There is no Mom, only Zuul.

I get called Mom a lot. By my kids. Other people don't tend to call me Mom, but they might as well. I hear it about 389247398472 times a day. 

Lately, I have found myself responding, "There is NO MOM, ONLY ZUUL." It makes Dan laugh, but my kids don't get the Ghostbusters reference, and my saying that there is no mom upsets June. She has cried over this before. "There IS a mom! YOU are the mom!!!" she whimpers until I agree with her. Poor thing.

There is a mom, and the mom is me. It's just that the mom is tired.

I get up early to read my scriptures. I look forward to my scripture time (somewhere around 5 or 5:30 a.m.) more than any other time of day. I'm currently reading through the Book of Mormon in Romanian. I no longer speak Romanian very well, and this project is taking a long time. I have the English BOM next to me and look up every single word I don't understand. Even though I typically only get through two columns a day, I understand so much more of the Book of Mormon than I ever have. Because I have had to slow down. Way down.

After the BOM, I read a little bit from the "Come Follow Me" reading assignment and supplemental manual. And then I read a conference talk.

If I'm doing really awesome, I will spend time meditating and saying mantras. Yes, mantras. They calm me. There's something about saying, "All the words I speak today will be full of grace" that is truly inspiring and comforting, even if it seems to go out the window as soon as the house gets messy at 7:02 a.m.

Anyway, all that scripture and meditation stuff is the goal, but it's rare that I get to everything.

Because Gwen always wakes up and joins me.

Our house is old and loud. Super loud. You can hear every light switch, every foot step, every sneeze. It's like we are together ALL THE TIME even when we are in separate rooms. I can talk to Dan when he is in the basement and I'm upstairs in our bedroom by only using my regular voice. You could argue that my regular voice is somewhat on the loud side, but still. Who needs an intercom system? Not us. We need padded walls. And straitjackets. 

Anyway, Gwen always hears me get up, and it's not long before I hear her climb out of bed and open and shut and shut and shut and shut her door (it takes her multiple slams before she gets it totally closed). She has gotten pretty used to the routine of being quiet while Mom reads her scriptures, but I can definitely expect being asked about breakfast a few times in between verses. C'est la vie.

It's not a perfect system, but it's the best one I have. And it's simple. The only thing that works for me.

I often get asked about our chore system. No, I don't. I have never been asked about this, and I don't expect to. This is not my strength. However, I have learned what works for us and probably only us. I have seen other moms with their amazing chore charts or those chore circle wheely things that rotate and stickers and glitter and unicorns, but I can never keep up with that sort of thing.

My limited expertise on what works for us is this--see what needs to be done and make a checklist. And cleaning is much easier the less stuff you have. We live in a very small house, and I'm a stickler for limiting our possessions. My family rolls their eyes a ton when I repeat my favorite phrase--"If we don't have a spot for it, we aren't keeping it!!" And having a spot for it doesn't mean piling it in a closet. What's the point of a closet or a drawer if you have to dig around every time you want something?!?!

I'm rereading this last paragraph to myself and am starting to understand why I don't get invited to many parties.

Dan has been helping a ton to get everything ready for this summer and the baby. We took down the trampoline last summer because we were so sure we were moving and didn't want to have to take it down in the dead of winter. Sigh. Poor Dan, he set it up AGAIN this week.

His sidekick is never far away.

We also have been getting the boys' room ready. Harris has been sleeping in a room that is also used for other functions, but now it's officially going to be the boys' room.

It feels good to be ready. Though I'm not emotionally ready. I'm scared of this little fourth baby!! Please be nice to me. And laugh at my Zuul jokes.

In other news, the weather has been great, albeit rainy. On this particular non-rainy moment, Gwen, Harris and I went on a walk and to the park.

There is a tall hill at the park, and my girls always roll down it. Gwen tried to show Harris what to do, but he's not quite there yet.

He kept rolling sideways and not down.

I still don't sleep well at night, and yesterday I insisted on naps for everyone. Gwen fought and fought me, and I just kept my eyes closed until she finally tip toed out of my room and took a nap in her room. This is her cocoon.

And waiting for June to get off the bus. Our landlord has been talking about paving our driveway, which I'm stoked about. And Dan is beyond happy. It's very hard to shovel snow on gravel. But it's also Harris's favorite place to play. He loves the rocks. He and Gwen play out here a bunch.

Rocks and sticks and rolling down hills. We are all about the simple things.

The End.