Attempting to be a Super Mom

Warning:  This post contains the venting of a hormone crazed, sleep deprived mother, that now has four children ages six and under. I'm having one of those motherhood days where I haven't slept in a couple of days due to a sick one week old and I'm dealing with kids that seem to have it out for me.  They are coughing, sneezing, and wiping their runny noses all over the tables, couches, their clothes, blankets, and basically any other surface available to them.  They don't listen to a single thing I ask or tell them to do or not do. They fight with each other or me non stop and every time Scotland finally falls asleep, they wake her, either by screaming and yelling or coming up and messing with her. I'm trying to be patient.  I'm hormonal and exhausted, and they are going through big changes with a new sister.  I could probably handle the arguing and fighting, the not listening, and even their messes though if it weren't for the germs and illness.  I kno...

I have had a rough week. It's been stressful and nearly heartbreaking, starting on Tuesday when both of my kids darted out in front of moving cars on separate occasions, and Shawn's plane having problems mid flight. Now the things aren't so big, but they just keep piling up. Today, it broke me. I couldn't take anymore even though more kept getting added on. The kids fought all morning. It's just frustrating as a parent to be breaking up fight after fight but it's pretty common, at least in our household. We decided to go to Shawn's parent's house and Shawn and the kids were going to go fishing with Terry. While I finished getting all of our stuff put together, Ben and Syd played in the front yard. We have a neighbor who thinks it is acceptable to take her dog into our front yard to poop. I assume this is so she doesn't have to worry about stepping in it or clean it up. Well, Ben stepped in it and tracked it all through the van as we were leav...

Do you ever have days where everything comes tumbling down all at once?  That was today for me.  I guess it started last night, really... (This is a big ranting post, just so you know ahead of time...) Last night, Shawn and I were doing laundry, packing his suitcase and picking up the house from the whirlwind weekend.  We were also watching Game Of Thrones.  That show is absolutely addictive and we were almost to the end of the season so we went ahead and finished it.  At about 2:00 we were ready for Bed.  I was changing Rylie's diaper on the bed on her changing pad.  She pee'd and it ran off the pad, all over the top sheet and comforter.  I got up and stripped the wet blankets off of the bed, cleaned Rylie up and got her new pjs and diaper on.  We were just laying back down when Ben came walking into the bedroom.  We got him laying down on the floor and almost asleep when Sydney came in.  We got several blankets (for us on the ...

The other day, I was reading a page that someone had linked to on Facebook about the dangers of small children going down slides on their parents or older siblings laps.  (I guess their shoes can stick to the slide and pull their leg around as you are going down the slide and the adult won't notice until it's broken the wee ones leg.  Nothing is safe anymore!)  At the bottom of the article was a link to something about Playground Pet Peeves.  Out of my own insecurities about being a helicopter mom, I clicked the link afraid I was going to have to defend my reasoning behind hovering.  I was actually surprised because a lot of the pet peeves on the list were that a lot of other parents don't hover enough. Anyway, this got me thinking.  As a mother that spends quite a bit of time at the playground I've seen a lot that I'm not thrilled with.  Here's a few that I can think of off the top of my head: 1. Kids that climb up the big slide.  I...

It's no secret that my son has a severe peanut allergy, in fact, almost everyone that knows me or my son knows this.  I'm sure that almost every parent can at some point understand what we go through.  Imagine that your child wants some video game or toy that you cannot afford at the time, but all of their friends have this game and they want it so bad.  Still, you have to say no.  The look on their face is so sad and it makes you want to do almost anything to get them that game/toy.  Now, imagine if it was something so small as a candy bar or piece of cake.  Everyone else is eating the birthday cake, but you have to tell your child no, because it may contain peanuts, or has been manufactured on equipment that manufactures peanut products, or because you just don't know.  It's heart breaking.  That's the life of a parent with a peanut allergy. Yesterday, I came across a link on the Today show's facebook that infuriated me. School Parents Want ...

Well, the definition of Jinx is a person or thing that is believed to bring bad luck, or a condition or period of bad luck that appears to have been caused by a specific person or thing.  Read that carefully then look at me.  That's what I've been feeling like.  On Tuesday, I posted that I was truly happy.  I am happy, but it's been rough since I posted that. To start, a little after I posted the blog, we got bad news about Shawn's mother's illness.  I can't really go into detail for her privacy's sake.  While it's turning out that with treatment, it may not be as bad as we thought, it's still worse than what we were all expecting. I've been having a rough time with the unpacking of the kitchen.  The kitchen being my domain and a fun place for me should be easy, but I need to lay contact paper before I can unpack anything.  I'm having a hard time finding places to roll it out so I can cut it, and I'm too short to reach most of the ca...

We are on day number 2 of Shawn at work and me home with both kids.  So far, everything has been great.  I imagine as Sydney grows and becomes more active, things will get more challenging and difficult, but for now, it's been fun and not really any harder than before she was born. Today, Ben and I worked on his letter G coloring sheets.  Tomorrow, we'll play our alphabet matching game, that I added the G to today.  Ben also decided that since I've been making him his letters out of the craft foam, so he can play with them and not have to worry about tearing them as easily, he wanted shapes as well.  I started them today and tomorrow I hope to finish them.  I'll take pictures of those tomorrow. I thought I also needed to include pictures of Ben and Sydney on the couch today.   Today, Ben did one of the funniest things.  I know, I'm starting to sound like one o...

Ben woke up early this morning after a late night and I am completely exhausted.  So much for trying to get some rest.  I might have forgotten to mention last week that my doctor is a little worried about preeclampsia.  So far I think I'm ok and seeing as how I'm 36 weeks a long today, I'm not too worried. I am quite a grump today though.  After the being up late and then getting up early nonsense.  I know that I'm going to be really tired for quite a bit here when the baby gets here.  That's the one part I'm not looking forward to.  I feel like nothing seems to be going right today. I need to turn this day around and get out of the grump.  After lunch, Ben and I are going to do his D is for dinosaur craft.  I'm going to try to work on my calendar for the month of March today as well.  Since the baby will be here, I'm scared of what that is going to do to Ben's craft time.  While it's fun, it is a lot of work for me.  I thi...

I'm having a rough time staying motivated to go to work. I don't feel happy with that aspect of my life. I'm so stressed and I don't get to see my husband. I know this is a decision I've made, so that I could keep Ben out of day care, and I don't regret that part, I just feel like I'm missing out on quality family time and hurting myself with stress and pent up anger towards work. I don't know what to do. We can't afford for me to quit but I just don't know that it's healthy for me, or the baby, to keep up like I have been. I wish there was a way for me to work at home.

I always seem to try to do things with Ben around lunch time or nap time. I know it's because that's when Shawn brings me the car and we take him back to work. Since I work evenings and we don't have a car until around noon or one, it makes it hard to do anything else. Today, it was the library. We went after taking Shawn back to work. I've learned that his patience runs out quickly so if I want any books, those have to be found quickly and first so he can help me find his books after where he doesn't have to be so quiet. Today, he wasn't even happy picking out his books. There was one point where he was playing and laughing with another boy about his age. I couldn't find this child's mother or whoever brought him to the library anywhere, so I let Ben and him play where I could watch them both, picked out some books, and then took this child to the desk in the kids area when I left. I thought it was really sad. I never let Ben out of my sight ...

For the past few days I feel like I've been neglecting my duties as a mom. I've been extremely sick. I actually still am. I've really been trying to not let it keep me from my most important job, but it has. I've been supervising him and what not, but we haven't done anything. I haven't been cleaning, and I haven't been doing the normal activities with Ben I normally do like playing with cars, puzzles, or wrestling. What ever I have is terrible. I felt decent yesterday and then I feel crappy again today. I hope nobody else gets this.