These Are The Days of Our Lives...

This post is probably going to be a snooze fest for 99.9% of the people that read it. It's really a post that I am writing for myself and my family as part of our history. :)

I was talking to Wade last Wednesday night and telling him that I have been so discouraged lately because I feel like I am constantly spinning my wheels. I feel like I work so hard from sun up to sun down, but rarely get anything "extra" done. I am busy just keeping everything at neutral - just maintaining our children, our home, and our other commitments. I LOVE this season of life, for sure. I truly cannot imagine life ever getting better than it is right now. If I could freeze time and live in this exact same season forever, I gladly would. I love the ages that my kids are right now. I enjoy them so much! However, I wish so badly that I could do more for others. There are so many projects and committees and responsibilities that interest me - I want to say "yes" to everything. But, I honestly feel like I don't know what I could put on the back burner in order to commit to more. Just feeding, clothing, educating, and nurturing our children is pretty all encompassing.

I decided to write down exactly what a day in our life looks like right now. I figure that will serve two purposes. First, I think it will be so fun to look back in 20 years and remember exactly what life was like in December of 2011. Second, seeing in writing what I do throughout the day was so encouraging. It reminded me of how I felt back in my nursing days when I would review my charting at the end of my shift. Back then, I felt like I had many sets of vitals, many columns of assessments, and a medical administration record that showed that I had worked my tail off for 12 hours. I got that same feeling after seeing the notes that I had jotted out throughout the day - gratification that I had accomplished a lot during my day.

This is a busy, busy, season of life and I don't EVER want to forget the joys and trials of this season. So, here is what Thursday, December 8th, 2011 looked like in our home.

7:30am - I woke up to my sweet baby whimpering on the monitor. I went upstairs to feed him. In a perfect world, I would have woken up earlier to have my quiet time and shower before the boys woke up. But, if I am honest... there are very few "perfect" mornings right now. ;) We had been up until 1am the night before, so I snoozed through my alarm.
7:50 am - Came downstairs to the boys and Wade in the kitchen. Wade made biscuits and some sausage for breakfast. The boys always wake up famished, so they ate Nutra Grain bars while they waited on their biscuits and sausage.
8:00 am - We all ate breakfast together and talked about the day.
8:30 am - I cleaned up the kitchen and then went upstairs to lay Owen down for a nap.
8:45 am - I sorted all of our laundry from the last 3 days (4 loads) and started the darks.
9:00 am - We started our homeschool day. We read "Jacob Leaves Haran Secretly" out of The Child's Story Bible and worked on memorizing Luke 2:10-11. Owen was asleep and Drew sat and listened to me read the Bible story.
9:20 am - Clayton did his homework assignment. He copied 2 sentences from his history assignment the day before about papyrus and scribes. Clayton struggles with handwriting, so I try to do that early in the day before he is tired. Drew and I played with his Duplos while Clayton worked. We build a tower, which Drew declared to be "awesome!" :)
9:45 am - I worked with Clayton on his "Phonics Times" assignment. It is basically just a review of the concepts that they have been working on in Phonics. We did all of his flashcards (letter and diagraph sounds, sight words, and suffixes) and worked on the newest concept of final, stable, syllables ([ble, [dle, [tle, etc.). He also coded about 10 words using all of the phonics rules that he has learned. Drew continued to play with his Legos while I worked with Clayton.
10:00 am - Clayton did his Phonics worksheets independently while I quizzed Drew on his letter flashcards. He begs to do his letter flashcards. I think it makes him feel big after watching Clayton work on his flashcards. ;)
10:15 am - I let Drew continue to work on his letters using an app on my phone. Clayton read his assigned fluency reader to me and did his spelling fun worksheet (writing out his spelling words using different colors of map pencils and doing a word search using his spelling words).
10:30 am - I got Clayton started on his math worksheets, moved the darks to the dryer, and started a second load of darks. Owen woke up, so I fed him.
10:50 am - I let Clayton take a break to play with Drew while I went downstairs to feed Owen some oatmeal.
11:00am - I walked upstairs and laid Owen down on the floor while I went to his room to get him some clothes. When I came back, all three boys were MIA. Weird. I quickly found them all huddled in their playhouse. They were "taking a nap." Yeah, right. ;)

11:15 am - I got out some puzzles for Drew to work on while Clayton and I did his "Math Meeting" assignment. We went over the calendar (focusing on spelling all of the days of the week and months of the year), the weather (charted on his weather graph), wrote the digital time, wrote out the numbers from 400-600 counting by 10s, wrote even numbers from 0-56, figured out how to make $0.84 using various combinations of dimes, nickels, and pennies, and wrote out a fact family sequence using 15, 9, and 6. We also went through all of Clayton's math flashcards for his timed tests (25 problems in 2 minutes).
11:40 am - Clayton did his Map Skills page and his Bible/History project (a word search using words from the life of Joseph). I helped Drew clean up his puzzles and then cleaned up a massive blow out diaper courtesy of my littlest darling. Good times. :)
12:00 pm - I let the kids play in their playhouse for a bit while I gathered unused baby items for a friend to take to Romania on a mission trip. Then we all headed downstairs for lunch.
12:20 pm - I moved over another cycle of laundry and made lunch. Usually, when Wade is in town, he eats lunch with us. On this particular day, he met a friend for lunch.
12:30 pm - I fed the boys lunch and sorted laundry while they ate. Then we all went upstairs so that I could lay Owen down. When I came out of the nursery, I found the boys in the bathroom playing "Science Lab." This is a pretty common occurrence these days - circuit sets and "potions." I think it is pretty cute. ;)
I was appauled when Clayton said that he was using water with his circuit set. I scolded him about how he could electrocute himself and that he should NEVER use water with his circuit set. He was quick to point out the water powered circuit in the instruction manual that came with his set. Ooops! I guess that I was wrong. It still makes me nervy... I asked him to only set up that circuit when I was nearby and aware of what he was doing. Geesh.



* Side note: He always wears those glasses when he plays scientist. They make his eyes look enormous. So cute...

1:00 pm - I laid Drew down for his nap. Wade came home and brought me lunch - he's so thoughtful. I ate my lunch while Clayton and I discussed what he had learned in Grammar the previous day.
1:20 pm - Clayton did his Grammar assignment (below). I read him a chapter out of The Story of the World entitled "The First Cities in India" and "The Honest Woodman" out of the Treasury of Virtues.

2:00 pm - I responded to some emails and then fed Owen (nursed and babyfood). Clayton worked on his creative writing assignment. He was supposed to write a story about an animal that lives in the water. Over Thanksgiving, he had watched a documentary about the Goonch catfish with Wade and Papaw. He is now officially obsessed with the man-eating catfish. That made the subject matter for his writing assignment an easy decision. Ha!
2:20 pm - I finally took a shower (better late than never!) and tried to psych myself up for the imminent Wally World trip.
3:30 pm - Drew woke up from his nap, and I went to Walmart. Bleh!
5:15 pm - I got home from Walmart and Wade helped me unload all of our groceries. I fed Owen and let him bounce in his Johnny Jump Up for a little while.
5:30 pm - Wade worked on dinner. I helped him and we talked about our day. The boys watched Arthur while we cooked.
6:00 pm - We ate dinner together and Owen played in his exersaucer in the kitchen.
6:30 pm - I laid Owen down for his last little cat nap.
7:00 pm - Baths for the big boys.
7:15 pm - Owen woke up and we did our Christmas devotional as a family.
7:45 pm - Owen got his bedtime bottle (a few ounces of formula to top him off) and his rice cereal.
8:15 pm - The big boys went to bed and we got to spend some one-on-one time with Owen.
8:45 pm - Owen went to bed for the night.
9:00 pm - I cleaned up the kitchen and put away the rest of the laundry while Wade worked on cutting the wood for a Christmas craft that we were making to give to all of the kids' teachers (both school & church) and our neighbors.
9:30 pm - I painted the above project and Wade assembled.
10:30 pm - I made Clayton's lunch for the next day.
11:00 pm - I addressed Christmas cards while Wade worked on stuff for church
12:15 pm - Bedtime for the adults in the family. Zzzzz....

That is a pretty typical day on Tuesdays & Thursdays. We rarely leave the house on those days and spend most of the day working on school. Mondays are typically the day that I clean, catch up on laundry, and go to the grocery store. Wednesdays are reserved for various appointments (doctors, dentists, etc.) and errands. Fridays Clayton has a partial school day on campus, so we take our time getting ready and then take Clayton to school at 9:00. Then I come home and do stuff around the house while the Littles are napping. We pick up Clayton at 3, and then our weekend begins.

I hope that I never, ever forget this season of life - the good, the bad, and the ugly. ;) I love the stage of our young family. There is never enough time or money, but we couldn't want for more. :)

Bloggy Randomness... Again :)

I have always prided myself on making this blog a priority. I love the fact that my kids will have pictures from their childhood with commentary from their mom. It is so, so important to me that I have stayed up in the wee hours of the night and sacrificed time doing other things just to make sure that their childhood is well documented.

But... this is such a busy season right now. Don't get me wrong, I am enjoying this phase of life immensely, but the days just fly by. I find myself bouncing between children making sure that they are all fed, clothed, diapered, hugged, kissed, held, etc. There is rarely any "free" time these days, so blogging has fallen off of my radar. I'm so busy living life that there isn't much time to document it. ;) I'm sure that I will get better one day...

For now, it's just another random things post. I hate cramming a ton of things into one post. I'd much rather have several concise posts. But, that just isn't happening. So... here goes nothing.

* It is CUH-razy hot right now. Like, melting the bottom of your flip flops to the pavement hot. Insane record breaking heat. Hotter than the surface of the sun heat.

For posterity's sake, I took a screen shot of the weather on my iPhone. This was from after lunch today, the temperatures continued to climb in the late afternoon.
That, my Friends, is ridiculous! Makes me want to move to Alaska! :)

* We are deep in the trenches of potty training here at the Casa del Carpenter. Drew has had the first portion of potty training down for months. He has remained dry at night and all day long for weeks and weeks. However, the latter portion of potty training (if you catch my drift...) is proving to be much more difficult. We spend hours and hours camped out on the commode. Last night I walked in my bathroom to find this:
Wade was letting Drew watch a Word World episode on his phone. He was holding the phone, of course, for fear that it would not be safe in the grip of our 2 year old. I started laughing at the sight of him crouched down on the floor, and he said, "Yep, I'm sitting in the splash zone." Ha ha ha! Wade can make me laugh like no one else on the planet. :)

* Clayton and Drew think that taking a bubble bath in our tub is a BIG deal. I used some Bath & Body Works Lavendar Vanilla Foam Wash the other night. When the boys turned on the jets, the bubbles grew out of control. They were in heaven!
* The men in our Sunday School class got together recently to play miniature golf. Brent went to Goodwill to by a green jacket similar to the one that the winner of the Masters gets. I'm proud to say that my man snagged the snot green mothball smelling jacket! Way to bring home the gold, Babe! It was so hideous!

The deal was that the winner had to wear the jacket to church the next morning. Wade was a good sport and wore the lovely jacket proudly. He even made it worse by pairing it with a blue shirt and pink tie. It was quite the ensemble!
* Contrary to popular belief, Owen does occasionally fall asleep unswaddled. (I know. It's just wrong!) He sleeps well unswaddled, just not for the long stretches that we are used to. So... he shall remain tightly bound in his Miracle Blanket. Ha!
* Owen is getting so big! I am trying to get one more wear out of all of his adorable newborn clothes.

I am going to go into the full blown ugly cry when I have to pack up/give away all of those adorable teeny tiny outfits. :(

* I remember Clayton going through a phase of lining things up into a straight line when he was right around Drew's age. In fact, I blogged about it here. I remember asking multiple other friends if that was normal behavior. Ha! Well, my Drew is now doing the same thing! I found him with all of his Rescue Heroes lined up yesterday. Doesn't he look so happy with himself? Cute little thing...

* A few days ago I was listening to my iPod while I fed Owen. I was listening to one of my very favorite songs, "What Do I Know of Holy" by Addison Road. I was in full blown worship mode singing along to the chorus. "What do I know? What do I know of holy?"

Drew walked up to me with a puzzled look and said, "Mom, you sing Holey Moley?"
Needless to say the moment of worship was over. Ha!

* Last week, I laid Owen on the couch and turned my back for literally a second. When I turned back around, Drew had put his Bob the Builder hat on his baby brother.
Poor O. He just doesn't know what he is in for with his 2 crazy big brothers!

* I put Owen in Clayton's bed while we said our prayers the other night. Drew, of course, wanted to snuggle in too. They looked so sweet all huddled together. :)

Hope that you are all having a great week! Try to stay cool!

Posted using BlogPress from my iPhone

This and That

Y'all, I have a serious case of blogger's block. :( I just can't seem to come up with a coherent post that anyone would care to read. Hopefully, I can get back in the bloggy grove soon. :)

For now, I am just going to post a random list (complete with iPhone pics - sorry):

• For Christmas, we bought Clayton a Snap Circuits, Jr. kit as one of his gifts. It was a great purchase! He has played with it a ton! I have to admit (as dorky as it sounds!) that I have even enjoyed building the more complex circuits with him. I can't wait to see what my brainy boy ends up being when he "grows up." :)
  

"Electronical" - I love it! He has called his circuit set a "circumstance" many times. ;)

• Several people have asked me what Drew does on our homeschool days. He sits up in the school room with us and does his own thing. His Lego table is in there, which he loves. I also put out puzzles and art stuff. I really think that our days at home are his favorite days. I mean, come on, sticking stickers all over your face is pretty much toddler heaven. Ha!
  

• "Operation Share a Room" is in full fledge at the Casa del Carpenter. We haven't painted or bought furniture yet, we are merely in the first stages of a trial period. We moved Drew's toddler bed into Clayton's room on Friday night and they did AWESOME! They went straight to sleep and woke up right at 7:30. However... Saturday night did not go well at all. The unlikely culprit was actually Drew! He would not stop talking! I have to admit that I did not see that coming. It took 2 hours and 2 "corrections" before that little stinker would go to sleep. I was so frustrated! I think that Clayton was too. I heard him on the monitor over and over again saying, "Drew just close your eyes and go to sleep." Last night was better, but not perfect. I am just hoping that they get used to the idea. I am really hoping that having them share a room will work. It's just going to take some time to adjust, right?
  
• Still no name for Baby #3... It may seriously come down to a blog contest. How sad is that?!?! We have a name that we agree on and we are trying it out for now (calling him by the name to see how it sounds in everyday speech). We'll see if it sticks... I had to move my OB appointment to Wednesday, due to Clayton being out of school for MLK day. (I was not about to take both of those crazy monkeys to my appointment!) Here's hoping that I'll see a divine name tag at my sonogram on Wednesday. ;)
• Clayton's teacher sent an email out to all of the parents to update them on how each of her students were progressing. Her email was very sweet and positive. It made me so proud of my boy! I got tickled at one line in particular, though - "Clayton is very social, so his desire to socialize during lessons is the only thing he has been corrected for." I guess that was teacher speak for "he gets in trouble for talking," huh? Very P.C.
  

• We took a family trip to the grocery store on Saturday night. (Yes, we are that lame!) We were trying to imagine where we would put another child in the cart, when Clayton came up with a solution. He figured out the perfect spot for him to ride...
  

Unfortunately, I am not thinking that will work! Ha!

• I had a dream the other night about the birth of our third child. I got a vivid picture in my mind of the hospital scale with a newborn on it. The weight read 11 pounds 5 ounces!!! I certainly hope that was not a foretelling of the future!
• We are now 16.5 weeks away from my due date. In some ways it seems like forever away and in others, it seems like it is just around the corner. When I think about the fact that I still have to wait 4 more months to hold my delicious little newborn, it feels like an eternity. When I think about how busy the next few months are (birthdays, school, things to get done), I know that it will fly by.
  
• Drew is at the funniest age. I enjoy him so, so much! He has started talking in full sentences and saying things that make me realize how fast his brain is catching on to the world around him. His little toddler quirks make life so fun! He says things that I know he has picked up from listening to us, which makes him sound even older. In the last few days he has said, "Aw, man! Nuts!" "Good job, guys!" and "blue ascot." (Only a 2 year old with a serious Scooby Doo fan of a brother would know that one!) My favorite thing that he says is, "Whatch doin'?" His interpretation of "What ya doin'?" makes me smile every time. He also calls my laundry baskets his "spaceship." Watching him sit in the baskets and make his little boy spaceship noises makes laundry day so much more tolerable. ;)
  

• Many people have asked us if Baby Boy #3 will be our last child. Considering that Wade has been calling this baby the "Grand Finale of the Carpenter family" since the moment that we had a positive pregnancy test, I am fairly certain that our family will be complete. However, I am very leery of saying that is set in stone. I have noticed a trend lately of God making me eat my words when I use absolute terms for the future like "always" and "never" (i.e. "I would never homeschool my kids." "I could never handle three rowdy boys." "I would never let my child behave that way in public." etc.) God seems to be using motherhood to keep me humble and to teach me that His plan is ALWAYS better than my plan. So... no, we are not planning on having any more children at this time. But, we know that God could always change our hearts.

That's all that I've got right now, Friends! I'll try to come up with some better material for the future. :)

A Picture is Worth...

a thousand words, right??? I feel like I have taken a ton of random pictures lately that don't really deserve a full blog post. But... they are everyday life around here and moments that I just want to remember. So, here are a few snippets with a little commentary. :)

Drew LOVES any kind of art project. Clayton never cared much for painting or coloring, but Drew could spend hours creating pictures. They just so different!

The other day while I was unloading groceries, the boys disappeared and I could hear them playing in the living room. When I finished putting everything away, I came in to see what they were doing. They had fashioned the Walmart sacks into "capes" and they were spinning around being "superheroes." I died laughing! What great imaginations they have!



While Wade and I were in Carcassonne staying in the castle, we bought Clayton a knight's costume. He loved his souvenir! He put on all of his garb and put all of his other armor on Drew. They looked so cute! I especially love Clayton's serious look, Drew's helmet, and Drew's stick horse. Ha!

The boys were watching TV in the living room, and I found them in this position. I thought that it was so sweet! I hope that they are always best buddies! I can't wait to see how 3 man-children interact. ;)

Drew was hugging Wade and somehow managed to shimmy up into Wade's pullover. He was quite pleased with himself when his little blond head poked out of the neck hole. :)

Drew loves our Little People nativity this year! He knows all of the participants and talks to them all day long. He pulls his little chair up and just chatters away. It is adorable!

I asked him the other day what he would like to name his baby brother. He said, "Baby Jesus!" Ha ha! Precious child...

Drew loves his new big wheel that he got for his birthday, but his legs aren't quite long enough to peddle. They figured out that if they rode it together, Clayton could peddle and Drew could help steer. Way to pull off some teamwork, Boys!

Last week while Wade was out of town, Clayton hollered "Hey, Mom! Come in here!" from Daddy's office. When I walked in, he had his computer set up on Wade's desk. He had found an old mouse to use and also Wade's old blackberry. He was quick to point out that he had plugged his phone into his computer to charge. Ha! He will be quite the businessman, I'm sure.

I know that was a random hodge-podge of pictures, but I just want to remember to document the everyday things as well as the big things. :)

Hmmm....

A couple of weeks ago, I got an email that Old Navy was running their jeans for $10 a pair. Clayton is so stinkin' skinny that I have the hardest time finding jeans that fit him. I have tried TONS of different brands. The Old Navy "slims" tend to work the best, even though he still has to cinch in the waist with the adjustable waistband.

With the great sale, I stocked up for the fall. I also got Drew a pair of 2T. When they came in the mail, I laid them down...
Let's take a closer look....
Um, yeah, there is less than an inch difference in the waist of my 5 year old and my 1 year old. And that is without cinching in the waist on Clayton's jeans. Ha!

I don't want to forget...

Sometimes I have a quiet minute just to think... With my crazy boys, those moments are few and far between, of course. But, every once in a while I think about the future and my kids growing up. I think about how they won't always be this little. They will grow and change. I think about all of their little kid quirks and pray that I will still remember those things when they are no longer little kids.

That's where I am at right now. So... here are some silly little things about this season of our life that I don't want to forget. :) If I blog about them, then they will be filed away forever, right?

Clayton went through a phase before he turned 2 where he loved the show Hi-5. I don't know what it is about that show, but it was the first show that he ever really cared about. Drew is in that phase now. It is a 23 minute long show, and it has some educational aspects to it. So, I let Drew watch it when I am getting dinner ready in the evenings. The other day, I walked into the living room to see this...

He was in an odd position in the Hi-5 zone. Ha ha! I know that my anti-TV friends are gasping right now, but I promise that he doesn't sit in front of the TV all day! Just one show every now and again when I am desperate to get something done...

He started laughing, because I was laughing, but didn't change his position. Maybe that position is comfortable????

Clayton is also in a new phase. He's decided that he really likes to draw. Every picture that he draws looks almost exactly the same. It's too cute! There is always a sky, sun, and house. The boys in the picture always have spikey hair and the girls always have two pigtail type of things. He is super serious about his pictures and is extremely offended if you don't know exactly what all of the objects that he has drawn are.

Drew's favorite toy at the moment is our Swiffer. I realized one day that the handle unscrews and you can take out segments of it. I made it his size, and he LOVES it. If it is in his sight, he is begging for it. I'm all for extra help with the house work. ;)

Yes, Drew is going to be extremely angry at me for this one day. I'm sure that putting his business on the world wide web isn't going to win me any points when he is a teenager. :)

But... he tee-tee'd on the potty for the first time yesterday (8/6/10)! We have been putting him on the potty before his bath just to get him used to it. He usually sits there, but nothing happens. Last night, however, he figured it out.

He kept saying, "Tee tee! Potty!" He was so happy with himself.

Never fear, we are not starting to potty train. Clayton did this same thing a few months before he turned 2, but was 33 months old before he really was totally potty trained. We're just getting used to the idea...

Clayton has been wearing his doctor costume nonstop lately. He is constantly listening to Drew's heart and taking his "fever." He will shake your hand and say, "Please to meet you. I'm Dr. Carpenter."

One last thing... I have sung "You Are My Sunshine" before every nap and bedtime to Drew while we rock. He just started to sing along with me. It melts my heart every. single. time. He just catches the last word of each phrase. He sings, "Sunshine... sunshine... happy... gray... dear... love..... sunshine..." through his pacifier. It's pretty much the cutest thing he's ever done.

That's just parts of our life right now. Thanks for letting me get that "on paper."

Self Diagnosis

I am not one to be a hypochondriac, but I have recently diagnosed myself with a few conditions...

* Motherhood Induced ADD - I used to be able to focus and complete a task, but now I find myself constantly distracted and unable to finish what I started. What in the world has happened to me??? Too much multi-tasking, I guess... ;)

* Car Claustrophobia - My car history goes like this: 1980 Honda Civic Hatchback (Oh, that car.... It was originally red but faded to a lovely pinkish color by the time that I got it in 1995. To make matters worse, my Dad put grey wool seat covers on the front seats. Thanks for that, Dad. Despite it's flaws, I loved that car.), 1982 Volkswagen Rabbit convertible (That was a super cute car, but it had a standard transmission. I never did really master that skill.), 1991 Mitsubishi Eclipse (I paid the payments on that one with my babysitting money. I really, really LOVED that car!), 1996 Honda Civic, 2003 Honda Accord, 2009 Suburban (My current car and the largest vehicle that I have ever driven.)
I love The Burb. I really do. It is roomy enough for our family and all of our stuff. It makes road trips so much easier. It is new and pretty and I am sooo thankful for it. But... it is a pain in the rear to park. I feel like all of the cars around me are really close. I won't park in between two cars (there has to be an open spot on one side so that I can swing wide into the space) and I prefer the slanted spots over the regular straight spots. (That has almost made me quit my beloved Target with its straight parking spots in favor of Walmart with its slanted spots. It's crazy. I know.) I end up just parking in the very back of the parking lot and hiking it with two kids in tow. Maybe Car Claustrophobia will double as a work out plan. Ha!

* INAN (I Need A Newborn) - I love babies. I love everything about them. I can smell them from a mile away, and I'm magnetically drawn to them. I find myself looking at pregnant women or new mothers and totally coveting the fact that they get to hold their newborns as long as they want and whenever they want.
Unfortunately, I don't think that this is a curable condition. I think that I could have 20 children and be well past my child-bearing years, but I would still have INAN. Luckily, I have several close friends that are expecting new babies in the next few months. So, I'll get my fix. :)

Self Diagnosis - it's a healthy thing, right? :)