blogger mom

Some days I say to myself, "Two more kids, no problem." Then comes a day like today and I think we must have lost our minds. Trey, our middle child, seems to have gotten a little lost in the shuffle around here. Of course, this was not intentional. Somehow though, it's happened. Riley gets a TON of attention. He does extremely well in school, he's really good at basketball, and he has made some new friends that he gets to spend time with. Evan is the baby and has fully claimed his spot as the baby of this family. Because of how sick he was last winter, I fuss over him and worry like crazy at the first cough or sniffle. He spends too much of the day on my hip and he knows how to demand our attention. Then there's Trey. He's a good boy, he plays well by himself, and he's so smart it freaks me out sometimes. But, he doesn't demand our attention in the same way the other two do. So, I think lately he might have decided that negative attention is better than nothing. That sounds horrible...and I immediately want to defend myself as a mother even as I write that. Really, he gets a ton of attention...it's just different because he's always been so easy to handle. He's been acting out over the last week or so, but today was the worst. We have so much to learn as we parent these boys, and there is absolutely no way we can do this on our own. We need God's wisdom and strength each day as we strive to be what our children need. So, Trey is going to get a little extra time over the next few weeks. I really want to start scheduling special time with each child alone, daddy dates and mommy dates for our kids. I think this is going to be something that is even more important as our family grows.

Another reason we might just be crazy...the laundry. I can't keep up now, how in the world am I going to be able to keep up on the laundry when we add two more.

Other than that, life here is really good.

One last story before I get to work for the night...tonight I took the boys to church. Eric had to work, so it was just me and the boys. It was packed tonight, which means complete chaos when a large percentage of the congregation is homeless. A fight almost broke out behind us during the Lord's Prayer, but they decided to take it outside. Then at dinner the police marched in and arrested a homeless man while he was eating. The priest had left for a minute to get another homeless man sitting near us a tent to sleep in that night, so she wasn't in the room when the police let themselves in. I pulled her aside when she returned to let her know what happened. Here's the great part...she said, "They did WHAT! I don't think so. Not here." And she ran out of the building after them carrying her tent. When we left to walk home she was giving the police officer what for and had taken his name to call his superior. The man had violated his probation by not going to a half way house when he was released from prison, but the situation was not handled appropriately. Have I ever mentioned that I LOVE my church? The whole situation made for some great bed time conversation with my kids. Cowboy is back in jail too...something is so wrong with our system. Cowboy's story is long, I'll save it for another night.