Thing 6 is getting a haircut today. It's WAY past time. I've selfishly let him look like a little girl for about 6 months. Because this is The Last baby hair I will ever have, and even though we have 6 kids, and I know We're GOOD with that... it still makes me sad to think that my baby is now a toddler... and that today marks the beginning of a baby free life :(

So while I go find some chocolate to console myself in... YOU can go check out more Wordless (and Not So Wordless) Wednesdays @5minutesformom.








Read the full story

It took me like... half a pot of Coffee to be all Yay Monday! this morning. And umm... By the way, this morning has now become Yesterday morning. I have a million posts started. And a big fat ZERO actually ready to publish.

Aaaand... Apparently I overestimated my Smackdown Power because I'm still Tackling last Tuesday's laundry.

But I did have some Productive Moments. And I was Inspired. And Motivated. And Encouraged. AND I learned something new.

Back in the day there was a place in Greece that the Athenians called Mars Hill. (Areopagus)


All the people would go there everyday and chill. Gather, fellowship... whatever you want to call it. And the people would Prophesy (reveal by divine inspiration) or speak about the ways God was moving in their lives, the knowledge, discernment and understanding that He was giving them...

I think that's awesome.

I'm working on Being Bold In Christ but.. well... maybe not so much.

So often I'll talk to someone, or read something and think... "I really need to say ____" Aaand then I don't. I have all this knowledge that I just choose not to share.

Don't get me wrong... I don't have it because I'm Super Smart or anything. More like Super Stubborn and He has had to teach me Alot of things The Hard Way. Which sucked. Atleast at the time. I should want to help others avoid that by sharing what I've learned right?

So, this week, along with my Ocean of Laundry (which, so you know, is now All Clean... However it is also completely covering the pool table, just sitting there, waiting to be Folded and Put Away) I am going to be Cleaning House on the Inside.

I am tackling... ME.

(Yesss I need Lots and Lots of Hard Core Prayer ;)

Have something you need to tackle?
Go see the girls at 5min4mom and hook up with Mr Linky. Tell us what you’re up to… housework and otherwise... :)



Read the full story

Add all of these together and you have a pretty accurate visual of the Ocean of Laundry that I've been doggy paddling through this week.



And most of them look like this....

So I'm Putting The Smackdown on it.




And then I'm going to Shout It Out.

Because by yesterday of next week it will look like this...




Sigh. OKAY it will really look like this...

But I'm good with that too :)

For more Tackle It Tuesday's and/or Wordless Wednesday go see the girls @ 5min4mom


Read the full story

• Yesterday I did something new. I decided I was going to Embrace the FreshNewStartness of Mondays. Sadly, Monday decided not to Return My Embrace. Rude! So.... Yay Tuesday!

• I think I am going to Stop Overanalyzing the fact that I over analyze Everything and just go with it. HOWEVER, I believe that "A closed mouth gathers no foot." which leads to me think that Brevity is Good. So I'm not going to overanalyze things Out Loud anymore.
  

• This doesn't count because I'm typing Quietly.

• Apparently, I do not Adapt Well To Change because I am NOT happy that someone broke my Facebook. WtHeck!? Really?? I LOVE my friends. So much. But I just don't feel the need to know Every Single Thing they do. Do we really Need to know every time they become Friends with SomeoneIDon'tKnow? or are a Fan of SomeCrapIDon'tCareAbout? NOPE. Not so much.

• Life Tip: Make sure you get dressed BEFORE you make your coffee K!? No need to thank me. I'm just Looking Out for YOU.

• My kids are So Freakin Excited about halloween being this weekend. We don't normally do traditional halloweeny stuff. But this year a friend is having a birthday/ Trick Or Treating party. So we're going to go. I just want to make sure that they understand that I get ALL of the Peanut M & Ms we are not going to crack out on candy for the next week.
  

Now go post your own Random Tuesday Thoughts and link up @ The UnMom.com because I cleared out my Google Reader and now I have absolutely nothing to distract me from my laundry :)



Read the full story

And, Anita Renfroe just rocks. I was lucky enough to see her at WOF 2008 and she is Hi-Larious.

Now go see Toni @ A Daily Dose for more...



PS. If you love Momsense you've gotta watch Total Momsense.




Read the full story

I think I'm going to have to lock her up when she hits 14.

See more (possibly cleaner) Wordless Wednesdays @ 5 Minutes for Mom Read the full story

• School started Tuesday:)
• Thing4 started Kindergarten.
• I've been reading all of these posts about kids starting kindergarten.
• So many mom's are sad or anxious.
• Ya. You won't find any of that here.
• I've been doing the happy dance all.week.long.
• This week has been the most awesomely amazing week.
• Tuesday was the Best.Day.EVERful!
• I would have run outside yelling that, as some people may have pictured me doing...
• But I figured the neighbors have seen more than enough of me lately already. You'reWelcomeVeryMuch!
  
• So I restrained myself ;)
  
• My Martha Brain thrives on anything that requires Planning, Scheduling, Organizing and LISTS!
  
• She has totally taken over so I am In.The.Zone
• It only took me like 30/45 minutes to clean the.entire.house.
  
• I had time to do *prek with Thing5.
  
• She practiced the letter A, shapes and colors.
• She also poured half a bottle of BedHead conditioner down the TIOLET!
  
• And.. ummm... gave herself a haircut... with the clippers... while I was making breakfast...
• Guess who left those down??? And PLUGGED IN!
• I got to dance around the family room with Thing6.
• We were totally rockin out to Ren & Stimpy.
• I have decided to stop fighting Martha and just embrace the sickness.

• I LOVE planning.
• Routines excite me.
• Schedules get me all hot and bothered.
• I won't even tell you what Lists do to me...
• Yes! I admit it! Cleaning turns me on!
  
• I am a MUCH better mom during the school year.
  
• Whatever.
• I am an organizer to the point of rampant OCDism.
• And I am Okay with that.
• Thing1 is homeschooling.
  
• The 6th grade curriculum was apparently not appealing enough....
• And the thought of getting naked in a locker room full of other people just sealed the deal for him.
• SO on top of the required curriculum... he is adding a course in media/graphic design and one of his (chosen) projects is to create a Graphic Novel.
  
• The Ultimate.Kid.Alliance vs Supermommy.
  
• MMMhmmmm.
  
• Do you think I should be worried?
• Because... I'm a little worried.
• What if they do this in real life? And win???

Read the full story

• So last week was a pretty interesting week.
  
• Not exactly the Most.Hellacious.Day.EVER! type of week, but still... definitely not boring.
  
• Not that we actually have very many boring days around here to begin with.
• The more I think about it... boring could be good for a little while.
• Just so you know...
• I am NOT writing anything else about PEE or URINE or POTTY TRAINING EVER again!
• For 2 reasons.

1. It seems to be prophetic.

You would not believe what Thing2 did!

She keeps a bag packed... always!... just in case someone happens to come over and wants her to spend the night.

Even though the only place I ever let her stay is the grandparents.

Apparently someone took all of her stuff out of the bag and it was nowhere to be found.

She decided that Thing3 MUST HAVE taken it and hidden it.

Or... at the very least, left their door unlocked and allowed the little ones in to wreak havoc with her precious stuff.

And for that Thing3 MUST be punished!

So she proceeded to PEE in Thing3's bag because that somehow made it FAIR.

WTHECK?????

What is that???

I cannot even begin to wrap my mind around that concept.

I guess she was a little... *pissed.

Hahahahahaaa.

Okay. Moving on...

2. Someone searched peepee dance aaaaand my blog came up 1st thing.

Along with some really really freaky creepy stuff.

Like anonymous peepee dance groups.

And strange videos.

And peepee kings.

Did you know that someone will actually PAY you to do ...er... wierd peepee dance stuff????

May I just say.... EEEEEEEEWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!

And those are just things that I saw right off the search page. I was too creeped out to actually click on any of those links....

So, no more peepee here. Nope. You will not see the word peepee here again.

As far as the internet is concerned... we no longer pee at my house ;)

• Thing5 busted her head open. As in huge hole in her forehead with LOTS of blood loss and screaming and gnashing of teeth.
• 4 stitches worth of busting her head open actually.
• She hit it on the edge of a concrete bench.
  
• Out of 6 kids she's the first to have to be rushed to the E.R.
• So I'm doing pretty darn good here!
  
• And she was AMAZING.
• Beyond amazing.
  
• The.MOST.Amazing.Child.EVER!
• When they came in to do the stitches the guy wanted to *papoose her. As in wrap her up in a sheet like a mummy so she couldn't move.
  
• WTH??
• The guy was like "Yeah it just makes it easier to keep them still. We've found that most kids fight us when it comes time to do stitches.
• Umm... YA! I'm sure the whole mummy sheet thing has NOTHING to do with that.
• So I was adamant about NO turning my sweet little 3yo into a mummy. And we told her she had to lay down and be really really still so the doctor could put the *string band aids in her head so it can heal.
  
• She says "It's okay. God is already healing it."
• And I told her that God sent the doctors to give her band aids"
• She laid perfectly still the whole.entire.time.
• She didn't move.
• She didn't cry.
• She didn't even whimper.
• It's like she just went inside herself until it was all over.
• She was absolute awesomeness.
• So I gave her my peanut M&M's.

• I think Thing2 is showing Doctor Potential.
  

Thing2: "I know just what to do mommy! Thing5... What does 2+2 equal???"

Thing5... who just turned 3 and has NO idea what 2+2 equals on ANY day: "2+2 equals... my head is BLEEDING!"

Thing2: "OH MY GOSH I think she has BRAIN DAMAGE!"

• I read something about the more colorful your food is the better it’s supposed to be for you. I think I might even have read it on one of the rtt's from last week.

• So I'm wondering if that's real.
  

• And if it includes M&M's.
  

• Because if it is true then they should definitely count.
  

• They are VERY colorful ;)

• Apparently I am now in the *business of flashing.
  
• Construction crews no less.
• I had a lil help from Thing6.

I was outside talking to a neighbor holding a WIGGLY Thing6. Who decided to pull my shirt down. And you could see.. well..things that are usually NOT seen... And to top it all off 3 construction trucks happened to be rolling by... death by mortification....

• I know. Last week was Naked Random Thoughts.
• And I said I was definitely NOT getting naked.
  
• I guess I just felt left out....

Read the full story

• So Keely's on vacation and has a *guest poster for rtt this week. And one of her random thoughts was "I’ve been watching Sex and the City reruns lately since there’s nothing else on. I find it fascinating that (naked or clothed) Sarah Jessica Parker can go from being butt ugly to insanely hot in a split second. It’s like a hidden super power and I want it."
• And I thought "That is SO true! & I want it too!!!"
• That made me laugh SO hard I almost peed in my pants. Thank God for SuperMommyStopMidTinklePowers or we might have had a problem.
  
• Okay. I would have had a problem. But it's nice to share....
• This is probably the kind of stuff that makes my blog come up when people search for things like what do you feel if you urinate.
• Ummm... like you don't have to pee anymore???
  
• I'm guessing.
  
• I could be wrong ;)
• I cannot figure out why the thing.i.hate.! is the thing that will keep my kids happy and quiet for HOURS???
  
• They love mud.
  
• The dirty kind.
• They love it so much that I'm aboutthiscloseto grabbing a handful and taking it to Sherwin Williams to get matching paint.
  
• Speaking of dirty things...
• Yesterday I spent most of the day unplugged because I decided it would be a great idea to open up my mouse and clean it.
  
• And then it quit working.
• Next time I am SO anal retentive feel the need to take things APART to clean dirt that you can't even see I'm going to tell Martha to just.shut.up! and I'm leaving it dirty.
  
• Potty training tip ~ if you toss a Cheerio into the toilet after you flush it every time the next time a boy ... any boy... uses it... he WILL aim.
  
• Doesn't matter how old they are. There's just something about peeing on a cheerio. It is impossible for them NOT to.
  
• Idk why cause I'm not *equipped to stand and aim but... it is a Proven Fact.
• Last night one of Our Favorite Neighborhood Strays was hangin out in the man.cave. and I was just sitting out there listening to their nonsense conversation and the whole time I was thinking... Dude! I am SO glad I don't have a penis.

Read the full story

"Speak softly and carry a big stick; you will go far" Theodore Roosevelt

Doesn't that just.rock.?

And because his awesomeness does not end there, here are a few more...

• "It is no use to preach to [children] if you do not act decently yourself."

• "For unflagging interest and enjoyment, a household of children, if things go reasonably well, certainly makes all other forms of success and achievement lose their importance by comparison."

• "I never keep boys waiting. It's a hard trial for a boy to wait."

• "The one thing I want to leave my children is an honorable name." "It is hard to fail, but it is worse never to have tried to succeed."

• Be practical as well as generous in your ideals. Keep your eyes on the stars, but remember to keep your feet on the ground."

• "I have a perfect horror of words that are not backed up by deeds."

• "The worst of all fears is the fear of living."

• "There is not a man of us who does not at times need a helping hand to be stretched out to him, and then shame upon him who will not stretch out the helping hand to his brother."

• "Don't hit at all if you can help it; don't hit a man if you can possibly avoid it; but if you do hit him, put him to sleep."

• "Alone of human beings the good and wise mother stands on a plane of equal honor with the bravest soldier; for she has gladly gone down to the brink of the chasm of darkness to bring back the children in whose hands rests the future of the years. "

Pretty smart for someone who's not even a mommy ;)


Read the full story

Random

Something unexpected and irrelevant, but often amusing. A very over-used word now, please people, use it when something really is random. See example below for a true example of random.

Holly: Sorry to hear your hamster died Bob...

Bob: Window cleaners for British rail should watch out for flying man-eating deckchairs today, swimming in from the south along with the flea-ridden coathangers. The calf needs the blinds shut due to his purple parrot problem, and the pet washing line needs a slap round the face for dropping the flying monkey on the "queen of the night" tulips. The muffin man is responsible for the sudden outburst of rain yesterday as he forgot to pay the rent on his blue strawberries. I'm sorry, did you say you wanted a biscuit?

Holly: Random! Custard cream please.

• I just can't stop thinking about this baby. Stellan's story is... beautiful and ... heart wrenching and ...
• It made me cry more than the end of Prince Caspian.
  
• I was boohoo'in just watching that clip.
• I know. But it's sad!
• That movie absolutely rocks.
• Just so you know... the girls and I totally karoakied that song when I was looking up that link.
• Aaaaand... we rocked!
• We're thinking of putting that up on You Tube.
  
• Hahahahaha.
  
• There is a reason that I sing in the car.
  
• So Stellan's story reminded me of this one time...
• Okay. I cannot think the phrase "this one time" without immediately ending it with *at band camp.
• Idk why.
  
• As I was saying, reading the posts about Stellan took my mind back to when I was pregnant with Thing3.
• I was on COMPLETE bed rest for the.entire.pregnancy.
• She was born at 27 weeks and spent about 2 months in the NICU.
• That was... excruciating. To say the least.
  
• I seriously thought I was going to die from *the Mommy Guilt.
  
• That's a real thing. Ask any mom.
• You feel guilty for leaving the ones at home to be at the hospital.
• You feel guilty for leaving the one at the hospital to be at home.
• You feel guilty cause you're SO tired from running back and forth that all you really want to do is take a loooong nap and just kinda... wakeupwhenit'sallover.
  
• And you feel completely useless because really... there is nothing you can do to change it.
• Until you remember that you can get on your knees.
• In prayer people! Bring it up from the gutter ;)
  
• Thing3 is 7 years old now.
• And perfect!
  She is the physical essence of my faith.
• And the hope that other people need to cling to.

• I am so rockin Alanis right.now.
• I thought you might like to know that.
• Aaaaand I am just all outta random for today...

Read the full story

One thing I have always always known, regardless of anything else, is that I wanted to be a wife and a mom. No matter what else I did ...that was a *given.

I remember praying for this as far back as I can remember. And my only *request, was that the man I fell in love with would have a passion for me that was so intense it would only be superseded by his passion for Christ.

Had I known then what I know now I would *most definently have thrown in a few more particulars about dishes and diapers ;)

Of course I was really only expecting to have 1... maybe 2 kids.

Hahahaha.

Now, head on over to An Island Life to link up and answer some other, more interesting Aloha Friday questions.

Read the full story

Pssst......
Hey you.

Mr. Sunshine.

Read the full story

All of my favorite things in 1 post!

Lists, Multi-tasking and Efficiency.

Woohoo!

Read the full story

Dear Thing4,

I love you. I love you sooooo much. I really really do.

Butt seriouslyyy... you make me completely insane sometimes.

I say "NO THING4 DON"T JUMP THOSE STEPS ON THAT SKATEBOARD. It's a CONCRETE FLOOR for goodness sake! You'll BUST YOUR HEAD OPEN." And you look at me, and listen to all of my reasons why you should.not.do.that. And then you consider ... aaaand ... "Nah. Don't worry Mom. That won't happen to me. I know how to do this."

And when I think I finally have you convinced not to pretend your Tony Hawk inside my house, and I turn around to chase after Thing6 who has learned how to take off his diaper and RUUUUUNNN while laughing hysterically because he is winning, I hear your delighted shout of glee "I KNEW I could do it. Right On."

I mean, really. WTHeck am I supposed to do with you?

ALL of my threats of "because you could hurt yourself" are just tossed right out the window that Thing5 has opened and is now trying to climb out of.

And when I feebly say "Ya. Well. You COULD have gotten hurt" you just grin at me and sing "So what who cares?? I got Jesus baby." (No more Lecrae for YOU!)

Aaaand apparently, you do. Because if you didn't your head would most likely have been split in two long long ago.

If I know nothing else, I so know ONE thing.

With you as my son I will NEVER. ever. ever. forget that I need Him too.

Because I surely do suck at being your mom all by myself.


Oh Ya! YOU too can join JenniJiggity every week for Open Letter Thursday.

All you have to do is Write an Open Letter on your blog, and include a link to Jiggety Jigg (you can grab my button)!

Then go to her site, sign the Mr. Linky Widget, and visit the other bloggers who are playing along!

Read the full story

It's Friday once again.
Time for another round of...

Read the full story

And that means it's time for...

Read the full story

Dear God,

Please forgive me for wasting time taking a few Facebook quizzes today.

Well, maybe it was more like...5 Facebook quizzes... and .... umm... 1 Twitter quiz.

Okay 2 Twitter quizzes but only because I had to have a redo when I took the "Which NKOTB Member Are You Destined To Be With?" quiz. I think we both know that Jonathan Knight was just all kinds of the wrong answer!

Please forgive me for alwaaaaays being late. Like I am with this post. Which should have been up yesterday.

And please forgive me for losing my patience with Thing4 when he cleaned the kitchen floor with toothpaste last night.

Thanks for all of the awesome *things You give me.
And for making Thing6 the*MostCutestBabyEver sooooo snuggly:)
And quiet.

And Thank You for the *minty fresh scent in my kitchen now. It goes well with the Mr. Clean w/ Febreeze.
Oh .. and Thank You for Febreeze cause it rocks!

So, I see You've decided to clear some time in my schedule.
And...I'm just kinda curious what this means exactly.
I'm sure You have a plan, but...sometimes Your plans aren't so fun for me until after they're over. If that's the case this time.... could you please send me a memo so I can be prepared???

And speaking of preparation, I have the Mary heart down pretty good, but I'm still stuck with this Martha mind so, is there anything we can do about that?

I have a few questions I was hoping You might answer for me. Not exactly *Secrets of the Universe questions, so maybe You will.

• Why is it that You created toddlers with more energy than thier mommies?

• And Why is it that when I tell one child Noooooo, another one comes right along trying to do the same. exact. thing. that the previous child just got in trouble for.

• Did You create me to run on PuertoRican time? Or is that just something I acquired on my own?

• And why is it that when there is a car, tools and a man in a garage, alllll of the *men from miles & miles are drawn to it like somebody pulled out a big magnet and sucked them all in. Where do they come from? Does it really take that many men to change brakes???

I think that's all of the questions I have. For now.

But... there is just 1 little thing I'd like to change, if possible.

I know You don't make mistakes... really .... but ... I think You might have forgotten something when You were putting together my genetic make up. Because .... well ... my Wonder Bra is *wondering where the heck they're at!

Aaaand I'm a little curious too.

Just so You know, out of all the Things That Rock! YOU are the *Most rockin! Read the full story

Since I like it so much, and because I was SO good at it last time, It is once again time for...............

Read the full story

SO, I was bloggy jumping around earlier. I know. There were probably 8 trillion other *things I could have been doing that would have been waaaay more productive.

But I wasn't doing them. I was doing that instead.

While I was doing that I found

TADA...that was my 1st confession.

I wasted an hour and a half today bloggy jumping when I could have been doing more productive things like scrubbing the bathroom floor. Again. Because somehow, even though it gets cleaned every morning, by the end of the day, I feel like I've stumbled into a citgo gas station bathroom.

Which leads me to another confession. I don't really clean the bathroom every morning. I clean it every time I go in there. But I didn't want you to know how anal retentive...er...ocd I am so I wasn't going to tell you that.

But really, I have to be.

There would be no other way to maintain my sanity if I wasn't.

There are (atleast) 6 sets of dirty kid shoes (which can get very dirty by the way) trampling all over it all day, boys who somehow *forget to lift the lid (which is not for lack of being reminded I might add), toddlers who like to make *tissue snow (read: tear up the toilet paper into teeeeeny tiiiny bits and throw them up into the air so they will fall all over the floor, which, by this time, probably has water all over it (because no matter how much clean water the dog has in a bowl the kitchen she prefers to drink out of the *bowl in the bathroom), the mirror has a filmy layer over 1/2 of it because certain little girls decide *leave messages in lipgloss and then try to wipe it off (so mommy doesn't see) ~with toilet paper~ so now the toilet paper is stuck to the floor AND the mirror, not to mention the footprints ON the toilet seat because for some unknown reason atleast half of my children squat ON TOP OF IT to poop.

I don't know why.

I swear I did NOT potty train them in the back yard.

So, if you ever come to my house and have to use the bathroom, please be aware that I try to pick up the bathroom every hour or so, but it only takes 20 minutes for all of that to happen so.....enter at your own risk.

And guess what???

There was another confession.

I'm pretty good at this ;)

Right on!

Ok, while I'm at it I might as well admit......

I know almost every theme song on the disney channel. Including Hannah Montana. Which has got to be some kind of sick. I even caught myself thinking that Billy Ray Cyrus is pretty yummy now, which is odd because his achy breaky heart never did anything for me before. So now I'm wondering, is he really yummier now or does bad taste come with getting old????

I totally ball at the end of Prince Caspian when they have to leave Narnia EVERY single time I watch it.

I am a terrible *what I want to be when I grow up role model* because earlier today, when Thing1 asked Thing5 she wanted to be when she grew up she answered "A big scary monster".
To which Thing2 added "Well mommy you always say anything's possible."
Well...that's not quite what I had in mind when I said that.


Aaaaand the worst confession of all.......

I am a secret~closet Twilight fan.

I've read all of the books.

Okay. Twice.

And seen the movie.

Um....several times.

And I am forcing Someonee to take me to see New Moon AS SOON AS it comes out.

Which, I just happen to know is Nov. 20th.

I think I'm all confessed out.

For now.

Do YOU have a mommy confession???
Link up over at Life starring the Kids and Me and let us know. Read the full story