Empty nest... sort of?

The last few months have been wild around the Silvers household. Not only was I busy running my first Kickstarter campaign (thanks to everyone for the support!), but my youngest child also moved into her first apartment. 

I helped her get everything in order, checked over her lease before she signed it, assisted with getting utilities put in her name, and even lugged tons of her stuff up a flight of stairs to her second-floor apartment. I even took her shopping for household goods and let her rob a lot of stuff from my house. LOL!

It was a rush of activity that lasted a couple of weeks. Then, when it was all over and she was settled into her place, I looked around my house and realized it still didn't feel like the "empty nest" all the older people had promised me when my kids were little. 

Nope. 

Now my house is filled with... grandkids!

The husband and I married young and started having kids right away. My youngest of three was born two days before I turned 28. We expected to have a LOT of quality alone/together time once all the kids moved out and into adulthood. We were going to travel more, eat out at new restaurants a few times a month, take drives in the mountains just because. Things we couldn't do when we had a houseful of kids and bills and responsibilities.

Then our middle child had our first grandson in 2020 when Covid hit, and then our second grandson three years later. When she returned to part-time work, I watched the babies for a few hours in the evenings. That started out as a few days a week, then more days, then longer hours, then she divorced and had to work full-time. At this point, she and the boys were used to Gammie having them.

These boys are something else. I love them more than I could have ever imagined. They make me laugh and give me cuddles. They amaze me with how brilliant they can be, and then have me rolling my eyes at the weird things little boys tend to do. Sometimes they even make me miss when my kids were this age. Then I come to my senses as one of them tries to body slam the other on the couch. *Sigh*

I thought I'd have an empty nest, yet here I am chasing a toddler and a preschooler all over again 5+ days a week, and it's not as easy this time around as I creep toward 50 years old.

Thursday Thoughts #4: Sleep is overrated.

Good morning to all of you out there in cyber-land.  Before I begin I want to share that this is entry #500 for Christie's Thoughts.  Woohoo!  Not too bad, if you ask me.  :-)

I went out this morning and ran errands, bought groceries, had a nice breakfast at the local IHOP, and just had a good time while performing the mundane tasks everyone deals with.  Of course that doesn't prevent the four year old from being a whiny complainer all morning.  Yep, she's being difficult, but I just send her off to cool off in her bed and go about my day.  She is my third after all; I'm fairly use to whiny little girls.  LOL.

Oh yes, sleep is overrated.  Yes, that's due to my youngest child as well.  One of these days I'll get to sleep through the night on a regular basis again.  One of these days...

It all started 13 years ago.  After two years of marriage, we welcomed our first daughter into the world and I was thrown, pushed, shoved into the world of the sleepless.  Nights of nursing, diaper changes, babies that would only sleep curled up against me, bad dreams, potty trips, lost blankies, dolls that had fallen into the floor, colds, flus, stomach bugs, and the millions of other reasons that we mothers never get to sleep through an entire night in silence and bliss.

Yes, I've been running on sleepless nights for over a decade now.  Why does no one ever tell us about this before we have kids?  Sure we know about the first year, but why don't people share that it lasts long into the years after #1?

My oldest (nearly 13 yrs old) no long wakes me for any reason at night.  The 9 year old does it fairly rarely at night, but always does on weekend mornings.  The 4 year old, well, let me just say that she's the bane of my sleep existence.  She's up every single night, for some off the wall reason or another.  If she's not up to go potty (which is right next to her room, and she has to walk past in order to get to my room), then she's lost hr doll, or her covers are messed up, or she just wanted to see what I was doing (sleeping dear, always trying to sleep).  It never fails.  On the rare occasion that she does sleep through the night, I still wake up around the same time that she wouldn't woke me.  LOL. 

It's all a lose-lose situation when it comes to MY sleep.  Tim on the other hand could sleep through a freight train crashing into the house.  Either that or he's gotten very good at pretending to be asleep over the years.  LOL.

All of this is to say that I know one of these days a regular sleep schedule will again return to my world.  One of these days everyone will sleep through the night and I'll wake up refreshed and, well... awake!  Until then, if you see me and I look as though I could pass out while standing up, you'll know that I slept terribly the night before and just give me my space.  Oh, and don't do like Tim and tell me that I LOOK tired.  I may very well look that way, I know I look that way, and yet it feels like an insult to be told that I look that way.  LOL!

Okay, there are my Thursday Thoughts for this week.  I didn't even know what this entry would be about until I sat down to write it while the youngest was screaming on her bed.  Ahhhh, the joys of parenthood.  People keep saying I'll miss this when they're grown, but I haven't missed any of their younger stages, so I doubt I'll miss not sleeping for years and years and years.  Yeah, I doubt it...

Have a great Thursday and I'll see you back here tomorrow.  *Smooches*

What day is it? Oh wait, it's Thursday!

*Yawn, Stretch, Yawn again* Morning all. It's jut too early to be awake. I hate early mornings. All the girls are up & getting dressed, yet I'm still sitting here in my robe trying to force myself awake. Some days I wish I was a coffee drinker. So I just came here and figured this would wake me up well enough.

Okay, so yesterday was April Fool's Day and I had one untruth in my entry from then. Did you guess the right one???

It was...

#8. I've decided that I don't want Tim to have a vasectomy, and I'd like one more child.

You guessed wrong?? Really?? Geez people! Can you not see the excitement in my words when I'm talking about getting him snipped?? LOL!! As a matter of fact, Tuesday the urologist's office called and pushed the procedure from April 23rd to May 1st and I was soooooo disappointed. Tim wasn't happy with waiting an extra week either. I was hoping that they were calling to move it up closer. LOL!

Anyway, today will be a good day, no matter how much I hate mornings. Tim & I will be doing some window shopping for a new patio furniture set. He fell a tree on our glass table last year. Yep, it busted up all over the back yard. It was a big mess. Soooo, we are going to look around and see what we can find.

Then our 8yr old daughter has a school presentation that she's giving today and wants us to come watch. So we'll be at school at 1pm to watch her discuss Susan B. Anthony. She's decided that she's nervous. The child can sing in front of half the school, but give her a poster to read in front of the kids in her class and she's nervous. LOL!

Somewhere in there, I need to finish a SAHM article I'm working on too.

Well, I better start getting dressed if I'm going to get the kids off to school on time. The 4yr is watching Disney and the older two are brushing their teeth. Tim is still in bed since he doesn't have to work, but he'll be up in the next thirty minutes to watch the youngest while I drive the other two to school.

Have a fabulous day!

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Tuesday... Yawn!

Gosh, I'm so tired this morning. I just popped open a can Coke because I'm really in need of some sort of boost... and the caffeine will have to do, I suppose. And I don't like coffee. I like the smell, but can't stand the taste. So Coke it is!

It's not like I was up late last night either. I guess it was about 10:30pm when Tim and I finally settled down for sleep. During the summer, I'm regularly up until 1-2am in the morning each night, and not feeling so drug down. I'll just blame it on winter. I am sooooo sick of it! At least it's suppose to be in the 50's here today.

Tim had to go into work early this morning, but he'll be getting off work early as well. I'm looking forward to having him home before dark for a change. Plus, it'll give me a little more writing time since he'll be home and can deal with the girls while I'm working. Yay! Then again, I may find better uses of his time once he does make it home. We'll see...

Ah, it appears that my business email is now back in working order. I awoke this morning to several days of emails piled up in my inbox. Thank goodness! Therefore, christie@christiesilvers.com is now back in working order. Woohoo!

Okay, I've wasted an hour of my writing time by just goofing off and trying to feel more awake. The laundry is done, the kitchen is clean, the trash has been emptied, and I need to get to writing. Liz has a man in the hospital, vampire to kill, and not a lot of time to tell me about it. Check back tomorrow for this week's Wanna Know Wednesday!

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Manic Monday. Oh wait, it's Tuesday!

Gosh, it's only Tuesday. Blah! I'm downright tired this morning. January has been a terribly busy month here at the Silvers household. We've had birthdays, parties, visits to Chuck E Cheese, sleepovers, dentist appointments, and just the personal time together. I'm exhausted.

Yesterday our oldest daughter got braces. Well, technically she got the top braces. She goes back in 10 weeks for the bottoms. She did very well yesterday and looks cute with her braces, but I sure did hate writing that $800 upfront payment check to the orthodontist. LOL! In only 24 monthly payments she'll have the most gorgeous, straight teeth. :-)

Then of course it'll be the middle daughter's turn.

We'll be paying the ortho for the next six years if all three girls go one right after the other. I *might* get a break between the second and third child, but we'll see. That's genetics for ya! Tim & I both had braces. Hell, I still had mine on when we married nearly 15 years ago.

However, all of that isn't the cause of my exhaustion this morning. Tim and I have enjoyed a lot of alone time together lately. Not always doing what's going through your head at the moment. LOL!! We were up 'til after midnight last night and the last hour was just chit-chatting in the darkness. He had to get up at 5:30 this morning and I at 6:00. He's already informed me via text message this morning that he's tired. LOL! Poor guy. At least I can stay home for my job.

I'll be glad when this month is over. We usually try to take a weekend trip with the kids some time in February. I'm sooooo ready for that this year. I'll have to check to see what week the kids have off for "mid-winter break".

Okay, I'm just rambling now. Here's a pic from our oldest yesterday, before I forget, and I'm off. Have a fabulous Tuesday, if you aren't too tired to enjoy it! And if you are too tired, I hope that your tiredness is at least from doing something fun. ;-)

Is it the weekend yet?

Blah! I can't believe it's only Thursday. Isn't it the weekend yet? I went to bed early last night and still woke up feeling like I could sleep for a week. Usually my morning workout will remedy that, but not today.

On the upside, I did get some housecleaning done and watched a Netflix movie that's been sitting on top of my tv since last week. I'm usually much quicker with the movies, but the new Indiana Jones movie came Tuesday, so we watched it. Then new tv shows came on, and well, this movie got pushed aside. LOL!

My middle daughter would like me to announce that she (and her whole class) was in our local newspaper. She was so excited to see her picture in there, especially since my oldest has been in it so many times during her school years. Nevertheless, she was in the paper because her class has a recycling program going where they want to recycle 10,000 plastic bottles before the end of the school year. They've already done 2,000 bottles and have only been in school for 2 months. Needless to say, they are very excited.

On to a different subject now. Moday I received my poster for the new book cover of A Midnight Infatuation. I aways order a mini-poster for myself to hang up in the house. They make me happy and are great conversational pieces when company comes over. LOL. Anyway, my current order came Monday, but I just got around to opening it today. All I can say is WOW! The cover is beautiful online, but the actual book, and now the poster, are far beyond stunning. Makes me appreciate the artist and designer even more!

Okay, before I end this or today, a little reminder that starting November 1st there will be a sale on buying all three of the Alex & Fiona books together. This sale will only be available on my website, and only during the month of November (just in time for holiday shopping).

If you're ever curious about upcoming events that I may have planned, feel free to check the Events Calendar on my site.

Have a fantastic day!

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