Zombie kids

We are in week 2 of No Screen Weekdays. 

This summer while I had 11 kids in my care! 😱 everyone got an hour a day on a tv, tablet or computer just for my sanity (and if I wasn't watching them they spent another hour watching during a cousin's or siblings turn).  

Exhibit A

There were many family movie nights (which meant the kids vegging out while I do what I do (i.e. dishes, laundry, reading, drinking wine while staring off into space. The usual) 

Aaaand if I needed to leave the house for any amount of time (let's say more than ten minutes, case in point the time I ran down the street to make a Facebook marketplace exchange for less than Ten Minutes!!!  and came back to a hole in a bedroom door Just Because someone had asked a sibling with all of the Nice they possessed to change the channel. Oh Lort) then the tv was used as kids Valium so I didn't have to worry  

A. that small children were escaping and making their way to Canada

and 

B. that the above scenario of niceness wasn't occurring repeatedly until I got back home. 

We are detoxing nicely without screens around here and have run the gamut of The Shakes, Horror, Asking Repeatedly, All of the Complaints, Wandering Lifelessly, and....

 *finally* settling down with merely books/music/toys/puzzles/outdoor activities such as trampolines and swimming and the like. 

Exhibit B 

I just read an article that someone posted today from the New York Times. It is scientific brain facts that screen time is to kids what heroin addiction is to adults. 

And as I watch everyone come out of their zombie-ish summer coma, I concur. 

Screens are basically The Devil. The end.

Poof!

By bedtime there were two bawling over homework (math, how we all hate thee), one asking me to read a school story she didn't understand on her own, a boy who was hungry because his dinner was still on the table (what?) another boy who was dragging his feet (literally) instead of finishing his chore, a baby who wanted to be fed and in bed NOW, a two year old who has to have a prison guard next to her bed, a husband who had somewhere to be, kitten-meds to be given and school-lunches needing to magically appear. 

POOF!

 A looooong hour later I'm sitting in the dark living room because its peaceful and also....I don't have to see the mess the chore-boy left behind.  

P. S. I may have also pulled this out of someone's ear tonight as well. 

#neveradullmoment

Don't knock it til you've tried it, I guess

You'd think potty-training your sixth child would come free of surprises. I mean, what haven't I already encountered with the first five? (There is that time somebody peed into the back of a box fan (what in the world?!?) but that's another story for another day.  

Maybe I should've seen it coming with the evening (solo-parenting) beginning like this: 

And as bedtime loomed I *may* have moved the clock forward a few minutes. 

You know, to get the older ones who *can* tell time in bed a little sooner. 

(For those of you who are now trying to decide if I am deceiving my children? Yes. Yes I am. And we're all the better for it.)

I'm helping boys get arms and legs and toothbrushes in all the appropriate holes when I hear little Juniper running to the bathroom announcing, as always, that she 'has to go!' 

Great! I love that she's potty-trained!

Then I hear something that suspiciously sounds like splattering. 

The wrong sound. 

Believe me...I have superhero ears for these kinds of sounds. 

Rushing into the bathroom, I see a naked Juniper, standing on the inner shelf of this cabinet, 

peeing onto the top and *into* the cabinet full of antique tea towels and toilet paper, (no cheap TP here!) with a splash radius on the floor and wall of about two feet! 

I will never know if she was climbing on the cabinet to turn on the light, perform a dance routine, or to actually 'use it'. 

But next time you're visiting The Purple House, you have a choice.  The Cabinet, or one of these Perfectly Suitable Devices. 

Just if you decide to use the pink one, help a mother out.......please?

(Potty-trainee #6....see the merry twinkle in her eyes?)

Of Sleep and Imago Dei

There's a beautiful song that starts with "I see Your face in every sunrise...."

Well, drumroll please.....I rarely see a beautiful sunrise. 

I do, however see my children regularly. 

In the morning. Early in the morning. Think birds-chirping-in-the-dark kind of early. 

Scenario: Me drooling and dreaming, sleeping deeply. Jolted awake by thumps and bumps in the kidzone that is above our bed. Must make the seemingly life-or-death decision of running upstairs and hissing green-breathed at noisy naughty kids (who am i kidding?: boys, always the boys) before they wake the entire household, or laying there Impossibly Hoping they will be magically struck with Narcolepsy ! 

So yeah, no fantastic sunrises in the mornings, but as I sit here listening to my nap decoy snoring, and my June-bug flopping on her pillow, I'm realizing I see His face in my children. 

In Genesis 1:26 God at Creation says "lets make human beings in our image, make them reflecting our nature".

In my eldest, I see His creativity. She can draw. She can sing. She is SMART. She can keep a clear head in an argument (ahem). 

My 2nd intuitively knows people. She knows what they need, how to make them happy, she LOVES! He Loves. 

My 3rd reLENTlessly pursues what she wants. Never have I met someone so....herm....resolute, to put it nicely. He pursues us. 

My 4th (hang in there, I have 7) is the perfect mix of strong and tender. A leader of superheroes but with the gentlest touch for the babies. He creates the tornados and the feathery mimosa flowers. 

In my 5th, I see His sense of humor. What is life without laughter? Smiles? Happy hugs and fun?

My 6th has always made me think of His Unconditional Love. 

We have a neighbor who's nearly homeless, always scratching at ooze and puckery redness, missing many teeth and sometimes smelling like something died nearby, but baby 6 always has a cheery hello and a sweet smile for her. Always!

And #7? I'm still getting to know her. But I see His beauty in every tiny eyelash and fingernail. She's truly a gift I didn't know I needed, straight from Him. 

Because of these 7 beautiful people in my life I know God is simply amazing. And I want to get to know Him more, the longer I'm around them.