Wednesday, January 6, 2010

ordered chaos

dear emily,

in raising five lively children, i had to establish some order for
my sanity.  i think children are happier, too, when they have a
framework of consistency.

our afternoon rest time was set in stone, to the extent that hans
had a brass plaque installed at the front door.  it said "do not ring
the door bell between 2:00-4:00...babies sleeping." :)

the babies and toddlers needed their naps, while the older kids
could read or play quietly but had to stay in their rooms.  they
sometimes even fell asleep, too, because they were up with the
sun every morning.  i, of course,  fell into what can only be
called 'death sleep.'

after naptime, we had a snack and watched 30 minutes of TV
to help me transition back from the dead.

one afternoon while watching the lone ranger, isaac mentioned
to max that their great granddad had been a bonafide cowboy.
max narrowed his eyes, "nuh, uh!"

"seriously, he was a real cowboy!", isaac responded.

"ok, well, how many injuns has he killt?" the ultimate litmus
test, i guess...

6 comments:

Joan Elizabeth said...

I enjoy your story telling ... BTW your blog does not show up as being updated in my sidebar when you add a new entry ... do you have it set up to do a feed?

myletterstoemily said...

gulp...will have to check on that with my kiddos...

Single and Sane said...

How funny!

Garden Antqs Vintage said...

Hello, thanks so much for visiting. I hope you visit often. What an interesting blog you have. Have a great weekend, Theresa

Anonymous said...

Our naptime is pretty set in stone these days, too, but I'm considering a gate on Samara's room...:) Emily

Texas "T" said...

I remember that plaque and often think about it when I put the kids and myself down for a nap at 2:00. I keep thinking we need one. :)