You're getting sleeeeeeeepy....

There's nothing in the world like lack of sleep to put a damper on the school day. Today I was reading the Little Princess her stories for Language Arts, and I kept nodding off. Usually, I am okay with my tendency to mismanage my personal sleep time. But every now and then after getting home from Walmart at 2am, even when I get to sleep all the way to 8am, I just can't seem to stay awake through the kids' story time.

I knew that I was having to shake off sleep while reading Ox-cart Man, but it was not until she finally protested "Mom, I can't understand what you're saying!!!" that I realized what she was hearing sounded more like "shm herm hm nuh buh." We decided that mom needed a nap. So I cuddled under a blanket while muttering to the 9 yr old to play with the baby and let me know if he needed help. Fifteen minutes later, I was awakened by said baby slapping me in the face with a wooden spatula. Oh well. That was fifteen minutes more sleep than I had fifteen minutes previously, right?

On another note, a few weeks ago this household decided to cut out tv for 30 days. It doesn't take a genius to figure out who this hurts the most: mother. For example, the very first night of the tv fast, the baby got a tummy bug. Now everyone knows that if you have to stay sitting up in the recliner all night long with a sick baby, you should get to have some mindless entertainment, right? So my sweet hubby said, "We can just start over after the kids are better. Go ahead and watch."

The strangest thing happened right after that...this voice (that sounded alarmingly like my own) came back with: "No, because then there will be some other compelling reason for us to 'break fast,' and I don't want to start out that way." I still haven't figured out where that came from.

It's amazing how much our parenting can change as we add more morsels to the package.

1st baby: sterilize everything and keep hand sanitizer loaded and ready to fire at everyone who looks like they might even be interested in thinking about asking to hold that baby; no candy or soda ever until at least the 2nd birthday; tv restricted to 30 minutes per day maximum no matter what.

2nd baby: pacifiers and teething rings that hit the floor can be rinsed or even wiped with a baby wipe; if the little darling sees big bro/sis with a lollipop it won't hurt to let him have a little taste; maybe an hour of tv won't hurt every few days.

3rd baby: pick off the fuzz and hand it back...5 second rule may turn into 5 minute rule when applied to the cheerios that hit the floor; smarties can keep the baby quiet long enough for me to finish this important phone call; if I put the baby in front of the tv I wonder how many dishes I can get washed before he starts crying again?

4th baby: when baby starts crawling I won't have to sweep as often; big sis, if you don't share your candy with the baby I'm gonna take it all and you won't get any; tv is the best way for mommy to get a little extra sleep after staying up shopping at Walmart all last night...it's also great for babysitting toddlers while big kids do school...it can even be used to bribe little ones into eating their broccoli!

5th baby: You don't even want to know, and I don't want to tell cause you might call in the authorities!

Oh, and don't forget to go down to the bottom of the page and guess why I cleaned house. The big reveal will come in Tuesday's blog.

Yesterday, I spent much of the day once again going through stuff and coming out with a couple of boxes of items to send off to Goodwill. Since I wasn't focusing so much on schoolwork (okay, so I wasn't focusing at all on schoolwork), the kids were finding ways to entertain themselves in between chores that I assigned them. One of their favorite games was to use the box lid from the cupcakes we had on Tuesday as a television set. They took turns sitting behind it and being news reporters and other interesting characters. The Little Princess has a particular knack for this. She lives for every moment in the spotlight that she can happen upon. I wish I could say I sat and watched them so I could have some funny little story to share, but I was too busy sneaking away all their toys into boxes!!

Oh, and if you were wondering...yes, we did finally get around to schoolwork. At 4:30. ;) Oh, well!

Another crazy day. I haven't damaged any children yet, but the day is still young! I think my day seems to go better when I get every last dish washed the night before and wake up to a shiny, smiling sink (ala flylady). School has started out very slowly today, but Monday's are always like that because of the busy day at church (where I work as the Preschool Coordinator) on Sunday.

Over the weekend, I cleaned out closets. I managed to put together 4 large boxes and one bag of items to send to Goodwill, along with two boxes and 3 bags of things that just needed to be trashed. Loren (dh) and I also continued to work on his sister's bedroom downstairs. That was another 4 large bags of trash and another box for Goodwill that I cleaned out of my parents things they had stashed in that room. Loren, meanwhile, busied himself with hanging sheetrock.

It never ceases to amaze me how much stuff we have piled into this house. I send Loren off to Goodwill with a pickup truck load of things about every other weekend, and we still have stuff up to our eyeballs! Where does it come from? I think the junk is multiplying like little rabbits intent on repopulating the place. And with 10 people in our house, it isn't any wonder!

Anyway, I think that Monday should be our day of rest. That's what our Senior Pastor does, and it makes sense to me. Sunday is just about the busiest day of my week! But on Monday, there's still homeschooling that must get accomplished. So I guess I'm back to the hypothesis that I've held to for several years now (well, ever since baby 5 came along): "I can rest when I die!!!"

It's raining!!! I'm thanking God for the rain, but really I'm procrastinating. See, I'm supposed to be teaching the kids right now, but I couldn't bear to pull them away from their play. They aren't fighting! This is my new blog, and I am writing just because! So if anyone is reading, welcome to a day in the life of the Hankins family. Hope you come back for more of the life in the day!