Kudos to all you full time working mothers! Specifically those of you fellow educator mothers! Granted, none of us have easy jobs, but educators work 8 hour days go home and work usually 4 more hours. OR they stock up those 4 hours each night and disperse them to Saturday and Sunday. I would love to know how you manage to teach, parent, and keep a semi-clean/organized home.
Talking is something I'm good at. Just ask anyone who knows me. Give me 5 minutes in your presence to get a feel for personality, and I'll talk your ear off. ...It's one of the more charming traits Steve married me for! Ok so that's not true, but it's funny! Anyhoot - there have been normal miscommunications or lack of communications here and I've been praying praying praying about how to straighten them out. So, one day I pulled Steve aside, apologized in advance, and spilled all my thoughts, feelings, and whatnot.
By the way, I don't know what marriage did to me. I used to never cry and now I cry at the stinkin drop of a hat. NOT A FAN OF THAT!
Back to what I was saying...as I'm spilling my blah (translates into "girl stuff") God starts talking to my heart. Being a typical woman, or so I'm told, I thought the problem was him. HA! For once, I was wrong. Yuck that tastes nasty coming out of my mouth! But it was wonderful to be able to talk and spill and shed a few tears. He's learning not to laugh at those tears. Enough about that. I feel better, I'm learning myself better, and handing more over to Christ every moment of the day! SO FREEING! Christa Wells has an awesome song on her Frame the Clouds cd. It talks about carrying a hidden burden. I felt like that was my baggage that I wasn't talking to Stephen about. You should listen to that cd of hers. LOVE IT!
I like to have a clean house. Not just typical clean mind you, but slightly OCD clean. They tested me and I'm not OCD, I just have "tendencies." Mess from children doesn't bother me, honestly. BUT leaving my bed unmade, my clothes slopped into drawers instead of folded neatly, dog hair on the floor, papers strewn across the desk, boxes in my bedroom (because there is no where to unpack them), my work sitting undone on the desk. ARGH!!!! Can't handle it! So to help me out, the alarm goes off at 5am. That's my time. That's my read the Bible/exercise/laundry/cleaning time. Kyle & Abby get up at 6:15am for breakfast, getting dressed, brushing teeth and hair, making beds, and getting into the truck hopefully by 7:30am. Stephen gets up ...well, it varies ;) I don't mind! Let him sleep, he helps me SO MUCH!!!!! Usually we three (me & kids) get to work at 7:30am. I set up for my day. 4pm I go home, help with dinner/homework, clean up dinner, help with baths, read a Bible story as a family, and put Abby down. Stephen and I sit for about 30 minutes then Kyle is off to bed. USUALLY I am pooped so I do bare minimum work and am in bed no later than 10pm. This repeats Mon-Fri. Saturdays I get up at 5am and do everything I missed during the week until the kids get up.
I thought I was doing pretty well....until yesterday. You see, if I miss a meal there are some pretty whacky repercussions. Randomly falling asleep, grumpiness, lethargy, general "can't function-ness." I missed 2 breakfasts (I eat 3), and ate no lunches by 11:30am. Usually by this time I've eaten 2 bags of veggies, a bowl of cereal, 2 boiled eggs, and some carrots/grapes/an orange. You get the picture. We were running errands and on the way I bottomed out into grumpiness. Holiday weekend - 2 kids - a husband who does not like busy crowds, are you getting the picture? We made it through everything. We got home and Steve told me to stay home and nap before meeting the family at my in-laws (aka 2nd family) I teared up because I knew I was tired and grumpy and was trying so hard not to be. He led me to the recliner sat me down, held my face close to his, and told me that my health and happiness was worth more than a clean house. "Rest, then come over. You can't do everything." Do you have any idea how hard it is to hear that and know he is right?
Told you he is awesome!
2 hours later I woke up and joined them!
Work - ugh - it's good but it's work. Enough said!
I ran the budget only to see if we could get a good cable package within our budget. Called the cable company. "Ma'am, you have channels 2 - 99 for free." There was more to the conversation, but YIPPEE! We can watch the Colts and Gators from HOME for FREEEEEEE!!!!!
I should have asked, but I didn't. Yay for us!
Here are some pictures from today! =)
Kaden showing off his GATOR orange collar!
It's reflective - Abby is proud to say she picked it out. ;)
Blurry - but thank my phone for that one.
A late night a HS football game, late night for a Gator game (she zonked at 8:45pm last night on the couch), and she's down for the count!
Kyle showing his "western" version of a Star Wars Storm Trooper!
Getting ready to dispatch the enemy!
Stephen went outside and did a wonderful job trimming!
He thought I'd be upset by how much was done, but seriously folks!
EVERYTHING needed to be trimmed!
Kyle and Kaden are helping get the brush loaded to throw it away!
Me? What do I get to do today?
Want to guess how excited I feel about grading, writing lesson plans, and doing a reflective analysis while my family gets to be outside working in the beautiful afternoon?
Can you guess?
Notice the perfectly smooth and beautiful hair, huge smile, and general joyfulness exuding from my face.
Love to ya'll! Praying for you!
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