Thank you

First of all, I want to thank all the moms who have commented on my last few posts. Your words of encouragement, support, and being able to relate help me and lift me up and I appreciate it!

I have made it through this day with no major tantrums from Zach. :-) I have let him change his clothes several times today, which I don't let the older girls do because I have enough laundry to do with them wearing one outfit a day, but with Zach it wasn't a battle worth fighting. I did fight the battle of not letting him blow up a balloon to play with right before dinner and Family Home Evening, and I was ready to listen to him cry, but the crying never came. Nice. It's sad though that I am stressed around Zach now, he's like a bomb that is about to explode at any moment. I do realize that he won't be like this forever, at least the 3 year old tantrums will pass, and that does help. I just hope we're all sane when it's over! Speaking of sane, I wrote this poem a few years ago and I found it as I was decluttering around the computer the other day. It fits perfectly with the way things have been going around here lately.

There was a young mother in Maine
Whose efforts for order were vain
Surrounded by chaos
She suffered much hair loss
And tried not to join the insane

I also wrote this poem:

Children
Young and innocent
Playing, laughing, learning
Excited to be alive
Children

I started Dr. Laura's book today, "Stop whining, start living." I could listen to Dr. Laura all day long and I love reading her books. I picked up the book at the library thinking that it wouldn't apply to me since I'm not a whiner and Matt said the same thing, but it does. The book really is about choosing to be happy and everyone can gain something from it. The section about everyday life was good to read, especially this paragraph a wife wrote about her husband..."He is a man who, except for the occasional fishing trip, spends his spare time at home with his family. So I face the reality nearly every single time he walks out the door...he might not come back. You know what? When I remember to put it in that light, it really doesn't matter where the can opener or his socks end up. I would much rather spend every day of the rest of my life taking care of such items behind him, than live a moment of my life without him."
It can get annoying being the only person around here concerned about clutter...or so it seems, but really I'd much rather have the clutter around me than no husband or family around me. As Dr. Laura points out, there is evidence of "life" in a home when things are moved around, not picked up, and not organized. "Life" definitely exists here!
I am reading this book at a time when I really need it. Life has its ups and downs and I don't want to get wrapped up in the downs that seem to be occurring lately. Yes, I want to record not only the good things, but the bad as well, but I don't want to dwell on them and get sucked into the "poor me", "life sucks" attitude. There are too many things to be grateful for to focus on the few negatives.

So now I'll share the cute side of Zach that came out this morning.
Zach: "What are you doing?
Me: "Laundry."
Zach: "You always do laundry!"
How funny for a 3 year old to notice!

And I have to mention the fact that Kate LOVES to eat croutons. Just plain croutons. She gets into the food pantry quite often to dig out the bag of croutons and then she munches away.

It is 9:33pm and Zoe, Emily, and Eleanor are in their room talking, talking, talking like they're having a sleep over. They're going to be fun to deal with in the morning!