When It Proves a Bit Challenging

Visiting Nanny and Pawpaw. The children's 1st visit since her stroke and being put in the nursing home.

Happy 11th birthday Evye!!

West Texas rain

When the river runs again. It lasted 3 days and is already dry again.

welcome rain

I'm a little overwhelmed at the current moment. Many many people to see as we make the rounds between friends and family and still try to maintain productivity and getting daily responsibilities done, such as just the simple task of keeping up laundry and dishes, bathrooms and floors cleaned, and then the packing aspect as we try to stay organized about it but tackle it all. Between birthday celebrations of 5 of us we've been able to travel and see quite a bit of family. The homeschooling families we've developed close friendships with here blessed us with a potluck lunch park day so children were able to see and play with friends one last time....and there was no preparation work on my end, which was huge. I'm a little scattered at this point and it becomes painfully apparent in the details of life and the lack of a schedule we seem to have right now as we work through daylight hours, eat dinner at 8:30 or 9 and have kids in bed at 10. We had been on a strict 6:30 dinnertime with 8 bedtime. The current longer hours accomplish great things but leave one a bit exhausted....or alot exhausted...as husband continues shifts and water dept work while we try to pack and move amidst it all. Admittedly, the entire house is packed with the exception of the kitchen, the everybody closet, and our bathroom. Now to tackle the clothes. Yes, the clothes. So, I breathe deep, I peel kids from the rafters, I unattach them from the ceiling fans, I thwart their leaps from the dining table, I dig marbles out of the toilet, bathe babies by two's that have pulled entire bowls of oatmeal from said table and hand fed themselves, and I push forward assigning task to keep little hands from destroying the little left that is not boxed.

learning to walk in the midst of packing

Along those lines...you know it can't be a very good day when you wake up to your 6 year old running in at 7:16 in the morning excitedly reporting that the deputy sheriff is on your back porch. Many little early birds had already greeted our early morning visitor. With an adrenaline dump unrivaled I fly out of bed and ask why the good deputy is here. Excited 6 year old runs back towards door yelling as he goes..."I promise, mom!! I didn't call 911 this time!! I don't know why he's here." Throwing on t-shirt and jeans and fingering unruly hair into a ponytail I go out to cheerily meet our 7 am guest. With tons of pajama clad little boys at my side the deputy kindly informs us that our horses are happily grazing at the city park....which is really just a bunch of dead grass with a picnic table and a few 40 year old wannabe playground equipment pieces. Due to failing to triple latch the pasture gate the bigger of our two equines had opened it and freed the now grazing duo. So, I spent my morning chasing and cussing out horses for 2 hours. As we all heated up with the morning sun and the 100 degree temps I was a little flustered. Once I finished my jumping up and down in middle of the road tantrum...and yes, I really did that....things seemed to improve as I gained some composure and came up with a plan. It's amazing what a little patience will buy you. Our 11 year old horse whisperer was able to coax her horse into a halter...after 2 entire hours of chasing horses. I don't think I've ever been more grateful for a 13 year old that can ride no less than 15 miles on a bike at illegal speeds and expertly drive a truck and round up horses with the best of them. However, I will happily report that I ran a mile and a half that morning and was not nearly as close to death as I thought I'd be after taking a 13 week running break due to extreme morning sickness. That boosted spirits a little. With horse now in halter, second one followed behind submissively and 2 hours after being awakened by the good deputy we had horses pastured again.

Packing party

That was the only beginning of what seems to be a typical day as we try to pack and move and accomplish daily life as well. After finishing that morning rodeo I returned home to get babies from bed only to discover that 10 month old redhead had unvelcroed diaper and been quite adept at smearing poop from one end of crib to the other...along with fingerpainting walls and scrubbing his head and his twin with it. Heaven forbid you leave your twin buddy out of the crap play. I dutifully cleaned them both up...along with the crib, the walls and everything else that seemed to be a poop magnet and continued on to the breakfast routine of babies since older kids had fed younger while I scrubbed walls. Ivye seemed a bit content to sharpie marker our mattress and comforter up amidst the chaos of it all. That part of the day didn't even begin to get to me since those will be trashed in 3 weeks anyway. However, while she was busy sharpieing up and decorating within the home little boys were out squeezing green goo inner tube gel all over the carport along with anything that had a flat surface...or didn't have a flat surface....outside.

Everybody helping

While these days come few and far between I will say that this aspect of moving has been a bit challenging. And while the temps outside are still rising well above 100 it leaves little where to go for rowdy, on the move little boys that are severely out of a routine. So, I assign dish duty, drying duty, put up duty, sorting clothes duty and so forth. And while that all sounds good in theory, as anything goes with 4 rowdy boys all 6 and under and a 2 year old that tags along in all the fun, dish duty starts indoor water wars, laundry duty starts rolling in the floor giggles as clothes are thrown from one side of the room to the other as they "parachute" with them from the bed, baseball games start as cups are pitched from one to the other as they bat their "baseballs" with dishtowels. With so much routine and structure usually in the house the wild and crazies of moving are proving to be challenging.

More helpers

Deputy day proved to go on and include an entire bag of fruit loops lovingly emptied on the floor by 2 babies, a glass jar of jelly dropped by 6 year and 5 year olds attempting to make an afternoon snack and then a ton of little kids that saw fit to "swim" in the dogs water trough and then throw mudballs at anything with a wall. Needless to say....that day was a little rough....and unproductive.

Overall, we have a pretty good grip.....with pretty good being entirely relative. Children are entirely excited so the energy of it all overflows into every aspect of life. Older ones are starting to struggle a little as departure day nears and they realize the depth of leaving friends and family. In the midst of it all 10 month old babies are cutting numerous amounts of teeth and Gatlin is now walking everywhere. Crawling is now a thing of the past as he falls and picks himself right back up to continue onward. Graham is a little more obsessed with getting to the action as fast as humanly possible and, though he can walk fairly well, prefers to crawl at illegal speeds to reach his destination faster. Gatlin is entirely more concerned about the amount of food that can be stuffed into mouth as he moves and has figured out that walking frees up two hands in order to hold and shove food and progress at the same time. So, he walks like a pro while Graham prefers the faster method of crawling.

And so we press forward making memories, hearing children laugh contagiously, traveling to see family while we can, visiting with friends, hosting out of town family, packing and trying to maintain some form of structure and order as we try to conquer this phase of life and the overwhelming aspect of moving 1500 miles away from security and comfort to conquer the unknown. And know that in my absence on here I am packing, cleaning, boxing, sorting, chasing livestock, rescuing cats and kids from roof with a 20 ft ladder and, in general, attempting to be productive and make the best use of my time.