Best of Intentions

Today is Wednesday. We have not left the house since Sunday. Only two days, but it is Summer. The season of being outdoors, doing something, anything. Not the season to stay inside. However, that is how I find myself most days. Four kids under five and I struggle. I have the hardest time controlling the kids inside. The thought of going outside is terrifying. I have recently spent much time wondering and contemplating why I don't want to do anything. This is what I have discovered. I feel like the second we go outside or try to do anything I don't have complete control. Things get crazy and the kids get dirty. When we are inside I have everyone nice and contained. I can watch everyone. No one is getting too out of hand. I know I am getting to a place where I am totally doing things with the boys. But then you throw Juliet into the mix and complete chaos. I really feel like most parents can not relate to this aspect of parenting. I try not to be over the top crazy mom about this but I am. The other night I was laying in bed planning out the following day. I was running through all the options. Then my crazy head starts into the crazy thoughts. I really want to create this vivid picture of how things are when you have so many kids that are so young. You have a child when they are young and they don't grasp the concepts of 1. pain, 2. consequences, 3. cleanliness. Now you are trying to teach that times 4. Okay, so anyhow....I do realize that I am over the top crazy about protecting my kids. I know I struggle with leaving the house, even venturing into the backyard. This has become progressively worse lately. And I know I don't like my kids to get crazy muddy. But I am one mom and I try very hard everyday. I constantly struggle with mommy guilt. All this leads up to today. I woke up at 5:30a to get myself prepared and cleaned up for the day. My plan was to get the kids up early, go to the Y to exercise (I also struggle immensely at taking time for myself), let the kids play, stop off for a quick trip at the library to get new books, pick up lunch and spend the remaining part of the day at my sister's allowing the kids to get filthy. I know that sounds like a lot, but we haven't left in two days. At 8:45 I made breakfast, laid the kids clothes out and then woke them all up. No one wanted to eat breakfast, no one wanted to wash up and forget about brushing their teeth. I explained to them that we were going to leave, but no cooperation. Really? Brush your teeth and we can leave. That is all I am asking. Still very little cooperation. Patience is draining from me. Jackson walks up to me with food in his teeth and says, "I brushed my teeth!" I replied with, "What did you use?" "Toothbrush!" Time out for lying! Among many things lying is a very big issue right now. It kills me how my kids can look me right in the eye and lye without their expression changing at all. I can not lie at all. Regardless, I was frustrated, disappointed and completely out of patience. I went into my bedroom and opened up my jewelry box. My good necklace and one of my good earrings was missing. Panic filled me, immediately I was sweating. I know I didn't leave them somewhere because I wouldn't have put one earring up. And the events in the last week quickly led me to my children. Two weeks ago I lost my bankcard. I was on the phone with AT&T ordering a new cell phone. I sat the card on the bookshelf. When I went back gone. We searched and never found it. I ordered a new one. A couple days later I lost my wallet. Okay this is getting silly. I am not the type of person to lose things. I am a little disorganized but my wallet. I called the store I was at earlier (Wonder Bread Outlet) and no luck. My only thought was I dropped it in the parking lot. I searched the car at least three times. I was getting ready to drive to the store. When I desperately looked at my boys and said, "Did any of you take Mommy's wallet? You will NOT be in trouble if you give it back." I was thinking this is one of the few times I had cash in it, Jeff's $50 Gander Mountain gift card from Christmas and at least six movie passes. As soon as the words left my mouth Jackson quickly runs upstairs and returns with my wallet. "Mom, you have money! Will you take me to the bouncey place so I can play games since I found your wallet?!" Um...that will be a ginormous NO! In that same weekend I lost my camera. I didn't have it for the boys last t-ball game. That was disappointing. Long story short Jackson ended up returning it to me. He had hid it in his room. He had taken over 100 pictures during the last couple of days. I know because the outfit he was wearing in all his 'self portraits' kept changing. Now, today my jewelry. I made the boys go to their room, hoping someone would return with it. In the meantime, I can hear them each throwing temper tantrums. I went back to my room, searching everywhere. Minutes later Juliet walks in carrying part of their bedroom door, "broke, Mommy, broke!" One of the boys had kicked in part of the bedroom door. Wow, really!? Feeling my heart race and anger fill me I rushed up the stairs. For some reason, I stopped mid point on the stairs and just prayed. "Fill me Holy Spirit, fill me Holy Spirit, fill me Holy Spirit..." That is all I could think of. Peace is what I felt. I calmly walked in and asked what had happened. Of course, they each blamed each other. I said, "you are spending the day in your room." I turned around and came back down stairs.

Food

Today for our cookout I made cheesecake stuffed strawberries. I found the recipe on pinterest. I am totally addicted to that website. These are strawberries stuffed with cheesecake filling with graham cracker crumbs sprinkled on top. Definitely will be making these again. This was our dinner on Sunday night. We marinated the steak in pineapple juice, honey, soy sauce, ginger and garlic. The skewers included red and yellow peppers, mushrooms, onions, pineapple and steak. They were very delicious.

4th of July!

Today we celebrated July 4th. We had a lot of fun. As usual, I uploaded the photos in backwards order. We ended our day downtown watching the fireworks. Well, the kids did not watch. This is what they did while the fireworks were going off. They ran around and took turns in the stroller pushing each other. Here is Jonah pushing Jackson. Jacob playing.

Jeff with Juliet. Juliet refused to look at me.

Me and Jackson after spending all afternoon swimming.

Savanah and Jackson posing for me.

I made the kids blue slushes with cool star straws for an afternoon treat after swimming.

Jacob and me getting ready to go swimming.

We are so festive!

The kids getting ready to go to Grandma Glo's. The boys each picked out a hat to wear. Juliet didn't want to be left out.

Jonah!

Jackson!

Jacob!

Pictures update 2

The boys and I made lemon cookies last week. The recipe said to roll the dough out and use cookie cutters. We decided to use dogs and dog bones. These were really good. The boys had a lot of fun using the rolling pin and cookie cutters. These pics were from last weekend at the Greenwood Fireworks. Here is Savanah and Juliet.

Family photo. It is impossible to get all six us looking at the camera at the same time. Five out of six isn't bad.

Picture update

I think I am finally all up to date and getting organized with my pictures. The following are all the pics from the rest of July.Last Saturday we made it the Greenwood Parade. The kids loved it. I am so glad we made it there. These are the only pics I was able to take with my camera.

These pics are a little old. We went to the zoo two weeks ago. This is Jacob on the carousel.

I never buy the kids snacks or lunch at the zoo. It is way too pricey. However, I had promised the kids they each could get ice cream on this visit. Juliet wanted cotton candy. Cotton candy was the same price. So, I let her have cotton candy. She always knows exactly what she wants.

This is Jackson and Braxton on the carousel.

Jonah getting ready to ride the roller coaster at the zoo. This is his smile.

Random pic of Juliet.

I mentioned before I made sponge thingies for the kids to play with outside. Here they are. You cut up some cheap sponges into strips. Tie together with dental floss. They are cute. The kids loved them. Instead of tossing them at each other they washed their bikes. It was darling. However, I could have just let them play with sponges. They really didn't need to be cute little balls. But they were fun regardless.

Three full days

The last few days have been pretty busy. So, I am just going to discuss and post pics later. My camera is still full, my phone is now full and I have been utilizing other people's cameras/phones. So, pics will definitely be a hodge podge. Monday I took the kids to the library, the YMCA and the movies. I only took the boys to the movies. Me and three little boys at the movies. But it was totally awesome. This is how I would describe them at the movies. They were like kids in pictures. You know how BEFORE you have kids how you assume they are always cute and act perfect and how you just know 'your kids will NEVER act that way'. Well, that is how they were...totally absolutely perfect. Complete perfection. The day was crazy, but the movie experience was awesome. Tuesday we spent the entire day at my sister's house. It was not perfection. My sister ended up having to do a bunch of work stuff. So, I had all six kiddos during the day. It was a lot of crying, fighting, screaming. Oh, and one incident of hiding from me. Yes, I thought for a moment I had lost a child. But he was hiding from me. Yesterday was a very long day. Then we had a tball game in the evening. We didn't have dinner till 9p. At 9:30 Jackson was still eating dinner and asking for more. Oh, I just wanted to cry. I didn't think the day was ever going to end. At 10p I was doing story time. Today we stayed home all day. Oh, lovely staying home. Well, we did make a run for McDonald's for lunch. But we were home the rest of the day. This morning I spent nearly 2 whole hours in the kitchen cleaning. I know exactly how long I was in the kitchen because I set my timer. I set my timer for 15 minutes......then 15 more minutes.......then 15 more minutes. The kids were playing awesome. Well, Juliet had found the half full carton of orange juice I accidentally left out. She poured the whole thing on the table, which ran all over the floor. So, a good portion of that time I was cleaning the floor. Then April and her kids came over. We did lunch, then headed outside. I made these sponge balls for the kids to play with. And I made homemade bubbles. Love the homemade bubbles. They are so much more bubbly than store bought. The kids played in water, which led to mud. So much mud we did baths at 4p. Then we baked cookies. We were busy. I have zero plans for tomorrow. I am still debating on having a garage sale this weekend. So, I really need to be making some decisions about that.

Cookin

I have been doing a lot of baking lately. The other night I made 'baked oatmeal'. You prepare it the night before and let it sit in the fridge. In the morning pop it out of the fridge and bake for 30-40 minutes. This was so super easy. The kids loved it. I really liked it too. I opted to pour vanilla almond on mine. The kids liked it that way too. This is going to be a new staple in our house. Cheap and easy.

This is what we are having for dinner tonight. It is on the grill as I type this. It includes green, red and yellow peppers, potatoes, tomatoes, onion, carrots, cabbage (my favorite), mushrooms, and polish sausage. Wrap in aluminum foil and put on the grill. I found this little recipe in a cookbook. I am not that creative.

Tonight we are going to the fireworks. I have prepared these little cuties to take with us for an evening snack. Strawberries, marshmallows and blueberries on toothpicks. So festive. I love it.

Friday blah?

I am supposed to be giving my kids baths right now. So, I have 2 nano seconds to spend blogging. I am really just putting off bath time until I absolutely have to do it. In the meantime they are destroying the house. Some days it is just easier to let them destroy it and clean up later. That is the kind of mood I am in right now. Jeff has been working over every night. Thursdays he has class. So, he is not here at all. By Friday I am just needing a break. I do have plans to be gone all evening. I am taking a little class on couponing. Following that I have a late night planned with the girls. Unfortunately, Jeff is working over again today. So, he will be running in as I am running out. The really bad part of that is 1. I won't get to talk to him at all 2. I will have no assistance is trying to pull myself together to look decent enough to go in public. That is something I am really struggling with. Another big decision I spend WAY too much debating on is short hair or long? Really? It is so silly but I think about it so much. I really like my hair short and big. I mean BIG! I love big huge hair. I could really get carried away with it. However, I think my big short hair makes me looks older. So, now the debate starts all over again. Short, long, short, no definitely long. Anyways. It is raining in Indiana. I keep picking up what seems like the same toys over and over again. I have emptied and reloaded the dishwasher twice so far today. I have a to do list a mile long that I never ever get to. I am just very blah today. I am really feeling motivated to tackle some projects I have been thinking about. My kids are so incredibly hyper and I am just really in the mood for silence. Awesome news! My hubby just called me to tell me he has decided NOT to work over tonight. What an anwsered prayer! He will be home in less than an hour. See, putting off bath time was worth it. Now we can do it together. God always knows what we need and when. It is something small, but I feel like a new person after that call. What a reminder of how He is always with us!

PB & J cookies

There are some things I just know about myself. I go through seasons where I am all about something. Then, I am just the complete opposite. I am either working out 2-3 times a day or I haven't seen the inside of a gym in forever. I am constantly cleaning and organizing my house. A couple weeks later I find myself 'running errands' all day to avoid my house. I am blogging several times a week or I haven't logged on in months. Right now I am crazy about baking. Yesterday I made pb & j cookies. I didn't care for the jelly part. But my kids told me, "mom, that is the best part!" Well, except for Jonah. He doesn't like anything anymore. He only wants hot dogs with mustard and a bun. That is how he orders it for nearly every meal. For the last month or so I have been working my way through a cookie cookbook. I don't know why, but on my bucket list is to make every single recipe in a cookbook. Well, in true Jackie fashion I chose a cookie cookbook. Honestly, this little cookbook is darling. I received it as a baby shower gift when I was pregnant with the boys. It is a Winnie the Pooh cookbook. Next up is nut bars and lemon cookies.

Oh, and I am working on my 100 days of summer. We will be making homemade bubbles soon. Yes, they are easy as they sound. Water, glycerin and dish soap are the ingredients. I know the kids will think it is so cool to make the bubbly mixture ourselves. And I want to try and take the kids blueberry picking this week. The hard part is locating a u-pick blueberry farm close to our home. Do you know of one?

Watermelon waffles

Continuing with the 100 days of summer I made watermelon waffles for lunch today. I was going to go outside and play with bubbles. The weather is rainy today. Instead, I opted to make waffles. The waffles do not taste like watermelon. Simply make the waffle batter, divide the batter and dye with food color pink and green. Then sprinkle with chocolate chips for the watermelon seeds.

I was a little disappointed how these turned out. They were so much cuter on the website where I found the idea. They tasted great!

Staycation

Jeff was on vacation all last week. We stayed in town all week. These are some activities included in our week. Swimming! This was Juliet's first time swimming this year. She did really well and loved it. The boys are getting so much better at swimming. They can each touch bottom when they are in the shallow end of the pool. That is very exciting.

Last Saturday was PBS meet the characters day in the park. It was so hot, but I am glad we went. The kids enjoyed meeting Elmo and Clifford.

I totally splurged and bought the kids each a balloon. Look how cute they are?

These are some random photos from the week.

Jacob and Jackson playing.

Jonah playing.

This week included a trip to the zoo. My sister, niece and nephew went with us. The weather was perfect. We had a great day.

Jeff and his Dad have been putting a fence up for our back yard. The boys were taking their tools and stealing things out of Charley's work truck. I had to snag this pic of them playing out back.