Better be messier

February 19, 2011

We woke up this morning and Matthew left with Nathan and Mary to go help my sister drywall her basement.  I was left with two babies who decided that naptimes this morning were "optional".  They chose to not take them.  Matthew, I, Nathan, and Mary have all thrown up this week and Matthew was still sick yesterday.  I told him to not overdo it and to stop if he was getting sick.  I lectured him about this.  Then as he was leaving, he looked at me and said:  "Becky, I expect the same from you.  You better not overdo it.  I expect the house to be messier when I come home.  No cleaning."

Am I going to listen to that trash?

No.

Actually, maybe.  I am still pretty tired from being sick.  Matthew got sicker than me so I let him rest in the evenings the last few nights while I took care of all the kids and cleaned.  My body is now mad at me.  That's okay, we usually make up sometime--even if it's later than earlier.

I did do a load of dishes and some laundry and fed babies, changed diapers, rocked them, and put them down.  I am now not doing any work.

However this next week we have some fun stuff coming up.  We have to

*somehow pack our apartment this next week
*Clean our house which is runover with clutter, laundry that is clean, laundry that needs to be done, toys, and valentines candy and cards that keep showing up everywhere.  Partly because Nathan keeps making new cards to everyone in the house.
*buy a fridge
*help my sister drywall
*Take care of the 4 kids
*not go insane

(We are moving into a house this next week--we bought a house!)

This is a hard list, especially the part of not going insane.  I have to figure out how to get all of this done as well as get Nathan to school and help him with his reading/homework every day.  Yes, he is in kindergarten.  He can't do any of his homework alone, so we have to do that too.  But, the homework has helped him because he is learning to read and is doing well (even if it takes us close to 25 min a day to get it done).

I have actually called someone to see if they can help me clean my house, but they are often busy.  I don't want to spend the money, but I am still recovering strength and behind and trying to move this week.  My sister's family has strep, my other sister is eight months pregnant and twenty minutes away, so I probably won't get their help a lot.  A few others who are often willing to help live farther away.

I am not feeling sorry for myself, just trying to plan how to do it all without "running faster than I have strength."  Truly, this is one of the lessons I have to think about a lot the last few years.  It gets easier to put into practice when you are forced to.

So instead of wearing myself out, I will listen to Matthew's direction as my husband and let the house be messier than it was when he comes back.  Actually, I already broke that, but no worries, it's still pretty messy.

If anyone wants to volunteer for any type of help, let me know.  Most of you live in different states, but what kind of excuse is that?  People, think outside the box.

It was kind of a fun experience with Matthew, Mary, and I all throwing up at the same time.  Matthew started at 4 am when he went to help Mary who had thrown up all over her bed.  But instead, he ran to the toilet.  I helped Mary, but made my debut to the throw-up club at 6 am, which Matthew welcomed me to as I was throwing up in the toilet.  (He seriously said "welcome to the club").  At 7:30 when the babies woke up, Matthew and I both could not figure out how to get out of bed.  So, I forced myself to.  I made it just downstairs where I made bottles, brought them up the stairs, got the babies out of bed, changed their diapers, and helped the babies hold their own bottles.  (They can mostly do it, but still need help).  I was losing my stomach and had to go lay down, so Nathan proudly said he would watch them.  Yes, I let a five year old watch them, but he did a good job cause they both finished all their bottle.  Then when it was time to put them in bed, Matthew got up, put them in their cribs, and we switched like that back and forth until the afternoon.  It's kind of fun to figure out how to take care of twins when you're both sick.  We learned this lesson last month when we had the flu-high fevers, chills, body aches, at the exact same time too.  But honestly, I have thought how wonderful it is to be sick without other problems--like digestive issues.  I almost get giddy, but not giddy enough to do a dance.  It's just more wonderful than most people know having only ONE thing wrong at time.  I actually pray to thank God that I can experience sickness without the other sickness too.  So nice.

I am typing way too long.  I hope no one catches the stomach bug from reading this.  Go wash your hands.