Sixth verse; same as the first

Yep...another snow day.

Our sixth.

Dave was getting ready to leave the house and was challenging the boys to stay off screens today.

Dave:  What are you guys going to build or design today?

A: a dune buggy

C: a city


Dave:  How about you design me a way to power the house?  You can do research online and come up with some diagrams on how to do it.  You can even build a prototype out of logos.

C:  OK!  I'll need a potato.

Dave:  To power the whole house???

C:  Yeah... I'll need a thousand potatoes.

The days THEY never tell you about.

You know who THEY is, don't you???


The older peeps.


The ones that look longingly at your kids and say,

"Oh, treasure these days, dearie...they go by all too quick."


While I do understand that saying...

...no, really I do.

My oldest is now 10.

An entire decade has passed since we first laid eyes on each other.

It flew by.

And I know the next decade will probably go even faster.

But...

...there's the days that they don't talk about.

The days NO ONE mentions.

The days that NO ONE prepares you for.

Days like mine....today.

Days where you're 5 minutes into the 25 minute drive to school.

With a big box truck in back of you, pokey pete in front of you, you're crossing a bridge in frigid temps....

And the baby starts throwing up.

Not just any throw up....

 

 

...projectile.

And your 2 boys are FREAKING out.

"PULL OVER, MOM!!!!"

Yeah...have I mentioned I'm on a bridge- behind a slowpoke and in front of a box truck in a crazy hurry?

Then, she looses it again...only THIS time, she hits the roof of the van.


More boy freaking....I stop at the nearest available driveway, she's covered.

The car seat is covered.

The seat is covered.

Bits of the roof are covered.

The floor is covered.

I get the boys to school - where both are on the verge of tears in worry over their baby sister.

I quick text my friend- whom was supposed to have a long-awaited play date with today- CANCELLED.

Extreme disappointment.

But...I have a baby marinating in vomit back there....off I go.


THEY don't tell you about that....

THEY also don't tell you about getting home and removing that marinated baby from her car seat,

Getting in the house in SUB ZERO temps without getting any on you,

getting her stripped down,

getting the car seat out of the car with numb, frozen vomit covered fingers,

getting the car seat cover off the plastic with one hand

while holding a needy sick baby with the other,

and using a "free" foot to keep the dog from licking the vomit.

No one tells you about days like that.


There's no manual on how to clean up frozen vomit off the roof of a mini van.



Or how to keep your cleaner bottle from freezing within 2 minutes of being outside.




Or how to keep your cleaning rag and upholstery brush from freezing while trying to clean the frozen vomit.

NO one tells you how to scrub vomit out of the teeny crevasses of her Robeez shoes.

 

No one even tells you which cleaner is the best cleaner for vomit...on ANY surface.

 

 

Does norwex sell a cloth for these types of days???

NOOOOO...no one dare speaks of days like these.

Where is the picture in the shiny brochure of days like this???

I can't/can say.

 

I can't say how many loads of laundry this is.

 

I can say I'd estimate it as more than seven- solely based on the number of piles.

 

 

 

 

I can't say exactly how many hours it took me to fold it all.

 

I can say it was more than four.

 

 

 

 

I can't say why I waited so long to get it done.

 

I can say that I started it because I ran out of clean underwear.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

I can't say how long it will take for the folded laundry to reach their respective drawers.

 

I can say that most of the laundry is neatly in bins waiting to be delivered.

 

 

 

 

 

I can't say that I finished it all- as the sheets and socks are still waiting to be done.

 

I can say that it will be soon- as we're getting cold feet.

 

 

 

 

I can't say how many pairs of socks are represented here.

 

I can say that the last time I folded socks, there were 83 pairs.

 

I can say, yes...I counted.

 

 

 

I can't say the last time I changed sheets.

 

I can say that there's one set for each bed in our household.

Whew.

 

 

 

   

 

I can't say that I'll never procrastinate laundry again...that I could have learned a lesson here.

 

I can say that I really dislike doing laundry.

 

 

I can't say that Baby L. "helped."

 

I can say that no babies were harmed in the making of this blog post.

The Difference

The boys:

 

(both of them)

 

 

(Bangs head)

 

 

(look at mommy)

 

 

(look of concern)

 

 

 

 

Me:  BONK!  Shake it off, buddy

 

 

 

(shakes head)

 

 

 

(rubs head)

 

 

 

 

(shakes head again)

 

 

 

 

 

(moves on)

 

 

 

 

THE END

 

 

The girl:

 

 

(bangs head on table)

 

 

(look of concern in any direction...anyone see that?!?!)

 

 

 

 

 

(brief whine)

 

 

 

(waits for response)

 

 

 

 

Me:  BONK!  Shake it off, sweetie.

 

 

 

 

 

(WAILING!!!!  OH MY HEAD!!!!!  WAHHHHHH)

 

 

(UPPIE!!!  Hold ME!!!)

 

 

 

 

(NOW!!!!)

 

 

 

 

 

(holds head)

 

 

 

 

 

(whimpers)

 

 

 

 

 

(bites table.)

 

 

 

Monday list (with added snarkiness)

I'm attempting to get back into blogging.

I am going to re-connect with my groove.

I got out of the habit, and it's almost like missing a friend.

Fortunately, I am the type of friend that just likes to reconnect with old friends, and I just pick up where we left off....


So, here goes.


1.  When you purchase a box of 100 sandwich bags- did you EVER think about just how many 100 sandwich bags is?  Yeah, I didn't either.  You know, until Baby L. chose to spread them all over my kitchen floor.  And dining area floor.  And hallway floor.  But hey, I had 5 minutes of quiet.  (mom of the year award goes tooooooooo........)


2.  Growing up, I never thought about that whole "busses driving on paved roads only" in the winter.  I remember being so envious of my friends who lived out in the country that had an extra 5-6 snow days every year.  Until now.  Dirt roads go crazy in thaw/freeze cycles.  Crazy.  (3 inches of no traction funzies)

3.  C. has had the WORST chapped lips (read: FACE) ever.  We've purchased him 6 different chap sticks.  He's lost every blasted one.  So, last night I found some Aquafor, and lathered the little guy up.  (slimy-EST good-night kiss ever).  But hey... it worked.

4.  There IS such a thing as too much mascara.  Yes, there IS.  (yikes)

5.  Why is getting people to volunteer like pulling teeth?  (seriously, get it together, people!)

6.  I'm trying to save money on planning dinners a month at a time.  Anyone have any good and tasty ideas for Meatless Monday dinners?  They cannot include: gluten, dairy, or soy and must be tasty for 3 picky palates.  (good luck- we'll just eat some hamburger...)

7.  My boys are driving me a tad nutso by wrestling in the house.  Every day.  All day.  Sometimes Baby L. joins in.  My furniture is taking a beating... as is my walls.  (installing a padded room as we speak).

8.  I am not sleeping well and waking up with back aches every darned day.  (please send coffee.... and a new mattress).

 

Christmas photo dump

I thought I'd do a quick Christmas recap.

 

All in one big sha-bang.

 

We started Christmas break with a  fun case of stomach flu.

 

First A, then baby L. (mild), then me (really mild)

 

 

Then Dave....whoa, Dave.

 

I'll spare you the pictures from that.

 

(You're welcome.)

 

 

On the 23rd, we had Christmas with Dave's side.

 

With all the kiddos in that house, most of my pictures are blurry.

 

Constant activity.

 

Here is a quiet brother moment...

 

...and yet, still a little blurry from their twitching for more sugar.

 

 

 

This girl loves her grandpa.

 

 

This was the first time in (probably) 7 years that everyone was home for Christmas.

 

All 5 siblings and their whole families.

 

Matt knows a photographer who lives across the street - and he took our whole family pic.

 

The ice storms created a surreal backdrop for this nearly perfect family pic.

ALL 21 of us are looking at the camera!

(this is not a photoshopped pic at all- he literally sent it to Matt within 15 minutes of our shoot)

 

 

 

We spent Christmas Eve as a family of 5.

 

I loved it.

 

Low key.

 

Games.

 

Books.

 

Church.

 

Quiet dinner.

 

Amazing.

 

Cute jammies.

 

 

 

 

Christmas morning woke up to gluten free Cinnamon rolls

and a breakfast birthday party for Jesus.

 

We played with toys a bit:

 

 

 

 

We gave Baby L. an Anywhere chair for Christmas.

She loves it.

She sat right down in it, and didn't get out for the entire duration of family present opening.

C. gave A. a mug for Christmas, and Baby L adopted that as her own too.
She put her bottle inside it, and proceeded to drink her milk that way.

HA!  She's a funny girl.

 

 

Christmas morning, off to church:

 

 

Baby L. is to the point that she will NOT sit still in church.

 

No one was working the nursery, so in an effort to hear snippets of a sermon, I stood in the narthex.

 

It was actually really neat- because we had some cool guests in church that day,

 

some with kids,

 

so I got to meet them while we had a mini-daycare in the back of church.

 

I hope they come back.

 

Anyway, Baby L made a new friend too.

 

 
 
 
 




After church, we high-tailed it over to my parents house for Christmas Day celebration.

And our traditional Christmas dinner: crab legs and prime rib.

Mmmmmm.

The pic below is from my phone.  I took a picture of the cuts on my fingers from the spikes on the crab legs.


First world problems, I know.

 

 

Next stop, their living room for gifts.

 

And Nerf-a-palooza:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Baby L. was content to just sit in the boxes and drink her bottle.  :)

 

 

 

We had one day in between for some down time,

 

And then the next Christmas surprise for the boys.

 

My Facebook status update said,

 

My Christmas decorations may be down, but the Christmas surprises aren't over for the boys.

 

 

SURPRISE!

 

 

 

 

My brother and his family came into town for a few days.

 

They surprised their boys with Bears/Packers tickets for Christmas

 

(GO PAC!)

 

And since they were so close, decided to make it a few days longer and come see us in the Mitten.

 

I didn't tell the boys they were coming because I didn't know if they would make it north with the ice storms, etc.

 

So, my kiddos got a nice surprise out of it too.  :)

 

The picture above with the 4 boys just warms my heart.

 

The next day, Dave took the day off and we went back to my parents house for

 

Christmas: Round 63

 

(yes, slight exaggeration...slight)

 

In anticipation of the U of M football game that day, Baby L. donned her new Michigan outfit.

 

And showed support for our Packers by dressing it up with Trappers new scarf.

 

 

 

The boys:

 

happier than happy with one of the gifts from Uncle Dan and Aunt Erin

 

(they also got a Green Machine- which they LOVE as well!)

 

Well done, Uncle Dan and Aunt Erin!

 

Baby L. was loving everyone.

 

And the wrapping paper.

 

And the boxes.

 

And the ornaments.

 

It was a good sensory day for her.  :)

 

 

I can't believe I held this baby kid young man on his baptismal day.

 

 

 

And just for good measure:

 

The treat I decided to make for Christmas give aways (besides the Christmas crack)

was chocolate covered bourbon cherries.

 

They soaked in bourbon for 45 days.

 

Wrapped in homemade fondant.

 

Dipped in chocolate.

 

Oh yum.

 

 

And when the day was done,

 

the whole family went to bed.

 

I sat up.

 

Reading a book by the light of the Christmas tree

 

With the dog

 

who was cuddling up with her candy cane raw hide.

 

 

 Merry Christmas!