cardwell living

May 21, 2012

Family Life

Here are just some of the things in my mind that I want to remember, so that is why I am writing them out.

On Saturday, Matthew and I had been so busy all morning, trying to clean, take care of the kids, and then in a rush, get everyone in the car to go to Nathan's soccer game.  It was the first one of his we had all gone to.  When we were driving, Matthew turned to me and said:  "I didn't shower, shave, or brush my teeth this morning."  I nodded, and then told him I did not shower or brush my teeth either.  We gave each other five and drove to the game.

Sometimes I try to get a puppy.  Matthew will probably buy me anything I ask for...at some point if we could afford it.  He probably would.  But one thing he will not buy is a puppy.  There have been times that I will ask him after I kiss him softly.  He smiles at me, whispers "no" gently and then kisses me again.  That just makes me feel irritated :)  But I love him!

I was holding Eli today and told him that I loved him so much and was glad that I had him and not a girl.  Right after that Eli smiled a big smile.  It just confirmed how I felt.

We are so busy.  We work from 7 am until 8:30 or so...sometimes longer, but it depends on the night.  Some mornings Matthew leaves and kisses me goodbye, leaving me to get Nathan ready for school, the twins are crying for food (and their trays are sometimes not clean), Eli is crying for food, and Mary also wants to be fed.  Those are some busy mornings, but most of the time I can stagger helping them--I just keep moving form one kid to the next.

Most morning I recognize I haven't stopped moving for a few hours straight after doing breakfast, dishes, changing diapers, clothes, feeding Eli, etc.  I am grateful for the health to do it!

Life is not easy, but it is good.  I want to do more things, instead of just be busy all the time!  But it is a good time, and a wonderful one.  I love the twins at the ages they are at.  I love Mary at her age.  Nathan is so inquisitive and curious.  Eli is so stinkin' adorable to me.

For example on Saturday--I woke up and immediately did a load of dishes.  Matthew cleaned the bathrooms with the kids.  We had some fights with a kid.  I tried to eat breakfast, and poured my cereal, then had to feed Eli.  I ate breakfast.  I folded laundry.  I kept an eye on John.  I didn't know where James was.  (he was downstairs and I figured that out)  We got everyone dressed and in the car for the soccer game.  We all went there.  We had to stop at Walmart.  We then took all the kids to Sam's Club to shop and let the kids have samples.  They were hungry and we had to shop...so I thought why not?  We ate pizza and hot dogs there.  We came home, cleaned some more, then picked dandelions for hours while the twins and Eli slept.  We picked probably 500 or more dandelions all combined.  Fun.  Then Matthew mowed the yard while I worked with Eli and tried to help the twins who were hungry.  I tried to make dinner--well, just started rice.  Then we ate dinner.  Then we took the kids to get a shaved ice because Matthew promised them they could have one if they did their jobs and helped in the yard well.  Then we came home and got everyone jammies on and put them to bed.  We still had three loads of laundry on the couch, but Matthew asked me on a date.  ( at dinner time ).  I said "Where are we going?"  He said it was at the house.  I asked him what it was.  He said it was a surprise.  I said, smiling, did he even know yet?  He told me to shh.  (which means he didn't know yet.)  So instead of folding laundry Matthew planned a game night and we drank pop in some nice glasses.  I started to fall asleep at the end of the game and started forgetting what was going on.  I tried to keep this to myself.  We haven't had a game night together probably for six months or so...

I could write something that crazy for other days too, but I will stop.  It was a good day, but busy.  And it hardly ever slows down. :)

I know Heavenly Father blesses us and all of us.  I feel his love.  Part of the reason we picked dandelions is because a kid of ours had to make up some things he took.

By the way, I just asked Matthew if he was okay if I shared some things about him on the blog.  He didn't ask what they were, but said he was if I would shut the blinds behind where I was sitting.  I shut the blinds.