Category: Jenni’s Ramblings

• Being able to walk into a room and sit down on a couch without moving things out of the way first.
• Step into the shower without stepping on a Lego
• 4 hours of sleep IN A ROW
• Car seats that buckle themselves

I will post more as I think of them…

Since I feel like I am spending way too much time doing NOTHING (AKA sitting on the couch nursing, walking the baby, etc… although those DO count as work!) I decided to keep a list today of the things I did get done.

Yes I just need to feel like a productive individual today. Yesterday was a rough one, Lily cried through mass (Sunday evening) after fussing all afternoon. I had Jay pick up dinner on the way home because I as starving (hadn’t eaten any lunch since I had been juggling said baby all day), then he held her while I ate, and then he cleaned up dinner and the kitchen and got the rest of the kids ready for bed… while I juggled Miss Fuss some more, then he gave me a backrub. 😉 All this after he had sung three masses and worked about 2 hours on his CD.

So by 12:30pm this is what I had done today –

Got up/ got kids up/got ready for the day
made cream of wheat
did Tessa’s hair
took kids to school
changed diapers – 5 so far
nursed Lily – 6 so far
collected empty hangers – 3 bedrooms
brought down laundry
loads washed – 2
loads folded/hung – 2(saturday’s laundry)
cleaned (disgusting!) sliding glass door
got Max and Lily dressed
cleaned sink in downstairs bath
made bed
load/start dishwasher, wiped counters
took kids for short walk (when will it not be hot?)
heated soup, ate lunch
read a book to Max
put littles down for naps

I guess I do get a few things done.

… as if I needed more reasons.

One of the things on my list today was razor refills for James (Yes, he shaves now!) so, obviously I go to the aisle labeled SHAVING that has a lot of shaving equipment in it. I hunt high and low, there are a million kinds of disposable razors, plug-in electric razors, but no refills for standard razors. I shop around a bit and return to the aisle thinking that I MUST have missed it, since there is NO OTHER AREA IN THE STORE LABELED “SHAVING”.

But luckily there was an employee there stocking the shelves and I asked her where the Fusion Razor refill might be.

“Oh, those are in checkout aisle 15.”

DUH. Why not?

Another thing on the list was a flashlight. There are NO flashlights in the tool section, or even in the lightbulb or lamp section. Luckily, I figured this one out on my own. ALL flashlights are in the CAMPING section. I was so proud of myself for deciphering the Wal-mart Code of Hiding Merchandise on this one.

Yesterday I had to run to the grocery store to deposit a check at the bank and pick up some dinner. When I arrived the parking lot was littered with carts (no corrals right now the lot is under construction) but I wasn’t about to grab a cart from outside lest I burn my hands. (AZ sun…)

So I walked into the store… NO CARTS ANYWHERE. Humph, fine, I will get my bare minimum stuff and go. I got toothpaste, mac-n-cheese, and smoked sausage. I did NOT get the watermelon that was calling my name because there was no way I could carry it out to the car – or even to the checkstand – without hurting my hugely pregnant self.

I took my stuff up. The cashier, who was about 12 years old, I swear, brightly asked, “Did you find everything you need?” I said, “sure, except for CARTS. You might want to call for someone to do a round up.”

Her (vapid, vacant) response?

“Oh yeah. The guy who was supposed to get the carts didn’t come in today so we are all trying to figure out what to do about it.”

Um, how about send someone ELSE out to get the carts????

(Just so you know, they were not understaffed. There were several checkstands open and several people stocking shelves around the store, some of whom were actually just standing around.)

Oh well, it is my least favorite grocery store anyway.

but when I (a very round pregnant woman with several small children in tow) walk into a hardware store, I want a kindly gentleman to meet me right away, so I can dump the broken pieces of *whatever it is* into his hands and say, “I need the stuff to fix *this*.” Then he shows me where it is, I buy it and bring it home to figure it out or let Jay figure it out.

Hardware stores are categorized like men’s minds, not women’s. I can never find a darn thing no matter how many signs are up.

Now Target on the other hand fits my brain just perfectly and I can whizz through in a flash and get everything that Jay couldn’t find.

Walmart, however, is completely random and annoying.

why I can’t remember ANYTHING.

It’s because there are just too many things to remember:
-the last time my toddler pooped
-each child’s birthday, age, height and weight (stupid insurance forms!)
-when each of my two kids with jobs works next, what time they get off and what their weekend plans are.
-what my husband is up to and needs me to do
-the activities of every other child around here
-who walked at what age and when they cut their first tooth, etc.
-does the car need gas?
-the chores I need to do most importantly
-whose birthday is coming up next, including friends and extended family
-etc.

And sometimes I even need to remember that I, too, need to use the bathroom on occasion. And THAT, folks, is why things slip through the in my addled brain. My brain has so much thrown at it that it often can’t decide what the important bits of information are. So when I forgot the other day to take Ben to his friend’ slumber party until two hours later and got home from finally delivering him there to find my 17 year old daughter incensed at me because she was supposed to be at work RIGHT THEN (5pm) instead of at 7pm like the idea had somehow pegged itself in my mind… is it really all my fault?

Sideshow Jen here, reporting in with the gobstopping idea of having a seventh child.

Last Friday at a party I was in a group of women and one asked me if we knew the gender of this baby yet. I told her yes, it is a girl. She just said, “Wow, you’ve kept up this boy girl boy girl thing really well!” Another mom standing somewhat within the conversation said, “Wait, did I just hear that right? You have *FOUR* children?”

Um no, I told her, we are having our seventh. I swear to God it fried her brain, right there and then.

I don’t want any more comments. When people ask me if this is my first, I just answer no. I don’t offer any more information than that. No, it’s not my first. That does, in fact answer the question they asked, right?

Maybe I am just feeling grouchy tonight because this week I have had several people find out this is number seven and proceed to tell me how THEY would NEVER do THAT. X number of kids is PLENTY for them. It’s not the statement itself that bugs me; it’s how they speak about their children, often right in front of them, as if they are just so awful that having them around convinced them it wasn’t a good idea to keep going.

Oversensitive? Jumping to conclusions? Yes, I fully admit it. I honestly do try to give these people the benefit of the doubt. Having a large family is not for everyone. And I am no saint for doing it. It is just that this same scenario plays itself over and over. I probably was that person at one time. If you got me on an overwhelming day when I felt like I was swimming full speed up stream and only losing ground… some days I still feel like that. But aren’t our children ALWAYS gifts to us? Even on horrible days, I don’t think that idea ever gets too far away from me. What if, God forbid, one was taken from me? I had a nightmare about that very thing just the other day and it chilled me to the bone.

I have a large family because each time it seemed like there was room in our hearts and family for one more. That’s all really, nothing saintly or mind boggling.

(And yes, we are Catholic, and believe strongly in the Church’s teachings on and birth control, but that does not automatically equal a large family.)

Jay and I had a lovely escape to Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. One of the little booklets in our hotels room had us rolling with laughter. Yes, I suppose we are easy to entertain, but this little restaurant review booklet was hilarious. Whoever wrote it was heavily addicted to quotation marks. Here are a couple of examples:

Olives

The terrace view “overlooking the water show” is “nothing short of magnificent”, though a seat in the now-“more-open” interior of Todd English’s “remodeled” Mediterranean is no booby prize; this Bellagio outpost offers “original tastes, skillfully prepared”, so “you can’t go wrong for lunch” featuring “wonderful appetizers, salads and pizzas”, sided by “delicious olive tapenade”, bolstered by a “wicked-good tail” and chased by a “chocolate fallen cake that will lift anyone’s spirits” – even if the service is “sloooow.”

Blackstone’s Steakhouse

“When you want to be part of the old boys’ network”, sink into a “high-backed armchair” or “deep booth” at this “dark”, “red” beefery in the Monte Carlo on the Strip, have an “excellent” waiter bring you the “stellar wine list”, an “incredible T-bone” or “fantastic prime rib” and enjoy a “quiet”, “classic” meal; the only diners “disappointed” here are the ones “who order fish.”

I would type out some more but my quotation mark key is starting to cry.

I should note however that this booklet has 88 entries, almost all of which have random quotes throw all over them. I did find two entries that inexplicably didn’t have any quotes at all though – must have been a fluke.