Chores

                The past several days have been go go go… I finally get a chance to sit down and do what I want to do, and I realize (rather have been avoiding the fact that) the house is an absolute disaster. You cant walk two steps without stepping on a lego, there are no clean clothes or dishes, and no room in the kitchen to even think about cooking. And whose fault is it? Well, now there is the tricky question. The kids made 5/7ths of the mess, but at the same time, I as the mother have failed to teach them to pick up after themselves… at least failed to reinforce it anyway.

                So once again, frustrated with this disaster of a house, and unsure of how to really get the kids to help clean it up and keep it clean, I created a new rule… again… No electronics if the house is a mess. If you don’t want to help clean up, go outside and stay there. Then a secondary rule to this… If you help clean until mommy stops you can have your electronics for the rest of the day.

                My hope is to be able to actually get the house clean without having to redo anything because 5 children are not actively undoing everything. I did have one consistent helper… Brandon. Tracey and Arthur bounced in and out and picked up a little here and there. Once the house is clean, I am going to assign maintenance chores, where each day each person cannot do anything else unless their chore is taken care of for the day.

                Not sure how well this is going to work. Have tried other strategies before, but I, like everyone else in this house, have ADHD… which means that I have a bad problem with follow through. My motivation right now is that I am tired of living in a natural disaster area and tired of trying to fight the tornado on a daily basis as it runs its course through my home.

Beautiful Day

This morning, despite the fact that my last day of school is tomorrow and I am way behind in my homework, I decided that I would rather spend time with my husband who has been sick for the past 2 days.

We did a lot of projects around the yard and he got a lot of videos made for his blog. I got wood chips for my critters so their areas not only look but smell nicer and a gentle kiss from the sun. The kids got to play in their kiddie pool despite the water being slightly too cold for our oldest. All in all, today was a pretty good day.

 I have certainly come to the conclusion that, though I like having the job that I do, I don’t like having a job in the first place. I spend so much less time doing what I want to do and don’t know how other people stand having to work. I guess someone has to get the job done.

Day of Outings

Well, this morning I have my hands full…

                My poor husband woke up this morning, sick as a dog. We think he ate something bad. As such, he (and I) was up most of the night.

                This morning, it was easy to motivate Brandon, and almost as easy for Tracey. See, we have a planned play date at the park this morning and I am wanting to go to the library before that. Kids had me up at 7 and I immediately told the kids of my plans for the days. Brandon jumped in the shower without a second word. Tracey and Arthur, not so much. Tracey decided that she wants to go play at the park, and so once I got through to her that the sooner they are ready the sooner we leave, she got herself ready.

Now here we sit, at 9 am, and Arthur has still yet to actually get dressed. Asked him why he refuses to get dressed? His answer “why cant we stay home and play today?” So I reminded him about the puzzles at the library and the new playground at the park along with new friends. It seemed to have worked as now he has underwear on… but has stalled once again…

So we get in the car and as we turn to go to the library, Brandon suddenly asks where we are going… To the library, like I have told you 3 times already. Let the argument commence because he doesn’t want to go to the library, he wants to go straight to the park, even though it is going to be an hour before anyone else gets there.

The rest of the day went pretty smoothly. Enjoyed the park immensely and met lots of new friends. Kids had a blast, and it was only the babies getting too tired that made us go home.

When we got home, Tracey Arthur and Brandon wanted to play in the pool and after filling it up decided it was too cold and wanted to take a bath… so for the next 2 hours, all 3 of them decided that it was not a tub but a pool and decided to turn the bathroom into a lake…. Where was I you ask? I admit it, I was hiding. The babies were down for a nap and I was exhausted and wanted some time with my hubby.

It is now almost 8pm and I am supposed to be doing my homework for my last week in this quarter. A lot of catchup work to do for the end of the season. But what I am actually doing is listening to quiet music, ignoring the children playing in their beds and clearing my mind of all the days stresses. Hopefully things will be better tomorrow, and just maybe I will be able to straighten the house a bit… Maybe.

Meet My Family

I would like you all to meet my family. 

First there is Leigha. She is a toddler who just turned one. She is always busy discovering her little world around her. She is learning how to walk and talk. She loves to scream to get attention. Even just looking at her can make her giggle. She loves to play with toys that move, sing and light up. A quiet moment in the house is the perfect time for her to be heard. Kisses, hugs and cuddles always abound.

Next there is Kaylan. She is our resident two year old, going on twenty. She loves to jump and sing and dance, but the temper will explode at the smallest ignition source. She can usually be heard saying "I’m hungry" even though she just left a half an apple or all the crackers from those pb&j crackers on the table from the last time she said she was hungry. We are also certain that she will be the child to take over the farm when we are too old to continue on. Nothing goes on around the farm without her knowing about it. She loves to feed the ducks, chase the bunnies, pet the goats, and carries around her own cat who actually permits her to do anything to him she wants.

Third in line is Arthur. Arthur seems stuck in the middle at 5 years old. He doesn’t quite seem to fit in with the younger or the older children in the family. There are activities where he will hang with one or the other. He absolutely loves doing puzzles and anything that will get him into trouble. He can be an absolute angel or spirited devil. 

Tracey is, well, Tracey. Tracey just turned 8. Right now, she is trying to discover herself. She likes to bend and stretch the rules to see how much she can get away with. She loves to do anything artsy crafty with no mind for the rules that surround them.  As such her bedroom is a mural, her sheets are in tatters, and there are beads and string across every inch of our house… or at least that is what it feels like. In return, we have a very creative mind at work.

Finally, there is our oldest, Brandon. Brandon is our biggest helper, when he wants to anyway. His favorite past time is video games and movies. If it is a moving screen, he can’t tear his eyes away from it. However, he also loves to help around the house and enjoys playing with and caring for his youngest siblings. He does tend to have behavior issues but for the most part he is well behaved.

Of course, we can’t forget the adults in the family. First there is Jared, my husband. He is a wonderful, intelligent, helpful man. He does have his faults as all people do, but his qualities far outweigh anything else. He is extremely helpful with the children, house and farm and above all loves me unconditionally and would do anything for me. He is the Director of E-911 for Lauderdale County and most of his employees would say he does an exceptional job. He also enjoys making a blog of his own along with videos of projects that he works on around the farm.

And then there is me. I do my best to run the household by my husband’s side, raise 5 children, work a full time job, and go to school part time to earn my Bachelor’s degree in Accounting, and run a small family farm. Just like everyone, I have my good days and bad, though at times it feels like there are more bad and good. My hope is that this blog shows to me that there is more good, funny, learning moments in my life than I can currently see. :D

Sincerely,
Jeni