The other day Zeke had a field trip and I totally forgot to pack his lunch for it. His teacher emailed me at 9am to ask about his lunch. I saw the email at 9:02. I had his lunch packed and ready to go at 9:07. Jamie ran it over to the school and was back home at 9:15. Both of us grew up in the middle of nowhere, but sometimes it’s really nice to live so close.
Category Archives: Thoughts
45
Today at 12:58pm I am exactly 45 years old.
That’s 540 months.
16,425 days.
23,652,000 minutes.
1,419,120,000 seconds.
Today is Wednesday. I was born on a Wednesday. Wednesday birthdays are my favorite. Happy 45th birthday to me!
All the Neurodivergents
We have so many neurodivergent people in this family. Out of 13 of us:
- 31% have been diagnosed with dyslexia and/or dysgraphia
- 8% have been diagnosed with autism
- 46% have been diagnosed with ADHD
- 15% have other diagnosed learning disabilities
- I suspect 62% actually have ADHD
I told the developmental pediatrician when one was diagnosed with autism and yet another with ADHD that I have a pretty high tolerance for crazy and he said honestly I’d have to. It’s just perfect chaos we’ve got going on here.
A Fox Visitor
The other day Jamie was in the kitchen and glanced out our back door and said there was a fox on our deck. By the time we got outside the fox was trying to find a break in the fence so it could get out, but sure enough, there was a beautiful fox visiting our backyard!
Worst Meals Ever
I had a colonoscopy and endoscopy done a couple weeks ago. The procedures themselves were no big deal. The prep, however, was awful starting with a day of the worst meals of my life.
Breakfast was lime jello, apple juice, ginger ale, and water. Two things I really do not like are apple juice and jello.
My first snack was lemon jello and water. Lemon jello is definitely better than lime jello, but it’s still jello and I still don’t like it.
Lunch was orange jello, chicken bouillon, apple juice, and water. Orange jello is somewhere between lemon and lime jello. The bouillon was a really nice change from all jello.
My second snack was ginger ale and water. Now, I don’t count ginger ale as a snack but I guess my gastroenterologist does. At least it wasn’t just more jello.
At 5pm I had to drink the prep along with a half gallon of water (over the next five hours). The prep was supposed to be cranberry flavored. I guess it was if you figure it was made by someone who has absolutely no idea what cranberries taste like.
Dinner was lime jello, chicken bouillon, apple juice, and water. At least the bouillon was good. The jello definitely wasn’t.
My third and final snack was lemon jello and water. It wasn’t too bad, mainly because I knew it was the last time I’d have to eat jello for the the foreseeable future.
I had to eat these horrible meals on Anthony’s birthday so I missed out on the pizza he chose for dinner and the cake he had. Jamie put a candle in my jello to try to cheer me up. It really did help.
At 7am I had to drink another bottle of the prep and 48 ounces of water over the next two hours. Honestly that stuff could’ve been labeled strawberry or cucumber and it would’ve taste as much like those as it tasted like cranberries.
The colonoscopy and endoscopy revealed a perfectly healthy esophagus, stomach, and intestines. Absolutely no issues physically or microscopically. And now I don’t have to do it again for an entire decade. Thank goodness. I really don’t like jello.
My favorite laundry days
I do a load of laundry every other day. My favorite laundry days are the ones where I manage to wash, dry, fold, and put away the whole load all in one day. They are my favorite because it means the next day I have no laundry to do at all!
Something’s not quite right here
The Pink Stuff (Spray)
Large families swear by The Pink Stuff. Up until recently I had only used the paste (which is quite amazing at taking crayon, pen, and even sharpie off walls). Then I tried the multipurpose spray.
We had had spaghetti and meatballs for dinner and sauce had splattered on the counter and ever since school ended that counter had kind of become a catchall so it was in bad need of being cleaned. Usually I use 409 which smells awful and takes a bit of scrubbing (but certainly leaves things clean).
To say I am a fan of The Pink Stuff is an understatement. Anything that can take marks off walls is worthy of being bought in bulk when you have a bunch of little kids. But this multipurpose spray is absolutely incredible.
It doesn’t smell bad. In fact, the scent is quite pleasant. It also doesn’t make my hands itch. It left my counters so clean that even though I had planned on just doing the one section I ended up doing all of them.
The most amazing thing about The Pink Stuff multipurpose spray is how easy it is. You spray it on and then one quick swipe is all it usually takes to remove whatever has taken up residence on the counters. I did the whole kitchen in half the time it usually takes me. 5 out of 5 stars. Get yourself The Pink Stuff. It’s truly amazing stuff.
Family Size
Family size packaging always makes me laugh. We often need two family size just for a single meal. So when I saw this at SamsClub I was like finally a family size package that is sized for our giant family!
2021
This has been a busy year for us. I simultaneously can’t figure out how the time has gone by so fast and how we fit so much into just twelve months. Tomorrow will be 2022 and the start of twelve more months of adventures.
In January Fritz and Adrian got their first semester report cards for 7th and 9th grades and both did amazing for their first time in public school since kindergarten and second grade. We also continued trying to figure out just how much food to make to feed our small army (spoiler alert: it’s always too much or too little).
In February we put up a baby urinal in our bathroom and it’s been the best thing we could have done. There was more figuring out how to feed our small army (we’ve pretty much got it down now). We got a playground put up in our backyard. We ended up with COVID in the house and had to quarantine at the same time pretty much the entire state of Texas shut down due to a freak snowstorm and crazy cold (we got lucky and never lost power).
In March I started getting more creative with Mayci’s hair. All the adults in the house got vaccinated for COVID. Zeke turned six on Pi Day. The next day Noah had surgery to remove his tonsils and adenoids and have tubes put in his ears. We got brave and took all six kids to HEB for the first time.
In April I sprained my foot when I gracefully fell down the stairs of The Beast. We also discovered Zeke has hair like Fritz’s: It grows SO fast!
In May our six-year-old officially changed his name to Zeke. School got out and so Mayci finished pre-k, Zeke finished kindergarten, Adrian finished 7th grade, and Fritz finished 9th grade.
In June the kids were bored of their 11-week summer vacation within about 30 seconds so we started our summer schedule which continued the entire summer and worked great. We got Fritz’s end of course results (all three passed). We entered Birthday Season when Adrian turned 13 on Juneteenth. The end of the month the twins turned two.
In July we got Adrian’s STAAR test results (he did great especially because it was his first time taking that sort of test). On the 6th Nicholas turned 3. And then on the 11th Fritz turned 15. Adrian saved all year and enlisted the help of a few other people in order to give Fritz an Oculus Quest 2 for his birthday. On the 18th Anthony turned 4 ending our intense streak of five birthdays in less than three weeks. Fritz got all registered for the virtual school for 10th grade.
In August we finished birthday season on the 2nd when Mayci turned 5. Zeke and Mayci both took off in their reading (best decision ever to work on teaching them how to read over the summer). We found out who the three elementary schoolers’ teachers would be (they’ve all been the perfect teacher for each kid, especially Zeke’s). In the middle of the month it was time for four of the kids to be off to pre-k, kindergarten, 1st, and 8th grades (and Nicky moved to a new room at preschool). A week later Fritz started 10th grade. Just before the end of the month my beautiful mother turned three-quarters of a century old.
In September we started getting monthly boxes of Young Adult books from Literati for Adrian (love those books). Dance classes started up for Zeke and Mayci. I did the most complicated and beautiful hairstyle on Mayci that I’ve done so far (53 twists). The twins moved out of their cribs and into their big boy beds. We took four of the kids to the movies for the first time. Mayci went to dance camp at the high school and got to perform at halftime at a football game.
In October we pulled Nicholas out of preschool. We got the four littlest boys new church clothes. I did some fancy hair on both Mayci and Haley. We had some really cute costumed kids on Halloween.
In November Jamie and I went to see The Beach Boys again. Lola moved in with Cameron and Tami and it’s helped Nicky’s eczema so much (he’s allergic to dogs). We celebrated Jamie’s 46th birthday and one year since we adopted the kids by playing at a trampoline park. We got our family pictures taken. I started having more time to read again thanks to Haley playing with the twinplets six hours a week and the kids getting a little older and more independent.
In December Nicky suddenly started looking much older and bigger than his little brothers. Anthony’s dreams came true when we put a Christmas tree in our living room. My Daddy turned 77 on Christmas Eve.
And now here we are on New Year’s Eve looking forward to what 2022 will bring us. We know a few things like Trek for the big boys, Fritz being ordained to the office of Priest, Birthday Season ending with us having 3, 3, 4, 5, 6, 14 and 16-year-olds, Ani turning 22 in February, Zeke turning 7 in March, me turning 44 in April, Cameron turning 21 in October, and Jamie turning 47 in November the same day we hit two years since the kids were adopted, and having kids starting pre-k, kindergarten, 1st, 2nd, 9th, and 11th grades in August. Whatever else 2022 has in store for us, I know it will be awesome!
Smaller on the Outside 