Category — frustrating

I’m just back from the unhappy experience of being at the dentist. Now, don’t get me wrong-I’m very happy to be ABLE to go to the dentist. I know that I need to be grateful for dental coverage. But the appointment and the reason behind it were NOT happy events.

So, let’s go back about 3 years and I’ll tell my tale…

Chapter 1

Pain! Lots of pain while chewing and drinking. Hot-ouch! Cold-ouch! Something must be wrong. I think I’ll ignore it. After-all, I DO have 2 sides to my mouth and only 1 of them is painful. Solution-simply use the other side…only! This chapter lasted about a year.

Chapter 2

Pain! Too much pain! It’s time to call the dentist. I’ve been avoiding one side of my mouth for about a year and there really must be something that should be done. Right? So, I made the dreaded phone call (mind you, I take the kids to the dentist regularly. But for myself, there always seems to be a good excuse.) and scheduled an appointment. At the appointment I was severely scolded for having waited so long and informed that I was in need of a root canal.

~DREAD~

The procedure was scheduled and carried out. It was a 2 appointment procedure. I was told that all went well. ~sigh of relief~

Now…let’s forget about my stupid teeth and get on with life! And THAT is JUST what I did.

Chapter 3

Pain!

Why oh why is there pain in the area of the tooth that had the root canal?! I MUST have something stuck. Better floss EXTRA well…again and again and again.  And that is just what I did.

Over the next 4 months I would have that thought from time to time. I’d floss, brush, rinse and then forget about it until it bugged me again. 2 weeks ago my tooth decided to talk to me and tell me it was no longer going to allow me to ignore it. I spoke gently to it saying, “be well little tooth. You have had a root canal and are fine. You may look different from my other teeth, but you’re going to be ok. I will give you a break and I’ll (once again) chew on the other side of my mouth. Will that make you happy?” Little tooth quieted down and enjoyed the rest. But 4 days ago it yelled at me saying, “STOP ignoring me and patronizing me! I don’t want rest. I want attention!” Then the gum around the tooth started to swell. After 1 day of swelling and pain I called the dentist (on a Sunday). I explained everything and was put on antibiotics until I could come in for an appointment.

Appointment time! So…the dentist greeted me and got right to work. “Oh. Oh my. Let’s get an x-ray of this. My my…Oh Mrs. Lang, this is not good. Let me show you”.

My tooth has broken…in half and must be removed! Apparently that root canal was to be followed by a crown. This was an appointment I never made and frankly, forgot about. Now, here I am 2 years later facing oral surgery and the removal of a tooth that can not be saved. I’m more than a little freaked out!

Chapter 4 to come soon. I must stay on the antibiotics until the surgery, so you can bet it will be in a week or so.

*grumbling* Have a great day~

Oh this kid! He is such a sweet lil charmer! We all adore him and his magnetic smile. But as the end of the line in a large family, this lil kiddo can surely pack a punch.

Tonight, he got angry at his 7 yr old brother and took the opportunity to kick him while he was on the floor. When I stood him in time out he started crying and said, “Don’t you know I’m allergic to time-outs?”

I have my work cut out for me!

Have a good night~

After everyone had dinner, I decided to try to grab 5 minutes to myself and retreated to my room. I should’ve known better!

“I didn’t do it!”

Lex’s cinnamon-covered clothing

Bath time !

There are several topics I want to write on but I will be sitting with my first grader, overseeing the many, many, many pages of work that were hidden from not only me (under the bed), but from the teacher (crumpled in the desk) over the last few weeks. So…off to the dining table I go with an arm load of paper work for me and several sharpened pencils for him.

Doing the Dance…

I have a dog. Well, at least I think I have a dog. I buy dog food and dog treats. I remember having to bomb my house for fleas this summer. There are dog leashes in my cupboard. Every morning Tristan goes outside and puts dog food in one bowl and fresh water in the other bowl. Each afternoon he walks the yard making sure it’s clean of anything the dog may have left behind. But where the heck is the dog?

She simply won’t stay in the yard. It all started with her digging under and breaking through the side gate. Once the hole was filled in, she started digging under the fence between us and one of the neighbors’ yards. THEN, she figured out that by going through the neighbor’s yard, she could wiggle out of their fence, where a slat is missing. So now, she comes to wake me in the middle of the night to let her out and when I go to let her back in…no dog!

And just where does this houdini dog go? She runs several streets up to our friend’s house. She used to live there and apparently is still pining for her former owner. When he was ill, a couple years ago, we agreed that it was best if we took her. She feels differently!

Well Sneaky Dog, guess what?! I have a few tricks up my sleeve too! Yesterday I had the neighbor’s missing slat replaced. Judging from this morning when you were sitting at the back door, wet and muddy from climbing under the fence…and then back again, I think you’ve discovered that 2 can play at this game. Let’s see how long the fixed fence keeps her home.

Have a great day~

Apparently I got too comfy with having my oldest kiddos back in the house for the Christmas break. I didn’t check on their return flights until THIS morning. Why would I? They are 20 and 17 and are perfectly capable of knowing what their travel arrangements are. Right?

It seems that Mom is still needed for such things. I looked up Kateri’s itinerary to confirm that she does, in fact, leave on Friday morning (she was thinking that she may be leaving tomorrow) and decided to check on JJ”s as well. He’s been telling me and everyone that he leaves on the 9th. I pulled up the itinerary and read that he was to leave YESTERDAY! Yesterday. Hmmmm…I really can’t fix this right now. I’m in the middle of the morning routine and have to get to work and the kiddos to school in a couple of hours. He’s accepted a job with a neighbor for tomorrow and has plans for this evening.

I guess Travelocity will be my friend this afternoon when I try to find a reasonable ticket for him to travel on Friday. I wonder if US Airways will work with me if we tell them he missed his flight?

I’ll keep you updated.

Have a great day~

School, work, lunches, homework, cub scouts, laundry, broken items in the bathroom, Christmas cards, school pictures to send out, Kateri coming home, JJ coming home, Clay coming home, Christmas dinner, Christmas shopping, Christmas wrapping, phone calls, bills, folding socks, looking for the missing box of Christmas decorations, clean the yard, clean the garage, make sure the vehicles don’t run out of gas, Science Fair projects…STOP!

The Science Fair threw me over! I’ve been juggling the list above and was holding it together pretty well, until last night and the Science Fair. Weeks ago one of my kids gave me their list of needed items for their project. I took the list, placed it on my desk with the million other papers and moved along with daily life. Yesterday it was ABSOLUTELY the last day to get the stuff for her and have her do her experiment. I told her that I couldn’t find the list, but that I was headed to the store and she could just text the list to me. This is the text I received;

Blender
3 disposable pipettes
1- 10 ml graduated cylinder
3- 50 ml flasks
1 stirring rod
Graph paper
Distilled water
Cheese cloth
Corn or potato starch
Glass beaker
Tincture iodine
Frozen OJ
Bottled OJ
Canned OJ
Oranges
Juicer

Uh…I was at Vons, not a medical lab! You can only imagine the conversation that occurred after that text. After acknowledging that she was not at fault and had done everything correctly, in giving me her list weeks ago, and that I had dropped the ball by not looking at it and trying to figure out where to get these things, I started to cry. Yep, crying seemed like the best way to go at that point. I mean, what kind of mother am I? I had the list and I left it till the last minute. I promised I’d call her teacher and explain. First I had to stop crying. Poor teacher! I got her on the phone and only got through, “hi, it’s Jen Lang” before the flood gates opened again.

Yikes!

Long story short, she told me that I did not need to cry over the science fair and that my daughter would, indeed, have the time she needed to get things done.

Whew! Sometimes there’s just a straw to break the camel’s back and yesterday it was the science fair. Thank goodness for kind and understanding people!

Have a great day~

This question recently came from one of my readers. With her permission, I thought I’d share it and my answer;

Hi. So I’m asking for M.O.M advice. I know a lot of big families but they either have all small kids or they tend not to be involved in as many activities as my kids. Yours seem to be in a lot of stuff, too, so here’s the question. Or problem. Mine are driving me absolutely nuts with the last minute stuff. I forgot my… I have rugby practice… I need a…. This morning at 6:20 my son informed me that he needs a flash drive because he lost his a long time ago. But he needs it today. He knew I went to staples last night. Then, he forgot his rugby stuff. Which means that I have to drive it to him instead of him getting a ride to rugby.

Here’s the thing: If I stop them from going to sports because they forgot their added practice or gear, I feel like I’m punishing the team, not them. But I’m trying to get them all over the planet and work… So I’m being punished.

Any advice?

Laura

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Yeah, I’ve been there (and still am from time to time). I totally understand what you mean about punishing the team. But…the kids key into that quickly and understand that you’re not willing to let the team down, so they’re off the hook. So, sit them down and tell them (I like to tell them things AND have it in writing so that they understand it’s not going away) that the next time that you have to run around because of their forgetfulness or mismanagement of time, that you are going to give them an extra chore that they can pick from a list of extra chores (make it something substantial, that doesn’t usually get done, but that you REALLY WANT to get done). If it happens again, after an extra chore has been given, then tell them that they will be fined (this is IF they have $. A teen’s $ is usually hard enough earned that they don’t want to have to relinquish it for something that isn’t what they WANT). IF it happens AGAIN after that (make sure you keep track) then they lose the privilege of the sport for the day/week/one game…you decide. BUT, they will have had PLENTY of advance warning, so it’ll be THEIR decision to let the team down. AND let them know that they will have to give the coach (and team, if you choose) an apology for letting them down and tell them why it happened. This all puts the ball in their court. They have plenty of advance notice of what the cause and effect are and the decision is theirs.

That’s my advice. It’s hard to make them accountable for their actions, but it can be done.

Good luck!

This morning I had to run to the store to finish the soccer snacks. I woke up realizing that I had forgotten the oranges. Usually when I dash off to the grocery store one or two kiddos run out to the car. But it was still early (6 am) so there was only one store companion with me. The checkers know me and the kids and the older girls are, often, in the store on their own. This morning the checker greeted me and then looked at Maddi and said, “What number are you?”. She really didn’t know how to answer. She just looked at him with a funny look on her face. I explained to her that he wanted to know what # in the family line-up she is.

This is always a funny question. My kids never know how to answer it because they aren’t referred to by #. We use their names because we know their names and their personalities and what’s happening with each kiddo in each day. The “What # are you” question is a bit dehumanizing. It lends to the attitude that because I am Mommy of Many children, that I would just slap a number on them and dish out bowls of food and clothing as if they were the nameless masses.

I’m glad my kids don’t automatically know what number they are and I can only hope to keep giving them the personal and individual attention that they’ve come to rely on.

Have a great day~

Now that October is over and I’m taking down the ghosts, skeletons and witches that the kids have made over the years, I realize that we didn’t make it to the pumpkin patch this year. Uh! It’s always a challenge to squeeze it in because of the busy afternoons and the jam-packed weekends, but somehow, we always manage. But this year I got too comfortable buying the awesomely-priced pumpkins at our local market. Once they were on the front porch, I let the urgency of getting to the pumpkin patch slip and here we are, looking back at October with no visit to Oma’s. I’m a little sad.

I’m even sadder when I look ahead, through this November and see that there will be no annual trip to Knott’s Berry Farm. Sad! We’ve been going to Knott’s, every November that we’ve been in California, since Arianna was small enough for me to carry her in the backpack. Knott’s has a Salute to the Armed Forces each November and the whole family looks forward to this trip. BUT, this year the park has changed it’s guidelines for entrance and the military member must be present for their families to take advantage of the offer. Excluding the dependents of deployed service members doesn’t make sense to me. It makes the sting of deployment even greater when the children who look forward to a tradition are not able to participate because Dad is gone. Ugh! Why don’t I just take them on my own, without the promotion, you ask. The wonderful offer that Knott’s puts out every November is for the active duty member and one guest to get in for free. They are then able to purchase up to 6 additional tickets for $15 each. Regular admission for adults is $44.99 and kid’s tickets are $23.99. Kid’s tickets are based on height. So, I have 4 “adults” among the 7 children that I currently have at home and 3 “kids”. I’ll let you all do the math to figure out the difference in the price. But you can see that it’s a great difference. Once you do all that math you’ll see why the Lang Clan never storms a theme park without an awesome promotion, especially around the holidays.

So, while I’m thankful that Knott’s puts on this really wonderful deal each year, I’m confused at their thinking. If a dependent is holding a copy of the Active Duty member’s orders and an ID card, I think it’s a shame that they will not be able to take advantage of this offer. And I’m really sad that for the first time in 10 years, we will not be going.

Have a great day~

This day, this day. What a day. Ever had one that is just wrong from the moment you get going until you just, plain call is quits?

We are driving Mariah to her carpool each morning, which means we leave the house at 7 am. This is a huge task! We normally leave at 7:30 and none of us has adjusted well to the loss of 1/2 an hour. Today, there was much dragging of feet, forgetting to brush teeth and losing of shoes. We left 10 minutes late and with no shoes for Tristan. I really didn’t have a plan for how that was all gonna work itself out. We started to drive to meet her carpool and called along the way. Yep, missed them! Through clenched teeth I said that I’d make some phone calls, focus on getting Tristan some shoes and figure it all out. I called work to let them know I would get the majority of the kiddos to the school they go to and that I work at and then would have to drive Mariah up to her school. I then made a call to see if a pair of shoes might be able to meet Tristan at school. No dice! I headed to Target…it was 7:30 am and they don’t open until 8. AHHHHHHH! I made another call in hopes of shoes meeting Tristan at school. BINGO! Ok, off to the school. Mariah was offered a ride, albeit late, to school, from the school we were heading to. Big breath! This just may all work out.

After much discussion, we decided that Mariah would stay with me and help out in the preschool because getting to school late, on a short day of testing, really wouldn’t serve any purpose. So…extra hands at school today. This actually worked out very well. Mariah is truly wonderful with preschoolers. Who knew?!

Oh…the shoes! We were, graciously, met in the school parking lot, with a perfect-fitting pair of shoes for Tristan.

After making it through the preschool day (one potty accident on Lex’s part) I took Mariah to a sushi lunch and then headed to the grocery store. My basket was full when my phone rang…preschool was calling…another potty accident for Lex and even though there were extra clothes available, he had no extra shoes to replace the pee-soaked ones he was now wearing. Off I went to the preschool to pick up Gabi and Lex, bring them home and then head back to get the other kids, after volleyball practice. Weeeeeeee!

On my way, I received another phone call. This time it was a friend letting me know that a dear woman, who I’ve loved and admired for her strength, faith, compassion and love had passed away. Whew….! The story behind this is a blog unto itself and when I find the right words, I will write it. But needless to say, I had an emotional rest of the day.

So, here I am, counting my blessings and reflecting on the people who have touched my life and the precious moments that are within each day…even the challenging ones. I’m taking a big breath, having a glass of wine and being thankful for all that I got to live today.

Live!

Good night~

Over the years I’ve had 2 Girl Scouts and JJ in Boy Scouting. They have all stopped Scouting and now Tristan is in Cub Scouts. He just started with the beginning of this school year and I’m remembering the thing that has always made me look like a less-than-dedicated mom…the uniform and patches! Ugh! I am so challenged at keeping up with having everything put correctly onto the uniform. I know it seems like a simple thing, but somehow it’s the part I just can’t keep up on.

as you can see, I don’t have any problem with getting them to events and helping them earn things…

…it’s just actually sewing them on (or even ironing them on) that gets me. Check out all those safety pins!

this is the stack of what JJ earned that never made it onto his sash. The sash and this pile have been on my dresser for a year. Yes…a year!

this is as far as I ever got with the whole thing.

This is Tristan’s shirt. I pulled up all the “good mom” stuff I could find inside of me and I put it all together in time for last night’s meeting. But I’m gonna need to do some serious self-talk to stay on top of it! I’m not sure why THIS is the thing that I fall so short on.

~sigh~

I’m wondering if there’s a badge for sewing on your own patches!

Have a great day~

It’s been a really long and frustrating afternoon/evening of cranky kids and soccer practices. I really got worked up into a mess of tense anticipation over what the next unfocused antic was going to be. I thought I was going to snap, so I packed up my chair, the snacks, the toys and all the other stuff I lug around all afternoon and changed my focus. I decided to watch Luke-Xavier run around. Honestly, being able to switch from the “organized” play of practice to the free-spirited energy of a 3 yr-old made me feel better.

We got home and it was time for baths and showers. Max headed to my shower but came out surprisingly fast. I ran through the check list;

Me-Did you wash your hair with shampoo?
Max-Yes
Me-Did you scrub your body with body wash and a scrubby?
Max-Yes
Me-Come here and let me look at your hair.
Me-Hmmm…It doesn’t look like you had any shampoo in here (6 yr-olds usually leave a little residue that needs help getting rinsed out. The total lack of bubbly residue made it difficult to believe that he had lathered and rinsed).
Max-To tell the truth, I couldn’t get to it.
Me-What about your body?
Max-No, didn’t do it.
Me-So really all you did was get wet?
Max-Yeah, but wasn’t it a good start?

~sigh~

I’m counting on being able to look back at these moments and smile. It’s what keeps me from snapping!

Good night~

It’s 8 am on Saturday and the whole day is in front of me. The kids have only been up for an hour and I got to have 2 hours of quiet, alone time to greet the day and enjoy the fresh, quiet, crispness of the morning. Now to get going and tackle the list of things that must be done today.

I have 2 events at my house this week which means extra cleaning, organizing and prepping. It means the lawn must be mowed and the back patio swept. I’m looking around at the hand prints on the patio sliding door and the smudges on the cupboards. Come on! I’ve cleaned those spots a million + times since living in this house! I’m just feeling tired of cleaning the very same things over and over again! Ok, dishes and laundry I understand. We don’t want to be eating off of icky dishes or wearing smelly clothes. I’ve tried the paper plate route, but they get pricey for a group this size. So, the dishes will continue to get washed, but the baseboards?! The refrigerator door handle?! The inside of the microwave?! The shower door?! I’m really wishing that one, good cleaning or faked blindness could cure these constant issues!

As much as I’d like to ignore these things, I know myself and I’d go nuts letting people into my house without first getting them done. So, off I go to wipe down the patio door and the kitchen counters, once again, knowing that the little ones are right behind me, fingerprints at the ready!

Have a great day~

First off, I must give credit where credit is due.  The title is Clay’s idea and it was catchy enough that I decided to use it.

I don’t know what’s happening with the poor dog this year, but the flea issue has been unbearable! Every summer we have to treat the yard and the dog, but I’ve never had to treat my house before.  I started keeping the dog outside, about a week ago but the problem had already moved it’s way inside.  Two mornings ago I treated our playroom carpet, but the issue became apparent in the rest of the house, so yesterday, I set off foggers.   I’ve never done this before and was completely afraid that I was going to end up blowing up the house! I enlisted the help of a neighbor’s husband to make sure the pilot light on the hot water heater was out and then room by room, set them off.  Then, I loaded the kiddos up and decided what to spend the next several hours doing.  We did the Costco shopping and then took dinner to a park.  The kids thought it was funny to eat chicken and salad at the playground.  We killed the rest of the time by heading to Target.

So far, they seem to have worked.  Thank goodness! I was at a point that I didn’t even want to be in the house anymore! I was ready to have JJ pitch the tent in the back yard and give the house to the dog and the fleas.

After it’s all been said and done, the whole thing ran more than $100! Not an inexpensive venture!

But at least I no longer have to outfit myself in long pants, long sleeves and socks before walking through the house!

Ick~

I truly hope the season has been kinder to your pets and your home!

Have a great day~