Don't want to give the wrong picture

You know, I was thinking about the way I write on my blog last night while I wasn't sleeping (insomnia). I feel like I've been so "roses and sunshine" the last few months that people might think I'm portraying my life as ALL roses and sunshine. I've certainly shared my portion of struggles on this blog, but I think recently the good has so much outweighed the bad that at the end of the day the bad sort of melts away. Still, in the spirit of fairness, let me vent about the not so sunshiney things in my life! =-)

SCREAMING! Oh my word our house is so LOUD! Seriously, the volume level is driving us crazy. There is something about the combination of these four kids at these ages that causes them to combine for a humongous sound. There are nights when Eric and I cannot wait for bedtime so that we can hear ourselves think. There have been more than a few times when Eric has screamed "QUIET NOW!!!!!" Or I've screamed "SHUT IT UP!" Kind of stupid to scream when the problem is loudness! When one child is gone, it goes back to relative quiet. It's the weirdest thing.

POOP! I have a four year old who refuses to poop in the toilet. I don't know what Bright's hangup is about this, but there is some issue here. He's not afraid of the toilet. He goes in it sometimes. But it's random. And most of the time he ends up waiting until he's up in his room for a nap or nighttime, and then he poops. And he only poops 1 or 2 times a week (TMI) so they are HUMONGOUS. He's not constipated though. It's drives me crazy. But I've never heard of someone taking their kids to the doctor because he refuses to poop in the toilet and has huge poops.

MY DAUGHTER PARENTS HER YOUNGER SIBLINGS. Yes, I'm admitting it. I know this is like the carnal sin of having a "larger" family. But I've got a daughter who adores nurturing and care taking, and she has a mother who is sometimes incredibly busy with work or another child. Taevy changes diapers. She picks out the clothes for Kendi pretty much every day. She loves to make lunch for all of them every day, and I let her! She also wants to be a teacher and LOVES to make a "lesson plan" for the littles "school" each day. She learns to be a good teacher while she teachers them (no quotes because she REALLY teaches them), and she makes some pretty darn good lesson plans for preschool. Today I worked while Taevy read to the other three about the origins of the Christmas tree. Then she led the craft activity in which they took ice cream cones, frosted them, and then put candies on them to make little Christmas trees. I am *SO* blessed by Taevy. And she volunteers most of what she does for her siblings. But no joke--she makes my life a lot easier. That's the truth.

Kendi ate hers too fast. So you just get a frosting face!

KENDI IS SPOILED ROTTEN! You would think after three months the diva would be a little less diva-ish. And I suppose she is. But I'm telling you this child throws screaming throw down fits 50 times a day (no exaggeration there). She is so LOUD when she throws a fit. And she throws fits for reasons that are tiny. She throws a fit because it's cold outside. She throws a fit because nobody helps her put on her hat--and then because someone comes to help her put on her hat! It's funny when she's sleeping or when I'm writing about it, but in the moment I just want to give her a good swat and put her in time out! LOL! This TWO shall pass...

MY HOUSE IS DIRTY: No, like really dirty. When I start cleaning my kids ask who is coming over! You only see the tip of the ice burg in the background of the photos I put up. I haven't done laundry yet this week. And it stinks in there! We won't even talk about my aversion to cleaning bathrooms. Nuff said. Our backyard...well that's even worse than the bathrooms. We actually had neighborhood kids come over and leave because they said our backyard was the messiest backyard they have ever seen. It's true. I've given it over to kids and dogs. It's their domain! I rarely get my life organized enough to look back there and see that the dogs have chewed up half of the kids' toys that were left outside by accident.

WE ARE REALLY SICK OF HAVING A GOOD ATTITUDE ABOUT THE KIDNEY TRANSPLANT. Enough already. It's been 2.5 years. The average wait in our area is 12-18 months. We've been at the top of the list for 4 months now. Please Lord, just give Eric a kidney already! We don't feel patient. We are thankful for dialysis, but being on dialysis really sucks! It's awful. It's painful. My husband carries 2-3 liters of liquid in his abdomen ALL THE TIME, which makes him looks 6 months pregnant (and lowers his self esteem). It's not good for the bedroom relationship. He can't pick up our kids. WE JUST WANT A KIDNEY! [We're all leaving Tulsa are for the first time in six months to go to Wichita for Christmas. No doubt the call will come then.] ;-)

WE DON'T ALWAYS WATCH OUR KIDS CLOSELY ENOUGH: Bright has gone to the emergency room because he ate 8 immodiums. Countless walls with marker and pencil and mascara drawings. Toilets stuffed with legos. Sinks clogged with beads. Samren once took is passport to school for show and tell (got into the important documents to snatch it and we didn't know--found his passport in his backpack who knows how many weeks later). I could go on...

Kendi did this tonight SIX INCHES in front of Eric's face--literally. He had is eyes closed because he was tired. I was writing this post! This is Kendi's hair growth gel stuff. We washed her hair with Dawn (the stuff they use to get oil out of duck feathers after an oil spill!) for 15 minutes and she still went to bed VERY greasy!

IT'S DECEMBER 3RD AND THERE ARE NO LIGHTS ON THE TREE. The decorations are finally up (sans lights). But the tree is naked. I've never gotten this far into December without having my tree up. This says something about the chaos in my life right now. =-) But isn't my Ghana nativity so pretty?!There. How's that for a little view into the not so perfect stuff? LOL! I could go on but I don't want to shock you TOO much. You still love me, don't you?! Now you see my pictures in a different light, right?!

Anita