Life as a Yowler

Do you parents ever feel like you never get anything done other than cleaning up your kid’s messes all day? Today I really did have lots of things I needed to get done. Unpacking, laundry, vacumming, scrubbing toilets, and dishes were on my list. My kids never eat breakfast right away when they wake up. I feed them an hour or two after they are awake. Right away this morning, I told them they could have free time in the basement while mom cleaned and folded clothes. Joah goes, “does free time mean I can do whatever I want?” In my getting work done frenzy I said yes. Ten minutes later Brielle comes upstairs covered in red paint and says, “mom, look what Joah did to me. He also spilled it all over the basement carpet.” I go downstairs to see Joah about to cry with an empty bottle of red paint. Apparently he was trying to squeeze the bottle of paint into the paint spinner. The lid came off in the process, splattering the entire basement, along with Brielle.

I sucked in my screams and yells and cleaned up the mess. I made Brielle change clothes. I took a bucket of soapy water and a can of shout to the basement. Luckily everything cleaned totally up. While I cleaned that up, Caed got out some more paints upstairs. Why do I own paint you ask? After today I’m wondering the same thing. He painted all over the living room floor by the time I got upstairs. Thank God it’s washable and we have hard wood floors.

I fed the little suckers lunch and made them all take a rest right after. Caed didnt sleep. He’s only sleeping about 50% of the time these days. 😭 It makes for some extreme dependence on the Lord for me. After the hour rest time was over I still had tons to do. I decided it would be wise to give the kids more structured activities to prevent more messes.

I set up some play stations.  I gathered a bunch of toys from around the house.

We made a rice box. I set the timer for each kid to get a turn  I quickly realized I needed more boxes when the two kids waiting cried and cried.

I made another rice box and a pasta box.

We also made a water bucket. We have a bath toy the kids love. It cycles water through it making a constant stream of water.

We made some water beads that will be ready in a couple hours.

I had Isla sit and watch. I was able to fold my laundry and do dishes. Then I cleaned up the mess of rice and water everywhere. That took about 20 minutes. I sent the kids outside to play for those 20 minutes and kept checking on them.  Caed took his shoes off and fell in the mud. Another cleanup.

Between cleaning up messes I managed to get unpacked from our trip. I got a great head start on it yesterday thanks to my mom watching the kids for me. This evening I need to grocery shop. After that my life will be back in order, hopefully. Until tomorrow anyways when the kids wake up again.