Sew Chaos, Sew Crazy, Sew Wonderful: Ow. My brain hurts.

Whew. Right now I barely have time to breathe, let alone blog.

My list of priorities goes like this:

Mom-ing

Schooling

Housework

Laundry

Sewing

Blogging.

Sorry - bottom of the list, but that's how it is at the moment.

I'm carving out these few minutes while I listen to my kiddos argue about, well, who-knows-what. I can tell you they are not doing what they are supposed to be doing, which is getting their jammies on and hopping into bed for book-time.

Utterly frustrating.

Please don't get me wrong. I love my children. I adore them. I even like them.

Always have, always will. But by golly they can be so utterly frustrating.

And wow, have I had a month.

My littlest is 6. She's very smart and tested into 1st grade in November.

This picture was taken about a month ago. Goof-ball.

Very intelligent. She's also only 6 years old. So, I struggle with our expectations of her. Is it unrealistic to expect her to wash her own hair? How about putting her clothes away in the CORRECT drawer?

I try to think back to when the other two were six and its not really apples to apples, ya know?

She has been struggling with tummy pain.

We finally have an appointment to see a pediatric "tummy doctor" but not until May 1.

I know there are days when she hurts and doesn't tell me, and then there are the days when it hurts too much for her to go to school. Hopefully, will will get it all figured out soon.

My middle one, my BOY. and wow is he a boy.

taken at Christmas, my boy is on the right, his cousin on the left.

He totally reminds me of pigpen in the Peanuts cartoons. He just steps outside and he's covered in dirt. He's growing out his hair, which adds to the shaggy messy look.

He also constantly is making noise - either sound effects or talking.

c-o-n-s-t-a-n-t-l-y.

I try really hard to not let it drive me batty. But man, wow.

an hour in the car with him feels like, well, an hour. in a car. with constant noises behind my seat.

Other than that he's pretty easy right now, but being the middle child and the only boy, we do try to make sure he feels special too.

My eldest.

chopped off all her hair, in February.

Man oh man. She will be ten at the end of the month. And the attitude has begun. Snarky comments and back talking. Currently, we're simply calling her on the attitude, telling her flat out when she's being disrespectful and rude. We're working on ways to treat her like she's 10 and not younger, like her sibs. Tonight she made dinner - Mac & Cheese with Hot Dogs.

So totally normal family life, right?

Parenting seems to be taking more "time" lately. For some reason they're rather high-maintenance at the moment. But, I love being a mom.

I love being their mom. Bring it on.

I love it more than fabric.

Add to that - I'm back to school. I made it through my first term, yeah!

This new term is kicking my tail-feathers. I'm taking Math, Chemistry and Soil Science. Who's brilliant plan is was this? So much left-brain use and little time for creativity.

And

- wait -

our home computer decided it was done.

Blue screen of death and everything.

So, after weighing the pros and cons we got a slick new laptop. Which is great, except I spent the last 3 days getting all the software, programs and files on the new one. Getting new technology is not fun and exciting when it is unplannned.

On the plus side - I did get the new photoshop elements. I'd been using 2.0 and now I've got 10. Whoo hoo, wow, totally awesome - if I could find time to play with it. I also got a new-to-me "real" camera, on loan from a photographer friend, for me to try out. Again, gotta find time to play with it.

Another plus -