I know we all struggle to keep up during the holidays. It seems that the more I accomplish….shopping, decorating, baking, Christmas concerts, and Thanksgiving hosting, the longer my list gets. That’s right, as I cross off one item, I add two or three more things I need to get done. It’s crazy; it’s overwhelming; but it’s the holiday season in a big family….with lots of children…..and I wouldn’t want it any other way. I’d love to share with you the in’s and out’s of last week for our family…..just a snip-it of all the immeasurable blessings in my life, and the moments I am so grateful for this Thanksgiving.

What a busy week we had!  I had my 20 week ultrasound, 6 conferences, a tutoring session, a dentist appointment, 2 basketball practices, 2 volleyball games, Avery’s First Reconciliation, the New Moon midnight premier, a birthday party…..and a partridge in a pear tree!

The best part of reflecting on this week is that it really wasn’t that much busier than most weeks in our home.  With a house full of seven (and a peanut on the way), the calendar is bound to be full of events and activities to keep us moving.   Most of the time, I just take it one day at a time. I look at the calendar and only stress over today’s events because when I try to process an entire week’s worth of activities….or God forbid I get brave enough to look at the entire month….my head starts spinning, I get a headache, and feel overwhelmed to the point of paralysis.  So, I have learned over the years to only look at today’s events. I do peek at tomorrow, just so I know what present needs to be picked up or what item I volunteered to make for the teacher’s luncheon, but I try not to allow myself to exert any energy into tomorrow because I know I need it all just to get through today!

I could write a new post about each of the events listed in the second paragraph. Take the ultrasound, for example. I want to tell you how amazing it was.  The baby is growing perfectly (even a week ahead of schedule) and all his or her parts are accounted for and working perfectly.  It’s impossible to look a images of this perfectly formed angel doing summer salts in my uterus….who is no larger than a can of soda……and not know that God exists.  Nothing this fine tuned and perfect could be created by chance.  And my will power was bar none this time around. Since it’s definitely our last baby, I really wanted the sex to be a surprise at birth. I have found out the sex of the other 5 children at the 20-week ultrasound so I wasn’t convinced I could hold out. I was so proud and excited when I walked out of the appointment and did NOT know the sex! So now, I have even more to look forward to when the baby arrives!

I could write several posts about how conferences went. Meeting with 6 teachers about 4 children’s progress in school thus far is an experience in and of itself. I am happy to say that all in all, the reports were great and the kids are right on track. The kids all have wonderful, dedicated teachers this year that truly care for the kid’s wellbeing. I guess as a mom, I could not ask for more than that.

I would love to take the time to update everyone on Avery’s progress with his tutoring. It’s going unbelievably well and the progress he’s made in such a short time has been nothing short of astounding! I am nearly moved to tears with each session I sit in on because I see him thriving, reading, and spelling with ease. I am so relieved that we found him the help he needs and the help he deserves at an early age.

Avery also got to make the sacrament of Reconciliation last week, which is another “rite of passage” in our Catholic faith. It was moving to see him sitting with the priest and the huge smile he had when he walked back to us beaming with pride. Just another moment that reminded me that my baby boy is growing up faster than I can emotionally handle!

And the highlight to close out our week was the New Moon premier that Kylie and I went to see. I made a promise to her months and months ago that I would take her to the midnight showing when it finally came out. Of course, at the time I didn’t put much thought into staying up until 3am, so when the time rolled around to buy the tickets for the 12:01am showing, I held my breath and purchased them anyway. I had many people last week telling me I was nuts for doing such a thing, but I made a promise to my baby girl, and no amount of sleep was worth breaking my word to her. I always preach to my children that they should never make a promise they don’t intend to keep because “promises are a big deal” so it was time to put my words into action. I cannot even express the joy it brings me to have a 13 year old who is even willing to be seen with her mother at the movies, much less the honor I felt by accompanying her to the premier of the most anticipated movie of the year. I want to express the importance of finding common ground at this stage in our children’s lives, even if it’s just sharing a love for a series of vampire books. The movie was awesome, but the memories we created sitting in the theater for SIX hours will be with me forever. That time alone with her will be time I will cherish in my heart forever!

So while I would LOVE to write a new post for all the events we enjoyed last week, I am just too exhausted to write anything articulate or worthy of your time to read. I guess this post summarizing a week in the life of our family will have to do as my Thanksgiving tribute.

I cannot express how grateful I am for sharing such a crazy, hectic life with my amazing family. God is so good to me, and I am so unworthy of such blessings. So while He continues to grant me such grace and abundant blessings, I will continue to be grateful for every moment…. no matter how hectic life gets.

Happy Thanksgiving to each and all of you, and I will continue to pray for plentiful blessings for you and your beautiful families.

Well, it is official!  My very favorite time of year has begun!  I absolutely, unequivocally love the Christmas season!  I start decorating my house right around the 1^st of November and it does not come down until January 1st.  I would probably leave it up even longer, but once I gave birth to my son on January 2nd, I decided that I never wanted Christmas to run into his birthday.  I’ve always felt like he kind of gets “jipped” anyway being born so close to the holidays, that taking down my massive display of decorations before his big day was just a small way I could see to it that his birthday remained as special as it deserves to be.

Anyway, I get tons of slack from my friends for decorating so early and believe me, when Corey became a part of this family; he didn’t take to the tradition that well at first either.  As a matter of fact, we were just talking today about the first Christmas we were together and he specifically remembers me decorating like a crazy person well into the wee hours of the morning….and it was only the first week in November.  He thought I had lost my mind, but he has come to accept, and dare I say, enjoy my enthusiasm over this great holiday season.  Moreover, I decorate so big that to go through days of work only to enjoy it for a couple of weeks, just doesn’t make sense to me.

I would be remiss to not mention that while friends may tease me, my family thinks nothing of it. Starting with my grandma and my mom and working its way down to even my aunts and cousins…everyone in my family decorates early and decorates BIG! My grandma’s balcony at her apartment complex is blinking and twinkling brightly before Thanksgiving and she leaves it up until nearly February. My mom….oh my goodness….words fail me when it comes to my mom’s holiday décor. She truly should be working for Macy’s or some other massive department store. She adorns dozens of pine trees with lights, outlines her entire home with lights, eliminates the pathway to the front door with an array of candy canes and snowmen lanterns and that’s just the outside, which is quite understated compared to the inside. When you walk into her home, it is like nothing I’ve ever experienced before. It’s truly a magical experience and every year, she somehow manages to outdo herself. I mean, I’m not exaggerating here when I say she could sell tickets, put up velvet ropes in front of her displays, and allow people to tour the Winter Wonderland that is Victoria’s home. I think the last time I counted, she puts up roughly 10 trees and they all carry a different theme. My favorite is her Doctor Seuss tree. She has such a gift for decorating that I guess it shouldn’t surprise me that at Christmas, it’s no different. We all decorate big, but compared to my mom….well, she’s definitely in a league of her own.

So, as people are asking me “don’t you think it’s kind of early to be decorating for Christmas already?” To these nay-sayers, I simply point out that if the local radio stations start playing Christmas music on November 1^st, then I clearly have a green light to start the festivities!

I love it, the kids love it and look forward to it each year, and Corey has been gracious enough to accept it, so no matter how insane people think I am, I am going to continue the tradition, which means decorating starts this week…….let the holidays begin!! ;o)

Ahhh yes, my moving saga continues! I was moving along in my day, just going about my business, scurrying about like a busy little mouse trying to get my last minute moving preparations taken care of.  Yes, we are moving on Friday so there is much to be done.  Well, that is until the snake in the grass who we affectionately call “the mortgage guy” called my husband to let him know that “there is no way he can get the closing done on Friday as we had originally hoped for.”

Excuse me?

Could you repeat that?

“Hoped for“…what in the heck is this guy talking about…hoped for?  As if Friday was some arbitrary date we just magically threw out there and thought to ourselves, “hey, wouldn’t that be cool if we could close on our new house on Friday, October 2nd and then move all weekend?  And if it doesn’t work out, well….that’s ok too because we were just whipping out a date that didn’t mean anything anyway!”

NO, NO, NO!

That is not what we said at all, but our “mortgage guy” seemed to act as if that were the case.  He casually tells Corey that it’s the “under writers” fault and the wire transfer will not be available until “sometime next week!”  That’s right…you read that correctly.  He didn’t call my husband up and profusely apologize for this MASSIVE mess up and PROMISE to get it taken care of by Monday….even if that means he must work 24 hours a day, around the clock, through his entire weekend to get that done.

NO, NO, NO!

He just simply stated in a glib, nonchalant manner that it would just have to wait until next week and then he wouldn’t even give Corey an exact day next week.   Now, please keep in mind that moving a family of 7.5 is not as easy as one might think it is.  We have a moving truck rented for Friday and Saturday.  We have two guys scheduled to help Corey move the heavy stuff on Saturday as my pregnant, swollen tummy seems to be a hindrance with huffing the reclining sofa up the stairs on my back these days.  Anyway, our helpers only do this on the side for cash so “sometime next week” isn’t going to work for them!

Corey’s parents were also going to come and help us move and mainly watch miss Natalie for us because as much help as she thinks she is…her tiny little 15 month frame just kind of gets in the way on big days like moving day (shhhh, don’t tell her I said that because she would be so hurt).    They work during the week as well so unfortunately for us, “sometime next week” won’t work for them either.  We also have some wonderful friends who offered to help us this weekend but they too work during the week.

We have all of the utilities, phone, internet and cable all scheduled to be switched over or hooked up throughout the weekend and on Monday.  One might think that it would be no big deal to just call and reschedule these hook ups; however, they are booked out 2 weeks in advance so changing the appointments right now means we are without many of the luxuries we have grown accustomed to….such as telephone service….for at least 2 weeks!  I know, I know…how spoiled can I possibly be?!

I also finagled a visitation switch with my ex so that he would have the other 4 children this weekend.  That way we could get the move done with as few distractions as possible.  This is really the least of the issues, but it’s still the point that we moved the schedule all around to make sure that we wouldn’t have to stop everything to make breakfast, lunch, dinner and get them to their games and practices all smack dab in the middle of moving day, which has now gone clear out the window.

So what are we going to do?  That’s a great question.  I have no idea.   I guess we will cancel everything.   Corey and I will need to get the house moved on our own.  I will need to push little peanut aside for a day or two and just try to keep my belly out of the way so I can help Corey move the furniture.   We will have to start and stop as needed to tend to the children’s needs.  And we will just live without the finer things in life like cable and internet for a few weeks.

I’m really just in shock right now.  I’m shocked that our “mortgage guy” can just do this to us when he’s known for weeks that Friday, October 2nd was the day we needed this to happen.  I am speechless that one phone call can throw even the most well-worked, well-thought out, well-orchestrated plans right out the window.  I know it will all get done.  It has to.  It will just get done in a less organized, much more difficult fashion than we previously had planned.

Oh, and let me declare this right here and now….once this is all done and over with, we are enjoying our new home, and this fiasco is a distant memory….I am NEVER moving again!  EVER!

And if I start to claim differently….if I start to even entertain the idea…please, I implore you to be good friends to me and remind of this post!

I am really having a difficult time getting motivated these days to get anything done around my house.  Natalie has been awesome at taking a 2 hour nap lately so I know that I should be utilizing this time to get stuff done around the house.  I have a ton of cleaning to do, lots to pack, bookwork, my blog to tend to….you name it!  But all I’d rather do is lye on the couch while she’s napping and do nothing!  It’s like I have lead weights tied to my ankles and no matter how much I keep telling myself to get moving, I just can’t seem to stand up and keep going.  And typically, this is not like me.  I’m usually moving mock ten, but lately I really can’t seem to light a fire under my butt.

The worst part is I can see it in my husband’s face every time he comes home from work and realizes that I didn’t accomplish crap again today!  He doesn’t say much, just offers “suggestions” as to what I could tackle for the day, as if I didn’t already know what needs to be done.  And then when I don’t get the list crossed off for the day, I feel even more anxious because I know he’s thinking it, even if he’s not saying it…”Well, what in the heck did you do all day?”

I’d like to think that it’s not the pregnancy.  I’m sure I’m just being lazy or struggling with a bit of the blues because of the move, but either way, I need to find a way to get myself motivated again to get things taken care of around here.  So how do I do that?  How do I resist that comfortable sofa calling my name every afternoon while Natalie sleeps peacefully in her bed?  How do I force myself to pack up a house that I’m torn about leaving, do laundry that will just pile back up again within days, balance a checkbook and pay bills when there never seems to be enough money to go around? How do I fight the blues and the exhaustion and just keep moving forward???

I guess those are my magic questions for the day and if you have the answers, please feel free to share them with me.  I need to find a way to get something done without the use of my old standby, caffeine.  I need to find a way to fall asleep before midnight so waking up at 6am isn’t quite so difficult.  And when my will power fails, I really need to learn how to press on regardless.  I suppose if I figure out the secret to that…I won’t struggle ever again with dieting, cleaning, laundry, and the list goes on forever.

But….until I come up with the solution to my sudden “lazy syndrome”…..I think I’m gonna go take a nap! ;o)

In our “uprising for downsizing” (which you can read more about here), my husband, Corey, and I have been on a mission to find a smaller, more affordable home.  The catch is that we are very spoiled!   We have lived in a brand new, custom built home that offers 4 bedrooms, 4 bathrooms and roughly 3400 sp feet for the past 6 and half years.  I love my house and all the space it offers.  I just don’t care for the lifestyle it has created over the years…children going off into their own corners of the house never to be seen or heard from again…or at least until called for dinner.  Corey and I decided that bigger is not always better and have made it our goal to find a home more conducive to the “simplified” lifestyle we want to lead.  Again, the largest snag in this process is that while I have committed to the quest in my head, my heart has been slow to follow.  Every house we have looked at just felt wrong.  It may have been esthetically pleasing or met all of our criteria, but I was truly struggling to let go of our current home which was blinding the potential of every place we entered.  UNTIL TODAY….

Corey found a “for sale by owner” that he was really excited to go check out.  I saw it online and was mildly interested.  To be honest, I didn’t really care anymore.  After going through dozens of houses and finding nothing that could break the heartstrings that still tugged at me for our current home, I struggled to get excited about going through yet another home which was sure to be a disappointment.  However, Corey insisted and I obliged.  We walked through the home yesterday afternoon and by the time we walked down the steps to the finished lower level, I was hooked.  I looked at Corey and whispered, “This is it!  This is the place.  We have to buy it NOW!”  He smiled at me and I could tell he was “feeling” it too.  So we walked through the place a couple of times, talked with the homeowner, and standing in the driveway just 30 minutes after entering the home, we made an offer to buy it.  We both just knew that this was the place that we could actually call “home”.   It is a 2200 sq foot, 4 bedroom, 2 bath house that will soon be our “home”!  And the truly amazing part is that this property was just put on the market Friday afternoon.  By Friday evening, they had already shown it and had received a verbal offer on it.  Thankfully for us, they did not accept that offer immediately. We walked through it the next day and made an offer as well.  Now anyone who cannot see God’s hand in this work must be blind!

We got the phone call today that they have accepted our offer and we are closing on September 30th.  For those of you now trying to do the math…allow me….that is a mere TWENTY-FOUR days away!  Needless to say, we are excited, stressed, scared, stressed, thrilled, stressed.  I’m fairly certain at this point, everyone really should just stop calling me Mom or Sara and just start calling me Stressed Out or SO for short.  Am I justified in being stressed…let’s see:

I am 10 weeks pregnant with baby number 6

We are choosing to DOWN SIZE with baby number 6 on the way

I have to pack up the previously mentioned 34oo sp foot, 4 bedroom, 4 bath home in TWENTTY-FOUR days

We have to take 1 of the 3 weekends we have available to get the house packed up and travel to Minnesota (A story that involves my son which I will share in my next post)

The story that involves my son is enough to stress out any well-intentioned mother

I have 5 children whose lives, schooling, homework, and extracurricular events simply refuse to stop on my account

Oh…and did I mention I was pregnant????

So again, am I justified for being stressed out?  Honestly….probably not.  I have a friend who works full time outside the home, has 2 children of her own, just remodeled a home and moved, and her mother is battling cancer.  When I put things into perspective, I have just listed nothing but blessings…nothing to truly be stressed out about (except for maybe the part about my son which again, I will get to next time).

All in all, this move is a blessing for our family.  We are doing what’s right in our hearts even if the rest of the world may not understand.  We have found the perfect home which is allowing me peace of mind as I pack up and leave my current home.   Everything will work out fine and in due time.  I have more faith right now than I probably ever had.  I know I have wonderful family and friends to help us out if we need it, and I have God by my side, holding me up when I cannot seem to stand by myself any longer.

Stressed out….perhaps.  Blessed beyond measure…absolutely!

Today I’m feeling rather proud of myself….a little pat on the back….a bit of positive self-talk.  Since we had a showing for the house this weekend, it’s still relatively spotless.  The laundry is completely caught up…not an easy feat in this house.  The checkbook is balanced and the bills are paid (well, most of them)…a job I dread doing.  And I’m even showered, dressed, with hair done and hold your breath for this one…make-up on…before Noon!  I know…impressed, aren’t you?  Well, even if you aren’t, I’m pretty pumped up about such achievements so early in the day.

I was actually walking around the house trying to figure out what I’m behind on and what needs to be done.  I mean, there is always something that needs to be taken care of.

Cleaning…check.

Laundry…check.

Kids fed….check.

Personal hygiene….check.

I’m finally done with the Twilight series (an obsession that I sustained for about two weeks until I got through all 4 books) so I don’t have a book to turn to either.  I even have some of the “B” list items taken care of.  The school year schedule has been added to the calender.  I have the kids’ school supply lists condensed onto my own spreadsheet already.  No, I’m not giving in and shopping yet, but I always combine the lists onto a master sheet to make shopping easier.  Anal you say.  Yes, but it’s a must when you are wrestling with other moms in the isle of Wal-Mart over the last 3 non-perforated, wide-rule, spiral- bound, red notebooks…and I need all 3!  Oh, you may think I’m joking, but these damn lists are that particular…and God forbid I send the kids to school with the wrong color notebook….I wouldn’t want to give their teachers a heart-attack if my son pulls out college ruled paper because I didn’t wrestle hard enough with that mom at Wal-Mart.

Now where was I?  Oh, nothing to do….that’s right!  Then the light went on…MY BLOG!  OMG my BLOG!  I have not posted in days…panic set in and I ran for my computer as if it was on fire.  The days seem to run one into the next lately so things I did a week ago (like writing a new post) seems like just yesterday.  Days, weeks, and even months go by and I fail to notice the time moving swiftly by me.  So here I am…blogging about not blogging!  No really…the point of this post is to focus on time.  Does time fly by this fast for the rest of the world, or is it only me?

I seem to lose track of time with many things in my life.  I will wonder why the toilets look so gross because I could swear I just scrubbed them.  I question how in the world I have so much laundry to do because didn’t I just have it all caught up merely a day ago?   Summer just started so it can’t possibly be time to start thinking about the school year again, can it?  And the dentist is already sending me a reminder for my 6 month cleaning…didn’t I just see him last week?  Well, clearly I could carry on with example after example of how I always seem to be a day or two behind the rest of the world, but I’m sure you get my point.

It’s frustrating.  It’s terribly annoying.  And it means that I have to go mow the lawn again because apparently it was not just yesterday that I completed that task as the city is now sending me a “noxious weeds” notice!  ;o)

I try to be a reasonable woman and let’s face it; sometimes I fail miserably…usually when it comes to things I hold dear such as my children, husband, family or my home.  We are trying to sell our house, and I have a realtor to beat all realtors who just about put me over the edge today.    Granted, I have been incredibly sick all week and spent 3 hours in the emergency room last night just trying to breathe!  Needless to say, on the very few hours of sleep I had last night, coupled with this insane virus that has attacked my body and lungs and left me for dead, today was not the best day to blind side me quite as she did.

I received an email from her suggesting we do all sorts of crazy things to the house such as replace the thousands of dollars we spent on decorative stone with black mulch…throw up black shutters on one of the two windows we have on the front of the house, paint our front door black, and the real dozy…paint the exterior brick a solid dark blue!  Why all the black you may be asking yourself….she says it’s to match the black and grey roof and give the house “cohesiveness”.  Wow…just retyping it makes me feel dizzy and sorry for this woman because I’m afraid she may be color blind and nobody has had the heart to tell her all these years.  Well, today I was more than happy to let her in on the secret!

Honestly, the real kicker for me is that there is literally not a speck of black in our roof…or on the house anywhere for that matter!!  The roof is a darker grey…just a few shades darker than the light grey siding in order to add some depth and contrast to the house.  I’m afraid if we start throwing in all the black she is suggesting, we are going to look like we moved out and the Adam’s family moved in!

She said she really wants the front to “pop” and I guess making my home look like it just received a beat down from the neighbor’s home is her way of doing just that.  Perhaps the new marketing scheme is pity…”oh look honey, that house is all black and blue (with a hint of grey)…it kind of reminds me of that black eye you got last year when you gallantly stood tall against that drunk guy that hit on me at the bar.  I was so proud to pick you up off the floor that night and drag you back to the car.  Let’s buy it!”

Now don’t get me wrong, I don’t want to offend anyone who may have shutters on one front window, a black door, or painted brick as this all needs to be taken into context, but for our home, what she is suggesting just doesn’t work.  And I love black as an accent color, just not for this particular house.  Granted, the yard could really use some sprucing up and a little more curb appeal, which we are happy to tackle, but words fail me when I read what she had in mind.  And how do you say tactfully, “I’m sorry, but we just think that painting everything black and blue is going to make our home look more like an eye sore, than eye catching?!”  Well, as I precluded to earlier in this post, I was not nearly as tactful as perhaps I should have been when I fired back an email suggesting she get her eye’s checked and give me a call once she has glasses! ;0)

Let’s just chalk it up to another rough day to close out what was a very rough week.  Tomorrow is Friday and there’s always hope for a better weekend!

Sometimes the method to my cleaning madness even amuses me!  

Take yesterday for instance.  I swept up a pile of grass clippings, dirt, food crumbs, and rubber from a broken water balloon off my kitchen floor.  Now that Natalie is a dirt devil in motion, I sweep and vacuum at least 2-3 times a day.  But instead of just finishing the job, I swept the pile into a discreet corner of the kitchen, set the broom on the wall, walked over to the closet to get the dust pan…and got side tracked somewhere between the pile and the closet.

 To make a long story long, the pile is still sitting there!  So, today when Natalie discovered it..what did I do?  I grabbed the broom…thank God it was still leaning against the wall for easy access….and swept it into a new corner and walked away from it AGAIN!!  

As I did it, I was asking myself, “Sara, why do you shuffle the mess around like a deck of cards instead of just cleaning it once in its totality and moving on with your life?”  Unfortunately, I didn’t answer back.  

I started looking around the house and realizing that I do this allot!  I am looking at the 5 loads of laundry that are sitting on my couch right now and doing a mental tally of their relocations…so far, these same 5 loads of laundry have been stacked up in the laundry room, set in my closet, put out on my bed, and finally moved to the couch.  With the effort it has taken to shuffle them around, I could have just folded it and been done with it!

And I’m not the only crazy person in my house…oh no….nobody is getting off the hook with this posting.  My children do the same shuffling act with anything I hand them to put away.  I find the same wrapper or toy lying in a new location as if to suggest they actually dealt with it by moving it to another spot in the house.  

And my husband has adapted to this method of madness as well.  When he cleans the kitchen, he shuffles stacks of papers from counter to counter instead of just putting them where they belong!  

Therefore, I think now that I have called myself out on this, I am going to try a new lean process for handling all the stuff in my home.  I am going to attempt to touch things only once.  If I get the mail, I am going to open it, file it, respond to it…do whatever I need to do with it right then and there.  It is dealt with immediately instead of shuffled around the kitchen for a week first.  I am going to take the laundry out of the dryer, fold it, and put it away instantly rather than relocate it as if it were enlisted in the navy and being deployed to new locations every other day.  And the pile of stuff I sweep up daily off my kitchen floor, well that is going to be dealt with in short order as well.  

Wahoo…glad I got that off my chest.  I feel so relieved that I came up with such a sound plan of action.  I’ll let you know how well I maintain this new lean process.  I am really holding my breath on this one!  

Now, if you will excuse me….I need to figure out where I put my keys so I can unlock my car and get the last load of dirty dishes out of the trunk!