Shocking House, First Swim

I finally did the layout of the shocking pile of laundry on my sofa. This was taken the day I blogged about "home" for the Crazy Hip Blog Mama's Writing Collaboration. I'm pleased to report that the pile o'laundry was folded and put away by the end of that day. Brad had done it all the night before (what a great husband - he'd be even better if HE folded it an put it away -- darn near perfect, I'd say). I did this LO for the Chick's Life workshop. The journaling reads: I’ve been really struggling with the state of my house lately. I’ve felt like saying “My home is a total wreck!” Then I re-read this poem and thought about our friends who are sending children off to college. I realized that what really matters is not that my house is as neat as a pin but that it is sanitary and that my children are happy. Not that I can be lazy about housework but I do need to make certain I’m not neglecting my children while they’re small.

Credits: Ashley Olson, Come What May Paper Pack; Fonts are Tacoma, Onyx and Pea Jenny Script

















Here's Annie at her first visit to GG & GrandDaddy's pool. Can't you tell how thrilled she was? This layout is for the Digi-Dare Ya blog challenge. This is the third baby I've had wear that little swimmy suit from Old Navy. I bought it for Elizabeth and have loved it on each of my girls.
Credits: Ashley Olson: Pretty as a Princess Paper Pack; Amanda Rockwell: Summer Brights (mat); Nancie Rowe Janitz Shmootzy Alpha brushes; Suzanne Walker, Sun brush; font: Pea Jenny Script

I've been tagged again

I've been tagged by Amanda who is nailing me for tagging her all the time (trying to make her love her blog some!) ;)

1. If you could build a house anywhere, where would it be? On the beach somewhere

2. What's your favorite article of clothing? Black yoga pants

3. Favorite physical feature of the opposite sex? Eyes

4. What's the last CD that you bought? Laurie Berkner - how sad is that?

5. Where's your favorite place to be? Gulf Shores area

6. Where is your least favorite place to be? The pediatrician's office with a sick kid

7. What's your favorite place to be massaged? My lower back

8. Strong in mind or strong in body? At the moment, I feel like neither! Or is this what I prefer? In that case, strong in mind.

9. What time do you wake up in the morning? 3:30 or 4:30 the first time, then I usually sleep again until around 7:30-8:00 (depending on work and the kids)

10. What is your favorite kitchen appliance? My husband. He doesn't count? Oh, well then the dishwasher.

11. What makes you really angry? People who abuse children in any way; people who lie

12. If you could play any instrument, what would it be? Piano or viola

13. Favorite color? Purple

14. Which do you prefer...sports car or SUV? SUV, I have three kids - let's be realistic here!

15. Do you believe in an afterlife? Yes

16. Favorite children's book? YOU ARE MY I LOVE YOU

17. What is your favorite season? Autumn

18. What is your least favorite household chore? Ironing

19. If you could have one super power, what would it be? I'd love to fly

20. If you have a tattoo, what is it? Nope, too chicken and too old!

21. Can you juggle? Not unless you're talking about juggling duties

22. The one person from your past that you wish you could go back and talk to? My maternal grandfather, I miss him.

23. What's your favorite day? Of the week? Sunday Of the year? Any of the girls' birthdays

24. What's in the trunk of your car? Annie's stroller and two cases of diapers

25. Which do you prefer, sushi or hamburger? I've never had sushi so I don't know

Now I have to tag someones...I think I'll tag Erin, Amanda and Susan.

5 Weird things and 5 tags

I've been tagged by Erin.

List 5 weird things about yourself or your pets. Tag 5 friends and list them. Then, those people need to write on their blogs about 5 weird things, and state the rules, and tag 5 more people. Dont forget to let the people you tag know by posting a comment on their blog!

Since I don't have pets, you get five weird things about me...

1. I put Miracle Whip on my grilled cheese sandwiches (which even thinking about that totally gags me)
2. I sing the Alphabet Song and Twinkle,Twinkle Little Star two times each while brushing my teeth to be certain I've brushed for two minutes. What? You expect me to look at the clock or pay attention to the timer in my toothbrush? Not as much fun.
3. If I have cash in my wallet, it has to all be going the same direction. It also has to be organized by sequence with a one-dollar bill at the front and at the back so if someone is looking over my shoulder they think I just have a stack of ones. Come to think of it, when I have cash, all I ever have is ones. ;)
   
4. Before I had kids, my underwear had to color-coordinate with the outfit I was wearing.
   
5. I love to take a hot bath and drink ice cold water while I'm in there.

Now, who to tag, who to tag....Rebecca is busy packing for London so I'll spare her. I think I'll return Claire the favor (she tagged me a few weeks ago), and I'll tag KimJ, Maria, Robin and TracyB. :)

Another for the baby book

Annie's first tooth came through today. Maybe now we can get a couple of full nights sleep before the next one comes through. She's been up at least three times a night - and that's WITH a dose of Motrin at bedtime. That's suckin' big time.

Picking up a pen occasionally won't kill me

Last night I picked up my journal thinking I hadn't written in it since I was pregnant with Annie. Wrong, crack smoker. I hadn't written in it since Katherine was EIGHT WEEKS OLD. Two years I haven't even picked up a pen to record a thing in it. Horrid. Shocking. Embarrassing.

I cried. I didn't record a thing about my pregnancy with Annie and I wish I had. It was difficult. We thought something was wrong with her heart for seven long weeks (well, six weeks and five days). I was exhausted. I was sick. I wanted to die. I ended up on Zoloft and came close to needing in-patient psych care. Perhaps writing about it would've been helpful. But, perhaps not. Perhaps in writing about it, I could've seen some of the positive things. Perhaps not. Perhaps I would remember when I felt Annie move for the first time. I still vividly remember the first time I felt Elizabeth move and the first time I felt Katherine move. But not poor Annie. Okay, I just checked my old EC posts - I felt her move for the first time on June 23, 2005 at about 11:00p.m. and I was laying in bed watching the basketball game (must've been an NBA game - either playoff or championship). Glad that stuff is still searchable. Maybe I could've written about how cute Elizabeth was when she would go to my OB visits with me. She would hide behind the curtain until she'd flirted with Paul sufficiently and then she'd come out of hiding. She would help him measure me and then he would try to get her to hold the doppler or help him find Annie's heartbeat. She never would. Maybe I could've written about how I literally felt my blood pressure drop when Dr. Best said her heart was "beautiful." I do still very vividly remember that.

I've been in a very unhappy spot in life for the past year and a half. I'm hoping I can push through it so some day I can look back and say I'm stronger because of it. I know they say "that which does not kill us makes us stronger." Honestly, I think I'm strong enough, really I do.

Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?

CrazyHip Blogging Mamas journaling prompt (writing prompt? the scrapbooker in me is coming out by saying 'journaling') is home. I thought, how can I write about the mess that is my house? I'm constantly working and when I'm not working I'm trying to make certain my children are fed, clothed, and growing up happy. My home is an absolute wreck -- it's sanitary where it needs to be, but otherwise - eh, it'll wait. Granted it's nothing like what you see on Dog the Bounty Hunter or Cops - but it is pretty darn cluttered. Laundry is behind, breakfast dishes are sitting in the sink, clean dishes wait in the dishwasher to be put away - but the floor is vacuumed, kitchen and baths recently mopped, we have clean clothes and underwear. So, please tell me - why do I stress that my house isn't as neat as a pin like my sister's (whose 2 children are in 4th and 6th grades and perfectly capable of picking up after themselves), my friend (whose 4 children are varying in age from college junior to 3rd grader), my mom (whose 3 childre are grown and out of the nest). Why do I put that stress on myself? I have a three-and-a-half year old, a two-year-old who pushes buttons I didn't even know I had, and an almost-eight-month-old who still nurses. Why do I put this stress on myself?!

Then I thought about the Ruth Hulburt Hamilton poem that many of us are so familiar with - at least, most of us are familiar with the last stanza of it:

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby. Babies don't keep.

It is called "Song for a Fifth Child" if you weren't aware of that (you might not even have been aware of the author) and from what I've been able to research, this poem first appeared in Ladies Home Journal in 1958. And, while I love that final stanza, I really love the entire poem that so often gets overlooked. So here it is. I think I may just do a scrapbook page of some of the "mess" in my house and put this on it.

Song for a Fifth Child
Mother, oh mother, come shake out your cloth!
Empty the dustpan, poison the moth,
Hang out the washing and butter the bread,
Sew on a button and make up a bed.
Where is the mother whose house is so shocking?
She's up in the nursery, blissfully rocking!

Oh, I've grown as shiftless as Little Boy Blue
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).
Dishes are waiting and bills are past due
(Pat-a-cake,darling and peek, peekaboo).
The shopping's not done and there's nothing for stew
And out in the yard there's a hullabaloo.
But I'm playing Kanga and this is my Roo.
Look! Aren't her eyes the most wonderful hue?
(Lullaby, rockaby, lullaby loo).

Oh, cleaning and scrubbing will wait till tomorrow,
But children grow up, as I've learned to my sorrow.
So quiet down, cobwebs. Dust, go to sleep.
I'm rocking my baby. Babies don't keep.

~~Ruth Hulburt Hamilton

And now I realize, while my house my be cluttered and be "an absolute wreck" in my mind, my home is not. And that is what really matters.

Elbows, Ears, Mouths, Noses and Babies

All three little people are on antibiotics for ear infections (two right ears and one left), Motrin and Tylenol for the pain, Dimetapp for the clogged up head - and the two big girls are on prescription cough syrup for their cough. Dadgum summer colds. Pffffft.

Had to take E to the family practice clinic to have her elbow popped back into place. Nursemaid's elbow. On Sunday morning a friend of mine, who is a nurse, showed me how I could take care of it at home should it happen again. Unlike most people who visit the doctor constantly during the winter, we go during the summer.

On another, most happy note, I got an email from a friend of mine who lives in another state. She and her husband have been on a waiting list to get a baby for 2 1/2 years (they are going through a private adoption agency). Finally, a young couple has selected them to be the parents of their baby boy. The baby is due in October. Of course the parents could change their minds at any point but I'm hoping and praying they don't change their minds. This couple has waited soooo long and they'll be such wonderful parents. And I might finally get my friend back. She's struggled even talking to me since my girls have been born. :( That would just be the sprinkles on the icing on the cake. ;)

Scrapping outside my comfort zone

The inspiration: Frank Ettenberg's "Summer Lock"

My take on it: (another 2004 photo)

















This is so NOT my style, but I like it in a weird, wacky, "this has way too much going on" kind of way. The dotted paper, the grungy floral brush and the brads are all from Amanda Rockwell's new kit "Pop" at Sweet Shoppe Designs. Font is 2Peas Hot Chocolate. Can I at least get points for not using Pea Jenny Script? ;)

Latest desktop wallpaper

Created this using Sherri Tierney's My Girl kit from Scrapmommies. The font is...........(drumroll)....... Pea Jenny Script. What a surprise!!! not. Love that font - I hope Jenny, whoever she is and where-ever she may be, doesn't mind me using her handwriting on every. single. one. of my layouts!

Eh, life

Elizabeth: Finally, after months of getting the run-around from one pre-school director (where I'd really wanted to send Elizabeth), I decided to hell with them and went elsewhere. I called the preschool where my sister had sent her kids. They had ONE spot open for the fall. It was for M,W, F - and even though I'd wanted E to go on Tu, Th this year, I jumped at it.

The day I took our registration fee and building fee by, Elizabeth got to visit her classroom. She didn't want to leave and it wasn't even set up for school yet! We go August 31 to meet her teacher.

I'm feeling extremely unhappy about some stuff right now - and have been for several months. However, Brad and I just talked about something he wants me to do and hopefully it will help improve my mood - and really my entire life.