Celebrity Home Visit

Tonight I was cleaning my kitchen at 10:00. I had to wait for one load of dishes to complete in the dishwasher before finishing the dishes, which completely filled up the dishwasher a second time. Yeah, how lazy is that. Anyway, I started looking around my house and I had a thought.

If a celebrity...any of them...were to come to my house, what would they think? I don't want you to think I'm being worldly here, but celebrities usually have gorgeous, clean, decorated houses. Come on now, you don't think you'd find some slob of a celebrity? And even if they were, they probably have someone come clean up for them.

I washed my pans, loaded the dishwasher, wiped down the counters and canisters. Would celebrities gasp at my mismatched use of dish towels and clothes? My nondescript glass canisters (that have lids that don't seal), my plastic table with plastic benches that sound like an elephant is going to cave through the floor if one of them tips over? How about the smeared on food and sticky hand prints on all my appliances? And then there's the floor. I'd mop it more if a clean floor wasn't an instant invitation for a spilled gallon of juice, or muddy footprints, or a squished orange.

Then I walk out to my living room that was cleaned three times today. I used to love my rose furniture. Sadly, it's my one material possession that I obsess over. Today I removed the "protective" towels I put down on the cushions, only to find they weren't so protective for that red marker that Joshua took the one end cushion. Glad he used red though, it kind of blends in with the pink roses. What would they think to sit down in the chair that I noticed sunk in a little weirdly today because someone put the cushion back on upside down and backwards (the zipper was facing out *gasp*). My coffee table is chipped, all the edges are worn, and the same red marker used on the couch has also been used on the table and three of the books sitting on it. It's also littered with wipes, wipe boxes, diapers, papers, mail, cups, bowls, toys, a fork, plastic spoon and one shoe. Don't get me started on what you would find underneath. My wall art is pretty, but probably doesn't work well in the living room I have. I have no curtains up, just ugly verticle blinds. And I'm sure the smeared, purple marker on the wall is the perfect touch that brings the whole room together. Also add the pole hole the kids discovered and poked out all the spackle that hid it so well when we moved in.

Yesterday I spent the entire afternoon cleaning the family room, that has very little furniture in it now. I burnt up my vacuum getting every last piece of crumb, hair, crayon, tiny pieces of paper, lint, and tumbleweed pieces. Tonight, I come down here to find books, toys, crayon wrappers, laundry, the vacuum, and baskets strewn everywhere.

Heave a huge sigh.

Would a celebrity be gracious enough to overlook all this and accept that this is a house overrun by six children? Would they offer some tips on rearranging the furniture? Maybe they could recommend some furniture that could withstand a nuclear bomb?

If I instead wondered what would happen if Jesus Christ came to visit, what would he see? I think I'd still be just as mortified at the state of my house, but you know, HE would know my kids had a good afternoon playing together downstairs, how good I felt that I got caught up on laundry and only had one more load to fold and that little hands tried to help, but instead got caught up in the fun of wearing mom and dad's clothes and using baby blankets as capes. I think He would know and understand that today was a day that the baby needed love and comfort and extra snuggles for an upset tummy he's not quite accustomed to experiencing yet, and therefore, why I'm wearing my pajamas from last night still, and my hair was only combed by 8:00 tonight when Hannah and Curtis offered to play with it for me. I think he would understand that I just couldn't get to mopping the floor today because Joshua had a melt down about not getting a ba-ba and slipped on half an orange he dropped on the floor and then needed me to hold and kiss him until he felt better. He would be happy to be served pumpkin pancakes and sausage for dinner.

As I finished up the kitchen, I was thinking about how I wish I could decorate my home. My mom is practically an interior designer, my sister is about the same. And mine, well, looks like a hodge-podge of stuff, some cluttered too much in one place and scare in another, and it's just lacking that ONE piece that would bring it all together. But I can't find it.

And the last thought I had: in time, when my children are older, grown, half out of the house, and old enough to understand that everything has a place and the house does have some sense of order, then, then will I have time to decorate, to play, to sit and enjoy my clean living room that was cleaned up the night before. Then I'll be able to set a glass object on my coffee table and not have it smashed.

But I think life will be too quiet then.

Daily Schedule

This morning when Curtis left for work, he pleaded for me not to spend the whole morning in bed. Basically for the past 3 weeks, this has been my schedule:
5:30 Feed baby
7:00 Alarm goes off
8:00 Feed baby
Hold baby until
10:30 Attempt to lay baby down so I can take a shower
10:31 Yell at kids to pick up living room
10:32 Change baby
10:35 Yell at kids to stop screaming
10:40 Find clothes for a shower
10:45 Feed baby
11:30 Try to get in shower, realize it's 11:30 and almost lunch time
12:30 Eat lunch
1:30 Kids down for a nap, feed baby,
2:30 Attempt to get in shower again, but the phone rings
3:30 Try to get in shower but need a snack..so do the kids
4:00 OMG!! I've wasted the whole day and still have not gotten a shower
4:01 Check email, baby board, blogs, bank balance and weather..maybe news
4:30 Feed baby
5:00 Start dinner OR
5:30 Throw hands up in despair, go get take out
7:30 get kids ready for bed
8:30 Take a shower

Ugh...it's like the SIMS. Eat, sleep, go to the bathroom. I don't know why my house is trashed out. I don't know why I only feel like eating cookies and drinking soda. I don't know why my rear end hurts from sitting all the time feeding a baby.

Ahhh...RELIEF!!!

The headache is gone!!! Since the second day of Ammon's life, I've had a headache, amplified hearing, a headache, and did I already mention a headache? It finally got so unbearable that yesterday (yes, after 3 weeks of suffering), I called the doctor about it. It's from my epidural. I guess that's not something they tell you about when you get them, even though I asked about it. It will bring some sweet relief while you are in labor, but the weeks following it...beware! It was a miserable headache, but I mistook it to be from sleep deprivation, sinuses, migraines, I'm out of whack from the pregnancy, any one of these things except that it could have been from the epidural. They prescribed some medications for me and I took those last night and guess what? NO HEADACHE today!!! I had twinges of it, but nothing like it had been.

Ever notice how you can feel so horrible from illness, injury, etc. and the very next day you are on the mend and actually feel better, you think, wow! I never realized I feel this good on a daily basis when I'm NOT sick. That's my feeling today.

Hey, has anyone fed our fish?

I'm not talking about "Professor" our Betta...I'm talking about our blog fish! They are looking kind of skinny! If you fed them, just say I and then I can go about my housework knowing that all the animals have been fed. (LOL)

Mommy Messages

Have you ever had one of those days as a mother, when everything seemed to be raining down on you? The real question should be how many days have you had like that! How many of us has either wished for a mommy clone or at the very least to be Mrs. Incredible with her super mommy abilities to reach and stretch perfectly for any situation. It can be tough trying to multi-task while raising a family.

Have you ever daily chaos ensue during the time of day that you are the most fatigued or frazzled and then to add the icing to the cake with a seemingly innocent question from your son, "Mom, when is dinner (lunch, breakfast, etc.), I'm starved?" The young moms experience “leg warmers” (slang for toddlers with Mommitis).
What about when your toddler decides to explore your scissor stash and cut the baby's hair, the garland from your Christmas tree, and decorative tassels on your lamp, or anything else that can or that you wouldn’t think can be cut? What is a harried, exasperated mom to do? We can only dream of an invention that might give us a time out for a moment or two to regroup or even just escape for a moment. No remote control could pause the day no matter hard we wish. Some days I wish I had a pre-programmed “Mommy Time Out” machine. I would call it “Mommy Messages."

What would Mommy Messages do? When you are at the split second before a melt-down, the Mommy Messages would turn on and give you a quick time out without ignoring the persons involved. A Mommy messages might say, "Mommy is not here right now. She is busy and cannot come to your service at this time. Please leave a message at the beep or play quietly until she returns.” Following the message some relaxing music would begin playing to calm all who are present.

When you are calm enough to come back to reality no words were spoken which you wished you hadn’t said, no breakdowns happen on your part, and you are ready to go about being the grown up of the situation. It would cut down on much tension during stressful times of the day.

In the meantime we simply have to function on our own. Just remember the next time you’re in a tense and stressful situation in your home that you are not alone and we all wish we could take a time out in just that moment. Remember our Savior would like to help us at these times too. Ask for help during those situations and you will surely be provided with some relief or inspiration as to what you can do to get it.

….And that is the end of these messages!

Life with Six Kids

This morning we decided to all try to get to church. Curtis has to leave early for meetings, so that usually means I have the responsibility of getting all the kids ready and loaded in the car and getting to church (30 minutes away). I thought we were doing really good. I made sure we had the diaper bag, activity bag, breakfast, snacks, and food for the potluck in the van. I made sure to warm up the van (which got left outside last night and snowed on instead of parked in the garage). I made sure everyone was wearing shoes, presentable clothes, had their glasses on and hair combed. I had my breakfast. We get everyone loaded in the van, Simeon and Joshua get buckled, and then I remember I didn't have my church bag. I go back inside, grab it and just happened to turn the right way and saw...

The baby sitting in the car seat on the table.

I almost left without the baby.

I was also suspicious of my purse; it weighed a little too much for what was in it.

Anyway, crisis averted, I load the baby in the van, and we leave. We get to church with 5 minutes to spare. Things are going well. I had some of the kids sit with other friends so I wouldn't feel like I was running a three ring circus.

The first hour is almost over and Simeon runs out of the chapel. I sit there, quietly for a few minutes, thinking he'll be back. He didn't come back. I send Jesse out as a search party. He comes back and can't find Simeon. I go out and look for him, and I can't find him. I come back in the chapel, trying not to look panicked, and tell my friend I can't find him. She leaves with me to look for him. Then, one by one, each of my children that are able to walk follows us out. We look in bathrooms, classrooms, hallways. He's nowhere.

I go outside and I don't see any signs of him, but I yelled his name. His head pops up over my steering wheel. I thought I locked the van!!! Simeon was in there helping himself to crackers and my left over Tang, and pooped his pants. So I drag him back inside, change him, and get back to the chapel just in time for the last 10 minutes. THEN they find the activity bag I brought. Never mind that I tried to get them to see this before and all the wonderful treasures I brought for their entertaining pleasure. They are dragging out crayons, lace boards, activity cards, bags of pens and markers and coloring books. As I'm trying to pack it up, they are pulling them out.

Finally, first hour is over and I go out to the van to put the activity bag away and clean my glasses. I have this "special" cleaner and "special" cloth for my new, high tech glasses with anti-glare properties on them...again, never mind that my two year old has bent them and I swear there are scratches on them and they are only a month old. I keep my special cleaner and cloth in my purse. I open it and find 9 hot wheels cars in my purse. No wonder it was heavy.

Today at potluck a friend asked me how am I doing everything. "Everything" meaning homeschool, breastfeeding an infant, chasing down a toddler and preschooler, dealing with one, possibly two, of my kids with autism. My only reply: Guess you just wake up and do what's got to be done.

When Easter Eggs Hatch

Enter the ICHC

He's Here!!

Ammon Don arrived February 25, 2008 at 9:56 a.m. He weighed 8lbs 2 oz. and was 19 inches long. He was delivered by Daddy (Curtis), which Curtis says was the most awesome thing he's ever done. The labor lasted 27 hours, so that was a bit much, but once he decided to get here, it was pretty fast. He's got a bit of jaundice still and breastfeeding is still a bit of a struggle, but he's doing pretty good on sleeping about 6 hours at night and we are all in love with him.

Here's his birth story:
My last OB appt. was on Wednesday, Feb. 20. My doctor had agreed to an induction, set for the next night, based on Maternal Misery. I was worried about the baby being small, and Curtis' mother also was arriving that night which was earlier than expected. Unfortunately, the hospital called and canceled the induction due to staffing issues and rescheduled it for Sunday. I was upset, but okay with it, it just gave me more time to do some last minute things. Saturday, Feb. 24 was awful. I had contractions all day, a sharp, constant pain on my left side, spent the morning in the bathroom, and then the hormonal stuff started. I was crying, then mad, then depressed, then sad again because Joshua was no longer going to be the baby. By that evening, stressed out, tired and frustrated, I went into town to the grocery store. I bought some cookies and real milk (we've been on Lactaid for milk allergies) and called Shiloah to whine about the day and eat all the cookies. When I got home, Curtis had made dinner and I took some Tylenol and Benedryl. I was feeling better by about 9, stayed up and talked with Curtis' mom and went to bed fairly late, but slept well.
Sunday I woke up in labor. The contractions weren't hard, but they were consistent and had that menstrual cramp feeling. I felt like an idiot forgetting what the "real" contractions felt like. We worked around the house that morning, rearranging food storage stuff, doing laundry, watching TV. By noon, the contractions were getting a little harder but were still kind of slow. After lunch however, they picked up in intensity and I started shaking, which I've learned now that meant dilation. Curtis insisted we go up to the hospital to get checked. I was reluctant since we were going in for the induction that night, but agreed to anyway. I was worried about getting sent home one more time, again.
We got to the hospital, they checked me and I had dilated all the way to a 2. Half a centimeter since Wednesday. They decided to keep me since I was going in for an induction anyway and they were not that busy. We walked, bounced on the ball, got monitored a bit, but the contractions started slowing down around 6. We walked some more, but not much more happened and by 8 p.m. I was almost to 3 cm. They started pitocin then to help me along. We tried to walk some more, bounced on the ball, watched a movie, but by 11 I was starting to get tired and didn't feel like moving at all. They monitored me at that point and I was at a 3. They kept cranking the pitocin up as well, but then it got kind of intense and they backed it off for a bit. At 2:30 a.m. I was at 4 cm. Finally!!! Progress! I was over the hump!! Then my water broke and the contractions got a bit harder. They ordered the epidural then, expecting me to go pretty fast after my water broke. I felt guilty asking for the epidural then, since the pains weren't horrible and I could still talk through them. The baby had shifted all the way over to the right and that was painful, but then I turned to my left side and the baby shifted completely to that side as well, which then hurt even more as it felt like he was pushing all kinds of muscles out of the way. My left lower side continued to hurt as well, continuously, and that was the main reason I gave into the epidural so soon. It slowed labor down however and didn't take very well on the left side, so I still felt a lot of the pain I was trying to get away from.
At 5 a.m. I was finally to 5 cm but 24 hours was creeping up, and I was getting antsy. This wasn't going as fast as I thought it would and I was bothered by the fact that I couldn't seem to progress. I was getting worried about a C-section. I started shaking again (which had happened off and on through the night) and the epidural guy asked the nurses if they had checked me. They couldn't get a trace on the monitors for both contractions or heartbeat and for the next two hours, they continued to fiddle with the monitors. By 9 a.m. Monday morning, my doctor came in to check me. I was complete!!! I think I had had been at that point for 2 hours, and again the left side pains were constant and lots more painful, even through the epidural.
I asked if Curtis could help with the delivery. We had talked about it, but never asked the doctor about it. Surprisingly, he invited Curtis down to the end of the bed, got a gown on him and told him exactly what to do for the entire birth. Curtis did everything! Ammon was out in 4 contractions. I think at some point he had gotten his feet under him, so as I pushed, he pushed back against me, like he was just going to stand up in there. I think that is where a lot of the pain on my left side came from.
Ammon inhaled a bit of fluid during birth, so they took him to the nursery for a few hours to make sure he was okay. He was cold too so they were trying to get his temperature up. After that though, he was pretty good. Nursing is still a struggle. He's got suction like a vacuum cleaner, but he's not figured out how to latch on properly. He's also got his days and nights mixed up, but he's been doing really good the last 3 nights sleeping about 6 hours at a stretch. He's just like a little doll though, and being a whole pound smaller than the last three babies, it's a big difference to us. The kids have done really good with him, all of them have been helpful and happy. It's wonderful to have this new little spirit in our home.