Organizing brings me peace

Not too bad right? For the closet of a 10 year old it really is in good shape, just needs a little clearing and organizing.  Before I started I tried to think about how best to group the shirts, her mother is a brilliant shopper and basically goes to J Crew and Lands End for most staples and buys in multiples.  So there will be 3 or more of the same exact white shirt that goes with just about every other thing in the closet. Or there will be 4 or more of the same style shirt but in all different colors.  And then about 3 to 4 different style of pant: Leggings, skinny jeans/pants, yoga pants etc. in all variety of colors. This is how my good friend shops, and its brilliant.  If it were only affordable!  At first I thought about color groupings, but decided against that since its harder to discriminate between styles than colors.  (Because the color of an article is blatant to look at, but whether a shirt is crew neck, v-neck, pocket, ruffle, gathered, etc, is not so blatant to see when looking at piles of clothes.)  SO I took every article out of the closet, (found new homes for some non closet related items) and re-folded and re-grouped by style and then if there were time I would group those style piles by color: from darkest at the bottom of the pile to lightest at the top.  And then the world inside that closet is all peace and harmony for me.

Twice Now

This is twice now that I have had to leave the gym because Layla would not stop crying.  Frustration is not even the word for it.  The sweet day care girl showed up standing next to my treadmill just as Dr Dre was getting real up and real deal Holyfield.  I want to kick things and throw a fit.  Instead I came home and held Davis off of his nap until we could go pick up Waylon.  Now the babies are asleep, the boys are 'dirting' (playing in the dirt) and I am eating chocolate nut clusters in a state of misery.
The good news is I lost 2 pounds this week!  But after wine and junk food all day yesterday I needed the gym today.  Like really NEEDED it.  I had it all planned out, I was going to get on the treadmill and sort out all of my confusing house buying thoughts.  I was going to organize my list of things to buy and bake for shower/wedding season coming up, and I was going to phase into a better organized, non appointment missing mom.  Now I'm just complaining. Hopefully better luck tomorrow...

I did it

I joined the gym.  While Waylon was at preschool, I put the other three in the gym's day care and worked myself out!  Off to the side of the treadmills is a small tv where the inside of the daycare is being filmed, so I can see the kids doing their thing while I run!  I will admit to getting off just once to get a better look at them, but what I saw (Brooks throwing what looked like a big, heavy ball over his head totally careless of where it might land, thus getting yelled at by the babysitter lady) only motivated me to get back on that treadmill and run.  In fact watching the babysitter bounce fussy Davis on her hip while lifting Layla off the slide so she could go down again motivated me to do just about anything but go back and get the kids.  An hour and a half a day of babysitting + all that gym equipment (that I have no idea how to use) = awesomeness!  $50 down + $20/month= awesomeness that is worth every penny and then some.
Today's workout:

1. 2miles in 19 minutes 
2. Legs- 2 machines that I could figure out
3. arms- 3 machines that i could figure out
4. abs- 3 machines that I could figure out
5. 2 miles in 18 minutes
6. walk around, dawdle, chat until my hour and a half is up!

Tomorrow I'm bringing a gym bag and shower supplies and I am showering.  And I am so excited.

Difficulties

There are four of them.  I am outnumbered and some times everything gets completely out of control. Like this morning when every single kid was crying.  It wasn't as though I were sitting on the couch ignoring them (which I do), I was tending to each of them a little at a time, and it wasn't working.  Davis wanted to be held, Layla wanted to be held, I think Brooks probably just wanted to be held too, Waylon wanted me to be getting his socks or his belt or whatever little thing he thought of that put a total stop to his morning routine.  I was giving quick snarky responses ("It's not all about you Brooks") to each of their requests and grinding my teeth the entire morning.
And to make matters worse, I discovered no silver lining to lighten the mood of this post.  I did not miraculously, serenely find a way to appease every kid, and I wasn't patiently amorously able to summon a better attitude for them.  So Waylon went off to school noticeably deflated (because his socks didn't match), Brooks hit his sister until she screamed so loud I'm sure the neighbors woke up to their Layla alarm clock once again, and poor baby Davis cried himself to sleep in his car seat while waiting for me to get him loaded into the car.
From this 'place' we went to playgroup (which I genuinely love and am always grateful for) and everyone's kids went off and played, except mine. Mine sat on my lap and begged for food, and whined and threw a fit or two.  Half way through we left.  Layla started a fit and I just wasn't feeling it anyway.  Even socializing proved difficult for me today.  So I loaded her up before it got really out of control and we went and picked Waylon up from school early- because I didn't want to go home and unload them only to load them back up in 20 minutes for pick up time.  So it isn't yet noon, and I have already completely failed this day.  This is when I need to bust out some Insanity workout dvds, or get on the treadmill and run my butt off.  I know that that is the answer to this day, I just don't know if I'll actually make it happen.
I don't feel overwhelmingly terrible or like I failed my children or much of that melodramatic parenting guilt.  I just feel tired.  And I praypraypray to find a way to turn it around today.

Update:  My sister came over and walked with me, each pushing a stroller, one carrying a baby in a pack, and even though it was frigid and windy we walked, and I feel better for it.

To cut or not to cut?

Every time I have a baby, or gain weight, or the seasons change: basically any time boredom sets in, I start to want to cut bangs.  My sister wants to go blonde, my girlfriend wants to chop it all off and my answer to all of us is- DON'T DO IT.  It's a terrible idea and it never looks good.  I'm using this pic of my sister's beautifully highlighted braid as a reminder not to do it.  Her braid goes down between her shoulder blades (I'm kicking myself  for not taking a better picture of it, at the time I was focusing on fishtailing the braid) and her hair is so awesome, but every time she has a baby (5 times) she talks about coloring it all blonde; I literally have to get to the salon before she does and tell her stylist not to do it!  My point is: cutting and/or coloring is generally not the answer.  After I had Davis, I saw a woman getting out of her Cadillac Escalade- she had this awesome full forhead of bangs and she just looked so cool, I immediately called my hairdresser and made an appointment.  My beautiful friend and hairdresser carefully, painstakingly cut bangs,  styled them, consulted another stylist about them and then said to me "I think maybe you should have gotten the Escalade."  needless to say I learned my lesson for the time being.
In case anyone's is interested- here is the tutorial we watched to learn the fishtail technique: http://www.hdofblog.com/2011/02/tutorial-fishtail-braid/

Pink Eye

Vanity Note: That nose is enormous

Guess how many kids have pink eye?  None. It's me, I'm it.  I spent the night in Children's hospital with the baby (hospitalized for RSV-rough night- he's better) and kept my contacts in the whole time.  Doing that apparently dried my eyes out and made the contact stick to the eye, making small scratches on my EYEBALL,so that bacteria had an easy entrance point and there we have it.  Five straight days of the ugliest pink eye you've ever seen.  I mean it- I have seen lots of pink goopy eyes, but this takes the cake. This pic was taken on the fifth day, fourth day of antibiotics, and I'm still pink, goopy and swollen.  Needless to say: I threw those contacts out, and will never sleep in contacts again.

Our Story

Vanity note: North faces are handmedowns- don't get the wrong idea

These are the kids.  Left to Right:  Layla 18 months, Waylon 4 yrs, Davis 2 months, Brooks 3 yrs.  They are pretty cool kids, we like 'em, they are a ton of work and a ton of sacrifice.  And they're worth it, and we're lucky to have them.  And they drive me to drink and eat and run and bake and paint.  So here we are.


This is the dog. Udy 9yrs,
maybe 10.  Not too sure.
He's a super good dog, with lots of personality.  We dont deserve him, because we have almost zero patience for him. After all the kids needs are met, his seem (how can I put this?) annoying, a nuisance.  We're sorry about it, but its the truth.

This is the house

The house is 1100 sq ft., 2 bedrooms 1bath

And this is the yard

We loved it like crazy when we bought the house, but then the babies kept coming and time and energy kept going, and now we want/need to sell it in order to get ourselves situated in a nice little village location.
I'm starting to blog about it all because there have been a lot of ups and downs and I'm thinking maybe some of you know what I'm feelin.





That is a creek that curves through the whole yard.  We called it the Agrestic (WEEDS reference anyone?) S curves when we first started working on it; but then WEEDS just started getting weird so we 86'd the name.