Pictures!

We've had a little bit of regular life lately and it's been wonderful. So here's some pictures...

Debbie started a sweeping club. She and a couple friends spent one afternoon sweeping up the playground area in front of our apartment and then made plans to go around to the rest of the apartment complex and sweep up other playgrounds as well. They did a really good job, it still looks nice. She was so invested in this project that she made these tickets and hung them up in the stairwells for kids to fill out and return to her. Notice the bottom line. I love it.

 She wanted me to put curlers in her hair on Sunday night.

 These kids would not cooperate for me to get a decent picture of them all together.

 Her hair turned out darling.

 We've watched "American Ninja Warrior" a couple times and the kids have decided that they want to 'train' for it now.

 Isaac and Debbie are tall enough that they can manage this one (ANW calls it the spider, they liked that).

 Cosette required a little help but her siblings were happy to oblige.

It's been nice to have life return to normal. And by normal I mean battling with the kids over nearly everything that needs to get done throughout the day. As I lay in bed this morning I heard the kids yelling at Chad over breakfast; whine, shriek, whine (Yes, Chad gets up and gets the kids going in the morning while letting me take a little longer to face the day, he's wonderful), "I don't want that cereal!" "That's not enough milk!" You know how it goes. And I realized, what a crappy way to start the day! Who wants to get yelled at first thing in the morning and yet I'm fairly certain that EVERY parent with kids at home starts most days getting yelled at for one thing or another. Or maybe I just have terrible, monster children. Maybe most children are wonderful in the mornings and we're just lucky (or terrible parents because our children are even acting this way). I love my children and feel that overall they're pretty good kids, but I'm having to get creative to make it through the day. I finally got the idea to make a sticker chart to earn computer time (fairly certain it was divine inspiration in answer to prayer. Lot's and lot's of prayer.) and it was worth it if only for the peace it gave me last week. They responded so well to it that first week! It was glorious. I made a list of 12 regular things they need to do throughout the day; get dressed, pick up dirty clothes, clear dirty dishes from table, etc. They get 2 stickers if they do something without me having to ask them and 1 sticker if they do it the first time I ask and then no stickers if I have to ask more than once. And man was it worth it even if it had only worked the first day. They responded so well, it's been great! Cosette hasn't been as motivated by it but the older kids are determined to get 2 stickers in every box. The novelty is starting to wear off so I don't know how much longer it'll work, but I'm grateful for even the few days peace it's given me.

I'm realizing more and more why people say boys are easier than girls. So far that's been the case for me. My girls are killing me lately. Debbie is so emotional, I almost wonder if she's hormonal, some days she gets so overwhelmed that the tiniest things will send her into a crying fit, I don't know what to do with this!! And I shouldn't even get started on Cosette, if we can survive her childhood I'll consider myself blessed. She is such a handful!!! I don't know how to discipline her!! She will willfully do something naughty so we have to discipline her, we can't just let her run wild, but the minute we put her in time out she flips and just loses it. So the tantrum we get from the timeout is so much worse than what she did to get put in timeout in the first place. She kicks the door and won't stay in her room and clings to us and cries for a cuddle and there's nothing we can do. I want to put a doorknob on her door that locks on the outside but maybe that'll cause psychological damage. She literally cannot self-soothe. I am at my wits end. I seriously worry that there's something emotionally wrong with her, she's just so extreme. I don't know what to do with her!!!!

But that's life and we're making it through and I think that, in spite of my venting here, we really are doing well and are quite happy. I love these kiddos even with all the emotional upheaval they cause in life. They also bring more joy and purpose than I ever could have imagined.