*This is a long and rambling post with tons of pumpkin patch pictures thrown in, though I don't actually discuss the pumpkin patch until the end of this post! Thanks for playing along!
I know I've been slacking in the blog department, but as always, you know I've got good reasons--like 5 of them combined with little sleep. But I'm not here to delve into my hellish nights or how incredibly cranky my entire family is because I swear to you NOBODY IN MY HOUSE SLEEPS (AND IT TOTALLY SUCKS)....
...see how I digress when I'm cranky?
We've been staying plenty busy what with all of this allergy business going on, birthdays, pumpkins, soccer, ballet, theater class, preschool, mops, kindergarten, Matt's 90billion jobs, yada, yada, yada. I'd like to get back into blogging at least once a week. We'll see how close I get. Maybe I'll surprise us all and blog 4 times a week. HA!
Last Friday we found out all of Brownie's and Bug's IgG allergies (delayed reactions). Someday, when all this info doesn't make me break out into tears, I'll tell you what all they can't have. But for now, I'll just say that Bug has over 50 and Brownie (thankfully) has under 30. In fact, if we're going to be an allergy family, I wish they all resembled Brownies. She can have corn and rice--which for those of you who don't know, those are KING and QUEEN of the Gluten free world (which, of course is an IgG for all of my kids). Even Bug can have rice--which is improvement from what Boushka can have. But my poor Bug is allergic to tons of fruits and veggies. This makes it so hard. I've really been struggling with how to treat these allergies--but that's a whole other blog post. I'll need several hours, a glass of wine followed by a glass of coffee, and a quiet house to be able to write that post. So yeah, I'll get back to you in about six years!
We only had one soccer game on Saturday-- it felt odd to be in and out of there so fast! And we spent Sunday evening with my husband's grandparents and extended family for the seasonal ice cream night.
Our week was actually pretty low-key, relatively speaking. But we so needed this. I swear we need a family vacation where all we do is sleep in, eat whatever I feel like fixing, and spend quality time reading, playing in the leaves and taking lots of naps.
Monday was pretty laid back during the morning, but that's always the
fun day where we rush from the moment naps are over until the kids are in bed for the night. From the time Peach gets off the bus, we have 40 minutes to get three girls ballet ready, fed and in the car. Oh Monday evenings, I have words for you!
Tuesday, Peach had a make up soccer game (instead of her usual practice). This was also the day I discovered I still live in the year 2000. Since about 2005 (hmmm... what happened that year??) I admit I haven't really stayed in touch with technology and its updates. I tried updating my iPhone several times and something this day "worked." I say "worked" because while my phone is updated, everything that was saved to my phone is gone--contacts, my email account, all the apps I've downloaded, my iTune songs (luckily I'd managed to get those on my computer), even the lists I'd made. I'm talking detailed health notes for each child, the Bookmobile schedule, recipes I'd copied from magazines while waiting in doctors' offices, my Christmas list (it takes me forever to think of things I need/want)... oh, my lists. I even had a saved list for all things I need to pack for our family to leave the house for a few days (I think that's the one I may be the most upset about losing). Okay, so Tuesday, apparently I have words for you too!
Wednesday I needed some time away from the littlest peeps in my house, so Peach and I headed out on an hour-long special date. We enjoyed one of our favorite pies (the pizza variety) and did a little shopping at Joanne's. Nothing like pizza and hobby retail shopping therapy with my favorite six year old! We came home just in time to grab Brownie and head to soccer practice. After soccer I ran her by the express care facility near our house for what I thought was an infection. Thankfully she's clear of the infection, but I still treated her to a few goodies from the store after her appointment. The poor girl had been through quite an uncomfortable ordeal so I let her pick out a book, a cheap movie & a couple allergy-friendly treats. She deserved the spoiling!
Thursday morning was nice because Matt had a late morning appointment. So after getting Peach on the bus, we took the preschoolers to school and then hit up Lowe's. I'm so blessed to have a crafty/handy husband. He bought supplies to build us our own TV stand. We're in the process of doing some major furniture changing/rearranging, and a tv stand was in need. Just today (Sunday) he built the basic frame for it. AMAZING!
Back to Thursday... that morning was also made possible thanks to my favorite pumpkin spice latte and a bacon and Gouda breakfast sandwich. On the mornings I don't even have time to blend spinach, almond milk and assorted fruits in a blender I'm thankful to have some yummy options. Not as healthy, but a little cheese and bacon is a total treat that I'm not willing to trade in for a slimmer arse. I just want a "mostly green smoothie/occasional bacon and cheese sandwich" physique--I'm totally okay giving up the "
ALL the time green smoothing" physique for some sandwiched heaven!
I feel bad giving so much attention to bacon, cheese and my arse--so I should mention that by Thursday my Brownie was clear of all possible infection symptoms. Thank goodness!! She was able to go to her theater class that night with Big Sis.
Friday was the elementary school's carnival. We were this close to not even going. It had been an incredibly discouraging day on the home front, and I honestly didn't have it in me to get the sleeping children up from naps. Unfortunately, at this point in our life we are having several of these "discouraging" days at home. And they're all piling on top of each other all the while NOBODY IS SLEEPING. But enough about the stuff I'd rather forget...
We got a late start, but we did all end up at the carnival. By the time we got there and ate, I had just one hour with the family to play games before I had to work my shift at the food stand. The girls had fun kicking soccer balls, trying to hoola hoop, dancing to music, chucking pigs (pretend pigs) and "helping" me at the food stand. I enjoyed watching them play and of course the extra help!
We woke up this Saturday for another round of soccer--the last games of the season. There was one game between our two, so we had an allergy-free picnic at the field since it was over the lunch hour. Peach played the first game, and boy it was kind of intense. I was a little fired up at the pushing on the field. The other team had a couple players using both hands to literally push our girls and nothing was being done about it. Well, I take that back. The other coach was actually encouraging it by cheering them on for scoring--even if they scored by knocking our girls down. I finally said something to our coach who then said something to the other coach, but it never stopped. So I told Peach to stick her hips out--hey, I might as well teach her early on what those things are for. This is actually a legal way to play--and I let kept telling her that as long as she used her mind and didn't play dirty, she'd be the real winner. Our girls stayed classy and it paid off. There were a couple of "pushy" players from the other team that kept tripping and running into each other, thus allowing our girls to score. So Peach also learned what happens when you get greedy--you fall on your face.
After lunch, Brownie played her game. The girls did so well and even though they're the Under 5 league, these girls really seem to "get" it. They run the field, do their best to control their dribble and even try to pass to a teammate occasionally. Brownie had a an assists and a goal. After the game, their coach handed out medals (I'm pretty sure he got on his own and not from the association) and told each girl what they excelled at. Brownie received her medal for
most goals ever scored in one game (that was the game she scored 10 goals). Oh my, she was beaming with pride. And of course, I was too.
After soccer, Matt and I ran Bug and Brownie over to their ballet studio for a costume fitting. It took all of five minutes, so we were able to get to our next destination--the pumpkin patch--pretty quickly.
We spent all afternoon making memories. I look forward to this every year. It takes a lot for our family to be out and about with so many young kids, but we were blessed with great behavior and many awesome memories. We ate apples, drank cider slush, went on a hayrack ride, sat on a "spider web," did some swinging, picked out pumpkins, bounced in bounce houses and jumped off of our fair share of hay bales. I took over 300 hundered pictures. But I will say that many of those come from one posed sitting with several pictures taken--this is so I can pick the best of the 30 or so taken. Trust me, that's the way to do it when you have 7 people to capture smiling and looking at the camera (which we almost did this time)!
We came home and had a nice meal of chicken meat loaves I'd made and froze earlier in the week. I glazed them with an agave/mustard sauce and they seemed to enjoy them. They thought it was a treat when I served mashed potatoes and green beans with the loaves--and I could do this since I hid basil, kale, spinach, carrots and onions in the loaves. So kids, when you're reading this 20 years from now (because I really do picture you reading this blog when you're homesick in your own apartment), yes I was that kind of mother--I had you eating veggies when you thought you were getting a treat.
They polished off the meal and hit the hay. They were one bunch of tired hooligans. Matt and I settled in to watch KU play OU. Actually, I settled in to play on the computer while Matt watched said game. But then I got bored and made brownies. And then I stuck the baked and cooled (and half-eaten) brownies in our microwave so that dang mouse who's been mooching off us for a while wouldn't lay a nasty bit of his hairy body on my chocolate goodness. HA HA-take that you tiny moocher.
I suppose that was more than you ever cared to hear about our week, but with my memory slowly fading thanks to that sleep I'm not getting, I feel the need to jot stuff like this down. Well, for that reason and for the fact that I plan on using this blog as birth control for my kids later in life. I will teach them units on reasons why you shouldn't have kids until you're "like really old, 30 or so." But then I'd need to include video and frankly folks, I haven't evolved enough to develop an 8th hand yet. So I guess I'll just end on a happy note instead...
Though sleep may be little, the love we have for our family isn't. We know in our hearts that this season, too shall pass. And ironically enough, we know that someday we'll look back with fondness and reminisce on how easy we had it when our main problem was no sleep. I am really looking forward to many more memories to make this fall and holiday season! I'll just need some extra grace to throw around!
