My Therapy Session

So, I have 20 minutes to have this little therapy session with myself. I need it. It has been a roller coaster ride these last two weeks as we dealt with continued adjustments and the passing of Kyle's mom Kaye. (For more on that see our family blog)

It has been a difficult and at times unsuccessful balancing act, helping the three kids that were feeling the loss of someone they have known and loved all their lives with the needs of two children who are completely new to our lives and who had met Kaye exactly once at the airport. Plus there is the baby that had all her normal needs and was oblivious to the fact that her mom was strung tight as a fiddle.

Outside of the funeral preparations I have felt several times that the danger of raising six kids is that it gives you much more opportunity to fail colossally! However, there have been a few high points too:

Watching and helping the kids get ready for Valentines Day was fun. Theo and Blessing really loved decorating their boxes and filling out the cards for their classmates. They loved even more coming back with a pile of candy. It was a new experience for them.

The low point of Valentines was all of my children accusing each other of stealing candy from them - mostly the boys. They could not get the concept that the other might have received the same type of candy. I had to get the class lists out and show them by the names on the candy that they had actually received the candy from someone in their class.

Another high point has been a few trips to the Trafalga Fun Center for which we have family passes. Watching Blessing on the Frogger ride is a hoot! At first she looked like she would cry and she was calling me in a rather panicked voice, but I just kept smiling and waving at her and by the end of the ride she just got right back on again. Theo was pretty cautious on the rock climbing wall at first. It is about 40-45 feet tall. He only made it up half way the first time, but after that he made it all the way. The whole family loves the Laser tag, which is the biggest in the state and 17th in the country.

The low point was Theo feeling ripped off and persecuted because Ben spends his time gaining tickets at the arcade and comes home with a load of junk toys. He thought I had bought the toys and was some how not treating him fairly. We explained to him about tickets and how to earn them, but even the next time he made other choices and was ticked that Ben came home with stuff, even though Ben had used some of his tickets to buy Theo a treat.

We have gotten Theo on a soccer team, which is his main goal in life - to play soccer. His first game was postponed. I don't know who was more disappointed: Theo, me or Ben. That seemed to really touch a chord in Theo - that Ben was so disappointed that he couldn't watch him play. The game is later this week and I will hope for a good time.

With all the focus on getting Theo and Blessing situated, I have started planning some one on one time with the other kids to help them with the adjustment. I took Chloe to lunch last week in the middle of school, another day I brought Zach one of his favorite shakes to school for lunch. Ben has gone early with me to the food co-op on Saturdays and I take him out to breakfast.

The days that I remember to ask for help in my prayers are definitely more successful than the days when I forget. Seriously, there is a noticeable definable difference. I really need to make more time to seek Heavenly help, but time has become a luxury that is very hard to obtain!

I used to think that the time to read a book was a luxury. Or the time to do my nails. I was wrong! The true luxury that I never appreciated before is the time to dry my hair! I get up early and get a shower in, but before I can dry my hair I have kids with needs! By the time I get back to the hair dryer, it is too late. My hair is an irrecoverable flat on top fuzzy on the ends mess. Pony tail again?

I might really need therapy soon.