Life with 6 kids

Do any other mothers  have those days when having a root canal without Novocaine seems like a better idea than motherhood?  I guess I'm having one of those days.  It is days like these that I'm hoping it is just PMS because if it isn't I think I'll consider getting a job that requires me to travel 360 days out of the year.  To top it off, my husband is a CPA and is up to his eye balls with taxes and deadlines causing him to be wound up tighter than Bin Laden on crack.  I guess it is a good thing my blood pressure isn't normally high, because today would cause me to have a stroke which would then cause Ron to go into cardiac arrest trying to figure out who was going to take care of the carpet munchers while he finished out tax season.  It really is a vicious cycle having a family.  When we are single we are bored and want to get married.  When Mr. Right passes by we hook him like a salmon going to spawn and just when things get quiet after the wedding, babies start joining the mix.  It takes approximately 1.5 kids for you to realize that singleness might not have been such a bad thing.  After number two comes along,  life settles down a bit and a routine is found.  Then out of the blue the stork brings number three and chaos is again ruler of the house.  Numbers 4, 5 and 6 are a blur, suddenly 21 years has passed and mental health is something you only dream of attaining and  sustaining for more than 3 seconds a day.  That brings us to days like I'm having today.  The sun is shining but the kids can't seem to find the door to go outside.  It almost seems as if aliens have visited during the night and sucked their brains out of their heads leaving them with the inability to do anything but annoy me.  Once forbidden things such as bouncing from couch to chair is now happening with reckless abandon.  I swear if I had a chandelier they would be swinging like the monkey brains they are.  The only bit of relief that I can see is the clock is continuing to count down the minutes until bedtime.  Once the last fifty-ninth  drink is had, the twenty-fifth bathroom trip is done I can look forward to quiet for the next 8 hours.  Granted, I will also be asleep; dreaming of root canals without novocaine.  

It's been a few days, well maybe weeks since my last post.  I'm in the process of gathering information from my mom and other places to write a book about my mom and her life.  Anyway, that is why I haven't been blogging, my mind is preoccupied.  
My college boys were home from school this weekend.  Justin was only home for  24 hours and Jacob has been home about 5 days.  
It got me thinking about raising kids and how as parents we try to steer them in the right direction but so many times they demand to figure it out themselves.  Sometimes the kids listen and go in the way I think is right but other times I feel like I'm banging my head on a brick wall.   It's really hard as a mother to balance the need to fix things for them and knowing when to just back off and let them figure it out for themselves no matter what the cost.  I remember a situation with my oldest son that required serious intervention a few years back.  It involved a girl and he was dead set that she was worth all the headaches he seemed to have over their relationship.  Ron and I both talked numerous times with him, questioned his reasoning and we even talked to both of them along with her parents.  It's funny, at least now when I think about it.  I knew beyond a shadow of a doubt that this girl was NOT the one for Justin.  It wasn't even that I didn't like her.  I did like her and I want the best for her even now, I just knew that Justin wasn't the one.  However, he didn't want to hear anyones opinion, least of all mine.  One day though, he just decided on his own that he was done.  I think I heard the angels doing a dance in heaven.  Seriously.   I know that God will bless Justin for waiting for the best that God has.  I think he's found it, but time will tell.  I know that Justin has done it right this time and I really feel that I can relax and let him go at this on his own.  Not because I approve of the girl, but because I know that Justin is relying on the Lord to do this, not just going at it himself.  It takes a man of great Character to remain single for over two years, waiting for the one he knows is worth waiting for.  I'm impressed of how much my son has grown.  Not only in his faith this year, but just as a man.  It's pretty cool to watch.  
That is my prayer for the rest of my kids.  That they would pray and wait for the one that God has.  The best.  It takes a lot of patience.  I honestly don't know if I could wait.  I know I didn't wait and it caused a lot of heart aches.  If a relationship is not built on a mutal relationship with the Lord, it makes it so much harder when the going gets tough.  

I wonder how many people have ever seen the Auroras Boreales?  I am sure many northern Canadian and Alaskians have seen them and the people in northern Europe....  but while we lived on Call Hill we were able to seem them on a couple occations.  They were the most amazing heavenly specticle I have ever witnessed.  The emerald and flecks of gold danced across the sky in a fluid mesmerizing way.  It was like watching colored oil in water roll and swirl right before our eyes.  The ribbons of spontaneous light cause everyone watching to become spell bound and held captivated by its majesty.  While we were getting ready to head inside because the show was becoming dim, Slayt, who was 4 at the time said it perfectly when he said "Thank you God, that was wonderful!"

Winter morning on East Valley

Crisp winter mornings
Quiet, serene, new
The snow squeaks as if it is crying under the weight of each step
A lone owl screeches as he takes flight and glides across the cold dim sky
In the distance a fox barks as he happily skips through the field in search of breakfast
Under the apple tree a doe stands as if in a trance and stares with large onyx eyes waiting to see if a threat is posed by this wandering intruder
Nestled under the cover of a fresh blanket of snow are field mice, snug and secure from the elements
Tunnels dug through the snow are like subways on which they travel, carrying food and warm bedding
As the sun creeps over the hill tops, the light causes the white fluff to glisten like diamonds which have been spread at random
Neighboring houses begin to stir with life
Lights flicker on in the windows as if its eyes are opening
Car engines begin to grumble and cough their existence
The calm of the early morning has turned into the assiduousness of another day

Have you ever had 'one of those days'?  We had one of those back in 2000 on April fools day.  
Before we lived in our house on the hill full time, we  used to go up there just to get away and hike.  There was a huge metal watering trough which the previous owners had left behind.  Ron had moved it to catch water coming off the roof and by April it was filled to the top.  The day we went up was a nice hot day.  The perfect day for the kids to splash in the watering trough.  Jake, Abby, Slayt and Justin all took turns dipping their head into the trough and splashing each other.  I believe they even were drinking some water.  Jake had just come up from dunking himself when something floated to the top.  It looked like a tiny little foot.  Hmmm, what would a foo.... "RON!!!!!!"    Ron came over to look at what had caused my panic and saw the horror on my face.  Floating to the surface of the water were tiny little mouse parts.  Occasionally a whole mouse would float to the top.  We quickly realized that the watering playground the kids had been playing in was a watery grave to hundreds of field mice.   Ron decided that the best remedy would be to drag the watering trough down the hill and dump it so it wouldn't be near the house.  He put a chain around the metal tub and hooked the other end up to his Chevy truck and proceeded to drag it across the hill to the perfect spot.   Ron turned off the truck and put the parking brake on and got out to unhook the heavy tub.  Just as he unhooked the tub, the weight holding the truck back released which caused the trucks parking brake to fail, sending the truck careening down the hill.  The only thing we could do was watch the truck plow through the grass and slam into a tree at the edge of the field.  At that moment, we all decided that the best thing for us to do would be to pile back into our van and call it a day.  We needed to make one stop and that would be to the store to buy a gallon of bleach for bathing in.

Mom, the dog just pee'd on me

We are a dog loving family on the most part.  There are the few exceptions to this rule however.  Ron and Jacob are not thrilled with dogs but they tolerate them as long as they don't need to be their care givers.  As a family we are also a camping family and there are no exceptions to this.  Everyone in the family loves to go camping and we usually try to do it every summer at some point, especially when the kids were younger. Quite a few years ago we used to go camping as a group with our church.  This one particular summer, Ron wasn't able to go for some reason and so it was just me and the kids.  Thinking that it would be a wonderful idea to take a protective element, we decided that our new puppy would come along with us.  I have no idea what I was thinking, because a puppy is worse than taking an infant camping.  
Justin had his own one person tent, I was in a bigger tent with the three little kids and Abby and Jacob was in a two person tent.  Guess who got stuck with the puppy?  Yes, that would be the dog lover hater, Jacob.  I justified it to him by saying that he was the only one with enough room in his tent.  He had a two person tent and Dory's blanket could fit nicely in there.  Jacob reluctantly agreed and took the dog.  Around one in the morning, I heard Jacob at my tent door saying "mom, mom, i need to sleep in your tent".  I asked him why and about died laughing at his reply.  He said "the dumb dog just pee'd all over me and my sleeping bag".  
Dory had done what most babies do and wet the bed.  Unfortunately for Jacob, it happened to be his bed also. 

Another Surgery

Each time I take Danny to one of his doctors, I'm always amazed at how easy it is to forget that nothing is routine about his appointments.  Today we had to go to Elmira for his eye doctor appointment.  Danny has been seeing Dr. Morello since he was just two weeks old and we are very confident with him.  Dr. Morello is a pediatric Opthomologist and is very knowledgeable with Daniel's disabilities so it is worth the hour and a half trip.   Today we got the news that Danny would be having his fourth surgery on his eyes in a month or so.  Moebius Syndrome, one condition Danny has, causes Strabismus.  Daniel's eye problems are further complicated by his brain abnormalities.  Normally kids with Strabismus have one surgery to straighten their eyes and that is all they need because the nerves that connect to the muscles in the eyes and go to the brain figure out they need to now keep the eyes straight.  In Danny's case, there are no nerves or very few nerves that work in his eyes.  The ones that do work don't work in conjunction with the other eye and that makes it virtually impossible to keep his eyes straight just by the nerves "talking" to each other like normal eyes.  So this time the doctor is going to completely detach the muscles on the outside of his eyes and hope that there won't be any tension pulling them back.  As we have been told before, there are no guarantee that this will be the last surgery.   Maybe this one will do the trick, who knows.  All we can do is pray and wait until next time.