What a great day!!

Hello everyone!!  I hope your weekend was wonderful.  Mine was pretty fantastic.  My hubby and kids made me beakfast in bed and a wonderful card.  My husband also made me and the girls corsages.  He does it every year and it is something that I really look forward to.  I forgot to take a picture this morning, so these are after being worn all day.  Aren't they beautiful?! 

I got a brand new washer and dryer a couple of weeks ago as my early Mother's Day gift.  I LOVE them.  And we all know you can't put a new washer and dryer into an old and wallpaper filled laundry room, so I stripped it clean and started fresh.  I'll show you all the laundry room reveal hopefully next week.

I'll see you all tomorrow for the Messy Monday linky party.  :)

Can you PLEASE control your children!!

Someone said that to me yesterday!!  And the sad thing is, we totally deserved it.  AAAHHH!  We went to the library like we do every Friday.  I let each of the kids check out 1 movie and then we get a load of books.  I also decided to check out some books of my own. 

That's where it all started.  As soon as we got to the adult side of the library their dark sides took over.  You know...the side of them where they are always sternly called by their full names.  The side of them that makes you whisper through gritted teeth, "You better watch out or you are going to be in TROUBLE when we get home!"  It's not too bad if it only happens to one or two of them at a time, but on the rare occasion that it is all four of them, it is pure misery for me and for all of the people who are pretending like we aren't there.

I only wanted to get 3 books and a movie.  I even took the time to look up the call numbers on the books so I knew exactly where to go before we even got there.  Of course some of the numbers were out of order and it took me a couple of minutes to find them.  Meanwhile, my kids are getting louder by the second.  Then all of the sudden 3 of them are chasing each other up and down the aisles.  The fourth went to go see what was going on and bumped into/almost knocked over an old lady with white hair, bright red lipstick and a hearing aide.  I said I was sorry to her before tracking my kids down, but she was either so upset with me she couldn't say anything or she didn't hear me because she gave no response.

I corralled my kids while I found the last book and then we went to the movies.  I knew what I wanted so it should only have taken about 1 minute to grab it.  In that 1 minute, 2 of my kids started pulling cd's out of the books on cd cases.  AWESOME!  At that point a library worker came up and told the kids to stop (even though I had already told them to stop and was putting them all back thankyouverymuch!).  It was definitely time to go.

We skipped the movie and got in line.  My kids were restless, but I knew to expect it.  What I did not expect was for my 2 year old to take off out the FRONT DOOR of the library.  I dashed after him with the bag full of books and movies on my shoulder.  Then the alarms went off because I was trying to steel kids books from the library and BOOM..."Can you PLEASE control your children!"

I should have said, "Obviously not, would you like to try?"  But I wasn't that witty.  I just turned every shade of red (from anger and embarrassment) and mumbled an apology as I was dragging my screaming 2 year old back to the check-out line.  Then we got our books and left as quickly as possible.

What a day!  Has this ever happened to you?  (Please, please, please someone tell me it has.)

I'm sure it doesn't sound like it, but even after a day like this I still LOVE my job. For every crazy moment there are even more tender moments that touch my heart and help me know I am right where I need to be.

I'm linking this up to Home and Family Friday.

What a week!

This week has been our spring break.  I can't tell you how nice it has been to not have to run up to the school 100 times a day.  Some good friends of ours bought a house on Monday.  The previous owners were chain smokers and the house needed some major work done to get the smell out.  While they get the house ready to move in, we have had their little girls.  It has been fun and crazy and loud and exhausting to have 6 kids 6 and under all week.  It was sort of like this, except I'm much cuter.  :)

The kids and I have been able to walk everyday except Wednesday, because it was pouring down rain.  I'm surprised at how sore I am for just walking.  I guess pushing over 150 lbs of kids for a few miles a day can do that to a person.  Want to know how I fit all 4 of my kids on the stroller at one time?  Check out this post.  It's not too late to join "The New You" challenge...hint hint.

AND...the very next post will be my 100th post!!!  I can't believe it.  I have some big plans, so come back on Monday to see what I have up my sleeve.  I'm seriously so excited.  All I can say is that change is in the air...

p.s. It's snowing where I live.  What happened to SPRING?!

One heck of a story...

I had planned to jump back in with both feet once we came back from our trip, but things didn't go as we planned.  I just have to take a second, share our adventures, and then I can jump into life (and blogging) again.  So, sit back and relax and join us on a little stroll through the events of the last few days...

As you all know, we were out of town last week.  We were visiting my husband's family and we had a wonderful visit.  We stayed with my brother-in-law and his family.  4 adults and 8 kids in a townhome for a week.  It could have been a recipe for disaster, but it was just the opposite.  The entire week was great. There was no family weirdness or fighting cousins.  It was relaxing and uneventful and wonderful.  We had originally planned on coming back home on Saturday, but then my husband's other brother told us that they were planning on blessing their baby in church that Sunday, so of course we decided to postpone our trip home for a day.

We spent the week in Virginia, and the blessing was in Pennsylvania, so we woke up early on Sunday morning, loaded the kiddos and all of our gear into the car and left for PA.  After the blessing, we ate lunch with the family, and then piled back into the car for the 9-10 hour drive back home.  We left PA at around 1 pm, so we knew we were going to be getting home late, but it wasn't going to be too bad.  Hopefully the kids would sleep in the car, and everyone would get enough rest once we were home to get back to work and school without any major issues on Monday.

For a few hours all was well.  Then it started snowing.  The further west we went, the worse the snow got.  My husband was driving about 45 mph on the highway and had been for a while.  He needed a break and it was dinner time, so we decided to stop at Burger King.  (Normally we bring food in a cooler so we don't have to spend any extra money...especially on a Sunday...but we didn't this time).  My husband turned into what we thought was the entrance to BK but then we realized that it was one more entrance down.  We had to drive a little bit up the road until we found a parking lot to turn around in.  As he was turning around, the car slipped on some ice and slid into the curb.  No big deal right?  WRONG!  It broke our rim and the air in the tire immediately started whooshing out.  In less than a minute, it was completely flat.   Luckily it was in a well lit parking lot, so we were able to see while we tried to swap the flat tire for the spare.

We have a Suburban and the spare tire is mounted underneath the car.  My husband is a burly guy who has changed many tires and can fix pretty much anything.  He is no stranger to DIY projects and can figure almost anything out.  We weren't worried in the slightest that we would be able to change the tire, go get some dinner, and get back on the road fairly quickly.  WRONG!!  We messed with that spare tire for over 2 hours and couldn't get it to release from under the car.

We finally gave up and called road-side assistance.  They sent a guy who worked on it for over an hour and finally gave up.  So we called road-side assistance again and asked them to send someone else.  At this point, it was 9:30 pm and the kids were starving.  We bundled them up and walked to the Burger King so we could eat before the lobby closed at 10 pm.  The other guy wasn't going to be able to come for another hour, so we had time.

We got to the BK and ordered our food.  We only had 30 minutes, so we were trying to hurry the kids but the manager said we could stay until we finished.  Then he later asked if we were stranded.  We told him what happened and he offered to let us stay until they shut down the drive through at midnight.  He found coloring pages and crayons for the kids and gave us some extra food--for free--and let the kids run around.  He also looked up the numbers to the dealerships in the area just in case we would need them the next day.  His name is Jim and he was my hero when I really needed one.

The second guy that came to get the spare tire down worked on it for over an hour and was still not able to do it.  He finally gave up as well.  By this time is was almost midnight and we needed to figure out what we were going to do because the BK was getting ready to close.  We could walk to the nearest hotel about 1/2 a mile away in 20 degree weather (not including the wind chill) in the middle of a snow storm with 4 kids ages 2-6 years old and stay the night or we could walk to the parking lot just up the street and sleep in the car.  Either way, we had to wait until morning to have the car towed to a dealership to get it fixed.  We opted to stay the night in the car.

My husband folded the seats in the middle down and layed out the pillows and blankets we had from our trip.  The three oldest kids just slept there and they were fine.  I slept on the back bench and my husband slept on the front bench by the steering wheel with the baby laying on his chest.  Luckily we had just filled up with gas, so we had enough to leave the car running to keep us warm.  The kids were amazing and it was a pretty uneventful night for them.  My husband and I didn't sleep very well, but atleast we were all warm and safe.

We called the tow truck at about 8 am and then bundled everyone up and headed back to the Burger King for breakfast.  I ordered our food and asked the lady if we could stay while the car was getting worked on.  She said we could, so we sat down and ate our food.  Just as we were finishing up, another worker brought out kid's meal toys for each of my kids--free.  About 1/2 an hour later another worker (who was sent to go buy salt for the sidewalks) showed up with salt and coloring books and crayons for my kids--free.  She said if my kids couldn't be happy in a BK, then they were doing something wrong.  I just about cried as I thanked them for what seemed like the hundredth time.

At about 10:30 am the car was fixed and my husband came to pick us up.  By 11 we were on the road again.  We only had about 4 more hours to go and we were really looking forward to being back at home.  We hit another snow storm, so it was slow going, but we finally made it home at 6:00 pm.  I fed the kids cereal for dinner, pushed everyone through the shower, and put everyone to bed by 7:30.  All three big kids slept until 7:45 this morning and the baby slept until 10:45.  Hopefully we will be back to our normal routine by tomorrow.

So, the moral of this story?  Don't know.  All I can say is that even though it was NOT fun, through the whole experience my husband and I were very away of how much worse it could have been and how blessed we were to be happy, healthy, safe and warm.  I will also pledge unfailing allegiance to Burger King...especially the one in Brookville, PA.  :)

Really great advice

The other day we were at the store with all 4 kids.  It wasn't just any store, it was Costco and it was way too close to Christmas.  To say that there were a lot of people there would be an understatement.  It was jam packed!!  It wouldn't have been a big deal, or even worth mentioning except for the fact that 75% of my children were crying/whining/begging for something/complaining because they weren't getting it.  I love it when they are like that.  I wish I could said that I took it as an opportunity to recognize them as a blessing, but I'd be lying.

I was trying very hard to have a conversation with my husband about whether or not to buy a GPS (no we still don't have one), but I couldn't even hear him becuase my little beauties were being so awesome.  Do I even need to mention all of the comments from bystanders about how horrid my kids were and what great parents we weren't?  Of course not.  We'll just leave that part out.

Then this old couple walked by.  The grandma (she must have been a grandma because she wasn't shooting me dirty looks) said, "Aren't you lucky to have so many kids?"  I shot her the "Are you serious?" look and she winked at me and said, "Of course you are!  You have music wherever you go!"  That was all it took!  I immediately started laughing which made my kids stop crying/whining/begging/complaining and laugh too.  They had no idea what they were laughing at, but it didn't matter.  We were in the middle of Costco laughing about how blessed we are to be a family and my heart was full to overflowing.  All I can say is bless her.  Bless her for being kind and genuine to a perfect stranger in need.  I hope I can be more like her when I grow up.

Magic

"The entire sum of existence is the magic of being needed by just one other person." --fortune cookie

My husband went to lunch at a chinese buffet today and this is what his fortune cookie said.  I can't stop thinking about it!  If being needed by just one other person is magical, then there is more magic in my life than the "most magical place on earth".  I am truly a blessed woman and I LOVE my life.

Do you know the number to Poison Control?

When E was born the Dr. gave me a magnet with the phone number to poison control and told me that I needed to memorize it.  She said, "Hopefully you will never have to call it, but you need to know the number just in case."  I did memorize the number, and it has come in handy several times over the last 6 years.  I have had to call it for my own kids, and had to give the number to others for their kids.  Every time I have called it, they have been EXTREMELY nice and helpful and whatever the issue was, it was never a big problem.  I have never had to take a child to the ER...until yesterday.

I will spare you all the details, and just say that B ate a pill (I still don't know where she found it) and when I called poison control, they told me to take her to the emergency room.  They had to monitor her heart rate, pulse, blood pressure and breathing for 6 hours.  She also had to drink charcoal to try and absorb anything that was in her stomach.  Once she got a few readings of normal, they released us and we got to come home around 9 pm.

If you find yourself in a similar situation, here is the information you need to know.  The National Poison Control number is 1-800-222-1222.  It is staffed locally by Doctors and nurses. Every time I have had to call it, they have always been very kind. No one has ever talked down to me or made me feel like a bad mom.

I remember as a kid seeing the Mr. Yuk stickers on things that we weren't supposed to touch.  I have never put them on anything in our home, but I think I am going to order some and put them on everything that may be harmful to my kids.

Here is the link to the Mr. Yuk store. It has lots of great information. Some of it you can view as a pdf link without having to buy it. It is worth checking out and making sure you know what things are dangerous and how to safeguard your family...especially your children.

What do you get when you mix a 3 year old and food coloring?

You get a daughter who looks like a 3 year old incredible hulk.  Sometimes I think B is going to do me in!  She is so sneeky and quiet it is unreal.  I could be gone for 2 minutes and come back to find my entire main floor destroyed...and I never heard a thing.  This particular time she got into my baking supplies and found the food coloring.  She smeared it all over herself.  It was shoulder to fingertips and hip to toes.  If she isn't wearing something pink and frilly, then she takes it off and runs around in her panties.  I guess it was lucky this time because she didn't ruin any clothes.

Now before you think I am a terrible mother, I do have to say that I keep anything that has the potential to make a mess in the pantry which is LOCKED because of her.  One of the older kids got into the pantry and left the lock undone.  She checks it multiple times a day just to see if it is open and this time it was.  All I did upstairs was make 3 beds.  I came back down and she was covered!

We scrubbed her little body until her skin was pink.  Then I let her soak in the kitchen sink (which is huge) for a while.  We got most of the color out, except on her hands.  They were tinted green for a couple of days.

What am I going to do with this girl?!  I don't want to crush her spirit.  I just want to learn how to help her use it in a good way.  Any suggestions?

"Positive Parenting with the Gold Standard"

Have you ever had one of those moments as a parent when you have had enough and you just want to quit?  I definitely have.  Several months ago I had a whole week of days like that and I was desperate.  I finally got the dishes washed and laundry folded and decided that something had to change or I just wasn't going to make it.  It was past midnight and I sat down to the computer to look up parenting advice.

Now, I love to read and read a lot.  When I was pregnant, I read everything about pregnancy that I could get my hands on.  When I had a newborn I read everything about newborns.  With each new phase, I have done the same.  So trust me when I say I have read a LOT of parenting books.  All of them had good ideas, and some of them even worked, but none of them "fixed" my parenting dilemmas.

I realize that parenting has its ups and downs.  I think it is compounded when you have multiples or lots of kids close together (like me).  It is especially hard when your kids are little and aren't able to communicate very well.  Add the lack of sleep that accompanies being a mom to young kids, and it is a recipe for hard times.

This particular night I found something that intrigued me.  It is an e-book written by a woman named Wendy Jensen called "Positive Parenting with the Gold Standard".  She has 7, yes 7 children, and she said that by following the techniques in her book, you could parent your children without yelling, spanking, nagging, or time outs.  As soon as I read that, I was sold.  The book cost just under $25 if I remember correctly and I was able to download it immediately.

She uses a ticket system for rewards and punishments.  If you do what you are supposed to, you earn tickets.  If you don't do what you are supposed to, you loose tickets.  You can use your tickets to play on the computer or have special one-on-one time with mom or dad, or any other number of things.  It makes the child responsible for themselves and allows the parents to guide their children instead of being the "good guy" or the "bad guy".

I loved everything about the book and was convinced that we had to try it.  I knew that B and C wouldn't be able to do it, but I thought for sure that E and J could.  I took a couple of days to digest it all and to make our tickets.  Then we started.  After about a week and a half, I mournfully realized that my E and J just didn't seem to get it.  The concept was a little too old for them and I was disappointed.   However, I knew it was a good idea and so we put it away for when they were a little older.

A couple of months later E came home from school talking about "bucket fillers" and "bucket dippers".  She told me that when you do something nice for people you are filling their buckets and when you do something mean you are dipping from their buckets.  In a matter of days, my 3 oldest children were all about being bucket fillers instead of bucket dippers.  I was amazed.

I emailed E's teacher and asked her what E was talking about. She told me about a book called, "Have You Filled a Bucket Today: A Guide to Daily Happiness for Kids ", by Carol McCloud.  It is geared at school age children and it gives them a visual concept of how to be nice to people.

A few days later I saw our tickets from "Positive Parenting" and wondered if we got some buckets to put them in if my kids would get it.  I got some buckets (thanks to a friend who found them at the hardware store) and it worked!!!

Here is a picture of our buckets with the tickets inside.  I wrote the kid's names on them with a permanent marker, and they do really well with it.  Of course there are still moments when things don't go well, but I have been really happy with it.  It does take effort on my part.  I have to be consistent for it to work, but isn't that how everything goes with parenting?