I'll start by saying that I'm single-momming it right now. That's what I call it whenever Dustin is out of town, and I'm taking care of all the kids by myself. Technically, Dustin isn't out of town. But he's working so much and so late that he may as well be! He has some big customers in town right now that he's entertaining Let's see... Today is Thursday. We hardly saw him at all this weekend as he left both Saturday and Sunday as soon as breakfast was over and didn't return until after the kids were in bed at night. He spent those two days getting the old house (where customers stay when they come to town) ready. Cleaning, mowing, organizing. We did see him Monday after work! But then Tuesday after work, he had to go shopping... food for all the meals he was gonna cook and supplies for fishing, hunting, and whatever else he has planned for the customers. He didn't get home until the kids were already asleep on Tuesday. Yesterday morning he took Eden and Ila to meet their ride to school as usual, but two of the customers arrived yesterday, so he spent the day with them. He didn't get home until after midnight! Then he was gone before the kids woke up this morning so he could make the guys breakfast. Seven more customers arrived today, and even though he's only a few miles away, the kids probably won't see him at all between now and Sunday, and I will only see him during the early morning hours!
So I'm a little more tired than usual! Ha!
Eden has a life cycle project due tomorrow at school. She chose a butterfly. I had everything set out and ready so that as soon as she got home from school today, we could get started on it. I bought an extra poster board so that Ila could color on it and keep herself occupied while I helped Eden. But James? Well nothing keeps him occupied! So Eden and I got started on her project, and I just hoped for the best as far as James goes!
So James is just running around the house like a maniac, a little tornado destroying things as he goes. But Ila is nice and content coloring on her poster, so yay! I walked into the other room while Eden was working on her title, and she started yelling to me that James was on the table. Sure enough, James wanted to see what Eden and Ila were doing and climbed up to investigate. I kept putting him back on the ground. He kept climbing up. Up, down, up, down, until y'all... he basically just lost his shit, excuse my language. He had ENOUGH of me not letting him on the table and decided to throw himself a tantrum. Once finished with his tantrum, he decided to show us that he was still angry at us by trying to grab everything off of the table and throwing it. So I decided to put him in his high chair so we could work on the project. He stiffened up, arched his little back, and let out a shriek, but in the end, I managed to bend him and hold him down long enough to get the high chair buckle fastened. I gave him paper, crayons, pom poms. The high chair is RIGHT NEXT to the table where we were working, so he could see everything going on, but he just threw all his paper, crayons, and pom poms on the floor and fussed at me. "Okay, James, whatever, be mad, but you still have to sit there while we do this project!" Ila finished coloring her poster, saw that Eden was glueing things and decided that she needed to glue things too. "Okay, Ila, whatever, here's a glue stick, glue all these extra pom poms to your board." Eden then decided that she wanted the chrysalis that we made to hang from a real stick. So I sent her outside to get one. Ila insisted she needed a stick too. Ila's stick was rather large, but she was happy so I was all, "Ila, great job! I love it, let's definitely hot glue it to your poster!!!" Then she wanted more sticks for her poster. She went back outside and returned with an actual giant log. "Um, sorry Ila, I don't think that will work. But why don't you go throw that into the fire pit?" We continued on. James even decided to stop being mad and laugh with us as we all worked. At one point, Eden went to my craft closet to try and find something to use for her butterfly's antenna. Ila followed and started bringing back random things and asking if she could use them for her poster too. "Sure! Great! Fantastic!" The majority of my craft supplies ended up in the kitchen rather than in the craft closet, but again, she was happy.
Eventually we completed Eden's project, Ila's poster is adorable and she is SO PROUD, I managed to make them dinner, give showers to Eden and Ila, tuck them all in, and clean up a giant mess.
Working on Eden's project with her was nothing short of chaotic. But at one point she said, "I love doing this with you! Projects are like, the most fun thing ever!" Would it have been a thousand times easier and faster without Ila and James around? Um, duh! BUT, in the midst of all the chaos, my heart was so full of joy! Ila made the biggest mess ever, but she was so happy and so proud of herself. She is planning to give her poster to Mrs. Machala, her teacher. James was a little mad at me at one point for ruining his fun, but I'm so thankful for him, even when he's climbing onto tables, throwing fits, and literally destroying the house.
This was definitely NOT a calm, relaxing evening, but I know, without a doubt, that these are the best days of my life. This is all I've ever wanted. Thank you, God, for giving it to me! My heart is SO FULL!
Eden did a GREAT job on her project! All the ideas were hers, I just helped her execute them! She cut the leaf out of green felt, used yellow beads for the eggs, made the caterpillar out of pom poms (and he has googly eyes!), wrapped a crayon in yarn for the chrysalis, and painted a butterfly that we printed out from the computer. She had a blast working on it. Like, really, she LOVED doing this project because she is MY daughter! And nothing made me happier when I was in school than when the teacher announced that we had to do a project. Seriously! And I love that Eden loves them too!
Ila's beautiful masterpiece! I'm a little sad that she wants to give it to Mrs. Machala! I wanted to hang it on her wall!
