Keeping Up

I've been sturggling, espeically since the weather has turned nice, to keep things caught up at the house.  We have a to do list crazy long of spring chores and finishing touches to complete the bathroom and house projects, but I'm struggling to keep up with the daily chores. 

I feel as though I can never keep up with the laundry for the six of us.  I know it's a never ending chore, but it always seems as I'm behind.  Keith and I folded probably 5 loads of laundry last night, so we have some clothes and dish clothes.  I had to use a bathroom washrag the other night for the dishes.  We have those now!

However, when I showered this morning, I noticed we have one towel left, and no hand towels clean left.  And guess what, tonight is shower night for the kids and I have a dinner for work.  Diapers were finishing in the washing machine, so I couldn't switch anything over.  I did a load of clothse last night before the diapers though so we would have clean underwear for the morning!

I've briefly thought about purchasing more, but that only makes the mounds of laundry higher because I can wait longer to get it done.  Yet there isn't a day that goes by that I don't do laundry.  at least one load a day, often many more.  On a good day I can get two through in the morning and a few at night.  More regularly though it's one in the morning and one at night. 

I'm especially behind on laundry after Elinore was sick last week and we had extra sheets to wash and diapers that needed bleached.  Hopefully we'll get to a more managable system again soon.

It's not just the laundry though, getting the shopping done is increasingly harder too.  Getting to town, getting motivated to get it done, and having the time are hard to come by.  I tried Amazon Pantry for the first time last week to help with the shopping.  It was well overdue.  We ran out of toilet paper in our house over the weekend and ketchup too.  We were out of more of course, but those stamples caused issue.  Toilet paper for obvious reason.  The ketchup Caden really wanted on a leftover cheeseburger he ate for dinner earlier this week.  I ran through the list of other options we had to put on it and none of them satisfied him.  That's when I realized that we had fast food ketchup packets in the van.  I sent him to the driveway to retrieve one for himself.  After I assured him the date was okay on it so it wasn't spoiled, he ate his cheeseburger happily. 
I didn't tell him there's no dates on the ketchup packet and I had no idea how old it was.  It was from Sonic, and the last time I remember going there was in September, so it may have been a bit old, but it was ketchup. 

In all the household chores, I try to delegate a bit more to the boys for some help and to teach them responsibility as well.  But I also try to remmeber that this is my opportunity to serve my Lord by serving my family and caring for them.  I try to do the chorse with a grateful heart and willingness to accomplish them chores.  I think of it as a serving opportunity.  It's one way, I can serve Him. 

Crunchy Diapers

Elinore does not like disposable diapers.  She calls them crunchy diapers.  She likes her good once, her nice ones she says. 

Last week she was sick; sick enough we went and bought some disposables for her to wear to avoid the mess of cleaning up the cloth diapers.  She was NOT a happy camper about it! 

Grandma, my mom, refuses to use cloth diapers.  She doesn't like them and is always offering a disposable for her from her stash so she doesn't have to use them.  Elinore keeps telling her she doesn't like them, but it doesn't matter to Grandma!  She'll always choose us over her to change a diaper if Grandma's around!

BUT, to my surprise, when she woke up this morning she asked me for a crunchy diaper.  She asked if she could wear a crunchy diaper today.  Sure I said, we had some left anyway.  I asked if she wanted me to send crunchy ones to the sitters to and she said yes, so I sent some there too.  I don't know what she'll want to wear there today, but we'll see.

If she decides she wants disposables, so be it.  Ruth will get the cloth then!  She can fit them now, but I don't have enough diapers or time to do the laundry for them both to be in cloth! 

Hopefully Elinore will be potty trained soon and then it won't be an issue any longer!

Baptism

Sunday, May 3, Ruth was baptized in our church.  It was a choice Keith and I made with ease; we knew we wanted to raise our newest girl in the church as we are the older kids. 

It took us awhile to get organized and a date that worked for the family.  We were waiting for the weather to turn too, we didn't want to have his family traveling so far in our snowy winter this year.  This date enabled us to celebrate her baptism and Caden and Caleb's birthday with one luncheon after church.

The service itself also coincided with communion Sunday, which is always something moving for me. 

Our family stood in the front of the church with us during the baptism and tears welled in my eyes as she was blessed.  Keith said the same thing that night as we talked about it later. 

Ruth, you are loved by your family and your church family.  We strive to raise you to know Christ and live like him. 

Cavs

Work provided me with a pretty great experience Wednesday. With my boss and two of my agents, I attended game two of the Cavs - Bulls playoff series. It was a great game and the city had energy!

Ruth - 5 Months

YES PLEASE

I recently finished reading YES PLEASE by Amy Poehler.  I had read a couple reviews on it from bloggers I like and I read some things on Amazon about it and finally decided it was time I read it. 

I was disappointed.  I did not like it.

In part I was disappointed because I should have selected a book that I was more interested in.  I'm wanting to read more faith based books that have me thinking about my Lord and seeking him more, this book did not do that.  God was missing. 

Aside from my desire for something different I found the book to be full of name dropping, reliving old SNL skits and stories about how she got where she is with more name dropping.  I should probably mention I don't watch SNL or Parks and Recreation. 

Now, I'm making my way back to some more Jesus reading. 

NINE

This past weekend, Caden and Caleb turned NINE!  This is their last year of single digit birhdays.  Hard to believe they are so grown up already. 

I planned ahead this year and we celebrated their birthday well!

Friday night after school, Camerin came to stay for the weekend with us.  After they went to sleep I put up some birthday banners for them. One, right outside their bedroom door so they'd see it first thing!

Then we had brunch of pancakes and sausages mid-morning to feed the family before heading to Caden's double header soccer games.  He played well! 

The Elinore went to Grandma's while the rest of us picked up some Star Wars balloons and headed to Acres of Fun for their birthday party! 

For the first time we threw a birthday party for them and invtied their friends from school.  We invited both of their classes from school and had about 20 kids show up to play 2 games of laser tag.  It was crazy busy and we ran late, but all the kids seemed to have a good time.

Then we headed home with some pizza and Grandma Nancy brought them over their birthday gift.  She gave them Crazy Carts; they're basically a go cart and they took them to the school parking lot and loved every minute of it.

Sunday was Ruth's baptism, which I want to write about too, but after the church service the family came back to the house for lunch, cake and some presents for the boys.  Caden finally got his mini Christmas tree he's been wanting for over a year now!  And Star Wars was a common gift theme between them.  Between their friends and family too, we are not certanly over ran with legos (as if we weren't before)!

We had a great time celebrating two very special boys and being thankful for another year of their life.