Mothering Many

So, apparently, we like to sleep. Especially in winter. With the curtains drawn and the heat on, we like to burrow into the blankets and hibernate. Today was one such blissful day, and the house stayed quiet until the amazing hour of 8am. Oh, I remember the days when it would have taken silence until 10am to thrill my little sleepy soul, but with the new public school and job lifestyle, 8am is good. Really, really good. Much better than the 6am stumble out, switch on the home lighting and start poking people agenda that I follow Monday through Saturday, LOL!

Today I am taking a much needed at home day to get caught up on stuff that has stacked up since my last “home day” on December 1st. I’ve been taking the kids to various appointments on my off day lately, and it’s really beginning to show in the stack of laundry that’s blocking the front door. And the stack of blogging that waiting to be done. And the stack(s) of boxes waiting to be sorted in my kitchen.

Enough sentence fragments from me for me, I clearly gots stuff to do!

I think Christmas must be the most stressful time of year for me, as far as organizing goes. Football season is pretty crazy, but it’s because of the go-go-going. Christmas, however, requires a degree of organization that is quite scary. It’s not just a matter of scoping out the Black Friday sales. I have to make sure that eight children have the same number of presents, and that the same amount of money was spent on each of them. It was a lot easier when they were younger and they liked what mom said they liked, but now that they are older with their own interests and over-developed senses of irrational pubescent and prepubescent tastes, it’s not as simple as 2 baby dolls and several hot wheels, yanno?

This year, I have a little extra time, because we are celebrating in January when The Clone will be home. I am getting so excited to see her! She’s actually bringing the boy she’s been dating for years home to meet Mama. How this can possibly be, I do not know. Surely she is still seven years old, slithering out from the cave she made of her bunk bed with a blanket, right?

So, four months ago I posted that I had enrolled my kids in public school. And then I went more or less silent, not just here, but on all my blogs. I recently started posting on my musings blog again, and I am trying to get back in the swing of things on the others as well. It’s hard, you know, trying to juggle everything. But that’s enough whining about that, right?

Anyway, the kids are doing great. Stuntman has managed to receive the principal’s award for all around excellent character, scholastics and general awesomeness. And, yeah, I did tell him I’d like to meet that boy he was in school, because I figured I might like him pretty good, LOL. Diva is doing much better after a somewhat rocky start, and Spidey was promoted a grade after three weeks in school. Batman was put in 1st grade which was no great surprise, given the lack of due diligence that both of us gave his reading progress. It didn’t seem necessary to push him that hard when I thought I would have him for at least several years, but the slow and sure method did put him a bit behoind his age mates when he entered public school. They all seem to like their teachers and get along well with their peers, so I think we can safely say that the “socialization” argument against homeschooling is a load of bunk, which we all knew anyway, but there, it needed saying and I said it.

Country is a sophomore this year, and my friends and I are trying to help her understand the differences between high school and college and help her explore her options. As far as I know, she is still undecided, though she has mentioned a couple of options. One thing that might appeal to her is online education, since she could work independently on it. Online ed has come a long way in the past few years, and there are even programs for Masters degrees online. And in some pretty nifty disciplines. The only catch is, the girl will have to go to college on a scholarship if she goes. Now, don’t get all bent out of shape over that. I was told when it came time for me to go to college that I’d have to figure it out, because there was just no money for me to go, and I turned out ok. No degree, but more than enough credit hours for one. Or two

I’m not quite sure how to go about getting a scholarship for online schooling, though, and I guess I need to figure that out. After all, I have a houseful of kids who will need educating, right? Right! I’d prefer that they end up with something a little more prestigious than a degree from the school of hard knocks.

This week, I registered five more kids for public school. Never thought I’d see this day come, you know, bu they start on Tuesday, and there it is. Sometimes, doing that which is needful requires a big ol’ dose of clinicallix for your misgivings, a long weighing of what is good, better and best, and an end result that sorta tears your heart a bit. Such is parenthood, over and over. Schooling just happens to be the issue for me this week. We all have different issues at different times.

SO today, I was able to go through our books. Instruction manuals got tossed, but the good books we’ve enjoyed reading and talking about for years stayed on the shelves. There is a nifty little row of backpacks on the morning launch pad, with shoes lined up right under them. There are 336 pencils and 10 packs of notebook paper and the morning production run from crayola in those backpacks that my kids will carry off with them. I hope they learn a lot and I hope they have fun and I hope they understand somewhere down the road that this was one of the hardest decisions I ever made.

Lookie what we had!

Tomorrow is my birthday, and my girls put together a party for me. I declare, when I lit the candles, half the alarm systems in the county went off. It was a white and red velvet and chocolate cake, worthy of Alice in Wonderland! We had a good time, with good friends and good food.

And you have to see the top of this cake:

“We love you, even if u r old, LOL”, it says.
Seems that Diva has inherited her mother’s sense of humor, LOL!

It’s been awhile since I gave a decent update here, I know. The kids are fine, I am fine, we are all fine. And I mostly mean that in the way that doesn’t include the anagram.

I’ve been busy working, and have in fact even lost five pounds without using Stimerex ES, just watching what I eat and keeping moving at work. I come home tireder, but the way I look in my clothes is worth it, LOL. If I could just get rid of the last of my “baby roll”, I’d be one happy girl. Of course, I wonder if after eight babies, I will ever get entirely rid of it, no matter how small the rest of me gets. Can human skin really stretch to the itching point EIGHT times and ever be expected to regain it’s former size and shape? Hope springs eternal, though

Halloween will be here before you know it., so it’s a good idea to start looking for kid’s costumes, today. Selected themes and characters are limited in quantity and based on demand, could run out of stock very quickly. This is particular true with kids sizes 4-6 which is by far the most popular. Determine who you will be buying for; baby or toddler costumes, girls, boys and what their size is. What is your childs favorite character…is it a princess or a super hero? There are many different styles, sizes and accessories available now in stock. So if you don’t get a start on it now, your child will undoubtedly give you that frumpy look of dissatisfaction as they wear a costume two sizes too big.

Instead of purchasing the same old regular style costume, pick up a deluxe style costume package, which includes extra accessories such as tiaras and muscle chests, and make your child’s Halloween a day to remember. If your daughter likes Hannah Montana, there are several types of costumes for you to look at. Hannah Montana costumes including a gold metallic jacket with the Hannah Montana logo, a matching tunic top, black cropped leggings, and a glittery belt. Costumes come in different sizes ranging in sizes from 4-10. Stars Wars costumes are always a very popular year in and out for boys and girls, babies and toddlers. A Jedi Knight is great for the hero, but Darth Vader is by far the most popular for Halloween. Kids love the dark mask, as well the light saber accessories. Princess Leia is still a classic choice for all girls and little princesses. Star Wars costumes all are available to babies, too! http://HalloweenCostumes4Kids.com/

Do you know that people make messes? And many people make many messes? And would you believe that I do not function well in a mess? I just can’t seem to think around it! And then it is just too overwhelming to try to clean it since I can;t even get my brain to function. And I get mad.

So tonight, I was unreasonably angry for no discernible reason. Oh, I had five different things I could “blame” it on, but none of them quite fit that unreasonable level of angry. And then I realized what it was. Over the weekend, we had done some laundry and not had time to fold it. So, I had stashed it in my room. In the floor. In the middle of the floor of my ONE CLEAN ROOM. I make it a point to keep my room clean so I have a spot that I can think and work, and I had let that get violated. And my bathroom was a mess, too! It took me about 20 minutes to deal with those clothes and the bathroom, and you know what? It was as if I had given my anger magic diet pills. It was gone.

Now, if I could just spread than cleanliness to the rest of the house, life would be grand.

You know the great thing about an elliptical. You move and groove and burn calories and get great thighs. The bad part is, you don’t actually GO ANYWHERE. I’ve been talking about how life kinda feels like that around here lately, and how I am trying to fix it.

Since we last chatted, I have indeed worked on a schedule, though it is not yet complete. I’ve also been offered the opportunity to work this Sunday. To snatch up the extra hours or to take a day of rest as planned. It’s a dilemma. Kinda feels like taking one step forward and 2 steps back. Which would make life more like a stair climber than an elliptical, now wouldn’t it?

Today, my children are scattering to the four winds. Or at least in three different directions. So, because I can, and because I need it, I am taking today as a quasi mental health day. This means I do what needs to be done and as little else as possible. It also means I plan to make up some sort of schedule to get my life done in six days a week so I can take a day off on Sundays to enjoy my kids, my flowers, my books, my life.

I used to have a good schedule and the kids and I all liked the routine. I got out of it when I went to work in February and we’ve all been rattling around at loose ends since. It’s time to figure out how to make this new life plan work for everyone, instead of viewing it as a series of writhing snakes on Medusa’s head. Right? There is no dieting for the to-do list, and I can’t get it to open it’;s mouth for nuphedra. Therefore, it’s time to work smarter, not harder. Not that I can avoid working harder, so perhaps that should say work smarter, not LONGER.