My head is spinning...

I have wanted to sit down and type a dozen different posts this week, but my life has been crazy. I've had so many plates spinning this week, I can't keep my head straight.

Here's my week so far:

After coming home from my weekend away as a mom of 7, the first thing I did was slept like the dead (I seriously don't think I moved for 9 hours), then woke up and did mega-laundry all day Monday.

It was around that time that I remembered that our van has been acting up. We're taking a road trip this weekend and, wanting to avoid being stranded in the middle of the desert, I needed to take it in for a check up. So I begged my sweet friend to haul me and all three kids to and from the mechanic to drop off the van Monday, then to pick it up Tuesday night.

Being stuck at home Tuesday was nice; I was thrilled to play catch up and regroup. I even made lasagna while Kaylin and Jason played. Since I've been horrible at meal planning lately, I was proud that I thought ahead and bought cottage cheese and lasagna noodles last week, knowing that I had an eggplant that I wanted to use.

I cooked the noodles (only to find out that I didn't need to, but whatever) alongside the eggplant in one pan and the ground beef in another. I went to line my 9x11 pans with spaghetti sauce only to realize I didn't have any. Very unlike me...it's one of my pantry staples.

No problem, I stocked up on diced tomatoes when they were on sale recently, so I just pureed those in my new Magic Bullet that I got for my birthday. (love it!)

Once the layers were assembled, I went to put mozzarella on top and realized I was out of cheese. Completely. Now I ask you: WHO makes lasagna without checking to see if they have spaghetti sauce and mozzarella cheese first?!?!? And, of course, I was stuck without a car to go to the store. Thankfully, another sweet friend stopped and picked me up some cheese. (Don't I have the greatest friends???) Problem averted.

While I was making the lasagna, I noticed Kaylin stealing Jason's toys and dangling them in front of his face to try to get him to crawl where she wanted him to go. I wasn't thrilled that she was teasing him, but figured Jason would cry if it bothered him.

After a while, I heard Kaylin sigh and quietly say, "No one wants to play with me." It wasn't a bratty complaint, she genuinely seemed sad. It broke my heart! I scooped her up and said (in my best hero voice), "I'll play with you!" She said, "But you're cooking and Jason won't play with me. He keeps crawling away." I asked if she wanted to play or help me cook and she chose to help me cook. That killed two birds with one stone!

I forgot to mention that over the weekend, we got a ton of calls from some things I'm selling on Craigslist. So in the midst of everything this week, people have been coming by (2-3 per day) looking at stuff to buy. One gal drove from across town, stayed for over an hour, picked out $12 worth of clothes and said she only brought $10. Whatever lady, don't lie to me. You didn't drive across town with only $10. If the $2 means that much to you, please take the stuff as my gift to you. And stop eating up my time with my babies!

That was a little frustrating, but what annoys me more is the people who no call, no show. I even say, "If you think you'll be late or don't think you can make it, please call so I'm not sitting around waiting for you." This girl last night immediately said, "Oh I WILL be there. I really need this." I squeezed her in between Kaylin's gymnastics class and babysitting a friend's kids last night (during our family dinner, mind you) and does she show up? No. Did she call? Of course not. (*sigh*)

A logical person would pull the Craigslist ads and just wait to sell everything later, right? After things settle down, after our annual family vacation, just...later. The problem is that I've had these ads running for over a month with virtually NO interest. Now, for some reason, emails and phone calls are coming in by the dozens. I'm a little concerned that if I wait until next week, everything will get quiet again.

Moving on to Wednesday. Ryan had his 6 year well check last week and they found some protein in his urine. (TMI? If so, feel free to skip down a few paragraphs.) So they asked me to get another sample from him first thing in the morning and bring it in during another appointment. At 5am, I get a tap on the shoulder.

"Mommy, is this the day I need to pee in the cup?"

"Yes it is. Don't forget to put the top on it." (I drifted back to sleep)

(a few minutes later...or it could have been hours for all I know...I was exhausted)

"Um, Mom? I didn't pee in the cup."

"Why not?"

"Because I had to go so bad that it made it all bubbly in there and it looked like I put soap in there but I didn't so I just dumped it out."

He dumped. it. out.

You have to realize that last week, I drove across town to pick up this sterilized cup while I had five kids in the car. My schedule has been so packed that I had to book out this doctor appointment more than a week for a problem that could be serious and that Mike is kind of anxious about.

And now we can't go to the appointment because he dumped out the reason for our visit.

My initial reaction was to wig out a little bit, but the new "I'm gonna miss this" me used restraint. "Buddy, you shouldn't have dumped it out. We really needed that for the appointment today that now needs to be rescheduled in an already hectic week before we leave town. That was a big mistake. Please go back to bed and we'll talk at breakfast."

A few minutes later, I get another tap on the shoulder. "Mom? I thought of a solution. I can rinse out the cup and try to pee again and get the sample we need for the doctor."

"Don't worry about it, Ryan. I need to get a new cup from the doctor and it has to be the first pee of the day. Thanks for trying to think of a solution to the problem. Go back to bed."

"Are YOU trying to think of a solution, Mom?"

"No, buddy. The only solution is to reschedule the appointment and try again a different day. I need to go back to sleep and so do you. It's 5:15am on a school day."

So I rescheduled the appointment and now need to find time to go pick up a new sterilized cup for tomorrow morning. And get my oil changed. The mechanic said nothing was wrong with my car, I just need an oil change. Sure - because I have time to drag two squimy kids to a dirty car place and sit around for an hour while they change my oil. Not this week! But I really should do it before we leave town.

In the middle of all of this, there have been conflicts with my scheduled times to volunteer at both kids' schools that I've been trying to work out. And I needed to reschedule "meet the teacher" for Kaylin on Tuesday because I didn't have a vehicle. And my mom is having a garage sale tomorrow and Saturday and really needs an extra body there so she doesn't get ripped off. Which means I'm racking my brain thinking of things I can bring over to sell if I'm going to be sitting around there anyway, right?

My phone has been ringing off the hook, even my doorbell has been ringing a ton. I've been through periods of chaos and back-to-back appointments, then moments of quiet, when I catch up on some reading. (I've been reading Grace Based Parenting and can't wait to share what I'm learning.)

In the midst of my crazy week, the kids still need to be cared for and nurtured, I'm still doing my normal household duties like homework, cooking, picking up toys, bathing a baby whose knees and tops of his feet are suddenly black all the time...it's just been never-ending!

Oh. And we're going to California on Sunday. So I need to figure out a time to get us all packed and ready for THAT!

This would have felt like a hectic week without the California trip. And without the van issues. And without the garage sale. Thank goodness there's a vacation "light" at the end of this tunnel.

Thanks for listening to me vent. I just needed to rant for a bit. I let Kaylin watch Dora, Jason's asleep, my van is packed with garage sale stuff for my mom's as soon as he wakes up and I'm already feeling better getting all of this off my chest. Now if you'll excuse me, I have another family coming to look at stuff from Craigslist any minute. Then I'll drop off the garage sale stuff, come back to our side of town for "meet the teacher" for Kaylin, drop the kids off with a neighbor to go to the dentist (why did I schedule that this week???) and race home to make dinner before going to Bunco tonight.

What a week. Let the whirlwind continue...