wishing I had time to write

a decent personal post about how life is like as a mum of 13 who is still unpacking from the move in July and trying to get the school room set up in time to start school by Labour Day.
But to give you an idea of why this has not really been possible - I will share with you a brief break down of how some of my days go. Now not all days are as crazy like this - but some weeks seem to have more than their share of crazies!

6 am got up

got Noah up and asked him to walk dog.

got little girls up

got Teddy and Nathaniel up...

Woke Gabriela (Anna was away babysitting our grand daughter Lydia)

Back to little girls' room and pulled dresses out of closet and despite that the high which will be in the high twenties possibly low 30s (or about 100 F) we need sweaters or long sleeves for the 7 am Mass.

got everyone dressed and hair brushed and up

Gathered laundry to put on at the old rectory as there is no hook up here (that we have yet to discover anyway....)

Deposited * put on laundry as we walked to Mass

7 am
Attended Mass

Talked to Barbara about joining the Y and a guest pass for today

7:40
Stopped at Rectory to switch wash to dryer.

Ate Breakfast

10 to 8
Hugo left for work

worked on insurance paper work until 9 am and got it ready to take to the office in the afternoon while girls are at piano lessons in L...

Then worked until 11 am coming up with a menu and recipes and shopping list

Kids had snack

11:30
out to buy groceries and pick up prescription

Met a parishioner while there and as she walked away she called back to thank me for some shirts I gave her - I stared at her blankly and she thanked me again, but as she was still yet further from me I really could not hear her. Wondered when I gave HER a shirt and just how bad is my memory getting???
(Turns out I gave them to her sister who gave them to her...)

2:00 pm Much to the horror of the little ones only now do I get back from buying groceries - we are supposed to already be at the Y - for at least an hour now!

realized Hugo had left w/o lunch and had a small breakfast so I made him lunch to drop off at school but this would require back tracking on the way to the Y - kids started to get worried we would not make it there today

Chopped up ingredients for Crock Pot Pea soup & put it on to simmer while we are out... BOY - were we looking forward to homemade pea soup tonight

drove out to school on way to Y to drop off Hugo's lunch, stopping for 15 dollars gas on the way and was still on empty after... Gas is just too pricy!

Called Piano teacher to say we will miss one of the three lessons as we are really behind schedule AND only two of the three girls in lessons are home anyway...

dropped off Hugo's lunch and FINALLY got to Y ONLY to discover that Miss Cecilia has huge poopy diaper which she followed up with a huge melt down while we struggled to change her diapers... In the process we discovered that our HUGE OVERSTUFFED diaper bag had not ONE wipe in it... what's with that?

Older kids heave collective sigh of relief when I release them give them permission to go to the pool...

Emma and I talked about gratitude and appreciating the splash pad even though she clearly wants to go back to the pool where she played the day before with another family... and she was not taking no for an answer - so I had to spell it out very clearly what this meant. Splash pad with a smile or EVERYONE leaves Y to go home... Emma quickly saw how unpopular this would make her and plastered a smile on her little pixie face that soon became genuine once she was actually on the splash pad.

An adult guest showed up on Splash Pad and pulled some kiddy toys out the beach bag and

suggested kids throw balls on splash pad... I told them in Spanish to not do so... they understand (YIPPEE) and stop trying to throw balls in the splash buckets!

The guest asked (sounding miffed) if I don't want them to play with the toys s/he brought... I say "not here as there are other kids who could get hit." S/he seems fine with that. Chats with me for a while and goes back to pool...

HUGE SIGH OF RELIEF

35 minutes later I realized we were going to be extra late for piano lesson after already telling teacher we will be miss first lesson of the three scheduled

started to gather up kids from around the splash pad and then strapped baby into stroller - she protested

hauled kids through pool area searching for 1 blond and several brunet heads in the pool

3:20 get text from Hugo

"Are you picking me up???"

Huh - I thought he was driving back with the nuns....

I text back "in 10 minutes???"

20 minutes later I finally was able to pick him up

3:40 realized we are only going to get one class in out of three and there is no way I am getting the paper work I completed this AM dropped off... so I did the most sensible thing possible. Pulled out a stamp and put the envelope in a mail box. But I am getting ahead of myself...

Got home, dropped off kids

picked up piano books

take off for L...

Drop girls off at the teacher's house

drove to the dollar store to buy ice cream for Noah and this is when I really mailed the paper work!

drove back for the girls

Then we visited with Ash for about 10 minutes and headed home

Walked in & drew in deep delicious smells of the simmering crock pot soup.

Asked Hugo how his presentation went

Checked on soup only to discover I forgot to put the lid on - note dear readers that crock pots DON'T COOK WELL w/o their lid so soup was was not even close to being ready and it was 6:30....

Changed menu around so that tomorrows lunch of canned soup became todays supper - and the home made soup for lunch tomorrow

Got kids to do chores

Eat supper

Joked around with Ashely, our DIL who is living with us.

Hugo and I had a talk with one of the children about a problem they were having.

I watched end of Little Mermaid with the little girls

The I bribed them that if they got ready for bed they could watch Cinderella...

8:3o pm
Noah, Gabriela, Bethany and I gathered books for library and headed off with baby in tow in her nephew's stroller (Which she loves. I am not sure Alexander will get to use it much - I might have to buy him a new one :)

Got Bethany a library card

We all picked out some books and a few movies

Everyone got books signed out ASAP cause library was closing in ten minutes

Walked home in the dark - kinda cool (Only about 3 - 4 blocks away from our house)

9:30pm Told Hugo and Kids I was heading to bed ASAP as I had missed a few days of my Thyroid meds (thats what I picked up this am) and needed to rest to make sure I don't lose my milk for Cecilia.
BUT then I checked my email - saw email from oldest daughter Aimee and suddenly I was about 26 minutes late for bed as I just HAD to write back immediately!

Whew - I bet you all thought it was going to be some sort of super mom post, didn't you? But now that you have read about what a crazy day for me is like - you have seen just how normal life with a family of nine at home really is. Still - when you add in all of the unpacking I am typically adding into my day, and a sick baby the past week you can understand why posting just hasn't been happening as regularly!

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