motherhood

Today was one of those days... 

Sometime you just have to sit back and laugh.  Things are not really that bad even though you feel like you are at the center of the storm.  Let me explain:

This morning I got up after a restless night due to events out of my control and a son that refused to be still.  He awoke at about 4 in the morning and began singing and talking with himself. No matter how many times I told him that he needed to be quiet, he just couldn't do it.  *Note to self: Put Nathaniel in bed with one of his sisters so he can bother them and not me.  The morning was of course disorganized and hectic.  I had phone calls to make, breakfast to get ready, kids to get dressed and lunches to get made.  While it might seem that this is like any other mother's morning, I have yet to mention the part about how I had a doctor's appointment today.  The kind where they order blood work so you have to fast.  This means no breakfast for me and more importantly, NO coffee.  After I got the kids off to school I took a drive and went to Mass.  This was absolutely the highlight of my day.  A little piece of quiet in a world of chaos.  Plus as an added bonus I am the youngest person there.  After Mass I went home and tried to not think about how hungry, tired and cranky I was.  Finally I went to my appointment and all seems to be well.  Results on the blood work will be done quickly and then I will have more answers.  Next was lunch and then the grocery store.  They of course did not have the one item I actually needed, but oh well, I do live in the middle of no where.  Groceries successfully put away and food in belly, off I went to pick up the kids.  We did not go straight home.  That would have been too easy.  My oldest has a sleepover/birthday this weekend so I had to get the most fabulous gift for my daughter to give her.  Because God forbid if she did not take the best present in the whole wide world.  I think it might ruin her socially for the remainder of her school life.  After a trip to Barnes and Noble, complete with a Chai Latte for me (duh, did you think I was going to drive all the way out there and not make it worth MY while?)and a near loss of my youngest (he was in the bathroom) we were back in the car to make the drive home.  Not a quiet ride.  Someone was either screaming at a sibling, asking to play a certain CD or singing along to said CD.  Once there, let the cleaning commence.  I managed to get two loads of laundry through, the kitchen swept and mopped, dinner cooked, dishes done, the house vacuumed, and the girls glued to the table to finish homework. 

Phew!  I took the day off from work and I am more tired today than I usually am!  Right now I am working on getting showers done and jammies on.  Hopefully they will finish in time for bed.  Then I will get online and talked with best boyfriend in the world on Skype.  Which by the way, is what I believe to be the best way to end the day. 

a sense of time

This week is absolutely the slowest week ever.  I have had plenty of work to do so that I am busy during the day and of course the kiddos keep me occupied at night, but geez.  I feel like I am moving at a snail's pace.  I was looking at the calendar and trying to put things into perspective and it just seems like nothing is moving.  I have a timeline in my head of when things are going to happen so that it breaks the bigger chunks into small manageable ones.  Even that is not really helping anymore.  How come when you don't want something to hurry up and happen, it is here in the blink of an eye?  Remember when we were younger and school took forever and summers just flew by?  So here I am feeling like Christmas can't come fast enough and Abby is saying how it is "only" three months away.  It feels like eternity to me. 

So I finally got my Claddagh!  I was so happy to get it, I just wish that he could have been here to give it to me.  I was able to call him when I pulled it out of the mailbox and open it with him on the phone though.  I love him and I could not have asked for a better present.  There is a funny story that goes with it though...  So when I gave him my ring size, I gave him my left hand and not my right hand.  Silly me.  When I put the ring on for the first time, it was a little tight because apparently my right is slightly bigger than my left.  I did not think much of it because once it was on, there were no issues with it being tight.  Later that night I thought I would take it off and see how it looked on my left.  There was a small struggle and a little soap, but it came off.  Low and behold it fit perfectly on my left.  I admired it for awhile and then squeezed it back onto my right.  The next morning I went to work and wanted to show one of the guys my ring and was talking about how it fit better on my left.  I wiggled it off with soap and cold water.  After I was done showing it off I smooshed it back on to the objection to one of the other guys in the office.  By the time night rolled around my knuckle and finger were so irritated they were swollen.  Now I had to take it off.  I tried and tried, but nothing worked.  Finally I gave up and went to bed.  I was awoken at midnight to some pain in my finger so I drug myself out of bed to try again.  I used a gallon of soap and a tray of ice cubes but nothing worked.  I was even holding my hand in the air in hopes that the blood would fall down and I would be able to take it off.  Still no.  I gave up again and decided that I would try one more time at work today and if it didn't work a trip to the jewelers was in my future.  I really did not want to have to cut it off!  At work today at about ten I went into the bathroom and yanked and pulled, pushed and pried until finally after about 15 minutes and a few tears it was off!  Let's just say that it will not go back on my right hand until it is properly sized.  I know it does not really belong on my left hand but I am taken and actually having it there will make it easier for random guys to know that.  Oh and of course once it was off everyone had all kinds of suggestions on how to get a ring off that is stuck.  A little too late, gentlemen...  End of the story is my ring and my finger are intact and I am still very happy to wear it.  <3  I love my woobie and him giving me this ring gives me something to look at every second of the day to remind of how much he loves me and how much I mean to him.

spinning up while winding down

This weekend has been full of organizing and cleaning once again.  I managed to get down to Goodwill to donate the stuff from last week that was weeded out.  Felt good to clear out the Jeep.  Didn't last long though!  I came home and went through Victoria's room which wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be.  She tends to try to save every little piece of paper and trinket so there was a lot of trash but only two bags went into the Jeep for donation.  Then I got a burst of energy and ended up buried in the laundry room!  I have a pretty big laundry room that doubles as storage since it gets so cold here I can't store a lot in the garage.  I actually thought I was on that pickers show going through a bunch of crap trying to find the treasures.  I got through about 3/4 of it.  I know there is still more that can be done, but I had to stop to keep some sense of sanity.  My porch is full of trash to go out on Wednesday and my Jeep is full again.  There is also a Christmas Tree in my garage waiting in line to be donated.  There was absolutely no room for it!  Most of the stuff will go to the kid's school so hopefully I will empty it out tomorrow and will have room for more.  When all is said and done after this weekend there is a closet, my room, the bathroom and what is left of the laundry room to go.  Hopefully I will be done next weekend.

Life without Vinny is hard to explain.  I am getting used to him not being here, but at the same time there is definitely something missing.  I am fine all day keeping myself busy then when I talk to him at night, I am reminded of the distance between us.  Being in the bed alone is hard.  I want so bad to be with him already!  There is still stuff to do at both ends to prepare for us coming and he says he wants to wait to see if he gets into his school.  I just wish I had a firm timeline. 

Good news is that I am finally getting my birthday present this week!  He ordered it and he says it should be here on Monday!!!  I don't know what it is, but I have my suspicions...  <3  I will post it on FB as soon as I can.  That is if it doesn't suck!!!  Anyway, when the day is done everything feels like it is working the way it is supposed to.  I haven't felt that way in a while.  It is all falling into place.  Lately I have been hearing the scripture that talks about how God has plans to grow and proper not to harm.  Everything for a reason, right?  I know that I have been running across this multiple times because it is exactly what I need to hear.  He has plans for me and I just need to be patient.  It sure is hard though!

is it time yet?

This week has been really hectic.  With losing Monday I had to work double time to catch up along with a few more added responsibilities.  I know I can do all the work that they have been giving me plus still take care of my regular duties, it's just exhausting.  Oh well, nothing  I can do about it now.  It at least makes the time go by really fast and that is definitely a good thing.

The kids are keeping up on homework...  so far.  Abigail really wants to do a good job this year.  I gave her a practice spelling test tonight and she got them all correct the first time!  Victoria has been studying for a capitols test coming up.  They have multiple times to take it, but she wants to finish it up as soon as possible.  Less for her to worry about she says.  Nathaniel has continued his "wrong choice marathon".  He has now moved to the back of the classroom because he won't stop talking to his neighbors.  Actually, and I know that no one will believe this, but I had the exact same problem.  All my report cards used to say that I was an excellent student but that I chatted a little too much.  Personally I think he is running for office and talking up his constituents is important.  :)

Vinny is doing well.  He moves into the rent house in South Carolina on Friday.  It is a very nice place in a very good location with very good schools.  All in all it is a very good thing.  I love him so much and I just can't wait to be free of all the drama of us being together here.  Even though he is gone, I still have to deal with it.  There is always the question of whether or not I am following him and honestly it is none of their business. 

I haven't gone through anything else in the house since Monday.  Just not enough time for me to really go through things.  I will start on Abby's room on Saturday.  Or maybe I will go down there right now...  I feel like throwing some kid stuff away!  But don't we always?

JUNK!

Since I have been left to my own devices, I have decided that I should work on cleaning out all the junk in my house.  I started downstairs on the "rec room"...  reorganized the books, games, movies, etc...  It took the better part of the day but I was able to finish it.  I hauled 4 bags of trash out that area and I honestly don't know how there is even anything left.  It felt good to get that stuff out though.  Yesterday I was putting away my son's laundry and flipped out when I walked into his room!  There was just too much junk everywhere.  So I put the clothes down and called for reinforcements!  Abby was the only brave soldier that showed up though.  Anyway I dug myself in and 3 more bags of trash and 2 big boxes of donations later, I was finally finished.  I won that battle!!!  His room looks so empty but he has actually been in there more playing with his toys.  Probably because he can find them and actually reach them now.  I don't even want to think about what the girl's rooms are going to be like...  It makes me dizzy just thinking about it.  Today I was feeling pretty good and so there is this closet that really bothers me upstairs.  I attacked that one too!  A couple more bags of trash out of there, AGAIN I have no idea where this stuff is coming from!  It makes it sound like my house has been full of trash all over the place.  Those of you that know me, know that there is no way that there would be that much clutter laying around.  I have just decided that if I don't need it, out the door it goes!  There is a move on my horizon and I really don't want to be packing ANYTHING! 

my favorite day

Sunday.  It has been my favorite day of the week for a while now.  Church with the family, relaxing on the couch and then a good supper.  There is nothing like laying on the couch with your honey and taking an afternoon nap...  Well now things are not the same.  So let's figure out a new routine! 

Today we got up and went to church earlier than we would have.  Try 0815!!!  It was actually quite packed for being so early.  We sat upstairs in the choir loft to kinda change things up and I like it up there.  More so because it was chilly this morning and since hot air rises, it was warm!  After mass we went into town and picked up Vinny's mail and went grocery shopping.  Mostly just fresh produce and stuff for lunches.  I guess I should have planned something for tomorrow for a bbq, but I can barely think about the rest of the day, much less tomorrow.  Anyway we came home and I made lunch and got dinner on for tonight.  It's a start!

This morning as we were walking into mass Abby turned to me and said, "Mom, we should pray for Vinny today".  Then at the grocery store she told her siblings that she hoped we got to move so that Mom and Vinny could be together again.  She is such a sweetie...

the first week of school!

This marks the first week of school!  Okay, so there were only two days in that week, but still to the kids it was monumental.  They managed to get to their respective classrooms and settled in with their friends on the first day.  The girls of course were full of hugs and giggled with girlfriends.  Nathaniel on the other hand was a different story.  First of all I simply can not believe that my wee little man is in the First Grade!!!  So I drop him off in his classroom with lots of hugs and kisses.  Before I left I told him to please make good choices and not to get in trouble the first day of school.  He promised me that he would not.  Of course in true Acorn style as soon as both myself and the teacher left the room he was already getting into stuff he wasn't supposed to!  To top things off when I picked him up the girls informed me that he had been sent to the principal's office by the computer teacher.  In a way I was frustated, but at the same time I was relieved.  No matter how old he gets and no matter what grade he is going into, he is still going to be my Acorn.  Some things never change.

This also marks our first week without my woobie...  It has been rough, I am not going to deny it.  I am sure that no one is surprised by that either - the way that I carry on sometimes.  Anyway, with each passing day things get a little bit easier.  I am staying busy at work and home so that I don't really have time to sit down and mope.  Sometimes I feel like I could do without the extra responsibilities at work, but hopefully I won't be there forever.  At home I am going through every single corner of the house getting rid of stuff and just making things organized.  I suppose you could say that I am doing my spring cleaning in the fall.  It feels so good to get rid of stuff.

Skype helps quite a bit as well.  It is nice to see his face and hear his laugh...  I do miss him terribly but hopefully he will be out soon.  There is talk of possibly October, but for sure November so actually it won't be too long.  Hopefully the time goes by quickly! 

All in all it has been a decent start to September!