Me and My Five Boys

I had one of those mornings that may very well ruin the rest of the day. I haven't gotten over it yet anyway, and it's almost noon. There's no point in reliving the whole story, but suffice it to say that at the very moment my two oldest boys were supposed to be catching the carpool to school, all four boys were crying for four very different reasons. And only the baby's tears were justified--he was hungry. I lost it. I yelled and sent the older ones off to school in tears. Their teachers probably think we're dysfunctional, not to mention the other carpool mom. (But then they have young children too, so maybe they'd understand if I bothered to explain, which I'm not going to do.)

I keep wondering why I get the blame when things are chaotic, and why I get little or no credit when things go smoothly. I love my boys, but I'm frustrated and discouraged and if I wasn't related to these kids I think it would take a six figure income to make it worth my trouble and stress and worry and everything else!

For a long time now I've felt like one of my biggest weaknesses and the thing I need to work on the most is not losing my patience and my temper with my kids. I keep trying, but I don't feel like I'm making any progress. Just telling myself that I've got to stop yelling sure isn't working. The thing is, I think my kids are fairly well-behaved, and I like to think I'm a fairly patient person too. But maybe I'm deceiving myself on one count or the other.

Well, maybe now I've gotten it off my chest enough to go do the laundry. Here's wishing you a better day than mine!

Labels: family, life, motherhood

A piece on NPR radio yesterday about CO2 output/carbon footprint/waste/energy consumption motivated me to count how many light bulbs we have in our house. I'm no enviromentalist--the Doctrine and Covenants says, "For the earth is full, and there is enough and to spare" (D&C 104:17), but I still think recycling and conservation of our natural resources are good ideas. I guess I just wasn't raised to be wasteful. Anyway, we have 63 light bulbs in our house, which is only about a third of the 174 light bulbs in the house of the family in Dallas that was mentioned in the NPR piece. I didn't count how many of our 63 bulbs are the energy-saving compact fluorescent kind, but we've been switching over to those as the others burn out (except in the light fixtures where the bulbs show and the CF bulbs would look tacky).

Labels: eco-concious

We celebrated Dallin's first birthday Monday night. He thoroughly enjoyed his chocolate cake. I think he actually ate quite a bit of it, although there was plenty all over him and his chair and the floor as well. It was bad enough that at his twelve-month checkup yesterday I felt like I had to explain to the doctor why there was chocolate up his nose! (He now weighs 18 lbs. 2 oz. and is 28 1/2 inches long.) Dallin is enjoying the new toys he received from us and Grandma Grape (Jeff's Grandma). Both sets of grandparents provided cute new outfits, and Grandma Marilyn and Poppa Scott gave him a HUGE container of animal crackers. It's a little hard to believe that it's been a year since he was born. So much has changed for our family in that time and it seems to have gone by particularly quickly.

Dallin is a good-natured baby-turning-toddler. He's got eight teeth now, and he's getting a lot more confident with the walking thing. He loves his brothers and he loves getting into things things he shouldn't. One of his favorite toys right now is our stainless steel teapot that he finds in the corner cupboard and drags and bangs all over the kitchen. He has a ready smile and delightful personality. We love him so much and we are glad he is part of our family.

Labels: birthdays, Dallin, family