Nolls on the Go: June 2009

I was inspired by one of my fellow young moms and friend Suzanne to do this...Looking back over the last four months: I am sure the only way I have survived life since January is by the grace of God. Really! We moved, and the house is still not unpacked five months later because life has been a little crazy at the Noll house. Somehow I got the crazy idea that I could go to Grad school while raising three children under the age of three, being a wife, moving, taking care of a house full of chores, training a puppy, and who knows what else. I can't even count anymore, the brain was gone a looong time ago. Who thought this was a good idea? Just to give you a glimpse into our live my days went as follows:

6:00 am begin the day with feeding the girls
7:00 am put them back to bed for a few more minutes of sleep (hopefully). Plop back in bed in hopes of getting maybe 15 more minutes of sleep only to lay down, get comfortable and have a 2 year-old sneak into bed and snuggle saying "Mommy I'm hungry".
7:? am drag my tired self out of bed and make breakfast for everybody.
9:00 am If I am lucky the girls went to back sleep (most of the time this was not the case) and decide to get up for the day and eat breakfast.
9-12 pm Playtime, naps for the girls, lunch for everybody.
1:30 pm Naptime for all. Mommy sits down to research and write her paper only to be interrupted at least 2-3 times from sleepless children.
3:30 pm finally cave in and get the kids out of bed (give up on writing anymore until bedtime) 3:30-6 pm Play and a quick nap sometime for the girls. Make dinner. Feed everybody.
7:15 pm bathtime
8:00 pm Bedtime
8:30- ? (usually 12 am) work on research and writing my Thesis
12-6 am wake up at least once, if not more times to deal with screaming children.
6 am Begin the routine again, and again, and again

For those of you who don't know the girls have had reflux and were not sleeping well because of it. They still spit up now, but not nearly as bad as they used to when they were younger. I don't think they would be considered colic babies, but they certainly were not good sleepers. We are still working on getting them to sleep well at naps, but I have given up hope that they will be as easy as Elijah. As if that wasn't enough, we got a dog. Not just any dog, a puppy who needed to be house broke and trained.
Chris has put up with a lot of neglect over the past few months and I am grateful for his help. He stepped right up and helped with the kiddos allowing em to get school work completed. We are enjoying the break for summer and are not necessarily excited about the intensity of next semester. I have two more classes to take before completing my degree and we will look back on this year of life through fuzzy lenses from the life in a whirlwind and be very grateful that chapter is complete.
Needless to say, the house is usually a mess with toys, laundry, dishes, poopy diapers and still...boxes. I may get a chance to go through them and organize a little, but I wouldn't count on it. So as I think about what has occurred in our lives since January. I am not sure how our girls got to be 9 months old all of the sudden. Last I remember they were still in premie clothing. Elijah is now almost 3 and Chris and I are now a year closer to 30. AGH!
There were many days beyond tears to the point of almost losing it for all the adults and possibly the children too. Many hours of screaming by everyone in the household, sometimes simultaneously. A few more times than we would like to admit saying, "You take this one. I will hurt them if I deal with them right now!" A few desperate phone calls for adult conversation as well as "Rescue me or one of us won't survive!" And even more moments of grace from above as well as many "I am sorry, do you forgive me?" moments of grace with each other.
Chris and I hear from people the reminder that the Lord won't give you more than you can handle (we are still in debate with teh Almighty over this one). I guess you could say we have found it to be true only because we have a team-mate unlike any other who will pick up our slack and fill in where we are weak. Ultimately we have the best team mate, Christ. There is no way we could have survived it alone with out Him or each other. As far as giving us more than we can handle, the cup was showing signs of overflowing, but somehow it has all been contained. So, when life feels like too much to handle, take one day at a time, or even one minute at a time and push through. This too shall come to an end.