Princesses vs. Transformers

OK, so I'm going to let you into a bit of my horribleness- not all of it, I have to have a shred of dignity to my name.  By the way, I totally blame my pregnancy hormones for the whole incident, but what happened happened.
 
Last weekend I was up at the crack of dawn with The Boy and The Baby Boy, who are both early risers.  That is not good for me- I am NOT a morning person, at all.  Yet nearly every morning between 5:15 and and 6:30 they are greeting me with "Mom, can you change my diaper?" . . . yes.  "Can we go watch t.v.?" . . . no. 

I'd like to say I'd be a more excited about seeing them  each day if it was "Good morning Mom, I love you."  But, truth be told, I'd probably still be a grumpy morning person. 

I must interject here that I've been reading a book with The Diva in her religion class over that last month or so.  It is called The King of the Golden City -

http://www.chcweb.com/catalog/TheKingoftheGtoldenCityAnAllegoryforChildren/product_info.html

It is an allegory about living a Catholic life.  Very good read- lots of valuable lessons.  It's not my first read; I've read it with the previous older 3 sisters.  It's funny how you can read something years apart and it can strike you differently each time.  God does His best work that way though, doesn't He?

This read through talked to me through the main character who was battling "Self"- our conscious- who wants to sleep in just a little bit later one morning.  See where I'm going?  She has to overcome her selfish desires and learn self control. It didn't go to well for her at first, and I'm afraid I had a comparable experience.

The family attended a Saturday Mass this weekend, so the plan was to sleep in on Sunday morning.  I'm sorry, that plan was for my husband and all the daughters of the house- not for me.  (Did I mention that I'm NOT a morning person?  That I treasure sleep- especially in the morning?  Oh yeah, I guess I did.) 

This time was going to be different though.  When the boys were to greet me in the morning, I was going to get up and spend some fun "Mom and sons" time with them.  Maybe we'd play with their trio blocks, maybe we'd play sword fighting.  Whatever it was, we'd have some fun before the rest of the kids got up.
 
5:45 AM and I squashed "self" as I got out of bed an followed the boys to their room.  We made their bed and I plopped down amidst a sea of  Hot Wheel cars.  Suddenly The Baby Boy handed me one of the toy Transformer cars that belonged to The Boy.  It was a bit banged up.  In fact, the two back fenders were popped off.  Not a problem.  I've battled this Transformer before (which if you have not transformed a Transformer, it's not too different than a Rubik's cube- only slightly easier).  So I made myself comfortable on the floor and set to work.

One hour and twenty minutes later, I was still battling "Barricade", and he was winning.  I sill hadn't managed to attach the fenders, and the boys had so moved on to something other than spending time with Mom.  Sadly, I'm not even sure what they were totally up to- I was too engrossed into the challenge that faced me.  I was in it for the principal of it.  No toy was going to get the best of me!  I didn't get a college degree or earn a few degrees in mothering 101 for nothing!! 

I was in so deep that I hadn't noticed The Diva came into the room.  The boys had moved onto playing with her.  They were having fun.  But I was NOT going to let this toy beat me!  They all 3 asked me if they could go eat breakfast.  I told them to go ahead, I'd be down later- after I finished.  

I know, you can so see "Self" was running this show.  I had failed; she was winning.  Not only was I not getting the toy fixed, but I was now in tears- completely aware of how I'd messed up, yet unwilling to give up.  Have you ever been there?  It's not a fun place.  I'd lost control.  I'd lost control over a silly little toy.

Slowly I made my way downstairs.  The 3 were sitting at the table eating and enjoying the Sunday morning.  I slunk past them, headed to the computer, looked up how to fix it, popped the the pieces in place - finished.  Somehow it didn't matter though. 

You know the great thing about life?  Forgiveness.  It is great to receive it.  It felt beautiful to hear my boys to say "It's okay Mom.  And hey, you fixed it!" 

It feels even better to receive it from the Lord.  I think the some of most beautiful words in the world are 
"I absolve you from your sins, In the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit."

If you haven't heard them for awhile, I recommend meeting our Lord in a special place with one of his chosen men.  It's good for the soul!

Take two:

Monday morning.  7:00 AM.  I was sitting at the table with my boys.  We were laughing and having fun as they hovered over their sister's look and find princess book.  Not very manly, I know.  But, they weren't into for the dresses or crowns.  They saw a challenge and they weren't going to back down from it for anything!

Thant's my boys!

Surviving myself as I pick up the pieces and try to control Self,
Mary

Survival?

Well, it has now been almost 2 weeks since we've replaced our carpet in 4 bedrooms, hallway, and stairs and I can say that I'm lovin' it!  And, since I'm am writing this, it means that we did survive the move of 3 twin beds, two sets of bunk beds, one queen bed, 5 dressers, 3 bookcases and I'm guessing somewhere close to 150 shoes and surely 2 tons of clothes (and that was just from the oldest 3 daughters' closets!) 

The great thing about this new carpet is that it is dirt color- meaning that I am enjoying that it hides things well.  Not that I don't try to keep a clean house, mind you - it's just nice to have a little camouflage to help me out!  Plus, we are each thrilled by the "puffiness" of new carpet and pad- so comfortable that I had many of the kids opt for sleeping on the floor instead of their beds. 

So, the labor of moving was worth it- and I have to say, even at 5 months pregnant, I was able to pull my weight and share of the help.  Who knew a very pregnant woman could lift a top bunk bed in place on the bottom one.  Well, okay, it didn't have the mattress in it, but still- not bad, huh?  Honestly though, if it weren't for the older 3 daughters and my father, my husband would have had his hands too full.  He put out plenty of hard work himself though- and I was quite impressed and totally relieved to have the excuse of being pregnant! 

I do have to share though that I am the type of person that hates disorder- enough so that it unnerves me to be surrounded by chaos.  You probably have heard of the show Hoarders?  I couldn't help but be reminded of this show as I sat in my bedroom surrounded by my children's stuff, with only a path to the bathroom and out of the room, just wide enough to fit my pregnant belly through- barely.  AGHHH!  It was mentally painful. 

Even better news about the carpet- it gave us the excuse to go though 3 years of build-up in the house.  Not much removal for my husband and myself, not much for the boys-the girls though?  Well, we are still delivering donation bags to the local second hand store.  It feels very refreshing to clean out and give to others. 

There was one item that I did take out of my own room, and although I didn't give it away, I did give it a new life.  I had a pillow that I had bought- the type that is like an armchair, also known as "boyfriend pillow' or backrest pillow-

It did look a lot like the above pillow- Target $14.99.  I bought it about a year ago to help me to sleep/take my husband's place in bed.  Okay, that sounds weird, but what I mean is that I usually sleep leaning up against my husband.  With him on second shift, and me getting older and unable to stay awake until he gets home, I needed something more comfortable than my fluffy pillows.  Hence- the boyfriend pillow, or as I affectionately called mine- Dwayne.  (yes, that would be Dwayne Johnson- aka "The Rock"- which is what this pillow was as hard as- a rock.  Which was a good thing!  While it didn't replace my husband per say- it did offer a good solid substitute- and if my hubby is reading this, he probably would get a kick out of me looking for something "rock hard" as a substitute to his biceps : ) You're the man honey!) 

But, due to a job change, my husband is now on fist shift and gets to bed a lot earlier - in fact he usually hits bed before I, so I get the bonus of a warm, full bed to come to each night! 

I really no longer have a need for Dwayne, and so I recycled him the living room, by the fireside, thinking that he would make leaning against the fireside much more comfortable.  He was to have a good retirement. 

That was the plan. 

I forgot that I have 2 boys.  Two boys ages 5 and 2.  Two boys who have no concept of respect for Dwayne. 

Poor Dwayne, he looks more like Nick Nolte now- worn out by kicks, punches and slams to the ground- and that was in the first day! 

From this:

to this:

I can only pray that the real Dwayne would be able to survive the horrors of two boys, age 2 and 5!  

I only know that there are to many days that I feel like Nick Nolte looks!  Yes, I can lift a top (okay, empty) bunk bed while 5 months pregnant, but there are days when surviving is the highlight of the day! 

Hoping to survive like (the real) Dwayne,
Mary

New Year, Old Me

Happy New Year!  I hope you all brought in the New Year safely last night.  I, along with the rest of my family shared a few "finger foods"  (which, being pregnant, left me tasting them the rest of the evening), dodged swords left and right as we watched the first Narnia movie (reliving the final battle right in my living room),  and the made a trip to the gym- knowing that it would be practically empty is an incentive for a pregnant woman- especially when she wants to try out the new stepper machine and doesn't desire an audience for it, and then we finished the evening with a chorus of snores as we slept in the New Year.  I would like to say that my excuse for sleeping in the New Year was because I'm pregnant- and that is a very viable excuse, but I also knew that 5:30 AM comes early every Sunday- which is the time I need to get up to get a shower and ready if I'm going to get everyone out of the house for 8:00 AM Mass. 

I feel just a wee bit cheated having Christmas and New Years on a Sunday this year.  I know, I should relish celebrating the birth of our Savior on the Lord's Day and having the Feast of Our Lady on a Sunday too, but it seems like the vacation days were a bit "gypped" due to the weekend holidays. 

Now, if I were an organized homeschooling Mom, we'd hit Monday Jan 2nd off and running.  And if I weren't 5 months pregnant, I'd have the assignments laid out, along with the kids' daily lists ready to go.  Well,  let's just say that my kids are getting a little extended vacation due to the above mentioned and probably due to many other reasons- which I'm sure will not bring any objections from them! 

I am so thankful for the new job change that my husband has made.  He has adjusted to the 1st shift hours well.  I am also thankful that the change brought about an extra paycheck- which we were all to eager to spend on carpet for the bedroom and stairs.  It was so nice picking out the carpet, exploring the possibilities, imagining the floors not stained from 24/7 foot traffic (at least for a month), that I forgot how much work it was going to be to move furniture from 4 bedroom in just 3 days.   What was I thinking?!?  I told my husband that I would love to be the "he-woman" that I usually am and tear down bunk beds (2 sets of them), moved dressers, and clear out closets- but let's face it- I'm old and I'm pregnant.  Not to mention I'm always tired! And I'm pregnant and old.   (There is no excuse like being pregnant to get out of some things!!)  We'll see how this adventure goes- starts this week- you know, the week we are supposed to dive back into school, choir practice and symphony practice.  Nothing like dumping it all at once! 

But, back to my wonderful excuse- pregnancy.  I keep saying that I'm going to get a picture of the sonogram up.  I actually have 2 of them.  I may have to differ to The Jane Austen Want to Be for the technical side of that. I see she has already placed the "baby ticker" on the blog- which I swear makes the days seem longer than shorter-  14 MORE weeks!?!. 

You'll have to let me know if you can make head or tails of them (better not be any tails!).  I'm sure a lot of my readers have had enough experience with sonogram pictures that deciphering them is easier than grading 9th grade algebra!

God's blessings to you all on this New Year.  May you find multiple reasons to celebrate and praise the Lord for all He has done!

I'll have to update on the carpet install/likely husband with back thrown out saga.  

Overwhelmed but surviving myself,
Mary