Adventures in Mommyhood

Her side:

When we first moved in to our house we decided it would be wise to turn the door knob on the girl's bedroom around so the lock was on the outside. This was so they wouldn't lock themselves in their room and/or lock us out without knowing how to unlock the door. Since then all 3 of our older children have learned to lock and unlock the doors. We normally keep a key and/or a bobby pin on the inside of the room on the door frame, just in case one of us parents get locked in the room.

Well, such an occurrence happened today. I was trying to get the girl's room cleaned. I wasn't paying much attention to the small beings around me as I was focused and wanted to get the chore done. I went to go get a trash bag from the kitchen and lo and behold...the door was locked. I felt above the door frame...no key...no bobby pin. After I email dear husband to let him know I was about to MacGyver my way out I searched the room for a bobby pin or anything I could use to pick the lock. I pulled out everything from underneath both beds and finally I found a bobby pin. We were free!

But...now the girl's room is still a mess because Gordie ended up in our room where Petey still sleeps...who happened to be sleeping at that moment until Gordie climbed in the bassinet and snuggled with him. So guess who was up and hungry. The 5 of us make it downstairs so I can feed Peter in a confined area but Gordie has learned to move the baby gate.

So, instead of having the girl's room cleaned we got the basement cleaned. Then, as soon as I sit down for a minute, Nella decides to lay on top of Petey, who is doing floor time, and then proceeds to roll him over to his belly. Guess who is crying now because he keeps tooting and doesn't prefer his belly right now.

Andy's interpretation of this situations mentioned above? Oh the Adventures of Mommyhood.

At least he gets it.

I am fearful of what these two will do once Peter is walking. 

The joyous outcome from this morning's events? The 3 older tykes are playing with each other...nicely. 

Can I get a high five? Anyone?

Amie's verse this week in Cubbies:

Psalm 139:14

I will give thanks to You, for I am fearfully and wonderfully made; 

Wonderful are your works,

And my soul knows it very well.

I find it very appropriate for today as my children are wonderful examples of God's wonderful works and we know it very well and are thankful every day! They drive us crazy and we are over do for some time alone but we love our children and so happy God has given us this chance to be parents.

Being 6

Her side:

2 Months of living:

Moments after birth

His siblings are in love

Happy daddy and Petey share a smile

Proud big sister #1

Proud big sister #2

Because its hilarious

 A candid by daddy

Practicing sharing a room

 My boys

Brotherly love

Cousins 6 weeks apart

Wearing a family tradition tie-dye shirt

Doing his normal: sleeping

Visiting mommy's grandma

Life is hilarious

 These 4... makes a mommy's heart full 

Life is busy. Life is tiring. Life is trying. Sometimes there are days where I just can't handle it at all. But these children. They are my life, my heart, and my soul. Thank you, Jesus, for the blessing of these little miracles.

We are officially a family of 6. Next week we will have 4 children 4 and under but right now...we are a family with 4 kids UNDER the age of 4.

Deuteronomy 7:13 “He will love you, bless you, and multiply you. He will also bless the fruit of your womb and the fruit of your ground, your grain and your wine and your oil, the increase of your herds and the young of your flock, in the land that he swore to your fathers to give you.”

True Love

Her Side

John 15:13
Greater love has no one than this, that he lay his life for his friends.

Ephesians 5:25
Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ loved the church and gave himself up for her.

My husband. I cannot fully express how much Andy has done; how much he has loved; how much he has sacrificed for our family and mainly for me. I have lacked as a parent and wife these past 8-8 1/2 months and Andy has stepped up to the plate and filled in as dual roles when I couldn't. He has greatly encompassed the mentioned verses at the top. He has been the example our children need to see. For our girls to know what a true husband and best friend is like; for our son to know how to truly love his future wife.

Andy has put up with my emotional break downs, my lack of energy to do anything around the house most days, my exhaustion and desire to just lay in bed some days/evenings. He has supported me in my lowest moments and been the one person that I needed. And this is only the beginning. As he pointed out recently: we have 32 days until our due date and if this baby and pregnancy follows suit of its siblings, we have less than 32 days to go. More like 29 or less. That's less than a month. And when that day comes Andy will be there, once again, showing his love, devotion, and support as he has done the past 3 times. Holding my hand, crying with me, encouraging me, smiling, pushing me to do what I have to do to birth our child. To see the joy on his face as he sees our child finally coming in this world and holding this precious child for the first time. He is always right there, telling me when he can see the baby's head and this will be the first time he will be able to tell me what gender our child is and that is just as exciting to think about.

I love my husband and praise God every day that He brought us together. I know what true love feels like. I know what being with my soul mate feels like. And it is quite possibly the best thing in the world.

Olive juice, Andy.

The joys and challenges

I was introduced, today, to a blog that has been making its round on social media about having multiple children, more specifically, 4. I was intrigued so I went ahead and read it. Boy, did everything in that blog mirror our life completely.

We always get asked, "Are you done?" "Were these pregnancies planned?" "Did you plan your children to be this close in age?" "How do you do it?" "Kids are so expensive!" "You are brave!" "You know how this happens, right?" "There are ways to stop this." And the surprised looks when they learn of the spacing between our children. We have faith in our mighty, loving God. He has a plan for us. He is in control of our lives. Why should we live any differently? We have been blessed with the opportunity to conceive and have children. God has entrusted us with His precious children. God can stop us from having children just as easily as He can help us have children. He is giving us what we have prayed and desired for before we even got married. How can we possibly be discouraged from that?

Being 35 weeks pregnant with our fourth has had its ups and downs, that's for sure. It has been one roller coaster ride of unbalancing hormones and emotions. Between the stress of daily chasing after our children, taking care of them, and making sure they don't kill themselves or each other and trying to spread myself equally for each of them I was starting to have weekly emotional break downs. I would be crying by Thursday morning at 9:30 when Andy would call me. I wanted the children gone. I didn't want them to touch me or be near me. I dreaded just the thought of taking the children out of the house by myself, whether that included our backyard, the store, or the park down the street. On my way home from work, just the mere thought of walking through the door, I would panic a little, knowing what I was coming home to. I was feeling lonely, abandoned by most of my friends.

But then Andy sat down and talked with me. I told him everything I was feeling and his concerns made him tell me to call my doctor. So I did. And I was put on some medicine to help with the anxiety and depression that I was apparently dealing with. It is still a daily battle but we are making it a little bit better than before.

We are thrilled...THRILLED...to be adding to our family. The joy of our 3 year old tickling Baby Bear and asking, every time I go for a regular check up, if we are going to get Baby Bear to bring home makes me smile every single time. When our 2 year old plays peek-a-boo with Baby Bear, which is really  just her lifting my shirt, exposing my belly, then lowering my shirt, is comical. Watching our 2 year old get her baby, a little baby blanket, diaper bag filled with bottles and other appropriate accessories for a baby, and putting her baby in her little carrier and walking around the house saying "bye-bye" takes away the stress and anxiety just a little bit, because I know she will help out as much as she can. She will love her sibling and make sure the baby is OK.

We have been having a daily dose or two of Frozen in this house. All the children have learned the words and/or tune to all the songs. Our precious 3 year old will run around the basement singing and doing the exact motions to the Let It Go scene. Our 1 year old son will try to sing along to Love Is An Open Door, the only word understood being Door. Our 2 year old will at least get the tune down to all the songs since she has a lack of vocabulary right now. That is precious to my eyes and ears. Seeing them all get into the songs and movie.

So, in short, there are challenges of having more than one child, especially in 3 1/2 years. But the joys out weight the challenges. It doesn't always seem like it at the time but when you sit and think about all the times you have heard your children laugh; seen your children play together; heard them sing Jesus Loves Me to themselves and to their siblings...life is good. Life is GREAT.

We are forever thankful.

Embracing the moments

Her side:

Waking up to the feeling of a child crawling in bed with me and then snuggling close to me as she can and holding my hand while dozing in and out of sleep. My husband coming in to say good bye and staying an extra few minutes because our daughter rolls over and hugs on to him, not even attempting to let go while still dozing in and out of sleep.

These moments are the precious ones that remind us of why God sent us these children and why it is so important to cherish them.

His side.
Mother's Day weekend.

I was telling Andrea that I was thinking of tell-tell signs that your mom were if you read a news article and you are jealous when you hear someone is in a coma and if you are watching Snow White and you think the Queen is so nice for letting Snow White take a nap and believe the villain is the guy who wakes her up so that she can continue helping take care of the 7 little people.  We had a nice full Mother's Day weekend, but today I am feeling the affects and am overly exhausted.  I can't tell if I am sick or just a worn out dad.  Either way I know I can't feel more exhausted than Andrea who had to do just as much as me this weekend but while taking blows to her inside by a restless person that is quickly outgrowing the limited space her body provides for them.

FRIDAY NIGHT...

 Andrea was suppose to have a relaxing night out with other moms from her social circle.  The plan seemed simple enough.  I would go to the store and get food for dinner for the three children and myself, then I would come home and Andrea would go out.  Simple right?  Except that I forgot to go to the store on the way home, not a big deal, I thought, I would come home and take at least one child out with me to the store, it would at least make it an even easier night while Andrea would have one less child to worry about while I shopped.  The problem was that while I was on my way home Nella was doing her normal routine of trying to make it impossible for Andrea to leave us alone flawlessly.  She had been throwing up continually for the previous hour.  Andrea had originally passed it off as maybe too full of a stomach from a large lunch. When I get home I decide I can take Amie or Gordie shopping while Nella is resting in bed.  Except Amie doesn't want to go to the store, she does want me to play with her though so while I play with her for a couple of minutes and get my hugs from Gordie Nella comes from her room and within a minute has thrown up right next to Amie and I.  I jump to my feet to get her to the restroom while now Amie is complaining of getting thrown up on and hearing Andrea yelling at Gordie to stop playing in the throw up.   I get Nella set up at the toilet and direct her on how to throw up in there as I prepare to clean up the trail from the original spot of discharge to the restroom.  Andrea is getting a large towel to clean up the original spot after locking Gordie safely in his room.  At this time Amie is still complaining that she has it on her, turns out it was just some splash back that got on her foot so I cleaned it up and went back to Nella who was stating she was done.

So at this point I get Nella in a bath while I finish cleaning up and getting things to the laundry room.  Andrea is adding her stuff to the laundry from Nella's earlier discharges.  I put Gordie down stairs where he has more access to toys and when Andrea is done in the laundry room she relaxes with Gordie while I finish cleaning Nella while trying to entertain all of Amie's questions including what is for "lunch" (she still thinks every meal is lunch).  I explain to her that I am busy and I can't make dinner because I am busy cleaning Nella, but that even if I wasn't I would have to go buy food, and I can't do that until I am done cleaning Nella and she is slowing me down by asking so many questions and expecting me to help her play with her toys.  "A good daddy would make dinner" she says.  "Well" I reply " I guess I am not a good daddy".  "Yes you are a good daddy, don't talk like that to me" she responds.  This puts a smile on my face and makes me laugh a little.  I get Nella in her room and down with a smart phone to help keep her calm as she relaxes and I talk through coming up with a new plan for the evening with Andrea.

At this point Andrea and I decide that I will take Amie shopping since Nella is calm in bed and Gordie is doing well downstairs with her.  Yet Amie still doesn't want to go, she is doing well playing with her toys though so Andrea and I agree I will just take Gordie.  Goride and I go shopping and I come home with some food.  At this point it is close TO 6:30, the same time Andrea was suppose to meet with her friends.  Except Nella is still having issues that need to be dealt with,  I help Nella while Andrea takes over the dinner prep which is just microwaved veggies and chicken nuggets to keep it simple.  Gordie and Amie do their part to eat the food while Nella rests on me while also stating she wants to eat, but Andrea and I know better than to risk it.  After dinner I take the three down stairs while Andrea still plans on leaving and tries to make that possible.  7 pm comes and Andrea is finally ready to leave.  Within the next hour I have to get Nella to the restroom 2 more times, but after she finally goes down at 8:00 pm she is able to keep it down.  With Gordie and Nella asleep I start to prepare a dinner for myself with Amie is waiting for me downstairs to finish the movie we had started.

This was the start of the weekend and after that I did relax waiting for Andrea to come home and we don't get to bed til after midnight, which I can tell you is very rare and we typically know better than to allow ourselves to stay up that late since we know that our children will have plans for us early the next morning.

...NEXT MORNING

Saturday morning starts at 6:30, or at least that would be the girls' plan.  They attempt to wake Andrea and I up but we both pretend we don't hear them until we finally cave to them and get up with them.  So our day has a nice firm start of 7 am.  It is a nice day so we do breakfast outside, by 'we' I mean Andrea and I act as a full waiting staff for the three children, Andrea and I don't eat at this time.  Andrea's time comes prior to work that she leaves for at 11 am.  My time won't come until 1 pm, after going to a garage sale, scraped knees being bandaged, teaching Amie how to ride her bike and scooters, inflating a swimming pool, and a trip to the library.  Now the kids are down to nap so I eat the leftover food from the children so it doesn't go to waste.  Now I finish inflating the pool then it is time to mow the lawn because I know I won't get any other time.  I feel lucky that I get that done while the kids are napping with time to spare to take a shower while the pool fills with water.

The kids are awake as evidenced by an open door that I notice on the back of the house when I come back from filling the pool, so I go to the girls room first and sure enough they are in there playing.  So I get them all up and we play in the pool while I keep track of the time because I know that when Andrea gets off work we have a children's birthday party to go to.  I get them inside, dressed and hair done on all of them.  Now we relax as I read a magazine that came in the mail and wait for Andrea to come home.  We go to the children's party and this pretty much finishes off our Saturday.  As the rest of the night is pretty uneventful because when we get home it is obvious the kids are ready for their beds.

...MOTHER'S DAY!

It is Sunday so it isn't that different in the morning as we get ready for Church, with a slight interruption of the children giving mom their mother's day cards that we obtained from the library for each child to fill out.  The plan for the day is to go to Six Flags where we will meet my mom and my aunt.  Andrea has expressed concerns about going due to a lower back pain that has been afflicting me the night before and her being pregnant with a new rash on her face that she thinks could be inflamed by heat.  I tell her she can spend Mother's Day alone if she would like, and she does like the idea but isn't sure yet.  So we go to Church and table that conversation.  After Church she decides to go through with going to Six Flags.  We get the kids home and feed them and prepare a bag for Six Flags.  The hope is that the kids can get enough of a nap to make them rested enough for the park.  This idea only is 2/3rd successful as Gordie never sleeps on the way.  The trip goes about as well as it can when the trip consists of a 3 yr old, 2 yr old, and a 1 yr old that never napped along with a pregnant woman with 8 weeks left on her 9 month sentencing.  I think of the trip as uneventful, but I am sure anyone else seeing it for the first time would not see the juggling and perfect timing needed to make this type of trip a success as uneventful.  Afterwards we go to get dinner and then home where the kids go straight to bed while Andrea and I retire to the couch to wind down with a movie.

...Monday

I am back to work and Andrea is back to her week, but no week is without an event, as this morning proved for Andrea, she has another child sick.  This time it is Gordie is wakes up in a puddle of throw up that Andrea has to clean and she makes a doctor appointment for what she believes could be shingles on her face.  The weeks plans include Andrea working tonight while I care for the children, ballet/tap dance class Tuesday, Church on Wednesday, Circus show at the library on Thursday... and as of now a free night of Friday.  Though a free night doesn't mean an easy night.

So the question is where does a person get one of those apples that put you in a magical coma and how do I make sure the little people and the other's let Andrea and I enjoy it?

Joy

Psalm 47:1
"Clap your hands, all you nations; shout to God with cries of joy."

Her side:

Joy. There is no better way to describe the feelings I get when I see my children, hear them giggling, hear 'I love you's' and seeing their smiles.
There is no better way to describe the feelings I get when I hear from the back of the car, "Mom! We're holding hands!" that is followed by giggles of joy.

Just this morning, as I sit and finish my breakfast with my son, the girls are running up and down the hallway giggling and Amie yells at me while she runs, "Mom! We're playing tag!"

One of the major pro's of having our oldest be only 3 1/2? They play together. They are usually on the same page and like the same things. It makes it easy, most days. Hearing our children (and yes, sometimes all 3 at the same time) play together, giggling together, having fun together, is the best thing I can hear during the day.

This morning our day started off before 6 am, though I didn't get out of bed until after, with the girls crawling in bed with me. Waking up with a head ache and major body aches I was sure it was going to be a long, hard, stressful day, but after breakfast I heard the sweet sound of our girl's giggling and playing together. I saw our kid's sweet smiles and knew, just knew, that God had shook his head at me with a small smile like a parent would and probably thinking (though lets be real, we never really know what God is thinking) "If you just trust Me, you will see things are GOOD." It is just amazing how fast a day can turn with the simplest things

So Joy. Joy is what I feel today. Joy is what I need to keep reminding myself as today goes on that it is good. Joy is what I see in our children. And although I may complain and grumble and desire time to myself without being touched, climbed on, kicked, yelled at, etc, I know we/I am blessed. Blessed beyond words.

We are so joyfully blessed.

Every day maddness

Her side:

Mondays always seem a bit more stressful than the rest of the week. Mainly because I have such a short time to do everything since work calls for me to be there at 3:30. But that transition starts early because I have to get the kids up and in the car in enough time to drop off at Grandma and Grandpa's house. It may be a bit chaotic and stressful.

But Mondays are stressful, also, because of the weekend. We get so busy and usually I work 6 hours on Saturday. But since this was Easter weekend I didn't have to work and things still got piled up and busy! So, today I have washed and folded about 3 loads of laundry with some in the wash that will hopefully get switched out before the mildew sits in, which, admittedly, is normal around here. I got one load of dishes cleaned in the dishwasher with the last of my dishwasher soap. That was a HUGE blessing because I thought I was all out. But there are still dishes in the sink just staring at me. The kitchen floor got swept about 3 times just this morning and I am not suppose to be doing any squatting or bending over since I am pregnant. Ha.

I have to take more breaks and rests during my normal, every day chore routine due because of A) Baby Bear and the pregnancy issues (nothing to be really be concerned about) that I am having. All the squatting, bending over, lifting, and just moving has made my body want to begin getting ready for labor. B) The other 3 rascals running around. Amie usually does OK but she has her moments of needing attention. Penelope constantly opening the back door, opening the bathroom door and flooding our bathroom, whining (which has, unfortunately, become quite normal for her) and instigating trouble for her other siblings. Gordie constantly CLIMBING on things. Furniture, his train table, it doesn't matter what it is. He climbs. If Penelope is in the bathroom he is usually right behind her. Playing in the toilet, dumping all the bath toys, unrolling the toilet paper. C) EXHAUSTION. This mainly goes hand in hand with the first two points but I made it separate because this exhaustion has become sort of a problem. It causes blurry vision, lightheaded, headaches, body aches, etc. I clean one area and BOOM! another area is a disaster whether I just cleaned it or not.

With this daily issue and concern I have started to desperately get my children to help out. I give them one task to do. One thing to pick up and clean. Boy is that just the worst kind of torture for them! I  mean, seriously, its the easiest stuff they could do like recently, I wanted the girls' room cleaned up. I gave the simple task of putting books away to Amie and putting shoes away to Penelope. I know they can do it, I have seen it. But the complaining, refusing and saying "No" and "I can't" made the task last a lot longer than was necessary. It was, honestly, ridiculous.

And, folks, this is E.V.E.R.Y.D.A.Y. for me. Mondays are shorter because of routine shift and work, but Tuesday, Thursday, and Friday (Wednesdays are FULL days for us) its cleaning up one mess and having another one made to clean up. Its fighting with my children to help out. Its putting the gate up downstairs so I can do the dishes without Gordie climbing in the dishwasher. Its putting the gate up in the hallway and locking our bedroom door so I can take a shower and not worry about them doing something they aren't. Its constantly disciplining during nap time to get the girls to sleep. Its picking up food thrown on the floor by Gordie who is just too tired to eat.

This mommy needs a day of rest and then a day of NO children to get some of this chaos organized/cleaned.

I know one day we will have a clean house, maybe not fully organized, because, well, being honest with myself and my husband, we are not very organized people around here. But it will happen and while we wait for that to happen I have to constantly remind myself and recite this wonderful verse found in Colossians:

Colossians 3:17
Whatever you do in word or deed, do all in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks through Him to God the Father.

His Side:
24, 15, 13, 18... These numbers don't have an exact rythem to them but each number signifies amount of months before a baby came into our life.  The first was born September 12, 2010, 8 days prior to our two year wedding anniversary (24 months after marriage).  Six months later we found out we were going to have a second child.  So 15 months to the day after our first one the second was born on December 12, 2011.  Then came another 4 months later when we found another was on the way, this was confusing as we didn't expect it at all.  So 13 months and a day later on January 13, 2013, the third was born.  Now here we are with a fourth on the way expected 18 months after the previous child, due July 8th, 2014.  This will mean between when this child is born and the oldest's fourth birthday we will have 4 children all under the age of 4.  After waiting 15 months to get pregnant we never thought we would find ourself in this position by our 6th wedding anniversary.

When Andrea wasn't getting pregnant month after month when we got married we had started wondering what was it that would make someone wait to purposely get pregnant.  To us it seemed obvious that God had a plan if he wasn't wanting us to get pregnant than we wouldn't become pregnant.  It wasn't up to us.  We accepted that, because we accepted that in that first 15 months the logic has stayed with us.  We know that God has a plan for us and the size of our family and because of this we have accepted his graciousness to give us a larger than average family in a very quick time span.

Just because we have accepted it doesn't mean it hasn't come without challenges.  Constantly having two children in diapers for the last 2 years 4 months and 14 days (but whose counting) is just one of the challenges.  Oh sure if you have doubles you will have two children in diapers, but there is an end in sight.  For us we still expect at least another year of dealing with multiple children with diaper needs day in and day out.  Also the more children we have the less people are willing to babysit.  Oh sure they didn't mind when we had one, or maybe even two, but you add a third toddler to the mix the amount of people willing limits itself to grandparents.

Of course there are benefits too.  Ever see those places that say Children 3 and under free?  You know who really benefits from that?  A family with four children that meet that criteria.  How about a dinner plus dessert for five people for $10?  That is what you get when you go to the all-you-can-eat pizza buffet, Pizza Street, where 3 and under eat free.  Or how about nap time.  3 year olds need naps just like the infant.  You plan those naps at the same time and you get at least an hour of freedom.  Once at least one child isn't needing a nap you don't even have hope of that.  Or how about playmates.  When the age seperation of a child is less than 2 years they can adapt to each other's play habbits and still manage to be interested in the same things.

So there are definately pros and cons to this, but for us the biggest pro is knowing we are living in God's will.  It can be stressful at times, but knowing that God has intrusted us with his creations to take care of is an honor.

The sweet innocence and honesty of a child.

1 Samuel 1:27-28

For this child I prayed, and the Lord has granted me my petition that I made to him.  Therefore I have lent him to the Lord.  As long as he lives, he is lent to the Lord.  And he worshiped the Lord there.

Her side:

We are 27 weeks into our 4th pregnancy. The anticipation of this little one is increasing with each day. Every move (or lack there of sometimes), every ache, every pain is the amazing reminder that God is indeed answering our desires and prayers of having a big family. 

Baby Bear has hit a few rather large growth spurts the last couple months or so and my belly has grown to a very recognizable "there's a baby in there, we hope" state. And mine and my husband's precious 3.5 yr old daughter (our oldest) is so kind to remind me of the size of my belly. One conversation she and I had recently when I came out of mine and my husband's room:

Amie: Mom! You look really, really pretty!
Me: Thank you.
Amie: Your shirt is really pretty. (Proceeds to touch my belly) But you need to take it off. It makes your belly look really big. You need to take it off so your belly won't look so big.
Me: Well, there really isn't anything I can do about my big belly.
Amie: Why?
Me: Because I have a baby in there. I can't just make my belly small.
Amie: Oh. OK!

Oh such sweet innocence...and honesty. Some of the silliest conversations with Amie recently has all been, one way or another, about Baby. She will say her belly is big because she has a baby in it. She has to sleep with a 3rd pillow, like mommy, because she has a baby in her belly. Her anticipation of when Baby will arrive is such sweetness I cannot always explain it. But I love her and I love her curiosity and honesty. 

One of "those" days.

Her side of it:
Last Thursday had been one of "those" days. One of those days where, while the girls were in their room being 'grounded' and our son was doing his own thing, I sat on the couch and cried. Cried over the failures I felt had happened today. The failure I felt towards my children in regards to their actions and attitudes today. The failure I felt as a mom and a wife. Here is an over view of our day:

My day started at 4:45 am. Being 25 weeks pregnant with baby bear #4 I have been feeling every ache and pain, it seems, 100 times more. It seems my back is in a constant state of reminding me there is a quickly growing mass throwing me off balance. My body seems to cramp up more and more frequently.

The girls were up before 6:30 am and while that isn't always unusual you could most definitely tell they were still tired. After our oldest, who is barely 3 1/2 years old, declared her presence to her daddy, who was in the bathroom getting ready for work, I jumped off the couch and escorted her back to her room, where her 2 year old sister was just walking through the threshold of their door. I convinced them to lay in bed for a while longer. They were officially up and at 'em when daddy went to say good bye to them and carried them to the couch to snuggle under a blanket and play on the mini 'tablet' (my old android phone) together.

Dear 3 1/2 year old daughter, who is fully potty trained, acted like she wasn't. She had 3 accidents today. 3 accidents that were easy to quickly clean (we are REALLY loving our hardwood and linoleum floors). 3 accidents that could have been controlled but she didn't put forth the effort to do so.

Let us move on to nap time. Our girls share a room. It has its good days and bad days. Today was a bad day. After about 20 minutes of constantly going in to their room and taking away a toy each time and raising my voice, quite a bit, I finally left their door wide open and settled in a kitchen chair right in the middle of their threshold. I sat there for close to half an hour. I sat there staring down our 2 year old until she caved in and curled up falling quickly asleep. I sat there staring down our 3 1/2 year old until she started caving in. I left their room with her still awake but she was quickly asleep after that. I had barely finished swallowing the last of my lunch when I hear our 2 year old SCREAMING in their room. I mean, this was barely 45 minutes after she had fallen asleep, which means 3 1/2 year old was barely asleep. I go to open their door and knock her in the head because, apparently, she was standing right there. All 3 kids woke up. (Our 1 year old son has his own room but is right next door.) Our son quickly fell back asleep but the girls were up.

Dinner time. Oh that lovely time. The time where we sit down as a family, give thanks to our Lord for our many blessings and just be together. But tonight. Tonight it was the time to sit there and complain about the food mommy made and just flat out refuse to eat it. Tonight was the time for our girls to sit at the table for over an hour, by themselves, until they ate their dinner.

After they choked down their dinner and daddy was gone to his play rehearsal (very proud wife right here, by the way), the girls were sent straight to their room until I declared it was bed time. Bed time came and they actually cleaned their room, with no help from me. I was astonished and relieved. I honestly did not know how that one would play out but they were amazing listeners and even more amazing little workers. I was able to tuck our son in his crib while they put their books and toys away. They smiled and worked together. It warmed my heart quite a lot.

I did my rounds of tucking in. Our 2 year old was first. I sat on her bed, asked her if she was ready to say her bed time prayers, and in her cute little 2 year old voice she happily declared, "Yeah!" She held my hand, closed her eyes, and listened to my prayer of thankfulness for the day and the fun we did manage to have and that tomorrow will be a bit smoother. After 2 rounds of hugs and kisses from her I ventured over to sister who was all ready saying she wanted to say her own prayer. With a big smile on my face I said, "OK." I sat down on her pink princess bed, watched her fold her hands and close her eyes and listened to her sweet, innocent voice say her thanks for her food, her thanks for the day, and her thanks for her helping clean her room and toys for mommy. The tears were hard to control with that one.

While this day was, well, quite the handful of negative actions and thoughts it was also filled with laughter, our 3 1/2 year old declaring she is going to marry her daddy, snuggles on the couch, and reading books. Our son is constantly giving away his smiles and giggles. Our 2 year old is constantly showing us her talent of break dancing, and our 3 1/2 year old is constantly showing us her humor and love of ballet and drawing.

And while days like this day are, believe it or not, very few, we are blessed. Our children are a blessing. Our children are best friends with each other. Our children are on loan to us from God and it is the greatest gift received.