April

This is the time of year where I begin to brace myself for mayhem.  Normally, it starts with Easter and then doesn't let up until the end of the school year.  With Easter so early this year, I have had a bit of a break to gather my senses and organize myself.  The chaos begins this week.

So, what does our chaos look like?  I'll tell you.  First we have our wedding anniversary, Bree's birthday, Teacher Appreciation Day/Week, Kai's birthday, Great Strides, the last day of school, end of year awards ceremonies, Bree's well child exam, and Reid's birthday.  The last several years there has also been our Woodmoor Country Club Tennis Fundraiser.  This year we have all of that and we are throwing in about 5 medical appointments, a Krispy Kreme fundraiser, several Great Strides Committee meeting responsibilities (attending meetings, contacting teams and sponsors, and manning an information table for several hours over two days), Kai's Little League Baseball schedule, and piano and music lessons.  Oh, and a little thing called a master bathroom remodel.  There are exactly 5 weeks left of school and right now I'm just bracing and holding on for the ride.

I'm a list maker and a pretty good multi-tasker, thankfully.  I've already started knocking out some to-dos for many of these events.  For example, Bree's birthday cake is on order (no way I'm making one, not enough time, too much stress), as are many of her party decorations.  I have also typed out the invitation to Kai's birthday and ordered the paper for the printing.  Hopefully, those will go out this week.  (His birthday falls on Great Strides so we are inviting his friends to come join us at the walk.  Crossing my fingers it works!)  I've also ordered favors to hand out to our team at the walk, and I've nearly finished getting all of the Krispy Kreme orders collected, so that I can place the order with Krispy Kreme this coming Thursday.

With this fundraiser combined with the one I did over Conference Weekend, we will come close to have raising nearly $300 by selling Krispy Kreme doughnuts.

So, one day at a time.  This week is bathroom remodel week, three doctor appointments, one music class, one piano lesson, one Little League practice, two baseball games, one Pinewood Derby (oh yeah, forgot to mention that!), and our anniversary.  We have just about everything we need for the remodel (I've ordered and have received all new fixtures and our tile is in) but we are waiting on the toilet.  Hopefully it will be here before the end of the week.  And for our anniversary, well, we did just buy a riding lawn mower this week which I think counts as a great gift.  I haven't told Reid that yet, though.

Our new mower.  We found it used at a engine repair store.  Someone had brought it in and abandoned it.  It came with a new engine and all cleaned up.  It only has 10 hours on it!

And just to make sure I'm really on my toes, Finn's sinuses are acting up.  His culture results from our clinic visit two weeks ago came back with Staph again, which seems to be the case when his sinuses aren't doing well.  The lining of his nose looked slightly inflammed (seems to be a chronic thing for him anyway) but there wasn't a lot of drainage at the time of the appointment.  That has been slowly changing, though, and so this morning I added his antibiotic cream into his sinus rinse and I'm making him go back to two rinses a day (we had been doing one because he was doing so well).  I'm really hoping to avoid oral antibiotics and to nip this quickly, but I know better than to plan on that.

And of course, this weekend we got a typical spring Colorado snowstorm.  Well, this one was a bit larger than normal, but still.  We've been snowed in all weekend and the boys are starting to get on each other's nerves.  Kai, in particular, is extra testy, which brings me to my last story.

The door to our deck.  This storm brought about 20 inches of heavy, wet snow.

For lunch today Kai wanted a drink.  He asked if he could have one and I told him he was welcome to help himself to a drink.  He asked if I would get it for him and I told him I would not as he could get it himself.  He threw a fit.  After a few minutes I was in the kitchen looking for food for myself and he approached as the refrigerator door was open.  He asked if I would get the V8 for him.  I looked at him and could see that he could reach it and told him so.  He then proceeded to make moves as if trying to reach the juice but was unable to do so (imagine dramatic but not authentic reaching movements).  I told him where to grab the juice and he eventually realized he could and that it wasn't that big of a deal.  He took the juice to the counter and then asked if I could pour it.  It was only 1/3 of the way full so I told him he could also do that himself.  Repeat throwing a fit, stomping off, slamming the door.

After a few minutes he came back and easily poured himself some juice.  When he sat at the table with me I praised him for being able to do it and he denied that he had done it himself (?!).  Ummm....ok.  Then he asked me, "Mom, why do you make me do hard things?"  Oh good grief.  I talked to him about how hard things make us grow and we all have to do hard things.  I felt it was a pretty standard "hard thing" conversation.  At which point, Kai asked, "What about that little box on the counter?"  I did not know what he was referring to and so I questioned which box he was talking about.  He went over to a corner in the kitchen and pointed out a box that he said had "squiggly lines and words".  I asked him what the words said and he read, "Good moms have sticky floors, dirty ovens, and happy kids." and then he asked, "Don't you ever pay attention to that?"

Ok, I'll admit I busted out laughing.  I asked him if I was a bad mom just because I made him get his own juice.  He did not respond but he did say, "It just seems like the opposite of this sign happens around here a lot."  I questioned him, "So, I try to clean the house and it makes you unhappy?" He responded, "Well, no, it's just that last part of the sign."

I was laughing and had no idea how to respond to what I perceived as ridiculousness, so I told him that everyone is unhappy at some point nearly every day but that doesn't make it anyone else's fault.  And then I went down and told Reid who also laughed.

I have a feeling the moody tween years are on their way!  Yikes.