Mommy of Many®

So, tonight I got a valuable lesson in patience and clear-headed thinking. My sink was backed up. Not just backed up but full of all sorts of icky looking things in brown water AND backed up. I pushed up my sleeve and reached into the disposal. I fished out a few items-carrot top, onion peelings and 1/2 a lemon. I tried the disposal again, got a nice water show, but didn’t make any progress on getting the sink to drain. Now, in years past my way of handling this would have been to pick up the phone, put a call into Housing Maintenance (for those who have never lived in Military Housing, let me just tell you that Housing Maintenance is amazing. A-M-A-Z-I-N-G! There is always…ALWAYS someone to answer the phone, take the description of what’s wrong/broken/clogged/needing to be replaced and then they determine if it’s an emergency or if it can wait to be handled within the next 24 hours). I lived in Housing for the last 12 years. I pretty much didn’t need to learn to fix anything. But now…different story.

After clearing whatever I could find I ran the water and the disposal again. Nope! So I reluctantly went and got the plunger. The only thing that allowed my ick factor to use the plunger is the fact that it’s new. I made a mental note to purchase a Kitchen-Only plunger to keep under the sink.

One of these brightly colored cuties would do

So I plunged and I gathered and I learned that water that won’t drain down the sink WILL come out the handy overflow thingy on top of my sink . Ok! So I made sure it was aiming into the sink and I plunged all the water out of the sink through the overflow. Along with the water came many many potato peelings, carrot peelings and of all things-onion peelings. Someone (who does not live in my house) needs a lesson on what can and can not go down the disposal!

40 minutes later, with rough, dry hands, I cleaned the sink with soap and hot water and replaced the bathroom plunger behind the toilet, where it belongs. And though I wasn’t particularly pleased about having to learn this lesson, I am patting myself on the back for a job completed (not sure about well done).

Doing the Dance of the Children and Learning Something New Everyday~

We had a kid-packed weekend!

Tristan built a cool Lego car with moving parts

We went to our housing area’s Spring Extravaganza (thanks to Lincoln Military Housing for a fun event)

The boys enjoyed petting all sorts of animals

And notice Tristan’s airbrushed tattoos.

Lex petted 1, big bunny

while Gabi posed with the Easter Bunny. The roll of paper in her hand is a big picture and note that she prepared for him ahead of time.

The kids had fun with all sorts of organized games (Max, eyeing the limbo bar).

It was a beautiful weekend to be outside and enjoy the sunny, San Diego Spring.

Yesterday we went to a birthday party for one of the little boys in my class. Somehow, I forgot to bring my camera. Which is a shame because it would’ve been great to capture Lex charging the pinata with the bat as if it was a battering ram. Hey, strategy counts for a lot! It was at this party that I learned a good lesson to file away for future use-DO NOT EVER hire a magician for ANY party that Max is going to attend!

Max pays close attention to detail and is very analytical-2 things that don’t work well if you’re trying to “trick” a kid. Max kept shouting out where the coins actually were or why it was impossible for the magician’s hand to be on fire. I had to creep up behind him and remind him that this was “fun” and that it wasn’t nice for him to try to point these things out. He didn’t think it was fun to ignore the truth of what was happening.

~sigh~

We had a great weekend. The kids ate too much sugar and Mom got worn out, but hey, isn’t that what the weekend’s about?!

Doing the Dance of the Children-No Tricks~

Not so long ago I wrote about being nervous about how groceries were going to be bought, now that Clay is retired and his pay has changed. The next morning, we woke up to groceries left at our front door. Immediately my family asked if I’d blogged that we needed toilet paper and fruit.

Today, a Christmas Tree was left at our doorstep. Again came the question-Did I blog about not yet having a Christmas Tree? NO! It wasn’t that we COULDN’T get a tree, I just haven’t had time. (come to find out, 2 of my kiddos had been down to the housing office, yesterday, and were asked if we had a tree yet. When they answered “no”, housing decided to drop one off. I’m gonna miss Military Housing!). But here’s what the kids said next-

“Mom, you need to blog that in July we need a house! Maybe 1 will show up at our door!”

I love my kids! There’s nothing like the confidence of kiddos.

Doing the Dance of the Children and Smiling With Each Step~

I haven’t really been ready to talk about this because I just couldn’t figure out how to process it. But the end is speeding toward us, some pieces have fallen into place and I think I can spit out the words now.

About 4 months ago Clay let me know that he would be forced into retirement at the end of November (see how close it is?!). He was passed over for advancement and since he has already served 23 years, it meant he would have to retire.

You can imagine that this brought on a lot of anxieties! First of all (and really foremost in my head) we live in military housing. We’ve been fortunate enough to be in this AMAZING housing for 11 years! My last 4 children have never known anything but this neighborhood. That doesn’t mean we haven’t done our fair share of moving around. The first 7 years, this family moved and moved and moved! So, if his military career was going away, so was our house! This became my primary focus. I figured I’d leave the job issue to him, but I couldn’t get over thinking about not having a house anymore. Where would we live?! Do you know how expensive housing is in San Diego?! What about the kid’s schools?! It’s very odd to go from a life of being told where you’re going, when you’re going there and what you will be doing once you get there, to having to CHOOSE these things! And honestly, there’s a whole system set in place for the transition, but it normally is a year or so long process, not one of 4 months!

After stressing out about these things for about 3 months, I finally decided to go down to the housing office and ask some questions. I’m sure glad I did! I found out that we have an automatic 30 days that we can stay here, after retirement and also found out that an Exception to Policy letter could be written asking to stay through the end of the school year. Most of my anxiety melted away right there! We are now approved to stay here until the end of June, if it works out for us to do so. This made me feel SO much better!

So, Clay will be retired at the end of this month. He is looking for a new career. His ceremony will be at the beginning of December and the kids can finish out their school year in the schools they know in the neighborhood they know so well. After that…

Well, you can imagine there’s a lot of prayer going on.

But right now, it’s just time to focus on the upcoming holidays and take each day as it comes. I know there’s a Big Plan that I’m not in charge of and I’m reminding myself each day not to worry about it. I can do what I can do and leave the rest in God’s hands.

Doing the Dance of the Children One Day at a Time~

The flooded bathroom because of an overflowing toilet.  This is where I have to be thankful.  Yes, thankful!  Thankful that I’m in military housing and simply had to throw towels down, shut the door and pick up the phone.  They were here in  20 minutes.  The culprit….an apple.  And apple?!  Of all the things I thought he’d find….an apple?!  I’m pretty sure one of the kids must’ve grabbed an apple, taken a few bites, told me they were done with it and I must’ve said, “no, you took it, you’ve gotta eat it”.  So off to the bathroom to flush the evidence.  

~sigh~ 

M.O.M. is thankful for the ease of housing maintenance and challenged by this first week of summer.  

Have a great day~

If you keep up with this blog then you know we’ve been having the house redone.  We’ve been here for 7 years and were eligible to have the house repainted, re-carpeted, retiled, etc. So we moved everything out, took all the pictures off the walls, removed all the nails, packed up all the books and nick knacks and got ready to have this house made to look new again.  I was so excited to see how fresh and new everything looked and felt.  Then, one day after the tile was relaid in the entry,ONE DAY…. this happened

A baking stone was dropped on the new tile and a big chunk was broken out of one of the tiles.  I was so angry!  I couldn’t believe that I could only have a new looking house for 24 hours!  I was also totally worried about what housing was going to say.  

The next day I went in and told them what happened.  Within 24 hours the worker was back, replacing the one tile and making it look fresh again.  

This is one of the top reasons we choose to live in housing.  Every time something needs to be replaced or fixed, I simply pick up the phone.  Imagine how much more difficult it would be to be  parenting on my own for the next year, if I had to worry about every time something broke or needed to be replaced!  Between the ease of maintenance and the support of neighbors, I can’t imagine living this military/Mommy of Many life without being in housing!

Good night~