A frazzled mom's survival guide

I think that I had forgotten how hard one year old are. I haven't been able to take a full step for weeks now and I just want to walk again without impediment. Fortunately I haven't lost any pants......yet. Justin started climbing as well. He climbed on the table while I was busy somewhere and broke my cookie jar... It was the only breakable thing in the house. Isn't it funny that no matter how high you put things the kids will eventually destroy them. I had a neat little plate that I had sitting on top of my cabinets in the old house. I think it actually got jealous of everything else that got the special attention of the glue gun and one day it just fell over and broke. Nothing touched it, as far as I'm aware nothing even looked at it. It just fell over. I think that I had managed to start getting too attached to things again. At one point I had all the breakables put away. In fact they were put away for so long I their useful waned and I had a big yard sale to get ...

We've decided to start taking mini vacations on the weekends. So yesterday with kids in tow we headed out. Haylie had said that she wanted to see some caves. so we went out in search of spelunking adventure. We'd noted a sign on the highway several times for Bat Caveso we thought we'd try that. We failed however to discover a cave in Bat Cave, NC. (I wonder why the sign on the interstate is so big?) We did however discover The Beach at Lake Lure, and that is where we ended up. The kids really enjoyed it, it had a neat little water park with big water guns and a few water falls. I put lotion on all the kids and judging by the fact that they aren't blistered today I must have done a pretty good job. On the other hand Stephen and I were to stubborn to ask for help getting sunscreen on ourselves. I have a swath on my back that I just couldn't reach, and Stephen is pretty red, although I remember putting it on him. That brings me to what I learned today... Ask for help ...

It's only two weeks into summer vacation, and already I'm ready for school to start back. We were supposed to go to the beach but grandma is sick so we're waiting for her to get better so we can head out. In the mean time I find myself looking for somthing to do with my kids during the day. Yesterday I decided that we could go to the rec center pool. It's practically free, close by and my kids will be entertained for a few hours. As an added bonus I won't be tempted by the apple pie in the fridge. So here we go, all in our bathingsuits, including life vests, I grab a two towels and get in the car. Of course the kids whine and cry all the way to the pool, Haylie's too hot, Annie wants her babydoll buckled in with her, Justin just doesn't like the car seat, and Emily well she ended up in time out when we got to the pool, but I can't remember why. The pool part was actually kind of fun. I got to talk to people over the age of 6, the kids didn't fight th...