Teenagers

Here I sit at McDonald's bc the olders are at youth and I needed something to do with the littles, one of which is sitting beside me not playing bc he is still finishing his school!  I've been wanting to get back to typing on my blog but sometimes I just don't know what to say.  I've deleted two posts already bc I was afraid someone would miss understand what I was trying to portray.  I think I will talk about teenagers.  I don't know why people act the teenage years are so awful?  I only have two teens right now and three littles but so far, I enjoy my teens.  Yes, sometimes they throw attitude but so can I!  imagine that!  :-/  lol  We have things we like to do together, we have shows and movies (I'm so glad we waited till they were older to introduce some movies and shows bc now we can share those with them and not the littles and it gives us something special) and music.  We have tried to lay a firm foundation for them and now we can give more freedom in some areas.  They know the rules and boundaries and what happens if they break or cross them.  We talk about everything!  We discuss responsibility and mistakes and how to avoid them.  We are still parents to them but I feel we are also friends.  Not taking the place of their peers, we could never do that but in a parental way.  I just want to say I am thoroughly enjoying them.  Watching them learn to do new things, to navigate new waters, to make their own decisions after thorough discussions is really cool.  Listening to them weigh the pros and cons or the possible consequences on their own is so neat to see.  The laughs and the sarcasm (mine and theirs) is priceless!  Also seeing them help out with the littles, they can be such a great help to our household.  However the girl teen van get so lost in her phone, oh my how that child can zone out!  lol, not that her mama ever did that with books!  no, not I!  lol  However don't get me wrong, there are plenty of times I think these two are some kind of alien!  Oh my!  LOL As we sit here at Chick fil a (where we came for dinner after picking up the olders) and the littles play, each teen has their phones out.  what must we look like to others?  lol, what if we end up on someones fb as a what you shouldn't do?  As I was just saluted by my daughter who I sent into the battlefield (also known as the play area) to remind them to go UP the steps and DOWN the slide!!!  Ugh, They KNOW this!  Anyways, I think I have bored  you long enough tonight.  :)

The Closet!

Decisions overwhelm me.  Ones that others find easy to make.  For example, I'm trying to go through and reorganize our toy closet.  First I had to go through the toys that were left in front of the door.  These are the Christmas toys that never found their right baskets and were stashed in the way of getting to the very place they belonged.  This posed a special problem since I couldn't just simply pick them up and put them away one by one bc they all had to be moved before I could get to where they were meant to be.  So before I could even get started I already didn't know how to begin and just wanted to sit down and cry!  (doesn't help that I am missing the 13 yr old so much while he is at camp this week!)  Also I feel pressed for time bc I am trying to get something accomplished while the littles are at VBS and I know once they get home the accomplishing will be significantly harder if not next to impossible!  So I call in a reinforcement for moral support, she is so good at that!  and we begin, sord of.  So I pick up a toy, what do we do with one?  donate, trash?  but he was so happy when he got it, yes, its really just a cheap piece of trash, but he loved it, oh look its missing an arm, we really really don't need to keep a broken arm toy no matter now loved it supposedly is, right and oh yea, he hasn't looked for it or mentioned it in months, finally trash is decided!  You know, we really must move faster than this!  Finally before I go pick up the littles, the toys are cleared from the doorway.  There's a bag for trash and one for donate and little piles of soldiers, legos, squinkies, imaginext, etc waiting for their forever homes.  Lunch and movie break and then all I want is a nap, the bed sounds so nice and I could just sleep and sleep and sleep but I must not, no, no, but I want to, NO!  back to that closet in the library.  and now it's time to open that door, the horror!!  Once again I just want to cry and scream! bc this closet that has been organized more than once, that has a lock at the top so the littles can't get in and wreck everything, yes, they need permission to get anything out, this closet has toys not in their proper places, toys that someone (possibly one of the olders that can reach the lock but was too lazy or focused on a different task) just threw in the closet and didn't bother to put in their proper container.  Now I am overwhelmed and MAD!  but alas I know neither of those feelings will really help so I try to trudge on.  So I pull out overflowing containers and start purging!  I would love to say the closet is done but it is not.  We have gotten rid of a lot!  Switched some groups to more appropriate sized containers (like the legos are now in one place and not two!).  Decided not to keep two toy house things bc they like the bigger dollhouse to play superheroes in, no need to keep them all.  Speaking of those wonderful superheroes, I still need to go through those and put them in a better container and go through our wooden blocks and the instruments but I can take a little solace in the knowledge that I do not need to go through the Geo Trax, all those are keep!  We've been collecting those for over ten years!  Every child has played with them, they are great and well made and they last!  Those are definitely a save for the grands toy!  For now the library door is closed, the littles are in bed which means the house is QUIET! and maybe I can get some crocheting in.