Blogging.

Well?
Spring sports, prepping for the Tolleson Draft, 4 crazy kids, Easter, a  new sewing machine to make projects with, a  computer keyboard with a sticky spacebar and life are all happening now.
Good for stories.
Bad for time to sit and write it down. 

5:30 in the morning on a Saturday is realistically the only time blogging will happen. 
Part of me thinks if I didn't get up at 5:30 in the morning, I may have more energy available after, say, 7:30. 
But then there is the Urchin Variable.  If I have free time and they are awake, it invariably gets spent with them. 
Heck, even if they're not awake, it still gets spent with them.  Benjamin has given up his binky over the past few weeks.  We had to move him into our room initially to get him to sleep because it took him a good hour to wind down without it.  That's better now, but he has made clear his preference is to be with us.  Usually about 4:30 he sneaks in and because I'm so much less likely than Jim to march him back to his room, Benjamin comes to my side of the bed.  To further his chances this morning, the Little Bugger brought the peace offering of his favorite stuffed animal.  He handed it to me and told me it was mine to snuggle with and proceeded to climb over me and assume his preferred sleeping posture. 
Crosswise.  Feet at Jim's back.  His head on my pillow. 
Hmmm...maybe that's why I get up so early these days.  

We're trying to figure out how to spend more one-on-one time with the kids.  It's so easy to slip into a herd mentality - especially between the hours of 4-7 when sometimes the main objective is to simply survive until bedtime.  Caroline and I have started passing a journal back and forth.  It is interesting and has sparked a few good discussions.  We need to be more consistent about it.  We need something like that with the boys, especially Sam. 
We put together a Rosary notebook for us to use as a family.  As soon as our printer can spit out more than a page at a sitting, I'll print out the  Stations of the Cross and the Stations of Light to put in there, too.  The kids really enjoy sitting and doing that.  Especially Nate.  He and Benjamin will randomly come up to me with the notebook and request to do a decade.  Something I never thought I would see out of a two or four year old.

Last night we had friends over for dinner.  Seven kids, three adults, three hours, an episode of "Walking with Dinosaurs" and a big mess later...we had a blast. 
Our friends are awesome. 

TBall has started.  Over the past 4 weeks, because of weather and holidays, I think we've had all of 2 practices.  Nate melts down every time there isn't practice or a game when he thinks there should be.  This happens pretty much daily. 
Soon, child. 
Soon it will be warmer than 50 degrees and the fields will not resemble a swamp on Degobah. 
Soon.
The good news is, after almost a week of Nate wearing his TBall uniform, he is wearing other clothes. 
He was so stinking cute in them. 

The kids and I went to Rochester for Easter.  The drive up was fine.  I only had to pull over once to threaten to turn the car around.  We made it to the Dunkin Donuts in Williamsport without incident.  Benjamin found a very cute elderly couple driving from Geneseo to Valley Forge, pulled a chair and joined them for a donut.  Thankfully, they were gracious about ti. 
Jim attended the Tolleson Draft and flew in Sunday. 
The Easter Bunny was super generous and gave each child a new book.
About airplanes, of course.

Of course, the Bunny didn't think about giving the biggest book to the littlest child. "Mama, dis book ees beary heaby.  It hard to read."  
Poor kid. 
The older boys are good about switching. 
For the six hour trip home, they pretty much did nothing but look at their books.  Caroline's book is about the WASPs and she thinks it is awesome.  Which it is.  :)

After 5 days in Rochester, I think it may take a while for Nina & Pops to recover and re-acclimate themselves to quiet.
Nate got upset with me yesterday and declared he would much rather live in Rochester than here.  So I ld him to call his grandfather to tell him that. 
Music to Pops' ears. 

Well...it's almost 7 and people are starting to stir.  Of course, we can't drag them out of bed at 7 on a weekday. 
Here's to a wonderful weekend.  :)