Who do you think does the packing in a house of five males and one woman?  Call me sexist, I don’t care. The answer is Me. I will naturally be handling this.

Don’t short change Alan, though. If you haven’t figured this out yet, he does MOST of our Christmas shopping.  I know! I bet not too many of you can say that! I did manage to buy a few things for the women on our list this year.

He also put together shelves for me today, and he is now out with Joshua buying him a winter wardrobe of shirts. Meanwhile, he still has a fever. He and the boys have the boys’ annual winter sinus infection. For Caleb, that won’t go away until probably June. Is that weird?

Hillary. I’m actually asking my friend Hillary. What do I do with my nose-runs-all-winter-every-single-year child??

Okay, back on topic.

I just had to share this, because I thought it was funny.

I, in my bossy April way, said to Alan, “Everyone is allowed three pairs of pants in their suitcase (for our 9 day trip).”

Alan, after agonizing over which pair of pants to take, finally gave me ONE pair.

“Alan, can you get me two more? You’re allowed to bring 3.”  Yes, I am that bossy about packing, and not about everything, I promise. If I didn’t behave this way, it would be time to leave, and no one would be packed.

Alan, completely serious, replied, “Three pairs of pants!! That’s excessive!”

It’s a nine day trip!!  That just cracked me up. Meanwhile, I’m proud to announce that I am even holding myself to only three pairs of pants. 🙂

As we speak, Daniel is the only person who is completely finished packing.

I cannot describe to you how wonderful it is to have finally birthed a type A child. I LOVE them all equally, but when you’re trying to get six people ready for a trip, having an extra type A on hand sure does come in handy!!

Good news for grandparents. I did not allow Joshua and Caleb to pick out their clothes for this trip. You are welcome.

Am I nervous about flying with four children again? Yes, a little. Here’s what happened last time:

The Flight of Four Children

Merry Christmas, everybody. I gotta go. JD just knocked over the Christmas tree. I didn’t even know that was possible.. Sometimes I wonder if we will ever be able to get out of here.

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 The morning hour was going extremely, unusually, unbelievably well today. No one was talking over anyone. No one was saying, “Mom! Mom! Mom!” No one hit anyone. There were no crayons in the floor. No one pooped in their pants. No one was sitting on top of the table. The room was almost silent. It was like the twilight zone.

I told the boys, “Isn’t it nice in here? Wow. School would be so easy if it could always be like this.”

They giggled and nodded.

“Of course, I don’t hear your brothers at all, so I should probably go check on them.”

I knew Daniel was downstairs watching t.v., and that accounted for the quiet and the absence of violence, but where was the crayon-eating, table-sitting, diaper clad, work destroying, drooling new student???

Then there was a knock at the door.

J.D. was outside.  ??????

What!?

Daniel covered his mouth with his hands, scrunched his eyebrows into his guilty face, and said, “Me sorry, Mommy. Me open the door. Let baby go outside. Me watch my movie. No me watch baby.”

See, today had been a little off from the start because Alan was able to stay late this morning, and I got to sleep a little. (Thank you, Honey!) Normally, we are ALL upstairs to start school, but since the littles had been playing so nicely downstairs with Daddy, I didn’t go get them when he left. It just felt so GOOD to teach two big boys with no interruptions!  So incredibly peaceful and easy and so so…

not my life.

So lesson learned…..I’ll take my Failure Mom trophy now.

Moving on…..

Did I mention that JD is our newest student here at Pacific Christian Academy? Sure, he’s been around all year, at our feet, tearing up puzzles, eating crayons, and just totting around looking for something fun to do. He was messy, but he wasn’t really disruptive.

And then he learned to climb up in chairs, climb up on top of the table, and became suddenly interested in writing. What? Eating the crayons wasn’t enough of a challenge anymore? Now he wants to scribble on people’s tests, worksheets, and occasionally still give the crayon a lick. Today he even drew on his forehead.

You can see his art work on his head and on the easel behind him. Good job, JD. Meanwhile, his Curious George coloring book is still blank, but whatever.

So this is my newest challenge. It’s so important to him, and to his safety, as seen in the “Me let baby outside” story, to be WITH us while we have class, but man oh man. This is difficult! In the first 9 weeks, he went down for a nap at 10. Now he goes down at 11, so we are readjusting. The boy is certainly a force to be reckoned with.

Here are a few more JD moments:

He was really into the geology project the boys did. It was a Smithsonian kit, where the children dig the stones out of a clump of dirt. I loved the project because it kept Caleb and Joshua busy, without any need for my help!

Once JD joined their dig, they had to get creative.

“We have to put the rocks in the middle of the table, like this, so JD doesn’t get them.”

See, he does wear clothes sometimes. 😉

It’s so fun to watch these two becoming best friends. I believe it’s very important to tell small siblings constantly, “Oh, your brother is your best friend.”

“Oh, he is such a good friend. You are so lucky to have him as your best friend.”

It works.

I know it sounds crazy, but the longer I do it, the more I like it. And when things are wild, this is a verse that always brings me great comfort:

“Come to Me, all who are weary and heavy-laden, and I will give you rest. 29″Take My yoke upon you and learn from Me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and YOU WILL FIND REST FOR YOUR SOULS.…

Matthew 11:28-29

There have been phases where I literally chanted that to myself just to pull myself out of bed in the morning, but things are really looking up around here lately.

What do you know? I think we’re finally settled in.

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