Thursday, October 27, 2011

A crazy day that yielded painted bathrooms, bath cabinets and a deep appreciation for friendships.

With 4 kids plus the one I babysit 3 days a week it can be tricky at best to get some time to complete home projects.  So my WONDERFUL friends and mom decided to help me out!  One friend suggested the whole thing AND took all my kids ALL day so we could paint (THANKS VANESSA!!), and my mom plus another dear friend set aside the day to paint with me.  They have been watching the painfully slow process.

We completed a corner of the kitchen that has been sitting half painted FOREVER (since May?) that was behind the refrigerator, our main bathroom PLUS painting the linen cabinet and vanity with thier first few coates of white, AND our master bathroom (read tiny closet with shower and facilities)!! All before dinner! I fell like I have 2 new bathrooms now.  
It was a little crazy trying to get all the kids out the door this morning by 8.  My husband has been gone on a job out of town since Monday so I had set the kids breakfast (raw oats, raisins, coconut, and walnuts) out for them so that my 7 year old son (Pierce) could just add the soy milk for everyone.  That let me sleep in a little and by the time everyone had jumped in bed to cuddle for a few minutes I ended up not getting out of bed till 7:30!  So that left 30 minutes to dress, and groom 4 kids plus myself as well as get the necessary pack and play,beloved  blankets for Bella and Cruz, any necessary toys and diapers and wipes packed!    Then I realized that with all the new snow we needed a full set of snow pants, gloves, hats, boots and jackets for everyone.  That took a while since we are still digging them out of the basement. Needless to say after all the stress I found my self apologizing again to the kids for being irritated and short with them while trying to get everyone out the door. They are always so gracious and quick to forgive me when I blow it.  They are so precious to me!

 I also had to plan to get Dahlia to preschool by 9.  So my intended 8'O clock start turned into being early for preschool instead.  Hey sometimes being late for one thing makes you early for something else!   It still gave us a great amount of time to get some work done.  I ended up taking my friends son for the afternoon and being reminded by Pierce, my son, at 15 minutes till six that although I was still in my painting clothes (pajama pants and a t shirt) and in the middle of making a tomato pumpkin bisque for dinner that we had kids club at the church at six!  I scrambled to change my clothes, make peanut butter sandwiches for everyone (dinner wasn't finished and they would get home too late for it), throw hats, jackets and boots on everyone to get them out the door (my oldest Pierce is always a big help there) and make it only a few minutes late.  I returned home to finish making my soup, get the babies ready for bed (well, ages 1 and 2 aren't really babies, but that is how we classify them), and start to clean up the kitchen when the kids came home from kids club. What a blessing my friend offered to drop them all off so I wouldn't have to go and pick them up at the babies bed time.  Thank you Lord for that!  So we started another round of snacks, jammies, teeth brushing, prayers and good night kisses.  My oldest ended up getting to stay up a bit later than normal to help me with the dishes because I was so behind.  He enjoyed the one on one time and I enjoyed his company and the help!  Finally some time around 8:30 tonight the kids breakfast for tomorrow was finally set out, dishes were done and I was dipping into my delicious soup and toast with pumpkin butter.  Ahhh.. Now here I am.

What a blessing these types of friendships are.  As moms we need other moms. Sometimes it is so easy to get  in our little bubble of home and homeschool and all that that requires of us that we forget to reach out and call or spend time with friends.  Our friends need us,and we need them.  I was just wondering over my late night bowl of soup  why for such a busy and chaotic day I was not totally exhausted and then I realized it was obviously because of all the help I had had.  Carrying the load together makes it all so much lighter.   Thank you friends!  I hope to be the same kind of friend in return.
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1 comment:

Marcy Payne said...

LOVE it! It sounds like some of my mornings, esp in the early days when I had diapers, clothes, blankies (never ever forget those!) to pack. Oh, and it reminds me to dig out the snow gear. We don't have snow yet, but it's just a matter of minutes at this point. I should see if my kids have boots...yikes!! Glad you had a fun day. Sounds like crazy good. It feels so good to get things like that accomplished and spend time with friends.