System

Today I cleaned a little bit in the basement. Yay. I was listening to Laura Dixon's podcast "Reward Loop" as I worked. I really like what she shared at minute 12 about the way we think about children. We have a choice! We are free to think "Being a parent is a thankless job..." and feel put out and like a martyr, OR, we can think "I am so lucky, I get to share my life with these awesome children!" Katharine wakes me pretty much every night, but I don't even think about it - it doesn't bother me! I love taking care of her and nursing her. I just say amen to what she shared. "I get to do this" and "It's my choice!" and I love it. I'm grateful that my hearts desire has been answered in this way. I know there are many others who long for what I have. I am grateful to know that God will wipe away all tears, and for my belief that that no blessings will be denied in the end. 

So, I was listening to that as I organized papers (the ones Natalie messed up right before I went to Indiana...) and I was looking at Joseph's piles of stuff (he had to move out of his apartment but is down in Guatemala for another week, so it's all shoved here) and Mel just brought back her stuff on Tuesday too, yay, plus we have a lot of Ethan's stuff and Hyrum's stuff (he gets back tomorrow!) so yeah, it's just a mess and we have not organized it. Some things are organized, but most of it is not. And as I was thinking of that, I came upstairs to take Owen to trumpet, and I'm thinking about having a "reward way" of thinking, not a "sacrifice way" of thinking about the mess, and I opened the fridge and saw this:

I texted the college kids and asked "what is wrong with this picture..." Answer: there are two bottles of ketchup (one empty), and there are THREE bottles of Hidden Valley Ranch dressing! One empty, two half full. I wanted to pull my hair out and banish all the children from the house. Why don't they follow basic rules? (Cause they're kids). I will be patient, but I might make up a quiz with various household happenings to test them on basic things, such as:

Question #1 - If you use a bottle of ketchup when it becomes empty, you should 

a) leave it on the counter 

b) put it back in the fridge 

c) rinse and recycle the bottle 

d) go get a new one

e) put it upside down

Maybe I need to label places for everything. Cause they'll want ranch, then they will perhaps go look for ranch in several locations in the fridge and not be able to find it, so then they go look in the garage. Hence why we have three bottles of ranch in the fridge. I need a system of implementation. Today I found Mel's airpods, they had been missing since she got back from Vienna. I found them in a cinch sack in the coat closet, yay. All these kids to take care of and a houseful of stuff to organize, and I'm babysitting caterpillars... I gave 4 caterpillars away to a neighbor today and one chrysalis. I also watch this hummingbird nest that is outside under the awning where we are able to see it from the kitchen table. There are two birds in it!

I'm a nature watcher. And a nature photographer. Flowers in our front yard ~

My kids are up and coming photographers, too! Especially Katharine, she practices her photography every chance she gets. 

She specialized in feet. In some areas I and our life feel like such a chaotic mess. In others I think we might have figured it out a little bit. Exercise is something we've gotten pretty good at, so that's good. And I'll be patient with myself as I continue to fight to be better in areas that I need to, and give myself a break, cause I'm swimming upstream with all these kids! We went on a ride with Mel and Wes this morning. I'm back in the saddle again after my fall on Monday. Yesterday we went to the ruins and did techy on the way back, but we just took it easy the whole time, so no achievements. Then last night I heard Mel and Wes talking about going on a jog in the morning, and so we were able to cut them off at the pass and make them go biking with us instead!

They were a little reluctant but it was good, I think. It took Mel a bit to know how to shift down to an easier pedaling pace, so she got tired quick and Corey stayed behind with her, Corey wanted Wes to stay challenged and interested, so I went ahead with him and we made it to the third bridge. We passed Mel and Corey on our way down. I let Mel use my bike and Corey let Wes use his. Wes thought the ride down was really fun, yay! And he did pretty good on the ride up too (keeping up with his mom!) We all started at the parking lot, but Wes and I rode home (to relieve our babysitter Owen) and Corey and Mel finished their ride and then drove the car back. When I got home, Wes stayed with K&P and I walked to the bus to get Owen and Daniel's bikes, since they had to rush to the bus. As I walked up, kids were telling me that Daniel had gotten a rash on his neck - from stinging neddle or something that touched him when he was climbing  in the bushes there at the bus stop. Daniel, don't crawl around in the bushes. I took a look, didn't seem too bad, but I worried it would bother him at school, but he stayed the day and toughed it out, even though after school the rash was still on his neck. There's always something. So my motherly advice is to take a breather, take one day one crisis at a time, and go for a bike ride in the mountains or look at flowers to find your center again to cope with the chaos. :)