zzzzzzzzzzzz...mom....mom....moooooommmmmyyy

It's been 14 years since I have had a full nights sleep...what an awful reality! Finally it's starting to catch up with me as I am so tired this week I could fall asleep standing up. Lately the youngest has taken to playing "midnight visitor" with me...of course that's just the time it starts...as I escort him back to bed every hour or so reminding him that "we are sleeping, it's night, I will see you in the morning" only to hit the pillow and within minutes hear the pitter patter of feet and feel the warm, stinko breath of an 8yr old in my face...ugh!

Meanwhile...the beloved snores next to me...oblivious to all around him, only to wake in the morning and go "hey Gavin slept through the night..isnt' that great" and then I punch him dead in the face.

No no no, not really, I don't do that...but boy howdy am I thinking it!!! So maybe the sand man will take pity on me and dump a truck load of the sleepy sand on Gavin and maybe I'll only get one or two "mommy..you sleep with me" requests. I think these are the joys of parenthood they speak of in all those expert parenting books. oh that and poop being smeared on walls.....that's a joy too.

Ritalin...the musical

Note my desperate attempt in this picture to keep my son from attacking and killing Marvin the Martain for whom he had a personal vendetta against...this was 24 hours ago...pre Ritalin. Horrors! My life had become unlivable as I watched my poor kid try to maintain some sort of sanity while his brain was being fueled by high octaine signals. We had gotten to the point where I couldn't be alone with him because he would attack me, biting, scratchin, hitting. He would run full force from one activity to another, never staying more than 2 seconds and then throwing the said toy across the room. He wouldn't stay buckled up in the car and would scream like someone was murdering him....charming no?

My son has isodicentric 15. A duplication of chromosone 15. No, you can't remove the extra bits...and yes I did ask. This duplication can cause epilpesy, ADHD, and autism. We got blessed with all 3.

Today, finally, his neurolgy team listened to my desperate plea to help him, me and his siblings. Today we started Ritalin. I cannot tell you the marvelous change in him. He is calm, nobody has been hit all day, he is talking in nice conversations, he is playing on his own and with his brothers....wow....wow wow wow!

Don't judge! I've tried changing his diet, chiropractics, chanting, drumming, horse back riding therapy. I didn't just say "give me the drugs dammit" but now that i see how much happier he is with a calm brain...i kick myself for not doing this sooner. I cried a little today for the loss of the turbo charged kid I've known for the last few years but said hello to the little guy asking me to sit and play trains with him...and I did so without having to resort to ninja like moves to avoid a wicked hair pulling :)

Baby Diva....not so much a baby anymore

So tonight I dropped off my beloved little girl (ok she is almost 15...and towers over me, but hey!) on her first official date...with a boy....whom i met for the first time at the drop off. I can't say who was more nervous; him, me or Emily. Of course I had been razzing her all day about it. Threatening to send her father instead of me (no mom pleeeeeeeeeeaaaase no) or pretending I was going with them...i even offered to share my popcorn...tee hee. then I said no of course i wouldn't sit with them...i'd be happy to sit a few rows back and yell "HAND CHECK...GET 'EM IN THE AIR BUDDY!" every few minutes, again, horror looks.

I packed up her little brother (who was rockin' his pajamas) and drove her over...I met the boy outside, he seems nice, it took all I had not to hand her a rosary and say "remember you are a child of Christ" but no...i restrained myself. Now I have 2 hours before I go and get her...I think i shall consume a gallon of Peanut Butter Paniac Ice Cream. sigh. why do they have to grow up???

Summer days and knitting nights....

There is nothing quite like a day at the beach, sunny skies, itchy sandy bottoms, waves just big enough to boogie board in but not so big that you get knocked over, just a hint of floating seaweed (ewwwww...it's slimy!!!) digging a hole to the other side of the world, then getting buried up to your neck in the hole....good times! Even better...stopping at Moo Moo's Ice Cream shack on the ride home! The best is the last few minutes home, when all the kids are sleeping in the back of the van....and it's quiet!

After we get home and the kiddos are showered, powdered, fed and pajamad...I get to work on my knitting! I'm a felt bag obsessed girl right now, pictured above is my latest...came out a bit smaller than I expected (could be because I got distracted while it was washing and didn't check on it...ooops!) but no worries!

Brain Freeze Friday, celebrate with us!

Today was unlike any other day. This morning I declared it Brain Freeze Friday, which means we were going to have ice cream for lunch....just because we can. So I loaded up the kiddos and headed downtown to the most fabulous little ice cream shop called Sweetworks (it has a sister restaraunt down the street called SoupWorks...yummy food, never had a bad thing there!) But today we were throwing traditional lunch to the wind. After all, it's summer, we are slowly running out of fun things to do and trying to find one activity to make all the children happy is darn near impossible! Emily aka baby diva had an awesome hot fudge sundae with coffee ice cream, Cody went with the chocolate...but was still hungry so had to have one of their amazing gourmet cupcakes...it was almost too cute to eat! Gavin isn't an ice cream guy so he feasted upon french fries, and I had a frozen iced coffee....which was like heaven in a cup! sooooooooo good! We were even nice and picked up a piece of fudge cake for the beloved (since the poor guy has to work....ha ha ha neener neener neener you have to work...oh that's not nice..must be coming off my sugar high )
Sweetworks!!!

Gavin with his french fries and Cody with his chocolate ice cream

Me and Baby Diva with our frozen lunch..and Cody's giant finger

Cody and his mud pie cupcake (mmm gummi worms)

It's all rainbows and ponies...la la la de dah!

So normally I'm a pretty bubbly little bundle of joy....but I do have my days. And I feel that I am entirely entitled to those days...lets's face it, my plate runith over most days: mini farm to run, house to clean, 2 kids with autism to deal with, 2 regular kids to deal with, cleaning, laundry, meal making...it can wear a girl down and I find about this time in the summer I start to get a little overwhelmed and miss the company of other adults. I don't count the 15 minutes I get to talk to them as they drop off thier children at my house for playdates (or vice versa..when I am the droppee) and I'm starting to get bogged down with requests of "so when are we going to the beach? can I have a friend over? why don't we have anything good to eat?" etc etc etc. I envy those who can sit and read a book or finish a project or clean their kitchen in less than 5 hours (i have to stop to chase down the youngest as he isn't good at staying put) I wish for the ablility to just pack everyone up at the last moment and go someplace fun...sigh....i'll get over it I suppose but as for today I've got those MID SUMMER BLUES...now if you will excuse me, there is a naked child running through the living room and some name calling on the 2nd floor...and I believe a cat just puked...ta!

The Girls...Marsala, Fajita and Yolk-o!

It's week 2 with the new chicks and they are growing fast and furious! They have started to feather in so they are half fluff and half feather and quite akward looking. Couple more weeks and I'll start letting them out in the chicken tractor for a little scratch and peck practice and to let the other 2 hens get a good look at them...safely...i'm hoping they are accepted nicely and we don't have a major "pecking order" issue!

So call me a sucker (SUCKER!) Cody convinced me to foster a shelter kitty. She sort of found us rather than us finding her. we were waiting for our cousin to come with the key to the shelter to let us in and suddenly there was a kitty next to us outside. I thought maybe she got out...Cody corrected me that there was no way a cat can escape..and when our cousin arrived she verified that no it wasn't a shelter cat. so a quick trip to the vet, a round of shots, de worming and ear cleaned and she needed a home. Sadly our animal shelters are so overcrowded so they look for foster homes and post pictures of the adoptees on their website....but she is such a sweet sweet girl (we named her Agnes...but call her Aggie) I have a bad feeling she might not be leaving our house too soon :)

A Fairy tale of a girl and her pack rat

Once Upon a Time: there was a lovely YOUNG princess who lived in an enchanted land where clutter was a big NO NO. Sadly, a horrible curse was bestowed upon her (i think it's called love or something...seriously, watch out for this spell 'cause it can really mess a girl up something fierce) and married King Pack Rat of Keepingeverthingville.

Many years later, the princess (ok now queen and there is a new princess who lives in the upstairs land called Nevergoingtocleanitupville) suddenly realized they had waaaaaaay too much crap and it was time to have a magical yardsale! Of course at this point, that curse from long ago had totally worn off and it was replaced with "eh, I could do worse" so she commanded King Pack Rat to "get thee to thy attic and purge like your life depended on it or your living with your mother" aka dragon baroness von stinky pants doody head (tee hee)

The treasures King Pack Rat Found! Baseball cards! Lionel Train Sets! Photos! It was like Christmas and birthdays all rolled into one! Oh but the best was the 1976 Mcdonald drinking glasses and the Burger Chef Shazzam and Superman glasses just coated with lead paint! OH JOY WHATEVER SHALL WE DO WITH THEM????

And the princess decread: 7 days from now we shall haveth the biggest damn yard sale known to these parts! We shall sell all this stuff and makith a large profit, and there was much rejoycing in the land.

i'm about to enter....the scouting zone

Ahhhhh yes, it's my big weekend of camping with Cody at scout camp. And of course we are in the middle of a heat wave...of course! why not! makes perfect sense doesn't it? So starting in about an hour I will be surrounded by sweaty, stinky, nose picking, booger flicking, bug spray reeking, scabbed kneed 10 year olds for 72 hours...oh and not to mention the teenage boy scout councilors whose deoderant usuage is questionable and whose laziness factor is HIGH...I expect when I get home to see a large, cold, pitcher of mojitos waiting for me and a big ass pile of grilled veggies for me to fall face first in.

FYI, Cody is beyond excited as it's also his birthday this weekend and we will be having a party at the campsite....sigh, it's all about him!

round 2....bring on the hens!

Behold our Red Star Hens! 3 lovely ladies arrived today to replace our two Partridge Rocks that ended up being roosters! ugh! so the boys are being located to a nice farm a couple of towns over to live out the remainder of their lives among a large and more compliable bunch of ladies :)

So the new girls...Red Star...lovely breed, boy chicks are black, girls are yellow and we have 3 yellow fluffy little cottonballs bouncing around the temporary chick condo in the laundry room. We are a little concerned for one, she took a beating during transport and was a little more wobbly than I expected, she is eating and drinking so i think we are going to be ok. she is by far the smallest of the hens and we have named her Marsala. The biggest chick is Fajita and the middle lady is Yolko....this is what happens when you let the kids name them!

Oh..are these the joys of parenthood they talk about..go figure!

We are week 2 into summer vacation from school and my kids finally hit the bored wall. It's been an up and down start to our summer, we have already had our fair share of friends over (it's a wonder, nobody ever offers to take MY kids..hmmm have to work on that) discovered that 2 of our "hens" are actually roosters (that problem has been taken care of, they leave for a farm next week, replacement chicks arrive today) teenage girl drama still reins in this house..and yesterday it hit 107 degrees outside! it was too hot to even go swimming in the pool...not good! My youngest has decided we all just stink and is very tired of being with us, he longs to go back to his routine at school...autism and vacation do not mix well, we spend most of our day trying to keep him happy and dressed :)

I have been hitting the ice cream waaaay to much as well and can pretty much forget about the binki body this summer...ha ha ha....wasn't that funny? 4 kids and this body reflects it!

I'm off camping in the wild woods this weekend with my little cub scout (more joy!) it will probably rain because that seems to be what happens whenever i go camping, hopefully the heat will break or I might just snap.

happy happy!

How does your garden grow?

so far this year everything is coming up gorgeous, I could use a day of rain however as the flowers are thirsty and I try to send the boys out to water them, but it usually just ends up in a garden hose water fight and the boys get watered not the plants....and they don't need to grow anymore!

My Chicken has an identity issue.

Our chicken, Nugget is her name, has decided to channel her inner rooster. She is most definatly NOT a rooster and is very much built like a hen...fluffy butt and all. HOWEVER since she is the biggest and has proclaimed herself ruler of the other hens (somehow I don't think there was a vote either, as the others don't look particularly thrilled with this development) she won out with brute force. It's up to her where they all go to look for buggy yummy treats...but the worst is....she is crowing, yuppers it's obnoxious.

it's not a full fledge cock-a-doodle-do...kind of a half assed attempt really and she mostly does it when we are outside and they are shut up in the big play area....she loves to socialize with the kids and will stand by the door giving it her all until one of the boys goes and lets her out.

I don't think the neighbors will be real happy with me. We decided this weekend to start letting them out later in the morning as not to bother anyone and on Sundays they have to "sleep in late" in the coop. Why can't i have normal pets??

When exactly did I give my daughter permission to grow up??

How did this happen? when did I blink? It was only yesterday I swear that I was getting her ready for 1st grade and now she just graduated from 8th grade?? When did she trade her groovy girl dolls for an iphone? why did i teach her to spell so she could text 24/7 (although the spelling she uses for texting was certainly NOT what the nuns taught her let me tell you...idk wht lol bcz!

so tonight is the graduation dance and I'm sprining my baby girl from school so that she can get all dolled up and her hair done. i'll try really really hard not to cry but i'm not making any promises, I did tell her I'll save the big cry for when she is no around and never in front of her friends.

Diva! HOLLAH!!!

I can't wait I can't wait I can't wait....ok I have to wait but it's killing me! End of August is offically "Diva Weekend" when Dawn, Katie and I will decend upon North Conway NH with our tiaras sparkling for the world to see! Oh it's a girls weekend in the making! Think shopping the outlets (in our offical DIVA pink t-shirts) and of course intoxicated mini golf in tiaras....because can you think of a BETTER time to wear tiaras?? Shhhhhhaaaaaaa no you can't!

After a looong summer with the kids this is something i can treat myself with...time with my Divas....'cause they know and love me bestest!

Hollah (or when we are having dinner at Dawn's house Challah!)

10 1/2 days of childless freedom left.

Why is it summer just sneaks up on a person like a big humid blanket and it's all good, your having fun in the pool, running around the yard..then it hits.

SCHOOL IS NEARLY OVER FOR THE YEAR!

Oh well, I'll enjoy my quiet time while I can before the revolving door of children decends upon me. Note to self: stock up on the juice boxes, mac and cheese and ice cream bars.

Baby Diva

Being a teenager, Emily is not a big fan of having her picture taken unless it's on her terms. HOWEVER, yesterday she was feeling silly and transformed herself into "nerd swimmer" I think she is the funniest kid sometimes (when she isn't having one of those teen dark mood moments...then i'd like to bang my head against the wall)

Happy Memorial Day Weekend!

Ahhhhhhh Memorial Day Weekend! The un-official start of summer here, long weekend off from school/work and the weather as usual is cooperating nicely! Think BBQ and swimming in the pool...both of which we have planned, along with some home projects that need to get done and a quick jaunt over to the barn so the boys can ride :) yesterday my little cub scout Cody marched in the Memorial parade downtown honoring our veterans and to remember the soldiers still fighting, he did me proud.

then we all came home and jumped in the pool because it was toasty out! Brendan stayed in most of the afternoon...that kid is part fish I swear!

cody also spent some quality bonding time with the chickens....so they wouldn't feel left out of the fun :)

A chick and her chookies

I had a really funny flashback today, while cleaning out the chickens I remembered my great grandmother "Granny" making me "chookie eggs" for lunch. I never thought much of it but i remember being little and thinking they were some sort of delicacy that nobody else (unless they too were the proud owners of the cutest little old Granny from Scotland like I was blessed with) got made for them. I realized much later it was just plain old scrambled eggs. But she used more butter than Paula Dean ever did (gasp! is that possible) and they were never ever burned.

I decided today that my kids would eat chookie eggs too...and never again scrambled eggs. :)