Frustrations in Parenting

Sometimes being a mom is hard.  Who am I kidding, it's hard all the time.  You are constantly busy doing things that are never done (i.e. cleaning pee off toilets, sweeping, laundry, dishes, cooking, etc.).  Then you start to feel guilty about not spending enough quality time with the kids.  So you try to do something FUN with the kids after school--let's say, just for example's sake, you try to make the above pictures sock bubble snakes...just hypothetically.  So you leave the dishes in the sink, ignore the crumbs all over the floor and take a few minutes to prepare what you imagine will be an absolute hit with the kids.  You fantasize that the 5 of you (hypothetically again) will play in the yard with your amazing rainbow bubbles and laugh and have an afternoon filled with the joys of childhood.  So you take it outside, and start blowing, catching the kids' attention.  The first kid runs over, we will call him Jake, and begs to try.  You happily hand over the bottle and within 3 seconds he is coughing, gagging, dry heaving, choking.  He inhaled accidentally.  He looks like he is going to be sick so you send Jake (or, you know, whoever) inside to wash out his mouth.  While you were helping [Jake], your youngest kid, this one we will call Joey, runs over, dumps out the bubble stuff and completely crushes the bottle.   So your attempt at a magical hour with the kids is dashed in about 1 and a half minutes.  So you go inside and do the dishes and sweep the floor.

Sometimes all Pinterest (where I got the idea) does is make me feel like I am under-achieving.  Are all you other mothers out there really doing all the things you are pinning????  Or on the occasion you actually do them do they ever turn out like my (hypothetical) experience?  I hope I'm not the only one.

Family on Fire

Last November we closed on a land lot of 5.26 acres.  Crazy, huh?  Who would've thought I'd be a farmer's wife?  Just kidding.  It is a great piece of land, great location, really beautiful, and we are very excited and hope to start building on it soon.  But before we could do that we (and by "we" of course I mean "Eric") had to clear out some brush from under a group of scrub oak trees.  Eric spent a lot of time over there piling it all up, then we got a burn permit and had a big burn party!  

 The pictures don't do it justice.  The flames were HUGE and HOT!  We couldn't even get within 15 feet of the fire it was so hot it would burn your face.  The kids had a blast playing.

 Tyler and Jake helped stack up some firewood Eric was cutting.  Here is Tyler probably getting a lecture about working hard and not goofing off.

 We invited family down and roasted Peeps leftover from Easter.  You can see the fire was so hot we actually had to pull a stick out of the fire to roast the Peeps over.  They were actually VERY tasty--and I don't even like Peeps!

 The other hightight lately is that Tyler eared his Arrow of Light for Scouts!

He worked hard to earn it and we are very proud of him.  

Things continue to move along with the land.  We FINALLY finished the well--the first one they kept having problems (broken drill bits, cracked casings, etc.) so the guy actually just gave up on that one and drilled a new one about 3 feet away and finished it in a week.  We've got lots of water so that's good!  I have a few pictures of the well being dug.  It's definitely a crazy idea for me to think of living on a huge plot of land, drinking well water.  Guess I'm a country girl now!

Fun in the Sun

Spring is here, which means lots of good times and excitement for summer!  To kick off the spring Jacob had his 2nd grade program at school.  It was awesome, but I ended up fighting the whole time to keep Joey in his seat.  Jacob remembered his part...

It was so funny because he couldn't have looked more BORED the entire time, but the girl next to him (in the pink shirt) was SO animated and bubbly with every song.   It was cracking me up.

 Joey is loving playing with his cars lately.  Unfortunately for me I find them everywhere.  Joey can be so sweet and cute sometimes, but quite often he is just a little stinker.   He refuses to listen or clean up or anything.  He just doesn't care if I put him in time out, take his toys away, or even (gasp!) spank him!  It is so frustrating!  So I had to document a cute moment at the counter....

For spring break Eric was working so I drove the kids down to visit my mom.  The weather was awesome--a little hot but perfect for the beach.  We went to a big park and had a picnic.  (This is all a bit out of order).  We went to the beach twice.  My favorite beach is called Mother's Beach---officially it is called Little Corona Beach--in Corona Del Mar.   It's pretty close, but you have to walk down a big steep hill to get to it.  But that must deter people because it is NEVER crowded.  Plus the beach is a good size, but small enough so that from one spot you can see the entire beach.  There are tidepools on one end and big rocks to climb on on the other end.  Plus a little stream to play in for the little ones who are afraid of the ocean.  Ty and Jake jumped right in..

 They played and played and played and could've stayed all day.  Since the beach is free I could have stayed too!  Everyone was having fun and being good.  But one BAD thing about southern California is the traffic.  So you either have to leave by 2:30, or stay until 6:30!  But it was just so much fun there with the kids all getting along.  The first day we even saw a group of dolphins not 100 feet from where we were standing!  They swam and jumped for about 10 minutes then finally left.  It was awesome--they were practically on the beach!  The kids thought it was awesome.

 The other highlight of grandma's house is the hot tub.  I think my kids must be half fish--they would live in the water if they could.  I guess I'll have to build a pool someday!  They spent most of their time playing in the hot tub together.  WATER WATER WATER!  They can't get enough of it.

We also went to the Museum of Natural History which would have been fun if Maggie and Joey hadn't been crying the whole time.  But it didn't compete with the beach or even grandma's hot tub!
It was a really fun trip, and the kids were even pretty good on the drive home.  Overall a good time! 

You take the good, You take the bad

Well, it's always best to start off with the bad news, right?  On Sunday we were driving over to the land we bought to walk around it and see what needs to be done.  We put Ziggy in the back of the truck, where she's been a ton of times before, for the LESS THAN A MILE drive.  All the sudden we hear a loud yelp, turn around and see Ziggy on the road trying to stand up.  We hurried back and she was bleeding and it seemed pretty clear she had broken her leg.  We think she jumped out of the truck because she saw some pheasants in the field (we saw them there).  

We carried her to the cab, and started driving to the animal hospital.  We had a little trouble finding one--the one we called first had a 6 hour wait time, and they said the next nearest was in Salt Lake.  Whaaa?  So I called a different animal hospital I knew of in Provo and the doctor answered and said he'd be right over.  Perfect.  It was a stressful drive but we made it.  The doctor admitted her and treated her for shock.  He said he'd call the next day after she was under anesthesia and took x-rays.  So he called the next day and told us she had broken the femur into 5 pieces and a piece was missing because it had apparently flown out of her leg (hence the bleeding we saw) and is now left somewhere on the road where she fell.  He was able to fix it with metal plates and pins, but the prognosis is fairly good only if we keep her basically on kennel rest for 3 months.  Yikes, she is going to be an unhappy dog!  No running, playing, wrestling, jumping, etc.  And then hopefully she will make a full recovery.  

So I am trying to be diligent, keeping her most of the time in her kennel.  I do take her out a few times a day for an hour or so, but I keep her on leash so she doesn't try to run or anything.  I make her sit, but I brush her, play a few little thinking games with her and just pet her.  She never wants to go back in her kennel.  It is sad.  But we are doing our best and hopefully these next 12 weeks will go by fast!

It actually looks not too bad...

 Except for the nasty bruise on the inside of her leg.

 And her knee joint is super swollen as you can see here....

 On to happier news, spring is here!  It is by no means hot outside, but definitely time to put the trampoline back up!  Last night the kids and I put the tramp up and it didn't take long for them to start jumping--even before I could get the last few springs on!  And forget about the pad--that will have to wait until tomorrow!

 And on another happy note (for one of my kids), Tyler finally gets his own room.  We've talked about it for a long time, but never actually did anything about it since we figured Joey was too little to share (okay, too naughty--he'd keep everyone up all night).  But the time finally did come.  And I have to say, Tyler has kept that room spic and span since the day he moved in!  Bed made, toys put away, laundry in the basket....   It's been great!  He even gets to put his stuffed pheasant in it (on the left).

So Tyler is happy.  Jacob, on the other hand, feels a bit jipped (or however you spell that).  But his turn will come!

It's Raining, It's Pouring

Utah is in a dry spell--reservoirs are low and snow/rain is down.  So when it rained last week we decided to welcome it!  It was breezy and Joey was afraid his umbrella was going to blow away, but he managed.  They had so much fun splashing and running around.  

A little break from winter...

Does anyone else get the winter blahs?  I do--major winter doldrums going on.  Our good friends, Dan and Lindsay, invited us to come down to their house in Scottsdale, Arizona over President's Day weekend.  It was HOT!  Probably around 90 degrees.  It was great--we had plenty of sunshine, got to wear shorts and short sleeves in February.  We went to a car show and saw some awesome cars.  I'm pretty sure Joey is picking his nose...

 There is so much really awesome stuff to do in that area.  It would be a great place to live!  We walked around the old downtown.  The kids loved climbing on the LOVE statue.  I cropped it so you could see the kids better, so now it is just a giant E statue.  The girls' names are Eden and Stella.

 What a great moment captured!  I wonder what they were smiling about?

 There was also several cool parks near them.  One is near the home of the author of the Family Circus cartoon.  I am a big fan, as you can see by the name of my blog, Swenson Family Circus.  Here is a statue of all the kids from the cartoon and all of our kids!

 They had an amazing train museum--a HUGE building completely set up with model trains.  It was amazing.  Whole miniature towns, landscapes, everything you can think of--even a mini-solar farm!  And trains galore!  It was such a blast.  The kids were entranced.

 Our last day we hit a Renaissance Faire.  I know it's a bit kooky, but it is apparently this huge production and one of the biggest faires in the states.  There is actually an entire village built out in the desert, permanently there, and they hold the faire 8 weeks a year I think.

 We saw some fun shows, some vulgar ones (I didn't know how crude some of the humor would be!) and a fun jousting match.  One of the shows was so bad we left after a few minutes.  I was surprised at how lewd it was considering all the kids in the audience.  Apparently we were the only parents "prude" enough to leave.  But my kids don't need to hear about alcohol use, pooping and a love of all things rated XXX by some weirdo in a pirate costume!  It was definitely an exerience!

Maggie's highlight was meeting the forest fairy.  She even gave Maggie a fairy rock!  Which Maggie then proceeded to lose, the she cried, then we went back and had to get another one.

 We had great times sitting and chatting by the firepit.  All the kids slept outside it was so warm!  We had a great time.

On the drive home we came across a bridge that crossed over the Colorado River.  It was pretty high up, a mini-Grand Canyon.  We got out and walked around a while.

 Of course Maggie asked us to take a picture of her...

 And just for posterity's sake Tyler took a snapshot of me and Eric.  At this point we'd been driving for about 8 hours so it felt great to stretch our legs!

It was a great weekend.  Now back to real life again!

The Ice Queen

A couple weeks ago we took the kids to see the Ice Castle display.  It is all handmade and purely out of ice.  It was pretty cool.  It was a snowy day!

 Yes, I do exist... (I am never in any pictures).

 There were tons of caves to crawl through and crevasses to walk through.  It was tricky keeping up with the kids.

 There was even a slide made of snow!

It was a neat place and the kids wanted to stay longer, but my tolerance for cold and crowds is diminishing with my age!  

Eric has been taking Ty and Jake skiing lately--they love it and are doing great.  I am left behind with the little ones.  Hopefully next winter we can start making skiing a family activity.  I definitely need  winter activity to do--I get MAJOR winter blahs.

I've been doing some self-reflection lately, thinking about motherhood and family and kids and all that wonderful stuff!  Even though I feel like motherhood has sucked some of the intelligence out of me, I have learned a few things.

1.  Sleepless nights turn into sleepless years.  I'm pretty sure I haven't slept soundly through the night since Tyler was born, and I'm sure teenage year will have me with even more red-eye.

2.  Most things are just a phase.  Not that I ignore the naught or annoying things my kids do--but I don't stress about them as much as I used to.  Things have a way of passing or working themselves out and it turns out ok.

3.  Time speeds up as they get older--the days are long but the years are short.

4.  No matter how many kids you have, you never really figure motherhood out because each one is so different.  

5.  My regrets over the years are not dishes left int he sink or clothes unfolded, it's the times I told my 3-year-old I didn't have time to read a book because I have to do dishes, or fold laundry.

6.  But along with number 5, I've also learned to ease up on myself a little and not be so self-critical.  I'm not perfect, I'm not the perfect mother, but I am trying to be better each day and learn from my mistakes.  Poor Tyler being the oldest gets to deal with the most mistakes!  Joey should turn out fine.

7.  Minivans are the mosts awesome vehicles ever created.

8.  I've learned not to judge other moms when their kids are unkept, messy or dirty.  I've been there.

9.  Baby wipes are a close second to minivans in awesomeness.

10.  The only thing more disgusting than cleaning up your own kids' puke is cleaning ANOTHER kids' puke off your kid.

10.2  The ultimate JOY when your kids can finally make it to the toilet to throw up.

11.  Motherhood isn't like it is on tv, and you're not the only mom who loses her cool every now and then.

12.  It doesn't get easier, it just gets different.

and

13.  I've learned that instead of fighting where I am in life and the responsibilities I currently have and being annoyed by them, to just embrace where I am...accept the fact that I have to change diapers, accept and embrace the fact I won't have "me" time for a while, and just embrace all the joys and hardships that come with having little kids and you will be much happier.  

Oh, and don't buy nice furniture until they are all moved out.