And...2 Weeks Later...

So...I thought I would do better with blogging.
In reality...not so much.

With Jim traveling more and more, much of my energy is used to keep this joint running as smoothly as possible.
Some days are smoother than others, let's just say.
We are getting along.

It's almost March and the craziness of Spring.
And the end of the school year.
I have to register Nate for kindergarten in the next couple weeks.  I have to apply for an out-of-district transfer to get him at the same school the other kids are at first, so it may be a little longer before I really have to face that only Benjamin will be home with me next year.  Nate said to me this week, "You know, Mom, you're going to be so bored an lonely when I go to school!"
Maybe so.
It will be good for Nate to get to school.  He's starting to read and he's getting really excited about it.  I had forgot how much fun it is to watch the kids learn.
It will be good for me to be here, too. ;)
Had you told me years ago that I would live in a rural cow town, at home full  time with four kids, making my own cleaners, baking bread, sewing clothes and being busier that I could have imagined keeping a home, I would have laughed you out the door.
Change is always interesting, isn't it?

The Littles help me with our once a week baking day.  Most of the time we end up making a couple loaves of bread, but we have made some pizza crusts to freeze that have worked out well.
We'll do more of those this week.
I had never realized what hard work kneading dough is.
Makes me feel surprisingly bada$$ in a Laura Ingalls kind of way.
I pulled out the rolling pin for the dough and Ben was so confused.  He had only known me to use it for rolling out my hamstrings or calf muscles.  He didn't know what it was really supposed to be used for.
Runner kid problems.
The baking process doesn't take long, but we are trying to find ways to tame the mess and the recovery period.

Jim and I did hit 1000 miles on our treadmill this past week.
I'm not sure how I feel about running the distance from here to Montreal without going anywhere, but we're both in better shape now than when we started.  So it can't be a total waste.

Last week we had three extra kids for a day, including a three year old and a set of five year old twins.
Other than an incident involving projectile vomit, the day was great.
Seriously.
It's easier with five kids that it is with two sometimes.  :)
And who could resist these faces?

The boys decided they wanted to make Daddy a present for when he got home.
They took an old pair of pajamas, cut them up and made a pillow.
I controlled the foot pedal, but the boys did all the sewing and stuffing.
They also did the wrapping, which was by far the most involved part.

I'm thoroughly enjoying watching "Mercy Street" on PBS.  Much of the consulting was done here in Frederick and it's correlating in an interesting way in the book I'm reading on mercy for Small Group.
The kids are volunteering, steadily trying to work up to 35 hours for the school year before May.   The Youngers and I have groups and play time and we're looking very much toward to Spring.

I can't lie.
It's absolutely nutty here in spurts.
It's hard to keep my head on.  Especially when getting kids out the door by 7:15.
But we're keepin' on and learning.
Slowly.


Other than that, the days are full.
Some days I have no idea where the day went when it's 7pm and I get the chance to sit down for my morning coffee.  

Valentine's Day

Valentine's Day.
We've never celebrated it. 
St Valentine was a pretty cool guy - he wouldn't renounce his faith even when facing beating and beheading, but I never really understood giving chocolate and roses to celebrate a dude from the 3rd century. 
Now...I get St Patrick.
I can buy that. 
I'm Irish.  I like beer. 
But I don't get Valentines' Day. 

Looking back, until last year, February 14 was a rough day.
In 2010 was so morning sick I couldn't see straight, in 2011 we all had the flu, in 2012 I was morning sick with Benjamin, 2013 Ben was in the hospital with RSV, 2014 Nate was in the hospital getting his tonsils out.
Finally some rest in 2015 and 2016. 
Well earned, as far as I'm concerned. 

It has been a quiet weekend.
We were going to head up to Carlisle, PA yesterday.  But the kids didn't cooperate, so they spent most of the day without any privileges trying to figure out how to be decent humans. 
The struggle is real.
Who knew it was so hard not to beat the tar out of siblings when playing legos?

Now Caroline is playing flute. 
She has improved so much, but is needing more and more encouragement to practice. 
Like any 10 year old.  She loves to perform, but not so much with the work leading up to it. 
She and Jim began working on a Science Fair Project this weekend on centripetal force. 
Sam wants to learn more about the P47 Thunderbolt.
Science Fairs.  Bleh.

Benjamin has been expressing his sense of self lately. 
He is choosing his own clothes and as long as he dresses himself, he can wear what he wants. 
On many days he changes from pajamas into pajamas. 
But on Tuesday, which was a(nother) snow day.  The 6th.
He looks like he's ready for it.

Nate was ecstatic when he found out there wasn't school.  Mommy was less so.

No, Mommy.  I didn't lick the bowl of cupcake batter.  Not at all.  Why do you ask?

15 Minutes

Well - closer to 10 now, with all the rigmarole I had to go through to sign on to mozilla. 

Getting back in the swing of things after having a whole week off due to snow is difficult.  Nate arrives home from school looking like he has been on a three day bender and is sleeping by 7:30. 
Benjamin misses the kids.
Sam and Caroline both woke up on Monday morning saying, "Really?  School today?"

Meanwhile, Mommy was doing a jig. 
Don't get me wrong, it was great to have them home. 
It's also nice to send them back. 

Caroline had her Spelling Bee last night.
She made it a fair way in and lost out on the word "curries".
Who even says that?!?
There were words spelled I had never even heard of. 
I left the Bee with a new gratitude for spell check.

This week, after toiling over cinnamon rolls, we have discovered the joy of baking with yeast. 
More like we've re-learned that patience is a virtue when waiting for dough to rise and more often then not, patience sucks.
Yet another life lesson from the kitchen. 
Caroline found the recipe in Taste of Home and wanted to try it.
They were time consuming, but enjoyable. 

Because baking is one thing.
But baking while being assaulted by younger brothers with shields and duplo guns is another. 

Just keep them life lessons comin'....

The Youngers and I baked bread this morning.
Only these children can turn baking into a full contact sport. 
My kitchen will never be the same.

But then Nate asks to listen to Shostakovich (be still my beating heart) and I find Ben like this sleeping because he's so tired from chucking dough all over the kitchen and it pretty much evens out. 

TIME UP.