Merry Christmas Eve!!

It’s officially that time of the year again! Except this year, all the kids will be with me and The Boyfriend and that’s very exciting for me. We went a little bit overboard with the gift buying this year, though we didn’t realize this until we were sitting up until 3 AM last night wrapping presents.

We’re going over the my Mom’s tonight and spending the night to be able to open presents in the morning with my kids and my sister’s kids. It’s going to be a very crowded and probably mostly uncomfortable night, but it will most likely bring back memories of Christmas past. I’m hoping for the best!  I’m excited about getting to see my sister, and the kids are excited about getting to see their cousins. It’s too bad we don’t get to see them more…

So, wrapping presents was a total gong show! I wouldn’t say I’m the worst Christmas present wrapper in the world, but it’s definitely very frustrating. The entire time, I kept telling The Boyfriend, “Don’t think this is any reflection on my creative ability!”, because it seemed to just get harder and harder. Especially with all the odd shaped gifts we got this year, from a sort of octagonal shaped looking thing, to a completely round gift, let me tell you this, it was NOT easy! On multiple occasions, I was more than ready to throw in the towel. But, it’s all done now. I think by the time we had finished, we had wrapped 18 or some odd gifts!

The kids better be darn grateful is all I can say about that! This is going to be by far one of the best year for presents for them, they better appreciate it. Especially being that they haven’t been that appreciative of much at all this year. All night last night, I just kept thinking they didn’t deserve to be so spoiled when they haven’t been very well behaved lately. But I don’t think that’s the Christmas spirit… Too bad!

We went to the kids Christmas concert the other night, and that was a rather interesting experience. This year, they held it at a church, which I had a lot of issues with. I was so nervous about going into a church after 10ish years of not being a church. Not sure why I was nervous, but almost as soon as we pulled into the parking lot I felt incredibly nauseous. I got over it once the concert started, and hardly even noticed we were in church. I’m waiting for my Mom to send me the videos and pictures of that one, and then you bet your butt, I’ll be showing off!

We had our Christmas lunch at work on Thursday and that was awesome. It was very spur of the moment, and we ended up having Chinese food, which I really wasn’t excited about. It ended up being a much better experience than I had expected. First of all, I didn’t hate Chinese food. The smell was a little much, but I really liked the dough on the chicken balls and I love broccoli and beef. Other than that, I didn’t really try much. We did a little gift exchange where we re-gifted things we already had and then wrote hints on the cards, drew numbers for a plastic container and then one-by-one picked gifts. I landed me a pretty sweet picture of Marilyn Monroe, which I thought was pretty wicked! And now I finally have something to put up in my bathroom!!

Other than that, my week has been filled with Netflix watching (again, thanks to my Mom) and listening to The Wailin’ Jennys, who I’ve officially decided I love more than anything! I’ve even decided on the song I want playing at my funeral… But that’s for another post. I’ve been watching a heck of a lot of Mad Men lately, and so far I’m really loving it, though I kind of knew I would. I think I’m on Season 2 right now. I just started watching Huff and am impatiently awaiting Season 3 of The Big C – which is an absolutely epic show! I haven’t seen season finale’s done that good since ER!!

Well, I think that’s pretty much all I’ve got for today. Check back on the 1st for my New Year’s Resolutions and you and yours have a very Merry Christmas and absolutely Happy Holidays! From my family to yours!

New Year’s Resolutions… Already?!?!?

I’ve been thinking a lot about resolutions this year. Every year since I started having kids, I’ve always said that I’m going to make New Year’s Resolutions and every year, I end up not doing it until after the new year. The end of this year, although very tumultuous and crazy for me, has really been a great one. There’s been a lot of positives to this year end, the top of my list right now is that The Boyfriend got the promotion he was hoping for at work, I haven’t missed a rent payment in a few months, we have credits on all our bills, and both The Boyfriend and I finally got cellphones – which has been on our list of things to get for a really long time!

I figure if this year end is being so good to us, then there’s a very good chance that it will continue into the new year. I’m not counting any chickens before they hatch, but I just get this feeling that it’s going to be a wicked year. Albeit, I said 2011 was going to be a really great year, and that’s only been right over the last few months. I didn’t do anything that I had set out to do in 2011. But I plan for this year to be different. WAY different!

Now I do plan on posting a resolutions list, but that’s going to be happening closer to the new year. My biggest resolution this year is to begin blogging more often. I’ve been missing it more than you can imagine lately. I’m not sure where I lost that spark, or where it went to for that while there. I am determined to get it back. My goal is to blog everyday for January and if that works out, I really want to continue it. It’ll be made even easier by the fact that I can now blog from my phone while I’m at work (bored out of my skull!).

I’ve got tons of blogging-related goals and only a few real-time goals… Kind of odd 😉

In other news…

The kids have been major pains in the butts lately. Between Kaeidyn and Kenzie’s outrageous attitudes and Keirnan and Carter’s never-ending energy, there have been many days where I am just about ready to throw in the towel. Kaeidyn’s biggest issue right now is believing that the whole world is against her and everything is unfair. It’s unfair that she only gets to spend one night a week at Grandma’s, while the boys get to go there everyday to be babysat. It’s unfair that she doesn’t get her hair curled or make-up put on before school. It’s unfair that she has to wear pants when it’s cold outside because she would really rather wear a skirt. Every day it seems like we have an argument about whether or not the world is being fair to her.

Kenzie’s been talking back in the worst way possible. I have tried just about every disciplinary technique that I know of, and nothing seems to be quelching that fire. Today was probably one of the worst days in his talking back history. The boys had made a mess of the couch and I said, “Look what you’re doing?!?” and he got right up in my face and in this snobby voice replied, “Look, look!”, like some cocky teenager. I was taken aback by it, to say the least. I need to figure something out there, but most of the time, I’m just so shocked that my response time is a little weak.

I’ve been working really hard on getting certain areas of the house clean, but it seems like no matter how much work I do, by the next day it’s right back to where it was. The housework is just getting out of my hands now and most of the day I spend very frustrated by the overwhelming stress of this mess. I want to start from scratch so bad!

I can’t wait for Christmas this year! We actually got the kids some really amazing gifts and for the first time in years, we’re having a family Christmas dinner at my Mom’s. My sister and her kids and my brother will all be there. It’ll be just like the old days, in a way and I think it’ll be very nice. *crosses fingers*

Well, I think I’m done for the night. It was really great writing again. Have a great night to you all and Happy Holidays from my family to yours!

I’m Too Young to Feel Old…

So, I promised I’d post something and I think it’s time…

I am officially going on record to say that it is damn hard trying to raise a family in any sort of constructive manner while working closer to full-time. A lot has gone on in the last few weeks job-wise and it’s being a major adjustment for everyone and now, my stress levels are through the roof.

First, at my job, we’ve moved into a new office. It’s been a major transition already, what with my original boss quitting and gaining a new one, that I’m not very comfortable with. We haven’t found a flow that works for us, and work is often this major battle to go to every single day.

They’ve officially asked me to start working 6 hours a day, Monday to Friday. I’ve kind of just been leaving when I’m all done my work, since I was originally hired on as part-time. I’ve been asked to stay later essentially to babysit my boss – which is great, because it means that they trust me enough to babysit a grown man, but it’s sucky too because now I’ll have to spend even longer on a day-to-day basis with a job I’m quickly falling out of love with.

The Boyfriend has gotten promoted to backroom manager and that’s been really great for him. Albeit, he stresses out a lot about work and takes his job very seriously, it’s nice that he’s getting to where he wants to be. Where he’s been working so hard on getting. I’m really insanely proud of him and happy for him. It’s nice to finally be with a guy who looks like he has a future in the job market.

But it’s put a huge strain on our home life. Nothing that’s really affecting anything right now, but I forsee it. As it was, he was working hard enough before that he was exhausted by the time he got home from work. Now, he comes home and he just wants to veg. Which would be fine and dandy, if we didn’t have 4 kids destroying the house all day…

Which brings us to the entire point of this entry…

These darn kids, I’m telling you, are aging me at a great speed. Today has made me feel like a little old woman, trapped in a little old shoe! It’s a darn good thing that I’m not the type of Mom who got all uppity and rushed my kids to the hospital every time they fell down, or this weekend would already have more than one trip. The kids are just not getting a long lately.

Carter is at this horrible stage where he’s constantly instigating fights with the other kids. And he’s a tough little guy, and will fight back quite hard. He’s still not stronger than the other kids, though he puts in a mighty effort, which often results in him getting hurt. Yesterday, as they were all play fighting on the bed – something that is at least a twice-a-day occurence, Carter got kicked in the back and bounced off a wall, causing his lip to begin bleeding. He takes it like such a champ, crying until he gets cuddles and then jumping in for more!

This morning, as they were all play-fighting again, somehow Carter got nail polish dumped in his eye. This was after they painted everyone’s nails, plus a couple toys… They pull each other’s hair upstairs and steal each other’s toys and the constant screaming that goes on is making me go deaf in one ear. I feel like I’ve had a permanent headache for days now, and Tylenol just isn’t cutting it anymore.

It’s become so intense being a mom of four. I know you’re all saying what everyone always says, “Well, what did you expect it was going to be like?!?”… I don’t know what I expected it to be like. I knew it was going to be hard, and I knew it was going to be this all encompassing permanent roller coaster. I honestly don’t know what I was thinking when I got pregnant. What can I say? Sometimes, I think, if I could go back and do it over again, I would. Other times, that doesn’t fit into what I want to be. I don’t want to be the type of person who has regrets and is thinking about how much greener the grass is on the other side. I don’t want that to be me. But sometimes, that part just sneaks out.

I know to get things to settle down with the kids and life in general, I need to take some serious steps to make that happen. Things that I’ve dipped my toes into the water with, but never got all the way in. But it all seems so out of reach and so impossible. Like creating a routine. Getting up at the same time of day, every day and making the kids 3 meals a day everyday. Doing more activities with them and creating more boundaries and rules and disciplinary actions that are consistent. I know what I have to do, but for some reason, I can’t make it work.

Creating a routine has to be the absolute hardest for me. Making myself do the dishes every day, getting the energy up to clean once a day, keeping organized enough to remember where the kids newsletters from school got put. The simplest of things seem to be like a huge feat for me. Most of the time, I don’t even think about it. It doesn’t even cross my mind that those simple things would help tremendously, but when it does cross my mind, it feels like it did when I was bogged down by depression.

No matter how much I want to be motivated, I can’t seem to force myself to be. When I was depressed, no matter how hard I fought to just get out of bed in the morning, it was like this huge weight was holding me back from getting up. And while I wouldn’t say that I feel depressed, I definitely feel like something’s holding me back.

Pardon my lack of grammar in this post…

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I know it’s been awhile since I wrote, and I have a couple comments to reply to, and I’m sorry that I haven’t yet. It’s been a little crazy here, but as soon as I get a chance, I will write again and reply to comments. Thanks to everyone who has commented – you know who you are!

Be back soon!