How do I know?

How do I know that I have been a mother for six and a half years?
1.The other day I casually mentioned to Jody that the dryer didn't seem to be getting the clothes dry... I couldn't imagine what was wrong. The next day he came to me and said "Did you say the dryer had a problem?" "Yes!" I replied. "Well, it might have something to do with the fact that there was about enough lint for 10 loads in the screen."
2. On the day we went onto daylight saving's time, I actually convinced myself that the clocks were all wrong and picked Eden up 1 hour late from school. How cringingly embrarrasing.
3. The other day I was making peanut butter cookies with the girls. I completed the recipe and stood there stirring what looked like pie filling. I stirred it... studied the recipe, stirred it, grabbed the flour and dumped about a half a cup in, stirred it... continued to stare in perplexity trying to imagine my self putting puddles of peanut butter "filling" onto a cookie sheet. Finally I crossed the room to grab my tea out of the microwave and found my bowl of dry ingredients. "What the!!!!!" I dumped them into the batter and made cookies.
How do we as mother's get to this point? It's like we're beyond thinking. We live on autopilot and all reasoning skills are bypassed. I truely feel like, if I lose track of things for five minutes the whole day blows up. I might forget we need to go to gymnastics, I might forget to thaw meat for dinner, I might (heaven forbid) forget to pick Eden up from school. It's this continual grasping for what I'm supposed to do next and a blank feeling that I can't even process the babble of my great kids. How do we get through the day, enjoy it, savor the sweet moments and get everything done? And finally, for the truely daring, how do I get my house organized and remember everyone's birthdays a week early so I can send a card? It sounds so far beyond my limited skills that it makes me tremble.

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Scones for dinner

Yesterday Jody had to work interminably late. We decided we wanted scones and scrambled eggs for dinner. As the girls and I prepared to make the scones, Kaitlyn and I had a rather entertaining conversation. Ethan has a rat named Emmy.
Kaitlyn: Emmy is a strange name for a rat.
Mommy: Well, I think it's kind of strange for a boy rat.
Kaitlyn: No, it's a strange name for a rat.
Mommy: What would be a good name for a rat?
Kaitlyn: For a girl, I'd name her Flower. For a boy I'd name him John.
Mommy: Flower and John huh? That would be appropriate I suppose.
The scones were yummy and everyone slept well last night. Now, on March 26th we're having our first snow day of the year at school. Eden has been outside since she woke up. No breakfast, she just bundled up and headed out. I spoke with her at one point and she was covered in snow. I said "it actually looks like you've been rolling in the snow" which was an inconceivable thought to me. She just gave a quick nod and smiled. Yes, we are related I think... As the years pass, I wonder ever increasingly if in fact they did switch her at birth. I don't have that luxury with the other two since they were born at home and there wasn't anyone to switch them with.
Nicholas is upstairs right now plaintively hollering "mommy, mommy, mommy" so I guess I'm done for today.

Pics of the girls on their bikes

Spring is sprung

Well, the crocuses are blooming and the kids are riding bikes. I guess it's spring and thank goodness. We realized a few weeks ago that Eden has grown out of her dear Rosie bike. It was a bit of a sad realization but I promptly found her a bright purple replacement on Craigslist for $50. It was one year old and a very high end mountain bike that we could never have afforded retail. Jody picked it up and left it at our friend Luke's house while we looked for Kait's. We heard about the new thing for teaching kids to ride a bike. It's called a run bike and it's really short with no pedals so they learn to balance first, then you move them to a bike with pedals. I looked for one of those on Craigslist for Kait for a couple of weeks and then gave up and put up a wanted ad. A lady emailed me within 24 hours and sold us one for $50 again. Well, Jody was teasing Eden one night and asked her what color she wanted her new bike to be and she immediately said "PURPLE". Well, it's not exactly surprising with a little girl but it was kinda nice since that's exactly what we had found! Kaitlyn also requested a girly color but Jody explained to her that we really needed to find a neutral color and put girly stickers on it so we can hand it down to Nick and change the stickers. She thought about it for a few days and then came to him and told him that she was fine with a white bike. So, we had both bikes and Jody spent a late night getting them all clean and shiny. Yesterday he came home for lunch to suprise the girls. We were in the kitchen and heard the garage door opening so they knew he was here and everyone went running out through the garage door. Eden was in the lead and ran right past her shiny purple bike into her Daddy's arms. Kait was in the rear and paused at the top of the stairs paralyzed by the sight of the little run bike. She had a hesitant smile on her face so Eden turned and saw the run bike which was leaning against her purple bike and said "oh, cool strider for Kait!" Everyone just stood staring at Eden and then she finally noticed her purple bike. She was truely shocked. Later I asked her if her bike had a bell with it or if Daddy had moved the old one from Rosie. She promptly replied that he had moved it, she checked! I laughed and told her she had a pretty amazing Daddy. Eden's enormous eyes shined and she said "I have the best Daddy in the whole world. He's not that strong though..." I said "what?" She replied "well that's what he says all the time, that he isn't very strong." So, thank goodness he's the greatest dad and the most modest. ;-) Kaitlyn is slowly warming to her run bike but finds it a little intimidating. We're letting her take her time. Eden is zooming at high speeds on "Iris". Thank goodness she's religious about her elbow pads, knee pads and helment.
Nick is still talking Nickese. We understand "car, ball, bar, berries, mama, light and more. The rest is pure gibberish and it drives Jody nuts. He keeps asking me when Nick is going to start talking, as if I have any idea.
The girls are tumbling their hearts out in gymnastics. It's so fun to watch them. They point their little toes and hold themselves in the most fantastic posture as they practice the beam, trampoline, bars and floor exercizes. Eden can do a handstand! Kaitlyn can do hops on the beam! It's neat.
We're preparing for a big trip to Arkansas over spring break. We'll be in Mountain Home for three days and Cabot for three days. Hopefully we'll have a big family barbque while we're down there and see as much family as possible.