Sick of Sickness

I am so sick of my kids being sick.

and the preschoolers being sick.
and the wiping of runny noses and dispensing medicine
and sanitizing and cleaning up the hoards of tissues we are going through.
and the phlegmmy coughs, that sometimes turn to puking (in Sam's case).
and checking kids temperatures to see if they need to be sent home.
and the non-sleeping.
and the crankiness.
and the fact that it is too cold to go outside and the kids are too sick anyway when I just want them to run around and wear themselves out and stop whining and fussing over every little accidental "Jackson-bumped-into-me" or overreacted "EEEEW! Sam-spit-up!!" or "She-took-my-toy" or "He's-not-cleaning-up."

I'm cranky.

Is it Spring Break yet!?

The novelty has worn off

Poor Roxy. A week into her new home and she gets no love these days. Of the 2 boys who were so infatuated with the adorable puppy, one crawls up in my lap and clings for dear life when she comes near him, and the other eggs her on until she starts to play too rough and then he gets hurt and wants nothing to do with her. She is quite an exuberant puppy, a side of her we didn't see until this week.

And me?

Well, *sigh* I knew better. I'm cleaning up enough accidents off the carpet with spit-up and potty-training, I wanted nothing to do with this from the start, but saw the value in having a larger and younger dog with fresh ears to protect us when Ben is gone. So, alas, I have one more to clean up after.

I swear, after this, I am ripping up my carpet and staining the concrete! Ben has taken most of the responsibility for training her and cleaning up after her and for that I am grateful. We love her, but we are already ready for the puppy stage to be over with!!

Then there is Lady. She either hides in her crate or in a corner, giving me death-looks, as if to say, "What were you thinking!?" If Roxy chances to get too close, Lady barks and growls ferociously, saying, "Don't even think about it small-fry! I may look old, but I will rip you to shreds if you get in my face again!"

I think it will be a while before we all come to appreciate her fully, but we are being patient. After all, she is really cute...

This is what happens when Daddy does bath and bedtime...

Your feet look like Curious George! Ben said he realized after he put them on that they were mitten and not socks, but by then he didn't think it really mattered. They kept his feet warm while he slept just the same. Hahahaha! I laughed til I cried!

Introducing our new family member...ROXY!!

Sometimes I read other people's blogs and I feel sad. Blogs and facebook and church are my only connections to the outside world and I feel like I am missing out on so much! I love what I do, but I focus so much on other people's children, I have no life of my own. I never get to have the missionaries over. I don't get to develop my friendships like I'd like to. I don't get to actively pursue talents outside of teaching and working with kids. I don't get to spend quality one-on-one time with my kids and when I do get to, I'm so tired, I often don't put in as much work with them as I should. I'm so tired from cramming everything I need to get done into my day!!

Now that I have full enrollment (which truly is blessing to our family and I am SOOO grateful), I have at least 3-5 kids from 7:15-5:30. Then I have basically 3 to 3.5 hours to get dinner made, get to the gym, run any errands I need to run, do laundry/dishes/end of day clean up, bathe kids, bedtime routine. So many important things get left out. I was reading a friend's blog about a conversation she had with her 5 year old, and it was so touching how she turned a question into a teaching moment about the Lord, and how she sees her children's lives unfolding in service to Him.

It made me a little depressed with my priorities. Is is absolutely necessary that I do all those things? Can I spare a few minutes to sit down with my children and teach them about the gospel? I will make time! (I have been trying to figure out how to do FHE with our crazy schedule and sometimes alone with young kids?!) So tonight, I put Sam to bed (he has been sick with a yucky cold and running a fever today) and before I put Jackson to bed, I picked a special book that my mom got Jackson for Christmas.

It is this adorable book that tells several stories from Nephi with photography of babies dressed up like the people in the book of Nephi. Anyway, Jackson sat in my lap while we read it and periodically I would sing the refrain to the "I Will Go, I Will Do" Nephi Primary Song. That helped to keep his attention. He loved the pictures, he kept saying,"The babies are sad," which was the perfect opportunity for me to say, "Yes they are sad. That is Laman and Lemuel. They are sad because they weren't making good choices. They didn't want to do what Heavenly Father asked them to do." Then at the end I taught him the Book of Mormon Stories Primary song. We always say a prayer together before he goes to bed, so tonight I suggested that he say thank you for Nephi and help us to be like him and make good choices and do what the Lord wants us to do. Well, it is not much, but what else do you do with a 2.5 year old? That was about max for his attention span and understanding.

On another note, this weekend we got some much needed family time! We finally got the Christmas lights down on the outside of the house, Ben hung some curtains I have been wanting to hang, and we all went out visiting pet stores just casually looking at puppies. We had been talking about getting a new dog, since Lady is about 13 years old now, and she is starting to be a little deaf and doesn't always notice when things should alert her. So...we ended up falling in love with a foster care boxer-terrier mix puppy at PetSmart. We named her Roxy. Since she isn't a full blood boxer (but looks just like one), she isn't supposed to get much above my knee height. To me, that is perfect because I wanted a small dog, but I also wanted a dog to make me feel safe when Ben works nights.

Both the boys were absolutely smitten and Ben loved her, too. I had to be the voice of reason, but even I couldn't resist those big brown eyes! So far she is potty training really well and responds to the command no. She is quiet, but playful. The perfect puppy! I'm sure you will agree after her big brown eyes have hypnotized you, too.