2018 chapter 42: October 17

The girls were falling asleep between 9 and 10 pm every night, so we're trying to nix their naps. It's the worst. Until 7 o'clock rolls around and they're on their way to dream land. But 4 o'clock...mommy is losing her sanity. Monday I had them all have quiet time, but it was the first time and didn't quite know how to go about doing it with two rooms and three kids, so I told them they could play together quietly, but couldn't come downstairs. Guess how long that lasted. About as long as it took me to change over a load of laundry - actually, not even that long, cause the screaming started in the middle, but I just finished changing it over. So they got quiet time in the respective rooms - cause Wade needs a break and the girls are actually quite good together. By the end of quiet time they all end up playing together, but they think they're fooling me and play nicely to avoid getting in "trouble." It is nice because we don't need to be home for naps and then quiet time doesn't take as long, so we can get out and do stuff if needed. Just trying to look at the positives. I've got to be careful though, cause car time or TV time can lead to this:

We were in the car and Wade asked me to tell them the days of the week, so I told him, and then he asked, "Wait, but you forgot about garbage day!" So apparently at our house we have Sunday, Garbage day, Monday, Tuesday..."

I was trying to get Blake down for a nap (pre-nixing them) and she was stalling and fighting me on something, then finally was happy when she took off her pants so she could see the trolls on her underwear. That, in a nutshell, is what I do all day - try to figure out what bazaar, off-the-wall thing my sub-five-year-olds have decided is of utmost importance.

Jac threw her first tantrum of epic proportions in the new car today. She sits in the way back and couldn't touch or hit anyone, so all she could was scream. It was glorious. Well, truthfully, it was still extremely annoying and that girl makes me want to beat my head against a wall, but I could let it play out because no one else was in harms way. One point awarded the new car.

On afternoon Jac came and cuddled me and asked me to take her picture:

On a different afternoon, Blake was running on the couch and told me to take her picture (and video, which she HAD to watch afterwards): 

We're still giving our coins for helpful children, so they continue to find ways to be helpful. The best creative helping was at Goodwill, there were some comforters on the floor and Wade said we needed to clean them up and he shoved them onto the shelf. Came up with that all on his own, I was kinda proud. Yesterday they helped by bringing the laundry downstairs. It fell and they were so apologetic, it was adorable. 

Always a sleeping picture. But this is why - Blake's feet are at Jac's head! Why?! And how does that not bother Jac? They must have a deal worked out that this is Jac's penance for snoring. 

I should've started with this, cause it's a cute picture and monumentally annoying news: we got snow this week! Not a harsh enough one to kill all my flowers, but it stayed most the day and little pockets could be found (by hard searching little people) the next day. Friday night it's supposed to get down to 25 and that's when we're going to lose everything. 

On the way home from church Wade was telling us all about what he learned (he has amazing teachers! They emailed this week and had us share with them our kids talents so they could discuss on Sunday. Not the story Wade told, but it just made me happy knowing that my little boy is in good hands) and he said they talked about the Holy Ghost and how he's invisible so we can't see him, but he's at our house. He was so excited to tell me about him, but he's been really into Halloween stuff like ghosts and monsters, so he might have just thought it was really cool that they were talking about an invisible, helpful, ghost at church. Someday the dots will connect correctly. 

I have a front loader washer. It was smelling kinda weird....not totally abnormal. But it was getting worse, so I cleaned it out. In the front seal I found corn kernels, from our trip to a corn pit, trying to sprout!

I've been running around so busy! I've had something every single day and night this week and it'll continue! Photo shoots, doctor appointments, marketing deliveries, shipt orders, recommend interviews, birthday parties, chiropractic appointments, chick-fil-a (yes, that's a thing on my to-do list!!), play dates, ect. I've been finding that as I've been reading the Book of Mormon every day and staying off of social media, I've been able to get everything done. I'm unintentionally prioritizing better and feeling blessed because of it. I by-passed where we were reading as a family 6 days in; it took me 6 days to read more than what it took us 10 months to get through, ha! I've been trying to read some in the morning, some during quiet time and then anything else I need to get through at night - and my kids will occasionally come find me and I'll tell them what I'm doing and they'll cuddle next to me. I like the thought of them remembering moments like that. I can remember seeing my mom read the scriptures - nothing specific, but I can remember it. I read a study that kids who love to read aren't necessarily the ones who's parents read to them (although that's good and important), but it's the kids who see their parents reading - I think that applies to the scriptures as well, seeing their parents reading and understanding that it's doable, important and a priority.