Sometimes the days just feel like they are never going to end. If they never end, how are we supposed to get through this deployment with our sanity in tact??
Especially when everyone wakes up on the wrong side of the bed, and WAY too early. I'm not a big coffee drinker, and when I do have some, it doesn't help. On mornings like this I try hard to change the mood of the house, Quick! Sometimes I succeed and other times I fail miserably.
It would be much easier to be a morning person if everyone would sleep in their own beds all night. We have good weeks and bad weeks when it comes to this issue... I have 1 child who ALWAYS sleeps through the entire night. Then there is the baby, she is actually a pretty good sleeper for the most part, with the exception of teething. She is easy though, put a little orajel on those gums and lay her back down with her blanket, and she is asleep again. Unless of course the clock says 4am or later... I swear she can tell time! She refuses to go to sleep in her crib after that, so she ends up in my bed. However most times she will go back to sleep once there. Miss E, now there is a tough cookie! At least she has progressed from crawling into my bed at 1am to waiting until 5am. I'm trying hard to get her to stay in her bed until it is sunny outside. Some days she will others... Nope! On those "nope" days, I usually end up giving in for the sake of not waking up the rest of the house.
Then there is "the boy". He was doing so good... sleeping in his bed all night and not getting up until 7am. Where did he go, and who is this child that keeps sneaking into my bed in the middle of the night?
We resort to charts, where they can work their way up to something special. We do good for a while... and then we are right back at the beginning again. YAWN!
Don't get me wrong, we have many really great days. It's is the tough ones that make me want to go get the biggest box I can find, package them up and ship them off to daddy. I'm sure he would love to have them anyways! They can all sleep on his bunk!
So many people tell me "you are Super Mom". Now I do appreciate people trying to be nice, give me a compliment, or trying to make me feel better. I assure you though... I am NO super mom. I am just trying to do the best I can for my family. Somedays that brings out a very ugly side of me.... a far cry from a super hero! Maybe it's because I have 4 small children, along with my husband being on the other side of the world. I know that is exactly it. I also know people mean no harm in saying this, they are just (like I said), trying to be nice. Or maybe they really do believe this?
Well, just so you all know, I do not put on a cape and fly around the house like wonder women when no one is looking. We are a "typical" family, I am a "typical" mom, and we have 4 "typical" children. If you were a fly on my wall on the days that start off like I described above, you would surely realize the super hero cape is still in the box. ;)
Despite my lack of love for the term "super mom", I do so appreciate all the love and support our family has been given these past few months. We have the most amazing family and friends.
So here is to more of the good days and less of the "wrong side of the bed" days!
Besides, I don't think the package would make it through the post office!
The kids had no school this past Friday due to.... you guessed it... MORE SNOW! We decided to do some baking. Cookies of course! We chose peanut butter, oatmeal, choc. chip. I didn't have a recipe on hand so I searched good ol' google and found quite a few. I finally narrowed it down and after we had already mixed the wet ingredients, I realized we were out of baking soda! (I had used the last of it trying to clean my mattress a few days before, after my son wet my bed at 3am. That's another story though)
I was not about to take all 4 kids out to the store, so I improvised. I added a little extra flour and used baking powder instead.
I'm pretty sure my help ate more dough then we actually cooked! Their idea of helping me bake cookies is standing at my feet asking over and over "can I have a lick yet?" Oh, and of course "Can I have a hand full of choc. chips PA-LEASE!!!!!"
the taste testers
Then comes the hard part...... the waiting! That oh so long 10 minutes in the oven. They just can't stand the suspense. We like to put a movie on in the other room after the initial mixing of the ingredients. That way when those fresh, warm cookies come out, the kids can plop them selves on the couch with 2 or 3 and enjoy the show with their tasty treat.
the timer
The cookies came out just fine... you would never know I had to do a quick fix on the ingredients at the last minute. I like to make mine a little on the smaller side. That way when the kids aren't satisfied with 3 cookies and are begging for number 4, it isn't so bad. Not to mention when I indulge in a few (or more) myself after they go to bed at night! ;)
Starting a blog has been on my "to-do" list for a while now. I thought it would be something good for me to do while my husband is deployed for the year. Of course taking care of our 4 young children takes priority... so 4 months into deployment, here I am.
Why "A kiss a day" you might wonder? Well, like I said, we have 4 young children ages 5 and under. How do you explain to them how long daddy will be gone? Weeks, months, years.... they can't really grasp that concept of time.
Someone shared a great idea with me back in September when we first set foot into this year long journey. I loved the idea! So I went in search of a large glass jar that would hold one hershey kiss for each child, for each day daddy would be away. The end result.... A LOT of hershey kisses! 4 kids and 365+ days of deployment. I spent a couple nights counting kisses, month by month and adding them to our jar. Thats quite a bit of chocolate!
Of course the kids love it, each morning they get their kiss from daddy in the form of chocolate. With the youngest being 14 months, she can't exactly eat a hershey kiss on her own, so I get my chocolate fix as well ;) Although she is starting to catch on to this morning routine and wants more than just her little nibble lately.
They have started to notice that the jar is not quite as full as it was 4 months ago. They are seeing through this visual, that daddy will be back home before they know it!
