Am I Insane?!?!

Hi! I'm Debi, and I am living a life very similar to the old woman who lived in a shoe.  I suppose that there is a strong enough arguement that some would call me insane.

I have been married to Jeff for over 8 years now and we have 4 crazies, or uh, kids. Pander is 6, he is my Firstborn, the emotional intellectual, distracted, cautious and caring. Fia is 5, she is my Princess, full of attitude, always right and devoted to cleanliness.  MooMoo is 3 1/2, she is my Quiet Clown, the passive aggresive jokester, sneaking in a quick hug before she steals your seat or hides your keys.  Noodle is 2 1/2, he is my Rowdy Baby, a bit behind in some of his milestones, but catching up by the minute, doesn't walk if he can run, doesn't run if he can leap, doesn't leap if he can launch himself off of something. If you have been reading closely, you have discovered the first reason you could call me insane- all 4 of the crazies were born within a period of 3 1/2 years.

Referring back to said old lady, she had a lot of kids, as do I. But she lived in a shoe, you say.  Well, my shoe is a 3 bedroom, 1 bathroom house with less than 900 sq. ft. of living space. 6 people in a tiny house with one potty? That would be the second reason you may call me insane.

While I am a stay at home mom, Jeff does double duty. He works full time second shift in a retail computer troubleshooting job. He also goes to college during the day. This means that most weekdays, Jeff leaves the house to take Pander and Fia to school before 8 AM, goes to class, does homework, goes to work and comes home at 11PM. So I am home with the kids all day by myself 5 days a week while he is out of the house working hard for 15 hours. Weekends are a bit better, though half of Jeff's Saturdays in a month are reserved for studying and homework. Coming as close to single parenting as possible without actually being a single parent is the thrid reason you could call me insane.

As I said, Pander and Fia are in school. Pander is in 1st grade, while Fia is in K-4 and only goes to school for 2 1/2 hours every day. This means we make a total of 3 trips to school every day. Jeff takes the first trip on his way to school, then I bundle up the kids for the last 2 trips. Not so bad in the summer, but in the frigid midwestern winter MooMoo, Noodle and I spend half our days bundling up to go to school and unbundling when we get home. Insane, right? Between trips, we work on home preschooling. This is my first year adding a preschool cirriculum to our hectic schedule, in the hopes of feeling ready to pull Pander and Fia out and homeschool everyone next year. And yes, this is the final reason you may call me insane, having a goal of homeschooling 4 kids in 4 separate grades, while still dealing with the other insane issues of a small house and a nearly missing husband.

I am writing this blog to help me sort through the insanity. To remind me of what we actually accomplish when I start to see my life through the eyes of those who do think I'm crazy. To focus on the funny, the silly and the just plain weird that happens in a family. I want to share with you that if you look close enough, what looks like insanity from the outside, is really love.