October 2019

I have 5 kids and I love all my kids.  I was actually a little sad when 4 of them started school in August because I had become accustomed to all of them being at home all day.  But now, as soon as they have a holiday and all of them are at home it feels like it’s a crazy house.  So, this past weekend they were all home for Columbus day and the following day was a teacher inservice day.  Basically, the school simply takes Columbus Day to have parent-teacher conferences.  We’re able to schedule the conferences weeks in advance, so I had scheduled the 3 conferences for early in the morning.  I figured we would already be awake since the kids never sleep in like we wish they should.  Also, I scheduled early thinking my husband would be able to attend with me.  Turns out, hubby had a training and couldn’t come.  That’s fine.  I can handle these people.  They’re not so crazy anymore.

But then, they started to get sick over the weekend.  3 yr old started having profuse eye mucus, to the point that her eyelashes were coated when she woke up in the morning.  Then, Sunday, the 9 year old started running a fever.  The 7 (almost 8) year old was having a horrendous cough/congestion/ head yuck fest happening.  Monday morning we head out with 5 kids to the school for a conference at 7:25 with the Kindergarten teacher.  Kids were great.  Kindergarten rooms are awesome with so much play stuff.  I asked the 9 yr old to monitor the 3 yr old and help out (which she probably would have done anyway).   3 yr old has done really really well with the potty training the last week or so.  She’s stayed dry all day, she started taking herself to the potty to poop!!!!  It was amazing!!!  We were confident enough to leave her in panties when leaving the house.  And then the 9 yr old walked up saying, “um, are ya’ll almost done because we have a stinky baby.”

Yep, before 8 AM I’m cleaning up a nasty poop butt in the kindergarten bathroom.  It was raining outside.  We did NOT bring in the bag of spare panties/pullup/wipes from the car because I was so confident in her skills.  So, now I’m with all the kids and a pants-less 3 yr old as we walk allllllllll the way back across the entire school to the front door.  I borrow another kid’s jacket to cover my head and get the diaper bag in the rain.  Back inside and back to all the kids and 2 more conferences.

We ran through the grocery store after the school to stock up on cough drops and other OTC meds.  Then back home.  When you have multiple kids, it seems to be a scientific impossibility for all of them to really be sick at the very same time.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  You’re able to focus on one child at a time, but as soon as one is getting better, another starts going south.  There is no rest for the mommy.  I could see patterns coming in to my email but all-stinking-day was dealing with all 5 kids with 3 of them sick.

Thank you, thank you, thank you to my wonderful clients who were wholly and completely understanding about my delay in getting to the patterns.

Tuesday, they were all home again and we headed out to the urgent care center at 8 am to get the two sickest evaluated.  We had a FABULOUS nurse practitioner who revealed that her sister had 5 kids and they recently moved so she totally loved the tiny room full of 5 kids and me.  Kids got checked, meds were ordered, and the NP was so sweet, she turned to me and said, “You’re killing this, mom!  You’re doing so great!  These are great kids.  You got this.”

I didn’t think I was walking in with a really stressed look on my face.  I wasn’t feeling too nervous, I just knew we needed to get these kids checked out.  But man, oh, man, I walked out of that office feeling like A MILLION BUCKS!!!!!!  Tuesday, I kept my computer closed.  Wednesday, two kids went to school and two sickos stayed home with the 3 year old.  I was still able to get to some patterns and that was awesome.  Today, no matter what, those kids are all going to school!!!!  There’s only the 3 year old at home with me and she’s going to have her FILL of TV today and I just don’t care.  At least I’ll get some work done.

Written April 2019

Recently, I purchased a couple of the needle holders from Furls (I’ll have affiliate links in this article). They are so cute and hold most of my needles but not the biggest needles. Maybe the biggest don’t really need a case, but I was back on the website looking for the larger size. Sold out. 🙁

The Furls homepage is a fun place, you see both pictures of their gorgeous hooks and other products, but interspersed with links are pictures for the Fun with Furls crochet alongs.

If you haven’t seen the CAL, you should really check it out. It generally alternates between accessories like a shawl, to garments, with amigurumi in between. The 5 year old was behind me while I was scrolling and she saw the finger puppets.

Then, I was making puppets. 3 of them. 20-30 minutes per puppet.  Immediately snatched up by the kids.  They’ve already lost one before I even got a picture of it!