It’s a CRISIS!!!

  “MOM!!! Come QUICK, it’s a CRISIS!!!”

  Those are the words I hear at least five times every day from various children, usually the younger ones. Sometimes, it’s actually a crisis. More often, it’s not.

  Take today, for instance. Throughout the course of our day, four “crisis’s” [the computer says crisis’s is correct, so that’s what I’m going with] happened.  The first “crisis” occurred at breakfast when the apple jelly ran out and Jackson [7] was unable to eat apple jelly on his muffin.

  A crisis?

  I think not.

  The second: Lauren [4] was coloring after breakfast and a crayon broke. Once again, a crisis? Really?

  We didn’t have another crisis until mid-afternoon. This one happened when Lindsay [12] was using our family sewing machine. Rhonda [15], Carrie [14], Lindsay, and I all enjoy sewing. The main things we sew are jumpers and skirts for ourselves, Jayne, [6], and Lauren. Lindsay recently decided she wanted to make a nightgown for herself–a big project. She picked out some pretty sky-blue flannel at the store and found ribbon to match. This afternoon, she got everything ready to sew.

  She had only been in the bedroom fifteen minutes when guess what I hear. “MOM!!! Come QUICK, it’s a CRISIS!!!”

  I went into the bedroom. Lindsay was kneeling on the floor, holding scissors in one hand and a piece of blue flannel in the other.

  “I cut it wrong,” she cried. “What do I do? Look, I cut on the wrong line–it’s too small. You told me which line to do, but I forgot–and now it’s ruined. I can’t make a nightgown.”

  “Well, wait a minute, let’s see. We bought some extra material in case something like this happened. Yes, look–you can just fold that up for scrap and start again.”

  “Oh. Okay. Thank you Mom; I know what to do now. You don’t have to be in here anymore.”

  How’s that for gratitude?

  The last crisis really was more of a crisis. Steven [9], George [8], and Jackson had gone into the backyard to play [why they would want to play outside at 5:00 P.M. in July is beyond me]. I was in the kitchen making dinner. Suddenly Steven flung open the back door.

  “MOM!!! Hurry, it’s a CRISIS!!!”

  “Steven, please don’t make the door hit the wall,” I replied. “What’s the matter?”

  “It’s Jackson–George pitched a baseball to him, and it hit him in the mouth. His nose is bleeding, too.”

  Jackson’s nosebleed was stopped fairly easily. Upon further investigation, I found that a small, perfectly square chip had been taken out of his front tooth. George must’ve thrown that baseball hard.

 

  I looked up the definition of the word “crisis” in the computer dictionary. Dangerous or worrying time: a situation or period in which things are very uncertain, difficult, or painful, especially a time when action must be taken to avoid complete disaster or breakdown.

  Now let me ask you honestly: Can running out of jelly really be considered a dangerous or worrying time?

To say the least…

  It was a long night.

  These past few days, Thomas [5] has been sick. He had a small fever on Friday night; nothing to really worry about. Yesterday, he had only a slight fever, but didn’t feel like moving around much. I tried to keep him away from his siblings so they wouldn’t get sick too–it spreads fast in our house. But last night was when it really started up.

  At 6:30 P.M., his fever was 104 degrees exactly.

  Thomas has never been a good sleeper anyway, but last night was awful. We got all the kids to bed around 8:15, like usual. I went to the kitchen to make some granola [I love my granola–have to have it every morning] and John went downstairs to catch up on some computer work. At 8:30, Lindsay [12] came out to the kitchen to get a glass of water. This isn’t unusual; in fact, it’s routine. Lindsay will generally stay in the kitchen for a few minutes after getting her water, helping me if I’m cooking something or just standing and talking to me. It’s a nice time we get to spend together–it’s so hard to get one-on-one time with each of my kids–and I make no objection since my four oldest are allowed to read until 9:00, which means she would be up anyway.

  Well, no sooner had she left to go back to bed then Lauren [4] came out. She needed her doll, which she had left on the kitchen table [do dolls go on the kitchen table??]. When she discovered I was making granola, of course she had to eat a raisin, even though she had already brushed her teeth.

  Lauren finally went back to bed, and I finished making the granola, put it in the oven, and got out my lesson plan book to plan for school beginning [we’re starting August 1, a week from tomorrow, and I do not feel ready!]. By this time, it was about 9:20.

  I had barely picked up my pen when Jackson [7] came into the kitchen with the news that Thomas needed me. Jackson and Thomas were both supposed to be deep in slumber, a fact which I reminded Jackson of. He told me that the boys were trying to go to sleep, but Thomas was thrashing around and almost fell out of bed.

  That got to me. My boys have bunk beds, and Thomas has a top bunk. I went back to the boys’ room with Jackson, where I found every one of my six boys still awake. I sat with Thomas for a minute, then went back to the kitchen, where I got in a whole TEN MINUTES of school planning before George [8] marched into the kitchen and LOUDLY announced, “Thomas REALLY just can’t sleep, and he’s making us not sleep too.”

  I finally made Thomas a pallet on the living room floor. John had come back upstairs by this time, and I explained the whole thing to him and he agreed to be a quiet presence in the living room.

  Thomas eventually went to sleep and I continued with school planning and then eventually went to bed. All was well until 2 A.M…WHEN…the WHOLE house was woken with one single, loud, clap of thunder.

  John [such a wonderful husband!] went into the living room [without my asking him!] to check on Thomas. Sadie [one of our three dogs–the only one with severe thunderstorm phobia as well as anxiety issues in general] had, of course, come racing into our room, panicked. She walked right by me [wish I could get her to heel so nicely when it’s sunny] as I checked on the kids. Sara Grace [almost 2 months] and Lauren had both woken up and were both crying, but all the boys [minus Thomas] were sleeping like rocks.

  Eventually everyone settled down and we all went back to sleep. There was never any more thunder, and never a drop of rain.

  At 3:00, Thomas woke up again and came to our room, complaining that he was hot and wanted a drink. He probably really was very hot–not just from his fever, but something is wrong with our air conditioner.

  It took a while to get him settled down. Sadie had started acting all nervous again, too, so I did the same thing I always do when she’s anxious at night–put her on a leash, wrap the leash loosely around my hand so I’ll be awakened if she goes anywhere, and go to sleep on the couch. When she’s on the leash, she usually settles down.

  All of this to say… I probably got about five hours of sleep last night.

  And after I write this long post, complaining about how I didn’t get any sleep last night and everyone was waking me up and Thomas is still sick and grumpy besides…

  I’m going to say that children are a blessing.

Louis VI (the fly)

  Funny story from earlier this week…

  I was sitting on the couch with Sara Grace listening to Jayne read to me. There was a fly that was buzzing all around us and getting very annoying. I finally asked Jackson to catch it. But first, of course, several things had to ensue: he had to walk all the way downstairs and out to the garage, search for a bug box, come back upstairs and ask me where a bug box WAS, find George to help him find one…etc.

  Meanwhile, the fly is still buzzing around everyone on the couch. Ten minutes later, Jackson and George return reporting that they can’t find a bug box because the shelves in the garage are such a MESS. SO…I send responsible Lindsay down to the garage to help them.

  She returns, reporting that she can’t find one either. The fly is really getting unbearable. Just then, Mark enters the room. George gives him a rundown of the situation, and Mark calmly reaches out his hands and traps the fly.

  WELL, THAT WAS EASY.

  But we can’t just let the fly go outside and go on with life, can we? No. We have to put it in an old Tupperware container (after punching holes in the top so it can breathe), look at it, analyze it, talk about it, NAME it (Louis VI–he had ancestors that were named Louis too), call siblings into the room to look at it, analyze it, and talk about it…etc.

  Well, if we’re going to talk about the fly, we should talk about the fly, I decide. I send Jackson for a book on insects and my ten youngest and I (and Kate the cat) sit on the couch and read about flies.

  Typical morning in our house–the chores sit and wait while the people (and cats) look at a fly. A fly with a name.

  The kids eventually let Louis VI go in the backyard. About half an hour later, I walked into the boys’ room and found Steven, George, Jackson, Jayne, and Thomas marching in circles. I asked them what they were doing and they said they were going to St. Louis to visit Louis VI the French fly. I got them to clean up the shelf in the garage.

  *

  I’ve been having frustrations trying to post this. I am not a computer person anyway, but WordPress was not my first choice when I decided to start a blog. I first made a blog using Blogspot (adozenblessings.blogspot.com), but was then unable to access my account AND unable to start a new blog.

  So.

  I found a recipe for baked spaghetti; it looks good. I made some for dinner tonight; it should be coming out of the oven in about fifteen minutes. Rhonda and Jackson–yes, Jackson, my rambunctious seven-year-old who would rather do ANYTHING but stand still at the counter and cook–helped me make it.

  If no more posts arrive on this blog…you can assume Jackson did something to the spaghetti.

  Just kidding.

Meet My Family

  I’m not entirely sure how to start blogging, but here goes! Let me first of all apologize if I don’t post very often. You’ll understand why I don’t have much time after you read the rest of this post.
 

  Well, my name is Nicole, and I am the stay-at-home homeschool mother of 12 children–a dozen blessings, as my husband and I call them. Our kids are Rhonda, 15, Caroline “Carrie”, 14, Mark, 13, Lindsay, 12, Steven, 9, George, 8, Jackson, 7, Jayne, 6, Thomas, 5, Lauren, 4, Micah, 2, and Sara Grace, who was born on June 9. We live in north Georgia. We love to spend time together, and we strive to always please the Lord.

  More posts will come soon; for now, God bless.