You asked

I had someone email me recently just to ask, "What's up? What's new?" so I've decided to answer it here. I'm sure this isn't what they were bargaining for!

What's up? Well I haven't slept in a week because the twins have all of the sudden decided to revert back to old habits and not sleep at night. Madeline wants to be held all of the time which cannot happen for a laundry list of reasons. And when I say I haven't slept in a week, last night was the best night that I've had and that was two hours in a row with the rest of the night filled with ten minutes here and 5 minutes there just to get up out of bed at 6am to "start the day". I've been running back and forth between the twins and the attic at night after the big kids are in bed trying to get it finished by myself since, as we all know, Matt is still working his lovely 12 hour shifts at night - no relief there until the 31st. On top of working in the attic I've been trying to get carpet lined up for installation next week. The first company fell through - they were just too expensive so now I have to go to another carpet place tonight to pick something out and they're coming to measure tomorrow. If you're reading this post I'm sure you already know about the issues that I'm having with Grace so I'm trying to tackle that. I've been devoting every single solitary moment to trying some new/different things to help her. I did see a slight improvement in one regard already so maybe I'm on to something. I'll elaborate on that later. I'm trying to shop for the kids spring/summer clothes since Evan especially has zero clothes that fit him anymore. He's growing sooo much faster than Grace ever did/does. I'm trying to not neglect Ev, Maddie and Leah while working on issues with Grace so that takes up the 25th hour of the day. Not to mention doing all of the usual things like cleaning, meals and laundry. The twins are starting solid food so feeding them takes a good solid hour from start to finish. Then it's usually on to bathe 4 kids and get them ready for bed, stories for all and into bed. On a selfish note, I've not had Matt home for our anniversary in 3 years. He's been working on all of them, This year he was supposed to have off and I have to say I was looking forward to putting the kids to be at the usual 7pm and cooking ourselves a nice 'adult' dinner and spending some quality time with him. Our "dates" are few and far between so even a special dinner at home is a treat. But no - he just left for work at 3pm after sleeping all day. He DID send me beautiful roses though, so that was incredibly sweet! I'm still working on a schedule with the twins and it's been getting pretty messed up lately by people coming over to watch them while I work on the twins room so I'm trying to salvage what's left of it. My biggest goal is to get Evan and the twins to nap in the afternoon at the same time so I can get some things done and spend time with Grace just the two of us. I am trying to get out shopping for some last minute things I need for the girls new room so when it finally does get finished we have everything we need. I think I need a personal shopper. Sprinkled in amongst all of this are trips to the park, walks around the block, playing outside, and doing crafts....mixed with the less glamorous tasks of changing poopy diapers for three and cleaning up spit up. I'm sure I'm forgetting a few things but that's it in a nutshell. That's what I'm up to.
Today I've accomplished a first. I said "No" to something. There is a family party on Saturday that I said No to. I never say no to anything. I am always too afraid to hurts someone's feelings or offend someone. I am very much a pleaser. But today I put on my big girls panties and said No. I am beyond stressed out right now and that would have just added to it. (I do still feel guilty though.) Baby steps.