Controlled Chaos

Ever taken 15 five year olds bowling for the afternoon?

Me being the best mom ever, (I like to sing my own praise) took all of Ava's friends from school to Stillwater Bowl today for her birthday party. Now I was not thinking that this was going to be an easy task by any means, but I thought it would not be THAT bad.

It pretty much entailed 2 hours of screaming, running up and down the bowling alley, and occasionally throwing a ball down the lane to hit a few pins over. When the bowling part ended, I thought things would calm down a bit as Ava opened her presents. WRONG. All the kids crowded around her and opened her presents for her. It seemed like at one point three different girls were opening three different presents. Wrapping paper, tissue paper, cards and presents were being thrown in every direction, and no one was listening when I asked for people to sit and calm down. No kidding.

I finally just sat back and watched in amazement, wondering to myself how I could not control this group of 5 year olds. Come on, I have four of my own, you would think I would be experienced in controlling chaotic situations. Not the case here.

We are home now, decompressing, and all I can think to say as I look back at the crazy afternoon is....

HOLY CRAP.

I Surprise Myself Sometimes

The kids asked me out of the blue yesterday if we could make a cake for Daddy. I was very surprised as they never ask me to bake anything. There are two reasons why I am assuming they do not ask me to teach them how to do this ever so domestic task....

1.) They get their need to bake out of their systems when they go to grandma and papa's house on Tuesdays. Grandma bakes cookies, cakes, rice krispy bars, and all that yummy stuff with them, and they love it. She is good like that.

2.) They have in the past seen my attempt at baking and know I am horrible at it. I really mean it when I say horrible. No jokes here - let me explain....

My first attempt at baking was way before marriage, kids and all that jazz. I was still comfortably living at home in my late teens, enjoying life to the fullest when I thought it would be nice to cook dinner for my mom and family to show my appreciation for all she had done for me. Well, my mom being my mom, said that was such a nice offer, and that she would make the main course if I took care of making the buscuits. This does not seem like a very hard task, right? Simply read the directions on the back of the box, mix all ingredients, pour into cup cake molds and bake. Voila! Ummm... not the case. I swear I followed the directions to the Tee, but when I went to serve them, they were a bit... let's just say - hard. So hard you could not even bite into them. So hard, in fact, my brother equated them to being as hard as a hockey puck. Needless to say, they were thrown into the garbage can, and that was the last time I ever tried making biscuits again.

After this incident, I did not do too much baking of any kind as I figured I just was not that great at it. But then I got married, had kids, and thought I would give it another try. I have (since Ava was born) tried numerous times to make cakes for birthdays, cookies for Christmas, etc all with disastrous outcomes. I figured it must be because I was trying to accomplish these tasks from scratch,and from scratch can be very difficult - at least in my mind. SO, I decided to switch it up and bake only pre-made items, you know, box cake mixes, pre-made cookies found in the refrigerator section at the grocery store, that kind of stuff. If you can believe it, I managed to mess those up as well. I would burn the cake, not cook it well enough, not mix the batter well enough - Oh the things I would do wrong were endless. Not to mention the frustration level I would reach in trying to understand why I could not accomplish the simplest of tasks like turning on the oven, putting pre-made cookies on a cookie sheet, and baking them all without having an end result of throwing them in the garbage can.

SO, I decided to admit defeat, and just succumb to the fact that baking was not one of my strong suits. Yes folks, I hung up my apron, put away my expensive KitchenAid mixer and called it quits.

UNTIL Yesterday when the kids (as I mentioned earlier) asked to bake Daddy a cake. I cautiously agreed, and went to the store to buy the items needed in order to do so. Boxed cake mix, frosting, and heart shaped cake mold.

With a deep breath, I pulled out my apron, my KithenAid mixer, and started to make the cake. I let the kids crack the eggs and they managed to not get one piece of the egg shell in the bowl. I have to say Bravo to Grandma as she is the only one who could have possibly taught them how to properly crack an egg. They each got a crack at mixing the batter, and at the end of it all I let them lick the spoon and the bowl. This was always my favorite part of baking with my mom, so I had to let them have at it, and did they ever have at it!

Lucas licking the chocolate off the Spatula.

Ava scraping the bottom of the pan with the spatula to get every last lick of chocolate....

Looks of contentment, and messy faces, after licking the bowl clean

After mixing was complete, we poured the yummy batter into the cute heart shaped mold and baked. So far so good, no disasters yet!! Maybe Mom wouldn't mess this one up - the kids could barely contain their excitement...

My nerves started to get the best of me as the cake was in the oven. I was thinking back to all my past screw ups, and the disappointment on the kids faces when we had to throw whatever it was we were baking at the time in the garbage. I told myself this was not going to happen this time. We were going to be successful in our pursuit to make a perfect chocolate heart shaped cake for Daddy - And if you can believe it, we were!!!! It turned out perfectly - the kids were happy, and Daddy was happy that they baked such a special cake for him.

It turns out I may just have to take that KitchenAid Mixer out of storage for good, and hang that apron back up on the hook in the kitchen.

Look out people, Maria can bake!!

25 Things About Me

This thing called "25 things about me" has been floating around Facebook now for a while. It is a forward type thing, you know, the annoying ones you most often find in your inbox from friends who don't understand how annoying they are? But this one actually caught my attention and seemed worth taking part in. You simply write 25 things about yourself - dreams, aspirations, habits good/bad, etc and then send your list to 25 people who in turn make a list and send theirs out to 25 people, etc, etc.

It was really fun for me to sit and come up this list as it brought up many fun memories, and got me thinking about things I need to work on and change in my life.

So, without further ado, here is my list:

1.) I started out college at St. Cloud State University, but came back home to go to school after only two semesters as I was partying way too much and not studying enough. :)

2.) I LOVE to sleep - it is my favorite thing ever.

3.) I am a hypochondriac. Not the run to the emergency room every day kind, but the tell me the symptoms of a disease/illness and I will have it two days later kind.

4.) I love watching my kids sleep - there is something so peaceful and sweet about it.

5.) I just recently had braces and now that I have them off I am loving the way my teeth look. What a difference!

6.) I wear retainers on my upper and lower teeth every night while I sleep, and will for the rest of my life.

7.) I have a Diet Coke for breakfast each morning, can't go without it.

8.) I just recently started this blog to journal about the kids/life, and am loving every minute of it.

9.) I love to write and find it very cathartic.

10.) I am not a very patient person.

11.) I loved being pregnant with all four of my kids. There is nothing sweeter than feeling a baby kick and move around in your tummy.

12.)My mom and dad got divorced when I was in gradeschool and my relationship with my dad has been distant ever since. I wish I could change that....

13.) Anthony and Olivia have never met their grandpa (my dad) and I think that is so very sad.

14.) I played soccer all throughout gradeschool and highschool and I so miss playing.

15.) I want to start to work out and eat healthier but I am just too lazy.

16.) Every night before I go to sleep I go into every one of my babies bedrooms and put my finger under their nose to make sure they are breathing. (I am crazy, I know).

17.) I spoil Olivia like crazy. I think it is because I know she is our last baby and I just can't stand it!!

18.) I love the smell of babies breath.

19.) When I married Brian I did not think it was physically possible to love him anymore than I did at that time. I was wrong....

20.) I used to go to Summer camp when I was a kid and would cry the majority of the time as I missed my mom.

21.) I worry too much.

22.) I love to shop, if I were rich, I think I would be out at the Mall every day!

23.) I love purses - my absolute favorite thing to buy.

24.) I hated every minute of my labor with all four kids as the pain was soooo overwhelming. But once I held them, the pain was forgotten.

25.) I hate clutter and messes. I spend much of my time walking around behind the kids and Brian cleaning up after them!

Now it's your turn, go ahead, make a list.

Am I possibly becoming one?

Nah.....I guess I just need a moment to air my frustrations - actually, that is putting it nicely. To be more direct, I need a moment to bitch.

I promised myself when I started this blog that I would not spend the greater amount of my time on here complaining. Not that I have a lot to complain about, but let's face it, life with 4 kids ages 6 and under, and a husband who tends to work ungodly hours is not always peaches and cream.

Keeping up with things seems virtually impossible, and most days I am able to keep it all together, but today all I can say is AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! (That was my attempt at screaming via my blog.)

And so the airing of frustations starts, AKA: bitching.....

I cannot believe that we STILL have garbage overflowing in our garage from after Christmas. We have a family of 6, so you can only imagine how much garbage we accumulate during a normal week. This said garbage takes up all the room in the garbage can,

so on special events where it seems to pile up, i.e. birthday parties, Christmas, we need to get rid of it elsewhere. This is where Brian comes in - or is supposed to. Christmas was 1 month ago and there the garbage still sits. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Next: the laundry in our house is OUT OF CONTROL!! Most days I simply feel like weeping. Really.

No sooner do I wash, dry and fold a load, and there is another load waiting for me to be folded.

I can't keep up with it no matter what I do. AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!

Next: We started our backentry way project a year ago in November, and it is STILL not done. We managed to tile, get a sink and toilet in the bathroom, and a washer and dryer in the laundry room all within 1 year. That is it. No finishing work has been done, our built-ins that were going to house all the kids shoes, coats and backpacks has not even started being built. As a result, this is what our back entry looks like on a daily basis.

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!

Most frustrating of all is that I am the only one in this household who seems to really care about all these unfinished projects, stacks and stacks of laundry, and garbage piling everywhere. The kids are too young to care, and my husband is at work too much to be home long enough to let it actually bother him.

There is only one thing for me to do, at least for the time being, that being the next 15 years until the kids are old enough to care and my husband may not work so much..... and that is admit defeat.

Wait for it........

AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH!!!!!

Game Play in the Shelton House

It is rare that I pull out any sort of game for the kids to play. Whether it be Chutes N'Ladders, Candy Land, or Memory the game always seems to end in me breaking up a big fight. The frequent complaints are: "Ava was cheating!" "Anthony is not playing right!" or "Lucas is crying!" It all just drives me wild and I just don't want to deal with it, so this is why I tend to not offer these games up for something to do to pass time.

Well, today was a crazy day, we had all been in the house since noon on Friday, and Cabin fever was slowly setting in. The kids were tired of cartoons, video games, playing legos, Star Wars guys... you get the idea. So I did what I do not like to do unless in emergency situations - I opened up the cabinet that holds all of our board games, puzzles, and craft stuff and told the kids to pick out something to play.

Ava immediately went for Memory, and surprisingly enough Lucas and Anthony did not object. Wow. This was a good start - maybe we could get through a whole game start to finish without a fight.

Wishful thinking, right?

To my delight, Livi Grace was sitting peacefully chewing on some memory cards that the kids decided not to add to their game play. She was oblivious to what was about to unfold just a few feet away from her where her sister and brothers were playing a rousing game of Memory.

I braced myself as they got their game underway, and of course it started....

We were not 5 minutes into the game when Ava ripped a card out of Anthony's hand and started yelling that Anthony was not playing right. Which in turn, resulted in Anthony starting to cry.

Her observations were correct - when I looked over to see what Anthony was doing he was simply picking up every card trying to find the match for the bike. Obviously not the right way to play, but he is not even 3 yet so what does she expect. Well, she is only 6 so I can see why she does not understand that he is not old enough to understand how to play.

Is your head spinning yet?

Then Ava decided to skip Lucas's turn and go in his place. Lucas, in turn started crying.

As you have probably noticed from my commentary, Ava is not the most patient 6 year old on the planet - she can't wait for Anthony and Lucas to go before it is her turn again. This is simply too much waiting for her so she tends to decide when she wants her turn and takes it.

This is when I threw in the towel and ended the game, as always. Finally, to round it all out, Ava started crying.

So much for thinking we could get through an entire game without a melt down or a fight.

Maybe next time, right? I can always hope...

Why not share, right?

Sharing is good.

So when I originally started this blog I had it open to the general public - anyone could read it. After some thought, I decided to make it private and only let family, and close friends read it as I thought my blog was of a personal nature and I did not think I wanted every Tom, Dick and Harry reading it.

Alright, I have to interrupt for a moment and say... "Tom, Dick and Harry" - nice, right? My gosh, as I get older I find myself saying more and more of those ridiculous sayings my mom used to say when I was a kid that drove me nuts. Ugh.

Back to my point... So since I have made it private I have had some not so computer savy people (you know who you are) find it difficult to get into my blog. I want family and friends to be able to read my blog without having troubles getting into it each day or at all for that matter, so I have decided to make it public, open to all of cyberspace. Again.

I figure what the heck, strangers may come across this blog and find it boring, or they may come across it and end up loving it. You never know....

So why not share?

My Ava Marie

Wow... I can't believe that you are turning six today. It seems like just yesterday that I was in the hospital having you. Boy was that a day to remember! I was in labor with you for over 30 hours, and pushed for 3 hours until you finally made your debut into this wonderful world. Daddy and I were just thrilled to finally have a baby girl to call our own. You were just beautiful.

Soon after we got you home we realized that you sure liked to cry a lot! You cried so much I asked Dr. Morrisey what was wrong. It turned out that you were a colicky baby, and just constantly had a bad tummy ache. Ouch! Needless to say, Mommy did not get much sleep the first three months of your life, but that was alright. We loved you so very much it really did not matter. Once you turned 3 months old you were an angel - No more tummy aches!

It has been such a joy to watch you grow over the last six years my Ava Marie. You are such a good little girl who is so very loved by your mommy and daddy for so many reasons.

The things I love about you are endless....

I love that you are so strong willed. You know what you want and you know how to get it - even though right now the things you want are simple- like a toy your brother has, or your favorite show What I like about you on instead of the Star Wars the boys like to watch. I know one day your wants will be much bigger and more important, and I am so happy to know that you already have the ability to get attain them. Because my Ava Marie, you deserve everything you want and more in this world.

I love that you take such great care of your brothers and sister. You love to help me feed Olivia, and hold her when I need to get things done around the house. You will sit happily on the floor with Livi for hours playing and showing her how to play with her toys. You teach your brothers how to do things that they have yet to learn how to do, AND you are patient with them all the while.

I love that you are so loving and that you care for others so much. I remember how much your best friend Ben at school just loved you. His Mommy told me one day that he said that he liked you so much because you were never ever mean to him like some of the other kids in class were. I was so very proud to hear this.

I just love that you are growing up and wanting to help me with things around the house. Lord knows I can use all the help I can get! You help put your own laundry away now, and you pick up the playroom at the end of the day when I tell you it needs picking up. You even went as far as to ask to help scrub the toilet the other day. This job we will leave to mom only as it is yucky!! These are just a few examples of what a helpful little girl you are - I am simply amazed at all the things you are able to do now that you are 6!!

Lastly, I love spending time together just you and I. Tuesdays afternoons is our special time to have some one on one time without your brothers or sister there to take my attention away. We go for drives and I let you sit in the front seat with me which is SO exciting for you. I love all the fun conversations we have on those drives. Sometimes we go shopping which I think is our favorite thing to do together. You take after me in the shopping catergory - you want everything you set your eyes on and can't seem to choose just one thing. Sometimes we simply stay home, snuggle up on the couch and watch T.V. together. Whatever it is we end up doing, I love every single moment.

But most of all, and most importantly, I simply love that you are you, my first born, my Ava Marie. Happy, Happy Birthday!

Mommy loves....