Church

For those of you with multiple children, you understand the pains it takes to often get the gang to church on TIME and keep them QUIET. This is like a weekly tag team effort which I am thankful my inlaws attend church and help out. However sometimes events take place that are out of my control. Last week, I was under the impression that Grandpa had complete control of Roberto. I tried to man handle Thalia to keep her from wiggling her way to complete freedom. I was in deep thought of, "Ok we can make it another 20 minutes without making a scene. Only 20 more minutes.. only 20 more minutes."
Then I hear a hushed Roberto voice, "Mom, look at me." I glance to my right where my angelic child should be sitting to only see a vacant pew. Again I hear in a slightly louder hushed voice, "MOM! Do you see me?" Well obviously I didn't see him where he should have been at the time. Grandpa motions me to look at the pew BEHIND us! Roberto had once again decided to exit our pew by crawling UNDER the pew to get to the one behind us. I have no idea why this tickles him so or why Grandpa didn't try to stop him. Of course, the ushers behind the last pew are attempting to hush their laughter. He eventually joined us by army crawling under the pew!
Today I had the opportunity to join friends at their church. I enjoyed seeing a church from a different perspective. The sermon was mostly addressed to parents which is always helpful when you are in charge of a village. Afterwards, I look seriously at my son Jacob and asked him, "Well did you learn anything?" His response was a serious glance back,, "Did YOU learn anything?" Of course, this only cracked up friends standing in the circle of the conversation. I am guessing he heard a message or a lesson that dear ol Mom needs to take into serious consideration. I am working on it buddy. I am working on it. Love those kids and thankful God continues to lead me.

The Firsts of Many

Well here it is,, my first blog. I have no clue if I am even in the right place or if this will show up for viewing. When you are in charge of four kids, your life can get slightly hectic. I lose track of time, I lose track of milestones, but I don't lose track of the actual kids! I seem to always know where they are and what they are doing. I think keeping a blog will help me keep track of some of the simple things in life. It will also give me an opportunity to share some of the entertaining events in my daily life. I typically find these events to be part of the "norm." I usually find out later when I share my stories that perhaps they really are only a "norm" here in the Smiertenly Village. I hope I get the chance to share enough stories  to make it worthy of my time.
Today's mini story will be about child no. #3 , Roberto. He is my "ham" of a kid for sure and brings laughs all the time. Today he drew a picture of a big red monster with multiple eyes and arms.  As I admired his artistic abilities, he started to pick his nose. My friends who know me well are clearly laughing right now because this is a pet peeve for me. I told him to stop picking his nose because it is gross and germy. He says, "My monster has boogers too." He then proceeded to wipe the booger on the picture of the monster's nose. NICE.. Clearly the monster needed a REAL  BOOGER! Welcome to my world people!