and unique everyday with kids is
I forgot to take into account the follwing:
1.  Everyday with kids, while special and unique, is also wild and crazy
2.  At the end of these days, I am so tired I forget what happened all day
3.  Finding time to sit at the computer, even for 10 minutes is very rare for me

There have been so many blog-worthy, crazy, wild happenings around here and I end up too tired and exhausted to sit down and tell the story.  So I'm going to try to sum up the highlights of the last 10 days or so.  I have realized that I don't have 10 minutes to sit down every day, so I'm going to aim for twice a week or so!
The last 10 days have gone somewhat like this:
For the first 2 or 3 days, I was highly medicated on pain pills.  I managed to teach school, go to our church marriage class, and do things around the house.  I did NOT drive, operate heavy machinery, or get out of my pajamas for most of those days.  Also, I'm pretty sure that more stuff happened then, but I don't remember it.
By Thursday morning of last week, I was finally out of my pain/medication haze and I was able to get a bunch of stuff in the house cleaned and organized.  Unfortunately, I remember most of that.  I went Thursday afternoon and picked up some donations for the regional drama festival and chatted with the head cook about the stuff I would need in the school kitchen to cater.
Friday was a round of appointments.  Hayden and Cebelle went to the chiropractor for the first time.  I'm very happy with how that turned out.  Turns out, both of them had some pretty severe misalignments and once they were adjusted, they both felt great!  We met mom and dad that day at McDonalds and had some lunch.  Jeff was busy with festival prep and he didn't get home until really late that evening.
Saturday morning was the start of the festival that Jeff was in charge of.  He woke up at 4:00am that morning and couldn't go back to sleep. Pretty rough, considering that we had to be at the school until almost 11 that night and he hadn't gone to bed until after 11pm Friday night.  We headed out around 7:30 am and he ran the festival and I catered the lunch and the dinner along with a host of some really terrific parent volunteers.  Jeff's students won which means they get to advance to the state competition which will take place over April 8 and 9.  Mom and Dad brought Hayden and Cebelle to eat dinner at the school so we could see them.  It was really fun to sit down and enjoy a meal with them.  Hayden was fascinated that I could cook dinner for that many people at once. (There were about 150)
Sunday morning, Jeff and I had nursery duty at the church.  We took care of 4 kids under the age of 2, which was tons of fun, but exhausting.  We came home and cleaned up our backyard some, cleaned up the driveway, fixed my van, cleaned house, and did the laundry.
Monday morning I had daycare kids start arriving at 6:30am and I had a house full of kids from 6:30 to about 5.  Hayden and Cebelle did all their schoolwork.  They have been running through all their schoolwork with ease and learning lots.  I am very proud of the both of them for all their hard work and dedication.  They both ended up having some major meltdowns Monday evening.  I expected it at some point because it has been such a crazy couple of weeks-and there doesn't look to be an end in sight as of yet.
So far today, we have finished our schoolwork.  I had a couple of daycare kids arrive at about 1.  They will be here until after dinner when we meet their parents at our church marriage class tonight.  Jeff will be home this afternoon early, so it shouldn't be too much trouble.  Hayden and Cebelle are wearing a little thin.  I think they could use naps, but they are refusing to take them.
Planned for the rest of this week:  chiropractic appointments Wed, Jeff taking a group of kids to Castleton and being gone until really late Thu, I have my first venom immunotherapy injection on Friday which requires me to take a trip to Burlington, birthday lunch for dad on Saturday, church on Sunday.  Possibly getting together with friends Friday evening.  And then Monday starts again with a house full of daycare kids.  Like I said, no end in sight!
That's a small summary of what I haven't blogged about lately.  There's been so much going on in our world as well and I don't really have the time to go into all of that!  I am, as every day, grateful for my family and wonderful friends,  thankful that I have another day on this earth,  hoping that people can change, and praying that they will.  God bless!

February 7

Well, I didn't do this post at the end of the day like I usually do.  There is a good reason for that.  I was completely, totally, utterly exhausted.  My day began at 5:40am.  I got up and made a pot of coffee and started welcoming my daycare kids.  This day was a little bigger than normal.  I usually only have two kids on this day, but because I have an appointment with an allergist this week, I had to shift a couple of days.  So I had three children aged 3 and under all day and another 8 year old who I got off the bus after school.  The small kids all arrived between 6:30 and 7:30.  And unfortunately for me, I had awoke with a killer sinus headache.  The real kicker is that since I have an allergist appointment this week, I cannot take any antihistamines.  So-I have a sinus headache that tylenol and ibuprofen won't touch, my two kids who need to do school, and three kids under the age of 4 who need diaper changes, feeding, bottles, and help in social skills because at that age it's still appropriate in their mind to beat the crap out of someone and then take whatever they want.  By 8am-I was thinking that I must have been out of my mind for agreeing to this.  By 9am I was seriously re-thinking my ideal of 4-6 kids.  And by 10am I was ready to tie my tubes single handedly with a butter knife.  Lets backtrack now....the kids were really awesome.  The goings on were normal for three year olds and one year olds.  I really enjoyed having them here and I adore them all.  But, I was running around like crazy.  I couldn't go to the bathroom because every time I would step three feet away, someone would push someone else and take their toys, or the baby would be trying to jump down the two stairs of our sunken living room.  (Which incidentally, I saved him from about a dozen times.  And then his sister head butted him by accident.  So I ended up sending him home injured anyhow.)  All I had to eat was three bites of waffle off of Cebelle's plate that she didn't finish and three cups of coffee that I had poured for myself had gone cold before I drank them.  Add all of that up with my awesome headache, and it's fair to say that I contemplated hiding in a corner and crying at least once.  But amazingly, I got through the day without raising my voice to anyone, without my head exploding, and with my reproductive organs still completely intact.  God does perform miracles after all.....
And I must reiterate that I LOVE those kids.  They are sweet and precious and wonderful gifts.  And I managed through all of it to keep everyone fed and clean and even managed to finish school work with both of my kids.  So by the end of the day, even with my massive headache still intact, I was starting to think of myself as supermom/super daycare provider.  Which isn't really true, either.  Heck, I'm just lucky I made it through the day.  But its days like this that I actually love the most....as crazy as that sounds.  Because even though I was feeling pretty sorry for myself and my massive headache and all I had to get done...there were these small moments where kids wanted to sit in my lap and snuggle me, or someone just came up and kissed me, or brought me a book to read them a story, or needed me to hug them because they were sad....these moments that make me remember what life is all about and that help me to remember that these moments need to be cherished because they are fleeting.  And if you are so focused on trivial things (like a headache...) you just might miss those small moments and all the joy and happiness and love that they can bring to your life.  Look for your moments....and enjoy your adventure along the way!