Girlymama

When I had those 4 girls, ages 4, 3, 2 & 1, I received comments wherever  I went. Crossing the street after Bible Study two people rolled down their windows and said something like, “Wow! You’ve got your hands full, Mom!” At the park, people were staring at me and a few made similar comments.

I found this highly annoying. Even if these kids were all mine, why did everyone who saw me with them feel compelled to make some sort of comment? I would never make a comment like that to a stranger! I would certainly never roll down my car window because I felt so compelled to make a comment on someone’s family. I just found this weird.

My life is living up to the name of my blog lately. Things have been crazy… and fun. We’re enjoying our first weekend alone as a family in… 4 weeks. Wow – it was really that long? We celebrated today by going to the zoo, bringing along Ellie’s BFF, Hannah. Then we came home and just hung out together. Even  ended up with all 4 of us cuddled in our bed for naptime. It was so peaceful. And productive! I finished the mud room today. A short 9 months after it was originally ripped out due to water gushage, it has officially been finished! ! Yay! I’ll post a pic as soon as the paint dries. This week, I’m painting the attic bedroom, which is all cleared out – Go Me! – and ready for my in-laws to move their stuff into! They will be putting their bedroom furniture up there, thus making a place for them to stay when they come back to the US for a month every year and giving us a guest room to use the rest of the time. Not a bad deal, eh?

Ah, but the peace will soon end.  Next weekend, we’re headed up to Boston for a family wedding, then the next weekend my in-laws are moving into our house as they prepare to head back to India for 4 years. Then we go to the shore for a week. Then the in-laws leave. Then Husband heads off to Harvard and us girls head out to my mom’s house for 10 days. Oy. Most of that is fun stuff, but it will still be a tad nuts around here. My goal was to launch my online store in July but methinks it may be pushed back to August. Cause I will not have much time to sew with all this stuff to do and all these people in my house.

I found this fascinating.

And the quote of the day is:

Ellie: “Mommy, can I borrow your ear-pod?”

DCRmom at Musings of a Housewife tagged me for this meme. I’ve got to pick my five favorite places to eat out.

Tough decision. Only 5 places? I love to eat out. Love it, love it. We don’t do it that often anymore, due to the offspring. But I’ll try to choose. Only 5???

1) Let’s start with a family favorite, Indian food!!  We love Desi Village, which has Indian-Pakistani food. It is very, very good and very authentic. I can’t give you a favorite dish, because I like pretty much everything I’ve ever had there. Along that ethnic food line, I’ll cheat and throw in a city alternative, Kabul, which serves Afgan food. It is fantastic and has belly dancers to boot.
2) Very little can beat a Philly cheesesteak. Not the one on the menu at Applebee’s or something. A REAL one. Especially one from Pat’s or Geno’s.

3) I have to add Cuba Libre, which is in Old City in Philly. We went here for a getaway weekend before we had Gracie. The food was amazing, especially the Churrasco a la Cubana. And this is where we were introduced to the Mojito. ‘Nuf said.

4) I love Chinese food.  And, since Husband and I met on a mission trip to China, its a nostalgic favorite. (Plus, our kids love it!)  We find hole-in-the-wall places best, which do not have websites usually. There are some great places in Chinatown in Philly. Especially Sang Kee Peking Duck House. They have great (surprise!) Peking Duck, which is one of my favorite foods.

5) Humm… only 5? Really? I guess another favorite (that I haven’t been to in forever) would be Pickle Bill’s. Its in Cleveland, where I no longer live. And it burned down and was closed for awhile. But they have crab legs. Probably one of my favorite things to eat ever. There are probably more authentic places to get crab, perhaps in Maryland or somewhere near, you know, an ocean. But this is a family favorite.

6. Okay, one more. I have to put a fast food restaurant on here because I love fast food. My very favorite is Chipotle. Where I can get a burrito as thick as my arm, stuffed with spicy barbacoa beef, rice, black beans, lettuce, salsa…oh how I wish we had these in Philly. My mouth is watering just thinking about it! Hey, Mom, want to Fed Ex one to me for lunch??

Oh my. There are so many more. Like this and this and this. And this. But, I’ll stop. I tag fancythis, although I know her answer (Melting Pot, Melting Pot and…. um… The Melting Pot!) And I’ll tag my sister, since she just FINISHED COLLEGE and now has lots of free time. And Ann. For kicks.

I never did appreciate you. Until now.

Two extra kids are gone today. Despite the chaos and utter exhaustion, I was a little sad to see them go. The baby gave me a big smile and slobbery kiss and then the 3-year-old gave me a huge hug, kissed my cheek and said “I love you!” I guess its like childbirth: afterwards you say, “Labor wasn’t so bad! What stitches?”

But I am amazingly exhausted. Not just tired. Exhausted. I look like I have two black eyes, the circles are so bad. Good thing I just bought this amazing new concealer. (Seriously, its amazing.)

Now its time to relax. Wait. I forgot. We just cleaned out the attic and closet, since my in-laws will be moving their stuff in about two weeks from now. So I have this week to clean out this room, sorting and moving all this stuff into our section of the attic or the crawl space. Then I want to paint it while its empty. Oh, and the girls have decided they love sharing a room, because then they can be together all the time. And they can stop getting in trouble for sneaking into each others rooms at night. So we’ll be moving Gracie into Ellie’s pink palace. I will hopefully be posting pictures of my progress. To make myself feel better.

But first things first. Off to Target 🙂

Need to take a day off from the computer here.

We went strawberry picking this morning, which was a big hit. But now I have extrelemly dirty kids and lots of work to get done before tomorrow. Tomorrow I am dropping the 2 extra girls off at Bible Study, so I’ll be back to having only 2 kids again. (When did that start sounding so easy!?!) But mere hours later, Husband and I are in charge of a program for all the kids over 4 at our church. We’re doing a program on India, complete with Indian clothes, Indian snacks and teaching them some Hindi. We’ll try to snag a picture for ya’ll, but we’ll see. I have about eleventy jillion things to get done before then, including trying to remember how to wrap my sari so it doesn’t fall off, so I may forget the camera.
My main challenge is not opening up all the snacks I bought yesterday at the Indian grocery store. So hard to resist!!!

*Despite being tired and stressed out, Husband and I are being sweet to each other. Usually when we’re both this busy and worn out, we get a bit snippy. But I’m sure we’re the only couple who does that.

*The rain! While I was annoyed at having to keep the kids inside, it has cooled off beautifully. Windows are open, letting in cool air, the rain is pattering on the roof and we’re finally not sticky. Yay!

*Husband and his dad installed an outside spicket! Now we have a hose! Yipee!! It was one of those things that we never thought to look for when we bought the house. Until we went to wash a car. (Our new house also was missing a dryer vent. Whatever.) No more running a hose through the house and out the door! Cause do you know how messy that is?

* Despite the chaos, these kids really are cute. Look:

All four girls loaded up in the van. ready to go to church on Sunday morning.

Ellie and Nora’s favorite activity – the tire swing. Only Daddy can push them, as I apparently am not strong enough (or brave enough) to push them super-dooper high.

Watching themselves eat ice cream cones in the side of the car. (We decided to get them as messy as possible before bathtime 😉

* Gracie was super excited to be a “big sister” to the baby. She loves it. She is just the sweetest little thing, always playing with the baby, helping me push her stroller, insisting on sitting next to her high chair at dinner. And look:

If I can just teach Gracie to change diapers, my next baby will be a piece of cake 🙂

Things are still totally chaotic around here, but the kids seem to be settling into a routine and are getting used to being together. And they all slept last night until 7am. The world is a whole lot more rosy after a full night’s sleep!! (Ironically, the 1-year-old is the ONLY one we have not been up with at night.)

Thanks for your prayers! We can feel them!!! There’s been some tough points. (When Husband ran to the store to buy more apple juice (cause you would not believe how much apple juice we have gone through) I said, “You’re coming back, right?”) But there have been some really sweet times as well! I’ll post a couple pictures later – there’s someone sleeping in our room during naptime!

***update: right after I wrote that the power went out. Cause what is more fun when  entertaining 4 kids than doing it with no power! We were just finishing our cereal for dinner  when the power came back on. Thank goodness!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

too. tired. to. use caps. or complete sentences.

kids refusing to sleep tonight. constant patter-patter loud thumpings of little feet.  have been up since 5:30am – on a saturday.  seriously undercaffeinated. i’m going to take a picture of all 4 girls in the car tomorrow morning on the way to church,just to brag that we managed to get them all dressed and out the door.

zzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

So I was getting desperate. I needed these kids to take a nap because I was exhausted and was starting to losing my mind. And it was only 11am. So I had an idea – lets go on a picnic. That way they’ll get nice and tired and then I will get a small break as we drive to the really nice park that happens to be the farthest away. We went to the park for and ate our lunch. Then I strapped the baby into the backpack carrier and we went on a hike. Then we went to the playground. Then we raced to the van. Then we came home, where the kids watched Baby Bach to settle down and cool off. Then they went up to bed… and all fell asleep.  And they are all still asleep! Woo-HOO!! My house is completely silent!
So that’s the trick! We are soooo going outside after dinner until bedtime 🙂 Perhaps we’ll go on another hike!