Christmas Will be Cancelled Until Further Notice

Today was yet another one of those days that I feel I played interference between the toddler and her climbing/getting into things and the dog with her chewing. I seriously think they have figured out some way to communicate with each other. While I get something out of the dogs mouth, Lucienne is climbing up onto the table and dumping out the contents of my wallet. I turn to get her down and put everything back and the dog is getting into something else. As I pry it out of her mouth, Luci has found a stool at the sink (placed by Audree) and is playing with the water. I turn it off and dry her off only to find the dog has returned from the toyroom with yet another Pet Shop half destroyed. While I pick up all the pieces, Luci is climbing up the stairs to find what Audree is up to. And so it goes, and goes, and goes.

On another note, in the middle of this constant stream of destruction, I had a not-so-steller mother moment with Audree. I hate when that voice in my head is saying that I need to stop talking yet my mouth just keeps going. It all really starts with my wallet. Audree saw Lucienne getting into it and really wanted to join in the fun. I think, what's the harm in letting her play store with my cards so I let her have my wallet warning her that I expect everything back in it when she's done (mistake #1). Audree happily plays her game while I run back and forth between the dog, not watching exactly what she's doing with it (mistake #2). Later in the day as I'm picking up around the livingroom and diningroom I find my empty wallet...and nothing else. No cards (I never have any money in it so that's not really a concern). When I ask Audree where everything is she gives me that really cute, innocent, doe-eyed look that she has down to a tee and says, "I don't know".

I'd kind of had it with Luci and the dog and unfortunately Audree suffered the consequence of my frustration. I told her that without the contents of my wallet I would no longer be able to buy anything or to drive anywhere. Christmas would have no presents, birthdays would be non-existant, we were never going to go anywhere, ever again. No vacations, no playdates. She is of course in tears but I just keep going (in my defense, I wasn't yelling, just bringing down her world in a calm, orderly manner). The sad part was that I didn't really have any important cards in my wallet to begin with. My credit cards and license were safely attached to my key chain. Health cards and temple recommend in my purse. It was just full of the "point" cards from various stores and other things I haven't used for months, even years.

We looked for the cards all day. We cleaned the toyroom and her bedroom. We took apart the couch and moved all the furniture. It was as if she ate them, although more likely that the dog had eaten them. They were all gone. Just disappeared in thin air. It was actually kind of weird because she had no recollection of what she did with them and we couldn't find them anywhere.

I finally just gave up. I knew they weren't that important and I'd already cancelled Christmas so there wasn't too much to be done. Plus I'd burned off some steam with all the cleaning so I was feeling a bit better.

Within ten minutes of the girls being home from school Evelyn comes up to me with Audree's big book of Dora stories and asks why all my cards are in the pages. Then it all comes back to Audree who says, "I remember now, I put them in my Dora book." 

Mystery solved. Christmas and birthdays are free to go ahead. We'll leave the house. And I score a point in the mother-of-year competition I'm surely in the running for.

Motherhood and More

A young woman gave a talk in church yesterday about things she has learned from her mother. One of the attributes she mentioned was about being calm. She said her mother never yelled, always appeared calm and didn't stress out about things. It reminded me of my Mom. I don't remember her ever yelling (although one time with Adam stands out in my mind as being pretty close) and in my memories she was always calm. I don't have many memories before the age of 10 though...and that is giving me hope.

I thought I was a patient person until I had kids. I thought I would never yell until I had kids yelling at each other. There aren't many things that get under my skin but bickering and tattling and yelling and name-calling and crying about the bickering and tattling and yelling and name-calling are way high on the list. And yes, I have yelled at them. And yes, I have lost it on more than than one occasion. But maybe if I can get things in control the girls won't have these memories...or at least not all of them. And every day I can try to do better.

Mornings are the worst. I don't see how we're going to survive with the one-sink bathroom when we have 4 teenagers. Already they're fighting about who's at the sink. They're already locking in the door to have some private time brushing their teeth (although I wonder if it's not more to bug the others). I had dreams of them loving to share a room forever and that even when given the option of their own room they would rather stay together. But getting dressed in one room is like a war zone with clothes strewn all over and casualties emerging half-dressed and dazed with who/what hit them. Meanwhile, I'm downstairs trying to feed Lucienne, get lunches made, clean up breakfast and I'm not even dressed yet.

I'm trying to wake up earlier (like 6am) so that they can get in guitar and piano practicing too. This is instead of sitting and watching tv for an hour while I try and get a little extra sleep. I feel like the couple hours between school and dinner should be their time to play and relax from working all day (before they need to help with dinner or set the table). But the time between dinner and bedtime just flies by and it's hard to get anything done.

I'm trying to fit a run or bike ride in with Amelia and the dog as soon as Rene gets home from work and have dinner made or half made so that we can eat as soon as we get home. But I'd love to do something with Evelyn too. She can't quite keep up and ends up wanting to go home halfway through. So, I'm going to try and wake up even earlier to get my run in with the dog before Rene leaves for work so that when Rene gets home I can go out with the girls and run or ride at their pace.

I'm rambling now...but these are the things that have been on my mind lately.

Things we are doing well:
We're doing some sort of Family Home Evening pretty much every Monday night - check.
We have Friday Night Movie Night (which the girls love and get so excited about) - check.
We are fitting in more physcial activity with the girls - work in progress but check.
Daddy Dates, usually a trip to Home Depot or another errand but as long as we call them a date the girls are all over it - check.
Updating this blog on somewhat of a regular basis - check so far.
Getting the girls to help out around the home with chores - kind of check...we were on the ball for a couple of months but have lost it a bit. Will need to get that going again. Saturday mornings have kind of become my time for a running group and maybe yoga class soon so we'll have to rework the time we get these chores done.


This motherhood thing is exhausting! There are so many things I want to do with them but bedtime comes too soon (and if I push that back I'm only asking for grumpy girls in the morning).

**sigh** This post was suppose to be a Mother's Day post but it turned into something else. Maybe I'll try again later!!