Swamped...

Pretty--huh?

So what has been happening around our house lately? Let me tell you. I've been loosing my mind little by little trying to keep up. Adell has stopped taking two naps a day and has almost stopped taking one. You can imagine what kind of disposition this puts her in every day. You can also imagine the condition of our home and the quality of meals I've been serving...poor on both accounts.

In an attempt to capture the crazy here are a few pictures from the last two weeks or so. The picture at the top of this post was the view from my apartment door a couple of weeks ago. It was also the view from apartment door the evening after I stumbled across my dream home in a perfectly dreamy neighborhood. My dream home at a jaw-droppingly-unreasonable price.

Too bad for me.

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It has been raining cats and dogs lately and so we've had to get creative with all the time we have to spend inside. Wyatt and Clare spent one afternoon co-constructing a spaceship out of old cardboard boxes. It was so awesome.

I made a fabric-baby-beach-ball for a friend's baby. Adell loves hats and got to wear the beach ball as a hat for a little while while I searched my sewing supplies for pillow stuffing. She looks very "Rosie the Riveter" don't you think?

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Adell has also discovered my jewelry box and learned how to climb up on little things. She is always very proud of her personal accomplishments.

Last week I got an email from the mother of one of Lorien's friends at school (lets call this mom "Julia" for now). We have never met in person but our daughters are great friends. Julia and I have been keeping up a steady email correspondence, planning play dates etc. Julia works and has a nanny take care of her kids after school. Well, last week, Julia sent me an email offering to have her nanny pick my kids up from school three days a week.

Life has been so crazy with Adell's lack-of-nap schedule I almost burst into tears when I read the offer.

What do I do?

Can I (in good conscience) take Julia up on this offer? I mean, she is offering the services of a person she pays to take care of her kids--but I am not going to pay her nanny any thing... Do I ditch the after school pick-up schedule I have with my sister-in-law to make MY life easier? Do I become one of those mothers who is never at school and so never gets to know any of the other parents?

On the other hand, I would get to be one of those moms who are at home every day to greet her children as they walk through the door. (Greeting them with hugs and kisses and cookies?!?) I wouldn't have to wake my baby from a precious nap to get the kids from school.

What would you do?