Just Another Saturday Afternoon

Awww, I can finally relax for the night.  The kids are asleep, Erik has fallen asleep on the couch after a long day at drill, and I feel the need to sleep, even though getting up off the floor of the living room (where I'm curled up in front of the heater) and going into the bedroom seems like too much work!  Oh!  And I need to finish my coffee - decaf, of course since it's so late, which I absolutely hate the taste of.  But, it's a bit chilly in the house after 7pm when the temperature starts falling and coffee sounded good after a day outside.

This afternoon the kids had ski lessons!  Although I love taking them to do something they really enjoy and I love to see them embrace winter (and most of all, embrace skiing) - It. Is. So. Hard...
I can hardly make it out the door with four kids to take Maida to school everyday.  Half the time, Klaasen goes in just his underwear, Skogen goes barefoot (Yes! I know it's winter!), and the baby hardly ever goes in a dry diaper, and we still barely make it on time...
Today, though, we were running on time and I felt pretty on top of things.  That is, until I had to park four blocks away from the ski lodge and try to manage carrying ski boots, skies, snow pants, hats, mittens, extra sweatshirts, a packed lunch, the diaper bag, an infant seat with a 22 pound infant, all while I tried to keep Skogen from Spider-Man jumping from fence post to fence post (it was slowing me up and I was about to drop the whole load) and chasing Klaasen around the parking lot (He doesn't quite understand staying close to me unless he's holding my hand and I did not have one single finger to spare!).  There really was no need for my merino wool sweater and snow pants today, nor was there a need for a workout later.  I was sweating walking into the lodge!

(Skogen in the orange hood, Maida in the front)

The kids did a great job skiing and really enjoyed their lesson.  I wish I would not have forgotten the big camera so that I could have taken some good pictures of them.  Ha!  Now that I think about it, though, the hour they spent on the slope, I spent nursing a baby, changing the baby's diaper and clothes after an explosion out of his diaper, and taking Klaasen poop TWICE (he never quite pushes it all out in the first shot).  I'm lucky that I even got the pictures and videos that I did.  Not only because of being extremely pre-occupied while they were skiing, but because I let Klaasen play on my phone to keep him in one place while I attended to the baby and when I needed the phone back to take some pictures, the battery was at 4%!

Immediately after skiing, the kids and I drove the hour back home for an ice fest downtown.  We actually didn't have time to stop at our house first, so I pulled over at a McDonalds to nurse the baby while the kids watched Cars and ate yogurt parfaits off the Dollar Menu.  Then we spend the evening looking at beautiful ice carvings placed all around the outside of the clinic and the surrounding restaurants.  It was a wee-bit chilly with the wind and they hadn't lit the outdoor heaters, yet, so I was glad that Torsten fell alseep and I could keep him bundled in his carseat, which I was able to push in the stroller (thanks to nicely shoveled sidewalks!).  The other three, although cold, didn't complain much as we explored and investigated all the ice sculptures downtown.  We were in awe of the talent of ice carving!  The friends we met there decided to stay for some hot chocolate, but we opted to come home and pop in a movie while we snuggled under warm blankets on the couch.  

 I absolutely love days like today.  I feel so blessed with our four babies and I'm honored to get to show them the world.  I indulge in their little laughs and beam with happiness when they smile.  Although it is so hard to get out of the house with four kids in tow, I never want that to be a reason that we stay home or that they are held back from doing something they really want to do.  

I appreciated my husband's sweet text message this morning as I was stressing out about the day ahead.  He wrote:

"You're an awesome mom!  Thanks for all you do!  I would lose my mind if I had to take them [to ski lessons] all by myself!  We both know that!" 

 It's always great to have encouragement, especially from Erik.  His text is what got me up and going today and what kept me going.  I know that all too soon, I'm going to miss Saturdays like today.  Not only will I miss the special, fun times with my kids, but I bet that I'm even going to miss the chaos and the stress of just getting out of the house with four kids, too.