which way is up

Tonight feels like another night where I can't tell which way is up and if I'm even heading in the right direction. I'm doing it alone, again, which seems like it's happening more often than not lately because my husband is in the field helping his dad. Not that I'm bothered by that, however, the part that bothers me is not being able to keep my head above water with our six kids.

By the time I get them picked up from daycare, pick up supper (Papa Murphy's), get home, unload the kids, turn the oven on, it's after 5pm and then I realize I have forgotten to pick up the boys at BASE. And I'm alone. No older children to watch the younger two while I run to get them. Ugh. On the contrary, as I was getting ready to leave, Shawndra came home with the dog and I was able to leave her in charge for the 10 minutes it took me to get them.

I finally get home, throw the pizza in the oven, run downstairs and measure Devin's room to see if the bed will fit a different way, and then start moving the furniture back into her room. We finished carpeting it last night around 11pm, thanks to my wonderful husband who can accomplish anything.

Back upstairs to pull a pizza out of the oven and put another one in. A large family eats lots of food, so yes, 2 family size pizzas were cooked. I get everyone fed, in between the phone ringing, the dog barking, the cat hissing, and me about going insane.

I throw the younger two kids in the bath, leave the bath water running a bit too long, and before long it's up to their chest. Holy smokes, that's a lot of water. They liked it. 10 minutes later, Devin screams out, "Vaaaalllll, Jayden pooped in the tub!" Oh great. Mike is always always the one that deals with that job and here I am. So I start scooping the turds into the cup, dump them into the toilet, watch the kids squirm to get away from the ones that act like they are alive, scoop some more, turn on the shower, clean them up, and get them out. Wowzers.

The boys go downstairs and before to long one comes back up to tell me the pumpkin fell off the window and broke on their floor and it stinks. Well, I'm still in the middle of eating, so I tell him to clean it up and I'll be down in a bit. About an hour goes by and I finally drag myself downstairs to start some clothes and I about puke at the smell. What on earth could it be? Oh man, it was the worst smell ever.

That's when it happens. Dalton tells me it's the pumpkin and it was rotten. So here I go again, dejavu from Saturday. I pull out the vacuum, vacuum their floor, clean out the carpet cleaner because it's packed full of rotten orange carpet from Devin's room, then start scrubbing the heck out of it with the carpet cleaner. In the meantime, I'm delegating other tasks to other kids. I feel like I'm not gaining any ground. But I am thankful that it was someones chore to clean the kitchen.

I go to take a picture of Devin's room, but my zoom lens is the only lens here because my car is at the farm with my smaller lens. I manage to stand back kind of in the girls room with my head hanging out the door as far as I can possibly be to snap a picture.

Oh it's been quite a night. And I only hope it gets better from here.