This Job....

This new job I have of stay at home mama is totally emotionally and physically exhausting.  Keeping up with these guys all day long and pulling them off of each other while they fight and never sitting down is just....something.  And then I try to figure out all day long how to parent and discipline them all fairly, yet each one is so much their own person that I think a lot about what is best for each one individually and how to tweak my discipline to be most effective.  I've been praying a lot for wisdom, patience, self control, and sanity.  :)  

These last couple of weeks, to be honest, I feel like it's been more chaotic than usual.  We're ready for preschool to start.  The boys are ALL OVER EACH OTHER.  All day.  Every day.  Every minute.  I'm not exaggerating.  They bite, scratch, hit with toy cars, scream.  We will just say that there is seldom a time when our time out chair is not in use.  We actually created a time out spot in each room so that when there are multiple boys in time out (this happens, yes) they all have a spot to go.  Today the main lesson we learned was that God made teeth for biting food, not brothers. 

There are certain things I find myself saying during the day to these boys that I NEVER thought I really would ever have to say.  I know they are only two, but seriously, do they have NO common sense?  Some examples include: 

• Keep your privates in your pants, and your hands out of your pants.  
• When your brother screams like that, it means he doesn't like it when you dump water over his head.
• We do not touch poop.  
• We do not smear poop on the wall.  
• We do not pee on the water gun.  
• We do not eat Purell.  
• We do not stick food to our body (you will see proof of this below).

You get the picture.  It's a funny farm over here!  While it's the most challenging job I've ever had, I love it.  It's where I need to be.  And it's getting funnier ever day as these guys have more and more (and more, and more) things to say.  A common phrase at our house is, "NO!!!  I was talking first!!"  I'm trying to teach them about interrupting, and it usually turns into them all screaming about how they were talking first.  I think I'm really getting through to them.  

Little Andrew man.  He loves tractors, cars, anything that goes.  He's the most likely to go off by himself with some cars and play for awhile.  Such a little honey.

 And Micah man.  Yes, he is naked in the backyard jumping on the trampoline.  This is the true Micah.  Not a care in the world.

 This was one of the sweetest mom moments I've had yet.  Tyler had these two stakes, and he told me he wanted to make a cross out of them.  So he/we hammered them together and he showed me where he wanted it right in the front yard.  He told me to write on it on both sides, and it should say "I love Jesus" going across, and "I love God" going down.  He decorated it with flowers that we made out of pipe cleaners, and was so so proud of it, and when I asked him what it meant to have a cross in front of your house he said, "that way everyone knows that I love God and they should too."  My biggest prayer as a mom is that the Holy Spirit just keeps on filling up these little boys' hearts.  Amazing to see Him in Tyler.

 My parents babysat for 2 hours, and I found this picture of 3 out of the 4 mostly naked in the sandbox.  :)

 My parents had a roll of carpet on a trailer and the boys and neighbor girls thought it was great!  From left:  Micah, Andrew, Tyler, Derek, Savannah, Jessi, and Naomi.

 Our sweet neighbor Susan has a great garden that the boys are SO interested in!  As you can see, they are a lot of help!

 I love when the boys are all a little sleepy yet in the mornings and they snuggle in on the couch.  Tyler always wants to snuggle with someone, and Andrew is usually the one to volunteer.  Sweeties.  Andrew, Tyler, Micah.

Proof that cooked carrots really do stick to your chest and belly.  In case you were wondering.
Tyler...

 Derek...

 I'm putting this on here for me to remember how everything in our house is either tied up with caution tape or a bungee cord, string, etc.  Here's my basket of clean clothes....tied to the staircase on one end and a knob on a kitchen drawer on the other end.  ha!  I love how little boys think!

 Tyler used his own money to buy two huge orange cones at a neighborhood rummage sale.  These are a treasure, let me tell you.

Tyler starts preschool on Monday, and he's really excited!  He's gone two mornings a week for the past two years at a preschool program run by a local church, and it was so good for him.  The little guys are starting this year, too!  It's so crazy how fast this is all coming!  They will just go two mornings a week for 2.5 hours, and Tyler goes four mornings.  I have a HUGE list of things I want to get done during those two hour windows when I have no kids.  What I really want to do is sit and drink coffee!

The little guys say they are excited, and I'm predicting Andrew and Micah will be fine going.  Derek is the most attached and most shy right now, so he'll have the hardest time with me leaving, I think.  Praying for a smooth transition there.  

Here they all are with their puppy backpacks, putting their markers and water paints in.  So so cute!!!

 Andrew, Micah, Derek