Status Updates

Borrowing from my brilliant friend Nicole, this week I will be recording life by way of my Facebook updates.

Tuesday: "Overheard from the kitchen, "Eva will you help me build a fort? OK, good. Then Mommy won't be able to find me to spank me." "

True story, I do spank the little rascals. And lately we've been trying to graciously and lovingly reinforce obedience a little more firmly around here. The reinforcements come largely in the form of spankings. And they know when they've got it coming to them, though obviously they can run, but they can't hide ;).

Sunday: "Just took Hope to the bathroom at 11:00 at night. Deliriously she asked for, "Privacy, please." Then decisively she announced, "This drives me crazy!" Then in a slightly maniacal voice, "I'm driving crazy!" Then she was asleep in bed again. Whew"

Hope continues her maddening habit of getting up twice a night to go to the bathroom, with help. Of course, Eva's habit of wetting the bed twice a night is even more maddening, so... we take what we can get. Hope is very sweet and usually not delirious when we take her. Next week, Eric has allotted four days to finish remodeling our upstairs bathroom, so perhaps next week Hope will no longer need assistance to find the toilet in the middle of the night!

Thursday: "7 little girls playing, two dressers painted, 24 "all natural" chicken nuggets, 2 poopy diapers, tasty beet salad, and sunshine. Ordinary, but still interesting, afternoon around our house."

I run a very unofficial daycare here. Apparently my spiritual gift for serving the church is watching kiddos, because I do a lot of it! I enjoy it (don't stop bringing your kids over!), and by default there is no shortage of playmates for Hope while Eva is away at school. Officially, I have also started watching two little girls for 10 or so hours per week, for actual income. At our peak last week, there were 9 little girls and 2 boys playing in our yard, with the addition of the neighbor kids. Busy, anyone???

The beets are starting to run dry, though we're still consuming them occasionally. All natural chicken nuggets do, in fact, have only five ingredients that are all recognizeable. While they aren't quite real food, they aren't the worst alternative :).

The dressers and the sunshine went hand in hand. The following day, the temperatures dipped low and we got our first snow. I was so thankful to finish up the last of the summer/fall bedroom redecorate project before we were trapped inside. I was also relieved to be able to accomplish a painting project with a gazillion little people underfoot! My ability to multi-task, the level of everyday chaos, and the number of children at our house seem to be multiplying equally and exponentially these days!

OK, reading through this I'm deciding that Nicole's Facebook posts are much more interesting than mine. And her commentary is superbly more interesting. So, I'm quitting now. But at least I've journaled and remembered, right?!?