The Art of Chaos

It takes a bit of setting up before I can write.

I mostly write at night, after the kids have

been bathed and jammied, the tv is off and the coffee is hot.

I like to listen to this song or this song or this song while

I try to get my thoughts out of my head and make the words

that type themselves out make some kind of sense.

Writing has been especially hard because life has been really chaotic lately and I am really sick.

My little sister is in town from Canada and my little cousin's getting married in 2 weeks
so it's been one event after the other. Girls' nights, lunches, coffee dates and daytrips...

Mix that with 3 little ones at home, schoolwork and
our regular, everyday life and you get quite a crazy blend of chaos.


The littlest one is sick. I've had a week of fevers and lethargy from her.
She wants to stay close to home. She wants to snuggle. She wants her mama.

Just to make sure it was nothing serious, she and I ventured out to the Dr.'s office.

She's usually really mellow when it comes to being in new places.
But today, not so much. Sister wanted nothing to do with that Dr.
She actually kept trying to escape!

Thank goodness I brought the trusty old iPad to keep her occupied.

We got sent home with a prescription for lots of hugs, Childrens' Advil and ice cream.
Nothing more serious than that...

As sick as she is, she still managed to find her way into our Nutella jar and CLEAN it out!

All she wants is her blanket, her bed and cartoons.
Watching her watch the cartoons is quite comical...
Her million emotions come out...

She's got sick eyes...and no energy. I hate seeing her this way.

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And now, for my heart-bursting proud moment of the YEAR...

I've been pretty open about the challenges I've had with my boy, Charlie, lately.

His disruptive behavior at the beginning of this schoolyear

might actually have taken a few years off of my life. Trying to figure out

better ways to parent him and challenge his little mind has had me

questioning everything I know to be true. Getting note after note home from his teachers

and even his behavior at home was exhausting, at best.  

Things have been improving as of late and we get along so much better.

Today, we got the ultimate reward for our hard work and perseverance....

Citizen of the Month of not only his English class but his French class too!

Forgive the bragging mama, here but we worked HARD for this...

He was a little bit shy about his accomplishment.

He said that his stomach was "a little bit tickly" when they called his name...

but you could tell right away that he was so proud of himself.

As a special reward, I showed up after school to pick him up with balloons

and we went out to celebrate at Farrell's Ice Cream Parlor...

The staff sang him a song for his achievement and oh man, was this guy shy!

If you need to find me, I'll be somewhere between tucking in my babies,

baking for our school's bake sale, drinking in every second I can of having my

sister in town and enjoying my friends & family...

As a mom of little kids, you just have to learn the fine art of making the chaos work.

Pfft, chaos? I got this covered...