Manic Monday and What I Wore Sunday

I intended to write an "Answer Me This" and "What I Wore Sunday" post, but I never quite got around to it yesterday. And the postpartum mass clothing thing, really postpartum clothing in general, has not been fun. I managed to get a few selfies that didn't make me look like I just gave birth yesterday! Maybe I'll go ahead and link to WIWS after all. 

Old Navy peasant blouse and maternity maxi skirt. Dirty mirror and wet spot on skirt thanks to kids. Purple toe polish that you can't quite see in this pic, thanks to my first OPI purchase for Ellie's pajama party. Tommy tried to wipe it off, crying that he didn't like my toenails purple!

Some newish jewelry from Kohls

The cutest accessory around! Katie Grace, 10 weeks old. 

Precious girl 

Some Monday snapshots...

The girls made a doll video outside and let the boys watch only from a distance. 

Somebody wasn't thrilled to wake from her afternoon nap and get out of her PJs, but it was 3pm!

And this pic below was taken during the 10 seconds the baby wasn't crying this afternoon/evening. Mary Clare was ready for Spelling, and Tommy looks like he's making some kind of mischief there on the table. There's always a kid on the table in this house. Often two. The bigger one in this pic has a scratch on his face from falling on a Transformer toy when he was trying to climb onto my lap while I was nursing the baby in the rocker.  If they're not on a table, they're climbing on me.  I'm not only a milking cow, but a jungle gym too!

Some highlights on this Cinco de Mayo Monday...

~Woke at 7:30am to a child wetting the bed.  Thankfully, not my bed.  We've had some major potty training regressions in the past months. We're working on it. And I'm also getting increasingly motivated to help my one child with a finger sucking habit. And trying to keep the three year old clothed when he walks outside or people come to the door. Lots of things to work at besides reading, writing, and arithmetic!

~At least the baby only poops once a week. She gets fussy and gassy, but I was realizing today how nice it is to not have to change dirty diapers all day long, especially when we're out of the house. And we go through far less diapers! Okay, sorry...enough bathroom talk. 

~I woke up and made pancakes from scratch. On Monday morning. Major accomplishment.  And then made smoothies later on.  I also read the daily readings before getting out of bed (St Stephen in the 1st reading today!), and the kids and I prayed the morning offering and Regina Caeli! I'm also hoping to make it to Thursday morning (when we leave town) without a grocery trip. We will see how I do. 

~I survived the morning book fight. I've been good about reading to the kids in the mornings. We usually read some bible stories and fairy tales, but they've started fighting over what stories I read. Maybe I need to stop letting them choose. The other day there was book throwing, wrestling, biting, and time-outs over whose book got read. At least they're fighting over books, right?

~We did our science readings about insects and bugs today. After reading about stinkbugs and mosquitos, Mary Clare remarked, "Isn't this supposed to make you more interested in insects? It does just the opposite!" Too many paragraphs about insects regurgitating onto human food, or eating animal feces.  They haven't wanted to do many of the experiments that require finding dead insects. They tried one where you attempted to drown a bug and then watch it come alive again. Not sure how I felt about that, Apologia Science. Today's experiment tried to get a needle to sit on the surface of water in a bowl to replicate some kind of water walking insect. Didn't work, needle kept sinking. Sometimes I think reading ABOUT the experiments is better than actually doing them since they often fail to work!

~The girls only have about 2-3 weeks left of their math books, which is usually the determining factor of when we end the school year. They will have some other workbooks that haven't been finished, but we may actually end most of our work by Memorial Day weekend, when some friends are coming to visit! With Billy their puppy; the kids are thrilled!

~I'm having some annoying problems with a tooth crown I got a year ago. It's not fun to be eating and have your tooth fall out. I've lost trust in my dentist here, so I'm going to see our friend back home this week. Yep, another road trip (#3) with five kids! We were already planning to go for the birthday of a family friend, and we'll also get to celebrate Mother's Day there and maybe get to go to the boys and girls clubs with their homeschool friends. Not looking forward to packing. But definitely looking forward to seeing our people. 

~It's the final two weeks of Spring activities! Ballet, piano, and t-ball all end with recitals and parties in less than two weeks. Then we will probably just be a swim team family this summer. The girls want to take ballet, but I'm less than thrilled about the schedule and cost. I feel like a sheltering mama bear, but I just don't like the idea of dropping my daughter off for several hours including lunch with people I'm not familiar with.  Especially middle school girls.  Hopefully we can plan some other fun activities this summer, and playdates with their two ballet friends, so they don't miss the classes too much.

~I had to laugh at a text I got today. I'm sure my friend won't mind if I share:

"Blair my kids just killed our pet duck! Sorry I can't pick up the phone."

This is not a farm-living friend either, so I am interested in hearing the story of their backyard duck! May he rest in peace.  It's hard because I can't really talk on the phone to most of my friends but maybe once a month now. And my daily-talking friend, only about once a week. Our kids are multiplying and they're running around naked, throwing poop, killing ducks, pestering siblings, cutting their feet open while playing outside barefoot. It's like a time bomb. How long can I talk to my friend before someone starts hysterically crying? Or vomiting? That happened about a week ago when I was talking on the phone. Someone threw up all over my bedroom!

And we're back to potty talk again, so that's my cue to end this rambling post now and attempt to go to sleep. Or shop on Amazon. One of those things. 

 

Linking to What I Wore Sunday at Fine Linen and Purple!