This blog is dedicated to all my wonderful friends and family, who, through your support and love and dedication to reading my blog I have a reason to post my most personal thoughts and feelings into cyberspace. Or should I say, the inter web. I especially dedicate the following words to Colette, who although I’ve only met once in person, through months of reading each others blogs and twitters, I consider a friend. A blog friend. An online buddy. We have shared so much and seen each other so little. She, among thousands of other readers of my blog, knows my thoughts on parenting, life and marriage. She has read my innermost thoughts..this blog however is not one of those..

Top 5 things:

5 things I couldn’t live without for under $5:
1. Disinfecting wipes
2. Eyeliner
3. Chocolate
4. Coffee
5. Toilet paper, I guess

5 favorite movies:
1. My big fat Greek wedding
2. Anne of Green Gables
3. While you were sleeping
4. You’ve Got mail
5. 13 going on 30

5 baby names I love, but won’t use:
1. Ainsley (So far I’ve tried to get Allison to use this as well as my sister..no takers.)
2. Bryton James (if one of the triplets was a boy, this would have been his name)
3. Kirsten
4. Audrey/Aubrey
5. can’t think of any more

5 songs I could listen to over and over:
1. You cannot lose my love by..shoot, her name is alluding me
2. It is well with my soul by another artist I can’t remember
3. O holy night by Trisha Yearwood
4. Unwritten by Natasha beddingfeld
5. I’m a believer by smashmouth
*I have bipolar music preferences

5 people that have influenced my life in a positive way:
1. Jesus
2. my mom
3. Josh
4. pretty much all of my friends..I’m going to leave it at that

5 things that stay in my purse at all times:
1. Uh, my drivers licence
2. my debit cards
3. lipstick
4. keys (if I’m lucky)
5. lipstick (I have like 4)

5 moments that have changed my life forever:
1. becoming a christian even though I was 4-5
2. falling in love with Josh
3. the moment that the first stick read “pregnant”
4. the second stick that read “pregnant”
5. finding out that I was having triplets

5 obsessions that I have right now:
1. Being a good parent
2. remodeling
3. Landscaping
4. with the sun that does not shine
5. coffee

5 Places I would like to go:
1. Hawaii..doesn’t matter where
2. Austria
3. Italy
4. Mexico
5. Germany

People who’s top 5 I would like to see:
1. Andrea (welcome to the world of blogging)
2. Heidi
3. Katy
4. Josh (another reason to update your neglected blog)
5. Bryce

Man, I feel like I’ve been the one to have given birth yesterday..okay, maybe not that bad..but yesterday I came home from the hospital (I was there from about 9am to about 3:30 or so) and I was just so exhausted. I was hungry, had a headache and literally felt like I could just lay down and go to sleep on the spot. Well, I couldn’t go to sleep of course because I had to make dinner, get the girls ready for bed, get their milk and not to mention get their new twin sized beds out of the hallway where they were waiting and install them in their room..which included putting on sheets and blankets and arranging them an acceptable arrangement in their room. Then after all that it was finally time for them to go to bed. Something in their little brains did not translate from learning to stay in their crib beds to staying on their big bed. We had some problems! So at the point where I was almost dizzy due to my tiredness and headache, I had to sit in their room and swat whoever disobeyed and got off of their bed..last night Adelynn was the good one. And the other two were…not so much. (It always changes)

Last night I very much wanted to stay up and watch the new House that was one..but I didn’t make it. I think I fell asleep around 9:30. Josh woke me up around 6:15 as he was leaving for work and I did not feel like I got enough sleep…and I still had a headache..or maybe it was a new one.

To be fair, Sunday was a full day for me of taking the full sized bed that we had here over to my mom’s and exchanging it with her 3 twin sized beds. That was a lot of work and I was very tired Sunday night too. And then yesterday I wasn’t just sitting around all day waiting for the baby to come. I was an active part of the labor/delivery process. Every time she pushed I put my hand under her neck and helped push her up into the curling-around-the-baby position. So I was working. Not as hard as she was by any means, but still working. Anyway, I’m exhausted!

I may need to postpone my new workout until tomorrow.

My sister who is pregnant with my first niece on my side of the family is on her way to the hospital to have a daughter! Her water broke about half an hour ago. She’s been walking around dialated to 4 so I have a feeling this baby will come pretty quick! I’m trying to arrange babysitting for the day so I can get down there. I just cannot wait to hold that half Chinese baby in my arms! I’ve always wanted to adopt a little girl from China..I think their Soooo cute! I’m over the moon excited! I’ll keep you updated and post pics when I can…

Last night as I was laying in bed, trying to fall asleep, I was thinking over my blog that I had written and the whole issue of parenting. I was brainstorming some ideas for our “Plan of Attack”. In the midst of this line of thought, I started thinking about how in the Psalms, David refers to our children as arrows. I started thinking about how I want my children to be able to fly straight and true..but how I’m so inadequate to be able to shoot the arrows. I *think* that *maybe* at some point in my growing up years I have shot a bow and arrow before..for the life of me I can’t remember where, or when..maybe outdoor school? I don’t know. But the fact is, I have no experience as an archer..(archerist? what are they called?) I don’t know how to hold the bow, I don’t know how to position the arrow, I certainly don’t have the strength to pull the string back far enough to actually make the arrow go anywhere…how discouraging. As I’m thinking this, I’m picturing myself trying desperately to shoot this arrow and getting more and more discouraged about my failure. All of a sudden (In my mind’s eye) as I’m fumbling and finally get an arrow shot out of my bow (terribly I might add) I see this huge hand come out of the sky..it sort of looks like a cloud. But this hand grabs the arrow that I have just shot, which barely made it out of the bow, picks it up before it hits the ground and then holds the arrow up and moves it straight and true across the field. I’m actually getting teary as I recall my “vision”. God spoke to my heart in that moment, saying that of course I’m not going to be a perfect parent..but it’s my job to do my best to shoot that arrow. After I shoot it, it’s His job to take that poorly shot arrow and place it where He wants them to end up. And my kids will always be in His hands..but they won’t always be in mine. Now that I think back to my picture, I never did see the target..I never saw where they were headed or what I was actually aiming for. This picture provided me with immense comfort and encouragement so I wanted to share it with you all out there hoping it will do the same.

In “other” news, I have begun the process of putting a plan into action for the girls..I decided to buy a couple baby gates so effectively they will have access to a lot less of the house. I am going to “parent in the funnel” as babywise puts it..basically this means that the younger the child is, the more restrictions, and less freedom they have. As they learn to follow basic commands, follow instructions and gain some self control, the funnel can expand and so does their freedom. I am also going to be installing some locks on the drawers and cupboards in the kitchen (which I should have done a long time ago) and set up some play area in the house. Each girl will take a turn every day in the bedroom learning to play by herself and we will concentrate right now on staying seated at their table while eating and staying in their beds when told to. So far the baby gates are NOT a hit. (Except for me who is thrilled that I can take back some of my house and can confine the disaster areas to a smaller percentage of my house..the rest of it might actually get clean and stay clean…imagine!)

As for the boys..Josh and I are going to go on a date hopefully this weekend and together come up with a plan of action, beginning with a list of “House Rules”. I realized that we don’t even have this..no wonder we’re having problems..the boys don’t know with one hundred percent certainty what is okay and what is not. I’m going to do some “fun” things with a magnetic dry erase board and today I purchased some fun things for them to get as rewards..including a snow cone maker which I think Bryce will be thrilled about. Just to clarify, he doesn’t earn the snow cone maker, he gets to earn the right to make one. =) On Sunday night probably (because it is our typical family night) we will then host a family meeting and talk about all the changes, new rules and expectations that we have. And then we can put our plan into action. I hope that once all these things are written out and planned out, it won’t feel as overwhelming as it does right now.

Well, my plan is to update hopefully about once a week on how things are going in addition to my regular blogging..this will hopefully give me more motivation and encouragement to keep going and to stay on track. Thank you all for the prayers and encouragement. I truly, truly need it!

Oh yeah, if anyone has a list of “House Rules” that they enforce at their house that is working for them that they wouldn’t mind sharing, I would love it if you either posted it in the comments section or emailed me. I’d love to hear some other ideas from people.

For the last couple days, driven by my intense frustrations about the girls’ nap time, I have taken time out of my busy schedule of cleaning, cooking, remodeling and all the other things I do around the house to instill some discipline into the lives of my daughters. AKA: sitting in their room for upwards of 2 hours in order to not allow them to climb out of their beds until they fall asleep. Actually, I guess a strong argument would be that instilling discipline into the lives of my children should be at the top of my busy schedule!

Anyway, during these times of discipline, I have brought books in with me..you know, to catch up on all my reading. Appropriately, the books that I have brought with me have been parenting books..ones that I either haven’t had time to read or haven’t read in a long time. Yesterday I read through the book “Taming your family zoo” which I thought was very good and balanced..a lot of parenting books are not balanced..”It’s my way or the highway” type of attitude. Today I read (again) through “Babywise 2″ and began “The Strong-willed Child”.

For the past several months I feel a bit like our family is out of control in some ways. I mean, comparatively to maybe a lot of other families, we maybe rate pretty high on the scale of “good family life” but neither Josh or I are satisfied with the level of obedience or respect we get from our kids. While reading through all these books (in particular the Babywise book today) I realized that not only are there problems with what we’re expecting from our boys, but I’m sorry to say, I have barely even begun any sort of discipline with the girls. I think upon some self-examination, I have realized that my longing for so long to have a daughter, coupled with the fact that these are my babies..my last biological children.. has created a permissiveness in my parenting style that in no way would I ever have accepted with the boys. Also added to this is the fact that there is three of them and I am grossly outnumbered and the thought of disciplining them is overwhelming!

However today as I was reading through the book, I am newly inspired to do what it takes to be a good parent. At least when it comes to the girls, I am in familiar territory..with the boys..Bryce in particular, I am in unfamiliar waters and sometimes just stare dumbfounded at him because I have no earthly idea what to do when he spouts off in some disrespectful manner. In some ways I feel like I’d like a do-over. You know, the ball has gone out of bounds so you need to start over. Unfortunately there are no do-overs like there are in grade school four square. I’m not saying at all that Bryce is a bad kid..don’t get me wrong. In fact, it’s just the opposite, I think that he’s such a great kid that I don’t want to fail him and screw him up!

Anyway, I’m not quite certain what my motivation in writing a blog about this is..I guess in some ways I’m sort of working all my thoughts out in my head. But also I think I’d also like to ask for a little accountability in this area..parenting is hard. Duh! It’s really hard. And for me it’s complicated by the fact that I have triplets. Which means that disciplining them is more than triply hard..and having consistent discipline for the boys seems to be put on the back burner a lot because of the amount of energy that the girls take. So I definitely need to step some things up..make some changes and stick to my guns. Guns..hmmm maybe I need guns…

So, from my last blog, I am dealing with a possible future comedian in our household. But now I think I may have a future composer in our midst. Bryce has been working on writing this song for several days now and maybe I’m a bit biased, but I actually think it’s really good. Especially considering that he’s 7. So I wanted to share it with you all.

(Title to come later…)

Who made the stars in the sky? Who made the sun? Jesus did!

Jesus is the one who created the earth! He died for us! And rose in 3 days just to take away our sin!

CHORUS:
we love Jesus he loves me. I will not give up his love!
Sing with me!
we love Jesus he loves me. I will not give up his love!
we love Jesus he loves me. I will not give up his love!

He rocks, he rules! He is the best man on earth!

He loves me, i love him. I will never give up his love!

He’s contagious, he’s lovable, i will never love someone more then Jesus

he is worthy, never give up your love with Jesus

CHORUS:
we love Jesus he loves me. I will not give up his love!
Sing with me!
we love Jesus he loves me. I will not give up his love!
we love Jesus he loves me. I will not give up his love!

Pretty cute, huh?

So today as I was preparing lunch I heard Jayden in the living room sort of muttering as he was playing with the desk chair. A few minutes later he pushes the desk chair into the kitchen area to show off his new “talent”.

Jayden: Mommy, did you know that I can turn the chair and tell a joke?
Me: (sort of distracted by crying babies and lunch preparation) What are you talking about?
Jayden: Watch this! (begins turning the chair around and around with his hand)
Jayden: Why did the chickens cross the road without even looking?
Me: I don’t know.
Jayden: Because they wanted to get hit by a car.
Me: Okay…
Jayden: (still spinning the chair around) Why did the dog make his-self talk and change his name to “Sickpants”?
Me: Change his name to what?
Jayden: Sickpants.
Me: Why?
Jayden: Because he wanted to become a human.

Is there some sort of contest he can enter? I mean, you have to admit the boy has talent. He can spin a chair AND tell jokes that don’t make any sense.

Well, I have come to the realization that I am a once-a-week blogger. I came to this realization about a week ago and didn’t blog about it..or anything else. So maybe that makes me a once-every-two-week blogger. But I think for the most part, I average about once a week. (Maybe there IS a link between blogging and sex!) Just seeing if y’all are listening…Apparently in the last two weeks since I’ve blogged, I’ve also become southern.

The main reason that I haven’t blogged in the last two weeks is that there’s been absolutely nothing of consequence to blog about. Even in my head, I haven’t blogged..which is rare since I blog in my head on almost a daily basis.

I’m sitting here staring at the computer screen, desperately wanting to blog about something, but nothing is coming to mind. I guess since there’s nothing of consequence to blog about, I’ll have to blog about inconsequential things. And I think I’ll do a random thoughts/events post about the last couple weeks post. Hold on to your hats, y’all…

*A few days ago, I put the first ever pony tail in Kynden’s hair..the top of her head has exactly 10 hairs that are about 3 inches long and I was able to get a tiny rubber band around them..but I forgot to take a picture.

*I have done my federal taxes but have been putting off my Oregon ones..for some reason the likelyhood of having to pay is far less exciting than getting money back.

*In the next couple weeks I am going to be starting a once-a-month cooking program and I’m excited. I very much hope it will save time and money and stress.

*Bryce has a music program tonight at school.

*We don’t make enough money.

*I am considering looking for a job. Even if all it is, is a way for me to get a break and out of the house on a regular basis.

*I think someday when I go back to school, I’d like to major in English and then get a Masters in phycology so I can be a family counselor and/or life coach who can write. I like to write.

*After wanting one for years, Josh finally gave me permission to buy a Hoover Floormate. It has changed my life!

*I have yet to find the perfect sippy cup that a)the girls like b)that don’t break or fall apart and leak all over the floor and c)that don’t come in a million little pieces that are impossible to find and put together when you have 3 screaming toddlers at your feet.

*My sister who is 32 weeks pregnant with her first child is currently in the hospital with preterm labor. She has been there 2 days and the last word I heard is that she will be there 1-2 more days. I feel her hospital bedrest pain.

*I was reflecting this morning on how much of an approval seeker I am. A lot of times I don’t recognize this in myself, but other times it is blaring in my face. Why am I like this? Why is it so important for me to have the approval of others?

*Last night when I dropped Jayden off at AWANA I had the opportunity to meet a couple who has 3 1/2 year old triplets. I got to talk with the mom for quite a while and we really clicked. I asked her if it ever got any ‘easier’ and she totally validated my feeling of this age being so hard..she grabbed my hand and said that it does get better and I got tears in my eyes. She understands. It’s so important to be understood.

*For the last 2 weekends in a row, my dad has come over to help us (well, Josh mostly) move our water heater from the mud room and the first thing that you see when you come in the backdoor to another part of the house completely..I thought it was going to be a one day project, but I was wrong..it’s turned into a three week process due to not being able to find our outside water shut-off and my dad talking Josh into re-plumbing the entire house. Hopefully the job will get done next Saturday. I’m anxious to have it done. I hate the water heater being the first thing you see upon entering our house..it really offends my sense of decorating style.

*I love living in Corbett. Almost on a daily basis, I feel so thankful and full of joy that I get to live here..whenever I’m coming home from somewhere I get to drive by a river and waterfalls and rolling fields of crops or hillsides with cattle and I think it’s so beautiful..I hope I never take that for granted. I hope we never have to leave.

Well, girls are up now and I’d better start paying attention to what they are doing before they destroy the house…