Feeling a little out of sorts…

Yesterday, I had a whole post written, and then blogger was down to post it. I tried. Now, it no longer applies. Just an FYI though, in case your daughter falls asleep on open Laffy Taffy and it melts into her hair – a hot shower remedies all. No peanut butter necessary. Just in case that ever happens to you.

Blaine and Sterling are on a father/son camping trip with a group from church. It’s really quiet around here. Blaine does not talk that much, and Sterling is by far my quietest child, but it’s eerily quiet around here. I do not know how to cook for smaller groups anymore. Two pound of hamburger for walking tacos is not necessary with this smaller crew. I really missed Blaine getting up with Charlotte so I could sleep in on Saturday, as has become the norm around here. I missed his company too – but it was never so blatantly obvious that he was not here when Charlotte decided it was morning at 5:50 am. A good  hour and a half before her regularly scheduled morning begins. Of course.

My grand plans for last evening: girls to bed early, milk/feed the goats, then read until far too late. With ice cream.

What really happened: kids bed an hour and a half late, phone call postpones outside chores to two hours late, skip the ice cream since it’s 65 degrees in the house and spring has run away for the weekend, read less than one chapter before starting to fall asleep and giving in and going to bed. At 9:46 pm. Oh, so sad.

So far, for the morning: a triple batch of pancakes. Again - it’s too much. Since it’s usually a quadruple batch of my very-small-to-begin-with recipe, and I didn’t think Blaine and Sterling ate that many… good grief. We’ll have pancakes for lunch, too.

So that’s the problem with the upkeep around here!

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.

Hello, floor.

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.

Hold on, I’m confused.

Ruby asked me for Sunday School ice cream. Eden had to translate.

Tin Roof Sundae.

For Sale

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.

Hello, Monday.

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.

Baby got wet…

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.