Monday brought us
another week. Another long, chaotic week. Per usual, we were off to work and
the girls off to school/daycare. One day, I’m going to do one of those minute
by minute recaps of my day, from start to finish. Really document all of the ins
and outs of the day – the chaos, the fighting, the running around, the overwhelming
moments of every day. Like our (my) mornings – it’s pure chaos, every morning. I
swear, I get to work, pull into my parking spot, turn the van off and I just sit.
I sit there for a minute. I close my eyes, I take a deep breath, I collect my
thoughts. Between 5:00 and 7:15ish I feel like I don’t get a minute to even
think – I just run on instinct and autopilot. After I’m done creating my
momentary zen, I throw my make up on, trek it into work, and get started on the
next portion of the day. I swear, I’m ready for bed by the time I log into my
computer! I know that I’m blessed, and I count those blessing daily, and I know
one day I’ll miss this chaos and craziness – that’s definitely hard to imagine
right now though! In happier news, I’m TOTALLY loving Target’s Cartwheel app. I
know a few people I’ve mentioned it to don’t use it because they things it’s
pointless – that you don’t save much. And there are some living under a rock
who have never heard of the app before. But with my new phone, it actually
tells me when I started using the app…August 2013, and since then, a little
over a year ago, I’ve saved about $150! That’s crazy. That doesn’t seem pointless
to me, that’s for sure. So, for any readers who shop Target and don’t use the
app – DO IT! In not such great news…1)
it’s so, so, SOOOOO cold out. We’re talking mid-January temperatures right now.
FREEZING. I’m so sick of winter already, and it’s not even here yet. I think it’s
going to be a long one, that’s for sure. And, 2) Eliza’s rash is not getting
any better. In fact, it may be getting worse. I did schedule her an appointment
for the morning at the clinic, just in case. Poor thing. We had a pretty quiet
night at home, dinner, some family time, baths. The usual.
Eliza's rash, spreading and looking worse. No fun.
After a LONG night
with Eliza, and an early morning, we hung out at home for a while before I took
her in to get checked out again. She’s just been miserable…not eating, crying
in discomfort and her rash is just getting worse. Her appointment today was
with a family practice doctor that we’ve seen before. She checked her over…again,
all of her vitals were good, just a slight fever, nothing concerning though.
She wasn’t familiar with the rash and agreed with the Urgent Care doctor that it
didn’t appear to be a common allergic reaction. The pediatrician we say on
Friday actually happened to be in the office and stopped in to check her over
as well. So, between 3 doctors, we’ve gotten basically the same answers…not a common
rash, not vaccine related, not a common allergy reaction…no mention of mumps,
chicken pox or roseola concerns…they ran a strep test and it was negative –
verdict from all was some kind of viral rash and it would work its way out of
her system on its own. Oh joy. But, they did provide a letter saying she’s not
contagious and she was OK to be at daycare, with no concerns. So, she was off
to daycare – which, I sometimes think is better anyway, more distractions there
than sitting at home. I made my way back home to work – switched from my
Wednesday work at home day to save some leave time traveling after the late
morning. I got done working (a little later than usual, to make up some time from
this morning), picked up the girls, and didn’t get home until about 6:20. I
looked around the house and just got this overwhelming feeling of failure…failure
as a mother, a wife, a homemaker. It was 6:20 and we had JUST gotten home, with
no idea of what we were going to eat for dinner, the house was a mess – toys everywhere,
dishwater and sinks full of dishes, baskets of laundry to be folded – along with
laundry in the washer AND the dryer since Sunday, Olivia and Amelia were at
each other’s throats as soon as we walked in the door, Eliza was sad and
miserable and not feeling well. Seriously, I just wanted to crawl into a hole.
To think we have to host Thanksgiving in a week, and then do all of the
Christmas and Birthday planning. It’s all just pushing me over the edge. Maybe
I’m just super hormonal right now, I don’t know, but it’s hasn’t been my best
couple of days, that’s for sure.
Still looking horrible, another trip to the doctor.
Wednesday was a
little better. I started the day off by checking my timehop for the day, and
that started my day off on a much brighter note. One year ago today I heard
little Eliza’s heartbeat for the first time. Man do I miss that excitement. I
mean, I know she’s here, live and in person, but it’s just so special. There’s
nothing like those first heartbeats, that first big ultrasound…being able to
take a peek into this secret little life inside of you. So amazing. It’s still
so hard to believe I’ll never experience that again. Some days I just can’t
believe we’re done and we’ll never go through all of that again (yes, even with
all of the chaos and overwhelming days). So crazy. Today, while she looked
about the same, Eliza seemed to be much happier, in much better spirits, so
that’s promising. Other than that, the day was pretty standard. Since I worked
at home yesterday, I was in the office today (boo). I picked the girls up after
work, and we made our way home to start dinner and settle in for the night.
Got a smile tonight! That tongue, always hanging out.
On Thursday, Olivia
woke up not feeling well. She was feeling pretty warm, complaining that her
head hurt and she had a slight fever. I didn’t want to risk her getting worse
at school, or being sent home, so I just kept her home to be on the safe side.
She rested most of the day, so I was able to get a few hours of work in while
she napped and relaxed. She seemed much better in the afternoon…she was more
awake, starting to play and getting anxious for sissy to get home (even though,
of course, she just fought with sissy all night once she was home). Christian
picked Amelia and Eliza up on his way home, so I was able to start dinner, and made
a batch of peas for Eliza. And, that was about the excitement for this evening.
Friday was a pretty
good day. Everybody was feeling good, everybody was off to work and school. Success!
I worked a half day today…a couple of my work friends and I took the afternoon
off to grab lunch and go see the latest Hunger Games movie. YES!!! There’s
nothing like actually taking an afternoon off for myself…not to go grocery
shopping, not to take care of sick kids, not because I’m sick…for me, to have
fun, to have some me time. It was so great! I’ve never read the Hunger Games
books (I don’t read – not my cup of tea), so I think the books are much more
exciting for me than my friends. It was a great afternoon. I picked up the big
girls after the movie, right about the usual time, and we made our way home. We
all got ready, Christian arrived home a little early, and we were off to hang
out with some friends for the evening. Our friends John and Michelle had us
over, along with some more friends, Nate and Gini, for a little Holiday
dinner/get together. They made a Turkey and some sides, had some drinks and
dessert. We ate, chatted, laughed and laughed and laughed. The girls watched
some Christmas movies and played with some toys and were much better behaved
that I expected. It’s so rare that we actually get to spend time with our friends;
it’s always so great when it happens. I also appreciate that our friends are
willing to let us drag our kids along with us when necessary, especially when
they don’t have kids of their own – I know how overwhelming it can be to have
these little people basically take over your house. We didn’t stay super late,
but it was definitely past bedtime when we left. We gave Eliza a bottle when we
left, and she actually ended up staying asleep once we got home. The big girls
were also off to bed, and we settled in to watch a little TV for the evening.
We didn’t last too long, but we made an effort.
Our little babysitter, hard at work
Saturday was a
pretty good day. Christian was off to work. Eliza actually slept through the
night for the first time in a looooong time, so that was a huge relief. She
also ate pretty well throughout the day, and her rash was really faded, so
fingers crossed, I think we’re turning the corner on whatever the heck she had going
on. YES!! The big girls kept each other pretty well entertaining today – even kept
the fighting to a minimum for a change. The day overall was pretty quiet. I was
in a pretty lazy, want to spend time with the little ones mood today, and
Christian was pretty exhausted from work once he arrived home, so we didn’t get
too much done around the house. I did make a quick trip to Target for a few
groceries, and a gift for a birthday party we have tomorrow, other than that –
it was not a productive day.
One of my new favorite pictures, Eliza having a staring contest with teddy.
Sunday brought us
another quiet morning. We had some breakfast, watched some TV, played with the
kids a little. Cuddled with baby. The usual. The girls missed their last swim
class of the season/year because we were off to their little friend Amaiyah’s
birthday party. Funny story – Amaiyah was in Olivia’s Pre-K class, so they were
friends. Now, because she didn’t start kindergarten this year, she’s in Amelia’s
Pre-K class, so they’re friends. Olivia was acting up recently and I told her
that if she kept it up I was going to tell her teacher that she had to go back
to Pre-K until she started acting like a kindergartner – Olivia ignored me, but
Amelia got SO upset and yelled “NOOOOOOOO, Emily and Amaiyah are my friends
now, she can’t come in our class!!”. LOL, she’s so funny. The party was at an
indoor playground in Eagan…I’d heard of it, and it’s been recommended to me for
Olivia’s birthday, but I’d never seen it before. It’s actually REALLY cool, and
I think we are indeed going to have Olivia’s party there this year. I have to
do some research on it though. I did bring the baby with me, even though Christian was at home, because the weather today was actually pretty amazing - he and his friend Lorenzo quick got the lights put up on the house. It's been cold, and it's supposed to get cold again this week, so it was really their only chance to get out there and NOT freeze their buts off. I was starting to think the lights just weren't going to happen, so that was pretty exciting. After the party, we made our way home and we
were all pretty exhausted. Then, it really started to hit me…Thanksgiving is in
FIVE days, and we are not prepared, at all. My in-laws bought the turkey and
dropped it off this weekend, other than that, we have nothing and I’ve cleaned
nothing. I really did not want to host Thanksgiving this year…like, REALLY did
not want to. But, for reasons I can’t get into, we feel like we have to. This
year, I did hand out some food assignments to our guests though…so, this year
we’ll just be responsible for cooking the turkey, making the potato sides,
making gravy and getting the pies (which, I may just buy this year, I haven’t
decided yet). So, I’m taking a little bit of the burden off my back. And, I’ve
decided that other than vacuuming at some point, and cleaning up the kitchen, I
won’t be doing any cleaning. I’ll promise our guests food, but I’m not
promising tidiness this year. I have to just be OK with it. I mean, what’s the
sense in picking up the basement, just to have it destroyed by 6 crazy girls
anyway? Over it! So, rather than run around like crazy all night, I rested, and
relaxed, and got ready to head into another week. All of that will get done, at
some point.
Birthday party fun!
Until Next Week!
XOXO
