Soccer, Gestational Diabetes, and Babymoon!

I keep telling myself that I really should blog again, but it seems like my days are just too busy.  At the end of those long days, I simply want my bed and decide that blogging can wait.

At 29 weeks gestation, I am feeling very tired and very large.  I am starting to feel that I am getting closer to the home-stretch though.  Thankfully!  I can’t wait to see our little girl, try all those cute little girl outfits on her, and get to know her unique personality!  I keep trying to imagine what she looks like: “Does she look like daddy, myself, a brother, an aunt, a combination?”  Will she be quiet, active, tempermental, or easy-going?

I also can’t wait to have my tummy back again so I actually feel like working in my gardens again. I want to remove all the dead debris and see the new green shoots unfurl, but I am so tired and so uncomfortable that I just don’t want to enough to actually do something.

We are getting ready to start the boys’ first soccer practice today.  They are so excited and so am I!  I loved buying them cleats, shin guards, soccer shorts for Will, and putting the list together of what we need to take today.  I can’t wait to see them have a productive output for their energy and to engage in a healthy activity.  Plus, it’s fun for them, and satisfying as a parent to watch your children engaging in such an activity.

Last week, I was diagnosed with gestational diabetes.  I have been through this twice before so it’s not totally unnerving.  It is frustrating though when I want to eat but can’t because every meal is very regimented.  I have been cutting back on my milk-drinking too since I don’t want to waste a carb. count on a drink.  Unfortunately, that meant I awoke last night with a Charlie-Horse.  I guess it’s time to start taking calcium pills on top of my iron, thyroid medicine, Omegas, and prenatal.  Could definitely be worse though.  So far, I seem to be doing well with diet-controlling my sugar levels at home.  I did have trouble when Jonathan and I went away this past weekend and I ate some restaurant food.  Even though, I tried to watch my carbs., it seems that restaurant food is so much more fattening that it keeps your sugar levels higher for a longer period so I didn’t get good readings then.  I have already lost 1-2 pounds on this diet.  I guess my recovery should be fairly easy with a low-carb. diet again.  In the end, Baby and I should both be healthier, so some pain is worth the gain.  🙂

I mentioned Jonathan and I going away.  Thanks to a Christmas gift, Jonathan and I were able to go away for the weekend.  We called it our “Babymoon.”  We had a lovely and relaxing stay at a nice B & B.  We especially enjoyed the fireplace and jacuzzi.  The dinners were also wonderful!  I am glad my husband insisted we do this — even though I was content to not spend the $ and to stay at home.  He was right though; it was nice to get away.  The kids had a marvelous time at their grandparents’ so I wasn’t too concerned about them.  Monday, it was back to the usual routine — grumpy kids and all.  It’s been a bit of a rough adjustment back into normal life as some of the boys have been particularly grumpy and wanting to fight over everything.  The kids were only home for a few hours when my house already had a look as if I hadn’t cleaned in days.  I confess, I missed the prior cleanliness.  I remind myself though that someday I will miss the messy reminders that there is life in this house and that it is not a museum but a home.  So, I clean before the boys arise and then learn tolerance as I overlook the water-colors on the my counters and table, the toys scattered across the floor, and crumbs here and there.  I will get to them — eventually.

Stinky Momma!

As my husband just said, “You truly reek!”  I am heading to the shower after I finish watering the flowers outside and finishing this blog.   Let me tell you the story behind why I stink.

This morning, I went to our chest freezer to pull out some blueberries to serve our guests.   We had noticed for the past week that our garage has been stinking.  I thought it was a dead mouse and so did Jonathan.  As I lifted the lid, I was assaulted with the most horrific odor that you can imagine.  As Will would later exclaim, “I want to throw up!”  A fuse had blown in our garage and so without realizing it, our freezer had no power.  As you can only imagine, I saw lots of fruits, veggies, and meats in varying stages of rot.  The smells and sight were horrific.

I had the disgusting task of cleaning out our freezer.  I hauled loads of rotting food to the garbage can and some to the compost.  I then had to scoop out all the disgusting rotting liquid from the bottom, which meant brushing my head repeatedly against the top of the freezer, my arms against the sides, and managing to splash some of the juice onto my flip-flop-clad feet.  I did wear gloves.  When I was finally done with that, I had to dispose of load after load of the liquids.  I then wiped it all down with bleach water and finally poured bleach water into the freezer.  I have a feeling we’ll have to get rid of the freezer because I am not sure we will truly eliminate such a strong odor as that.

In the meantime as I was scooping out the disgusting liquids, I had fun watching Jonathan play kick-ball with the boys.  I definitely would have much rather joined them, but someone has to clean the freezer.  I was reminded of my mom and how many times she uncomplainingly would clean disgusting stuff when we were little.  I am truly thankful for her!  My mother-in-law is the same — she doesn’t find any task beneath her.  What great examples!

Even though I truly stink, I feel that I have earned the right to smell.  🙂 Ha!  I just hope a shower eliminates the smell, or I may have to sleep in a different room tonight.  🙂

Getting Past Poop and Pee

Not to gross you out, but sometimes, I wonder if my day involves anything besides those two items.  Okay, I know it does, but when you are potty-training, it seems that your day just revolves around such subjects.  This morning, I was awakened to the not-delightful news that the carpet had been peed on again.  Another son had an accident that involved the other item getting on his rug and books — wherever he sat or anything he touched.  So, one boy was dumped in the tub.  I scrubbed and scrubbed.  Another boy was given cleaners for the carpet and rags and told to clean.  Tonight, he sleeps in the tub.  We are really trying to stop this peeing all over the place.  If you have been following my past blogs, you’ll see that we are doing everything we know to teach him that he must obey.  Some kids are unbelievable though when it comes to resisting instruction.

In spite of my not-so-happy morning, I am enjoying the sounds of my kids singing songs about Jesus as they happily play.

Time for me to get the van loaded and head out to shop for my sister-in-law’s wedding.  I discovered that my son needs all new dress shoes again.  He is 5 1/2 and wears size 1 1/2!   He really is growing up!

Phones and Messes

I must admit that I have a bit of an aversion to the phone.  Perhaps, you other mothers can empathize.  It’s not that I don’t ever call anyone or ever answer.  I find that most of the time when I pick up the phone, my kids seem to immediately think, “Now’s the time…”

This past Monday was a good case-in-point.  I had a great morning with my mom meeting us at the grocery store and then treating the boys to soft pretzels and accompanying us to two different stores.  It was great to have the assistance!

I returned home from the grocery store in good spirits, feeling encouraged.  It wasn’t long until we descended into the normal chaos following grocery shopping.  I was immediately busy, fixing lunch and trying to unload and put away groceries.  With so many bags of groceries, it takes quite some time to find room for all the food.  The chaos soon followed with one son pouring his milk all over the floor while he was sitting on his little potty.  Around the same time, another son picked up a large watermelon and then proceeded to drop it, causing the watermelon to crack open in several places and sticky juice to squirt across my floor.  Then, I had to put away groceries, clean up milk, and clean up sticky watermelon juice.  Of course, I gave the proper cleaning rags to the boys and put them to work.

Lunch was served.  The boys were fed.  I should have known better, but I picked up the phone.  I needed to work out the details for Wednesday’s activities.   It wasn’t long into my conversation that one boy starting beating up another boy.  As I was dealing with that situation, I discovered another son was bouncing on a bed and rolling all over it.  The problem with that is he had a messy pull-up that had exploded past its confines.  Ugh!  My phone conversation quickly ended.

Motherhood is a humbling reminder of how many messes that we create out of which God patiently brings order and even something beautiful.  Now if only I could be as patient as He is with me!  Christianity is all about that — me, recognizing my own inadequacies and then receiving His grace and all-sufficiency!

Mommy of Dogz?

Motherhood is full of sweat, tears, laughter, kisses, hugs, messes!  Monday I was feeling like a good cry might be in order.  Instead of calling myself “mommy of boyz”, I wanted to call myself “mommy of dogz.”  Certain sons — one in particular — seems to find my rugs particularly attractive for a place to empty his bladder.  My husband and I are determined to make this problem stop so we talked to our neighbors and worked out an agreement for the offending son to rid their yard of dog waste.  Our next plan is a family from church who have horses and therefore a messy barn at times.  This momma is tired of feeling like she has dogs in her house again.  Ruff!  Ruff to the human dogs!  Let’s hope this time our solution works.

“What Was He Thinking?”

There have been a few of those moments recently when I have wondered what was going through the minds of my kids when they did certain things.  Take for instance the following:

The kids and I were at my sisters’.  I asked my nephews to keep an eye on D-1 while I took a shower.  I came downstairs and asked them where D-1 was.  They told me he was using the potty.  I peeked in on D-1 and saw that he had taken music sheets, set them on the potty, and then peed on top of the stack.  I was wondering what the purpose of that was.

Another situation was when D-1 appears at the church door on Sunday, carrying a stack of trash cans.  He had collected around 4, stacked them together, and then was going to take them outside for some purpose.

Same culprit but a different situation: I go into the boys’ room twice in  the same day to discover that during nap time and bed time, a certain boy had pooped in his potty and then dumped it all over the floor.  The second time was worse because he had smeared the poop on books, stuffed animals, the carpet, his brother, and bedding.

Another Day

I had to blog about today because it was just another of those days…

This morning, I was scheduled for a 9:30 a.m. ultrasound on my thyroid.  I had a lady from church coming to watch the two youngest boys.  Will had a field trip with his school from 10:00-11:00 a.m.  I knew we would probably be a little late, but I hoped for him to get one game of bowling in.  I took him with me to my ultrasound so that we could go directly to the bowling afterwards.

When we arrived at Advanced Radiology, Will said, “Mommy, I don’t feel well.”  He seemed okay then so we parked the van, got out, and I reached for my script.  It was then I noticed that the doctor had forgotten to sign it, and for once, I had forgotten to check ahead of time.  So, I pulled out my cell phone, called home to get the doctor’s #, and as I was on the phone with the babysitter, watched as Will vomited his breakfast all over the parking lot.  Feeling a little helpless, I tagged a stranger to notify the front desk that the parking lot needed to be cleaned.  To make a long story short, an hour later, I was seen by the ultrasound technician.  Poor Will missed out on his field trip though!

Once home, Will decided to fiddle with the sink and created a leak.  I put a bowl under the sink.  Then when I was getting the older boys together, Luke dumped the bowl of water all over the floor.

Once the boys were asleep, I went back down to mop the floor and went to turn on the water — only to discover Luke had apparently turned on the shower.  The result was water sprayed all over our walls, floors, doors, etc…   Never a dull moment with three busy boys!

Help!

I went upstairs to get the boys up from naps and smelled an odor that alerted me to a problem.  I discovered both boys had pooped — one in the little potty in the room and one in his nap-time diaper.  Both had attempted to wipe themselves by finding where I keep the extra rolls of toilet paper in the laundry room (off their room).  I found them standing on top the wash machine with a pile of dirty toilet paper scattered all over the floor and wash machine.  There was poop on their wall, floor, wash machine, and all over themselves.  One little boy had also peed on the carpet — don’t ask me why.

Ever since, we took the boys shopping for a toy to celebrate the fact they were potty-trained, they started having accidents again.  I am thinking we shouldn’t have given them toys.  We waited to reward them until we saw they had gone for weeks without any accidents.  Now, we are back to daily accidents.  Potty training is so incredibly frustrating and discouraging!

BOYS!

Today was another of the usual: MESSES!

I was in the next room and within eyesight of the boys, working on getting things together for the adult memory verse program at church.  I decided that the boys sounded a little too busy and happy to be good so I investigated.  Too much disgust, I found that they had gotten into two bottles of lotion under the kitchen sink and had poured it all over the carpet, table, toys, books. walls, their clothes, etc…  Ugh!  What a mess!

We Moved the Diaper Pail!

Last week, our diaper pail was permanently moved away from the changing table in Luke’s room.  The reason was because one evening Jonathan went to check on Luke after had been put in his bed and discovered that Luke had figured out how to open his diaper pail, had removed a dirty diaper from the pail, and had proceeded to cover himself in poop, along with his bedding and crib.  Needless to say, the diaper pail is no longer within reach of his crib.