In The House
Here's what it looks like, around here, lately.
Devin has started riding his bike to work in the morning. He wakes up even earlier, does his 5 mile run, gets ready for work, takes care of whichever of the girls is awake, and then heads out the door by 7:30 to bike the four miles to work. Then he works hard all day, thoughts of tenure clinging to him like dandruff, or something, and then he bikes the four miles back home again. He opens the door, never knowing quite what he is going to find: happy family, dinner on the table, wife smiling, girls smiling, house clean. Or, the all too often alternative: screaming children, crying children, whining children, no dinner, but plenty of messes to go around, the wife hiding in the bathroom because sometimes I do that when it is chaos and he comes home and I think "ah, backup has arrived. I'll just lock myself in here for a minute. Or ten." Then we put all girls in bed, he works some more, or he works out, or he goes out visiting the people who need him, and then he falls into bed exhausted.
Hallie has started piano lessons. She sits up so tall and straight at the piano bench, her legs dangling slowly a foot off the ground. She has four songs to practice this week. She asks me just about every day if we can go pick out her new backpack for kindergarten yet. Not yet, I tell her every day. But sometime soon I am going to have to say, "Yes! Let's go pick your new backpack." And then I will have to figure out how to get four girls out the door so early in the morning every day. Hallie has to be at her school by 7:45. Pray for me.
Hanna's feet grew two and a half shoe sizes over the winter. Devin and I couldn't figure out why she never really wanted to run, and why she was always falling down. All the time falling down. Then I went to get them some new shoes for spring and the lady measured her feet and by golly, I was stuffing her feet into shoes that were way too small. She had a hard time giving them up, even so, but I finally won that battle and she is running around again lickety split.
Heather started walking about a week and a half ago. She is adorably, gracefully wobbly and unsure, with her arms straight out in front of her for balance in what I lovingly call "The Zombie". She has twelve teeth now, I think she got her first two teeth around 6 or 7 months, so she busted out about one tooth a month. She is very expressive with her one word, "na-na" when she uses it together with her pointing finger. We know what she wants, almost every time. "Na-na!" (usually it means she wants something to drink. But don't be fooled, sometimes it means "I want that toy Hallie has. I want that bread Daddy is eating. I want to pull off mommy's glasses." You know, your basic all purpose word.
As for me, it's pretty much the same old thing, over and over every day whatever that means. I finished three quilt tops and gave them to a local hospital for the Linus Project, so that felt good in my soul, you know? I have been working on my goals for my thirtieth year, and have been practicing the piano right alongside Hallie. (Well, probably twice as much as she does.) It's coming along. I signed up to run a 5k this weekend. And nights I hang out with two of my girls and Tony Horton. You know Tony? I hate him, but I love him.
And... that about sums it up for around here lately.
Devin has started riding his bike to work in the morning. He wakes up even earlier, does his 5 mile run, gets ready for work, takes care of whichever of the girls is awake, and then heads out the door by 7:30 to bike the four miles to work. Then he works hard all day, thoughts of tenure clinging to him like dandruff, or something, and then he bikes the four miles back home again. He opens the door, never knowing quite what he is going to find: happy family, dinner on the table, wife smiling, girls smiling, house clean. Or, the all too often alternative: screaming children, crying children, whining children, no dinner, but plenty of messes to go around, the wife hiding in the bathroom because sometimes I do that when it is chaos and he comes home and I think "ah, backup has arrived. I'll just lock myself in here for a minute. Or ten." Then we put all girls in bed, he works some more, or he works out, or he goes out visiting the people who need him, and then he falls into bed exhausted.
Hallie has started piano lessons. She sits up so tall and straight at the piano bench, her legs dangling slowly a foot off the ground. She has four songs to practice this week. She asks me just about every day if we can go pick out her new backpack for kindergarten yet. Not yet, I tell her every day. But sometime soon I am going to have to say, "Yes! Let's go pick your new backpack." And then I will have to figure out how to get four girls out the door so early in the morning every day. Hallie has to be at her school by 7:45. Pray for me.
Hanna's feet grew two and a half shoe sizes over the winter. Devin and I couldn't figure out why she never really wanted to run, and why she was always falling down. All the time falling down. Then I went to get them some new shoes for spring and the lady measured her feet and by golly, I was stuffing her feet into shoes that were way too small. She had a hard time giving them up, even so, but I finally won that battle and she is running around again lickety split.
Heather started walking about a week and a half ago. She is adorably, gracefully wobbly and unsure, with her arms straight out in front of her for balance in what I lovingly call "The Zombie". She has twelve teeth now, I think she got her first two teeth around 6 or 7 months, so she busted out about one tooth a month. She is very expressive with her one word, "na-na" when she uses it together with her pointing finger. We know what she wants, almost every time. "Na-na!" (usually it means she wants something to drink. But don't be fooled, sometimes it means "I want that toy Hallie has. I want that bread Daddy is eating. I want to pull off mommy's glasses." You know, your basic all purpose word.
As for me, it's pretty much the same old thing, over and over every day whatever that means. I finished three quilt tops and gave them to a local hospital for the Linus Project, so that felt good in my soul, you know? I have been working on my goals for my thirtieth year, and have been practicing the piano right alongside Hallie. (Well, probably twice as much as she does.) It's coming along. I signed up to run a 5k this weekend. And nights I hang out with two of my girls and Tony Horton. You know Tony? I hate him, but I love him.
This is Tony on Yoga Night. Yoga is my favorite. Tonight is Plyometrics. Not my favorite.
And... that about sums it up for around here lately.
7:45? You totally got this! I believe in you. You'll get into a routine and it will be no big thing. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd there's my face. Probably dreading the looming 90 minutes of yoga that were coming our way that night. 90 minutes!! Who does that? Tony is who does that. Bah!
7:45?! I'm not sure we could do that. The boys wake up usually before 7 these days, but I still have to cajole Gareth every step of the way (and he likes school! I can't imagine how bad it'd be if he didn't!) and we're still often leaving the house later than I'd like and he doesn't have to be to school until 9:35. To do 7:45 I'd definitely have to shower at night and we'd have to make his lunch the night before. Then maybe, maybe, we'd be able to get ready in half an hour. But we'd still have the repeated pleadings to put on socks and shoes or brush teeth. I've gotta say, I'm rather grateful for our late start.
ReplyDeleteI know, it's crazy! I don't understand why her school starts so early. My friend's daughter doesn't have to be at her school until 8:55, and it is the same school district. The only bright side that I can think of is that she gets done much earlier, so I get more of the afternoon with her. She is an early riser anyway as well, so I don't think she'll have any trouble at all with it. But me? Oh dear, it's over for me.
DeleteWow that is a really early school start! I wonder how early it starts here. Too bad Devin leaves fifteen minutes before that, or he could do the school part. haha. :)
ReplyDeleteAnd I totally feel you about "yay the backup has finally arrived!" I so look forward to Jeff coming home every day. It's pretty much one of my favorite parts of the day.
And I think it is so cool that you, Nichole, and Al are doing P90X together. I'm very impressed. And I kind of wish your 5K were one of the weekends I'm there so I could cheer you on! I'm contemplating signing up for one, but I can't decide when I'd like to do it. There's a dog one in June. Kind of makes me wish I had a dog. I'm thinking about signing up anyway, because my kids would love seeing all the dogs.
I think our stake is doing a 5k the Saturday you are here. I'll try to find out more about it, maybe we could walk it with the kids or something.
DeleteYou've inspired me to help Ammon take piano. If Hallie is old enough, he probably is too. Mori has a piano that his mom left him, and I've been putting off having it moved to our new house from his cousins place (it's downstairs and that sounds like no fun). Glad you are doing so well, I spend a 'minute' alone when backup arrives a lot, totally normal!
ReplyDeleteAwe... I miss the Rose Family! You all sounds very busy and I can't believe Hallie is already going to start school soon. I loved the post update!
ReplyDeleteI love hearing about the daily life of the Devin and Amy Rose family! Warms my heart everytime! Love, MOMROSE
ReplyDelete