Full Speed Ahead

So I realize we are not abnormal in having four young children.  There are many who do it and have even more children or even closer together, but here's a small snapshot of the chaos level we have reached.  The other night as we were getting the kids ready for bed (thankfully Jared was there as he wasn't working late or at Scouts or other meetings) I was in the bedroom helping two of the kids into their jammies while Jared was in the bathroom focusing efforts there on going potty and brushing teeth, etc.  I realized I needed to go get Jonas's sheets out of the dryer (thankfully I had managed to at least run them through the laundry that day) since he had peed in them that morning and when I am downstairs for that short minute I hear Lillian yelling "Mom, Emma is pouring medicine all over the carpet!"  As I dash upstairs I am wondering how in the world she got her hands on medicine in the first place and how did she get it open?  She, indeed, was pouring infant ibuprofen all over the carpet and, upon further questioning, realized she had found it in the bathroom somehow (even though I keep all the medicine up out of everyone's reach) and had thrown it against the wall to undo the "child-proof" cap.  Luckily it didn't appear she had consumed any, just ruined the new carpet. I clean that all up, we put on Jonas's sheets, get everyone their drinks of water, go potty, brush and floss teeth, read to them, pray, etc. etc.

I leave to go to a church meeting I need to attend and after Jared feeds the baby one last time he is giving her a breathing treatment for her latest illness.  He looks out into the hall to realize that Lillian is walking down the hall half naked.  He quickly puts the baby down to bed and goes to assist Lillian.  She is not even coherent and after (unsuccessfully) trying to get her to go to the bathroom he gets her dressed in some new PJs and puts her into back into her bed (that seems dry despite his suspicions that she had woken up because of wetting the bed).  Well, about 2 am we are fast asleep and Jonas comes into our room crying because of some bad dream and I finally get him settled down.  As I carry him back to his own bed I step into what must have been Lillian's potty accident that led her to be halfway undressed and out of sorts earlier in the night.  We don't even find Lillian's long lost pjs until the next day when we are cleaning up the toy room and there are some mysteriously wet jammies mixed in with the toys.  Of course...more cleaning ensued.  I tell you what...this parenting thing is not for the faint hearted!  I would not trade it for anything, but my goodness, no matter how careful and thorough you are kids can throw you for a loop!

On a lighter note...Inspired by my sister in law who lived with us last summer while Jared's brother had an internship out here, we have a new frequent visitor to our home.  My SIL Maren had a friend Ms. White who would come visit our house whenever the toy room needed a good tidying.  She is somewhat akin to Mary Poppins and looks strikingly similar to Maren with glasses and a shawl using an unusual accent.  The kids (and their friends) would work together remarkably well and in record times to clean the toy room if she said that Ms. White was coming to inspect the toy room.  As it turns out, even after Maren left to return to her teaching job this school year, Ms. White had a friend that she could recommend for us.  So, Mrs. Peacock is now a regular visitor that delights the children with her visits when the toy room needs a good clean.  How it works is that the kids report when they are only a couple minutes from completing their task and I "call" Mrs. Peacock to let her know they are ready.  Out comes Mrs. Peacock calling the children "little dears" and says "ta-ta" as she leaves, inspecting the toy room and bedrooms to make sure they are clean enough to pass the test and then tells the children they can report to their parents they have passed once again!

Probably the funniest reaction is our 9 year old little neighbor boy who tries to tell me he thinks I am Mrs. Peacock, but then he follows his accusation with, "aren't you?" with a very sincere cock of his head.

Jared continues to work hard on scouts and is very busy at work.  He has, unfortunately had some pretty major gastrointestinal issues for about the last month.  He has seen a couple doctors without a lot of luck so now we are awaiting lab results before scheduling a colonoscopy.  We are hoping the lab results give some simple results with an easy fix, but I'm sure we'll need to keep dreaming...I was the most concerned for him when he had to go on his regularly scheduled campout with his scouts wherein he would need to hike in for 4 miles, campout overnight under the stars then hike back in for 4 miles with all his gear.  He survived it and was pretty sore for the following couple days, but he has kept at all of his responsibilities despite this inconvenience.  We sure love him and all he does for our little family.