two's day

Today has been utter madness. 

I planned to do mommy time with each of my kids today because it's the last day of winter break. But it was ultimately a fiasco.

Richard struggled with hearing 'no' or 'wait' this morning. He got fixated on finding the bottom jaw Lego piece for a dinosaur and would not let it go. So I ended up putting other things aside to have my mommy time with him first.

Richard's mommy time choice: Lego dinosaur play out front. It was short-lived, but I gave it my all.

Next up was taking Evelynn to her hair dye appointment. This whole hair dye thing has been a painfully expensive life lesson for me. It's just one of those things that happens when you have never been the mother to a teenage girl before. It's a long story but let's just say I am eating a lot of humble pie. 

After dropping her off, I stopped by the cemetery, where I had hoped to sit at Charles's grave and bird watch. my time was cut short, however, when I got a phone call from Evelynn telling me I had to sign paperwork for her hair dye. I hated leaving Charles's grave. To be completely honest, I have been having a lot of very painful feelings around Charles's life/death lately. For now, though, it's just easier to push them down and hope they don't boil up. On my way out of the cemetery, I saw a double funeral. I thought it was unique and looked up the last name on the sign, only to discover a tragic story. It led me to reflect on all the people in the world who have heavy hearts ringing into the new year.

His little cactus and beautiful pine tree are still alive. 

When I got done signing the paper for Evelynn, I made it home to do more mommy time. 

Gladys wanted to make hot chocolate and watch 3 studio C episodes in my bed

Roger only wanted to make hot chocolate together.

Leena only wanted to make hot chocolate together

Ebenezer and I built an epic train track and he had a blast pushing his trains around. Then I added a hot wheel ramp and his fancy battery-charged car track, too. He was thrilled.

Of course, there were plenty of interruptions, not to mention laundry and dishes to be done. People needed snacks and stuff. but soon it was time to pick up Evelynn for the big reveal. Only to find out that we would have to come back in a month for another dye correction. oy vey. I really screwed things up. But she sure loved having her hair straightened.

Then I went on with mommy time. but... the complication was that my daughter had a friend over and our neighbor friends were still running in and out of the house. It was crazy. and some of my kids didn't want to have mommy time with me. It was quite the conundrum. I wasn't sure how to take it. I tried forcing them, bribing them, and compromising. Eventually, I just gave up and then somehow ended up having mommy time with them and their friends.

sally and Sam wasted me in taco cat goat cheese pizza. but to be fair, I was terrified of them breaking my hand, so I was timid about putting my hand down.

James ONLY wanted to make hot chocolate with me.

Walter wanted to make homemade sugar cookies. Yunus joined us. and then everyone got to eat the cookies.

but then. just as we were getting ready to have a family pow-wow and clean up the entire disaster of a house (and by disaster, I mean tornado aftermath) I heard a blood-curdling scream. Roger had his hand slammed in the door. and... I wasn't sure I could handle it. There is something about the thought of my son's fingers being broken or bent back or cut off... I just can't handle it. So I was trying my best to cope with it and I didn't do it with flying colors. Some of my other kids didn't handle it well, either. one kid yelled at the neighbors and told them it was all their fault. Another kid blamed Walter and made him cry. Richard started throwing a massive tantrum about something he wanted that had nothing to do with anything. Ebenezer felt neglected and needed a diaper change and started crying. Everyone else was fighting over which room to clean. And Roger was in a lot of pain. Everyone was hungry and I needed to make dinner. I had a busy night ahead of me.

the picture I took for Jeff to get his long-distance nurse advice.

It took about forty-five minutes for me to calm everyone down. Dinner was taking forever to cook (new recipe), so I decided to get my boys' haircuts done. I had to follow up haircuts immediately with baths, and the kids never got to eat the dinner I made because it still wasn't done by 7pm, so they had sandwiches and went to bed.  Somehow I finished in time to go to my temple recommend interview. we had a good, candid conversation. It was a pretty good interview and then I polo-ed my bestie about my crazy day. I got home and called up Jeff to have our nighttime scripture study and couples prayer. But it was cut short because of bad reception. 

you should see the outtakes of this photo. THEY ARE HILARIOUS. 

So I finished off the night with my Evelynn mommy time. We watched Once I Was Engaged and loved it. my mom shared her homemade chocolate chip cookies with us after we had gorged ourselves on ice cream. Now it's late. I planned out tomorrow. and I am off to bed. Ready or not... here I come.