Who is this lady? Oh, she's me

This morning as I locked the door I saw parts of myself- the keys in one hand, the coffee cup in the other, my yoga pants, my blue gym shoes, and I saw the arm of my black workout jacket; I wondered when did I become this stereotypical mom? No makeup. None- since my mom let me wear makeup I haven't even so much gone to get the mail without it. I don't wear a lot but you know I cover up the dark circles and whatnot. Lately, I wear it less and less often. I didn't fix my hair at all. I threw a headband on. Yesterday, I wore a bandana to cover up the mess. Luckily, for Jack, school drop off is just my opening the car door once I pull up to the sidewalk and saying bye as he hops out. Then I went to aerobics with my 3 other kids, got all hot and sweaty, and immediately went to the store to buy food for dinner. I will fast forward to this afternoon. I had showered by this time but only had enough energy to put on clothes-so no makeup and hair fixing occurred. My feet were cold so I put on house slippers. Can you tell where I am going with this? I was cleaning up, laundry, changing diapers, and etc. when I noticed the time. We had to pick up Pete and then pick up Jack and it was time to go like now. I grabbed the keys and got everyone in the car still wearing the house slippers. It is a sad day. This is a new low. I thought we would be going straight home, but Pete drove to the playground. I thought I would see no one I knew. I saw like 5 people I knew. For real. Pete suggested I just take the shoes off and go barefoot. So I did. Then it was time to take the boys to Tae Kwon Do and to spare all the details I will just say that I asked Jack and Luke to do one thing, Luke refused, and maybe it was partially my fault, but he ended up being like 5 minutes late for a 30 minute class. Sobs ensued- my no make-up face was not smiling. I became the mom trying to force her kid out onto the mats, threatening, and speaking loudly when quiet would have probably gotten the job done. I was all stressed. I still had to go over Jack's papers and reading for Mass with him but since we were in public and other people were around he was not pleased with me. There was eye rolling and sassing by the son. Threats by the mother--this time made quietly. Eventually, we must have come up with some sort of agreement because it got done.

I felt like apologizing for all of it to everyone. Sorry I don't wear make-up or fix my hair to drop my kid off. Sorry I went to the store all sweaty, stinky, and au naturel. Sorry I didn't take the 45 seconds to change my shoes. Sorry I helped to make my kid cry and then got mad at his tears and refusal to go to class. Sorry you heard me get mad. Sorry he heard me get mad. Sorry that lately I have no patience with the older one and his eye rolling sass. Sorry that I probably came home and took it out on my husband. Sorry that sometimes I feel like I get lost in being a mom and forget that I am more. Sorry that I am not always enough of a mom. Oh and sorry for saying sorry.

Dirty Laundry

Nothing gets done-ever. Really, we are being total slackers. Laundry seems to be a good indicator as to whether you are on top of your game or not. If you come into our house we have laundry in the washer, laundry in the dryer, folded laundry in two laundry baskets, dirty laundry in one laundry basket, and piles and piles of clothes in every single room which may or may not be dirty but will end up being washed anyway because I am not taking the time to go through it to find out, but it may not get washed for a week or two. It used to be that in order to make our mornings run a little smoother I would lay Jack's uniform out on this little hallway table so there would be no excuses. Now I wake up just in time to brush my teeth and drive him to school, in my pjs by the way, and he still isn't dressed and has no idea where his clothes are and in all honesty neither do I. They could be in the washer, the dryer, a laundry basket, in his bed, behind a chair, on the bathroom floor, or some other mysterious place. So our mornings consist of a little more frustration and yelling than they used to. I should just lay them out again but this would require my being on top of all the laundry in the house and that is really just asking too much.

People who have been around us during our PhD stint and have heard me talk about Pete's schedule know that his hours are odd and they have changed a couple times from being super early to very late, and recently they have changed again. He has 3 weeks being awake at all hours and then has 1 week that we call his sleep week. He sort of just chills out on the couch eating Reese's Peanut Butter Cups, watching tv, and catching up on the sleep he didn't get for 3 weeks. It has been an adjustment, and I am not sure that I am totally adjusted, but the boys love his sleep week. They take turns laying on the couch next to him, watching tv, playing imaginary games, telling stories, and just general relaxation with dad. It is a bit harder for me because the not doing anything sort of rubs off on the whole house-- this does not help the above problem at all. Oh well.

Last spring and summer we put Jack in every sort of sport we could. Jack had fun with all of them but none of them really held his interest. Tennis he really liked but once the weather cooled off he never mentioned it again. One thing he and his brothers always do is practice their karate-even though they are just making it all up as they go. This lead to us deciding that he and Luke should sign up for Tae Kwon Do since this is a sport they can do year round and is something they are really interested in. For the time being we are forgoing the traditional team sports and focusing on martial arts. I don't have a picture of them in their uniforms yet because I just don't, but once I do I will share.

 Thomas is by far the funniest at the moment. He just cracks me up all the time. He makes jokes, blasts random strangers, does crazy moves, tells silly stories, and the list really could just keep going. He is so funny right now. He is also really helpful. He is at that age where you can say- Hey, get me a coke from the fridge- and he does with a huge smile. Love it. When I ask Luke to get me a coke from the fridge Thomas throws a fit, I mean he is 2 after all, and I end up with two cokes because he gets me one as well. 

Luke has never been as interested in learning things the same way Jack was. However, lately he has been surprising me with the stuff that he is just picking up. He is starting to be able to write the letters in his name, prior to this he had shown no interest in writing or learning about letters at all, and then one day he wrote an L and an E and said, " These are letters in my name." It was out of the blue. Another day he was playing with his paints and he painted blue on top of yellow and it made green, since then he has been trying out other colors on top of each other to see if they can make different colors. If we tried to just verbally tell him he wouldn't remember at all, but seeing it really piqued his interest. It has been fun to watch.

Picture time-

these boys really love each other so much

This little girl continues to steal all of our hearts

Pete had a birthday and Thomas blew out his candles 

So, we had to light them again. Pete's birthday was a great family bonding day!

Jack has become a drawing machine

So cute