HONEST MOTHER, FOLKS!

"IF you want TV and Lunch, you gotta clean it up, ya gotta clean it up, ya gotta clean it up!"-said in my High School Musical singing voice

I posted in a FB mommies group this morning about my "Honest Mommy Moment," about how the struggle is real. I feel, for the sake of portraying something that seems "oh too good to be true," or the "the perfect life," I shall post my 'post' here as well:

.....

HONEST Mommy Moment: I am TRYING to be a "good" Mommy today to the 5, so I gathered them all (struggled) this beautiful morning, family meeting style, went over the family rules like 10x in my loudest voice b/c they were SO loud (struggled) then we gathered our hands to pray (stuggled) b4 our day, and it went like this:
"I am trying to FREAKING PRAY HERE!..... JESUS we need you!!!" yada yada yada.... 

Yup, i did have to laugh at myself after that. oops.

.....

YES, I yelled "FREAKING" at the top of my lungs, in my childrens presence, as we sat (hand in hand) on the carpet in a circle. Even Gideon looked at me like, "This lady is gonna loose her cookies... and if she does, i'll eat 'em!" And the loudness in my voice did not quit while my eyes were (semi) closed as I shouted out to Jesus that "WE NEED HIM or ELSE!!!" It wasn't my best prayer, but boy oh boy it was honest, short, and raw baby. RAW. Prayer over, went through the house rules AGAIN, then we went on our way. I have been trying to do a daily schedule, but we just got back from vacation camping, and we have 12 people coming over tonight for a meeting, and my house is a semi mess, sooo I threw the schedule out today and HOPED against all hope that MAYBE they would play nice so I could clean and get ready. Well, guesssss wha??, It was a struggle. For about an hour straight someone was crying. I think maybe I circled my house like 100x... So I went into my "coping zone" and baked a butt load of bread. Not just any bread, FANCY bread. Oozing with chocolate and butter and butter and oh buttttttteeeerrrrrr. And guess what? They played NICE, and TOGETHER for like an HOUR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! FOLKS, an hour. That is gold. 

So please, never think someones life if better, or more perfect, or never without "freaking moments," cuz we allllllllllll are in a fallen world where we allllllllll sin. ((thats why we need Jesus))

So in Elsa's famous words, "Let it go." Let the image of perfection that you are striving for, GO, out the door! And bake some bread, or if you cant bake bread, just go eat some butter... or chocolate... or buttered chocolate.

-Signed HONEST MOTHER, FOLKS!

Day 9

Day 9 of summer vacation, and we have already gone away from home for a week, and back once more. Its amazing how coming home after being away has you seeing things in a whole new perspective. You experience the true fragrance of your home when you've been away. Your nose is no longer "nose blind" to those smells you grow sooo custom to day in and day out. (This is either a good thing, orrr a bad thing) Today we enjoyed our outdoors, aka our backyard. Weeded the thousands of weeds that took over the gardens, mowed some grass, fed the animals, and ate some of our bounty, ie. blackberries and early blueberries. I tried to be artsy fartsy today and take pictures of Gideon and our Bean Tee-pee, gaining only about 1 good picture. All in all it was a good day. 

OH, and we started out our day with a breakfast dance party... I should have known then, it would be a good one.

Band-aid count- 3 (Levi was applying them to a mysterious booboos)

Weird comments today:

"Fly's are useless."-Miles

"No they're not, they eat poop and dead things."-Me grilling chicken on the grill

"Are we eating dead things??"-Miles

"Errr...uh, yes, I suppose we are..."-Me now slightly grossed out being compared to a poop eating fly

 

Day...?

It seems rather "typical" that a 'day-by-day' blog of our summer would fly off the rails on day 3... but what do you expect with a family full of life, boys, messes, and the occasional sickness that throws it all off. I was the culprit this time, with a possible Recluse Spider Bite festering on my arm, which was prescribed an antibiotic which we came to find out 5 days in, i was ALLERGIC to... and then on top of the allergic reaction which covered my entire body in a rash and fever, I also had a virus and Streph (not stAph, strEph... weird) in my arm, from the evil bug bite. I was down for the count, OH yeah all while trying to pack for a week of camping. Ya know camping, moving everythingggg from one location to another dirty, smaller uncomfortable location, so that in the end you can WASH everything because EVERYTHING you brought is now filthy and damp, and stinky. Yup, camping. The boys had a great time and we did have fun. No internet connection, no TV, no electronic games or distractions, just pure "use your brain moments." But of course all that was mushed the moment we entered the door back at home, and I had to start on the MOUNTAINS of laundry, and 'click' on went the tv, lol.... we did run around and look at our crazy gardens and Bean Tee-pee and blueberries turning blue. Its amazing the amount a garden grows when you are there watching it -nothing or slowest growth possible, but the moment you leave, BAM, a thousands weeds grow in a week, and a once tiny bean plant is now reaching the clouds. A watched pot truly does not boil.
SO, Camping. We hiked, boated, made fires to cook our food over, inhaled marshmallows, had a dance party when a thunderstorm blew out the lights, spent a day swimming in a hugely awesome pool, burnt every part of exposed skin, dug for worms, had baths in a baby pool on the cabin porch (children NOT adults) fished, learned about bats, played on playgrounds, dug holes in the ground, played Frisbee, rode our bikes, tried to fly a kite, ate LOTS of GMO... 'oi.... 4 out of 8 of us were on Antibiotics, one trip to Urgent Care and made it home a day early due to rain. It was the kind of vacation where you wonder if it was worth allllll the effort to do it again. Like, will it be like child birth, and a year from now we will think it will be fun to do again.... we are GLAD to be home. :)

          DAY ONE

          The day started out successful. I called a "family meeting" at the breakfast table and we went over what our days of summer will generally look like. For example, wake up crazy early, (not my idea) eat breakfast while attempting Bible Devotions, brush our teeth get dressed, feed chickens, pond fish and rabbits, and DON'T exhibit characteristics of "Rude Rodney."(I'll tell you more about him another time) Next up we adventured to the garage and "looked" for last years Slip and Slide, BUT since the garage is rather, ummmm, "clean," we were unsuccessful. SO, ME, being already encouraged from the positive beginnings of the day decided: "LETS GO TO TARGET and get a NEW Slipperoo!" Now, this does not happen, much.... ever. Me leaving the house with 5 boys is rather a very scary, vulnerable bold move. But I was crazy, and loaded them up. All of them. We arrived and the LORD had favor on me and right next to the van was the MEGA cart. The huge Mother Craft designed for crazy families like ours where strapping drown every possible child is a MUST. The one that says, "SO, you wanna carry more than your children in this cart and not drown them in products?Eh?? Pick me baby, we will be good together." How could I resist his huge basket, and 3 red seats WITH strong, black, child restraints. Clips and all. He had me at 'buckle.' Little did I know the man power it took to steer the thing, but HEY, we made it to the Slip and Slide isle while taking route through the store avoiding every possible place a toy might exist. AND, this might have been the ONLY time in The History of Christina, that I left Target with ONE, count it 1, item to purchase. ((so proud)) Got home (with a quick "Mommy is JUST getting coffee" McDonald's drive through moment) and set it up.
Rubber and water were destined to be together. End of Story. It was a blast.

Band-aid Count: 2 ((but Hey, its only 3:14...))

Random quotes of the day:

"Twinkle. Twinkle Taylor. Now that's a good name. If I have a girl one day this will be her name. It makes sense, ya know?"-Miles

"Do NOT lick yourself while I am talking to you!!"-MomBossMe

Here's the plan... 5 boys, ages 9 and under, and me, alllll summmmmer dayssss long. Now, i know i can not let their sweet little brains rot away in front of the tv... which .... they would LOVE, but we.. I, need to be brave and leave the comfort of my home. With 5 boys. Fiveeeeeee boys. On my own while Daddy is at work. So I will be documenting our days of summer action. Starting tomorrow on Day 1 of break.
WE CAN DO THIS.... Pictures will uploaded daily to show that brains we not melted away with the Boob Tube. We will have grass stains. We will use 100+ Band-aids a Day. We will get really, realllllllly dirty.
I guarantee the house will be a mess, and the laundry not caught up. Its gonna be epic.