This week has been a little nutty.
But then it sure seems like it’s always nutty over here.
I picked up my Mother-in-Law at the airport a couple weeks ago and when she asked how I was doing I told her the regular: “as soon as I get organized things will calm down.” (That’s my personal little pep talk I give to myself over and over again.) Then she gave me a little important golden nugget of information: it’ll never happen.
Not that she doesn’t believe in me because I know she totally does, but she wanted to help remind me that life just doesn’t slow down. Something I know, yet keep having be sliced up a big dose of reality to remind myself.
I just need to live in the crazy and enjoy every second of it.
So I am.
Except when I can’t quite keep my head above water.
I really do love the journey. They whole thing. Maybe not so much in the very moment of trying to get urine samples from a four-year-old and having five people telling me important things at the same time, but more in the moments of finding Claire and Lucy curled up together for bedtime stories, Claire’s monotone first-grade reading voice mingling in with Lucy saying “Claire, I love you.” in the middle of the story.
Yes, I do love the journey. Here are a couple random photos of happenings around here:
My handsome biker husband.
Next time I’ll take a picture of his back-side.
The tooth fairy finally made her debut.
Lest you think five dollars is too much for a tooth, rest assured that these bills are payments for three teeth each (a total of SIX) that all lay patiently under pillows for over four months. Serious. We have a lazy tooth fairy but she’s pretty generous when she finally shows up.
We did the big 5:00 a.m. baptisms at the temple thing with these beauty girls for Young Women.
We had Mother/Daughter book club again.
People always ask me for more details about this one. The girls just take turns picking a book and hosting. They are in charge of any activities to help discuss the chosen book. This one was particularly fancy because our host hosted it at a restaurant instead of at her house.
Good friends.
Good heart-attacks. (Gotta love those Young Women…)
Cousins.
We like ’em. And we spent the whole President’s Day weekend with ’em…sleepovers and get-togethers galore. I’m so grateful to live close to these great examples for my children (and their great-example-parents for me).
Lucy’s snow day:
I remember when we lived in Virginia right outside Washington, D.C. we had serious “snow days.” Even if it was only a little teeny drizzle it was a big to-do. Everyone stock piled groceries, and school was canceled.
Well, here in the desert they have to truck the snow in so that these kids can know what the heck snow IS! Lu didn’t get too into it until her big sister showed up during her recess to enjoy it with her.
I love when my in-laws come to town. They are so good to us. We had FHE together this week and they brought dinner.
Not pictured are things like church meetings and sitting in on an hour-long conference call with the Foundation Fighting Blindness this morning listening to what sounded like a foreign language all about gene therapy and all the scientific, hopeful-yet-still-out-of-reach research going on right now. Feeling like I have oceans-full of information to try to understand. Having my parents come visit to be here for a special award I received (more on that later). Getting kids to orthodontist appointments on the different sides of the city (yes we have two different orthodontists). Missing school performances because I was five minutes late and having my heart break because of it. Staying up too late. Did I mention church meetings??
I’ll try to add more pictures later but for now I must go enjoy the journey of my nutty life here in the desert with the six people I adore more than anything else in the world.
p.s. I know I am cheesy.
Enjoy the chaos…oh how I wish I could do it again…maybe….sometimes.:)
And your Lucy, bless you for being her mom. So attentive to her needs and focusing on what's best for her. How blessed Lucy is…and you are too!!
Oh, Shawni, I just want to hug you and tell you that you are doing a great job! Sometimes when there is so much going on and we start feeling sooo far behind, we just have to remind ourselves that we are feeling that way because we ARE doing a great job.
My husband coined a great phrase recently: outsourcing the parenting. Nowadays, that's what many people are doing–outsourcing the jobs of a parent to others because they feel they can "do it better", or because the parents don't have time. Those people might be nannies, coaches, daycare providers, tutors, grandparents, etc. You are busy and overwhelmed because you are NOT outsourcing. Your kids are getting, primarily, you. And whether or not the delivery and the execution are perfect, it's coming from you. That is awesome. That matters.
FYI…at our house, the Tooth Fairy doesn't always do her job right. And she never seems to leave the same amount of money, twice. I have to cover for her all the time, with explanations of why she does things the way she does. In fact, I happen to know she didn't have anyone to cover for her last week while she was on vacation.
I love cheese 🙂
I love the chaos too except when it involves the baby missing BOTH of his naps for the day and being BEYOND cranky!
I love that the tooth fairy came late – I commend you for keeping those teeth throughout sheet changes and having that fairy come through!
I always say and think if I was more organized, life wouldn't be so chaotic. Its nice to see that someone I look at as handling it so well feels the SAME way as me. My big thing to work on, though, is to accept the chaos and not get worked up and snap at the kids for just being kids…for interrupting me, etc. I struggle between teaching them to NOT interrupt and to handle some things independently while accepting they are kids and they will sometimes forget or will think a question really IS urgent when its so not.
I do have to smile sometimes at the things that happen though as a result of the chaos – the other day while we had a friend over, all the kids, the dogs, everyone was in the kitchen while I'm trying to clean up and the boys were showing me how great they can moonwalk and it was all I could do to not crack up laughing at their attempts. Instead of shooing them out so I could get the cleanup done, I stopped and enjoyed the moment – I wish I could remember to do that more.
I'm pretty sure that the book "Don't Sweat the Small Stuff" has a chapter called "Your inbox will never be empty." (Can't remember exactly and I lent it out and never got it back.)
It helped me tremendously to start thinking this way–even on the day I die I will have things that I wanted to do and didn't…
I like the term "journey" as well–thanks for the reminder to enjoy it all.
Hold it! 5:00 AM temple baptisms????? No way! I didn't even know the temple opened that early, let alone that it is possible for children to actually be awake and ready for ANYTHING before 9:00 AM.
Jump aboard the crazy train of families…we're all on it and in it and we enjoy the wild rides as well as learning to really appreciate the peaceful rides.
Oh how I wish I lived somewhere that had to truck in snow. Lucky!
I guess it really is all about enjoying the chaos. The only regret I have about embracing all that is that sometimes people and moments get lost as I scurry around going nutso. Sometimes I'll remember something that someone told me in the hall at church on Sunday – that I needed to do or know on SUNDAY – and yet I'm remembering it on Tuesday or Wednesday or… you get the picture. Always little things niggling the back of my mind, but somehow the world doesn't fall apart and we go on and we love each other. Hooray!
Oh, I feel that way all the time! If I can just get organized. Sometimes I spend way too long organizing instead of just doing. Thanks for the reminder to just enjoy the chaos!
I use to teach for Loudoun County in Northern VA….If they even said "snow"…we closed! It was so funny:).
Your kids are so blessed to have so many cousins and family:). wow!
Sandy toe
Good grief, I can't believe how much has happened just since we left three days ago. You are truly living in a hurricane! When you get to the end of your rope, tie a knot and hang on!
mother-daughter bookclub oh be still my bookloving heart
Cant wait til my girl is old enough for this