Category Archives: The Family

Why I can never get the dishes done…..

Ok, so my husband wonders why I can’t keep the house clean. Well, tonight was a perfect example of my plight to wash dishes. Here’s the rundown….

First off, I don’t have a dishwasher, so I have to wash dishes by hand, put them in the dish rack thingy and then if I have a whole sink full of dishes I have to dry the ones I put in the dish rack and put them away so I can wash more dishes.

So tonight was a perfect example of why it’s hard for me to get anything done with a 6 year old, 3 year old and 11 month old around all day.  I get the boys to bed after brushing thier teeth, reading a book, singing a song, getting drinks, going potty and prayer time. The hubby is in our bedroom doing some song recording with a friend so I can’t put Baby to bed in there. Baby falls asleep while I’m nursing him in the boys room so I lay a blanket on the floor and put him down in there. He stays asleep.  Then after praying and saying good night to the boys I go into the kitchen and start on dishes. Pretty soon I’m having to go back in and give Ekid a tums because his “tummy hurts” sure, whatever, it hurts every night lately. I don’t always give him tums because it’s usually that he wants a drink so he says his tummy hurts(don’t know what that has to do with needing a drink of water…). But tonight instead of another drink I gave him a tums and told him to “Go to sleep!”.  Then I try washing some more dishes.

Baby wakes up crying.

I go into the room and Ekid(3.5) is on the top bunk bed saying that Nboy(6.5) touched Baby and woke him up. I ask if this was so and Nboy sheepishly nods his head. Nboy got in trouble…….

Now I’m really mad because now Baby is awake and won’t go back to sleep and I can’t put him in our bedroom because the guys are recording in there! So the dishes are put on hold until I can get Baby occupied with something. I finally did get the dishes done, but it was probably like 2 hours from the time I first started on them.

Ooops, actually I didn’t get them all done, but it was close…..(sorry, I was trying to romanticize this shot. How do you make dirty dishes in a sink look good?)

Is it pathetic that it’s after 1am and I’m taking pictures of my sink? And that I have edited this several times since I published it……. I think the blogging is getting to me….

This is pretty much my whole day.  It almost feels useless to start something knowing that I’m just going to get interrupted shortly after. I know doing something is better than nothing though, so I must trudge on (:

Anyway, so, to my husband, that is why it’s so hard for me to get things done and keep the house clean!

And, we really need to get your recording studio out of our bedroom! (;

Oh, yes, and by the way if you’d like to hear some of my husbands songs, we just got them uploaded here: http://www.indiependencemusic.com/chris-hall You can listen, rate them, join his fan club and buy songs too! It’s pretty cool and we’re really excited about finally getting his music out there!

Sleeping on the Floor, in the Livingroom….

No, my husband didn’t kick me out of bed, and I didn’t sleep on the livingroom floor because I was mad at him either, although there are times I’ve felt like it.(Well, maybe not the floor, but the couch).

No, I got my co-sleeping baby who is now 11.5 months old down to sleep about 11:30 last night. That is his standard bed time in case you were curious. I know it’s late, but it works for us for now. I don’t have the energy to fight with him to go to sleep earlier than that and that’s the time he falls to sleep most easily and stays asleep for a while.

So I normally stay up late after everyone goes to bed so I can actually have some peace and quiet while I work on stuff, or just relax and eat ice cream and oreos(like I did last night..hehe).

The last few nights I’ve been working on texturing and painting the older boys room so Nboy(6.5) and Ekid (3.5) have been sleeping in the livingroom this past week. A few nights ago, I decided to try and see if Baby would sleep longer if I just slept out in the livingroom instead of in the bed with him and Chris. Well, I’m happy to say that it actually worked! He didn’t sleep all night, but he did sleep for about 5 hours straight! Usually he wakes up about 2 hours after going to bed and then he might sleep for 3 or 4 hours before waking up again, or sometimes it seems like he’s nursing all night!(that’s usually just when he’s teething though).

So I tried it again the next night, but it didn’t go as well. But last night I slept on the floor with Nboy(because Ekid was taking up the couch) and Baby didn’t wake up till around 3 or 3:30 so, that’s still progress! So I think I’m going to try just doing that every night till he is consistantly sleeping longer without nursing because it does seem to be working.

Anyway, just thought I’d share that. If you have a co-sleeper/bed sharer, and you want to start gently getting them to sleep longer, you may want to try that. If the buffet isn’t right there for them to think about, then they may just put themselves back to sleep on thier own :)

Unforgiveable Sin-Forgetting the Camera…..

So I guess I still need have a ways to go with this whole blogging thing. I mean, how do other bloggers do it? Do they have the camera strapped to thier head or something? Always snapping those perfect shots with which to revolve a very interesting, touching, funny, witty, blog post around.  I don’t know… there must be a trick to it. I guess I just need to stick the thing in my person or something and never take it out! :)

So I had gone to the State Horse Fair to watch my former riding instructor’s granddaughter ride and guess what? I brought the camera…..BUT….I had left the memory card in the computer at home!!! I was so looking forward to getting some great horse shots to post and also to use as reference photos for paintings. Oh, well, there’s always next year…

Then…

We got free passes to the Clackamas County Fair and so we went on Saturday with my mom. Guess what? I forgot to bring the camera altogether that time!!! I was so mad at myself! I was going to write a post about our fun time at the fair, but, you know what? It’s just not the same without pictures! But we did have a great time! The last time my husband and I went to a fair was 2 years ago and we had to pay(which was outrageous for the little podunk fair we went to…).  But this time a friend gave us some free passes, so we drove the hour+ to get there and took my mom with us since she lives up there and we had an extra ticket because we found out Nboy was still free to get in…Whoohoo!  So many memories…. I grew up in Clackamas County, and showed my horses in 4-H there. I miss those days and I wish I was giving riding lessons again and going and watching my students at fair and helping them get ready for thier classes…..Ahhh, it can be hard growing up!  Maybe someday….

So anyway, other than the fact that I forgot my camera, we had a great time! Both Nboy and Ekid went on a few rides and had…a….blast! Nboy had been on rides once before, and this was Ekids very first time. Baby, of course, was content just walking while pushing the stroller or sitting and playing with the grass :)

Oh, yes, and both the older boys got to buy thier own wooden Yo-Yo for only $1 each. Awesome Yo-yo’s! Much better than the plastic one they had that my mom bought for $3…

I Love the Clackamas County Fair!

The beautiful Oregon Coast…..

My mom took me and the boys to the beach yesterday. It was absolutely PERFECT! Fairly warm, and not too windy. The water was cold (when is the water not cold on the Oregon coast?), but we still had lots of fun playing in it. I think this is the first time my kids have actually played in the water when we’ve gone to the beach!

They…had…a…blast!  And so did I! So without further ado I present to you the Oregon coast at Newport, Oregon……

Love the light on the waves…

Waves at Newport Oregon Beach

Nboy and Ekid running through the water…

Baby LOVEs the sand..and the water…

Mooma (grandma) looking for sea creatures with boys…(I had the vivd color setting on for this shot…I think I like the normal color better)

Ekid building a…..sand castle?