Old Mother Hubbard

First of all.  It has been a really long time since I posted.  I know that.  This blog has fallen to the bottom of a VERY long list of responsibilities, and well, keeping the kids fed and clothed and starting my new business has kind of taken up a lot of my time.  That and a couple of other minor things.  So far in the month of October:

1. We finally sold our condo!
2. We bought a house
3. We have another 4 weeks to pack up our entire house
4. I sold two other houses that I am doing other closing type things with
5. Mia has hit that age where she is not only mobile, she is getting into everything and needs to be watched constantly
6. It is almost Halloween and in between packing, I am trying to keep the fall fun stuff going

I have been HORRIBLE about taking pictures.  Like 5 or 6 days will go by without me taking any.  Right now, Mia is being absolutely adorable, looking sweet, and I can't make myself go find the camera.  Plus my flash batteries need to be charged.   Poor third child.  (Edited to add, I went and got the camera.  See?)

I have been the most distracted and busy mother lately.  Between packing, trying to keep up our normal schedule (preschool, library story time, my training classes) and the fact that they need to be fed three times a day, I am barely hanging on.  Now here comes the whine that I never imagined, the statement that makes me feel guilty, and lucky, and it is a whine I can only wish on people I know who are still struggling with infertility.  

I have too many children.  Just like Old Mother Hubbard, so many times lately I have been known to look at Andy and say (or yell, depending on the day) WE HAVE TOO MANY CHILDREN!  They all need something at once, or we have three sets of shoes to put on, or everyone is crying and/or whining at the same time.  I find myself bitter at preschool drop off and pick up of those moms who are cheerfully walking their one well dressed, tidy haired child into school.  It is always hard.  Having the extra child, having to walk both of them in or out, having the triple battle of getting dressed, getting in the car, eating breakfast, etc, is just too much some days.  I wish I was the mom who got up early enough to shower and prepare breakfast for the children before they got up.  I wish I could remember to brush Maggie's hair every morning, and have time to put cute accessories in it.  I wish I had time to dry my hair every morning, instead of just sometimes.  So many mornings, everyone is ready but Mommy (or Mia, who frequently stays in her pajamas on preschool mornings).  Unfortunately, the only kind of mother I can be is the one that I am.  The imperfect one.    

Too many children.  We went to Boo at the Zoo yesterday.  It was cold and supposed to rain.  I asked everyone if they had a plan, what we were going to do.  The answers were "put him in layers" and "bring an umbrella".  I had this serious, major jealous moment of wishing we had only one child.  To be two on one, or three on one to one child.  Instead, we had more strollers to be pushed than we had big people.  We forgot the diaper bag.  And food for the allergy baby.  And an umbrella.  

Don't get me wrong, I wouldn't give them up for the world, and I love them to pieces.  Right now, I just can barely keep my life together.  I am failing miserably at a lot of things.  I do have many days where I am barely getting by.  There are three of them piled on top of me, pulling on me, all talking at once for my attention.  The kitchen is trashed, there are toys everywhere and I am out of underwear again.    

But we have our days.  They are so sweet to each other.  Of the few pictures I took recently, one was with my phone so not on here.  We took the kids to the pumpkin patch last week.  The apple orchard we originally were headed for was closed on Sunday (who does that?!?).  We got a little lost.  My camera died.  The pumpkin patch did not have public restrooms, so Ben peed behind a tree and Maggie peed in a cornfield.  And on her underpants.  Which I think might still be in the car.  Crap.  

But we pulled them back to the car in the wagon with the pumpkins.  We put Mia in between them and Ben, on his own, put his arm around her.  But then, what melted my heart was when he put his hand up behind her head, to protect it from going backwards and hitting the back of the wagon.  How did he know to do that?  How did he know what she needed?  He loves her, and she adores him.  I don't know what any of them would do without each other.  And I don't know what I would do without any of them.  

There is more, so much, that I could write about to fill in the blanks.  But instead, photos, because that is worth more than the words sometimes.  Even if I am horrible about taking the pictures these days!

Picture day at school.  I'm still anxiously awaiting the ones the photographer took!   

 Some sneak peeks of our new house.  We can't believe we are moving into such an awesome place!

 Preschool field trip to the pumpkin patch.

Can you spot them?  Maggie has the pumpkin kinda in front of her face and Ben is sitting backwards.  He was the last one out of the corn maze, and I never did figure out what happened.

Too cool for school.

I already put it on facebook so he can't be mad that it is here too.  That's my hubby.  Isn't he cute?

Some pictures from the pumpkin patch before my camera battery died.

These are kinda horrible photography wise.  I didn't even attempt to edit them.  They blew all the leaves into a big pile across the street and the kids thought it was awesome.  It will be so weird to not have our cousin next door when we all move!

Boo at the Zoo!  The whole toy story gang.  Mia slept through a good chunk of it.

Happy Fall!  Happy Halloween.  Happy House moving, and happy to be the Mommy to this crazy crew.  Even if I do spend many a day feeling like Old Mother Hubbard.