Author name: Sandra Tayler

There is a place beyond “stressed out” where I resided last night and early this morning. It is like the eye of a hurricane where everything feels heightened, different, but the whirlwind is about to descend. Beyond stressed out I am not exactly calm, but I have no time to do anything but be focused. Unless I am also tired, then about all I can do is sleep or cry.

This week accumulated deadlines and Events Which I Must Manage. At least one per day all week with some days doubling or tripling up. Contemplating this week exhausts me. Today was enormously simplified when NotMyBaby’s mom called me and told me he was sick and she’d be staying home with him. I don’t want NMB to be sick, but I’m so glad he won’t be here during my hosting of Gleek’s preschool this morning. 6 preschoolers I can manage, add a baby into the deal and suddenly I’m having to manage 6 preschoolers one handed and with only half my attention. I knew I’d have to do it when I agreed to watch NMB, but I was anticipating today with dread. I’ll still have to do it on Friday, but right now Friday is an endless list of Things To Do away and I can safely pretend it isn’t there. Lalalalalala I can’t hear you Friday!

Today: Preschool
Tomorrow: NMB, craft & luncheon at the church building. (I’m in charge), cub scouts, activity day for Kiki
Thursday: NMB, Evening at the temple with relatives (Agh I’ve got to find babysitting!)
Friday: NMB, Preschool again (1 handed with half attention Lalalala! Can’t hear it!) imediately followed by having people over for lunch.
Saturday: Hide in bed while the kids wreak havoc in the house.

And of course each of those days will also include meal preparation, Homework Time, sending kids to school, retrieving kids from school and random sprinklings of tantrum or emotional drama.

Edit: Nov 17, 2005 After I wrote this entry things were added to the schedule. NMB’s mom called and asked if he could stay 3 hours longer on Thursday. I said yes because I was so grateful for his absense on Tuesday. Kiki came home with an invitation to Harry Potter for Saturday morning. More babysitting had to be arranged for that. Sunday acquired a Relief Society meeting and an evening Devotional in addition to Church. Even more babysitting. So the collapse on Saturday can only be a partial one. Whee.

Today’s episode of CSI: Mommy began with a loud THUMP and crying. I dashed from downstairs to go and see if there was blood. I found the following scene:

Patches was sitting on the floor legs straight out in front of him. He was waving his hands as if they had “yucky” on them. Gleek was sitting on the floor next to the back door emiting a wailing noise. Between them the floor was … shiny. Hardwood floors are supposed to gleam, but this one glistened liquidly in swirling patterns. Something had been smeared. All over. By small fingers. A glance at the counter showed me the remains of Gleeks bowl of pink yogurt. The floor was glistening pinkly. By this time I was pretty sure that it was yogurt swirled so artistically all over the floor. And that Gleek had slipped and fallen on the slick yogurt. All that remained was for me to figure out the motive behind this particular crime scene. In true CSI fashion I began questioning suspects and in accordance with the script, they spilled the beans.

Gleek was eating yogurt. She wanted to share some with Patches, so she dropped dollops onto the floor for him to swipe up with his finger and lick. Apparently sharing into another bowl or with an additional spoon didn’t occur to her. The swirl patterns left by this activity were so fascinating that Food Sharing turned into Art Project. They were quite happy with themselves until Gleek was betrayed by the slickness of be-yogurted flooring.

I made the little artists help me clean up the mess.

Today is the first day of me being a childcare provider for someone else’s child. NotMyBaby arrived this morning at 8:15 and he’ll be staying until half past noon. So far it’s working out just fine. NMB is down for a nap now and I’m having breather. The adjustment is taking a lot of energy from me. NMB is an only child and isn’t quite sure what to make of Gleek or Patches who keep shoving toys in his face in an effort to make him happy. After about an hour Patches started feeling a little insecure about all the attention that NMB was getting from me and started plunking himself in my lap. After NMB went down for a nap I made sure to snuggle Patches and read him a story.

In other news I’m pleased and flabbergasted at how successful Howards first ebay auction is going. I’m hitting myself for not learning how to sell on ebay before this. We’ll probably be doing one auction a week during the Christmas shopping season and slow down after that.

I am happy today for the sunshine
For the skies of gray or blue
For within my heart is a song of life
I’ll live, I’ll work, I’ll do

No cloud can cast a shadow
Over courage such as mine
I’ll sing my song as I go along
I’ll live, I’ll work, I’ll do

My mom used to sing that song in the morning as she made breakfast. Today I found myself singing it while making breakfast. Singing it made the morning a good place. Generational connections have value.

http://www.mommybloggers.com/

http://threekidcircus.com/threekidcircus/

Yay! I’m not alone.

Wah! I’m not unique. 😉

I have many thoughts spinning in my head from the past weekend. I’m going to try to organize them here.

Conventions:
In the past couple of weeks Howard has recieved solicitations to attend several conventions. Most of these conventions are willing to pay his way. This makes me happy. Howard loves to attend conventions. It also shows that Howard is gradually gaining a reptuation as a fantastic convention guest. One conventions even specifically requested that I come along too. I attended it with Howard last summer and did a panel which apparently impressed them. This makes me very glad. I loved doing that panel and would love the chance to attend more conventions and be on more panel discussions. Unfortunately most of the conventions inviting Howard are still relatively small and Howard isn’t yet a major draw, so we can’t start hitting them up for airfare for two people yet. And I can’t be running off from the kids every month either. But some day I’ll go with Howard to every convention he attends.

Babies:
My sister’s baby was adorable. Every time I held the baby or heard the baby cry it triggered all my mommy nurturing instincts. But now I’m home and happy to have my own kids without having to manage the schedule of a newborn as well. I’m even happier to not be dealing with all the body and hormonal shift problems that come naturally during the post partum period. My body is my own. Yay!

Strep:
Kiki came down with strep the day before we left for Boise. Fortunately we were able to get her medicated and non-contagious before we left. Unfortunately Link tested positive for strep this morning. Now I get the joyful duty of calling my family and telling them I may have given them a surprise gift to take home with them. I really hope no one else gets sick. I’ve only been to two big family events this year and both times my kids had communicable diseases to share. Whee.

After the chaos of Halloween I was looking forward to a week of calm before undertaking the new challenge of caring for a baby 4 hours per day. Instead I’m spending this week preparing for a weekend jaunt to Boise. I’m happy to be going, I’ll get to see family especially my sister’s new baby, but I won’t get the week of calm that I hoped for. The kids are all excited. They love their cousins and relish any chance they get to be together. Now all I’ve got to do is laundry, and clean the floors, and clean out the car, and load dishes, and fold laundry, and pack, and …

Two Ice Princesses, one Shark Boy, and one sword-wielding elf were ready to go. We’d weathered the Lighting of the Pumpkins and the ceremony of You Must Eat Dinner First. There was a minor conflict right at departure time because the sword was being wielded a little too enthusiastically and I wanted to leave it home. Patches felt he would be devastated without his sword, so I consented to let it come along although I knew full well that I’d be carrying it for him only two houses down the road. In fact I was pretty sure I’d end up carrying Patches too. Hmm… I made all the kids pause while I went back for the stroller.

Sure enough, as soon as Patches had his first trick-or-treat candy in hand, he opened it and began to consume. Since candy consumption slowed his walking pace to a near stop, I picked him up and plunked him in the stroller. I declined to push the stroller up the walkways, I’d stay on the sidewalk and let the kids run up to the houses. Patches didn’t mind not going to the doors. He was quite content to sit in the stroller like a maharaja and allow Kiki to bring candy to deposit into his bucket. In an attempt to get Patches to participate more fully in the experience, Kiki made him say “trick or treat” before she’d deliver the candy. He happily complied and the first obstacle to the evening’s enjoyment was easily overcome.

Gleek provided the next excitment by tripping over her long skirt in a mad dash to the next house. Gleek fell and scraped her arm. Her candy scattered across the sidewalk. She was far more upset over the potential loss of candy than the scrape, so once her treasure was safely redeposited in her bucket we went onwards cheerfully and a little more carefully. The incident made me realize that Gleek needed to slow down and not try to keep up with the bigger kids. Fortunately we had teamed up with Link’s friend. His mom volunteered to shepherd the older kids while I took a slower and more abrieviated route with Gleek & Patches.

Everyone was happy with this solution. Then a few houses later Patches realized that candy had stopped arriving in his bucket. At the next house when Gleek rang the bell and politely said “twick or tweat”, Patches hollered as loud as he could “I WANT SOME!” The kind people in the houses heard him and obligingly sent him candy via Gleek. It only took a couple of houses and a couple of hollered “I want somes!” before Gleek was trained to ask for a candy for her little brother. Now maharaja Patches got his candy delivered and he didn’t even have to say “trick or treat.” Life was good.

One advantage of shepherding young children is that their legs tire quickly. Older kids want to maximize candy accumulation, but the littler ones walk on thier tired legs and start thinking how nice it would be to sit in a warm place where they could eat the candy that is Right There In The Bucket. Gleek felt it was really important to trick or treat at our backyard neighbor’s house, so we did that and then cut through the back yard to be at home.