Author: Melissa

Have everyone else’s kids gone completely bonkers after the holidays?
No?
It’s just me?

In the past few weeks, it feels like our kids have officially forgotten every rule, every good habit, and every aspect of functioning in polite society they have ever known. Oh, you think I’m exaggerating? Lets us review something seeming simple and straight forward, like putting them to bed:

 First, Ellie was crying because her favorite pajamas were nowhere to be found. (Turns out they were in the family room under the couch. I can’t believe we forgot to look there!) Then we attempted to read a Bible Story and pray together. More tears after fighting over who gets to sit where. Then Grace claims she is “too tired to pray and much too tired to sit up.” Administer stern talking too about how fighting over the Bible and praying is counterproductive. Pray together. Husband goes downstairs to make a phone call.
Time to brush teeth, Lucky Mommy! The girls fight over who gets to stand on the stool to brush their teeth first, who gets to spit out their toothpaste first, who gets to take a drink first and who gets to turn off the water. Throw them in bed and say goodnight. Ellie starts to cry because Daddy isn’t there to kiss her. Remind her that Daddy just said good night to her about 3 minutes ago. Ellie cries harder, because “I need him to kiss me goodnight when I’m in my bed! And I want him to lay down with me while I fall asleep.” Tell her to get over it and leave. Lovingly remind her that she is a big girl and Daddy will come up when he is off the phone.
Head into my room. Two minutes later hear footsteps that turn out to be the kids sneaking downstairs to interrupt Daddy’s phone call. Ex-cuse me? Get back to bed, punks!
Come back upstairs ten minutes later to find the lights on and the girls playing Littlest Pet Shop on the floor. They must be kidding me with this! Send them back to bed.
Repeat SIX MORE TIMES.

Clearly – CLEARLY – we need to do something here. So we have officially cracked down. Obey the first time, no excuses, no messing around.

It sucks.

It makes me feel mean. But I earned it. This happens to us all the time. Our kids are acting so beautifully – being polite, not fighting (much)… and we get lazy. Things start to slip, but we don’t correct it because we’re too busy or too lazy. The more things we let go, the more things start to slip, and so on until all of us are a total mess, parents included. I know in the long run, this is important, but in the midst of it, I feel like all I am is this mean ol’ disciplinarian.

"No discipline is pleasant at the time, but painful. Later on, however, it produces a harvest of righteousness and peace for those who have been trained by it." Hebrews 12:11

Our desktop computer is Slow. (Note that “Slow” with a capital “S”.) Actually “Slow” is a generous description. It’s ridiculously, ludicrously slow. And you might call it quirky, if by “quirky” you mean “opens programs for no apparent reason and occasionally won’t let you type.”

So when we sprung for the new laptop, we decided that we wanted to drag out the desktop computer’s pitiful existence for another year or so. (This should tell you how bad the laptop was – this desktop was our “good” computer. Sigh.) Anyway, we thought adding more memory and reformatting the computer would help. It sounded very straightforward and simple. We bought an external hard drive, more memory, talked to some computer geeks about how to do it. (Hi, Joe!) So yesterday, Husband gave it a try.

 Clearly, we need to have our heads examined.

When is ANYTHING computer-related straightforward and simple?? (Insert “You should buy a Mac” comments here.)

Poor Husband. He has been working on this for over 24 hours now. He has spoken to helpful tech-support people in India several times trying to figure out what the heck is going on. At one point he realized – after following the exact directions for clearing the old hard drive and reinstalling a new windows program – that we now had two windows programs on our computer! Only one was hidden and we couldn’t access it! Ha-ha! How convenient! And internet? You wanted to be able to access the Internet with this computer? Good luck with that!

So if you are driving down our street and you see a big pile of metal in the middle that looks like it was run over several times by a Jetta and then beaten with a heavy shovel… don’t worry.

It just means we are getting a new computer.

update: Looks like he figured it out, so no new computer. Dang it.

Ellie, watching the Eagles game: "They just keep running into each other! This game makes no sense at all."

We have mice. IN OUR HOUSE.

While we were gone for a week, enjoying Christmas, relaxing with our family, getting awesome on the Wii, mice were moving into ur house and making themselves very comfortable.

Husband has, um, "caught" 3 so far. And we're still finding "evidence" of more. We've found "evidence" in the kitchen, the family room, the living room and… wait for it… our bedroom! NEXT TO MY SIDE OF THE BED! EWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWWW!!!!

So, if you haven't heard from me, it is because I have been disinfecting my ENTIRE HOUSE every day.

I am so beyond grossed out about this. Husband is not allowed to travel until this is taken care of.

Take better care of myself.

Like a lot of busy moms, I take terrible care of myself. I'm so conscious of what my kids eat and drink, making sure they have complete and balanced breakfast while only having a cup of coffee myself.
I never drink milk, I forget to take my vitamins, I haven't been working out, I don't get enough sleep, I usually eat two meals a day standing up, I eat junk… this is going to catch up with me.
It already is, a little. I'm exhausted all. the. time. If I exercised, went to bed on time and drank something besides coffee, I'd probably have much more energy. I've been getting sick alot more as well, which is probably related to my body being run down.

So that's my goal. To be a little self-centered and start taking care of Mommy. So that Mommy can take better care of her family.

Just so you know – if Ellie challenges you to play Wii, don't think you're in for an easy game or that you need to be nice and let her win.

 
This would be Ellie kicking Daddy's butt.
This kid is awesome at Wii. After about 2 days, she is beating the 8 other adults in the house. We're all studying her form – wanting to pick up hints. So far, no luck.
We'll let you know if we figure out how she is doing it.

     
"Ellie, look at the camera!"
   
"Ellie, please look at the camera!"
 
"Darn it, Ellie! Come on!"
 
"Good enough! Let's go get lunch."

For to us a child is born,
to us a son is gven;
and the government shall be on his shoulder,
and his name shall be called
Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God,
Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.
                                          Isaiah 9:6

And to those who did receive him, who believed in his name, he gave the right to become children of God, who were born not of blood nor of the will of the flesh nor the will of man, but of God. 
                                           Matthew 1:12-13

Praise the Lord, all nations!
Extol him, all peoples!
For great is his steadfast love towards us,
and the faithfulness of the Lord endures forever.
Praise the Lord!
                                          Psalm 117: 1-2