"How's Things?"

A lot of my favorite people like to start our phone calls with that phrase.  Well, some things are good and some things are not.

The good?  Visits are done, at least for now.  Yesterday was another cancellation by Bio-Mom.  I never said anything to the boys.  Their world was not rocked and our day moved forward as usual.

Also, Cyrus rocked yesterday.  For the low low price of $7 he cleaned the homeschool room all by himself, cleaned the kids' bathroom, cleaned the toy room and landing areas, cleaned his bedroom, and vacuumed the steps.  He has never worked so well for me, and since he was trying to get all the money I did not hear him yell, for an hour, that his sister wasn't helping enough. So that is a big deal for me.

I was still aggravated off and on yesterday.  I have been wanting to eat everything sugary in sight.  I almost feel like its PMS except, all my stuff was removed 2 years ago.  There is NOTHING left in there to create these hormonal type symptoms.

Last night things were better and I realized something.  I felt peaceful.  The house was clean and picked up and that helped me to regulate.  Everyone keeps saying not to worry about the house right now, because I am at the stage where my house will not be clean, but dang it I feel better when it is clean!  When the house is not clean I don't feel free to just participate in the children's lives. I know I have to do something or the whole thing will swallow me up.  I spend the whole day trying to get things done and being interrupted.

This next portion is not a complaint.  Its just the reality of my days right now...  I need to do 2 loads of laundry a day.  I need to vacuum everyday because the boys, baby included, put everything in their mouths.  I clean after breakfast, clean after snack, clean after lunch, clean after snack, and clean after dinner.  I also need to prepare breakfast, snack, lunch, snack, and dinner.  I wipe faces, and butts, change clothes that have been peed and puked on (theirs and mine).  I pick up toys (or I order others to pick them up, which is a different kind of work).  I feed Bottles and Baby food.  I snuggle, rock and play enforcer for the 4 times a day I lay children down for naps.  I also referee all the arguments that break out when those nap times do not happen successfully and let's not forget all the arguments that happen just because he's holding it and I WANT IT!  These things take all of my day and I usually don't get them all done.  I am sure you can think of lots of other housework that should go on this list.  That all is falling under the "Oh crap someone's coming over!" category right now.

 I am ADD and it can create difficulties for me in finishing things, and in just remembering what I need to remember, or catching all that is going on around me.  When it is chaotic around me I get worse.  I tend to react instead of being proactive.  I can't find what I am looking for and things get farther and farther behind schedule and the pressure gets higher and higher.  When the counters are clear and the toys get put away my mind works better and so does my patience.

So in an effort to have better mental health, I am going to somehow switch my major clean up to evenings (I like to clean in the mornings and just leave the counters dirty and unplug at night). I did clean up last night and it was freeing to go outside and play with the babies this morning.  This will take prayer and I laugh as I type that part, but I KNOW its true.  I don't like to clean at night.

I also am finding that I am happier and more relaxed with all the kids when we spend lots of time outside, so I am going to start spending LOTS of time outside everyday with the babies.  Rain or shine.  I took the kids on a boat ride on the pond today.  They loved it and so did I.  OK, I am getting off here.  I need my outside time!