january ponderings

Snow!

Yes, we've gotten lots of snow. My kids have (thankfully) only missed one day, but Metro has gotten about a bazillion. I think I would tear my hair out. I love my children. I really enjoy them on weekends, in the evenings, and on vacations. But during the week, they were meant to go away for 7 hours and come back with some fresh new knowledge in their brains. So I'm thankful that our school doesn't rely on buses.

With snow comes a bit of guilt for me though. I feel bad that we don't own sleds. We don't own sleds because I can't take them sledding. Tucker doesn't sled. They did make a snowman in the backyard the other day, though, and they felt very accomplished.

Sleep!

Still not getting any. As in, usually around 3 or 4 hours. I'm not exaggerating. It's wearing me out. Tucker has been sick, so he whimpers most of the night. And when he's not whimpering, he's coughing. And when it's not Tucker, it's Bo. He gets out of his bed in the middle of the night and comes into our bed. Then he coughs all over me so I'm wide awake bracing myself for the next cough. I'm just mad in the mornings.

But, things are looking up. We came up with a chart, where Bo puts a sticker on it for every night he stays in his bed (til 7). After every third sticker he gets a prize. His prize today was a whistle. I regretted it immediately, but I learned my lesson. At least he stayed in his bed. It's ok that everybody in the house had to listen to the whistle first thing in the morning. I know, I should have thought of this idea much earlier, but I really have very few thoughts lately. I'm just proud of myself for eventually thinking of it. Oh, and the cutest thing is that Jason went into his room the first morning and he was sitting on his bed, wide awake. He was so proud of himself for not getting out of his bed. We got him a clock so he knows what time he can get out of bed now.

Dickeys!

We kept our friends' three kids last night while they went to New York. Each kid has a friend in that family-- all our kids are 8 or 9 months apart. They were the sweetest, most well-behaved kids ever, and we had a great time with them. The four girls all slept together in the same room and were asleep by 10:30, which I consider a success. The boys slept in Bo's bed and were asleep by 8. They couldn't have been cuter. Last night I was getting a little cocky and thought, 7 kids, no problem... I could do that. And then this morning when Tucker needed to be fed and everybody wanted pancakes and Bo was having a tantrum because he didn't want to go to church and people were getting smacked with light sabers, I thought that maybe it would be a little difficult after all to have 7.