And it's Friday again

Hard to believe its been another week. They seem to fly by these days. This week we enjoyed the pool and time with friends.
I have joined a new group of moms from our church. We are going to form a new moms group through the church. This has been attempted before, but did not continue. I think this group will be different. We would like to make it more than a few play dates. We would like to have thus group be a resource for the moms if our parish. It is exciting to be a part of this voyage. Oh time is up. Hope to elaborate on this topic again.

Friday

Keeping up with a family of six has its challenges. We are not as involved with activities as others I know, and I still struggle to maintain balance. I believe my husbands weird work schedule has a lot to do with it and can make things more difficult.
There are days where I could use a person to either be here for them when they get off the bus, or stay home with three for an hour so I can take the fourth child to their activity. I used to not have such a hard time because I had a neighbor I could turn to on such occasions. She has since moved and I have not found someone else like her. Its a challenge with no family around. You either have to pay someone or work it out with a friend. I have a great set of friends that I have turned to many times. There are those times when your friends are busy, or you seem to be asking them too frequently, the same people for everything, or you would like your kids to be home because its so close to bedtime. Regardless, it is a challenge I face frequently. Take last night as an example: Seven had a class for her sacrament preparation. N was out of town for work. It was -5 degrees outside. I would have preferred to leave three kids at home for the night instead of hauling all of them out to the church. Granted, I love all the time we spend at the church, but lately we have been lucky to not be in the situation like last night. N has been home and the one on one time with Seven has been great.
Another challenge I face, spending one on one time with a child. Its hard when you get so busy with the weeks events, trying to keep it all together. I forget to make time to spend with each child individually. Sometimes the situations present themselves like the church classes, but other times I need to make it a priority with my children. One week at a time I guess.

Wednesday

Parenting can be such a tricky occupation. You have so many things to balance. You wear many hats as a parent. First, you are the loving, ultimate caregiver for a baby. You meet all their needs day and night. You think that is the hard time, but really, the hard work is yet to come. Once you get past all that baby time, you have not only another person depending on you, but also more opinions about your situation.
The challenge with four kids. Four different ideas, four different opinions. Our most recent challenge: time on electronics. With so many days off in a row and temps too cold for outdoor play, we had excessive electronic use. This had led to poor habits and crabby people. The crabby people part was shown when I cut the electronics. This seems to be a common situation with many parents. Just today at a luncheon with a new friend, she too has a hard time with electronics and her children. Her kids are 4 and 3. At least I am not alone in this battle. You want your children to have good, wholesome lives. We want them to know good from bad, right from wrong. When they leave my house, I expect them to behave to a certain standard. In public, I have had many people tell me how good my kids are. I work hard to have good kids. At home, they behave differently. They have their guard down and sometimes forget the every day manners.
With the Lenten season upon us, we were challenged by Fr. B to go deeper in our giving up for Lent goals. Sometimes we yell. I know we are not alone in this, others yell too. We decided as a group we will not yell for Lent. They decided the consequence would be if you yell, you have to do three nice things for the person you yelled at. And, you lose electronics for the night. If its after 6 pm, you lose electronics for the next day. We made it an entire week! No yelling at each other. Then, 5 days cooped up in the house and there was yelling. I knew we'd have issues, there was no way we could make it 40 days. I am proud of making it an entire week. I hope we learn from this experience and it continues after Lent. Its just a bad habit. A neighbor once told me her parents never yelled, not in her entire growing up. I was jealous and sad to have not been like that. Its never too late to change. While more difficult with older kids who are used to being allowed to yell, I hope it is something we can change. Its a daily struggle we will continue to work on.
Last spring I was challenged on my life and parenting skills. It nearly broke me and left me with so much doubt a out nearly everything in this life. I questioned so much about myself. It was a real blow. Took me months of prayer to realize no one has the right to judge someone else on every aspect of their life. That is between the person and their maker. He is who I will answer to on my judgment day. For now, I will follow him and do the best I can. One day at a time.

Tuesday

I wanted to dance when the bus came this am. Yes, dance. Last week we did not have school on Monday due to the holiday. Tuesday, children off to school as normal. Wednesday, same thing. Oh was I surprised to get the 5 am phone call, there would be no school. Too cold. Cold is cold. I get it. Who wants to be out when it's -25. I left those cold temps and am too afraid to go back. We spent the day at home, like a bonus day. N returned from his work trip. Happy kids. All was great with life. Friday am rolls around and again, I am surprised to receive another 5 am phone call. No school, too cold. We make the best of our day at home, again, another bonus. We go swim at the pool and bring a friend along. Even though we discovered it's only lap swim during the early hours, we still managed to enjoy our swimming time. Our pool pass has done wonders for my little swimmers. Needless to say, after two cold no school days, how shocked was I when the canceled school again! Yes, it was cold, but they could have gone in two hours late. Today, it is also cold. The kids in MN would never go to school if they used these standards.  I think they should have given more for picking up students or started late. Canceling school when you can't get down your road, that makes sense to me. I guess it just goes to show how people adapt to their surroundings. Now we are left with one snow day left. Hope we don't need more for actual SNOW days. Our school year is already too long going into June. We don't need to add more days.

I know, it's been awhile

Password problems and signing in gave me so many issues. I haven't written for years! I do miss it and think about it from time to time. I have a new location and all new characters. It's like starting over. We will see if this post goes through.