Charlotte has been sleeping since 9am. Ruby has been sleeping since 11am. It’s 1:10 now.
My house is cleaner than it’s been in a really, really long time. Three loads of clothes are done. The tub is scrubbed. All of the floors, less the bedrooms – since babies are asleep in there – are swept and dust mopped. Amazing.
Fun’s over. Ruby’s up.
I moved Charlotte into the kids’ room Monday. It sounds a little bit like a recipe for disaster – 5 kids, 5 beds and 5 dressers in one small bedroom. But it’s working – and she slept all night last night. My theory (the one where I decided it was Blaine’s snoring waking her up) was more accurate than even I thought. And my bedroom is far cleaner than it has been for the last 7 months. The only time I get anything done is when Charlotte is sleeping. Clothes do not get put away, floors do not get swept or scrubbed, and dust bunnies abound when the only time I get something done is when Charlotte sleeps – and she sleeps in my room. Enjoying my newfound floor. For the next four months at least.
Ruby asked me for Sunday School ice cream. Eden had to translate.
Tin Roof Sundae.
Saturday, my mom and I took the two youngest girls shopping with us. The others were left to fend for themselves while Daddy worked around the yard. Apparently, they had themselves a little yard sale. I cam home to signs reading:
FOR SALE! 3 brown eggs
breakable but handy and yummy
$5.40 tax and tip
THANK YOU!
(We’ve been discussing tips lately. Apparently they are getting it – because that’s a really big price for three eggs, brown or not. Pretty sure they didn’t sell.)
Another sign read:
“This dog for sale! $70.36”
And in small print, at the bottom – because, while you have to teach the concept of a tip, small print is a given:
“Age: almost 1
Name: Brady
You might have to spank her often. When you call her name please say “Brady come.” She likes the van or she does not come.”
Since the dog is still here, no one must have wanted a disobedient dog either. Truth in advertising hurts.
Mom’s gone, co-op musical is over, baptism is done, and it’s time for life to return to normal – hopefully a new, quieter normal.
Mom came down last week, the musical we’d been prepping for for 8 months went off with the typical kid’s-program hitches, but it was successful I think, Liberty made a convincing talking rock and no one tripped and fell (that I heard about) and I don’t have photos. They are in CR2 form or some such thing that only my photographer husband understands and my laptop is confused and won’t open them. Maybe I’ll get Blaine’s help on that one.
I’m never willingly teaching music again. My talents do not lie in music. They screech in music.
The seven dance costumes all fit. So glad.
Charlotte was baptized May 1, and now it’s May 2 and Mom’s gone. Gonna miss her. Somehow life is so much more fun with help and someone (adult) to talk to all day.
Liberty has a report on Harriet Tubman due tomorrow at co-op. Should be a fun day – we read a chapter book and a few other smaller ones together to research, but she hasn’t even started with the writing part.
April showers failed to get the April’s-over memo.
Two kids wet the bed last night. Yes, it was the two that still ought to be in that stage. Thankfully, we’re well past that with those in bunk beds.
One of the goats decided she needs to lay down on the milking stand. I have to hold her up (all 150 lbs.) with one arm to milk her with the other arm. She needed to be dried up anyway. Debating – if I stick a 5 gallon bucket under her chest, maybe that will work… Or maybe she needed to be dried up anyway.
Anything else to groan about? Don’t think so. Oh yeah, Mom washed all the dishes. Day’s looking better already.
Now that our church is officially Associate Reformed Presbyterian, our pastor is ordained and we’re a congregation of a larger denomination, Charlotte was baptized yesterday. She was exhausted and a little fussy, but there was no screaming, thankfully. And we didn’t have to do two at a time.
*Just an FYI, we rent space from another church. The decorations in the church are, umm, not ours.
I forgot to buy Easter candy. Completely spaced it. So when the kids mentioned our tradition of hiding baskets of candy for each of the children at 8pm on Saturday night, I was a little taken aback. How on earth does one forget that???
Saturday night, 3.5 hours after the “forgot the candy” realization, I went to make the sticky buns I’d agreed to take to Easter brunch at church. I’m out of cook-and-serve vanilla pudding. I’d sent Blaine to the store on the way home from work Friday so that I’d have the frozen dinner rolls I needed to make the sticky buns. Never checked my pudding supply.
Can I have my brain back? This pregnancy is getting to it, I think. (Although someone, remaining nameless, also pregnant, called me the other day to tell me that she, after running an entire load through her washing machine so that clean sheets could be have, and learning the wash load on her new machine takes 2 hours, opened the washing machine to find she’d forgotten to add clothes. I haven’t done that. Yet.)
So back to the Easter baskets. I scrounged the house for anything sweet, found a couple boxes of Andes Thin Mints I’d bought in the after-Christmas sale, peppermints from my very-Dutch husband’s stash of peppermints for church, and fruit cups and rice crispy bars – from Blaine’s lunch fixings supply. Poor man – but I left him some. I threw a dollar bill in each, and we were in business. I was tempted to raid their Valentine’s day candy, but putting their candy into their baskets just seemed, um, strange.
That story for this one. All the kids, post-lunch, ate yogurt and then one thing from their Easter baskets. All chose rice crispy bars. They looked good, so I asked Sterling to raid Blaine’s lunch supplies and get me one. His reply? “Momma’s gonna be sugared up!” This stated as all four older kids are running the length of the kitchen, hyper on yogurt and rice crispy bars. I assure you, I did not join them in their sugary races. That would have been a sight.
*Side note, instead of the pudding, I just used brown sugar, butter and corn syrup. Blaine said he liked them better.
