IS this the life?

How can I be so busy and get nothing done?

Life is speeding past me and I am never going to catch up! Not with the laundry, not with the house cleaning and most definitley not with blogging. I just don't have the passion for it but I do like to do it now and then so for now I will keep going at my slow pace and that is the best I can do.

I really am not that much busier than I usually am but in the last months and weeks I have had a Henry attached to my legs and/or arms. He is sweet and loving and gentle and ohhh so needy. I thought that Peter was a real mama's boy and I knew that Juliet was spoiled but we created that monster all by ourselves. But Henry is his own little soul. The only time that he gives me a little space is when he is sleeping and when I sit down on the floor and watch him play. I can't look at the computer, watch t.v., read a book or anything else, I just have to sit and watch him and the minute he notices that I am doing something else he walks over and cries until I give in. I have even gone so far as to walk calmly around the corner from him and then run as fast as I can so that I can get some small task done before he catches up with me...and he always does find me. So tonight I am thankful for Rose who had her moments like any other baby but also liked to hang out with her brother and sister so I wasn't always her best friend.

I am also thankful for the stake president in our area that decided the church would offer some garden plots to anyone who wanted to try gardening. It has been a horrible struggle for me to get the kids to go but it has been a lot of fun once we get there. They get to really stretch their legs and use tools that are dangerous in the hands of small children, find toads and dead turtles in the trees alongside the field and my personal Blakley family favorite of playing in a mountain of POO! Yes, no Blakley childs life would be complete if they hadn't climbed the pile of manure and played for a while before realizing just what they were doing.

One of the great joys of childhood has go to be being the King and Queen of Poo Mountain.

Besides the garden we had Peter and Juliet both in soccer. Juliet is okay but wasn't interested in playing next fall until she scored a goal and now that she's felt the thrill of victory I think she will give it another try and see how it goes. Peter...sigh of pride and frustration...he is good, really good and he knows it. There isn't a round object in the house that he won't kick and so that is what he does all day long. Luckily we have had a few days where he could just go outside and kick the balls against the house.

We are busy but who isn't. I just need to keep reminding myself that I am raising people not perfection and that trying to get to perfection will only leave me feeling depressed.

I've been skunked.

15 skunks (1 alive, 14 dead), 1 raccoon (dead), 3 opossums (dead), 20+ squirrels (alive), 1 nutria (alive), 1 coyote (alive).

These are all the animals that I have seen while driving in the car since spring began. I did have to look up the coyote to make sure that I was right about that. Apparently they migrated here in small numbers when the western settlers started to farm those states. I am not sure that I like the fresh smell of spring here in Arkansas. There seems to be a rather large skunk population. Or maybe the skunks just aren't as street savvy as the rest of the animals and make better speed bumps.
Although I think that this is a really cute picture of a skunk this is not the skunk that I almost ran over. Mine was mangy and old looking and seemed to want to run under my tires. Luckily it was late at night and no one else was on the road when I had my first encounter with a 'polecat'. I slowed down, swerved left, stopped, swerved right and when the skunk still seemed too confused to get out of the way I hit the gas and got out of there before the skunk decided to hit the gas as well.
Strangely that is how I have been feeling about life lately. I just swerve from one crisis to another. I am trying to have a good sense of humor and one of the places that I most often find that I need a sense of humor is in the grocery store (aka Walmart). To those of you that live near a normal Walmart you know that it wouldn't be out of place to see some pretty poor parenting skills displayed at all hours of the day and night at your local Walmart. (http://www.peopleofwalmart/ is a great source of amusement if you have time to kill.) I never thought that I would be one of 'those' mothers. Sadly, I think I am somewhat of an anomaly here in town. It isn't that I am dressed inappropriately or that the kids look like they haven't seen a comb in weeks. It is that I am a two cart woman. I know that Juliet, Peter and Rose could walk while I did my shopping but then I would always have to be on the lookout for where they are and what they are touching. So I load them all up in two carts and Peter and Juliet only get to walk when the carts are full enough of food that we are almost done shopping. Henry also likes to add to the mayhem by being my 3rd child to know how to scoot out of the child restrain harness. So for his safety and my sanity he gets to ride in the cart until as I metioned before the cart is too full of food. Then I push one cart with Rose in the seat Henry in my arms and Peter and Juliet under strict orders to stay close and only use one finger to touch things while pulling the other cart behind me...steering must be done with one foot or passersby may become a casualty of 'The Gore Family Shopping Train of Carts'. So far I haven't gotten any more comment than the usual, 'you certainly have your hands full!'. It seems that the people here are much better at being polite than in other places that I have lived. Now if I can just get them to stop staring. It is things like this that just make me laugh because I hate it and love it and can't wait for Juliet to have the height to see over the cart (she does try to help push but can't quite see where she is going).
The other things I have done in the last year at a Walmart are...
-Walked out leaving a full cart of food because Peter threw a fit and I said we would leave if he did so I had to keep my promise. (I won't make that threat again.)
-Ran through the store holding Rose and Henry while yelling at Peter to keep up because Rose was going to have an accident...we made it just in time!
-Worst of all was the day that I had to get a prescription filled and waited at the pharmacy for an hour and a half. Did I mention it was just before a huge snowstorm so everyone in town was stocking up and it was lunchtime and Henry was still nursing. So there I sat on the bench near the line at the pharmacy feeding my kids swiss rolls that hadn't been paid for yet while breadtfeeding. Did I mention that I forgot Henry's blanket in the car and he kept stopping to look around at all the strange people who were stopping to look back at him.
So the next time you see a mother looking her worst with kids acting, well, like kids. Give her a break. That really might be the best that she could do that day.

Diet Coke anyone?

I woke up at 4, 5 and 6 this morning with a strange urge to have a Diet Coke. The funny thing is that I am not a big soda drinker and I would much rather have Pepsi if I had to choose. When I finally got up for the day I realized why this particular urge was waking me up. I was experiencing my first ice storm. The sound of the ice hitting the window is the same sound that the fridge makes when it crushes ice and all my Diet Coke addicted friends love nothing more than an ice cold (crushed ice) Diet Coke at just about anytime of the day. The good news is that I knew we were going to be snowed in again so I grabbed some soda when I stopped at the Walmart yesterday morning to stock up on food. I think that today we will be making orange soda flavored icees.

....Ian just informed me that we may get a tornado after this cold front leaves us and before the next one comes. Why did we move here again? I was happy with the imminent disaster that was coming in Utah, the great earthquake that I was informed so many times would be coming any day. I guess it is because on Saturday and Sunday we were outside all day in gorgeous weather.

It has been a good week this week I had a few activities to go to we met a few new people and it finally feels like we are part of the ward...I am the new ward librarian. I think I got the best calling the church has to offer. You get to see lots of people and chat but have almost no obligation during the week. There is no preperation as long as you are organized while you are there on Sunday. One of the funniest things that happened this week was I went to the library and chatted with the new assistant librarian and later that day went visiting teaching. After a few minutes of conversation we discovered that the lady I was visiting with is the daughter of the other librarian and she (the librarian) is my Aunts sister and they all lived in Monticello, UT. I guess it is true that it is a small world in the church.

One of the big changes in life since moving here is that we finally broke down and got a pet. Juliet is in Heaven and we now have a furry rabbit that I am already regretting. Sweet little Nelly Bunny growls at me! I didn't even know that a rabbit could growl. I also strongly dislike picking up poo! Maybe she can sense my dislike. Ian tried to tell me just a few days ago that Nelly was a member of the family. HA! I don't think that 'anyone' you would consider eating is a real member of the family. So I guess that makes Nelly Bunny more food storage in my mind than family.

So many titles so little time...

Henry has changed so much!

This is a confederate soldier in the old town square.
Mary Mae Jones Elementary where Juliet goes to school.

Our new place.

Living Room.

Yes, the playset is leaning just a bit but so far it is still standing.

A bright orange kitchen with sage green countertops and white appliances! It isn't what I would pick but the good new is we have a kitchen without carpet!!!!!

Master Bedroom / Office / Family Room

I have been thinking about this blogging adventure for so long that I have gone through one title after another. There was:

We Have Arrived
Sleeping on the Floor
Two Schools in One Week
Is there a preschool out there?
We're going to Walmart again.
Another snow day!

Today I am just going to start. First, yes we are here in Arkansas and everyone seems to have settled in just fine. Ian is busy at work and seems to be enjoying the new challenge. Juliet had a rough start. She went to her first school for 3 days when the school we really wanted to get into called to say that they had a spot so she switched and was a great sport about it all. She gets to ride the bus and I think that is why the transition was so smooth. Peter finally started preschool after a long and tiring search for a spot, if you have ever tried to find a good preschool midway through the year you will know how discouraging this can become. The bonus being that we found a school that has gymnastics as part of the program. Rose is just a happy girl and as long as I am there she gets on fine. Henry, after a rough start trying to sleep in a hotel room with all the rest of us had settled down now that we are in a house. He crawls around everywhere and is starting to pull himself up.

As for me, hmmmm....I miss lunch with the girls! I miss shopping somewhere other than Walmart. I miss my brothers their wives and kids. I miss having friendly neighbors that I can chat with. Arkansas does have nice things about it though, the Walmarts are very nice, no really they are! The people at church have been very friendly and sociable. The schools are great. There are trees everywhere, I get excited just thinking about what it will be like in spring and summer. Our particular area is always referred to as North West Arkansas (NWA) and I think that they want to distinguish themselves from the rest of the state. So far I have only met a few people that are actually from NWA they all seem to be from different states and countries. One of the funniest things about Arkansas are the snow days. The have no equipment here to handle even the smallest bit of snow. Since moving here we have had 3 snow days. The schools close but everyone is still expected to go to work unless they live on a hill or somewhere that has iced over. Today a friend posted on her Facebook page that she took her kids to a bounce house place because they were home from school....does that sound like a real snow day to you?!
Hopefully I will be able to find a little time each week to post here. My goal this week is to do my first post and then figure out how to post pictures. So until then...I miss you all!