Overwelmed

I need to hide under a rock for a week or so, I need a nice break from my life so I can sit back and relax and have a moment to collect MY thoughts. Not the many thoughts of my children or my husband, mine, my very own thoughts. I sometimes feel like I'm caught in the middle of a twister trying to anchor everyone down, and their wants, needs and thoughts are all spinning around me. Sometimes I feel like I could burst from just listening to everything all day, I unfortunetly can't tune a dang thing out, so I hear it all!! My mind spins, with everything I want to do, the things I need to do, the guilt of the things I don't think I'm going to get to, the things I want for me, the moments of peace I crave but never receive. And then there is guilt...ugh guilt, it's a ugly thing for me, I feel guilty about everything!! I feel guilty for craving those moments of peace and quiet, because I should not need such a thing, I should enjoy every crazy minute I have with these amazing kids. So why, why do I feel like I need this...insert the guilt!!

I don't think my husband understands the idea of giving me time or space, I think he thinks I don't need a minute or two away from our kiddies. This is frustrating. So right now I'm held up in my room, told the kids to raise themselves for the next 20 min's...does this make me a bad mom, I think not!! If no one is going to hand me a moment of peace, I'm going to try my hardest to steal a few from time to time! Now this doesn't usually work out for me, I usually hear the kids fighting and crying, and I feel my blood boil inside me, and the moment of peace I craved so much got turned into a volcano of stress. O well, it does work once in awhile :)

I want to take the kids to the pool right now, it's 100 degrees out, I need to feed them lunch..ugh!! This causes stress for a person like me. Lunch can't be easy and simple, because I have that ugly word "diabetes" to deal with. Food=stress. So I guess I'll do what I have to do and hope that what I want to do will happen and it will turn out great, yes Max won't be a pain in the behind because he should be napping. Olivia's sugars will stay amazingly in the perfect category, I will be able to lie down and relax in the sun!! Okay that last one was a dream, that will never happen!!

Plugged back in...

So here are some of the fun things we did with all our free time

• Swam at the pool...A LOT!!!
• Went to a splash pad
• Went out for ice cream
• Went to the park
• Played a serious game of Monopoly with Jack and Harrison...um like 3 times
• Colored with sidewalk chalk
  
• Rediscovered old toys, such as pet shop, legos, mini guys, board games and puzzles
  
• Went to Carowinds for the day
• Went to Carowinds for a evening :)
• Went to the museum
  
• Had plenty of time to talk
  
• Enjoyed doing some summer reading

I'm sure I'm forgetting a ton of things, but really we had a great week!! Not to sound too corny, but we connected so much more with all these distractions turned off!! Now I didn't give it up completely, like I should of, but I did limit myself to never getting on a computer when I was with the kids. I checked facebook at nighttime or maybe while everyone was happily playing something, I really made it a point to not let myself become distracted by it!! The kids played wonderfully, we had very little fighting and some serious bonding going on :) We set up many forts and hideouts together, it was such a joy to watch all of my kids playing together happily!!

So yesterday was the day that they could start to "earn" some time for tv, games and computer, this did not go so well!! I huge fight between Olivia and Harrison broke out and it turned nasty, all over the stupid computer!! So needless to say I said enough it's over, we are currently unplugged once again!! I'm not going to make this a permanent thing..at least I don't think so ;) I do plan on allowing them to earn some screen time, and we do enjoy Family movies nights, but I want to make sure we have as many family game nights as we do movie nights!! I truly believe that too much time with all the electronic gadgets makes kids cranky!!

No electronics week...

yup, that's right I'm either crazy or stupid I haven't decided which one yet....I'll let you know in a week :) So this is a family tradition I guess you could say in the Schoch household, every summer when the kids (mostly the boys) are enjoying their time on the computer a little too much, and the video games are calling there name, it's time to take a break!! Now my kids aren't glued to a screen all day, but they will probably choose to play the wii over a board game, or a family movie night over a family walk, you get the point!! Now usually I start this week off a little more prepared, but I've been sick so it's going to be a fly by the seat of my pants kind of week! Here's a few things I do know...

• I'll be collecting all the DS's and ipod touches tonight, and unplugging the TV's!!
• I want to go buy a big puzzle with the kid's tomorrow morning and let it take over our dining room table for the week :)
• I am very blessed that there are MANY free things to do around me, I'm going to try to take advantage of these things!!
• I've put the 3 older kids in charge of making their first meal...um we'll see how that goes :)
• I want to try to do some fun crafts and projects with the kids, that I should of planned out already, but didn't.
• Was thinking about doing theme days, but once again not sure how or if that's going to work out.
• This week will start out a little ruff, but end up wonderful!!
• My kids will play with toys they haven't touched for 6 months :)
• My kids will also be closer and kinder to one another at the end of the week, something about too much electronics seems to make my kids cranky!

Now, while I normally follow this rule with my children, I really don't want to ;) So while Tim and myself will be giving up TV, I have decided not to practice what I preach and not ban myself from facebook!! Now what I am committed to doing is not checking facebook 20 times a day, and while I'm with my kids to really be with them!! So I'm going to update the blog and my facebook page with things we are doing and how it's going in hopes that...YOU ALL JOIN IN ON THIS FUN WITH ME :) It really is a amazing week, and I'm hoping a few of my friends decide to join in!! So like I said I'm going to update here and facebook about how it's going/what we're doing, but I'm not going to spend 5 min's scrolling through my phone looking at people's statuses!! I'm really going to try to give my kids 100%, um like I should do everyday!!

And don't worry the following week I'm just not going to plop my kids down in front of the TV and take a break from all the crazy festivities, my kids will be working very hard to earn things like a family movie night, or family Wii game night!! And then we go camping, and then up to MI, so hopefully we'll end our summer off with our family even closer and happier!!