But you know there was lots of poop.

After the Tuscaloosa farmers market we took a picnic to the park.

Doesn’t that sound so ideal?

We were almost done eating and just about to unleash the kids on the playground when the Potty Pilgrimages began.
After the third trip we determined we were done eating and had just enough time for half an hour of play on the playground.

Just as we got settled on a nearby bench and the kids ran off to play, Ezra shouted and began to trot back towards the bathrooms. Brent handed Titus off to me and I got to witness the big girls do monkey bars for the first time while Brent was with Ezra. There. You know, the potty.

Just after I captured that photo, I noticed Evie standing on the monkey bar deck looking guilty.

Can you even believe what I found as I neared???

A doodle. Dumped. On the deck.

Deck dumping doodle.

How does this happen?? She was wearing a pull up! I do not understand.

She had stepped in it. And smeared some on her dress.

I quickly texted an SOS to Brent, who was still in the potty with Ezra.

He came running. We couldn’t leave it there for another kid to step in! And to make it worse, some other parents were sitting on a bench with a front row seat.

Brent grabbed a baby wipe and did doodle duty.

And of course, I was glad again that at least we weren’t at the mall.

Now Brent had to take Evie to the truck for clean up and wardrobe change.

He got back with just 5 minutes till time to go. And right as Titus was filling his diaper.

Final count, best as I can tell, 4 out of 5 kids pooped at the park. 1 kid pooped on the park.

Thursday is thus known as Poop in Public Day. Who wants to come play??

Just toss it all in the mixer and blend.

Butter up some muffin tins. If you want yours to turn out like mine, make sure your kid licks some of them.

Bake 350* for 14 min.

Then while they’re hot, put a marsh mallow on top put a pat of butter on.

I’m eating as is, but my kids will get a tiny drizzle of raw honey.

Happy Mother’s Day, Mom! You set the bar high. Thank you for loving us all unconditionally, for giving us room to grow, and always being our biggest fan!

I don’t think I’m a naturally organized person in this area, but necessity is the mother of invention. Staying home is a job. Do you hear me, Mammas? It’s important. You wouldn’t go to work everyday and just slop your way through it, would you? You would learn the skills necessary to complete the job. And meal planning is a necessary part of managing a home. So, get the skill.

Speaking of skills, you should know that I do not have crock pot skills. I wish I did. But for me, it creates more problems than it solves.

So, here is how I avoid the “It’s 6 pm and I have no idea what’s for dinner” problem. (Sometimes I still have the “It’s 6 pm and I forgot to thaw out the fish” problem though.)

Establish a Database

After trying many different ways of organizing my meals, the best for me was establishing a database of weekly meal plans to work from.

I created a Google Documents spreadsheet like this:

https://docs.google.com/spreadsheet/ccc?key=0AgV5b4x6NrzjdEJnYnI0WmNvaG9fbjJxRXlWLUo4Smc

I’m pretty sure that you can copy that exact one and put in your own info. If not, set up a Google account, go into Documents and search for a menu or grocery template. This one allows for three meals a day since we pretty much have the same things as snacks. On the left you enter your meals, on the right the columns are organized according to aisle/department in the store. Anyone with computer skills can take that spreadsheet and change it around, adding columns and whatever. It’s really flexible. (The other tabs are not mine. They came with the template I downloaded from Google Docs. We do not eat Frito Pie. If you eat Frito Pie, that’s fine. Good for you.)

Once you’ve got one in your Google Docs, you just copy and rename it for the following week. You could call it “Spring Menu, Week One”. The next week, copy your menu in your google docs, so now you have two files of the same menu. Rename the second one “Spring Menu, Week Two” and change out the meals. The next week, copy the menu and call your new copy “Spring Menu, Week Three” and change out the meals again. The following week call your new document “Spring Menu, Week Four” and plan your meals. Now you have four weeks of new meals all planned and you don’t have to think every week about what you are planning to have for dinner each day of the week. Then repeat those four weeks until it’s summer and you realize that yellow squash is now in season. Then start a new series called “Summer, Week _” I call mine by the date of the Monday when I’m setting them up. That’s helpful because I’m using the menu I made for this same week last year. And y’all, it’s not set in stone. You don’t even have to use an eraser because it’s digital. If I don’t want to eat something I had on Thursday, this same week last year, I can delete it and change it. 

The menu is fluid and changing. You rule the menu. The menu does not rule you.

Everyone say it with me, “I rule the menu. The menu does not rule me.”

As you are planning the menu, to the right you can enter all the things you need to make these meals. Don’t think about if you already have it all or whatever is in your pantry. Just go meal by meal and enter exactly what you need for that meal.

The point is, by the end of the year, you’ve already got next year’s menu and grocery list. It takes a little bit of time to establish a database, but once you’ve got one, it is worth it’s weight in gold. You can even use those extra tabs on the link I shared to write out meal ideas.

I don’t suggest trying to come up with four weeks all in one sitting. Just take it one week at a time.

If you don’t have Google Docs, and for some reason don’t want Google docs (Why would you not want Google Docs?) you can do this same thing on your computer through Excel.

Meals? What Meals??

Okay, so maybe you have database skills, but not so much menu finding skills. I could plan an entire week’s menu off of Pinterest. You are welcome to follow my Pinterest Food Board. Another website I love is allrecipes.com, and they also have a fantastic app for finding meals and recipes called AllRecipes Pro. It’s got this nifty little spinner where you tell it what sort of dish you want, how you want to cook it (crock pot, under 30 min, etc) , and what main ingredient interests you, and it magically provides a list of recipes. You can even save them in a digital recipe box, where your two year old cannot get to them to mix up the “baked goods” recipes with the “soups”.

In my Google Docs Menu, I can note where that meal’s recipe is found, entering even the whole url to the link.

Another tip: maybe think about having a few meatless meals thrown in there? That helps with budget and health.

Making the Grocery List

Now, with my Google Doc Menu plan and grocery list right in front of me, I use my iPhone app Grocery IQ. (Also available for Android, bless your hearts.) The Grocery IQ app syncs up everyone’s phones. So, all members of your household can add items to the list (this is cool if you have older kids or a husband who does your grocery shopping, like I do.) The Grocery IQ app also categories your list according to store and department. It’s fully customizable too. You can search by brand, or just enter generic terms like ‘Grape Jelly”. There is even an option to enter the price and it stores it in the database forever and ever. Then as you make your grocery list you can know if you are in budget or not. Brent adds the prices to new items as he shops, and then as I add items to my shopping list, I can see if I’m staying within my limits. I just go through my Google Doc list and omit items I already have on hand as I add to my Grocery IQ list. Don’t delete them from the Google Doc though, because you might need them next time you repeat that week’s menu. (My Google Doc/menu is my tentative list, my Grocery IQ is my actual list.)

When Brent is shopping, this is part of what he sees on his phone:

As he shops, he checks things off. Ba-da-bing, Ba-da-Boom.

Tip: I try to make sure that my list for produce is the longest of all departments.

Be Flexible

I like to change my menu up a lot. I’m constantly seeing and trying new recipes. So, even though I’m repeating “Spring Menu, Week 2″ I might change a meal or two. But if I’m in a time crunch, I can just go with what is there.

If I planned a certain meal for Tuesday night, but I forgot to thaw the meat, I can get that meat out to thaw for another night and make a different night’s meal. A little switcharoo. No one has to know. It’s my secret. If I’m having a bad day and I go with pancakes instead of what I planned, I can freeze stuff for next week or whatever.

Remember, you rule the menu.

Execution

None of this means anything if you don’t actually do the meals. There are a couple of different ways to remind yourself in the morning that dinner is coming, and you have a meal planned for it.

One way is to have a super cute black board hanging in your kitchen and writing a grid on it with magic marker. Fill in the meals with chalk each week. My kids love this because when they get hungry it reminds them that even though Mamma looks crazy and is crouching in a corner with chocolate, she really is planning to feed them dinner.

If you have a Home Management Binder, you can get a Daily Task Sheet (aka Daily Docket). DTS’s are for planning out your day in the morning. It’s good if you work and/or have a blog and/or ministry and/or homeschool, or have many hats to wear in general. A spot to sort of pull all of your thoughts into one. I use this one from simplemom.net: http://simplemom.net/wp-content/uploads/2008/07/daily-docket.pdf

Anyway, if all this is new to you, there is a spot to write in what you have planned for dinner. It’s a good time to think about if something needs to go in the crock pot, or get thawed, or to check and see if you have what you need for dinner on hand or if a store run is necessary sometime in the next 12 hours.

Either way, find a way to keep that menu in front of you for a while until you get the hang of it.

Then, bask in the peace of mind.

No, I’m not worried? Did you think I should be worried? I mean what could possibly go wrong with four kids unsupervised with a garden hose?

Especially because I have already tempted fate to deal me a heavy hand today. (Not that I believe in fate. It just has a nice poetic rhythm to it.)

I scheduled four dentist appointments for noon. In little kid world, that’s also known as lunch time. And you know how kids get when they’re hungry. I love our dentist office! They are so sweet and take their time to make everyone comfortable.

Afterwards we stopped at Whole Foods to pick up some lunch. I fed everyone as we drove home. Three chicken salad sandwiches, five bags of chips, and five fruit juices (not from concentrate, no sugar added, and made from real fruits and vegetables. Like I would have juiced myself, at home). All for under $20. We would have spent more at a fast food restaurant, and yet I fed them organic and all natural for less.

See? You can eat healthy for cheaper than…nasty.

After a quick stop at the post office, we came home. Kids were unloading and I realized Ezra had a ginormous hole in the toe of his shoe, Charis was wearing someone else’s shoes that were way too big, and Arwen had spilled something on her leg/shoes that was sticky at some point, and now just a big dirt splotch.

Sigh.

Maybe we’ll get free dental care because we look so poor. I really try to inspect everyone before we leave the house, I promise!

I sent the girls upstairs to get swimsuits on and went outside to set up the hose.

Charis came down and approached me saying, ” Uhh, I wasn’t really expecting this… But…,umm…. I was helping Evie get her bathing suit on and a big poop fell out of her underwears. On the floor. In your room.” ::nervous cough::

There was a time when I might have really freaked out over such news. But all I could think was, at least we aren’t at the mall.

We got it all cleaned up, and it hit me that Evie steps in her own poop with her shoes on more than anyone I bet. It all got tossed in the washer with some bleach.

And all that’s left for the day is pure fun.

Brilliantly, we decided to go to the mall.

The kids have forty of the current prize Chick-fil-a is offering, so we launched them over to the counter in groups to exchange for a free ice cream. Plus, for some reason they gave us some free chicken strips and two bowls of ice cream. For free. I think maybe we just looked extra hungry.

At some point the guy at the counter started looking for the clown car all these little people must haven been tumbling out of.

We made approximately three potty trips at the food court.

After grabbing some dinner we headed to Godiva. The girls and I are card carrying members and get free chocolate every month. (The marzipan hearts are my fav. And it’s free. Did I mention there’s free chocolate?)
The girls usually buy some too.

Then we hit up the toy store. Ezra opted not to spend his money because he is saving up for some binoculars.

Brent made two more trips to take kids to the potty while I tried to talk some kids out of buying cheap crap with their hard earned money.

He returned from the third trip to the JC Penny potty and Evie had some accessories.

I mentioned we are having issues with the potty training, right?
She had, umm, doodled in her britches. So, as the story was relayed to me, her doodle dumped itself on the floor at the entrance to Penny’s.
Yes. We are why you should never eat off public floors.
Of course Arwen loudly announced that the Uhh… Doodle had ::cough:: dumped ::cough::.
Good thing because I hear tell some folks almost stepped on it. Brent found a receipt in Arwen’s Godiva bag and picked up the poop and carried it to the bathroom to dispose of it.
Once everyone was all cleaned up, he and Arwen were fleeing the scene and realized Evie was missing.

At this exact moment there was a loud shriek and they found Evie with her hand stuck, pinched in the men’s bathroom door.

Across the way, a salon worker had great compassion and gave Evie a bandaid and a free bottle of OPI polish. (score for Mamma!)

Once Brent, Arwen and Evie returned to the rest of us, Evie settled herself in the stroller and promptly began a manicure.

I’m telling y’all, it’s exhausting being her parents. ;D

Here it is, 9:00 pm and we are on our way home.

Good night.

But don’t worry. An hour after this I got the grocery list to Brent, just in time for him to clock out and shop.

Then we played outside. I chased a bulldog out of the yard three times. Waving a hoe. In my work out clothes.

Then someone pooped their pants. Twice.

One kid wrecked their bike into the side of the shed and a motorcycle just fell onto someone else.

Currently a neighbor boy just came skidding out from under our shed squealing about a black widow.

Happy Tuesday, y’all! It’s business as usual here.

Evie was the first baby to ever help me experience what everyone else goes through with newborns in regards to sleep. Most of my other babies slept at least long enough for me to maintain my sanity.

Evie is the first child we have had to struggle with potty training. My husband is a potty training black belt. Even he cannot break through with this child. For the first time ever I have purchased pullups, and confirmed all my suspicions about them. (She pretty much pees in them all day.)

Evie is also, what I’ve been told, the most like me of all of my children. From that ornery rascal smile, all the way down to her pink little toe nails. Her big belly laughs, her stubbornness, and her ability to wrap her daddy around her pinky… All from me.

When I was young my mamma would wag her finger at me and say, ” One day, you are gonna have a little girl just.like.you….”

I’m getting mine now, Mamma. And I’m sorry I use to make you chase me down for spankings.

Here is Evie’s day today, so far.

Usually she is the first awake and proceeds to go around the house screeching at everyone else lovingly greeting her siblings. Today. On the day that her daddy forgot to lock the front door on his way out. (The front door that stands open slightly if it is not locked. ) Today she chose to silently hide in a corner of a room and ignore her mother tearing through the house calling her name when she came out of the shower and found the front door open. Oh yes. She stayed still and quiet as her mamma raced around the outside of the house looking for her. She stayed quiet while mamma called daddy and uttered terrifying words, “I can’t find Evie.” Once she was sure she’d scared us out of our wits, she giggled a little and made her presence known. (I did something similar to my mamma at her age. In a department store at the mall. Sorry, mom!)
She was hiding in bed, with her pants on backwards wearing mismatched socks that weren’t even hers.

After lots of cuddles with mamma, she headed down stairs to find baby brother sleeping peacefully in his swing. So she turned it off and attempted to pick him up. By his head. Mamma was desperate for coffee and lured her away with a full plate of strawberries.

Mamma returned to her coffee-making only to get interrupted several times by sibling’s various needs.

Evie steals the measuring cup mamma is using to make oatmeal and attempts to feed it to the chickens. It won’t fit through the cage so she just bangs on the cage with the cup instead.

Then she returns to her strawberries.

Mamma is sooo close to getting some coffee. This must be stopped. So she goes over and proceeds to pick baby brother up again. Only mamma has buckled him in.

Shucks!

Oh look! Baby is awake! Let’s play with him!!!

During breakfast she takes several long sips of mamma’s coffee when she thinks she isn’t looking.

Mamma bribes Evie to go sit on the potty. While big kids do chores, mamma puts a clean pullup on Evie and says, “DON’T pee in this. Put your pee pees in the potty.” Evie says, “okay mamma”, then pees in her pullup.

Oh look! Charis is outside watering plants!!! Evie runs outside in big brother’s socks, all the way up the big hill. Since we are running late for art class, it will be fun for mamma to chase me down up here! Oh wait, mamma looks mad and is saying “bye bye!” I better come down and see her.

While mamma is cleaning up the blow out baby brother had, I think I’ll let big sister buckle me in. But just this one time. I do like to be helpful.

We make it to art.

Whew.

Art lasts an hour. I’m not sure that the girls are actually doing art all that time, but I can be sure that the full hour we are there Evie is in full action mode. Usually, she will look at a book or something until I get Titus to doze off in my arms. Then she will flee the scene. I scramble to reel her back in, waking Titus, who is now screaming. I get Titus back to sleep and Evie announces she needs to go potty.

We (being Evie, Titus, and myself) squeeze into a small stall. Apparently she has changed her mind about going potty and refuses to pull down her pants. I bend down to help her, bonking Titus’s head on the stall.
After she pees, she refuses help with getting her britches back up. “I, myshelf” she says.
We wash our hands. Evie stands on my feet so that she can reach.

We settle back in the waiting room with Ezra.
Evie tries to play the iPad but can’t. She gets mad at mamma for trying to help and flees. Again. This time she runs off with Ezra’s spider man mask, which means he is shrieking after her.

She falls.

She returns to the room, flinging herself onto a couch, crying dramatically. Mamma is trying to nurse Titus.

Art is over. But now she refuses to leave the room and mamma must escort her to the truck. While mamma is gathering all the stuff we need to survive one hour of art, she cries at the top of her lungs.

Oh look! Arwen brought me a lollipop! Why does mamma look so stressed? What was I crying about again?

Mamma has to stop at the bank. This would be a good time to get upset, cry, and wake up poor Titus who is trying to sleep. Ooooo… Mamma is handing me the iPad! What was I crying about again?

We pick up lunch, hurry home, and distribute kid’s meals. Evie dumps some apple sauce in her chocolate milk. Evie spits out the grilled chicken she just chewed.
Evie sticks her fork in her chocolate milk, then pours the milk into a paper bag. Then cries when mamma throws it away.
Mamma gives nice hugs. What was I crying about again?
Evie spits out her grilled chicken she was chewing. Again.

All done!

Evie picks out the same book for naptime that we have read for the last three days.

Mamma rocks her to sleep and lays her down.

To be continued… After nap time.

a prayer

if I’m honest, a begging.

Lord, help me to see.

Help me to see beyond the headache, the laundry, the dirt, the looming mastitis.

Beyond my own needs.

Lord, help me to serve.

The little people you’ve given me,

even the one that pees everywhere.

And dumps water in the ear oil I desperately needed,

for the cranky teething one.

And all others You have put in my path today,

those with secret, quiet, hurting, broken hearts, big needs and little needs.

Help me to see and serve.

“For in Him we live and move and have our being…” Acts 17:28

“He must increase; but I must decrease.” John 3:30

“For it is God who works in you, both to will and to work for his good pleasure.
Do all things without grumbling or disputing” Philippians 2:13-14

But the problem is, I can’t remember any.

So, how about I revert to bullet points like last summer and we will see where that takes us.

• We started farmers markets this week. Our Thursday market decided to start a couple months before all the others. It happens to be our busiest market, so this is a good sopping wet dry run to see how market life with five chil’rens goes. It was a little messy. A little bit like Brent and I each juggling one baby (either Titus or Evie) and calmly urging the other three to act normal since we were in public, while asking people to please give us just a minute to finish setting up so they could shop, answering questions, and doling out soap in paper bags, while doing higher math equations to make change. Yep. One of the kids took a behind the scenes photo:

• The good news is, the farmers market was successful. It looks like this is going to be a promising year. The bad news is that our sink broke that morning. Welcome to adulthood, right? You make money, something breaks. Reminds me of that montage in Up! with the sweet couple and their money jar.
• Titus is rapidly producing teeth. We totally skipped that season where you get decent sleep. You know, the one that falls a couple months after they are born and lasts for a few weeks before they start teething? That’s okay though. We survived a baby who never slept, so this isn’t as bad. However, my brain cells are short circuiting. I’m like an alzheimer’s patient some days. So, don’t be surprised if you catch me wondering around Target naked. Or wandering even.
• Brent and the big kids have left me and the little people here again by ourselves. This means that another big box was purchased and Mamma is cleaning out the down stairs like a mad woman. We just have too much stuff for our small house. I’ve pretty much gotten rid of or donated everything we don’t need. So, now I’m boxing up stuff we do need, but maybe can live without, and sticking it in the attic until we get new digs. Or is that diggs?
• Speaking of digging. We expect to be bursting out of these seams next fall. Anybody want our house? It smells good!!!
• We attempted to do school at a local public park this week until the local elementary school came and kicked us out. It has taken me several days to come up with something nice to say, because it sure was a lot of work getting all our school and lunch stuff together and all set up and cleaning up a certain poopy britches child and getting settled, just to be be made to leave by a school who has their own play ground that I pay for with my taxes and also when the kids knock on my door and ask for money for their government supported school even though I pay for every dime of my children’s education. But gee golly I sure am glad that those kids got to get out of the walls of their school and be free range for an hour or two! No really…. I am!
• Also, we realized that if we only had three kids, we’d be owing money on our taxes. This is because we are living the American dream by owning our own business. {{snort}}
• I should probably tell you that I cut out all sugar, in addition to being sleep deprived. And it’s making me a little grumpy.
• Hey, look at these cute kids!

Mary is still around! She's all dolled up in honor of the A Day Game today. ROLL TIDE, Mary!

Charis and Arwen got four stickers on their chore packs. This means they got Yogurt Mountain! (And they did Peeps as a topping? Gross!)

Ezra has really reached a challenging time in his development into a big boy. We are encouraging him daily to grow strong on the inside. Having two older sisters is tough! Any tips, boy moms? We have a lot of tears these days...

Evelyn adores the book Go, Dog, GO! We read it over and over and over and...

And occasionally I remember to bathe the little one