Life is Busy

I remembered the other day that I had not posted in quite some time to my blog. I began wondering what happened and how I was so excited about something just to have it shoved off to the way-side. Then I remembered. It was summer and our life is BUSY! Just some of the things that have happened: Little man is now 8 months old, has 2 teeth and is getting where he wants to go by pushing himself backwards. Sporty Smurf has had a full summer of meeting new friends that have moved into the neighborhood, all boys and all between the ages of 4-6. Talk about FUN! We also have a new "hay house - play house" in the backyard so all the said boys tend to converge upon our yard. Brainy smurf has had a busy summer identifying snakes, leaves and all kinds of new things. He has gotten very involved in "star wars" particularly the Lego Star Wars and Lego Ninjago. So, between me getting little man out of places he's not supposed to go, monitoring fights outside between neighborhood boys and learning how to read Lego instructions, it doesn't leave much time for much else. Literally, not much else.

I have had the opportunity to go into some of our neighbors houses. I marvel at how they are able to keep it so clean. Maybe it's because their husbands are marines (they are known for being anal about such things). Maybe its because they don't have as much "stuff" or as many kids as we do. I don't know. I can't seem to understand how ours can be so dirty and unorganized and yet clean and organized all at the same time. I am on a constant roller coaster of getting things done but my 3 hurricanes come right behind me and tear it all back up. I want them to enjoy life and to have fun, but when does the cycle end? Does the cycle end? In looking and truly wondering what my neighbors secrets are, it made me realize something about myself. I can't finish a task at one time. I have to start, go back to it, then go back yet again and finish it. I am being pulled in three directions at a time and I have waaaay too much stuff to do. BUT, then I also realized something else. While I may not have the cleanest house on the block or the prettiest yard on the block, I have 3 kids who need me, want to be around me and want to be doing things with me and THAT is a whole lot more fun. So, I've come to a conclusion. I would much rather be outside with them, taking pictures of them playing and playing star wars with them. While I do want a clean house and nice things, I don't ever want my kids to feel like they are second to my chores. Chores are important, don't get me wrong, but for me, there is only so much time in the day that my kids are with me and I would rather be with them. Now, before those of you who are reading this that are my neighbors get all offended, I am not saying that is what you do. I am still in awe of how you are able to keep your house immaculate, have kids running in and out all day and be gone. For me though, it seems like I will not have that balance. I have realized that it is a choice I make on a daily basis. The school year is going to help me to keep my house clean. We get into a school routine of school and daily chores before play and that helps. I also know that we as a family have too much stuff. I am working on the boys and my stuff, but as all good military wives know, sometimes we have to wait till deployments or our honeys to get to their "honey-do" list to "de-clutter" the rest.

Spiderman can't climb our walls

So, as most of you now know, Sporty smurf has a fancy for costumes. He just LOVES being superheros, a policeman, doctor, Super Why...anything he can come up with. We have a "contact strip" hook that holds our dogs leashes, or at least we did.
I'm upstairs doing laundry and I hear this THUD, then a whimper. I run to the top of the stairs to discover my middle man on the floor in his superman cape, spiderman mask and diego gloves. You see, we don't have a "real" spiderman costume, so he creates his own. I ran down the stairs in a panic afraid of what he was going to tell me. "Are you okay?" "uh huh - my fell off that hook." "you did WHAT?!?!?" "My was being spiderman and trying to climb the wall and dat hook fell!"

Now, at this point some of you are thinking "oh my gosh! Is he okay?" Yes, he's fine. Just got the wind knocked out of him. This instance though is fairly normal for our house however. I look up at the wall and sure enough there where the hook was was a BIG brown hole. I couldn't help myself...I started to laugh. I couldn't stop. Why? Because the HOOK was still attached to the paint on the wall which was now on the floor!! I couldn't even believe it! I just kept staring at it. He had ripped the hook off the wall to the drywall! I don't even know how we're going to explain this when we leave. Praises that it is behind the front door and not in the foyer somewhere. I still chuckle when I think about this because it is our "normal."

Here's what I've learned from this experience:
1. Contact strips will hold a lot of things to a wall but not a 40 lb 4 year old.
2. With a cape and a mask you can do anything. You are a superhero after all.
3. Live life in random spurts of insanity and impulse.
4. With 3 boys, you never know where your next adventure will come from.
5. ALWAYS have a camera on hand.

Where do I start...

Sometimes I feel like I just need a place to vent frustration. I wonder at times if there are people out there who truly feel like I do. Do they feel the frustration, the anger, the compassion, the love that I do for my husband and my children. Do they have bad mommy moments or mommy of the year moments that they would unabashedly talk about? I do. So, while this may be my first post, it won't be my last. Forget twitter or FB notes...they don't have the amount of room that I need. :) I hope that you will at least find my posts entertaining.