handling it, functioning, managing...

This fine morning, my girls and I are planning a trip to the craft store because I got a reward certificate, and we are thinking Christmas crafts. We SHOULD be thinking spelling and biology, but hey.

Yesterday, we had our two toddlers, my niece's little two year old Anne, and my 3 year old granddaughter Lydia...

They are sitting on stacks of flooring, Lydia thinks Grandma got new steps in the living room.


Silly Lyd. She is learning to share, which is hard for all of us. With all these little foam squares, she didn't like that Anne had one of them. But it's SO good for them to have a friend, and to learn these things...


Also, Anne is a super snuggy cuddler, which has made Lydia more snuggly, and this Grandma really likes the cuddles.




This is my son Jonathan, 14 years old, feeding little Wulf, my sweet little grandson. Uncle Jonny is a good uncle.


Baby Grant, whom I am going to visit in Virginia on Veteran's Day weekend!

Anyway, yesterday was a young child filled day, and it's busy. How did I manage when my own were so small? I was washing up the dishes when a fight broke out, and I remembered how there were days I wasn't able to even get to the sink, days filled with nursing a baby while the toddler dragged a chair over to the counter to get the sugar bowl. Being a mom with lots of kids is essentially becoming a person with continuously shifting priorities. You can wake up with a general idea of what needs to be done, but then through the course of the day, a million tiny things take precedence. The poopy diapers and spitting up, the spilled milk and the four year old trying to empty a pencil sharpener and missing the garbage, the wet bed that needs to be stripped and added to the laundry mountain in the laundry room doorway. Sometimes when I shut our laundry room door these days, I remember when it was just out of the question, because of that mountain. It's long gone now, but I still remember climbing over it. It wasn't just all the kids, all the bedding, all the clothes, it was a faulty washing machine...

Anyway. Now the days are quieter and easier, except when I have the small girls. I cannot get anything accomplished, but I do enjoy them.

Our van is now at the shop in town, they should be installing those tires today, and I'll finally get it back, yay!

Anyway...I have a headache today, but still want to exercise...I can't give up already! I am in such bad shape. But, I did get a new dress in the mail yesterday, and I LOVE it. It's from Zulily, the first thing I ever ordered from them, and no, unfortunately I am not getting paid to say this. It took forever and a day to arrive, and when it came yesterday, the two little girls were keeping me hopping, so I had to wait until they both went bye-bye before I tried it on...it's forest green, has pockets, is knit and fitted at the top, then loose, which hides a multitude of sins. I like it. I'm thinking it will be great with leggings.

Anyway...off I go.