In Which I Can Do No Right

Time: 12:55 pm. Since we last parted company, Gentle Reader, I have gotten my living room, dining area and hallway dusted, mopped, vacuumed and, in an unseen move: re-arranged all three areas (not the rooms, mind you...just the stuff in them). Indeed, I'm almost finished dusting my entire first floor and being at a stopping point (dishes, not withstanding). I'm working on mac and cheese for lunch and I'm trying to keep it together because...well...I'm discovering that I'm not the only female in our house for whom change is hard.

Miss A has announced that she H.A.T.E.S. the new arrangement of all furniture with a passion that is so white hot that she can almost melt rock into molten lava. Well, okay...maybe those aren't her exact words. But do you see the hyperbole? She is very upset about the rearrangement of all this furniture, especially in the dining nook because her view of the television has been obscured and "her chair" are not in the normal place.

How upset is she? Well, in all seriousness and honesty, she was coloring while I was making the mac and cheese and simultaneously throws down her crayon and announces, in tones of pure frustration and weepiness, "I feel like a FAILURE!"

"What?" (keep in mind that I am currently thinking, WHAT?????????? YOU ARE FIVE! HOW CAN YOU BE A FAILURE YET????? WHERE DID YOU HEAR THIS FROM??????? Gentle Reader, she might as well be swearing, for crying out loud.)

"I feel like a failure!" she is practically choking back sobs. "I don't like this! Will it have to be like this forever? I don't feel like coloring."

"Okay, so don't color," I respond. "And, honey, when do we ever keep things in the living room in their place 'forever'?"

Immediately, the proverbial light bulb goes off. I see her remember the fact that I kind of rearranged the living room about 3 weeks ago, just not as drastically and didn't touch any of the other rooms/areas. For the moment, she is appeased, but later, when asked to say the lunch prayer is requested to pray for a softened heart to accept this change, which she does. After ending the prayer, she says, "I don't like sitting here! I want you to put the table back the way it was!"

Moving on.

So, Miss E comes home from preschool and is nonplussed by the change, but accepting. Until she discovers that I've thrown her leftover breakfast of Malt-O-Meal's Marshmallow Mateys away (she is a dry cereal eater, and so one just puts her cereal into a bowl, gives her a cup of milk, and she eats the cereal/picks out all the "marshmallows" and takes a swig of beverage to suit her needs). She is currently fighting over a breakfast bowl of remnant M.M.'s with Miss O. Envision the ensuing tug-of-war replete with all the shrieking of a 3 year old and her 21 month old sister. And in that moment, I am done.

True confessions, Gentle Reader? I do not act, but react and I fib. Yes, I fib to my 3 year old because I want her to stop fighting with Miss O, who also has a claim to the bowl. In all brightness of honesty, I didn't throw away Miss E's M.M.'s (as told to her) but in fact, gave the remainder of them to Miss O for breakfast. This is how slow I was moving this morning. O! The Shame, the Shame of it all.

Miss E bursts into tears which, even if faced with the startling truth, she would have done anyway. Feeling a wee bit guilty, I tell her that she can have some for snack if she still wants them after lunch. The crying continues for a few minutes and Miss E throws herself on the floor and curls into the fetal position (for crying out loud!). Meanwhile, Miss A's bemoaning of the changes to the dining area/chair situation continues. My personal frustration level is on the rise...can you see it? I bet you can!

I tell Miss E that she better pull it together and stop crying unless she wants me to give her something to cry about. Ohhhhh yeah, Gentle Reader. Yeppers. There goes the "Mother of the Week" award, yet again.

And what of Miss O, you ask? Well, she's been the big trooper in all of this, I must say, though not without her moments. Beyond the tug of war/shrieking moment mentioned above, for some reason she thought I was attacking her with the vacuum and every time I got near her would start yelling at me, "No, Mamma! No!" while trying to work her way backwards, away from me and the approaching Dyson. In a sick way, it was kind of funny.

I can see that I will have to continue this little Record of History as my children are finished with lunch and nap time will have to be attended to. After cleaning Miss O (thank heavens for BIBS!) and the surrounding floor, I am wiping up Miss E and she says to me, "I want my marshmallow cereal. Now."

Could be a long afternoon.

In my quest to put off housework...

Have you ever had those mornings where you had so much to do, you couldn't get started and ANYTHING was better than what you needed to be doing? Or, if you did get started, it lasted about all of 15 minutes before you were over-whelmed and over-tired? Well, fancy that...me, too!

This morning, I am feeling fatigued and I don't know why. Miss O slept through the night (Big Kiss to her for that!) and so did the older girls. New Baby (hooray for us! We are now at 24 weeks and should anything send me into pre-term labor--heaven forbid--she is now at viability age) got me up to pee at 5:30, but I went back to bed till the other kids got me up around 7. I've gotten everyone pretty much fed and dressed; heck, I even took a shower (which normally kick starts my morning) and did my hair (!!!!! Shock!) and started a load of laundry. And I'm pooped!

I need to rearrange my living room furniture. I am just NOT happy with the current configuration (maybe I need to feng shui it! Just joking! lol), and thanks to the placement of the satellite cables/tv, there are not a lot of options for arrangement (that I can think of anyway...ugh). But the way it is now, it's distressing because it always looks messy when there are toys out (which there are...constantly!). So, that's on my list of things that need to get done today. Luckily, the couches will slide relatively easily on the carpet, so rest assured, I'm not going to be lifting anything.

In the meantime, I just have to say that when Miss O got up this morning, her hair looked just like American Idol's David Cook. ARRRGHHH! I return 20 minutes later after trolling Google for the image I want, and I can NOT find it. Let's just say, it was a spiky look from the top to bottom of her head and was too funny. Alas, my camera (as previously discussed) is also on the fritz. So, Gentle Reader, you must use your imagination as best you can. Sorry. In the meantime, I'm off to see what I can do for my living room before I collapse on the couch!

UPDATE: Clearly, my desire for a tidy living room took a back seat until I found this picture...none of them are Miss O (obviously, if you know her), but the hair! The Hair!!! Yes. That is what it looked like, especially the first little one's complete flair-out. So funny. So cute.

Random musings from me and Miss E.

This morning, after J left to take A to school, it was just E and me in the kitchen while she was finishing up breakfast and I was doing dishes, and boy was E a talker. She told me that she had the perfect name for New Baby, "Baby Ondica!" she announces very proudly. "Then, she can have the same name as my doll!" Ahhhhh yes. Ondica Peters. As you know, Gentle Reader, we've been down this road before. A couple of heartbeats later, she starts talking about pipes.

"What?" I ask, still scrubbing the sink but coming back to reality from where ever I was.

"The milk is going down the pipes in my body! I have lots and lots of pipes in my body. That makes it healthy!"

She is so sweet, our little E. I kid you not. She is one of the most tender hearted wee ones I know. J is worried that she is going to be socially backwards because she is a VERY focused little girl (which may be why she tends to wet her pants...she doesn't realize she has to go until it is TOO LATE!) and can play happily by herself and not give a hoot about what others are doing, but if she does start paying attention, she can be crier. Still, I think that puts her in a better position than our beloved Miss A, who is all about getting the approval of others.

Now if only I can get E to be a little more "Stranger Danger Aware."

She seriously runs up to people at the library or store or playground (and sometimes gives them a hug and kiss on the leg!!!!! YEGADS!) and announces, "My mom has a baby in her tummy!" or "My mom is growing a new girl in her tummy!" before skipping off to play. I suppose I should be grateful that she is taking any doubt away about the current state of my figure, but still. FREAKS me out. I checked out a video from the library, "Safe Side Safety" which talks about this in a very child friendly way, and we had a special F.H.E. about it. The girls have watched it, seriously, 8 times since then.

So. In an effort to get them out into the fresh air, and to assuage my guilt at feeling like a terrible mother for being in such a yucky mood yesterday, I took them to the park (for about 20 minutes). Did our video do anything? Wellllllllll, I guess she didn't hug the parent of the kids who joined us at the park, 10 minutes into the romp, but she ran right over to her. Hmmmmmm....Still have some more work to do with that, I see.

Ha! I just got done reading some of this post to E before she informed me she needed to use the restroom, frantically!!!! But before she left, she said to write that the sink made a squeaky noise when I turned the faucet. And that about sums up E.

Happy Earth Day

Now, I'm not a "tree hugger" and I have real questions about the veracity of "global warming." However, I *do* think that we should be wise and good stewards over the things that we have been blessed with and we've definitely been blessed with this amazing world we live on. So, working to keep the Earth clean and healthy falls into that category, and I don't think you have to go to huge extremes to "do your part." All things in moderation.

So, with that in mind...Happy Earth Day!

And please don't judge me to harshly when I confess to you that I turned on my A/C yesterday because my house was at 80 degrees.

Please tell me...

...that you have been keeping up with the news and, more importantly, what the prophet has been saying. I don't mean to be Glenda Gloomsday, but we really do need to be paying attention. It's just not gas that is going up in price and will have to be monitored.

Here are two articles listed on today's Drudge Report:

Japan's hunger becomes a dire warning for other nations

and

Food Rationing Confronts Breadbasket of the World (this was happening on the East Coast at various Costco's! Of all places.)

I have to say that I read this and packed up the girls after nap time and went to Wal-mart and did some more shopping--food storage is important, but it's important to get things you and your family will actually eat, as well as a few treats and some household necessities. I wish I had the money to stock up on diapers for O and New Baby while they are at an affordable price, because they are made from petroleum and will soon be much more expensive. sigh. OH well. We'll just keep doing our best...but I just wanted to pass this along to remind you to be doing YOUR best. :)

So nice to hear...

So, I had a doctor's appointment this morning. Can I just say, I love my ob/gyn. She delivered O, and she's so...competent! I realize that as a patient who is on her forth kiddo and, so far, having a very normal pregnancy (just the kind I want!), I'm pretty boring...but she never acts like it. Love her! On the other hand, I like her nurse just fine, but she seems to be the kind of nurse that loves to tell you how much weight you've gained from one month to the next. Last month, coming off of my birthday weekend where I was eating out and having cake and all that good stuff, I'd gained 4.5 lbs. Ugh! Today, however, she didn't say anything and I was like, hhhhmmmmm.

Anyway, after Dr. G and I listened to New Baby's heartbeat (love that!!!) and chatted about how I *could* take some allergy medicine (HALLELUJAH!!!!!! I have been fairly miserable this last week), she said, "You didn't gain any weight this time (and had lost half a pound). You're not dieting, are you?" I tried to explain about the food marathon weekend I'd been on just before my last appointment and that I was also trying to walk 3 times a week so technically, by my calculations, I'd probably gained 2 pounds, and then she said, "Still. You've only gained 9 lbs so far (that she knows! I didn't go see her till I was 12 weeks along) and I want you to gain at least between 8-10 pounds over the next 3 months."

Hahahaahahahahahahahahahaahhaahaha! That's me laughing on the inside. Not in any "laugh at my doctor" kind of way but in a "Wahooooooooo!" kind of way. Because NEVER in my life has anyone ever said, "I want you to gain weight." Please. Never. I'm on the soft and cushy side as it is, especially after 4 pregnancies and, while I must admit that I am trying to make healthier choices when I eat...I've soooooo NOT been dieting. lol. Ha! Anyway, I'm not going to go wild with my meals now, but I just have to say...it was nice to hear. Goofy as that may sound, it's true. It made my day. And I hope this makes yours (I thought this was too funny when I saw it and had to post it...on a day like today, it's kind of my mantra.)