My Saturday....

So I posted this on another forum, but I feel the need to fill the general populace in on my average Saturday. Why? Just for giggles, I guess.

Get up, dressed.

Wake appropriate children, get them into soccer gear.

Rush 1st child to activity.

Stop at Target

Stop at bank
Fight with bank about overdraft that is not because of me (stupid deposit fee)

Rush to 2nd child's activity, now I'm late
Stand in rain for an hour during 2nd child's activity, while dh has taken 3rd child to her activity. After 2nd child is done, rush home, frantically clean for an hour, while dh picks up 3rd child.

Leave with all remaining children to pick up 1st child from her activity. Dh calls, forgot to bring batting helmets for 3rd child's second activity of the day.

Go back home, curse. Grab children, and batting helmets, rush to pick 1st child up. 1st child not where she should be, spend 10 minutes running around finding her with leftover children in van =O

Get on the road to get to 3rd child's activity, (now very late, they still need helmets) and 2nd and 3rd child need to pee. Thank you, nearby Burger King!

Finally get to game, deliver helmets, stand in rain for an hour for 3rd child's activity.

Rush home, deliver 3rd child to babysit, go to walmart to buy birthday gift.

Dh gets home, 3rd child arrives home, goes next door to babysit again, with 2nd child.
1st child gets picked up for birthday party.

Dh and I take remaining 3 children to grocery store and shop for an hour and a half, with no dinner yet. Come home, eat cereal for dinner, collapse in bed.

Now, let me clarify. I love my children. I love my husband. I love that they play sports, and babysit. I am not opposed to birthday parties. I even don't care about the cereal for dinner. But I didn't get to crochet once the entire day.

struggling

It's rainy and overcast outside today and it's hitting me hard.

DS has been sick off and on for weeks now, so today I'm home with 4 kids five and under, and they are bored, but I don't have the energy to interest them.

I really need to clean, but I literally can't leave K alone for a minute, because she's crawling now, and the house is messy enough that I can't really put her down because she would get into too much. How's that for a catch-22? Can't clean for baby, because can't put baby down to clean. My life in a nutshell right now.

Why bother cleaning anything?

I have so many things I wanna try, and no motivation to actually do any of it. And certainly no money. I tried to sell my crafts, and no one seems to be interested. I guess I don't have anything new to sell, really, but I can't make any money to get supplies to make the cooler stuff I want, because no one is buying anything. More catch-22, eh? Can't afford to stock anywhere, but can't make any money unless I sell something.

Why bother making stuff?

I designed a pattern for sale for crocheted soakers, but no one seems very interested in that, either, and even if they were, I have no money to stock it anywhere. I plan to stock it on Etsy, but I have to have info back from testers first, and I need to make a few items from the pattern to sell, too. Again, no money. I hope to use up some of my stash yarn, though. There's always a little light at the end of the tunnel, but the tunnel seems reeeeally long today.

I just need a few sunny days, and someone to help with K for a day or two so I can get caught up. I am in perpetual survival mode and it's exhausting.

I am trying Motivated Moms, but I just can't seem to get on top of it. I'm constantly putting out fires and never getting ahead. Some days I get it all done, other days, nothing.

I really look forward to school being out so I can have another couple sets of hands around to help me. Evenings are too full of sports, and days are too full of little kids I'm constantly tripping over and cleaning up after.

Whatever. The forecast for later today is sunshine. I'll just hang on the couch until then.

A Few Things I've Accomplished.

I have managed to finish a few FO's in the last few months, so I'm gonna share:

Gillyweeds pattern tester shorties in single ply Purewool in Giotto



Freckle Flippy Skirt, in Shine Sport from KP. Which I now hate. (the yarn, not the skirt)

Pink/Black mini-skirty for K.

Sunfire mini-skirty for K. Dyed by me.


And some yarn:
Primary Party

Phoenix

Gah! I am not a photographer.

I hate uploading pictures. And then Editing them. Taking them in the first place. Why does this world have to be so stinking visual? I am terrible with lighting, focusing, composition. I don't feel like I have time to learn about these things, so I end up spending more time trying to fix my stupid mistakes than if I would just take the time to learn my camera. And, yet, I still don't do it. My life is a giant paradox.

I just want to push a button and the picture is perfect. No photoshop, editing, red-eye fixing, retaking the picture a million times under different kinds of light to make it look more fabulous. I just want a picture. And someone else to take it!

later that same day...

Book club was great! I'm so glad I went. We are reading Graced and Gifted by Kimberly Hahn, and it is a book I would recommend to any Catholic mom that wants to find more meaning in the sometimes thankless (ok, most of the time) vocation of married housewife.

And, the hostess made really good dip!

Work sucks, even when someone else is doing it...

My husband is training a new guy this week, so he's stuck working the weekend, which he hasn't done in ages. 2 - midnight today and tomorrow. I'm having a book club meeting tonight, so the "big kids" are babysitting. We have an indoor soccer game and then I'll drop them off to fend for themselves with a dvd of "Ghostbusters" and some microwave popcorn.

Hmmm. Maybe I'll stay home.

No, I'll go. It's my only chance to get out this weekend sans kids, and that's an opportunity I can't ignore. Plus, I can watch Ghostbusters when I get back. I have some knitting to do, and that's the best time to do it. While watching a classic on dvd!

My husband got me a 50 dvd pack gift off of Amazon last week, with classics like "Rocky", "West Side Story" and "12 Angry Men". I can't wait to knit/crochet my way through all of them, though maybe it might take me all year...dh does need the tv for sports to watch occasionally, after all.

The other sucky thing about him working, though, is he has to work his normal week next week, so he's on for 9 days in a row. So I have bedtime duty on my own this weekend, and practices/games start for soccer and softball all next week (more bedtime duty). Then the next weekend is Easter, and we have family coming up for the day. I look forward to the relative quiet of summer, when we don't have school on top of all the other stuff we have going on. At least dh will get a vacation in the summer!

Progress!

I finished the Flippy Skirt I have been testing, finally!

I feel like I just am the slowest knitter in the world. I know I'm not, but I just can't help feeling that I am more of a hooker than a knitter. It's not even so much how slow it is, but my fingers just don't seem to be able to go where I want them to. Not only that, but I just don't get knitting as well as I get crocheting. I don't understand the mechanics of knitting as much. I just need to keep plugging away, I guess.

My soaker pattern is out in public being tested now, and I am so excited! I hope it's not going to take too many revisions to release it. I don't think I've seen any patterns out there that are like this for crocheted soakers, and it's very customizable, so I'm hoping it will work for a wider market.

We're finally over being sick, so I can get back to more of a routine. It's really hard to get things done with sick kids!