Marie's Musings

Musings from the mundane day to day life of a mom of 9 to more serious ponderings of the day.

Monday, August 25, 2008

Scheduled

I distinctly do not like schedules and routines, well strict ones anyway. Unfortunely, especially with a large family, its a necessity of life. So I have adapted it to make it flexible but firm enough to work for me.

Today was the first day of getting back to the school routine. This week is sort of a practice run as there is no "real" bus to catch. Lets just say this morning was a work in progress. The majority of the children did not respond politely to being asked to get up at 615 am. I also created a shower schedule too , making sure that no one sneaks under the radar on that front. Add in earlier bedtimes and the children are a tad grumpy.

Its a little different this year. Previous years Andrew pretty much was out the door to work before the majority of the kids arose. This year hes still at home, leaving after the last ones go to school unless he starts earlier. Ooo tag team parenting, Im not sure the kids are liking it lol.

But the earlier wake up times, allowed most of the chores(cept for Josiahs as he had practice) were done early enough to have some fun. They played wii this morning. We had our typical quiettime and nap for Gideon. Then off we went to get slushies and took them to a park to play. This was something I have wanted to do all summer and finally got around to accomplishing it.

A late supper(although very yummy) led to a more crammed in evening then, trying to ready all the troops for the earlier bedtimes. Everyone but the two eldest are in bed, settled down for the evening. I suspect I will enjoy this aspect once again. Having the majority of the munckins up til 9 in the summer was tiring at times.

Tommorrow, Gideon has therapy again and I have a prenatal. Josiah has afternoon practice and katarina is off babysitting. So whatever we do will have to be in between other stuff. Im thinking maybe some uno games or drawing outside with chalk. Its always more fun if mom comes out and draws too!

God is good ... all the time
MJ

Thursday, August 21, 2008

Deadline equals productive evening

For some reason, I tend to get more cleaning done when Im faced with a deadline of someone coming over. It kicks me into a higher gear I guess.

Anyway tonite, with some of the kids help, we got the downstairs really cleaned. Nathaniel cleaned the downstrs bathroom while Zechariah and Elijah finished cleaning their bedroom. Andrews Dad is visiting tommorrow and he will sleep in Josiahs bed. The boys, will either sleep outside (they have been begging to,lately) or upstrs in the living room. Katarina helped declutter the bookshelves and wash walls. I steam cleaned the family room carpet and touched up paint along the stairwell.

Feels good to have made some progress. Going to ban any children from the downstairs area lol. Tommorrow we tackle the upstairs:Kitchen, living room, bathroom and two of the bedrooms. His dad wont arrive til 5, so I think we are in good shape, even if he shows up a bit early.

Less than 2 weeks til school starts. We still need to get shoes and a few backpacks. Thankfully I have purchased most of the supplies over the last 6 weeks or so, so its not all coming due at once. We likely will do some shoe shopping this weekend too.

Next week starts getting back to the school routine and schedule. Middle and high schoolers will be getting up at 6 am. They are not thrilled. I havent recieved bus times yet but based on last year , they likely will be getting on the bus 7 to 720 or so. The elementary kids can still get up at 7(well maybe not ariana, shes my resident slowpoke) and get off to school by 745. Currently Andrew starts at 8, so technically everyone leaves before him.

It certainely will be quieter around here. A lot different for the littles though. Gideon is used to having a big kid around to take him outside or play with him.

Well thats all for now folks
MJ

Sunday, August 17, 2008

Weekend wrapup

Its been somewhat of a busy week.

Josiah started cross country practice this week and thus begins the loss of summer freetime and the beginning of school routine and schedule. He was none too thrilled to find out practice was bright and early at 8 am. His new coach seems to be pretty good thus far. Most of the days he was able to keep up with the high school runners and run 4 miles or more. His first meet is next week before school even starts!

Katarina got her high school schedule and is beyond excited. This year she will have the high school all to herself (read no brothers at the same school to bug her in the hallway) I still cant believe I have a freshman in high school already.

I also had a prenatal appt this week. Really good news on that front, my measurements are back in the normal range. Praising God! I was almost 30 weeks at the appt and measuring 31 cm. That was a huge sigh of relief after hearing that news. For reference point, I was measuring 38 cm with Gideon at 30 weeks gestation. So quite a bit of difference. Everything else was good, blood pressure fantastic, weight gain very reasonable(only up to 7 total), and heard a very lovely heartbeat.

Friday brought a very welcome day off for Andrew. He has worked a lot of extra hours lately plus his conference to Texas. So he attempted to take friday off. He fielded at least 3 blackberry calls plus had to run into the office for a halfhour as well. Sigh ... thus are the drawbacks of the type of job it is. When the network is down, he has to go in to fix it And since he doesnt have any underlings yet it all falls to him. Sometimes its as simple as rebooting the network, somtimes its hours of troubleshooting. Even with all that, IM glad he is working closer to home!

We were very blessed this weekend with some tickets to higher ground, a christian music festival in our town. With the tickets we were given , and the ones that get in free(10 and under are free) we were able to take our entire family for a couple of hours on friday. The younger ones were quickly bored but thats okay. The middle ones werent too thrilled either to go. I enjoyed though walking around with all of us. The bands we heard on friday during the day werent big names. Our older ones went back that evening and listened to Casting Crowns and really loved that. Saturday night , Andrew, Josiah, Elijah , Ariana and I went back and got to hear sara groves and mercy me. Thank goodness a friend of ours gave us earplugs cause man, Mercy Me was loud! Its really interesting now that when i hear a song on the radio that I can attribute to one of the bands I heard, that I have a face to go with the song.

Today we had our baptism service out at the lake near town. It wasnt so much prepping to go: figuring out what to make for the potluck, finding all the swimsuits and towels, packing up the gear and sunscreen, and loading the drinks. Once we were there though it really was nice. Beautiful sunny day with a good breeze, perfect day to hang out at the lake. Only one moment of panic when Ezekiel had taken off for the bathroom without telling me and I couldnt find him immediately. Other than that we were good. I got sunscreen on pretty well so i escaped the burn but almost all of the kids didnt get there cheek/nose bridge area and are burned there. And a couple didnt get their backs as well, so I know Josiah and Andrew are pretty badly burned.

Andrew had to go into work twice tonite already and pretty much expects to be there for awhile. The entire network is down, not even the blackberries are pulling email. So in order for everybody to work tommorrow he needs to figure out the problem. He did come home in between times to watch little house on the prarie for our family night. I really appreciated his diligence and willingness to make that a priority. At least work is close and he doesnt have to travel far to get there(5 min lol) .

I still think even with the extra hours he has to put in occasionally here and there or the extra half hour tacked on at the end of a workday, we are still seeing him way more than when he was commuting. He often would be long gone by the time any of them got up and wouldnt arrive home til 630 or later some nights. Long days for sure! These are a different kind of long days I think. Even when he has to work late, we are seeing him when he comes home for lunch and quite often a number of the kids see him out the door when he leaves for work as well. They love waiting on the front steps to watch for him to bike home at night too. Those are the neat parts of having him work closer to home.

So I sit here listening to the sounds of the kids playing outside, katarinas radio in the background and the comings and goings of them all. I need to get Zemirah and Ezekiel in and ready for bed. Then I may run Andrew a drink or something to make his night a little easier.

God is good ... all the time
MJ

Saturday, August 09, 2008

House picked up ...

. . . laundry folded, dishes done and now the kids are cleaning up the yard. They have made cards and signs and taped them on the doors of the house, I think we are ready for dh to come home!

Unfortunely he will get home really late, after midnite, so all the chillins will be in bed. So i encouraged them to make him welcome home cards and have the house clean for him. He really appreciates that kind of thing.

I made him his favorite drink, iced tea, in fact I made 4 gallons worth since the kids (minus Zechariah) love it too. I had to label some pitchers "kids" and some "Dad" since he uses splenda in his lol.

Now just to wait, its currently 8 pm, only 4 some hours to go! God is good ... all the time!

MJ

Friday, August 08, 2008

Missing my hubby

Andrew traveled to Texas yesterday for a work conference. Thankfully a short one(he'll be back late saturday night) but I miss him all the same.

Days, especially weekdays are not so bad, since Im used to him being gone for work. Although with now working in town, we see him a lot more. He generally comes home for lunch every day and doesnt have to be to work til 8 am. 5 oclock rolls around and the kids start looking for him again.

Mostly though its the nights that get me. My pattern is to stay up late until IM really exhausted so I can fall asleep easier. I just dont sleep as well without him lol. And I read a lot of books, that usually keeps my mind from thinking too much.

Only 2 more days to go!

God is good ... all the time

MJ

Friday, August 01, 2008

Random thoughts on a friday

You know you are really far behind on laundry when you need to do laundry in order for your laundry fairy to reach your machine. My laundry fairy arrives tonite and IM really excited, even though it means a day of cleaning today :)

I took three kittens and the momma cat to the shelter yesterday. That was incredibly hard and sad. It was hard knowing they were going to be caged rather than in a home being loved. We had kept them 6 weeks already with no sucess in finding homes so we had to do something.

We celebrated our 2nd annniversary of moving into this community and house. Our family holiday was saturday and we enjoyed some time at hte lake. Then ended the night with a feast of good food! God is good and we wanted to remember his goodness and what he continues to do for our family.

Well thats enough miscellany for now, more later folks.

God is good ... all the time!
MJ