From the second my children come home from the hospital, everyone knows they are Longhorns.  Baby Z was our first baby leaving the hospital in a pink Longhorn onesie.

Baby Z arrived after football season ended for the Longhorns.  She was lucky to miss the disaster that was Longhorn football last year.

It’s a new year and football is back. So we talk.  I talk.  She listens.  I teach her about the Longhorns.  Who we hate, who we don’t care about and the fight song.  She listens so intently.  She will be just like the others screaming “OU sucks” soon enough.

I also teach her to wear burnt orange on game day.  While I’m all about cute pink outfits, on game day she wears orange.  Period.  And for now, I’ll even let her chach out with cute outfits.  I promise she only has three new outfits for the season.

As summer comes to an end, I am grateful.  I hold it close to my heart.  It passed way too fast.  The big kids weren’t even out of school for three months.  I have promised to embrace today, the now, to live life without thinking of yesterday or how time passes so quickly.  I think overall that I’ve done a pretty good job of doing just that.

I wanted to live an intentional summer.  We did.

We lived.  We did  lot of things I wanted to do, not all.  That’s okay.  Our summer wasn’t rushed.  It was beautiful.

Hot.

And beautiful.

We lived it all together.  All seven of us.

It was a great summer.  I have an amazing family.  Thanks for indulging me.

The Zierleins, July 2011

The Baby Hulk got his wish.  He moved up to the sick room also known as Mom’s room.  To make the case for the move, he puked all over the floor of my bedroom.  I feel bad, this child is generally the most emotional/needy and he has certainly wanted attention these past few days that hasn’t come easily.  Now he’s sick, but everyone else is pretty much recovered and into other rooms, so he is stuck in my room by himself with me running in to check on him rather than sleeping with him and watching shows with him.

Pretty much sums up the week

Yesterday, I still didn’t feel great, but was well enough for Lance to return to work.  And it was hard.  No David was on the road to recovery, but wanted me with him the entire time.  Goose was better, but had a fever on Wednesday so had to stay home again.  I had him complete some homework.  What drama.  The kid hates writing sentences more than anything in life.  Which makes me hate it and want to scream.  At him.  Yesterday, I didn’t scream.  Then there was Baby Z who desperately wanted attention, but couldn’t be near anyone because I don’t want her catching this bug.  So there I was wondering how to give my children the attention they needed without losing patience.  I wish I could say I succeeded, but I didn’t.  The only lesson I can take from this is don’t get sick at the same time your kids are sick.  Do whatever it takes, but don’t get sick.

My best friends

Before anyone holds the baby, I spray them with Lysol and have them slather their hands and arms with hand sanitizer.  The amount of laundry I have done in three days is beyond normal.  Even for our family of seven.  And the kick in the ass for this week?  No, it wasn’t the stomach virus that has knocked out most of this family.  It’s the broken dish washer.  When I need it the most, the damn thing isn’t getting water inside of it.  And the plumber?  He was supposed to be here over two hours ago.

Last night, Lance asked why I was cranky.  I explained how I had to clean up puke from the floor from three different children.  He had to nerve to say he had put two of them in showers.  Really?  On your hands and knees cleaning up puke or giving a kid a shower?

My Sunshine has missed her playmate.  This child is all Mom’s girl.  She loves everyone else, but when I am holding her she rarely wants to leave my arms and will cry when I walk into the room and lunge for me.  She hasn’t seen No David since Monday for longer than a few seconds.  When she saw him this morning, she lunged for him and happily played with all his trains ignoring the toys I had out for her.  He was slightly annoyed that she tore apart his train tracks, but I know he missed her too.

No, it’s not my new blog title.  But wouldn’t that be a fun blog to read.  Have to search for that one.

I made it through the first week of school and so did Goose with an E in conduct.  Here’s hoping we have more E’s this year than last year.

I will go on the record first week in saying I like our teacher.  There, I said it.  There is written proof.  Even though I (of course) have some questions/complaints, I like her and how fast she responds.  While last year’s teacher could never figure out how to use email, this teacher wrote me an email before the week ended.  I really hope this year works out for us.  I’m tired of waiting for things to get better or more challenging or for the good teachers.

The Baby Hulk started school last week.  Not to be left out, No David started as well.  He calls school his work, which I don’t really like, but he doesn’t have any negative thoughts on work yet so I guess that’s okay.  His school consists of listening to stories, puzzles, sorting, coloring, letters and playing.  And mostly, it’s fine that he’s around while I’m working with the BH.  I love what I’m doing with BH, I just need to decide on math for him.  I want to take a living math approach rather than get another curriculum this year, but I have yet to order books from the library.  Next week, I hope.

We haven’t even completed two weeks of school, and we’ve managed to catch a stomach virus.  It sucks.  Really bad.  I am going old school Catholic offering up everything so Baby Z doesn’t catch this crap.

A couple of weeks ago, I complained that Fantasy Football interfered with family life.  Lance is in four leagues, two of which had auctions scheduled for this week.  Right at dinner time.  I also lost Lance to an auction Saturday, wasn’t his team, he was just drafting for a friend.

I like fantasy football, the thought of staying in the same league year after year, is so cool to me.  Lance’s league has been together since 1997.  People have moved, but they fly back for the auction.  Lance and I don’t do guys night out/girls night out, so this is a good thing.  But really, seeing that most of these guys have become fathers now, let’s just move that starting time up to 8.  That way the kids are either in bed or on their way to bed as dad leaves.  Lance laughed at this thought.

So Tuesday was Lance’s big auction.  No David had already puked the entire night before, and I started about two hours before he left for his auction.  Squirt started two hours after he left.  He got the kids dinner and into bed.  (Although none of them stayed in bed.)  I just had to feed the baby and listen to her cry nonstop because I couldn’t hold her and he couldn’t take her to a bar.  I guess we made the best of a crappy situation, there was nothing he could do, BUT he better win in this league.

My new homeschool area is up.  It’s not completely finished, but for now it’s done.  While the picture shows a lots of space available, I have more items, including books to put in there.  Each child including Baby Z has their own cubby.  Baby Hulk already knows where to find his work each day.  Yesterday while I was sick, he did his copywork, a quote from St. Augustine, because he knew where to find his stuff.  Have I mentioned I love being organized?  Also happy that I am able to keep my kitchen table and three chairs without the area being too crowded.  Now to maintain the table so that it doesn’t look like a craft table because we will be painting at this table.

The Baby Hulk wants to get sick so he can watch television all day.  Even if he does catch this, he is out of luck.  The amount of television Goose watched has definitely made an impact on his brain.  And not in a good way.

Just finished a Whataburger.  Am now wondering if I should have waited another day.

Baby Hulk has been sleeping for over an hour.  A nap or the precursor to this virus?

 We had our back to school lunch on Saturday.  Lance had too much work so he couldn’t go with us, and the little boys, well, their behavior sucked all week so they stayed home as well.

That was fine, it was just me and three of my favorite people having one last meal before school.  I had a great lunch with our second grader, junior and senior.  I can’t believe how fast time flies and that at the end of this year, I’ll be heading to Jessica’s graduation and prepping for Squirt to be a senior.  I have nine months to be stressed about that.  For today, I’ll just appreciate the fact that these three amazing kids are in my life.

Dear God, watch over them while they are away from their amazing parents!  (ha! although really, I am amazing, right, kids???)

For Today…August 21, 2011

Outside my window…the sun is shining, deceptively like today is really a bright and happy day instead of what it really is to me.

I am listening to…four boys play like crazy.  They are loud boys, no matter how many times I ask for them to quiet down.  I love that they all like playing together.

I am wearing…a grey and red summer dress.  I love this dress.  I totally forgot all about it sitting in the back of my closet.  When I put it on, No David wanted to know why I was wearing it.

No David…oh that kid.  They say that kids sense stress and maybe he is picking up on the stress of his parents.  That said, I refuse to take all the blame for his crummy behavior.  Yes, he is cute, but at times he is a terror.  He screams.  A lot.  And for no reason at all.  Then he also broke Sunshine’s crib.  Anyone have a spare crib b/c there is no way Lance is buying us a new one.  That might mean we’ll have another kid.  I’ll give you a cute story about the kid the rest of the world refers to as Snax: last night as he was falling asleep he mumbled, “tomorrow I am having a waffle with peanut butter, a little peanut butter.”  Always thinking about his next meal, that one.

I am praying…the list is long.  This parenting thing is a lot harder than I like at times.  It’s interesting, the things that worried some people about having kids never worried me.  Like I was never afraid to bring home a baby from the hospital.  I never had that feeling “I am responsible for this baby.  OMG.”  I read one pregnancy book and no baby books.  I didn’t need help on that stuff, but now, well, I need help!  So I pray.  Last night, as I held No David’s hand I prayed incessantly for each child.  Then I creeped out of the room only to find more reasons to pray.

Sunshine…will be horrified I am sharing this, but she needs new diapers.  I am now on my third brand of diapers trying to find something that will work on her body and not leak crap all over her nice clothes.

Around the house…school starts this week.  I am moving some shelves into the breakfast nook and making that a full-time work area.  Our family is officially too big for that area, and first off, that makes me so happy.  Second, I can’t wait to use that space to my advantage.

From the kitchen…the only positive about going back to school is the order it brings to my kitchen.  With so little time to spend with the school age kids, I take care of menu planning weekly so I’m not running around at the last minute.  There will also be cookies waiting for those school kids when they come home tomorrow afternoon.

I am grateful…to stay home with my kids.  I fully admit my children drove me batty this week, yet I can’t imagine being away from them.  I hope they feel the same.

Last night…I went to the 1560 Secret Society party.  I can’t say it enough how awesome these people are.

I am wondering…why my laptop won’t stay charged.  Totally annoying.

I am hoping…this week goes well.  That I can stay focused, happy and calm.  And not bitter.

From the learning rooms…The Baby Hulk starts school this week.  We’ll be easing into things slowly, but I have two fun weeks planned to get started.  I am actually pretty excited about it.  No David will have his share of activities to work on as well, but nothing serious.

I am creating…an ornament for a Jesse Tree ornament swap.  I got stuck with Genesis 22:1-14.  Not a big fan of this verse, never understood it and having to make an ornament hasn’t helped me either.

To live the liturgy…Today’s Gospel…another story, it is probably one of my favorite of all time.  Love tracing back to our first Pope.

One of my favorite things…children’s books.  My dad gave me some money to spend on Baby Hulk’s schooling.  I have found so many great used books!

A few plans for the week…Burgers on Monday (The Baby Hulk’s back to school meal), School starts tomorrow for Goose and Squirt, homeschool on Tuesday, swim lessons, a play date and dinner with a friend on Saturday evening.

A picture thought I am sharing…

School starts in two days.  Two days.  Am not ready for that.  It’s coming at the worst possible time.  Lance doesn’t have time for me to be sad and upset.

He’s starting a new job.  In five days.  I’m trying to decide which issue carries more weight right now: my sadness over school or his new job.  Don’t tell me if you think he wins.

Because the adults in this house aren’t stressed enough, the kids decided to act like complete and utter fools all week long.  Except for the baby.  She doesn’t know how to act like a fool yet.

I told No David if he didn’t get it together he could find another family that would listen to him scream and screech all day long.  He thought for a second and said, “I guess I’ll be in grandpa’s family.”  GO RIGHT AHEAD.

Not be outdone, my G/T kid decided to act like he was losing brain cells every minute of the day.  He read a total of two chapters all week long and couldn’t tell me one thing about either chapter.

I actually went shopping today, you know tax free day, and didn’t want to kill myself due to crowds.

I did want to kill my children.

Last I checked, they were still breathing.

Just realized these issues with the kids started last Saturday.

Oh Sunshine Girl, you are eight months old.  How is that possible?

Truly, you are the sweetest baby I know.  The only negative is that you like us to walk around when we hold you.  If that is the worst thing I can say about you, then I am pretty lucky.  And I am smart enough to appreciate just how sweet you are.

The other day I called you my princess and someone said not to call you that because one day you would expect to be treated like a princess.  And then boys wouldn’t like that.

Sweet girl, if me calling you princess meant that one day you would require all men to treat you as one then I will never stop calling you that.  Here’s the thing, you deserve to be treated as a princess and I never want you to accept anything less than that from anyone.

It’s a scary world out there and quite frankly, your father and I are freaked out when we think about you growing up.  Yes, we have some time.  We hope to teach you right from wrong, that you stay the sweet girl that you are, but I want you to always have enough respect for yourself that you don’t accept crap from anyone, especially a boy.

Yes, I finally gave you some cereal.  You seem to like it.  And the ladies at the gym gave you cheerios just yesterday.  Interesting, they have given all my children cheerios before I do!  You are army crawling, and this gets you all over the place.

But the best thing from this month?  The other night you sort of said Momma!!!  You’ve been saying “hi” in a grunt tone for a while, but this was new.  You are so special, my dear girl.  I love you so much!

The poor girl will be eight months on the 17th.  Today I finally fed her something other than my milk.  I think she liked it.  I called all the kids to join the fun, but nobody thought this was interesting except for No David.

For Today…August 14, 2011

Outside my window…it’s dark.  It’s quiet.

I am wearing…black workout shorts and a lime green t-shirt that says Book Chick.  I wish I were the reading nerd this shirt implies.

I am praying…for so many things.

I am grateful for…board games, kids that smile, mini vacations, Mass, my gym, a friend who understands the ache in my heart right now and amazing listeners.

I am hoping…for an easy week, a week full of smiles, fun times and family time.

I am listening to…a pretty silent house.  After the screaming all weekend, I kind of like it.

From the kitchen…menu for the week planned.  Menus make my life easier.  I also have a few desserts planned for the kids this week.

From the learning rooms…so many exciting things going.  This may be the only thing that keeps me sane right now.

Around the house…the same as last week.

A few plans for the week…getting ready for school, the library, hanging out with friends, back to school lunch.

One of my favorite things…my kids.

A picture thought I’m sharing…