How to Speed Up the Day

I have a coworker who listens to her iPod while doing filing and data entry type tasks. She is totally hooked on NPR news and other news related podcasts. When I pop my head in her office she pulls out her ear buds and tells me what the latest news is, only she is usually weeks behind real time. Today she told me that Gadhafi was dead. 

A few months ago I started listening to podcasts too. I had heard of something called Too Beautiful to Live (TBTL) and decided I would check it out. It took about 15 minutes before I was hooked. It's the perfect thing to listen to while working, exercising or driving. I love the silly banter between the hosts and now that I have been listening to it for a while I am starting to get some of their "inside" jokes. 

I am new to the podcast scene, and would love some more things to listen to. Do you have any favorites?

A Bump in the Rear

I have been working at a new refinery for seven months now. It is a different kind of job, but I am mostly enjoying it. The biggest change is the location. Now instead of driving twenty minutes to work, I drive an hour. In the summer this was fun. On the drive home we (Nathan and I commute half way together) would have the sun roof open, the windows down, take the scenic ocean view route and blast lots of Queen. Commuting is great! Long days in the sun! Daily road trip!
Fall came overnight, and I discovered several things:
1. I need a new battery in my car.
2. I need a new battery in the other car.
3. I need new wiper blades.
4. I need the heater fixed.
5. It is dark all the time.
6. I don't want to drive an hour each way anymore.
The crazy person in me started thinking about how many hours I spend driving and how many miles of highway I am on daily and calculated that my chances of having a collision are greatly increased. So naturally I got rear ended yesterday.
Commuting is great!
7. Filing an insurance claim is my least favorite thing in the world.

I discovered something else about all of the driving. Each day I get an hour of uninterrupted kid-free time with my husband. We talk, listen to our favorite pod-casts together, plan the future, or sometimes just stare out the window into the dark. Who ever is driving gets to wear the extra warm gloves and hat (driver side heat is currently stuck on air conditioning). We hold hands. When he is driving, I am sure I infuriate him with my pretend braking and clutching the passenger handle, but he hasn't complained yet. He makes sure I have a hot espresso in my to-go cup before we leave. He fixes the fog lights when they fall off. He reminds me of all the money we are saving by not buying a new car. He laughs at my silly work stories and helps me remember my lunch. It turns out that I am pretty smitten with this guy, and I am so lucky to get all this extra time with him.

Commuting is fine. It's a necessary thing right now, and I think we are doing a pretty bang up job with handling it for the long term. And soon we will have a new rear bumper -I'll get that new car one piece at a time!

Don't get too comfortable!

 I was getting all adjusted to being at home with the kids full time. It's a lot of running around to school, preschool, housework and other daily have to do things. We were ticking right along. Of course, finances are tight, and things were day to day. We were set for potential long term unemployment though, and feeling mostly ok with it.
On Wednesday my contract company boss called and said he saw an opening on Craigslist at a refinery doing a few things that I have listed on my resume. There were a few computer programs they listed that they wanted experience in that I didn't have, but we decided to go ahead and send them my resume. My boss told me there would be an interview process and if I was selected for that he would let me know. Honestly, I didn't give the whole thing much thought.
The next day I was at my parents house letting the kids run off some steam in the sun at the playset when my boss called my cell phone again and said that I had the job. They received my resume and said I could start on Monday. I was pretty much blown away. In the last three days I have done a short computer based orientation, and tried to find a new nanny. I have to be in to work at 6:45am tomorrow. I don't know where I am supposed to park, or how to get there, or what exactly I will be doing.
I have never been so nervous in my life.
My mom is watching the kids for us while we figure it out, but I have peace that it will all get sorted out soon.
Starting tomorrow, I am working full time!

Table for Seven?

Last weekend we temporarily became a family of seven. For three crazy days we housed five kids in this humble abode. Five kids, with three of them under the age of five. It was amazingly fantastic.
I don't think too many people are surprised by my admitting that I love large families. Although I don't think that five kids makes for an overly large family, just robust! If our little tribe of six is pretty perfect, I can't help but think that seven is even better!
I know more than a few people who are very against large families. Sometimes people are opposed to them due to personal parenting abilities, or finances, or lack of quality time. I know Nathan feels pretty maxed out on all of those levels. But I think as a family, we are doing alright. Our kids know they are loved (immensely and unconditionally) and they get all of their needs and some of their wants. We provide for our kids on a much wider realm than simply financial. We currently make less than we ever have, but we are still able to give them everything they need. It just so happens that currently, they are able to enjoy a mom at home to play/feed/adventure/clean more than they get to enjoy trips down the toy aisle.
We have a small house, but the kids fit fine two by two in their bedrooms. Where our dining room used to be, we now have a playroom, with a little extra space for tea parties and train tracks. We don't eat dinner out much, but we enjoy making each other's favorite foods. Fortunately we seem to have a house full of blossoming chefs. Morgan is gaining all of her father's culinary talents, and can be left entirely unassisted in the kitchen to make pretty much anything. Last weekend she roasted us a whole chicken, with homemade Au Gratin potatoes and an apple dessert.
We avoid the movie theater, but enjoy a large screen tv with netflix instant streaming! We have a home espresso machine, a playground at Nana and Papa's and duck pond across the street.
I think that the most difficult thing about large families, or having kids in general, are outings that you can't always schedule around good behavior. I'm talking about those grocery shopping trips for milk and bread where your son lays down on the floor in the cereal isle because he wants the spiderman toy inside the cheerios NOW.  I remember when I was a mom to just one and I took her shopping and she decided that since I wouldn't give her a cookie she would roll on the floor all the way to the fish department. That one child had me pretty exasperated. I don't think the number of kids really changes anything, the parenting business still stays the same. I still have terrible outings, but it's usually only one kid having the hard time and gratefully the others help out as much as they can.
For me, the hardest part of parenting more than one, is time management. There is so much that we want to do with these kids, and only so many hours in the day. I want to get on the floor and build trains all evening with Simon, but Zoe needs help with her homework, Isla's diaper smells, and the dishes need washed. So you do all of them, because what else can you do?
Last weekend we watched a little cousin who's four months older than our Isla. We had Morgan that weekend, and filled every single seat in our outdated minivan. We went geocaching/treasure hunting and had a pizza picnic at the park. We took them all to a house warming party, kept them all up until eleven, and made a mountain of pancakes in the morning. We drank a little more coffee than we usually do, but we also got things done, like cleaned out our filth ridden cars and loaded the dishwasher a few dozen times.
By Monday morning we were back down to five humans in our house, which felt incredibly easy and quiet. I had to wait for two meals to pass before the dishwasher was full, and a box of cereal has lasted us more than one day.
I know child raising isn't everyone's idea of a great time, but I love it. I'm glad I get to do it with this great group of kids I call mine, and I wouldn't have it any other way.

Oh, Hello!

So in case you haven't noticed I am not so good at commitment.
But I want to be, so here is a new and improved promised effort.

To update, I am no longer working at the refinery I've been at for seven years. I'm super sad about it, and wish I could explain all the reasons, but the short of it is that I don't work there now and well, that is that.
Although now that I don't, I have lots of great stories I feel a little more free to tell. I've been engrossed in refinery life since I was three, so trust me, there are some good ones!

The kids are of course growing and challenging me daily, now that I am home full time, so there are lots of stories there too. We've caught every cold/flu/viral bug in our county so I've had lots and lots of extra time with these kids! Nathan is a story in himself, he's been very busy lately with some new hobbies of cheese making and beer brewing. Not to mention his continued passion for coffee roasting and tea blending.  In early February he returned from an exciting origin trip to Honduras where he met some coffee farmers and lots of other top notch coffee professionals.

My Dad is a reverend now, and a lot of our conversations have given me pause for thought. Our dear friends recently moved to eastern state to pastor a church restart there. Many theological discussions have been brewing.

So that gives us a nice total of three areas of my life with lots of story telling capabilities.
Unfortunately I also have to go wash dishes and flip laundry around, so you may have to wait a bit while I think and form some more concrete thoughts.

So you don't hate me too much I'll leave you with some pics of the kids. :)