Our January in California

After spending Christmas in Idaho and Utah (which I still need to blog about), we flew out to California to babysit Aaron's brother's kids while they went on a fun, international trip. Aaron was there for the first week. Then I had all five kiddos by myself for another week. It was an adventure!

Here are the five hooligans. I thought little Mindy was missing, but there she is smooshed between Jaden and Scotty. It was really nice in a lot of ways to reduce my life down to keeping these five people alive and relatively happy. We had challenges, tears, fighting, poop, and a few instances of outright rebellion. But overall it went really well. I think we were blessed because William and Heather (Aaron's brother and Aaron's brother's wife) are such good people. No one got sick or injured or lost. And the kids played great together. I was so glad things went smoothly so they could focus on enjoying their trip. 

To keep the masses entertained, we went on walks and to the park and to a couple of indoor play places. The boys played cars for hours and hours. The girls made a restaurant. The boys were the restaurant dogs...because that's a thing. Their dog names were Gingersnap and Dry Bones. The kids played outside in the backyard and colored up a storm and did dress-up and house and various performances. I think they really had a fun time together! From a kid perspective, it was basically an epic, two-week play date.

The picture below is capturing a moment of drama--I think the pirates/sailors were sick or something. We got to this playground, and it was completely wet. The kids thought about complaining for a second, but then they just came up with a game that the play set was a ship and went with that for the next three hours or so. 

Lucy lost a tooth! The strategy that finally worked to get it out was that I held the tooth while Lucy pulled her head back. 

Mindy was so, so, so cute! We all (Aaron, Annie, Scotty, and I) want to adopt a two year old.

These little guys played so well together. I think the phrase I heard most often (other than "Aunt Maren/Mom, I'm hungry!" was "Come on, Scotty! Let's get back to playing!"

Everyone seemed to be hungry every minute of every day. Heather had packed her pantry and freezer and fridge with lots of goodies. The kids knew the snacks were in there, so any moment of boredom seemed to turn into a request for food. I had to fend them off with a stick. One time I attempted a nap while the kids watched a show. Mindy took that opportunity to eat only the M&Ms out of three bags of trail mix.The kids thought it was really great to take popcorn to the park with us. They'd play for a bit and then run over for a little taste. And Mindy would just park herself next to the bag and take huge handfuls at a time. 

I did school with my kids while we were there. It was nice to take advantage of some of the flexibility of homeschool. And it worked out great! We were able to get our work done and stay on top of things. Jaden's little preschool group had a fire station field trip, and we tagged along. It was freezing cold, and the kids were going nuts by the end, but it was fun. Everyone's most well-remembered fact was that the fire station had five bathrooms. 

So that was our California adventure! Parenting, and substitute parenting, can really teach you a lot about yourself. I saw myself and my life and my parenting of my kids in a new light. I was reminded that choosing to have patience is worth it. I was reminded that the only person I can really control is myself. I was reminded that consequences speak louder than lectures. I was reminded that bed time is the best invention ever.

And we had a sweet reunion with Aaron--it was hard to be apart for a week! (Kudos to William and Heather, and all the other military families out there, who are apart for months and months.) I will never forget Aaron's account of coming home to Texas a week early, realizing there was nothing in the house to eat, going to the store, and coming home in a fog of depression with a loaf of bread and a can of spaghetti sauce. We celebrated being together again by finally going to Gourdough's. Yes, that is bacon on top of a donut. The other one has nutella.

 

Another blessing of leaving my life for a month was leaving the anxiety/stress/fear I had been packing around about a lot of little, day-to-day things. Being away from my own responsibilities made me realize I don't need to carry that anxiety around. It isn't serving me well. And so far, I've been able to let it go even though I'm home and back to my own life. I'm really grateful for the shift in perspective that allowed me to see more clearly and make a change.