It’s feeling weird, really. Over the past ten years, I’ve been at various times a full time college student, a full time employee, a full time mommy (toddler twins and newborn twins? Yeah, that’s pretty damned “full time”) and now, finally, I should be at a place where I can get more done. I should be able to find plenty of time to write. I should be able to do more freelance stuff. But instead, I find myself nearly disconnected from the ‘net. Even during those early, crazy days of having babies at home, I still got online to talk to my mommy friends. But not now! I can’t manage to catch my own ass, and when I find myself with some free time, I don’t want to be online. I want to be outside in the sunshine, listening to my kids bicker with one another. I want to lie on the living room floor while they drive cars up over my head and under my knees.

I’ve got so much on my mind lately that I can’t seem to get anything DONE, though. I have a to-do list a mile long, and I’m walking around in a daze. The house is a pit. The kids are wearing crazy mismatched clothes. I keep getting distracted by stuff, so I have a thousand half-finished projects all over the place. And I’m seriously getting to the point where I want to throw a lit match at my laundry room. Even if I ever manage to get all this laundry done, I’ll NEVER get it put away.

I think a lot of this is because the kids are off track from school. Do you have any idea how hard it is just to take a freakin’ SHOWER with all the kids home? Unless I lock them in the bathroom with me, they’ll be outside walking across the back fence while I’m conditioning. It’s nutty. I’m not sure which is the biggest challenge, having a child with autism or having four children who are very close in age. In both situations, the kids feed off the bad behavior and do things as a group that they would NEVER do individually.

Another week. Then I can find a new excuse for why I can’t get anything done.

I tried really hard to convince Paul that he should be Booberry, but he would have NONE of that. So my sister and I had to be cereal monsters all by ourselves! Amazing what you can whip up in an hour with construction paper, markers, and packaging tape, huh?

Sadly, we didn’t win any contests. But we did get lots of laughs!

And it kind of sucked. It was creepy and confining and SO INCREDIBLY LOUD. Like, loudness in a way I was not even prepared for. My ears were ringing when we left last night, like I’d been sitting next to a speaker at a concert or something! I had earplugs in, thank God, or I’d probably be suffering some sort of permanent hearing loss now, I’m thinking. This is what the machine looks like:

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So here I am, grilling chicken. The sun is setting, the fall leaves are gorgeous, the kids are drawing with chalk on the patio. I’m having a glass of wine and listening to Coldplay. It feels like just a perfect, beautiful moment in time, and I felt like it was important enough to quickly log in here and mention it, since I’ve had so many sucktacular moments lately.

Just sharing!

Kayley wore my costume from last year to her buddy Dylan’s birthday/Halloween soirée. Doesn’t she look cute? She LOVED being so tall - between the wig and the shoes, she was a good 8 inches taller than her usual shrimpy self. I think she had fun, but she was worn OUT by the time I brought her home. I guess teetering around on those shoes all night wears a girl out. She was asleep in bed before I had my pajamas on.

I love this time of year.