Life as a Yowler

I had a rough day today emotionally. I went shopping this weekend with my mom’s side of the family. I had so much fun. I felt like a human being.  I felt normal. I was able to relax, laugh, have fun, pee alone, hang with cousins, and enjoy life so much. I hate to even admit it, but coming home was really hard for me. I was struggling with a bad attitude. I love my family more than anything, but life can feel overwhelming, especially after coming home and readjusting for all of us. Brielle spent the weekend with the Severance’s. Caed stayed with the Keim’s. I took Isla with me since she’s still nursing. Joah stayed home with Brandon. Brandon had several jobs he was working on while I was gone. I knew he would be distracted. I told Joah before I left “Joah, here’s the food. Dad might forget to feed you, but you know where everything is.” Joah did a great job of looking out for himself and being independent. He helped Brandon out with several jobs. He also stayed extremely hydrated. I found 16 filled cups throughout our property when I got home.

Here are some pictures of my weekend in Birch Run. My mom took Isla to her hotel room for me in the morning so I could get ready. Isla was so nervous by all he people looking at her, she refused to eat a bite of her banana until everyone looked away.

We got a little carried away with all the ridiculous costumes Target offers.

This is about half of our group eating breakfast.

Here is our whole group.

The cute little babies got a bath together. Here is Brandon’s project he is working on lately. He is building a playhouse in the only way Brandon knows how….to the extreme.

I helped him put the roof on the house today, which brings me back to my emotional day.

I was really struggling and in a little bit of a funk all morning and early afternoon today. Joah was not focusing and not doing well at his school this morning. We were all readjusting from the weekend of most of us being gone. Isla was fussy and clingy. People were hangry. Finally I decided to break from school and I headed upstairs to make some eggs for an early lunch. I grabbed some organic eggs from my parents chickens. They had been in my fridge for about two weeks. I looked at them and thought “they are probably fine. They look just like eggs and aren’t deformed at all and they smell normal.” I mean what does a rotten egg really look like or smell like? I had the pan over the heat on the stove  and I started cracking the eggs. One egg, two eggs, then the third egg….that’s when the catastrophe happened. That sucker came out black and as soon as it hit the heat, it splattered and exploded everywhere. The mess was awful but the odor was much much worse. It was like nothing I’ve ever smelled before. All three of the oldest kids looked in Isla’s pants to check for poop. Brielle asked “mom, have you been farting or what?” It smelled so so bad. After throwing the whole batch of eggs out, and emptying the trash, and airing out the house on this warm day it still smells in here.

We finished school after we all ate(peanut butter sandwiches). Then I put everyone down for a rest time. No sooner had I put everyone down than Brandon called me. He was on the way home and he needed my help working on the playhouse. Now there is one time of day that the introvert in me lives for…..nap time.  Brandon stole it today along with many many other days. Being married to Brandon and having the active kids I do, I really really live for nap time. I literally cried when I had to sacrifice it. I did not handle it well.

Plus projects with Yowler go something like this…..

All throughout helping Brandon, I was in my depressive funk. Then a little excitement happened. I was in charge of running the up and down lever in the tractor. Brandon was standing on the forks of the tractor and he kept yelling at me to raise or lower him as he was putting steel on the roof. Then he yelled “I need you to hand me the steel piece.” I got out of the tractor. As I got out, I heard some screaming. I realized what was happening. My enormous butt bumped the lever as I was getting out of the door. Rather than reacting quickly, I watched a little bit. Brandon was dangling and hanging on for his life as I had dropped the forks, which he was standing on. When it finally dawned on me what was happening, I grabbed the lever and straighter the forks. I realized I almost killed Brandon(not even intentionally), and I laughed really really hard. It literally snapped me out of my depression. It was amazing. It was like therapy. Sometimes when I get down, Brandon will moon me. How can I not laugh? This time he didn’t, but I cured myself. I almost killed him. The good news is, he should be much slower to ask for my help in the future.