Randomness

My life is full of randomness.  I don't think I get enough sleep or alone time to think full thoughts, so my never-stellar blogging is likely to suffer, folks.

Things I'm thinking currently:

1.  Cooking is easier with a 10-month-old in your arms than with a 10-month-old grabbing your legs  --  furthermore, I would get a lot more done around here if someone didn't grab my legs any time I walk by  --  I am often on a mission and then BAM I'm trapped by a pair of adorable chubby hands that have a death grip!

2.  It is a lot scarier knowing my husband is leaving me in the wee hours of the morning for 4 days with this current brood of little ones than it was when he left me for two weeks with just half the littles

3.  I need a freezer full of meals that I can make in 30-seconds flat.

4.  Following a schedule is awesome!  I am getting so much more done than before, and there are moments when I almost feel in control of things.

BUT

5.  No matter how many beautiful moments are in a well-scheduled day and how much I accomplish (for example, today started with me actually getting to take a walk--even if I had to push a triple stroller around my block to do it--, I got to sit in our hammock while the toddlers played and the babies napped and the big kids did their school work, I returned some phone calls and organized a swim day for tomorrow, and we got tons of school done), evening still rolls around, bringing all sorts of stress.  Toddlers are fussy at that time of day, and I mean FUSSY.  Babies are sick of being put down to play and nap and just want to be held by you, at the same time, for the entire rest of their day.  Toddlers take advantage of your arms full of babies and make huge messes, hit each other constantly, shut each other out of rooms, and use up entire boxes of tissues.  Dinner doesn't magically appear.  Hard-working husbands rarely appear soon enough.  That laundry that you so dutifully started is waiting to be folded.  Yesterday's laundry that you dutifully started  AND folded still is waiting for someone to put it away.   The house is tornado central, no matter how it looked when the sun rose this morning.

6.  That show about the Duggars seriously ticks me off these days.  WHY do they never show the hard parts?  I only have a fraction of their kids, but man, oh man, am I learning about the hard parts of having more than a couple kiddos.  I could have used some warning.  Why is mama Michele never shown with an assembly line of diapered ones waiting for their turn at the wipes?  Why don't they show how those giant vans are seriously not made for hordes of carseats?  Don't her kids all take their shoes off even on a two-minute ride?  Don't her kids ever spit every single bite of apple peel out onto the floor?  Don't her kids get jealous of each other or mad at each other or kick each other repeatedly while in the stroller?  A reality show about THIS reality of mine, now that would be entertainment!

7.  Despite all my grumblings, it only takes one tiny look in my littlest guy's sparkly eyes for me to know that "yes" was the right answer to the social worker's question about whether we could take a couple more wee ones.

8.  Why is there so little fudge made this time of year?