Where to Begin…

I don’t know for sure, but this may be my longest hiatus from the blog yet. I had not intended to take a break, but as life was happening faster than I could narrate I had to give in to it and just enjoy it.

In my last post I gave an account of grocery shopping but failed to mention what had me so busy as to complain in the title that I didn’t even have time to post. That very day I was expecting guests. Kris’ parents, who in spite of all the poor press given to in-laws, are some of my favorite people to host. They get up early, make breakfast for my family and encourage me to eat ice-cream. Their stay was an active schedule of visiting, shopping and even a little boating. The boys had a blast of course. Grandma and Granddaddy are very attentive guests and truly make my boys feel like they are very special people.

The same day that Kris’ parents left, my sister and her husband arrived. The revolving door was spun off it’s hinges with the family of six that arrived with great expectations of family fun. Actually they were really tired when they got here, but the fun came soon. Seven boys under seven in one house for two weeks. If you wondered why I didn’t blog, that’s why. I did get on the computer and read blogs here and there, updated facebook occasionally and even commented on a few posts, but I couldn’t find it in me to write. Too much to say…too little time.

My boys and my sister’s boys are very close in age. Owen and Clay are 1 month apart, there are three months between Thadeus and Ivan and nearly three months between Christopher and Aron. She also has little Ethan who is nearly four months old and has no Kelso buddy, but will fair just fine on his own I’m sure. With all that closeness it was an eventful time. The older two are now at an age that will give them lasting memories of the activities and adventures they embarked on together. The middle two, at four years old, were the two to watch. They both have strong personalities and were often embattled in very serious disputes as to who had rights to toys and games. Both were more likely to handle it themselves than to go to an adult for support and we were often picking up pieces instead of holding things together with them. They were able to forge some friendliness and respect for one another though and I think in the years ahead they will be a strong united force. Christopher and Aron were not quick to play together, few two year old boys are, but they found a way to relate mostly through humor. Both of them love to laugh and make others laugh so they were on the same page for the most part, just reading different paragraphs occasionally. Ethan is a happy little baby. He wasn’t happy all the time, but he is very easy to please. His squeals were hard for me to decipher at times…”is that a happy scream?” I asked Kristy more than once. There were times when with six older boys in the house, he just had to cry, but I tried to get in a lot of snuggles and comfort time with him.

I’m very thankful for our house. I’m not going to hold back here. It’s big. We have four bedrooms, three and a half bathrooms and a big open play room upstairs and every inch of the house was used and appreciated. There are times when I think maybe we could do with less, but I can’t tell you how glad I was that Tim and Kristy and baby Ethan had their own room and bathroom, Clay and Owen had a room to themselves and shared a bathroom with the other four boys who slept on the other side of the jack-and-jill. The playroom is large and has little furniture so they were able to build train tracks, race Hotwheels and scatter Legos about with abandon. Well, not complete abandon. I’m kind of a toy Natzi. I hope I didn’t offend my poor relatives with my occasional rants on picking up what your playing with before getting out another set of toys. We all agreed though that once the floor is covered they give up and quit playing and come and annoy us. We all did our share of policing the area and it all went pretty well in my opinion.

One of my fondest memories of their visit is the daily scene of the six older boys around the kitchen table at meal times. I didn’t get a lot of pictures as there were just too many other things for my hands to do, but the mental image will last a good while for me. Sometimes it was so loud I had to scream to get them to settle down, other times there were unstoppable giggles that were triggered by the slightest smirk or wink and of course the noise of any bodily function. Prayer time before meals was a battle of traditions between the two households, sometimes one person would pray and the rest of the group would begin singing “God Our Father” over the top of them without warning. Sometimes the eating would begin before the prayer, or the prayer would begin before the whole gang even had time to get to the table. Sometimes the adults would just step in and say, “I’m praying this time!” It was never smooth, seamless or simple, but it was almost always funny. I am pretty sure that God was laughing more at us adults in our effort to coach them, than at the already peanut butter and jelly smothered lips uttering their thanks.

Then they left. Because they were planning to drive my dad’s motorhome to North Carolina and because that motorhome was parked at my sister Becky’s house in Greenbrier, and because they wanted to leave at 4:00 a.m., they left Sunday night all packed up and spent the night at Becky’s house (where no one was home) before their Tennessee exit. It was sad to see them go, it was quiet in the house and I had so much to dread the next day, it made it even more depressing.

The next day was Monday, which was yesterday as I write this. Monday was the day that we sent Owen to camp. It was quite a day and I don’t think I can even write about it without getting tired so I’ll just hit the highlights.

I dropped Owen off at church (sniff, sniff) but couldn’t leave because my van wouldn’t start.

After much fiddling around a wrecker came and charged my battery enough to get it started.

I ate lunch…ah.

My world becomes easier to manage with food in my belly.

I bought a new battery for my van.

I brought the two remaining boys home for naps.

I took a 30 minute nap too…ah again.

I got up, cleaned the kitchen and made a quick dinner of leftover chicken with a salad for Kris.

Kris came home early so that I could leave for traffic school.

I had been dreading traffic school for a long time. It finally came and it wasn’t as bad as I’d feared.

I have a greater appreciation for the Mt. Juliet Police Department.

I went to bed with a headache, but I fell asleep too quickly to complain more than once.

Now it’s Tuesday and I am taking the opportunity to work with Aron on potty training. I have been working with him for months, but I have not been able to take several days of real focus with him. My goal is to have him in underwear permanently by the end of the week.

So…if you thought I might have a quick update…well…you don’t know me very well I guess. I left out so much, but I will most likely be able to keep up better in the future. My next post will have pictures. Lot’s and lots of them.