My Morning

Joining in with Chris and Carmen in describing a morning in a large family household.

My morning technically started at midnight, when six out of seven kids still were awake. So nice to be blessed with The Amazing Non Sleeping Kids^TM.

I didn't keep track of times, but there were at least three fights to be mediated, there was a volleyball match going on and it took two trips to convince them that volleyball should not be played at 1am in their bedrooms and there were various assorted whinings and complaints.

At 2am, Erik (5yo) had fallen asleep in Cees's bed, so I happily picked him up to carry him to his own. He woke up! And totally fell apart. There was no way he could ever go to sleep all by himself (Kate (6yo) was in the same room, but she didn't count). He was majorly panicking, so I ended up grabbing a go problems book and doing some studying to calm him down. Finally he did fall asleep, so I sneaked out, only to hear new wailing start behind me. He was not asleep yet...

Decided to take sleeping baby Sylvia (18mo) from my husband's arms and send him upstairs, since he had been saying he wanted to go to bed anyways. Blessed silence!
After about 20 minutes I went up, where the three of them (daddy, Kate, and Erik) were snuggled together and all sleeping. Added Sylvia to that mixture and had my arms free!

Finally I got my mommy time, my sanity time, my time all by myself. The only time I seem to be able to get that is after 2am.

Went to bed at 3:20am, so didn't get up as early as Chris or Carmen, my wakeup time was closer to 8am. I did kick my hubby out of bed to shovel the driveway though, while I performed the important task of nursing the baby while reading a book ('The Time Traveller's Wife', not sure yet what I think of it, only started it last night).

Kate woke up too and wanted to study Japanese, so she went down to the computer to start the language program. Had to give various assistance, so reluctantly got out of bed to get dressed, dress the baby for the 5th time (she is in her clothes obsession phase) and help Kate with the Japanese.

Erik was kind of awake, I did make the round to the other kids room to tell them 'Time to get up!!!!!!!!!!' but didn't even get the grunts that Carmen got. I did that at least 6 more times or so before they actually got out of bed. Not to mention that one of them still is asleep because his sleep schedule is all messed up, and almost being a teenager refuses to take the medication which would help him sleep.

Breakfast chaos, kids telling me which bowl they wanted to use but which wasn't clean yet, or telling me that they were going to eat some bread now. Over and over. Sylvia used the potty quite a few times, but didn't need the marshmallows Chris's toddler did. Instead, she found the marshmallows all on her own and started eating them, I made sure they weren't bad before I let her eat more. Lots of screaming when the marshmallows were put out of her reach.

I ended up doing some dishes by hand too, not because the dishwasher hadn't run, but because there was no way to fit all the dishes in last night, and both hubby and me were too lazy to start a new load at 2am. Still haven't done so, guess I need to do that soon.

Decided that I didn't have to make bread today, since I had made a supermarket run yesterday, and cheated by getting some bread, so that the four loaves I baked yesterday would last longer. I make bread at least one out of two days, if not more often. Four loaves at a time, which evaporate fast.

Tons of fights about the computer 'He ALWAYS gets the computer and I NEVER get it!'. More fights about the computer. Kate who wanted to play the board game Charcasonne, but couldn't find a good place to do so with Sylvia running around.

In between all that, I grabbed some honey roasted peanuts and made tea, which was my breakfast. Just made myself a fried egg, but technically that would be lunch already. The tea was one of those pots which got made, and ignored for a few hours. Reheated it in the microwave. Then an hour later or so, found it all cooled off again.

And of course, like Chris, I am leaving out a thousand small details like the baby playing with the garbage, Kate throwing toys, Sylvia kicking Erik in the face, feeding the birds, putting away some laundry, baby emptying a full roll of toilet paper during one of her potty trips, wanting to start a load of laundry, but never getting to actually do it, even if I was at the washer twenty times at least.

I think the hardest thing about a large family for me is the constant interruptions. I never seem to be able to follow a train of thought for more than five seconds before there is a mini crisis needing my attention, or a kid who wants to tell me something. I have to say that this is small compared to the joy and happiness I feel at the good moments though, when they all are playing together, or following their own interests, or just are perfect. Yes, our house is chaos, but it is happy chaos.

Still need my 2am sanity time though :)