Lately.

(this picture is not meant to imply that Ava is an unhappy baby...it just goes well with what I'm about to say)

My days have been non-stop busy the last few weeks. We've had our ups and downs. Some days I've felt like the only thing I accomplished was keeping my children alive. I'm not joking. Some days I've felt so productive and like "wow, maybe I can do this!"

Um, yeah! So unfortunately most days have been rough. Add postpartum emotions to the normal craziness of having 4 children 3 and under and you've got a mama who basically becomes a puddle of tears over the smallest thing and feels like the ultimate mom failure when her sons have to sleep in their clothes because they have no clean jammies. 

I really don't think I've ever been more thankful that God gives those good days (good moments, good parts-of-days) sprinkled throughout the hard ones. I'm thankful that He gives grace and strength abundantly when I feel like I just. can't. do. it. 

Ava is a serious little girl.

These boys. Oh, these boys. Asher has started climbing out of his crib. He apparently is pretty good at it because he's never hurt himself, but it scares me to death! We are going to move him to the toddler bed and Levi to a twin bed as soon as we can get a twin mattress. 

The other night, Jacob was gone and I hurriedly put the older children to bed a little early because Ava needed to eat. Lily went straight to sleep but the boys were being loud and obviously not ready to go to sleep, so I told them they could come play quietly until I was done feeding Ava. They were pretty rambunctious (we had cleaned up everything off the floor, so you can see they did some mess-making) until I told them Daddy was on his way home. Then they jumped up on the couch with a book and read quietly together until he got home. Little stinkers! :)

Last week, Levi was being naughty and I sent him to his "time-out chair" in his room to wait for me to come talk to him. Well, when I went to go in his room, I found that he'd locked he and Asher in the room. I got the little stick key thing and tried to get the door open, but I couldn't. I started to panic. Jacob was about 40 minutes away teaching for the day. I could hear the boys up on their dresser so I told them to get down and play legos. Thankfully they obeyed! :) 

After trying unsuccessfully to get the door opened, I called Jacob's dad who works about a minute from our house. He was so sweet to drop what he was doing and come (after finding a few tools that he thought he might need). He was able to get the door open very quickly...using the "key"...then he taught me how to unlock the door. Ha! We found the boys playing legos sweetly. Notice the time out chair. LOL

An older sibling wanted to share. :)

Play dough!

Lily wanted to see how Ava would fit in her doll cradle :)

Most of this post was written last week. Praise God, this week has been a bit better. Levi had his final post-op appointment yesterday and the doctor is very pleased with how he has healed and how his eyes look! That is a huge blessing!

Nehemiah 8:10

For the JOY of the Lord is your strength.

Sometimes you just have to laugh.

Random pictures and confessions from the "other" side of mommyhood.

When you don't get breakfast ready soon enough, your toddler just helps himself to whatever he can find.

My child is the one when singing her favorite song in church hollers out between stanzas "louder" just like she does when it plays in the van.

You are afraid that people driving by will assume this is a not so good part of town just by the state of your window blinds. Yes, we still live in the dark ages (ha!) with mini blinds. Someday we hope to replace them with the amazing wide ones, but until then, scotch tape has become my BFF.

A three inch roach crawled across the kitchen (and got under the stove before I could kill it) one morning and I so terrified my children with my screams, that they set up a barricade of Daddy's shoes and the ironing board and kept watch from high stools. Thankfully, after about 20 minutes of watching, the roach made a beeline for the refrigerator and I was able to stomp it to pieces (of course with many screams accompanying the furious stomping).

Sometimes I'm totally ok to let the kids make a huge mess just to keep them occupied while I clean the bathroom or make an important phone call.

Attempting to make granola with a 1 year old.

I am the mom who...

lets the children play "getting ready" so she can get her make up on and hair done without too much interruption. (Levi was "painting his toenails." Ha.)

brushes her teeth with kids toothpaste and doesn't realize it (or think about it) until she is rinsing her mouth.

makes banana bread for the specific purpose of sharing it with someone and completely forgets to share it until it is completely eaten. oops!

rarely irons. If something is a little wrinkled, I just flick some water on it and toss it in the dryer for a few minutes.

while backing out of a parking spot, hears a little voice saying, "mama, aren't you going to buckle me?"

on Saturday night realizes she hasn't had a shower since Wednesday morning. ugh. (thankfully this hasn't happened too often)

while driving down the road after leaving the house, frantically starts asking if every child is present and accounted for because she can't remember if she put them all in.

realizes she's been singing "I'm a little teapot" to herself for the last 20 minutes while washing the dishes after the children are in bed for the night.

starts talking to the kids about the beautiful blue sky and saying, "look out Lily's side (of the van), there is a fire truck!" only to remember she's out running errands by herself. (obviously a very rare happening around here)

After talking to our new neighbor and laughing with him about the way Lily and Levi were dressed (Lily in a poofy flower girl dress, Levi in a blue/green striped shirt and red plaid shorts, both with their winter mittens on) I was mortified to remember that Lily had "done" my hair this morning and I was still sporting an "up-do" with a large bow and play plastic bright green handled knife stuck in it. Wow. Welcome to the crazyhood!

Pictures by Lily.

These are just a bunch of random uncropped/unedited pictures on my phone that Lily took. When she gets ahold of my phone, there is no telling what I'll find. Last week she took a ton of the same exact thing...her closet door. I guess she just sat there snapping away. Ha. 

After she got the brush stuck in my hair. :-/

Mama making chore charts.

Levi and Uncle Josh.

Beautiful Yaya.

My "I'm about to lose my mind" face.

LOL

Daddy's "stop taking pictures of me while I'm eating" face.

I literally laughed out loud when I found this one! :) Typical boy.

Crazy sweet girl!

Happy Friday!

Typical.

Getting a decent picture of three little ones is quite a challenge. Here is an example of the progression of pictures that I normally get when trying to get just one picture where nobody is blurry.

 if levi would just lie down.

 hugs.

 lol.

 levi tickling lily.

 kicking legs.

Finally.

Happy Friday!

A Day In The Life

This was actually our day on Monday, but I'm just now getting a chance to post it. Hope you enjoy a glimpse into our home on a somewhat normal day. It was a rainy day, hence the reason we didn't play outside.

3:30 A.M.

Lily had a nightmare. I went in and rocked her for a few minutes.

4:30 A.M.

Asher woke up, but went back to sleep when I gave him his paci.

6:45 A.M.

Asher up for morning bottle. 

Momma's devotions and prayer time.

Check facebook and blogs. 

Put computer away until naptime.

7:45 A.M.

Make breakfast. 

Play with Asher.

8:15 A.M.

Lily and Levi up. 

Asher down for a short nap.

8:20 A.M.

Jacob leave for the day. 

Feed the kids breakfast.

8:45 A.M.

Get Lily and Levi dressed and ready for the day.

9:00 A.M.

Asher up and ready to eat.

Devotions with kids.

 Momma dressed.

10:00 A.M.

Talk to my sis on the phone.

Lily and Levi run around like crazy shenanigans. 

10:15 A.M.

Asher down for a nap.

 Laundry started.

Lily and Levi playing by themselves.

10:30 A.M.

Fold and put away a load of clothes that sat in the dryer all weekend.

10:45 - 11:30 A.M.

Reading time with Lily and Levi.

11:30 A.M.

Lunchtime.

Switch laundry.

Empty dishwasher.

12:00 P.M.

Asher up for bottle.

Lily and Levi play and listen to me telling them stories.

1:00 P.M.

Lily and Levi down for naps.

1:15 P.M.

Mommy time with Asher.

2:00 P.M.

Asher down for nap. 

Load the dishwasher.

Wash bottles.

 Remember that I forgot to eat any lunch.

Jacob home a little before 2 to teach private lessons from 2 -4:30.

3:00 P.M.

Asher up for bottle.

Lily and Levi playing quietly in their beds.

3:30 P.M.

Lily and Levi up. 

Snuggle time on the couch while Asher finishes his bottle.

4:00 P.M.

Snack time.

Playtime - Lily pulled out my picture albums and Levi played with the rolling pin.

4:15 P.M.

Pop freezer meal in the oven.

4:30 P.M.

Asher down for nap.

5:00 P.M.

Jacob eat supper and then leave for youth orchestra. 

Feed Lily and Levi.

5:45 P.M.

Asher up for a bottle.

6:15 P.M.

Load the kids in the van and take some stuff to Jacob that he forgot. 

Stop by Dollar General for dishwasher detergent - yes, I can't live with out my dishwasher! :-)

7:00 P.M.

Take the kids on a walk around the neighborhood. 

(we got this stroller several weeks ago. i absolutely love it!)

 7:45 P.M.

Asher down for nap. 

Lily and Levi pretend to have some chocolate syrup.

 Bedtime snack.

8:00 P.M.

Rock Levi and put him to bed while Lily plays in her room.

Rock Lily and put her to bed.

8:40 P.M.

Make Asher's formula.

Jacob get home.

9:00 P.M.

Feed Asher.

Lily start screaming bloody murder.

Run to her room.

 Find her shaking in bed and a 3 inch long (no joke!) cockroach crawling out of her bed and up the wall. 

Momma scream and scream and scream for Daddy.

Daddy heroically kills the cockroach.

Lily completely traumatized and unable to sleep.

Asher crying for the rest of his bottle.

Levi sleeping through the whole ordeal.

10:00 P.M.

Momma rocking and comforting Lily.

10:30 P.M.

Still rocking and comforting poor Lily.

Momma feeling so sad for Lily but also sad to not be getting stuff done that she wanted to do...

like taking a shower.

11:15 P.M.

Lily finally asleep.

Momma too tired to take a shower, or exercise, or get this posted.

11:45 P.M.

Exhausted Momma and Daddy finally get to crawl into bed.

It really was a great day until the cockroach incident. Everything just went downhill after that. Oh well. That's what makes life interesting, I suppose.