Events of the Evening

Tonight was taco night.  I don't have a specific night for tacos, rather, we have them once every couple of weeks.  It's one of the kiddos favorite meals, but not my favorite to serve.  It takes awhile to get all the kids settled with their tacos with all the toppings on them.  By the time I get mine assembled, they are ready for another one.  I will not serve tacos if Ross has to work late.  I learned that lesson the hard way last year.  It's not only getting them all assembled but also the clean up afterwards.  Shredded cheese, lettuce, tomato pieces all over the floor and sour cream and salsa and bits and pieces that fell from their mouth all over the table.  During the meal we keep repeating "hold your taco over your plate."   After we finished our yummy supper, I had the bright idea of giving them a bar for desert.  I gave some to the babies too.  Let's just say it was a huge chocolate mess for the babies.  Into the tub we go.  Clay took off with Ross to do an errand, so I had the girls and the babies take a bath together.  Pretty exciting stuff over here when I let them climb in the tub with the babies.  The girls had fun spiking Luke and Reed's hair.  I always lay two towels out on the bathroom floor when I'm ready to get the babies out of the tub.  I usually take Reed out first and wrap the towel around him.  He's slower at getting out of the towel than Luke.  Then I take Luke out.  I hoist them both up on my hips and carry them to their room.  I plopped them down on their carpeted bedroom floor.  They immediately crawled out of their towels and, of coarse, crawl in opposite directions.  They think it's fun to crawl around in their birthday suits.  I have to decide who to diaper first.  I got to Luke first and scrambled to wrestle his diaper on.  He is the worst to get the diaper on.  Twisting and turning this way and that.  Amidst all of this, Reed was standing, in all his glory, by the toy box.  I knew this would happen to me at some point and tonight was the night.  He peed down the side of the toy box and onto brand new carpet.  "Reed, no no!" I exclaimed.  Of coarse, he looked at me with a blank stare and a quick grin.  He's only 11mo old so he doesn't even know he's peeing on the carpet.  I finally had the chance to wrestle his diaper on too.  Phew.  They are done,  I thought.  I decided to let them crawl around in their diapers for a little bit.  Now time to get the girls out of the tub.  At least that part was uneventful.  Leanne came back to me when she had her P.J.s on to get her hair brushed.  I sat by the kitchen table to untangle all of her hair.  Luke and Reed where crawling around the dining room as I was doing this.  I looked over at Reed to see he found a half eaten bar on the floor.  Oh no.  Not again. "Ross, can you help me?" (he must get so sick of me calling for him to help).  Chocolate all down the front of him again. Ross took a rag and wiped him up for me.  It was time to get their p.j.s on and do their inhaler treatments.  Ross took Luke and the kids downstairs for a few minutes and I was starting to set up the nebulizer machine.  I got everything ready to go and went to search for Reed.  I found him with his clean hands in the toilet.  He was having a good ole time splashing his hand in the cold water.  AAARRGGHH.  I promptly picked him up and rewashed his hand.  Ross and I took turns giving each baby a inhaler treatment and got those little rascals to bed. The older kids are now watching their favorite show, Wipe Out.  I decided to let Ross be on duty for a few minutes.  I need a break.

Sunset

This past week I've been playing quite a bit on the piano.  The babies love it.  They rock back and forth to the music.  Anyways, I started playing some hymns and it brought me back to the time I was a resident aide at Sunset Manor and Village (retirement home).  I loved my job taking care of the elderly.  I was 18 when I was a RA, but I started at Sunset when I was almost 16 working in the kitchen and as a waitress (not my favorite).  Being a RA included giving baths, making beds, and helping the residents get ready for the day.
We would also do juice.  Juice is in the afternoon a hour past lunch time.  We would load a cart up with different kinds of juice and a snack.  Another resident aide and I would go door to door to all the residents and give them a snack and juice.  This was really a time to socialize with them also.  I loved talking to Ruby.  She had a thick dutch accent and was hilarious.  Another one of my favorites was Cora.  She had tons of pillows on her bed and liked them lined up, it didn't matter what order just as long as it looked nice.  Then there was Andy.  Everyone knew Andy.  He would grow tomatoes outside by his room and he had so many he gave many away.   Helen lived on the second floor.  She was a quiet resident but she was probably my favorite.  She reminded me of my piano teacher.  I would sing "you are so beautiful to me" to her every time I entered her room.  And she would giggle.  Then there was the other Helen that would give you a kiss with her wet lips every time you saw her.  I would make sure her kiss would end up on my cheek and not my lips.  Occasionally I would work in the dementia unit.  It was a small unit.  Probably about 15 people lived there.  I really liked working there.  For the most part, they lived in there own little world.  They lived in yesterday, when they were young.  I used to make peanut butter cookies with them and we would sit around the table and talk before it was time for bed.  There was one lady (I can't remember her name) who had a piano in her room.  I asked if she would play it for me and she did.  When I gave report at the end of my shift, the regular workers told me that she hadn't played that piano since moving to the unit.  I don't know why she played it that day, but she did.  There was a assisted living unit upstairs that consisted of 6 or 7 residents.  These residents required a little more help then others.  The other Helen with the wet kisses lived here.  It was not my favorite place to work but I still enjoyed it.  Whenever I would work, I would gather the residents and bring them down to the sitting room and play the piano for them.  They would request songs (some I could not play at all)  and we would sing.  That's why when I played some older hymns it brought me back to sunset.  I'm sure that all the residents I wrote about have since passed away, but they will be forever alive in my memory. 

Family Night

Our family attempts to do one special night a week at home.  We usually make pizza from scratch and let the kids pick a movie to watch while we eat it.  The whole family looks forward to, what we dubbed, family night.  We eat together every night, but this is our special night. 


                                                    Homemade pizza dough

                                                                   Allison kneading the dough

                                                         Clay's turn kneading the dough

Leanne's turn

While we let the dough rise, we usually try to get all the kids bathed.

They love to press it in the pizza pans

                                                                 Yum Yum, mozzarella cheese

                             They all get to put toppings on.  This requires a lot
                               of patience on my part.

Our finished pizzas

Family time in the basement.  Even the babies get to be part of it.

Our kids love family time.  If we have to miss it because of other things going on, the kids are very disappointed.  I'm happy that they love to spend time with mom and dad.