The terrible threes

It has been a hellish day.  For the past several days, I don't know what has gotten into me, but I have been utterly exhausted.  I have a difficult time waking up and have been sleeping rather hard.  Now I am up because a certain two year old, who I must say is ushering in her terrible threes with such gusto that I fear we will not survive it, awoke with such screams of nighmarish fear that my blood was pumping from all that adrenaline.  I rushed to her door in time to hear her pleading with her big sister to get her (they sleep in separate rooms, so I assuming she was in her nightmare).  The poor child was dazed and visibly shaking.  She didn't even recognize me when I bent down to pick her up.  I sat with her for awhile, til she nodded off and then put her back to bed.  But now, I am awake.  Oh, and the three teen girls who were up giggling at midnight, yeah, that sent my blood boiling too.  So, here I sit updating once again...hey, I asked for more time to blog, and now I have it; I shouldn't complain!
As I mentioned before, I am having a tough time waking up.  I am not usually much of a coffee drinker, but seem to need at least two cups lately to get me going.  This morning was no different.  Except I couldn't even see straight, so I poured out two bowls of cereal (as my menu planner clearly did *not* state) and flung myself on the couch.  I proceeded to fall back to sleep while the two youngest talked to each other and ate their cereal.  Time flew by.  The next thing I know I am hearing a sandpaper sound and it stirs my brain enough in my sleep to make me wake up.  "The sound" is coming from the dining room.  I come around the corner of the living room to see Roni bent over and throwing something in the air.  Kimmi is "skating" on  this whitish substance on the floor.  I don't have my glasses on, so I ask, "what is this?"  Bending over and touching it, I realize it is sugar...that and a quick glance on the floor I see a half empty storage bucket of my six month supply of sugar....all-over-the-floor....that we.just.spring.cleaned!!!!!!!!!!!!  Seriously!  If you've ever lived in the south you know just how hard it is to stay ahead of the bugs; this was a serious setback!
After the paddling was handled, it was time to throw two kids in the tub and get the sugar up off the floor of the kitchen, dining room and hallway.  That done I told the girls to stay in their room until I tell them to come out...then I go in and make coffee as my non-morning-person husband showed up mid clean and stood staring at me and then the coffee pot, then me, then walked away as to stay out of my way...smart man!
Better breakfast made, two cups of coffee down, I decided to catch up on emails, laundry and grocery list.  We use cozicalendar, so it takes a little time to get the meal planning, recipe lists and grocery list made.  Once that is done I go downstairs to find Little Bit had not stayed in her room, but had gotten out, went outside into the garage, and promptly broke 2.5 dozen eggs on the garage floor.  This cleanup takes up all the paper towels I have, bleach and kills the shopvac in one fell swoop.  Honestly, the smell of bleach and a burning motor are far better than lukewarm eggs on concrete in 90 degree weather.  Another paddling, another bath...yeah, you are getting the hang of it!  But wait, there is more!
I make sure this time to assign Lauren the task of watching her while I go take the older girls for a driving lesson.  An hour later, we walk in to find the sugar ONCE AGAIN on the floor...not as much this time, but it was still there nonetheless!  Great!  This time more kids are awake, so I assign #1 to sweep and vacuum, while Roni gets her third bath of the MORNING.  After that I decide I need to get to the store.  Two kids come with and the rest are informed of the need to have eyes on Roni AT ALL TIMES!
Shopping trip done, come home, now, yogurt is on the garage floor! Seriously?  Repeat above steps, only this time, Lauren has to clean since she failed to watch her.  I should have done it though, as she got a towel soaking wet and promptly went outside to clean up the cement with it....I threw a new roll of paper towels and a plastic bag at her and told her not to use my good towels and went and hid in my room.  There has been more messes, not nearly as dramatic as the above, and yes, the yogurt went from one little carton to six in about 15 minutes as Roni got past her sisters and managed to escape the house while I was hiding.  I give up!  I forgot what trouble three year olds can be.  My last one wasn't ever this bad...the first two definitely kept me running, but I am older now and I'm not enjoying this at all!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
 

UNDAUNTED

This was the title of a blog post I read a month ago and it has been swirling through my head for the last month.  What a great one word description of my life!  I have continued to press on "undaunted" by life events...but enough about me, now on to the kids.  So much has been going on it is hard to pin it all down to just one writeup.  I keep promising to get better about blog writing, but time does get past me!
Katherine is struggling with decisions...real grown up decisions.  Her courtship relationship is getting harder to keep separate from school and family, which I have to remind her is normal.  That is the way God designed it.  She is very torn between him and going to school and the accompanying frustration of knowing they can't be together yet as they would be poor as church mice.  So for now, the daily grind and monetary commitments push the wedding date further into the future.  We did all have a wonderful time on our family vacation this year...to Kitty Hawk, NC!  It was cold, but fun!
We thought it would even get better if we brought boys for Stephen to hang and play with...and we were right!  Two of his friends who are used to being part of a big family came along, as well as their big brother, Katie's intended.  So Paul and I, undaunted, dragged ten children 15 hours east for a week at a beach house we'd rented.

(There are so many pictures I am going to have to inundate you now with loads of beach footage)

and that's a wrap!
(btw, we found a pelvis bone of some animal, heavily toned in ocean water...that is what Paul is holding up)