Words That Bang Around In My Head...

and fight to get out. I am in a writing mood, not bloggish type of writing honestly, but story and poem and just stuff kind of writing.

 Its been building up for several days, the thought of writing each of my children a letter or even letters to be opened on a certain special days has been tugging at me as well. 

Stories for the younger ones, poems for the older girls. An account of my first and only hunting trip with my dad for Bubba. He needs to know that grandpa took me hunting but didnt have the heart to kill anything in front of me so he kept me chattering about anything and everything to scare all the animals away, and then we went home and shot at coffee cans. I was 12 then, same age he is now. 

There are days I want all of them to have letters for, graduations, wedding days, the birth of children and other things as well. I dont know why this is pressing so hard at me but Im going to do it. Maybe they will each end up with a stack of crazy ramblings and memories from their mother and roll their eyes thinking Im sappy and ridiculous but I feel this is something I need to do. 

I have no idea how to wrap this post up so I think I will just leave it with this little quote.

God gave us memories that we might have roses in December.
JM Barrie

Easter or Frat Party?

Wow, as I'm looking around the house this morning I'm seriously wondering how I let this happen. We are usually pretty good at cleaning up before bed time rolls around, but I guess we were just too into the family fun yesterday and last night. It looks like a frat party (minus the keg and beer bottles)! The house is trashed! It seriously looks like there was a wild party going on here lol. I would share a pic but because of my OCD'ness thats just NOT going to happen! lol

So I guess I know what Im going to be doing after while, besides laundry that is. In all honesty, the flock had a great weekend, Sissy, Mimi, and Dede celebrated here on Saturday and then off they went to their dad's to celebrate there on Sunday. Bubba, Brudderbear and the Princess woke up here to little toys and chocolate for the boys and a big zebra, onesies and suckers for our allergic spoiled princess. Along comes Dede back home in the afternoon and a spirited game of whack 'em with Bubba at grandmas next door. What is whack 'em you ask? You know those giant pool noodles? Not the skinny oes, but the fat ones? Yeah, I think you get the picture. That afforded us a pair of broken glasses and a little girl with a headache from being without said glasses but from what I could see from our back door into grandmas yard, Dede gave as good as she got. I think Bubba forgot that even tho shes small for her age shes quick and cunning.

Guess I better go start cleaning the mess up, anyone have a backhoe and a dumpster I can borrow?

Saturday Centus: Deviled Eggs

Once again Saturday has rolled around, and that means it's time for the Saturday Centus blog challenge from Jenny Matlocks blog. This weeks challenge is a photo prompt and we are to write 100 words in rhyming form using this picture.

If youd like to give this a try (its a LOT of fun) or read more blog entries you can check them out HERE. Now on to my entry.

Little fingers creeping over so slowly,

Across the counter they inch towards the plate.

Blue eyes watching moms face so closely,

If she was caught, who knew her fate.

Almost to the plate, and mom cracks a smile,

Hands her a deviled egg and places a finger to her lips.

As parents we have to play along once in awhile,

Indulging little ones and not always with denial.

A smile and a hug, and away she will run,

All to soon she will be grown, moved, gone.

Relax and love, have some fun,

And cherish every stroke made with crayon.

Me Late? Never... Well Almost Never

The flock likes to claim that they can count on one hand with fingers left over, how many times they remember me being late. They are probably right, I have this thing about not only being on time, but being early. It could probably classify as OCD if you want to get technical. If Im on time for something I feel like Im running late, and if Im late even by a minute or two it affects my whole day, leaving me feeling rushed even when Im not. It is nothing for me to be 15 to 20 minutes early for things.

One thing I am almost never on time for is tv shows. I cant remember the last time I started watching a show when it first came out. My favorite shows were all watched by accident when my regular schedule was changed for some reason. I started watching House in the 4th season, Charmed in the 6th season, Supernatural just last week actually and its in the 8th season. See Im normally a creature of routine, I constantly watch the same old shows over and over again. Nick at Nite and TV Land are some of my best friends. So if youve started watching this great new show, dont worry, I'll catch up with you in a few years.

Eyes On the Tiger...

Wow, spring break has been good for the most part. A few blowups have happened, but isnt that part of family life anyway? Weve played, enjoyed staying up late, sleeping in, shopping trips, homemade milkshakes and so much more!

Yesterday we took the flock to a big cat refuge a few towns over from us. This is one of our favorite places to go. It isnt anywhere near as big as the zoo and they have guided tours telling you about each of the cats they have. So much more interesting and the kids learn something new every time we go.  

This was our favorite big cat shot of the day, its amazing to think that a tiger, even in the wild will eat several pounds of food a day, and then spend 20 hours or so lounging around and napping!

This is one of my favorite shots of the day, Dede just looks so thoughtful and reflective. Its not often that the whirlwind comes to a complete and utter stop in this manner. I think I took this as the intern was telling us about how our favorite tiger from last year had passed away. His name was Puppy and he had such a goofy personality, he "talked" to and showed off for us as we stood watching him. 

To me this is one of those places that is a big families dream. We  can get a years family pass for cheaper than we can get in for one days visit. Those are always great deals in my book.

Its a great deal as far as the flock is concerned too! 
Yes, we are THAT family, you know the ones... we dress similarly quite often, not because its cutesy, but because its so much easier to put your eyes on your flock when they all match to some degree.

What's An Hour?

An hour.... at times it seems like forever, other times its passing in the blink of an eye. Look forward to something and that hour passes as slowly as the changing seasons. Spending time with the one you love? That hour will never last long enough. Take that hour away completely and you have a houseful of little lambs who will spend the next week trying to adjust their sleep patterns. 

Thank goodness time change coincided with spring break this year. Sissy and the princess seem to be having the most trouble adjusting. Its amazing how something like that can throw their little inner time clocks so out of whack. I'm sitting here now waiting for the princess to enter that magical place in dreamland where she can be moved to her bed without waking up. I don't think we are far off.... 

She is very well equipped, a paci in her mouth and one in each hand! Some nights that is just the only way to keep those little hands still, she often wakes herself up searching for something to hold, her blanket, her shirt, most often her paci which is when she wakes up because she pulls it out of her mouth. 

We have had a very good start to our spring break around here, Mimi has her first formal dance coming up in a couple of months, it just makes my heart ache to think of my 7th grade daughter attending a formal dance! I took her out yesterday for her birthday lunch and a bit of window shopping and... well... we did more than window shop lol. We found her the PERFECT dress at a FANTASTIC price and there was just no way I could pass that up. So of course, any woman knows that the next stop is SHOOOOES! So she is now ready for her dance, whether momma is or not.

We took part of the flock out to eat tonight, half of the lambs are off having sleepovers. What good is spring break without a sleepover or 2? While we were out our waitress actually fussed at one of the lambs for using manners and saying "Yes Ma'am" and "No Ma'am" and that her mother had given her a name to be used, not replaced with a word like that. I was in such shock that I almost responded to her in an ugly manner, I mean, I myself had been saying "Yes Ma'am" and "Thank you Ma'am" to her. My first thought was how dare she undermine my position as a parent. However tho, I politely told her that our children have been taught to use their manners and to respect other people. Why is it that so many people are uncomfortable when people use manners? Yes, I know it is common place for hatred and ugliness to be the norm, but you would think seeing a teenager using manners, being polite and having respect would be something that an adult would appreciate BECAUSE of all that ugliness we see every day. What really got me was that she said absolutely nothing to the people she went to after us who were rude and hateful to her. As we left I wished her a goodnight and shook my head as we walked out the door. 

Once we got home the princess once again reminded us that you don't need a bunch of expensive toys to have a good time. I snapped this shot of her bypassing her toys to play with an empty peppermint bucket.

And now that the little princess is good and asleep this tired momma is off to catch a bit of a nap before the rest of the household wakes up.

Saturday Centus: Code Red!

I'm going to try something new, it's called Saturday Centus and its from Jenny Matlock's Blog and if you would like to give it a try or read more for yourself you can do so HERE. Now without further ado..... 
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So living in a houseful of very excitable little lambs, sometimes the most simple thing can turn into an epic moment of what you would think is code red proportions by the over exaggeration that can go on. Little Princess has a simple dirty diaper? Youd think she smeared it all over the house! Dinner time? They havent eaten in months! Hugs? You can bet they will be the tightest, most loved filled hugs youve ever received. Would I change anything? Not on your life, it may be pure chaos at times but I hope to continue to encourage their heartfelt enthusiasm!

The Joy of Homemade Toys

So today I made the flock a Sensory Find It game. We had seen one in a learning store a couple of years ago for almost $40 It was so much cheaper to make it myself. I used a 2 liter Dr Pepper bottle, filled it with rice and a bit of glitter and then wandered around the house picking up miscellaneous items. I found, well rather stepped on, a little yellow lego, (Holy sheep dip that hurt!) various buttons, beads, rubber bands, just the typical junk that collects around a house. After my collecting spree I had a total of 67 objects of varying size, shape and weights (don't forget to include a penny) I then made a printout list of each object and laminated it with clear packing tape so the kids could use an Expo (dry erase) marker to mark out each item as they found it. I then attached the list to the bottle with a piece of ribbon and screwed the lid on. I might go back and GLUE the lid on to make sure it doesnt "accidentally" come off lol. The kids sat and played with this for hours this afternoon  taking turns doing it alone or helping each other, even the older kids had a blast with it. I sat and helped Brother Bear by keeping track of the items as he found them. I was super proud as he managed to find all but 9 items by himself. I was truly amazed at how long this held his attention, I finally had to make him put it up for bed time.  With all of his special quirks there isn't much that holds his attention longer than 10 or 15 minutes but this was a real winner! Here is a pic of our game. If you try making one Id love to hear how you did it, what you used, and how your kids enjoyed it!

I sat for the second night in a row watching the princess attempt to climb into her crib. I think Ive mentioned before that she has already managed to escape from it once. She piled her blanket at the end of the bed and reached out and pulled herself up with the bookshelf and then climbed down the shelves. She hasnt been able to do it again since we moved her bed away from the shelves. Last nights attempt to climb in was done from the end of the bed, tonight's was from the side. I swear she is going to grow a little monkey tail any day now lol

Meet the Lambs...

7 kids, all ours whether we conceived them or not, fall into the category of our children. Most days you would think it was more like a house full of roaring hungry lions than cute fluffy sheep. R and I were married just shy of 5 years ago. It was just me and my 3 girls, who for all blogging purposes will from now on be called, Sissy, Mimi, and Dede. R had his 2 boys, henceforth known as Bubba and Brudder Bear. Along with his 2 boys he often had his ex step daughter with him as well, let's call her Nikki. (All the aforementioned little lambs picked out there own names, so I say A+ for each of their participation skills) We made an instant connection, we hit it off as well as the kids and did lots of things together as a family before we WERE a family.

We made an interesting site going places like the zoo. People often stopped to stare at our group which stair stepped so perfectly it was ridiculous. Many even made comments to which R and I just smiled and chuckled over later. 

So anyway, off to meet the lambs... 

First we have Sissy who is now 16 with a diagnosis of ADHD. She chose two years ago to go live with her father. It was a rough move on the other members of this household, like so many things a teenager does, there was a better way to handle it. She lives roughly 3 miles down the road and we get to see her every other weekend and the typical divorce holiday schedule. She was my first baby and to my dying day she will always be my baby. I hope and pray that one day our relationship will again be as strong as it once was.

Second we have Nikki who is now 15 and has a diagnosis of Bi-Polar and ADHD. Nikki led a rough life with her mother and ended up moving in with us for awhile. Our area lacked the proper resources to give Nikki the proper help that she needed so she ended up settling in with a member of her biological family in a greater metropolitan area. The resources available to her are outstanding. 

Third we have Mimi who is almost 13. Every other weekend she goes to her dads house where Sissy now lives. The rest of the time she is the oldest little lamb in the house. She takes her job as the oldest quite seriously, sometimes TOO seriously. Mimi is the type to stand up for the under dog, if someone is in need of a friend, she is the first to step up. She is a loyal and a sensitive soul.

Next we have Bubba who is 12 and has a diagnosis of ADHD. He is a little powerhouse, who flies thru his day at lightning speed. He talks as fast as he moves, getting in 4 times the words as the average person lol. He's a typical brother, likes to pick on his siblings but look out if someone wrongs one of them. As quick and scattered as he is, he has proven more than once that he can be counted on during an emergency.

Then we have Brudder Bear who is 10 and has multiple diagnosis including, Aspergers & ADHD. There has never been a sweeter, more loving and compassionate child than Brudder Bear. He almost always has a smile and a ready hug for whoever he thinks might need one. 

Next we have Dede, an 8 year old whirling dervish of blonde hair and big blue eyes. Dede has been diagnosed with ADHD. She has been my sick baby from day one, if there is something going around you can bet shes going to catch it... twice. She is also our child with no volume control, hard to believe that when she was born her cry was so quiet you had to be next to her to hear it. Guess shes making up for lost time lol.

Finally we have the princess. At just over a year old it's probably safe to say she's the spoiled princess as everyone dotes on her. Certain members of the lamb population have to be watched for endless spoiling. We don't want a rotten princess after all. Her current hobby is climbing, I don't think there is a person or object in the house she hasn't tried to climb. She has even managed to escape the confines of the crib with some well placed blankets.

So there you have it, our little flock of lambs and probably the longest blog post I will ever make without pictures lol.