My life....

So I'm nursing an injury I received last week doing something that should not have caused me to become injured, but now that I'm in my old age- I suppose I should get used to them.... My husband has asked if I need one of those "I've fallen and I can't get up" buttons to push....

He's a card.

But the last week, up to today, I've not been able to really do much around the house.  Not that when I do much around the house you can really tell a difference, but today, for some reason- perhaps it's the hormones which are continually trying to work themselves out and through me, I came down the stairs, rounded the  corner and just sighed at the sight.

The first thing I noticed was how amazingly beautiful the sun looked streaming into my home (so see, I'm not completely focused on the yuck) but that immediately changed when I saw the sliding glass door.  The glass looked as though entirely too tall of children have been licking my windows.  What DO they do when I'm not hovering over them?   There were the usual smaller, lower to the ground smudges produced by the usual culprits- the 2 year old and 7 1/2 month old, but the other smudges?  Entirely too high for them.  And it was covering the entire glass.  And the window beside the door, and the front windows that are beside my front door- and so on and so on.... *sigh*

Then I came into the kitchen and several children had still not taken their laundry up to their bedrooms, two laundry baskets were still on the table, 8,000 pairs of shoes sat waiting for the 7 1/2 month old to begin chewing on by the garage door (why did we buy that big ole shoe storage again?)

There were dryer sheets all over the floor.  Pieces of egg and popcorn on the floor (someone had supposedly swept for me last night).  And there were about 2,000 little pieces of a baby wipe that someone had ripped into shreds.... (I'm guessing the Taz 2 year old...)

It got worse when I saw that no one cleaned up their breakfast mess on the counter.  The mounds of papers that have to be dealt with over the next few weeks were all over the other counter.  The dishes from breakfast hadn't even been rinsed off-( have you SEEN how oatmeal hardens on bowls??).  There were already a ton of dishes that needed to be washed.

As I made my way into the dining room, I stepped right into the pile that someone at least swept up last night.....  Not sure how I feel about that, but perhaps I should be pleased that at least the child in charge of sweeping that room had 1/2 done their job?

I was feeling flustered.  And to top it all off, Monday started my husband and I and my oldest daughter's new meal plan.  My oldest daughter struggles with acne in a terrible way.  We've tried everything.  I mean everything.  Medicines, all the "old wives tales," you name it.  So this weekend we talked to her about 1)taking her vitamins and drinking lots of water more consistently and 2) cutting gluten and sugar out of her diet as much as possible.  Gluten is fairly "easy" sugar on the other hand?   Holy moly batman- sugar is in EVERYTHING!!!  Why?  Why do they add sugar to everything???

But the results in just a few days have been astounding.  Her face is amazingly clear.  Now is it the vitamins?  Water?  Gluten/sugar free diet?   Who knows which it is, and perhaps it's a combination.  But for now- her face is continuing to clear up.  I think it's helping her attitude, too.  I am at least hoping that- albeit she's battling a bit of a virus this week (she was convinced she had Chron's disease), she begins to have a more positive attitude about things.  She's been a bit of a debbie downer and I know it's partly because school is busy, tough and demanding, but some of it, I believe, is her being a bit depressed about her face.

So, off on a tangent, but the last few days, dealing with my injury, not eating sugar, not eating gluten, has made me a tad off.  Maybe more than a tad off.  Today?  I want to head STRAIGHT to Sonic and order me a Route 44 Vanilla Dr. Pepper.  It's what I want.  It's what I need. I also wan't to eat an entire bag of pita chips and hummus.  Which you would think isn't too bad, but pita chips are gluten!!!

So I'm crabby and my house is a train wreck but something that came to me as I dwelled in my pity party of patheticness is that I signed up for a large family.  No one forced me to have one.  I volunteered for it completely and willingly.

Large families are messy.   They are busy, dirty, loud, obnoxious, and exhausting, but that's ok.  I love my family.  I look at every single one of my kids and I can't imagine my life without each one.  Each one of my babies brings something to this family unique and different.  Each one, although shares a similar look, is different, in most everything- personality, attitude, humor, sadness, talents, gifts, etc.  I love it.  They all bring their own diversity to the table every evening.  Each child has a special gift or talent.  I am in awe when I think about how awesome that each one is.  How amazing, smart, beautiful, talented, each child is.  I am humbled because I can't sometimes believe they actually CAME from me- I'll be honest- I more often than not say they must get it from their superman dad.  Because they are just amazing little people with amazing things to offer the world.

So when I sat there ever so briefly, because I really don't "sit" in this house, I perpetually move at a constant speed of "mad cat covering up crap," I realized that no, my house is not clean.  And no, it won't be the kind of clean I would like it to be for many, many, many, many, (oops, sorry, got carried away) years.  It won't have the nice furniture, the stain free walls (what the heck IS that on the wall by the fireplace, anyway and how did they do it????), it won't have the stain free carpet (dear Lord, please let this carpet last just a few more years....), it won't have spic and span wood floors (one day I WILL invent the self cleaning floor, and/or the drain in the middle of the kitchen to just hose it down every evening floor.....), it won't have all those things for a long time.

And that's ok.

I just have to keep telling myself not to be embarrassed by it.   I sometimes refuse to have people over because I don't want them to think I don't keep a "tidy" house.  I sometimes don't go out and do things because I feel I need to stay in and just spend the entire day doing maintenance (which is basically just survival- laundry, unload, load the dishwasher, wipe the sticky up before the 56 gazillion ants come back...)

That's not good.  Not good at all.

I struggle with perception.  I struggle terribly with it.  I'm sure it stems from my terrible self esteem I've struggled with my whole life!!  How sad is that?

What do people think when a mom of 7 can't keep her house clean?   What do they say about me and my dirty house???

Honestly?

Why does it bother me!!!

Pride.

It's all about pride.   I have to let that go.  God doesn't care if my house is spotless, or if my kitchen is a train wreck, or if I've put away the laundry, or wiped up the sticky floor.  He certainly wants me to take care of my family and do my duty as a wife/mother etc, but He certainly doesn't want me wasting my life worrying about what others think of me or my messy house...

So for now, and probably for the next 10-20 years, I'll take my messy kitchen, licked windows, dirty clothes, shoes lying everywhere, stained carpet and walls, and I'll just remind myself of who is causing it.....


Seven beautiful, loving, giving, sweet, precious, awesome, generous, talented, smart, unbelievable, children.

And just stick my pride in the toilet and flush it down.....

Don't judge my bathrooms now, too... 

Camping, hiking, and photo selfie etiquette....

So this weekend was supposed to be our last little yahoo before school started. (it actually starts tomorrow).

We were supposed to leave Friday morning for Watkins Glen and stay down there, over there, whatever direction it is, until yesterday mid morning.

Well, in true crazymomma fashion- there suddenly appeared about 10 extra activities for Friday, causing our camping trip to be postponed to 5 in the morning on Saturday.  Which, would have been completely fine, EXCEPT, have you ever tried to put together four meals for 8 1/2 people for just one night?  I literally took the entire day on Friday preparing food items....

But despite all the annoying preparations, it actually is a lot of fun to camp.  I know what you're thinking....camping....one tent.....nine people.


Seven of whom are 15 and younger....

So we may have decided it is now time to purchase another tent....

The problem with that one- is who will be forced to sleep away from mom or dad?   That was an interesting argument....I'll spare you the details of which ones whined the most about being afraid to sleep without us....but your clue is one of them is going to college in just a few short years and either she's living at home, or she's going to cry every night being apart from us....

So it's time for another tent.  Just a six person one would be fine.  Ours right now is a 10 person one and it's plenty big enough for a few skinny, tall kids, but it's pushing maximum density and there are a few more who could potentially be over 6 feet tall...

So we arrived at Watkins Glen State park a little before 8 am.  It's a 2 1/2 hour drive from our location, so we knew we wanted to be up early. By early, I had no idea the baby would decide that 3:30 was it....so by the time we arrived at the park, I had been awake for 4 1/2 hours... I was ready for a nap...
But there was the tent to put up....breakfast to eat.....and a hike to go on.....


Needless to say, by 11 am, we had eaten, set up, and cleaned up our campsite and were ready to head to the gorge for a hike....



Along with half of New York State....

My son brought his phone to take pictures, so it might be a week or 10 before I get them from his phone to mine....but let's just say, there were bodies EVERYWHERE.... I'll post some pictures of the gorge I borrowed off Al's internet....

Amazing views

Entrance to lower end of Gorge

Amazing bridges and tunnels

Funny, same pic as above.... :) 

So we hiked the gorge trail.  It was amazing.  It was hot.  And like I stated earlier- there were at least half of all residents of NYS there, along with several thousand Canadians, New Jersians, and Pennsylvanians....

Which brings me to my next topic of discussion I shall toss in here with my fun, family, camping, hiking weekend blog....

Proper photo selfie etiquette.  

No one on this planet knows selfies like I do.  

Doubt me?   Let me find some pictures from 1981 that I took on my camera with FILM in it and took a selfie with every.single.roll so we would know who's pictures they were.  I was a budding photographer, and I certainly did not want ANYONE stealing my pictures.... (as if...)

So to say I'm an expert in the field is a massive, massive understatement....

When one attempts to hike with half of the country on a path that is at greatest two people wide, it's best to just either WAIT, to take your ridiculous selfie every 5 feet, or just come back another day because it's just too crowded...

My oldest had the 2 year old in a back pack on her back.  I had the baby in a front pack on me.  My awesome hubs was in charge of the two younger girls, and the 12 and 14 year old were bringing up the front and rear.  

To say we stopped "often" for what appeared to be the same.people.every.time is being generous. 

At one point, I wanted to take a few of those phones and drop them over the gorge....ok.  That might have gotten me into a bit of a pickle, but when you're hiking with an extra 20 pounds on your front and your going along behind the person in front of you and they stop RANDOMLY every 5 feet to take selfies- it can make the strongest feel agitated....

Come on people!!  Have we become that much of a narcissistic world that we can't walk by 23 waterfalls without putting ourselves in EVERY SINGLE ONE OF THEM?

You think I'm exaggerating.  

I am not.  

And in 12 weeks, when my son finally gets around to sending me the pictures he took?  You'll see.

Now, I'm not against selfies.  As I stated earlier, I've been taking selfies since 1981.  Yes, that would have made me 8 years old.  I got my first camera at age 8.  So basically for 12 years I've been taking selfies....

Hahahahahahahahaha..... It's ok, folks.  I'm a little tired today....my math and typing skills are struggling a bit and I'm not even going to correct that one because it made me LAUGH OUTLOUD!!!  I'm working on very little sleep and not much coffee this weekend....

So I've been taking selfies for several, several decades.... There is a time and a place.  If there are bodies, body to body on a path that is already winding, wet, and somewhat dangerous (yes, I'm talking to YOU, who decided to drape your leg over the ledge to capture your 10th selfie in 10 minutes.....my agitation meter might have been about to pop by the time you settled your leg over the edge.....), you need to look past your horse blinders (hold on- I'll post a pic for those who don't know what that is....)

You know it's a good day when you find
what you imagine in your head you want....

THAT'S IT!   Look PAST your blinders and see that the 11 billion hikers behind you that you continuously keep abruptly stopping in front of, are getting tired of your photo op coming every 5 feet...

Did I mention it was every 5 feet?

And while I'm on my tangent. can I just say how depressing it is to actually see so many people with their noses in their phones on this hike?   It's like they're more concerned with either posting at that exact moment (God forbid we actually go back to waiting to do things....)

Wait?  What's that mean?

Or they really just don't care where they are, just that everyone else in the world knows where they are....  (you can quote me on that one...)

I really hope my kids got an eyeful.  Here we were at this magnificent site, and not only were people being incredibly rude, but they were demonstrating first hand what my awesome hubs and I have been trying to convey to our kiddos about for years.... what our society is turning into.  People are going to walk off cliffs, walk into streets, walk into bears (hey, I've seen that video- let me see if I can find it....) because we are so busy with our noses in our phones we're going to miss the stop sign, the cliff edge, the mighty big bear who just found lunch...

.

There's the video of the bear.....and the dude just texting away on his phone.....society at it's finest...

So the hike went well.  Despite that.  My kids were in absolute aww of the beauty of the falls and how the water had eroded the gorge down over the centuries, millenniums!  

After the hike, the awesome hubs took the older six to the pool, which is an Olympic sized pool that only about a quarter of the world was at.  

picture doesn't do it justice...

After that, we headed back, heated up some chicken with avocados, mac salad, and cookies for dessert.  It was a glorious day.  It wasn't even tough convincing them bedtime would have to be by 9 pm because they were all pretty worn out....

Of course, night time is always difficult for me to fall asleep.  I hear every single sound on the planet.  My husband claims I have some kind of freaky beagle ears and that I can hear thunderstorms coming from states over.....whatever..... but I do lay there at night and hear everything.  I can hear fire crackling in other camps, campers laughing and playing games, giant Sasquatches coming to kill and maim my family..... (ok, remember my overactive imagination a few blogs ago?  No?   Well, go back and refresh your memory...it explains a lot...)

So maybe there weren't Sasquatches, but there was one strange activity....shortly after everyone had fallen asleep, there was a loud sound (probably coming from New Jersey....) that kept getting louder and louder.  A minute later, I distinctly heard people shouting, "It's time for the glow stick wars..."  

At first I thought I had to be dreaming, but then I saw out the front of the tent a dozen or so bikes that were completely decked out in glow sticks.  Music was blaring and it was CLEARLY after quiet hours....why do people have such problems with obeying laws?   Oh, I don't know, maybe because MOM AND DAD CAN'T EITHER?????   

Someone shouted at them that it was quiet time and of course, an older person (I'm guessing MOM) shouted, "there's always one in every crowd."  

Wait, what?   One what?  Person who knows it's after 11 and we're supposed to be respectful of other campers AND the rules posted on the camping signs?    How trivial.....

I sat there annoyed.  My awesome hubs said I should have shouted, "no, there's two...."  But of course, that's why he's wittier than I.....  Rather, I laid there, annoyed, and apparently made myself fall asleep....  

So other than the crazy hike with half the world (yes, I may be exaggerating the numbers), the selfie world gone wrong, and the bizarre midnite glow stick event, the trip was fantastic.  The baby slept great.   The kids had fun.  And the hubs and I didn't lose anyone...

I would consider that a win on all parts....

I still got it....just a little bit of it....

Today I did something I haven't done in over 8 years....

I ran in a race...

I'm not sure when that Hogeye Marathon Relay was exactly, but I do remember it was prior to baby number 5, so I technically haven't done much of ANYTHING in the last 8 years- ok, minus having three babies, moving above the Mason Dixon line, and running a house-hold of nine people.... I haven't done much ATHLETICALLY in 8 years....

So I ran in a race today.   I'm getting ahead of myself, as usual.  Almost 5 weeks ago, my awesome hubster and my boy were going to do the Dunkirk Triathlon.  Unfortunately, my son decided the 6.2 running part was a tad out of his reach.

So I offered my services....  (insert a very big eyed emoji here...)

Thank you....

It was one of those moments that sometimes you wonder what the heck you were thinking when you said you'd do something?   yes.  So I was running the 6.2 mile part of the triathlon.

Each week I added a mile to the training.  First week I did 3 miles.  Second week was 4 miles.  Third week was 5 miles.  I had to lower my mileage this last week since the race was this morning so I never made it to six miles.  Which isn't good because I'm the kind of runner who needs to see what 6 miles feels like, and I never got to.  The farthest I got was 5.4 miles and it was SLOW!!!

But I set a goal of one hour to complete the race.  It was a lofty goal, but one nonetheless.  I was determined to NOT WALK.

So this morning we awoke at 4:15 and got ready to leave.  I woke up the little peanut and fed and got her ready to go and we brought two other minions with us to help out during the transitions.

Emil & Gi... 

 We got to Dunkirk at o'dark thirty and the hubs and I immediately headed to pick up our race packet.  As we walked up to the table there was a strange sign-

Ok, it didn't quite look like this- it actually said, "Swim cancelled."  Well, the look on my husband's face was priceless.  Utter disbelief.  And actually, we had a discussion in the car on the way down about Lake Erie possibly being contaminated with E Coli and would he PLEASE be careful and try not to swallow any water????   So seeing this sign was surreal because my hubs is a phe-NOM-enal swimmer.  I'm talking, the first triathlon I ever went to watch him do, he came out of the water in like second place!!!  He's a swimmer.  So this little "kink" in our race wasn't taken lightly.

Perfect, Barney!!

So the alternative plan was for the athletes to run one mile since the lake was un-swimmable.  My husband was getting worried.  He hadn't run since LONG before his knee surgery in June. At one point, he jokingly asked if I wanted to run it.  Hahahahahahahahahahahahaha. That was funny, honey.  Really, truly funny.  I mean, I haven't even run over 5.4 miles, but let's make this a 7.2 mile race, shall we?   Ummmm, no.  Thank you, though.  If you want to finish in some semblance of appropriate and competitive time, you may want to just suck it up, big guy- because even IF you need to have knee surgery on your bad knee and even IF you just had surgery on your "good" knee two months ago, you still stand a better chance of performing better than I could!!

Before our race

My little triathlon partner...

My two real minions....

It actually was GREAT that he ran because he ran an EIGHT MINUTE MILE!!!   Can you believe that?  I'm serious.  Knee surgery two months ago, and a bum other knee and he still managed an eight minute mile.  I was beaming when he came in the transition area.  He jumped on his bike and took off.  I began to get nervous....

The hubs getting ready for his mile run!

Taking his bike out of transition area!

He had originally told me to expect it to take 1 1/2 hours to get back.   Well, about an hour after the first people left the transition area, bikers started coming back in!!!  I was really getting nervous because I was seeing guys who had left just a little bit prior to the hubster and that meant either they were getting some incredible mph on their bikes, or he was just going to be really slow....I was kinda hoping for the latter, because I had already taken about 5 trips to the port a potty and was fairly certain I needed to make at least two more before he got there.... (hey- I HAVE had 7 children...)

The other relay guy was in the relay transition with me when his dad got back on his bike.  Now, I was getting nervous because this biker was WAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAAY slower than my hubs and my hubs was NO WHERE in site- where WAS HE??

I was to get the answer when the relay bike guy came over.  Apparently, the hubster had a flat tire.  Oh NO!!!  This was not good, because not only did I have NO IDEA of when he would be coming back, remember I had to use the bathroom, but who KNEW if he was actually able to get the flat replaced- he had been having tire issues this past week so I was getting nervous!!!

One by one, more riders came back and FINALLY!!!!   The hubs came around the corner.  I was both thrilled and terrified at the same time.  He got his bike into the slot and came over to take the ankle chip off and pass it to me.  I was shaking and nervous and he gave me a big ole smooch and told me to do my best (hey- you wouldn't pass up a smooch from your smoofee, and you know it!!!)

So there I was....just me, and the open road.....

Ok.  Not really.  My route took me down the edge of Lake Erie (yes, ole nasty, E coli filled, Lake Erie) and through a neighborhood, to the marina, and onto a pier and back again, TWICE.

Did you catch that?

Twice.

Yea.  I knew it, too. But for some reason, my mental part of me, tends to forget IMPORTANT things, like, THIS ISN'T SIX MILES, CRAZYCATHOLICMOMMA-it's only 3.1...you gotta do this TWICE...

So in true fashion for me- I darted off like the hare.  Passing a few people along the way and feeling pretty.darn.good about myself.

Until the realization that I was actually having to run the same course TWICE hit me.  My awesome hubs said we all do it.  We get our heart rates up and we run fast until the brick wall hits- in my case, the monkey.  Monkeys jump on my back.   If you ask my 10 year old, she'll tell you she believed me that an actual monkey jumped on my back...

So the second time around and I started dragging.  I mean d-r-a-g-g-i-n-g....  I had to stop twice and walk, but it was literally just for about 3/10ths of a mile and it was definitely after I had run 5 miles because I didn't have much left to go.

It was so very hard.  It was so very, incredibly, painfully hard.  I can tell you that my knees actually behaved during the race (most days I trained, they were like 90 year old knees), but my Plantar Fasciatis was really, really, bothering me.

I try to always start out praying when I run. Not only does it helps pass the time while I chit chat with the Lord in my head, but when I exercise, it's really one of the best times for me to sort through all my crazy.   And you KNOW I have crazy.  Seven kids?   Yea, there's a little bit o crazy at times in my life.  So praying while I run is actually so productive for me.

Something I realized when I finished was that I felt a very strong connection to something when I ran today.  Almost as soon as I started, I had an overwhelming emotional moment.  I was overcome with a sense of gratitude.  Gratitude for so many things.  My amazing husband who actually looked forward to his wife participating in the race with him.  My faith in Jesus.  My love of my Mother Mary.  It was crazy powerful.  I immediately thanked Him for the blessing of being able to even do this race, to have the health and ability (despite the aches and pains) and the blessing of living in a part of the world that is really just beautiful.

The view this morning of Lake Erie.   Looks like the ocean, doesn't it?

As I ran, I began to try to focus my thoughts on several friends of mine who are struggling with so much.  Breast cancer, marriage issues, money problems, children problems, other health issues, you name it.  I prayed for them.  I really wanted to devote and dedicate this race to so much.  It's what kept me putting one foot in front of the other.   Every time I felt like I needed to just quit- I just thought of those people I know who are struggling.   I am never gonna say when you offer up your own pains, problems, and issues, it certainly doesn't take any of them away, ease them, or anything, but it does, I PROMISE, give you a sense of peace about it.  That our struggles are not in vain.  God can make good out of all things.

So I will post some pictures of me running.  Which is VERY embarrassing because I do NOT like how I look when I run- even when I'm in better shape, which I'm not, but I am proud of my running.  I finished the race in 1 hour 4 minutes.  Not a great time for 6.2 miles, but I can't complain.  It can only get better from here!!

ok, there's only going to be one... :) 

I still got just a little bit of it!!!!