The Witching Hour
There is an hour (or two) when the kids go crazy almost every single day. It's the hour or so before dinner. It doesn't matter what time you eat...if you eat at the same time every night or if your dinner time varies from night to night. Even if you don't know what time you're eating that night; somehow the kids know and are run around like banshees the hour before you eat! Josh (my husband) and I call this hour the witching hour.
This is what usually happens in my house:
Josh gets home from work. I try to give him 15 minutes or so before I put him in charge of the chaos. Then his job is to try to keep order while I cook dinner. Problem number one: our kitchen is totally open to the living room. I originally thought this was a great thing. Yay! I can see the kids while doing dishes, cooking, etc. WRONG! The girls treat the kitchen as a race track, running circles all around me while I cook.
Problem number two: Emerson, 16 months, loves me so much she wants to be with me no matter where I am. Not that she doesn't love her Daddy. She adores him! But, she thinks it's really fun to be in the kitchen with mama, trying to act like mama. She opens cabinets, takes things out, and tries to touch the stove. And when she's not in the kitchen with Mama, she won't just sit next to Daddy on the couch reading books with him--she wants to run across the couch, throwing all the pillows off.
Problem number three: Adeline (our almost 5 year old) knows I want her out of the kitchen, but she loves to cook! She wants to help me cook...but then it's really impossible to keep the baby out of the kitchen. And when Adeline isn't helping me cook, she tries to get her sister to chase her all around the house...including chasing through the kitchen.
So, this is what we go through almost nightly. And by the time dinner is ready, I'm frazzled and everyone else is crazed. I'm thinking of buying a big bubble to put the girls in so it's easier to cook. Who knows? Maybe I could be making wonderful gourmet meals but am impeded by the craziness.
Luckily, after dinner is calmer!

The State of My Bathroom
I used to have a maid. When my husband and I made the decision that I should stay at home after our second child was born, the maid was something that got cut from the budget. Most days, it's not a big deal that we don't have a maid anymore.
Then...I walk into my bathroom. I'm pretty good about keeping up with laundry, the kitchen, dishes, etc, but my bathroom is the most neglected area in the house! I clean the girls' bathroom because if I didn't, CPS might come take them away! I keep the guest bathroom clean because...EWW! You don't want guests in your house to think you're a disgusting person. (Even if it's true). I just haven't figured out how to get my bathroom back into the rotation!
It's not like I NEVER clean the bathroom. It just never gets cleaned all at one time anymore. And I know it is bad when Emerson, my 15 month old, followed me into there the other day and I told her, "No, Em! Don't touch, it's yucky."!! LOL. Guess that means it needs to be cleaned!
So, I miss maid day. I miss coming home at the end of the day and having the whole entire house clean at one time. But--I don't miss it enough to go back to work! :-) Someone just needs to gift me a maid service...even a one time cleaning would make me deliriously happy.

Mommy Brain
I say-- Blame it on Mommy Brain! Whatever the problem...that's what happened. I can't be held responsible because I'm a mom and my brain doesn't function normally.
I have decided that this ailment occurs shortly after you conceive. You may not know why you put the clothes and the laundry soap in the washer and then didn't turn it on for a few hours (or days) or why you have your bank deposit sitting on your dashboard...start driving to the bank...then drive completely past the bank, forgetting why you are in your car in the first place! After a few weeks of similar occurrences, you discover your pregnant and it all starts to make sense! When you're pregnant, you blame your forgetfulness on the baby using all of your extra blood so there isn't enough pumping to your brain! You tell yourself that after the baby is born, you'll be able to remember to buy chicken from the store--especially when it's already on your grocery list!
Then, you have your baby. You realize you're more forgetful than ever before! You have to write down which breast your baby last nursed from, how long the baby ate, and when the baby pooped. Why can't you just remember those things without having to write them down? Seems easy enough! Your husband will think you're crazy that you can't remember the simplest things--like where those freaking keys are! You blame this forgetfulness on sleep deprivation. You think, when the baby is sleeping through the night I will be back to my normal self who can remember to turn the car off before getting out of it!
Then--8 weeks later (if you're lucky) you're baby starts sleeping more. You get to sleep for 5 hours in a row. This goes on for several weeks. Yet, somehow, you still forget to put gas in the car, call the vet, or go to the post office. Yep--you now realize--you are a MOM! That means.... MOMMY BRAIN! Ahh!! You just CAN'T remember things like you used to.
My daughters are four and 15 months. I still am suffering from this affliction. This morning my daughter told me she was out of night-time pull-ups. I said, okay...we'll get some this afternoon when we go to Target. On the way TO Target we talked about the 5 or 6 things we needed to get. Night-time pull-ups was one of the things we mentioned. We walked through Target, getting the things we needed, a few things we didn't need...paid and took our stuff home. We had dinner, went to soccer practice, and then came home. I told my daughter it was time to get ready for bed. She went upstairs, went the bathroom, changed into her nightgown and then....."MOM! I'm out of pull-ups! You FORGOT!" Well, why didn't she remember? She's not a mom! What's her excuse?? I don't know the answer to that...probably because from the moment we stepped into the store, she was talking about all the toys she wanted me to buy her!
So, now she's in her bed and I'm about to go wake her up to go the bathroom so we hopefully won't have to change the sheets in the morning.
All of you people out there that haven't experienced this phenomenon and are just wondering..."Why doesn't she make a list of stuff she needs to do?" Well, guess what, I DO make a list. I make MILLIONS of lists. I email things to myself, have a grocery shopping app on my phone, have a paper list on the fridge, have things posted on the calendar, etc. etc. It doesn't help if you forget to take your list to the store, or don't read the list, or can't remember what you read 10 minutes later becasuse of your MOMMY BRAIN! And...I think it gets worse the more kids you have. My sister have 5 kids and I'm surprised she remembers to get herself dressed in the morning. I'm keeping with the two kids for now and will decide later if I'd like to be more forgetful and have another child.
Now, I have to go wake up my daughter to potty before I forget and end up changing wet sheets in the middle of the night!

When I posted the one post years ago; my daughter, Adeline, was only 14 months old. After she was born many things in our house adopted 'line' at the end of their name! My husband, Josh, became Dadaline, Froggy (the dog) became Frogaline and I became Mamaline. Four years and another child later, we still call things with "line" at the end of their names. So after I made that blog, we made princessadeline.com where I wrote more about Adeline and now that's moved on to adelinecooks.com because she is into cooking. While we do post on both of those occasionally, I thought that I'd get my space back and write about whatever I wanted! But, really, being a mom is who I am and what I do, so this will mostly be about that.
So, Adeline is four and half now. And our baby daughter, Emerson, is 15 months old. Adeline and Emerson are two very different girls already! Adeline was a lot more reserved then Emerson is. Adeline also knew a lot more words than Emerson does at this age. Emerson is really independent and doesn't seem to be afraid of anything! She will run into the backyard without looking back to see if I'm anywhere near her. I don't remember Adeline being that brave about being alone!
So, we live in Austin...well...actually in the suburbs of Austin but we say Austin cause it's cooler. I am a stay at home mom now and like it most of the time! I'm learning to like cooking, especially since Adeline likes it. I would love to be a crafty mom, but I'm just not that type. I would also love the be what I call "an earthy mom". But I like my fast food too much. So, I try to strike a balance and think I'm doing okay. My bathroom doesn't get cleaned as much as it should and my children eat too much junk and watch too much TV . . . but on the flip side, we do go to many parks, cook dinner and eat together most nights, support local businesses, and try to teach our kids to give back to their community.
I have found that whatever your mothering type, everyone does what works for them and what they think is best for their family. That's all anyone can do and hopefully we can all help each other out along the way!