staying up late in the quiet....

It is a blustery snowy night out there. (it is supposed to warm up to 31 degrees on Friday, but that will be the warmest it will get for the next week, with the lows being in the low teens every night, and the highs in the twenties in the day....I guess it IS winter...but BRRR.) The older girls went to choir practice, and I was glad to see them get home safe and sound. We watch "American Idol" here, and it was more fun watching it with them.

Since the girls were gone tonight, the boys had to do more clean up than they usually do after dinner. It is a different sort of fun though, to be in the kitchen with Joseph (18), Aaron (17), and Samuel (14). They like to bug the dog. Joseph poured water from a cup into her mouth, and she drinks it all really fast, but that combined with the bits of leftover stew she scarfed down, made her barf a few times. Three, actually. At least they cleaned it up. And very properly too, I'm sure, ha. They also like to make Rosie dance with them, and they like to put food on the top of her nose and tell her NO, then OKAY, and laugh their heads off at her. Dogs don't mind being laughed at when food is involved though.

I am actually the only one up! All I can hear is Rosie breathing, and the sound of the fan in the little kids' room. If it was always like this, I would certainly crave some noise, but at this particular time in my life, it is heavenly. A few hours ago, I couldn't hear myself think, with 6 or 7 kids doing this pile up thing they like to do, which has to be accompanied by yelling and hysterical laughing, apparently. Jonathan was dragging some toys that drive Rosie crazy. Evelyn had a molar hanging on by a thread, and she wanted me to look at it every few minutes, and I hate things like that....I was like, "I just looked at it, okay, I believe you, just yank it out, don't show it to me again, please!" She finally yanked it out, and it had a cavity in it, would I like to see it? NOT really...Jonathan got excellent grades on his kindergarten report card, despite being absent at least once every week or two. The girls are doing really well too. Kathryn is all nervous because she forgot to bring home her vocabulary words, thus she couldn't do her homework....so she most certainly has after school detention. I don't like it, but then it does help them not to forget. (but oh, my soul...my sweet Kap in homework hall..ouch.)

I was thinking today that at this time last year, I hadn't gone through:

1. The loss of my brother....

2. The loss of Champ-the-dog.

3. The loss of our 21st child. (okay that sounds completely nuts...but I have 16 children, Robert, who was stillborn, and that was my fourth miscarriage....so...)

Wow, no wonder I embraced sweet little puppy Rosie with such hope!

I have gotten over Champ, I mean, he was a good dog, but......and the baby, mostly, but my brother Billy...I will never get over.

Well, I didn't mean to make myself cry and ruin my nice quiet time....but I do have to get to bed anyway because morning will be here all too soon.

sneaking in five minutes...

Jonathan just dumped a whole box of playdough stuff onto the kitchen table, and dinner is almost ready. I made a beef stew with a nice roast that was $1.99 a pound. Stew takes a while to prepare, but it is simple to serve. And it is so very nice to know that dinner is all ready on the stove. I also made a triple batch of chocolate chip oatmeal cookies. And I took a nap. A very very much needed and appreciated nap.....

Abigail came over today for a "visit", also known as "doing some laundry"....she kept track of the girls for me when I took my nap, and I sent her home with a small pan of hot stew and some cookies. Not bad.

Today the girls were a lot better about messes than yesterday. (Yesterday Camille sneaked up from her nap and decorated my bathroom with conditioner. She also had lots and lots of stuff in her little green bed that did not belong there). Today, they did make a huge stack of books to play with, but they didn't empty the entire shelves.....Charlotte Claire DID make a flour mess when I was trying to figure out why my new Thanksgiving mixer didn't work anymore.....and Camille DID raid Abigail's purse and waste lots of nice lotion.

I have been thinking of one of my tendencies lately that I really hate. (Tereza, when you mentioned something like this, I really identified with it) I hate it when I don't really connect with the kids. I feel like sometimes I am just managing things and accomplishing things and listening to the condensed versions of the happenings and I get them all in bed and want to just get them all back again. So this morning, I spent lots more time with the little girls, and also after school with the older ones. (Mirielle asked them if they realize how lucky they are to come home to a mom who loves them and is making them cookies...thank you, Mirielle!) Listening more. I am always (well mostly anyway) here, but that doesn't mean there is a connection. Especially because the older ones can be more interesting and I can be occupied talking to them....

Well, Paul should be walking in any second now, and the playdough playing now includes Charlotte Claire and Sonja. I would rather delay dinner a bit than break it up, they are playing so peacefully. And, my sweet little Camille didn't go in for nap until 4, and is still in bed....I have to get her up so she won't stay up 'til midnight.

waking up tired...

Camille has a cold, so my sweet little sunshine has transformed into a little green nosed monster who cries at the least litttle thing. Last night she woke up several times....so I was rather zombie like when it was time to get out of my nice comfy bed....of course she was in a deep sleep then too....

I hope to have a chance to write later, but now I need to cuddle the fusser....and her sister....

trying to get ahead, ha

These two girls thought that if I was trying to shine things up a bit today, they would try to balance that out......they put all these cans on the table to "count", according to Charlotte Claire....then the macaroni and cheese looked good, so they crunched on some. Charlotte Claire said that Camille is a "dummy". I told her that was not nice. She said, "Well, she cannot count, so she HAS to be a dummy."....I then asked Charlotte Claire how many cans there are and she said, "five." Okay.

And there was the bookshelf. They emptied it. At least they read the books for a while...

And they used the bookshelf for bunkbeds, and played house. They seemed to think it was perfectly normal that their floor was blanketed with books in their house.

Well, Jonathan has a story to read me, Suzanne is finishing up her book report, and just handed me her folder, I have a few report cards to look at......

new slippers and other such joys

No, not new slippers for me. I DID buy some back in October, and they have disapeared into the black hole with half the socks. At least they are BOTH gone, which means they just might be under Ben's bed. Yesterday, I bought new slippers for Charlotte Claire and Camille for $1.98 a pair. This morning when all the kids had gone out the door to school, I surprised my two little sweeties. As soon as Camille saw them, she yelled, "There are scissors in the drawer!", and it took me a second to realize she wanted to cut the strings and price tag off, quickly! She is smarter than me.

I didn't see much of the kids yesterday, and I felt mighty bad about that. Last night when I was telling Paul how much it is NO FAIR that I have to send them to school today, I almost cried again. So this morning, I tried to make it as calm and special as I could. I made them all cinnamon raisin toast and hot cocoa, and turned on the new Glade scented battery candle at the table. (they are like their mom, they get a kick out of things like that.)(for some reason, I just love the battery candles....maybe because they are so unlikely to set the house on fire).....anyway, the time with them this morning was nice, except for Evelyn's little outbursts of offendedness. When one of them gets the idea that others are picking on them, no one can say anything that doesn't bother them. Evelyn is one of those kids who can go from fine and easygoing to stomping and fuming in two seconds flat. And Jonathan needed a shower this morning....I have to handle him like fine china in the morning....Sonja K. also needed a shower, and her hair is so tangly....but all in all it was a good morning, and I was sad to see them get on the bus.

Now I need to get off this computer and take care of the little sweeties. Charlotte Claire is "helping" Suzanne organize her beads, and Suzanne will not be pleased. Camille is in the kitchen playing with her pretend laptop (hmm....), and believe it or not, there are still bags sitting here with things in them from the hotel. I might only have two little ones to take care of during the day, but I still have a house to take care of that houses lots of people. Well, only 16 now. I should change the name of my blog, but what if I have twins someday?

shopping shopping shopping

We needed a few things from the store, again.....and Mali wanted to get paint for the room she is the chief boss of, now that Abigail is moved out. So off we went....Mali and Margaret, Kathryn, and I. Home Depot, for spackle and primer and paint and rollers and.....eighty dollars later, we were off to Target....I found little pink high-top Converse sneakers marked down to $4.48, but they don't need them....I found really nice white wood mini blinds...$22 a pair....I need three sets for the kitchen...so expensive, but marked down....hmm. I got them. I called Paul, he called back when I was already at the register and said I could get them....I could have just gotten the plastic ones for $3.99......but these will look so much nicer.... Then, over to the grocery store. I used lots of coupons, and went up and down every aisle, since I didn't have the little ones with me. It was lots of fun to just talk the the three girls for all that time.

We live quite a way from the stores, so when I got home it was bed time, and I didn't want it to be! I got the condensed versions of their days, and promised to be here tomorrow when they get home. Camille is still up, so I don't feel too ripped-off.

Camille has a cup of ice water that her nice daddy gave her....a regular cup, not a sippy cup. She was sitting on the couch with it washing her hands in it....excuse me, but NO. I know, it is only water...but water makes water marks....she is now sitting nicely in her little rocking chair, still washing her hands. Why anyone would want to wash their hands in ice water in the middle of winter is beyond me, but two year olds are not very smart.

I am also chilled to the bone, can't seem to get warm. It was just so cold out there, shopping. I just asked Benjamin to make me a cup of tea, and he is! I am pretty lucky, I guess. In spite of how tempted I am to feel sorry for myself sometimes. Today I had to make some phone calls, and the dog was barking to go out, and Camille needed changing, so I cried. I don't think I was even consciously feeling bad, I just got overwhelmed. No big people were around, so I just went with it and cried for while, then I felt much better. I should have made some tear water tea....


So now I have my tea and I have my Camille, and I am pretty distracted....

weekend aftermath...

Wow. The kids are at school, the house looks like...well, not too very bad, but it could be better. Jonathan used his school back pack to pack for the hotel, so of course this morning he dumped out all the pennies and matchbox cars and extra batteries and spare keys, so he could use it again for less important things, like school papers. It was way too crazy in here for him to actually put those items where they go (where DO they go?), so they are still on the kitchen floor. Camille is the only little girl up, and she is cuddled up to me....and I am taking advantage of the relative quiet. She ate breakfast with the school kids, and seems ready to fall back to sleep.



Fall back to sleep. Beautiful words making up a lovely phrase.



Emily is now a night-shift nurse. She worked her first night last night. She is at her apartment now, probably, sleeping the day away. Abigail is there now too, she went last night. They brought Miss Kitten Force with them. Abigail hates cats, but Emily loves them, and Emily is the one paying the rent. I certainly hope the innocent Miss K.F. doesn't keep Emily awake all day.



Now that those two have moved out, there is a shifting of people into different rooms, and it might get easier to move Camille out of my room. The other night I went to get into bed, I pulled back the covers, and there was Camille, all her jammies off, just in her diaper, sleeping in my spot. I had to find her sleeper in the dark and dress her and put her back in her little green bed. It was at least eight below zero outside, not the kind of night to just put a child to bed in a diaper.



At the hotel, she was rather adament that she was not going to sleep there. She wanted to go home. She wanted to stay up. She wanted to turn the lights back on. It just didn't make sense to her to sleep there. I finally gave her a spank on the bottom, and told her firmly to lie down....she cried, and said to me, "Don't hit my butt!".....she is not used to a spank, she is a tender heart and just needs to be told something firmly and it breaks her heart. Not that she won't go do the same bad thing again.....anyway, she was totally indignant that I would hit her butt. When you think about it, it really doesn't make any sense.

So Rosie-the-bad-puppy has upped the badness level. When we have let her out in the late evenings to romp around, we knew she visited the neighbors...the across the street people didn't seem to mind, but apparently she has been going down to the house two over and getting into their garbage, which for some reason they don't appreciate. rrr. Why can't these people just accept that dogs like garbage? just kidding. Rosie cannot ever go out without the leash, and she has more energy than all the kids put together. I took her out on the leash this morning, and she spotted one of her dog friends, and practically pulled my arm out of socket....why, oh why, did I want such a big fluffy dog?