surviving

That's my truthful answer for the common question, "so, how are you doing?" This past week the kids and I spent a lot of time trying to figure out what our new normal looks like. We started school on Monday. Jason knew what to do and I think he was glad to get a little structure back in his day (even if that structure included writing assignments!). Cameron was confused and frustrated. She decided that she is now in "kindergarten". Her version of kindergarten is a class in her room with mom as teacher, lots of play, games and songs. Normally I wouldn't have a problem with this but her class is intolerant of interruptions from big bro or little sis. Hayden continues to operate like clockwork, eating and sleeping in 3 hour cycles. So all this made our school day stretch over 6 hours, with LOTS of breaks rather than our usual 3 hour efficient school time. The beauty of homeschool is that we can get our work accomplished at our pace so I need to relax my uptight attitude and accept this new normal.

Another thing I need to get used to is the amount of time it takes to get 3 kids out the door. We take a walk every day to get the mail (and honestly I make them walk around the block to wear them out!) Once I get on kid dressed with socks, shoes and sweatshirt, another has a problem, accident or distraction that takes 5 minutes to solve. One day Jason waited outside for 15 minutes before the girls and I were ready to go. Get used to it kid!

We gave Hayden her first bath. As you can see, she didn't like it. She still doesn't like it, several bathes later.


At least she had her dad close by to rescue her with a warm towel.


We also took the kids to the park this week. This is the strange January phenomenon of the Central Coast: the coast is actually warmer than the inland areas. For instance, today it was 80 degrees in San Luis and it reached almost 70 inland. Both are warm temps but we're always shocked to have "shorts weather" in January. I was talking to a woman at the park and told her that we spend more time at the park in the winter than we do the summer because I'd rather be out in 60 degree weather rather than 90-100 degree heat. The kids had a lot of fun because we picked up Darren for his lunch break and had him join us for play. I don't have pics of Hayden because she looks the same in her bucket seat whether we're at the park or at home (and perhaps that thing about the third child being under-represented in pictures is really true)!



I'm trying to get myself back into my "normal" activities too so I can feel like more than just a milk maid. I fired up the dreadmill for a few walks this weekend and got my scrapbooking supplies out. I'm even trying to take a precepts class at church. I'd like to be able to add a few more hours to my day (hours spent awake or asleep, I'll take either at this point) but I know eventually I'll feel like I'm back to normal... whatever that is! I'm not Supermom, just call me Survivormom!