Pumpkin Patch Time!

I absolutely ADORE fall. The crunchy leaves, the wind in the trees, the stormy rainy days, cozy meals, and the annual family trip to the pumpkin patch!

This year we decided to try out BelleWood Acres - known mostly for their apples (and they are amazing!) but they also have a pumpkin patch. BONUS: you can ride in a train of apple carts pulled by a tractor. My kids were thrilled.

You get a gorgeous view of Mount Baker while selecting your pumpkins. They've set up a great photo opportunity to take advantage of it. The cart in front is our selection of pumpkins. My oldest was excited that his pumpkin was the tallest of the five.

 They also have a wonderful shopping area where you can buy fresh-made donut holes, apple cider, a wide variety of apples, caramel apples, cookies, other treats, and fun decorations! Plus, the kids can sit on this awesome rocking horse. Although, as you can see, my 2nd son was less than thrilled to share his turn with little sister, hahaha!

Despite the look on Thad's face, we had quite a fun time on this year's pumpkin picking trip. Our two boys both have extra needs plus our daughter is three, so family outings are always an unknown. Will they behave? Will we have a meltdown? Will more than one of them meltdown at the same time? (This has happened and is probably one of the most parenting stressors known to mankind, ha!) Thankfully this time everyone behaved (mostly - they ARE kids, after all - some whining is expected) and we all went home happy.

My Baby Started Preschool!

I'm not really a very sentimental person. Not really. I haven't saved all my kids' baby teeth. I think the "souvenirs" from their infancy could fit in a small storage tote each - a couple outfits, a special stuffed toy, the hospital paperwork, and maybe a fun bib or rattle or something. I figure most of what I want to remember, I can revisit through pictures without having to store a bunch of stuff.

I don't really mourn each phase my children pass through, and to be honest, I spent all summer looking forward to when school was starting again. Ok, so mostly this was because my kids are at that constant bickering/name-calling/tattle-telling phase and I'm going insane (please, please tell me they outgrow this? Or at least get more adept at it so my involvement isn't needed? ha!) To put it mildly, I'm just not sentimental about a lot of things.

However, it kind of hit me that my very last baby, our youngest, our only daughter... is growing up. It isn't a sudden revelation, truthfully. She's always been eager to keep up with her brothers and has been eschewing anything "baby" since before she turned two. Somehow, though, this step smacked me in the face a bit.

Not that she cares. Look at her:

This is the face of excitement, folks. This is the look of months' worth of anticipation! She just did not understand my need to cuddle her and hug her and kiss her and take a bazillion photos of her this morning. She just wanted to leave already! (Note: she did cry for about two minutes after Daddy left, not realizing somehow that he wasn't going to be staying there and playing with her the entire time.)

See that sparkle in her eyes? No? Well, she is making "camera smile" face here, hahaha. The sparkle is there, trust me, and it was even sparklier when I picked her up three hours later. She spent the entire 10 minute drive home filling my ears with all the fabulous things she got to do: play with playdough! Play with her friend from Church! Hear a story about pirates stealing beans from Grandma! Eat a snack!

So, goodbye baby and hello school girl. Mama loves you the same. No, that's not true - Mama loves you even more!

The Ghost of Fear

We are going to a wedding tomorrow. It is 1 1/2 hours away and we are taking the kids with us as we've been informed by relatives that we don't dare show up without them.

Our 2nd son, who just turned five, is mildly autistic. Well, the two consultants at Children's Hospital in Seattle have refused to label him as such and instead call it Pervasive Developmental Delay, Not Otherwise Specified - which puts it under the same developmental umbrella as Autism and is harder to say, so we just call it Autism.

What does that have to do with the wedding? Well, for years, going anywhere with all our kids was painful. We slowly stopped going out to restaurants because Thad couldn't sit still through a meal. We stopped going to family-friendly church events or friends' BBQs because dealing with Thad's social issues while keeping an eye on the other two children meant that neither my husband nor I ever had the chance to visit, so it was pretty much pointless to go at all. Essentially we found ourselves avoiding any public group activities because it was too stressful for us and the kids.

However, Thad is now five and - thanks to special ed preschool and both speech and occupational private therapy - he's come quite far socially and developmentally. We've started going out as a family again, and sometimes it isn't half bad!

I am still haunted by the ghost of fear, though. Every time we have a family activity planned, my stomach clenches up and anxiety seizes control of my emotional and logical self. Going to events still isn't the carefree get-up-and-go experience that it seems to be for parents of "normal" children.

In fact, I clearly remember watching the kids play on the playground after church one Sunday about a year ago and talking with one of the other moms. She asked if we were going to the church campout the following weekend. I attempted to explain why we were not, and I can clearly see the blank expression on her face - confusion, disbelief, skepticism, and just plain not understanding. She just didn't GET it. At which point, I got something that I hadn't been getting: normal families had completely different experiences of going out than we did.

Now, a year later, we also sometimes have that "normal family" experience when we go out. My husband and I will look at each other while driving home and be astonished that nothing terrible happened. No freak-outs, no scream-fests, no ten-minute struggles trying to get our son to calm down and just eat ONE BITE of dinner. I remember after one memorable family trip to lunch out and a stroll along the beach, I turned to Aaron and said, "So this is what normal families feel like! No wonder they are always going out and doing things. It's FUN!"

So now I'm facing a day-long trip tomorrow, to a wedding - where kids have to sit still and be quiet for large amounts of time - and I'm fighting down that anxiety. Thankfully, the wedding is outdoors, it is "casual and rustic" according to the invite, and we know from experience that these relatives are easy-going and kid-friendly. Plus my in-laws will be along to lend two pairs of extra helping hands! I am tentatively hopeful that it will be a mostly-good day.

Quick note about my to-do list: I did sort through the kids' clothes, but I didn't get to the dishes. I did make dinner, but I didn't mail my order (she said she wasn't in a hurry and I didn't leave the house to drop it off at the post office). I also cleaned the master bath shower, which wasn't on my list and I can't remember how it came about, but there you go.

So today's list: put together some photos and mats for the wedding gift, wash my outfit that I want to wear tomorrow, and mail the order on my way to my mom's (yay for Nana having Fridays off and getting me and the kids out of the house for an afternoon!) I've decided to let my husband tackle the dishes. After all, I don't want to hog ALL the fun, right?

How to Get Back on the Horse

When I first started my Etsy shop, selling my handmade lotions, I had all sorts of energy. I was fired up about what I did. I loved to craft. I had two little boys. I managed to keep up with them, the house, and still have time to spend online networking and promoting my business.

Fast forward three years or so. We've moved, we had another child, the economy has slumped into the dumpster, and my motivation has slithered underneath like a snake seeking shade amongst the discarded waste.

I don't know how all my good habits morphed into bad ones. I try to change things around, but I find myself standing in various spots of my house, staring at the project I want to tackle and just feeling dejected and useless. The times I don't, one of the kids will invariably find me and need something anyway.

So I'm going to try something a bit new. I'm going to blog about my tasks and to-do lists and goals. I apologize in advance if you follow me and find this utterly boring. Maybe take comfort in the fact that I have "restarted" this blog probably three times and it never lasts. I mean, this post in itself is almost one year, one month after my last one.

SO.

Today's goals: 1. sort through the kids' clothes they've outgrown and set aside the fall stuff to take to the consignment store. 2. pack up my Etsy order and get it mailed. 3. empty and reload dishwasher and wipe down the counters. 4. make dinner.

Those seem doable. Most of those I would do anyway, but maybe if I write them down, I'll feel more successful once I've done them. Now to post this and get started!

It's Like Christmas All Over Again!

So says my five-year old, who has been "celebrating" Christmas for three months now. He takes random toys from around the house (believe me, there is plenty to choose from, I swear the stuff is breeding) and "wraps" them in one of Dad's boots (for a stocking, don't you know?) or in one of my dish towels.

Then he "gives" them to his brother or sister or me. By "give" I mean, he says it is for you, then proceeds to unwrap it himself and tell you all about it, but don't you dare actually try to take the toy and play with it!

I finally got so tired of him carrying around his father's boots (of questionable cleanliness) that I went out to the garage and gave him his actual stocking.

Although, I have to admit, think about how much better off our finances would be if I could just wrap up any old thing around the house in a dishtowel and give it to someone as their present - especially if I get to then take it back, wrap it up again, and give it to someone else!

Somehow I think if I tried that at his next birthday, it wouldn't fly.


.

My Knockers and My Virus

There's a title for you!

First off, I've been sick. Really really ill with a head cold/virus/nasty bug thingy. I don't think I've been this sick for this long in over 10 years.

I haven't been able to taste anything or smell anything in days. My husband picked our daughter up the other day and said, "Whew, she STINKS!" She had just been crawling all over me and had been pooping the whole time. I walked right up and took a big ol' whiff of her diaper with my nose pressed against her fleece-covered bum. Nothing. I couldn't smell even a hint of poo! Which is nice (and I got saddled with changing her as a result, not so nice) but it also means I have to visually check her diaper every 1/2 hour to make sure she hasn't pooped. Oh, it's been fun, let me tell ya!

On the plus side, since I also can't taste anything, my appetite has been fairly nil. So I've lost nearly 10 pounds already. I force myself to eat some toast in the morning and then usually have some soup for dinner. I have been snacking on a few Ruffles potato chips since they feel good and scratchy on my throat and I can almost taste the saltiness, but I can still only eat a few. You know you are sick when you don't even have an appetite for potato chips!

Anyway, want to hear about my knockers? I thought so!

My three year old has been obsessed with his Diego adventurer/explorer kit lately. He is probably at least six months to a year behind his peers verbally, so sometimes it is hard to understand what he is saying as he is yammering intently to you. I kept hearing him in the other room saying "knockers." Since I was pretty sure he hadn't sneaked a copy of Playboy magazine into the house, I went to investigate.

He was leaning against the back of the couch looking intently out the window through his yellow Diego binoculars. He turns and holds them out to me.

"Look, Mom! My knockers!"

The Impartiality of a Three Year Old

We took the kids over to my folks' house today. I'd like to say it was to watch the Super Bowl, but I'd actually forgotten that it WAS the Super Bowl, so watching the game over there was just a bonus. It was nice to see the game on my Dad's giant flat screen though.

None of us were die hard fans of either team. We decided to root for the Cardinals just because they'd never won a Super Bowl before. The boys spent most of the time in the living room watching a kiddie video and playing, but by the fourth quarter, they'd decided to move into the TV room to be nearer the adults. Mostly this meant standing in front of us, climbing into our laps and talking into our faces, and occasionally being distracted by a game known as "toss the stuffed animals down the stairs over and over."

When the Cardinals made the long running pass for the touchdown that put them in the lead, we all were shouting and cheering. My three year old runs over and starts wildly clapping and spinning in circles doing a crazy dance. It was so precious.

However, we soon realized his joy was not specifically for the Cardinals, because when the Steelers then scored a touchdown minutes later, he clapped enthusiastically and yelled, "Yay! You DID it!"

Which really drove home the point that sometimes it is important to not choose sides, but just to be encouraging and supportive of everyone and cheer them all when they do well! :)

New Year's Resolution: Blog More

So my New Year's resolution is to blog more. One way I can do that is to talk about my family, because I just find talking about making lotion so much more boring than actually making lotion - and I can always find something to say about my family life.

For those of you who hate personal drivel, pretend I am using metaphors for deeper purposes.

Here is what I have to say about today: I'm tired. Very, very, very tired. I wore myself out preparing for Christmas and then when I was at my lowest, I managed to get some sort of flu or virus. I take two to three naps a day (well, until my husband went back to work) and I am still bone-deep tired.

For a stay-at-home mom of three children ages five years and younger, I am used to being tired, but this is ridiculous. So my New Year's wish for myself is that I miraculously become infused with energy. Magically losing 20 pounds wouldn't be amiss either!












What do you mean I have to exercise in order to lose weight? Phthbthtthbt.

No Etsy Seller of the Week this Week

Why, you ask?

Well, I forgot. Ha!

Our baby has been waking up in the middle of the night the last few nights and it takes about 2 hours to get her back to sleep again. I am pretty wiped out and as a result, my brain is foggy.

I'll be more ahead of the game next week, I hope!

So, instead, I'll share a story about my family life - lucky you!


I usually manage to luck out during the week and have at least one grandma available to watch at least one of the kiddos. But not Wednesday last week. My mom was working or busy all week and my mother-in-law had watched the boys the day before so I could get some orders made and mailed.

So, I hauled all of us into town to both the post office (where I had to stand in line because I had international packages to mail) and the shop where I sell, to restock. First of all, hauling three little ones under age five ANYWHERE is not pleasant and takes about 1/2 your day just to get them all ready and loaded in the van. Then, my 4-month old is apt to cry when we are still 15 minutes from anywhere. Which then makes the almost-five year old start yelling and crying. And that sets off the three-year-old, who doesn't cry when the baby does, but will start yelling when his older brother does.

So usually by the time I've got them all dressed, fed, in the car, and then listened to all three of them lose their minds for the last 15 minutes - you can see that I am not really in the mood to haul them all out of the car and actually be seen in public. Which is why I never go anywhere.

I keep telling myself that in a couple years or so, this won't be nearly as much of an issue. Then I think "what if it is?" and get a mental image of driving around with a crying 12-, 15-, and 17-year old in the car; which makes me laugh and I can somehow make it through that moment without selling any of them.

So, we get to the co-op where I sell. I madly put out the measly few things I've managed to make above and beyond orders that week and pay my rent. Meanwhile, I've got the baby strapped to my chest, and my head is on constant swivel to make sure my boys aren't destroying anything (the 3-year-old managed to "redistribute" about fifty business cards from other tables the last time I took him with me.) But we get in and out without any damage and not even any screaming! I am thrilled.

On to the post office! If you've stuck with me this long - well, I am impressed! :) Thankfully the line isn't very long. My younger son immediately starts walking laps around the island divider thing that separates the line from the counter. Then my oldest decides to follow him, which quickly erupts into a game of chase. I put a stop to that immediately and praise God they listened to me and kept it to a walk after that.

The highlight of the trip was when my three-year-old stopped in front of the waste bin, pointed to the "W" in "Waste" and said, "W!"

I don't even know if my almost-five-year old could point out a W! I have tried working with him, but he is way more interested in drawing trains. He knows the alphabet, and the letters in his name and that is about all he cares to know right now. I figure he still has a year of pre-school and kindergarten to learn these things, so no pressure!

After the post office, I had to sit in the van in the parking lot and nurse the baby. No way was she going to make it the 20-plus minute drive home and no way was I going to listen to the kids screaming that whole way!

Well, there was a little slice of my life. I made it back home in one piece, and so did the kids. Although if you had told me 10 years ago that going to the post office and dropping in on a shop would take me three hours from the moment I put on my shoes to the moment I took them off back home again, I would have laughed you out the door!

Might I just add one thing? I love my kids to bits! As much as they can drive me crazy, being crazy is the best thing that has ever happened to me! :)