Current environment
Two teenage boys singing everything from maroon 5 to panic at the disco at the highest volume possible like they are auditioning for a show revolving around music for the hard of hearing
They are on the second floor and I could hear them over the washing machine while in the basement
It is kind of adorable

sleepovermagic

the best part of working from home is listening to my kids practice their instruments – thank goodness this isn’t their first years where an injured elephant sounded better. I get free jazz now.

My morning started at 5:45am when my husband came in and woke me up out of sound slumber to tell me that one of our cats caught a house mouse. 🐹

It wasn’t fat and lazy Mr Nubs. He slept through this whole fiasco. In fact four out of five cats and two dogs were useless in this mess.

After unsuccessfully chasing said cat around the house to avoid house mouse parts everywhere, he gave up. His took off his rubber gloves and walked into the kitchen and said “guess we will have to clean up her mess when she is done”

Um no. I don’t want to go to bed tonight to find gifted house mouse parts all over my pillow 🤢

I went downstairs to see our baby cat flinging the dead house mouse around like her catnip toy 🤦🏻‍♀️

This was precoffee mind you
Nothing should ever be done before coffee. Especially not running around trying to keep evisceration from happening.

So I proceeded to sit on the basement step and pspspspsps at her until she dropped the very very dead house mouse and came over to me purring. She was so so proud. 🤢

I scooped her up and ran with her to the kitchen whilst yelling to my husband to grab the body and dispose of it. The cat was utterly confused at my dismay and purred more.

He did. The baby cat purred and purred while I baby cooed at her for doing a good job on her hunting.

She then proceeded to eat food until she puked because she has zero self control.

By 6:30 I was settled with coffee and work – and made an executive decision that with three men in this house, someone else can pspspspspssp to the next cat that plays with her kill 😂

off to see a man eating plant…my poor aloe plant has PTSD from the last time I saw this show, it spent weeks locked in my bathroom at night….this time …it might be better…..

every lump is a teen!!! I have to give huge high fives to my teens. Our furnace went out Thursday overnight. The furnace fixing peeps can’t get out til Monday. Fortunately I have electric fireplaces. However I didn’t have enough to put one in every room. We closed off their bedrooms and have them sleeping in the living room.

Now mind you, I have two couches in my living that fold into beds. It was adorable last night to come into the living room, find all of them sleeping like a slumber party. They grow up so fast and this moment melted my heart.

Let me also say this – for a good amount of time – there was also no internet in my house last and I was expecting it to devolve into some sort of lord of the flies crap. 😂😂 so points to them for not being cranky (none of them are good with change) and huge perks to them for just being good kids and hanging in there with no ability to escape to their rooms for downtime

proudmommoment

So a debate is raging in my head. I am obviously overwhelmed with work and my boys and life and Via. Throw in some foster kids and well it really adds a touch of chaos. I know I am good parent, foster or other. I have parenting fails. Like the time I dropped a television on Torin Hofmann’s face or that time that i forgot to take Griffin to his job fair or that time ….etc … there are too many to list.

I have been a parent for 23 years. since I was 17. i sucked at it for a better part of 15 years because i was a kid myself. Kids are selfish. I was selfish. i have learned so much in 23 years. It is ridiculous.

so here is the debate: i will probably close my home to foster children when the girls leave. the debate is simple – my heart says that there are thousands of kids who could potentially be in my home and they need a safe and loving and patient place to land. i believe this so strongly that finding, training and licensing foster parents has become my career. it is in every fiber of my being. My heart says stay open.

my head, on the other hand, says that i will never say no to any child if they call. Little Johnny Bagodonuts could have eaten his grandmother’s face off the week prior and i would say yes. bring him over. we will load his pockets with snacks and wear hockey masks when we hug him. Then I will spend the next month teaching little face eating Johnny that faces are not for chewing.

and burn myself out doing it. Making the decision to foster is not easy for some. Making the decision to not foster is hard for me. Because i know the whys and hows and struggles and hurts.

thankfully my husband, when i discussed little face eating johnny, said one line that solidified my decision. He simply said “If we close, you can shift your focus to Via and make that the most amazing festival in kentucky so that anyone who knows about Via understands the need for foster parents and the need for people to help those foster parents and foster kids.”

and that is enough. so the debate and the doubt and the fear of this choice will rage on for awhile but in the end, i am choosing to focus on helping foster kids in other ways. I have five years left in kentucky… time to make my time here mean something!

fosterparenting #hardchoices

My husband will be home a smidge early – my boys aren’t going to pep band tonight to help out
(I never ask them to miss anything but man are they stepping up – so proud of them)

I only have to drag myself out of bed to go to the store to get baby wipes because toddlers are poop machines and cat food because my cats are pigs and then pick up the girls

And I am doing that in pajamas and screw social expectations. If someone mean mugs my fuzzy jammies – I will ward them off with a snot rag …. like some sort of mucus filled bog witch – I might even cackle and I am not sure if I have energy to brush my hair so that is an added touch

Crockpot dinner
The girls go to bed about 8pm (ish) because you know – life with littles -after which point I can go back to bed

Hopefully this is a 24 hour thing because man I just looked at myself in mirror and whoa Nellie …. I could definitely scare a monster under the bed today

The baby kept bringing me tissues this morning – it was adorable 😂
It is terrible when a 21 month old can tell you are a mucus monster. When I dropped her off at daycare – I actually had to sit for a minute to catch my stupid breath and find the energy to get home 😳

I wish I had a friend who could accompany me dressed as an old timey plague doctor because that would rock – of course that could be the fever talking

I take no responsibility for what I might post today – I am two NyQuil and a mucinex in and the fever speaks … 😂😂

I might have stealthy like filmed my husband bouncing a 21 month old last night on the couch – and I might be selling that video to the highest bidder 😂😂😂 (because seeing tough and grumpy Simon giggling with a baby was the bestest thing ever and will be perfect “I told you so” fodder in future years)

Additionally – the six year old conned me into allowing her to use glue …. I think a cat mouse is still glued to the coffee table “by accident”

Oh well
It has been interesting week … three more sleeps to go

Well I have scheduled a doctor appointment for tomorrow morning. When asked why I needed an appointment – I asked “does feeling like walking death count for a charted symptom”

We both laughed and then I sneezed all over my phone 🤦🏻‍♀️🤦🏻‍♀️

So in the two months that I have had toddlers, they have learned to go to bed in separate beds, with ease and sleep through the night. They have learned to not freak out over bath time and hair washing. They have learned please and thank you and inside voices. We are no longer dropping the F bomb and we call police officers by that not by any other term. We have eaten vegetables with ease and master forks and spoons. We have learned a bit of patience and accepting of boundaries. We have learned that temper tantrums get ignored and good choice get hugs. We have not bitten a friend in a few weeks and gentle hands are better than punches. We have learned to be nice to dog dogs and old cats. We have learned to rely on adults and schedules and routines and that a spilled sippy cup is hilarious. I am so proud of These girls and I know whoever gets them next … well.. they will love them as much as we have.