Sunday reflections 8/21/2011

School starts on Tuesday.  I will have 4 of my 5 in school.  That just seems so crazy to me!  I remember my days in Vegas where I had 3 little ones home and I was pregnant with Riley (Jordan was 5 when I had Riley and had just entered Kindergarten).  It seemed as if my days with all my children home would never end and now I find myself two years away from the time when all my children are in school.  For some reason, the start of another school year always leaves me feeling a little empty and sad.  Maybe it is because I know that I am one year closer to that fall when I will wake up and find all my children grown and out of the home.  I think for us stay-at-home mothers so much our our time and efforts are wrapped up in our children that when they leave and grow up we have to discover who we are all over again.  Often, when I am looking at picutres from my early marriage, college days, highschool days, etc...I find myself wondering where that Chelsey has gone, if she's still really there?  Not that I regret who I am or where I am now, I love my children and wouldn't change anything about my life...but I do wonder.

This has been a week of pain for Jacob.  Sunday afternoon, while I was trying to put everything back together from my trip to Washington, he found his Dad's pocket knife (which was hidden) and started playing with it.  At about 7:15 he comes to me with blood dripping everywhere and he had sliced through his thumb.  Of course, Brad was not home from Alaska at this time but I knew he would be home later if it needed stitches, so I stopped the bleeding and bandaged it as best I could.  He did indeed need stitches and at 11:00 that evening Brad was able to perform the procedure.  Of course, I think it is in some ways worse when you are the ones inflicting pain  rather than an unknown doctor.  At least I didn't gag like I did when Brad had to give Riley stitches from a dog bite three years ago.  I guess that means I'm dealing with that kind of stuff better...back to Jacob.  Well, later this week he was climbing in my pantry up to the top shelf (there are three shelves) where my candy is in a locked plastic container (locked with a pad lock mind you, but those little boys can pry open the sides and sneak a sucker out with their little hands...clever.)  According to his brothers, Riley and Ben who were leading the way, Jake lost his grip on the top shelf and fell to the floor hitting his head first.  He came to me screaming and unable to calm himself down.  I, of course, panicked when I heard where he fell and how hard he fell thinking of the hard tile floor in that room and having flashbacks of Ben falling from the 2nd story window in Vegas when Brad gave me very strict instructions that if a child falls twice their height I am immediately to bring them to the ER.  He had a very large bump on his head (and has a nice black eye today) so I called Brad.  Brad said that usually a bump on the outside of his head is an indication that everything is alright on the inside and just to watch him not letting him sleep for more than 15 minutes at a time.  If he got worse I was to take him in to the hospital.  In the end, everything ended up being okay, but Jake definitely has had a rough week.  Why do all the terrible things that happen to my children happen when Brad is away?

Jordan has started football and is enjoying it.  I am looking forward to the games again.  Kenzie wants to do Karate this fall and I thought, why not?  It would probably give her some good self-defense skills that every woman could use, couldn't it? 

Brad wants me to post his pictures of Alaska for his family, so I will be doing that sometime this week.  I also wanted to post a few silly stories I wrote for and about my kids.  I thought they would be fun to add to my blog.