August in Review (with pictures!)

Forty-six pictures isn’t too many for one post, is it?

Are you still there?

Oh good.  Here goes!  I’ll try to keep the chatter to a minimum so you can enjoy the pictures.

We had a very heavy rain, and somehow that meant a water spot on the kitchen ceiling.

Natalie “reading” to Michael.

The girls dressed James as a Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtle.

Michael’s eczema is pretty bad on his ankles, so I often slather him with lotion and then put on socks.  Sometimes they match his diaper, and I find that adorable.

All this was happening simultaneously one morning.

My mother and I actually ventured to a restaurant for lunch one day with all five! It was pretty fun, and they did great!

We had a make-and-take at the last KAMOM (Kingwood Area Mothers of Multiples) meeting.  It’s supposed to be a nest, but I bet that wasn’t your first guess.  :)  My arthritis/carpel tunnel made this veeeerrrrry hard to do, but I managed to get my five chicks in there! The sample ones really did look like nests and were adorable.  I still like mine though.  :)

I love when Matt grills burgers.  We dress them up with all kinds of deliciousness.

I made sure to ask Joanna if it was okay to post this next one. :) She wrote a note to her best bud when they were out of town.  I didn’t have an address for them, and I’m not sure there would have been time for real mail anyway, so I just took a picture and emailed it to her mom.

It says “Dear Anna, I hope you are having a good time in Colorado.  It’s lonely without you.  Do you get to visit Damen?  Please write back. Joanna Hee hee! I’m an ant.”

James (the conductor) was using a latex glove as a balloon.

I got to light this candle when a sweet friend was in labor with her newest baby.  It was a great reminder sitting in my kitchen window to pray for her through the day.

Matt took these next two.

Methinks the apple dost not fall far from the tree, eh?

(I must have just finished nursing the boys, which is why the pillow is still wrapped around me.)

Our first “us-ie.”

James LOVES wearing footie pajamas, which he has not been able to do in many months.  My mom remembered this and picked him up a new cozy pair at Sams.  I let them run around in them that day, but made him take them off after he was soaked with sweat.  Ha! They’re put away until it gets cold enough.

Thomas is not a fan of loud noises.  He was in my lap here, but you can still see the wide-eyed worried look on his face as Matt was running something loud (blender, grain mill, food processor? can’t remember) in the kitchen.

They came out and told me they wanted to be twins that day.

Eat-in kitchen!

Another us-ie! Joanna got us all in our Astros duds that day.

And then I thought we looked so adorable I pulled out the big camera and set the timer.

I can’t decide which one I like better!

We take phys ed very seriously around here – Thomas has just about gotten the hang of hula hooping.

It’s really the Spiderman slippers that make this outfit, right?

Natalie drew Sofia the First on the dry erase board.

See?

Thomas is EVERYWHERE these days!

I was playing with the late afternoon light coming in my bedroom window one day.  James came in with his Lego steps, and he made a better model than myself.

This kid is weird about naps/bedtime.  He has to be exactly just precisely the right amount of tired but not over-tired to fall asleep.  This was weeeeeeeelllllll past bedtime one night, but he was so cheerful!

In fact, after this I put him on the floor to scootch around and play.  I think he forgot Matt and I were there, but Joanna came out to give him a kiss, and he cried and cried and cried when she walked away.  It was so sweet!

Snacks at Gran’s:

I ordered a bunch of 5x7s from Mpix the last time they had free shipping and laid them all out when they came in!

There were a couple I wasn’t thrilled with the color on, so I’m going to fix those, but it’s so fun to get my own images edited by me up on the wall!  Most of them went in the frame above my television.

I look at those A LOT through the day since it faces the couch where I nurse, and they make me so happy to look at!

Sunday was promotion Sunday at church and they also did a blessing over the kiddos going back to school.  You can see Joanna (in a green dress) over toward the right.  Natalie’s more in the middle, in a dress that matches.

James was enjoying his snack at the end of the pew.

Praying.

All three of my boys crashed on the way home, so I dropped Matt and the girls off at home to eat lunch and change clothes while I drove these guys around.

I checked this book out from the library last week, and it was wonderful!

Free child labor. (And get this – they were so excited to get to vacuum that they cleaned up the floor!)

This is how I found Thomas when I picked him up from the nursery at the Y on Monday.  He was working so hard to get out, and I’m pretty sure he’d have done it if I hadn’t come along.

Sometimes you just need a break

Today is August 27th, and I just uploaded pics from my camera card for the FIRST time this month.  And there were 40.  FORTY pictures.  It’s like I don’t even know who I am anymore.  I have taken quite a few more on the iPod, so August will appear in the history of my life.  But still… weird. 

I think this post may end up with bullet points instead of paragraphs because I have so much to say and not quite the wherewithall to make it pretty.

I’m not sure wherewithall was the right word.

Spell check says it’s NOT a word.  Ah.  Wherewithal.

Got it. Not going to go back and fix it though.

Yesterday I was frazzled (I’ll have to go into why later) and decided to just go ahead and take an unplanned day off from homeschooling.  It was a good decision, and it helped me feel better.  Then, impulsively, I decided to just take the whole darn week off.  As it turns out, I really needed the break. We started our current “year” of school four weeks ago, so it’s not exactly like we’re slacking.  Also, I got to thinking that the last time we took a whole week off from school it was very likely the spring.  That’s kind of a long time ago.  I was planning for a break in September, but I guess we needed it early.  The kids have been playing (mostly) very sweetly with each other.  I think they needed the break as well.  And it feels great to already have everything together for next week.  :)

So the reason I was frazzled on Tuesday started on Monday… In the afternoon I realized that my plan for dinner wasn’t going to be defrosted in time to cook.  Normally I would have just switched it for another day, but I really needed to go to the grocery store to make any other meal work.  I was just missing something for everything I could think to put together.  This, thankfully, doesn’t happen to me often, but there you are.  So, crazy me decided to pack up all the kiddos for a grocery run at 4:30pm.  They were fabulous at the store, and it was kind of fun. But then I walked out of the grocery store and realized I had nine missed calls from Matt.  I kind of figured he was home and wondered where we were. But instead he was stuck in Splendora with a totally dead car. Every Monday he stops at the farm of a sweet couple to pick up fresh milk and eggs for us, and thankfully he was just a few hundred feet down the road from just leaving their place.  A very kind neighbor’s son helped him push it back to their driveway, and the neighbor even offered a quick opinion on the car. (The engine is a goner.) The amazing part to this is how Joseph (our farmer friend) decided he’d just get the car onto his flatbed trailer and bring it (and Matt) home for us.  It was an amazing favor and really saved us.  Matt’s nephew met them at our house to offer a second opinion on the car. (Yup, totally dead.  It’s the engine.)  Matt’s dad then came and grabbed him so he could borrow his mom’s car for now.

It’s funny, but the car drama was not what made me all crazy.  I think it was that I found myself coming home at about 5:45pm with five hot hungry children and a car full of groceries but no actual dinner.  I mean, a car full of groceries isn’t a terrible problem to have, but if I had foreseen the future, I totally would have stayed home and fed the children cereal or popcorn or something.  :) I think that was the longest day I’ve had without Matt since the babies were born.  He got home about 7:30 (hot, tired, hungry) and helped me get everyone to bed.  In case you’re wondering what I managed to feed everyone – my wonderful mother stopped by my house on her way home from Sam’s and dropped off a rotisserie chicken. Yay!

So when I woke up Tuesday morning, I was just so behind from the Monday things.  But I’m better now. And needing to blog! (I guess you could tell that by all the rambling?)

Also, if anyone knows of a reliable used car for sale, we’re totally in the market.  Matt’s car was a ‘98 Ford Escort, standard transmission with about 190,000 miles on it, and it was absolutely perfect for our needs.  (Except for the part where it died.)  I think our must-haves for a replacement are: reliable for commuting, working a/c, reasonable gas mileage.  Our wish list includes: three shoulder belts in the back, four doors, less than 10 years old.  It feels good to write these things out – helps clear the cobwebs.

I have quite a few pictures that would be fun to share, but I think I’ll get them ready for a separate “August in Review” post or something.  I’ll go ahead and include this one though of Matt and his car being delivered home:

Thank you Joseph! (Though I don’t think he reads the blog.)

Day in the Life in August

Friday was day in the life, and it barely got done. :) I remembered first thing, thanks to my fixed alert on the iPod calendar, but I was sooooooo tired and grouchy that day.  I didn’t even get out the big camera!  So this is the lazy edition of DITL.

1:28am: Thomas was up (teeth I think).  Matt changed his diaper, and I nursed him.

Waking up in the middle of the night to feed a baby or two makes me hungry.

We went back to sleep after that and then the boys were both up at 6:30 (which is actually late for Michael, so yay him!) I nursed them on the couch, then set them down to play while I fixed a bagel and cup of tea for me.

By 7:40 I had sprayed a cockroach, who then died in my kitchen and done some laundry.

A little before 8:00 I got the babies some breakfast in their high chairs.

8:08 found us playing on the floor for a bit.

I nursed them again at 8:20.

Joanna did a little bit of schoolwork beside me on the couch.  Must have been a lot of thought involved.

I put the babies down for a nap at 9:00, and despite having a full day’s worth of school to accomplish, put on the movie for the big kids.  I crashed in my bed until 10:00.  Did I mention I was soooooo tired?!

At 11:00 (I have no idea what happened the hour before), I got lunch for the bigs and then nursed the babies.

Mr. Michael must have been the first one up for some snuggles.

I finished up the Harry Potter books on my Kindle last week.  I started rereading back in July, and now I’m kind of sad that I’m done again.  Also I think I broke my Kindle there at the end.  I dropped it and although it appeared to work fine after that, it kept freezing and needing to be rebooted a day or so after the drop.  This is when it froze on me the first time.

About 11:45 we left the house, dropped off something at my mom’s, grabbed a Dr. Pepper for me, and went over to a friend’s house to play for a little while.  My big children disappeared with friends as soon as we got there, and the babies were very happy to crawl around on the floor and play with toys.

We left about 2:45 when the babies were done having fun but before they completely turned on me.  The fell asleep very quickly in the car, so we drove around to let them sleep.

I stopped at the bank at 3:30, about when they woke up.

At 4:00 we were back home and I was nursing the babies on the couch.

Matt came home a little before 5:00, and we headed to my mom’s house for dinner!

(The bigs are drinking sparkling flavored water.) My step brother and sister were both in town, so we got to visit for a little while.  The babies ate and ate and ate!

Mom and David usually have a few neighbors/friends over on Friday nights, and we were still there when everyone started to gather.  Our friend Beth stopped by with her daughter and granddaughter.  Little Zelda was precious with my kiddos.  Here she is giving Michael a kiss.  :)

We left a little after 7:00, and I nursed the babies one more time at home at 7:30.  The big kids got ready for bed, and we put all five down – phew! Matt and I watched TV until about 9:30ish.  Then I read for a little while and was probably asleep by 10:30.

Aaaannndddd…. that’s a wrap!