Preach.

I think its pretty clear from my last post that things haven't been peachy around here lately. Life is kicking my little ( not so little) booty in a big way.

Sometimes you just need Daddy....

It doesn't help that Justice-who was the easiest baby ever is going through...something. And I feel like I've tried every option and read every baby forum....I am reminded that babies are basically One Giant Mystery most of the time.

But when Abigail is faced with a mystery what does she do?!?! She fixes things.  And once All The Things are fixed ( other than the one she'd really like to fix, obviously), then she plans all the things. Which is why for about 3 weeks I have been MILDLY obsessed with getting a tour of the local Elementary School. And P.S. When I say mildly  we all know that I'm really really obsessed, right?! I don't have to spell that out for you, right? I mean, we've been doing this for a long time....

So, I pushed and I planned and those people at the Elementary clearly thought I was crazy for wanting a Tour of their school because they WOULD NOT return my calls! And then when I finally went up there to FORCE THEIR HAND, they essentially laughed in my face and told me someone would call me which is code for go away. 
So ANOTHER week goes by and Ransom is sick and Justice is fussier and fussier and I'm going even crazier and I don't see any end to my life as it currently is, ever. I just get up in the morning and take care of the needs of three little people, one of which WILL NOT leave my side for even a second, another who's a raging threenager and another who I can't seem to fix.  And clearly this is it, I will be doing this for ever and ever and ever amen. And so I sink further down into my OCD fixing hole.

And then yesterday, I was reading in my quiet time and this verse came across my path...

Be Still in the Presence of the Lord

and wait Patiently for 

Him to Act. 

Oh. 

I'll be starring at this for the next two months

So, apparently running yourself ragged is NOT actually the correct response when Life is using you as its punching bag?! And I repented of my crazy ways. I let go of my obsession with the Elementary School, I stopped "bargaining" with God about the hub's ministry trip. ( that's right, he just left for 5 days. Rock on.) 

Of course, I then got up from repenting, took Justice to his 6 month Well Check and during the time my phone was off to meet with the doctor, I got two phone calls. One from the Elementary School ( of course, who when I tried to call back, could no longer take my calls again.) and then another call from my husband to let me know that he'd be gone for half of May and then half of June for work trips.

Laugh out loud. 

Life, it's just sooooo funny sometimes! 

But as I meditated on these things, wondering where to go from there, my 5 year old was building a Lego Creation and it was not going according to what he was clearly picturing in his mind, he was getting MORE and MORE frustrated, forcing pieces into place, jamming down harder and harder until it finally broke into several pieces. AGHAGAGHAFHADAHGHG! He ran to me crying in rage and frustration. 

Lego success! 

Me too, buddy, me too...

And then I saw myself as I really am.....a 5 year old getting mad about something silly. Throwing a fit when things don't fit together perfectly. 

That verse from above? There's more: 

The Lord directs the steps 

of the godly

He delights in every 

detail 

of their lives. 

Delights. 

In. every. Detail. 

So, here I am, a reformed ( but only just) crazy person who's going to lean hard on the fact that this: 

A precocious  5 year old, a funny 3 year old and an adorable baby. They're all mine. They are the details. And I will delight in them. They are the details made especially for me to Teach me and draw me closer to the Lord.  And so I will delight in them...

When Daddy leaves for many days pile the kids in the car and go get donuts. ASAP! 

But only if I get a bunch of coffee first....

A Matter of survival

Friends, I must come before you with hat in hand and tell you that I was wrong. I was way way wrong. Not too long ago, I said that having three kids wasn't that bad! ( I still stand by that, it's totally worth it) and that there were only three things that it had effected ( sleep, getting anything done outside the house and grocery shopping).... I was way wrong. 

There were two other very important things that I forgot to mention. 

One: eating. Now, even before I had three kids I struggled with finding time to eat. This has only gotten exponentially harder with another person in the house. Particularly one who actually requires me physically for its own meals. Its gotten to be so common place that I rarely even notice that its 10:30 and nothing but coffee ( because you have to make time for that! Priorities people!) has passed my lips. 

I did however notice this past week when I got a text from a friend complaining about her late night the night before and how for "working ladies" like herself it was just too much to stay out so late.... that I  started to wonder if it would be possible to  reach through the phone and throttled her with my bare hands...so  I realized that "Hmmmm....maybe Abigail With Low Blood Sugar isn't actually good for mankind?!?!" 

Two: clean hair. 

Now, I'd already made peace with my "every other day is good enough for me" showering schedule. I mean, sure I enjoy the weekends when I can take two showers, two whole days in a row...but during the week- unless something unusual ( like exercise) happens then I have become contented with every other day. This is mostly because showers must either be in the morning or the evening when all the children are either confined to beds or are confined to the glowing box in the living room, and often at both these times another VERY IMPORTANT OPTION is also on the table: Sleep. And I  probably don't have to tell you that I sadly pick the later pretty much 100% of the time. Sorry. But deodorant is pretty strong and a clean pair of undies can go a long way...plus in a pinch baby wipes aren't just for babies. 

HOWEVER, if you are on this particular showering schedule there is no wiggle room for a missed shower day and THAT is something that three kids just does not afford: Wiggle room.  And this week the stars aligned to where I had a sick kid, a very very fussy baby who was up for HOURS after he should have been in bed, and a husband that was working a very late shift. I had taken a shower on Monday and made the fatal mistake of not washing my hair. Little did I know the week ahead. And so sure enough Tuesday passed without a shower. No biggie. It happens more often than I would like to admit. 

But then Wednesday rolled around and instead of getting my normal allotted shower I got a very sick kid and a meeting that I needed to leave for in 5 minutes. So, sure, I got a quick shower...but no hair washing: I didn't think those people would appreciate Wet Hair Abigail. 

THEN Thursday happened- my hair was a HOT MESS minus the "hot" part  and I had had to resort to a hair wrap to look presentable- but a very very fussy baby cried and cried and cried ( and cried some more and then threw up and required a 10pm bath- so when that finally settled down- Sleep won and I promised myself that I would get up early and wash it. Surprise, surprise when "morning" rolled around and I realized that between all my children I'd gotten two hours in a row at ONE POINT during the night, I was pretty sure I could wear that hair wrap one more day. 

Of course, when the clock hit 8am and  all my kids were up and I was awake enough to realize that what I had rationalized earlier was a BIG MISTAKE, it was much too late and I had to take Ransom to a doctors appointment in 30 minutes. 

Sigh....

And that is how I skipped lunch today to take a shower and wash my hair.  ( the Hubs was leaving in 20 minutes and I had to choose which one I wanted to do). 

Hashtag holythreekidsbatman

School Update

I can really tell that you're all on the edge of your seats regarding the school situation at the Wilson Household. Yup. I thought so.

So, today's your lucky day! It's been ages since we've talked homeschooling, or schooling in general around here but I'm ready to hash it all out for you,  therapy style. Thanks for not charging me an arm and a leg for this later.

Ransom's sticker chart victory! 

First off, starting in the new year we began homeschooling again in earnest. As in, we started having routine and structure in our home to some degree. I had taken off a few months as I had foreseen due to the holidays, a baby and then the craziness of Justice's sickness ( nope, hadn't foreseen that!) but we got back into it because lets be real here, I needed some structure to our days and so did Ransom, bless him. He takes after me in so many ways and is continually asking "what are we going to do today? What are we going to do after naps? What are we going to do tomorrow?!"
It's super annoying. But also basically my own mind mirrored back to me, so I can only blame my own genes on that one.

What we did kind of give up during these early days of getting back in the swing of things were my theme weeks. Instead I picked and chose things that we should work on and therefore covered particular "skills" I felt like he needed to learn. This is when I taught mostly math. Ransom covered subtracting and also counting by tens and all about two digit numbers. I filled in the "holes" with piano practice and lots and lots of reading.  Somehow I just didn't have the mental capacity to make this theme related to something like "birds" or "volcanos" or something! hahaha! ( "somehow" equals "I wasn't getting enough sleep")

Mixed in there we had some pretty rough weeks. I was pretty sure that I would be sending Ransom to public school next year.

These are the moments I love having all my kids at home...

As I've mentioned before, Brett and I have always maintained that we would revisit our kids schooling each year, for each child. We do not believe that our kid's educations are a package deal of 12 years neatly tied up in a bow. Well, at least not until God gives us some huge revelation that covers multiple years and multiple kids. Till then, we'll be rehashing our kids particular needs and our particular situation each year. Tiring indeed.

Eventually I'll have to start focusing more on this little one too....

And so that we're coming to the end of the year I'm starting to obsess about Ransom's schooling for next year. Obsess is a strong word. Let's use "think about constantly" instead. ;-)
Through prayer and the like we narrowed down our choices to the local elementary school down the block and homeschooling again.

I then would vacillate feelings wise from week to week regarding what I "felt" like was going to happen and how I might feel about said decision:
one week: Ransom is acting HORRIBLY, he clearly needs more stimulation than I can give him! Let's send him off to school! HOORAY!
next week: Ransom is happily playing with cars and math problems out in the sun, homeschooling is wonderful! I will be so sad if we have to send him to school next year! Boo!!

and so on....

As of now the pendulum has swung yet again and we're back to doing theme weeks ( Ransom has started picking the themes himself and that's been a LOT of fun! and a challenge for me!) So far we've done "The American Flag and other symbols", "Texas" and "Japan".
And I've called the elementary school MULTIPLE times leaving messages to try to set up a visit and NO ONE has called me back. I'm pretty annoyed. And wondering if that's my closed door?! And yet at the same time, I just can't seem to give it up completely without at least walking through the door of the place! Does that make sense?!

Learning all about Japanese Warriors: Samurai 

I'd love to hear your thoughts about your current schooling-whatever that may entail! Maybe you too vacillate from day to day?! I feel like its got to be pretty normal, right?! Right?!?!?!

A little flash back

This week I had the honor and privilege to do a guest post over on my sweet friend Courtney's blog .
She's doing a pretty cool series on the "Resilient Military Spouse" and she actually thought of me! ( Whaaaaa?!?! I know! hahaha!) But seriously, it was cool to think back over our years in the military and all that I have learned. One thing I do want to add is that I suppose technically I still am a military spouse since Brett is in the Reserves! Don't want to forget that! I am so proud of all of his hard work for our family!

Here's the link if you'd like to check out my interview with Courtney!

P.S. This is hands down one of my favorite pictures EVER!!