Who raised these kids anyways?

Today is one of those special kinds of days in parenting.  Every parent knows which kind of day I mean.  The kids paint the bathroom with nail polish, wear mascara as lipstick, bite eachother and draw blood, scowled at by strangers, poop on the floor in the libarary kind of days....and it is only noon.  This is the point in which someone says "don't worry, it can only get better from here".   Sadly I can't stay and let that someone tell me it is all going to get better, I just saw my children run past the front window naked and covered in mud. 

Train up a child in the way he should go

There are moments when I must question if I have made the correct decision with what I teach my children.  I am a firm believer in teaching my children the correct names for their body parts and being as honest as possible about anatomy and its functions.  This afternoon I had one of those moments that made me question this decision.  On most Sundays we get together with other Christians in a home for some sort of a meeting/fellowship/worship/eating time.  Today, as it is many days, there were about 20-30 of us in a smaller room.  My 2 year old was playing with a horse on the floor in the middle of the room when she sticks her chubby little finger in a hole in the horses behind and yells repeatedly "DON'T DIG IN YOUR VAGINA".  Charming. 

I thought I had a dream, it was actually more of a nightmare

Not my most concise title, it is a work in progress.  Last week I made a decision.  After months of cleaning out all that weighs me down from every closet, cabinet, under every bed, in every nook and every cranny, I decided I would spend 1 week and get my house really clean.  My dream was that one day I would sit down at the end of the day and not have a list of things that were yet to be done.  That the impossible could be; a totally clean house  just for a single day.   Heck I am realistic, even an hour would have been acceptable.  As this week progressed and my list grew longer rather than shorter I wasn't ready to admit defeat.  I thought I only needed to work MORE hours and then the dream would could realized.  Laying here in exhaustion this Friday morning, I wave my white flag of surrender.  Closets I started with have spontaneously rearranged themselves back into their natural state of disarray.  My children have had some sort of war with the tooth paste and it is now covering the bathroom in a pink sparkly film.  Even more disturbing, my husbands dirty clothes appear multiple times a day in their spot on the bedroom floor next to the hamper.  I know "they" say to dream big but I may need to start with a smaller dream.  Maybe an organized shelf somewhere.  Yes, I think I can handle an organized shelf. 

Parenting: A Parents Worst Nightmare

I just finished an article about how miserable parents are.  The article included tips on how to become a happier parent and not hate your life, but also summarized why they believed so many studies show that we are miserable if we have kids.  Apparently, now that people wait until they are a bit older and have experienced all that life has to offer before having kids, they know what they are missing.  I would fall into this category.  I enjoyed my college years and towards the end I fell in love and got married.  At that point I got a career and worked my way up for a few years until I had some responsibility and mostly enjoyed my job.  Then we had kids, left the city and now I am home with them full time. 

I have always felt that having experienced some life has given me an advantage in being able to be content as a parent.  I am very glad I got to experience that young, carefree phase of life to its fullest but that can't last forever.  Young and carefree was often funded through student loans and I assume they would have eventually stopped giving me money.  I am equally thankful I had a "real" job, but I was also there long enough to realize there isn't a lot of purpose in a "real" job.  Doesn't each phase in life have its own challenges and joys?  Yes, multi-tasking now includes me changing a poopy diaper while yelling at my daughter to stop eating the butter but the snuggles more than make up for that.  Where else in life can you learn about love or selflessness in the same way that you can from parenting your child?  I know that doesn't sound like a good thing but I assure you it is.  So I beg to differ with the author of that article, parents aren't such a miserable bunch.  I know many moms and they do talk about the challenges but I don't know any that would trade their misery for their life before kids and that must say something. 

Magic?

While wandering through the grocery store yesterday I found a magic cutting board.  How did I know it possessed special powers?  It said so right on the package and we all know an advertiser would not lie about such a serious matter.  I bought two.  Imagine my surprise when I got it home and realized it did not work as Harry Potter style wand, clean my vast mountain of dishes OR even magically cut up my veggies.  Then I saw it, on the back of the packaging it said Magic non slip grip backing. Someone had too many glasses of wine and played fast and loose with the term "magic".  The days when non skid backing was considered anything but mundane have long since passed.  At least my new mundane magical cutting boards have serene pictures that make me feel as if I am chopping near a vineyard in the countryside. 

Here again...

Here I am, many months after my last entry, back with my tail between my legs. As a belated New Years resolution, I have decided to take up my old blog again. After an hour of trying to remember my password so I could get into it, here I am. When I last wrote I was changing my life via food. God decided that I needed a change in the family size department and 10 months later I now have another beautiful daughter.

Since my food revolution has long since gone by the wayside, I should probably pick a new blog topic. Not sure anyone wants to read a weekly account of which frozen pizzas we tried. Some other options I have considered...

Homeschooling, but the glimpse into my ability (or lack of it) may draw in anti-homeschoolers protesting in my front yard.

My dog Leon and his wild adventures chasing our stray cat, Marlin. This could get a little repetitive. Most of his adventures consist of bolting out the front door, chasing Marlin until he reaches the dumpster at which point Marlin sits on top of the dumpster while Leon jumps up and down barking for various lengths of time.

I could write about my pregnancies, but the post traumatic stress disorder I suffer from prevents me from thinking about them just yet.

Back to the drawing board I guess....