Month: August 2018

Today, like any other Saturday, I got up to take the girls to Ballet.

Also, as usual, #10 woke up at 7 leaving me with a hopeful thought of laying back down for a few, HA!

Unlike any other Saturday, McRush had to work so I contemplated getting the rest of the RushBunch up to tag along. Hmmm, I opted NO! Generally, I use this day as a girls day. We go to ballet and then we go out to eat. Well, today I decided to bring #10 and #9 who are 8 months and 2 years old.

I squeezed them into my Lexus because I was not driving the Transit, and headed on my merry way. I dropped the girls off and normally I would just hang around the area, reading a book or perusing Facebook or Instagram. Not a chance! #9, in all of his newly potty trained glory has to ‘poop’ so I drive to the Walmart (why do we say THE walmart?) and then it gets interesting. Realizing I have no stroller, I carry #10 after fighting with his carseat and we slowly, due to little two year old legs, walk to the restroom. I decide to grab a cart to help make things easier but alas, no carts allowed in the restroom. Of Course! I grab the baby and my pocket book out of the cart and take #9 to the stall.

Well, there are no liners for the seat but there is a kiddie chair in the stall so I can put #10 in, except its broke. Of course! I sling baby to the side and pull tissue down to line the seat all while fighting with my purse to stay on my shoulder and convince #9 to ‘hold it’ just a little longer. I finally get him on the seat and now I am sweating. I wipe him and pick him up to wash his and my hands. The dryer doesn’t work. Of course!

I place them back in the cart I parked outside the bathroom and not even 25 feet away we get and, “I have to poop.” I roll my eyes and hold back tears. By now we are running late to pick up #6 whose class finishes before #3. I start the process over again and as I am walking out of the stall, OF COURSE my pregnant butt has to pee!

We finally make it out of Walmart, get # 6 and head to the park to kill time. One child wants the swing and one wants to run around while the other wants to slide…. I only have one set of eyes, and they are rolling!

We figure it out though. We leave and get #3, grab a bite to eat and head home.

I have a headache.

I said all this to say, I am not a supermom, please do not call me that. I thought I was a supermom too. I mean I do after all, have 10 children with one on the way, while homeschooling, and running a business. But from now on what you are not going to do is call me a supermom when I feel like I need a drink and a blunt after spending 3 hours with less than half of my children! They are exhausting.

What am I, a married mom who has a phenomenal support team in my husband and oldest two children (whom I left home sleeping their lovely heads off (never again)).

I say all the time that we are all supermoms in our own rights but after today, I believe that title belongs to single parents. I just don’t know how you do it!

I salute you!

iRush

How’s my homeschooling mamas?

I am so excited about this year! We started school on the 6th and while this is not my first go around with homeschooling, I have learned so many new sites and platforms over the summer that my children will probably be confused. I am like a kid in a candy store, I want some of everything!

For those of you who do not know, we are option 3 homeschoolers which basically means, as far as the school board is concerned, you leave me alone and I will leave you alone. Honey, because I do not have time!

The biggest obstacle for me is my littles -3 and under. I just want to get in with them and play in the mud and find worms, talk about particles and fossils, rocks and dirt. You know, the fun stuff! But my older children want to do big kid stuff… they’re so boring!

I Kid.

So this year I am going to teach the littles while my bigs are at recess! Ah HA! Chile, these epiphanies I have are so simple but great at the same time, like why didn’t I think of this 4 years ago? Nevertheless, here I am enjoying the train ride, no matter how slow. lol

Today we did basics like math, handwriting, and French. So tomorrow we are freed up to do life science! I swear I am more excited than the children… No, really. We will be learning about the life cycle of a butterfly. Hopefully, I will be able to upload video to our YouTube page, MsMyRush <—- Plug!

My 17-year-old has 1 more credit he needs so this year he will only be studying for his ACT and the credit he will be achieving is computer technology which consists of him moving and rebuilding my website while creating his own YouTube page. Yes! Use them, honey. Makes less work for me and gains knowledge for him #WinWin

Well, that’s my check-in for today, let me get my giddy butt ready for bed.

iRush

Why am I up?

Its 6:23 a.m. and I have actually been up since 2:57. I think I may have gone to bed by 10 something.

#10 has 4 teeth cutting at the same time in addition to the two teeth that have already cut through but are still sprouting. He is in pain and his fever makes him uncomfortable. What that means for me is no sleep.

Add to that that I am trying to alter the RushBunch curriculum for the day because I saw something cool for them to learn for science.

Plus Souki, our new edition, decided to make my floor her personal bathroom. By the time I soothed #10, cleaned up my floor, packed McRush’s lunch and threw on a load of laundry (because I’m a mom and mom’s have MADD, Mother Attention Deficit disorder) I am now wide awake and contemplating whether or not to lay down while everyone is asleep. 🤔

School has been off to rocky start and revamping the business has left me less than motivated but I will keep in pushing because its about something greater than me. Its about my family and my reflections. But trust me when I tell you that this queen here is going to a spa and hair salon because I have to keep pushing doesn’t mean I have to LOOK like all I am doing is pushing.

I have learned that In order to best serve those I love, I must first serve and love me.

iRush

Oh it has definitely been one of those days!

We had nothing scheduled and both #1 and McRush were off of work. So I was so set to sleep in. I literally day dreamed about it all day Saturday and laid my head on the pillow knowing what a glorious well needed rest I was going to have. This was at around eleven at night.

Well, as life would have it, I was back up at 12:30 so send the dog out and get #7 up to go to the bathroom. Oh, by the way, I got a dog. 🤦🏾

Okay, that’s cool because I am sleeping in anyway.

At 3 this morning, my bladder was full, baby jumping on it I suppose. Now I have to go to the bathroom. Wash my hands add some lotion and come out to see Souki, the dog, peed on the floor. I get the Clorox wipes and clean it up and then wash and moisturize my hands again. OF COURSE I’m thirsty so I grabbed a bottle of water and chug quickly so I can jump back in the bed.

Yup, you guessed it, 6:30 I’m up with #10. Downstairs I go to get a bottle but I’m not worried because he goes back to sleep after a warm bottle, burp, and change…. Not today. By the time he goes back to sleep it is 9:27 a.m. and I am exhausted. I lay down because everyone else is still asleep. I figure 10:30ish they will rise because they were up late, intentionally because of my hopes of sleeping in of course.

Ha!

Promptly at 9:45 they are calling my name and I jump up now thinking I overslept… yeah right.

I decide to go ahead and start breakfast and take the dog out. I found myself doing laundry, writing the grocery list, cleaning the living room and kitchen, and writing our house rules list.

You know who did get to sleep in? McRush, #1 and #2 which left me with a house full of unruly under 7 year olds.

At 1230 I remember I was supposed to meet a lady to pick up a baby blender (gotta love mom swap). Now I’m rushing to get everyone ready and feed #10 while finishing up my chores. You know what happened? McRush jumps in the shower!! Ugh! I didn’t even get to shower! He says just take one of your two minute showers. I all but lost my dang mind!

Now its 10:45 at night and I have just now been able to wind down.

Everyday I am the last down and the first up.

Holy Ancestors Batman! When is mom going to get a break!?

Okay, I’m calm. Tomorrow is Monday and school is going to be SO exciting. ←insert sarcasm and say that through your teeth.

iRush

When it comes to parenting everyone wants to offer their expert advice, and by expert, I mean mothers with children and degreed nonparents. Well, rest assured that I am not here to offer you advice, prejudge or even tell you what you should be doing.
Even as a mother of ten, yup 10 children, I do not consider myself an expert mommy. On the contrary, I still learn new things every day. What I will offer are some mommy hacks and tips that keep me from running away from home on a daily basis.
Don’t worry. This is not some ‘How to get organized’ article because around here we run off of 80% chaos and 20% right in the nick of time.
As a wife, mother, and business owner there is always something to do and something else that needs to be done, like, LITERALLY. I am up and running before my feet hit the floor in the morning but I still have to feel special. That leads me to my very first tip.
1. Do you.
Oh my gosh, for years I was miserable as a parent, no lie. I gave up law school, smoking, drinking, cussing, and OH MY GOD, coffee! I was trying to be the best mom I could be for my family but I lost myself in the process. Everything I did was for someone else. Then one day I walked past the mirror and had to step back to reassess who this bum was in my house. Adorned in sweatpants, a holy t-shirt with a UFO (unidentified food) stain on my shoulder, mismatched socks, and a very unkept ponytail. “Did I wash today?” I couldn’t have its only 6 a.m. and I look like last week. No ma’am/sir, don’t let this be you. Set a day to get out of the house even if you go down to the local coffee shop and watch Netflix on your phone. Give you some ‘you time’. It helps, trust me.
2. Stop saving everything.
Even before I had a baseball team of children I could not stand clutter and unnecessary paraphernalia. That includes the plethora of pictures laying around. Trust me no one is coming to your house to look at photo albums full of baby pictures. Put them on a hard drive and they will be just as safe as in an album. I am the queen of decluttering. In my house, if you haven’t used it in a month, its trash. I am logical though, although my husband would definitely disagree. The purpose of this hack is two things. 1. It helps keep the house clean and 2. a clean house helps keep a clear mind and who doesn’t want a clear mind when you have children, right.
3. Price hop
Now let me first say that I hate shopping. I hate store hopping. I hate long lines. I hate waiting. (Hate is such a strong word…. Yup, still hate it.) Always think, can I get this cheaper? The answer is probably yes, but the cheaper usually means longer wait time (insert lines and shipping). For example, my family is book lovers. I can easily spend a thousand dollars on books from Amazon and Barnes and Noble in a day and that is not exaggerating in the least. However, I have found that a quick trip to the library or local school can get me a trunk load of books for five bucks! No lie. We catch sales at The Children’s Place as well. Now going back to hack #2 I do not buy a size up, sales always come around.
4. Write. Sing. Dance.
Find a release every day. For my mom it was singing, she has such a beautiful voice, something I cannot say I inherited, but I do like writing (can’t you tell). I have a blog that I post in, not as often as I like but I do write down little bits daily in an effort to write a blog about it. Writing is therapeutic for me, it always has been. Plus these are things that won’t take away from parenting duties. You can dance with your children, sing to them, or write with them. Its all in fun and release.
5. Go to timeout more often.
We need breaks during the day. I send the children outside and watch them play from the window as I sip tea and enjoy the quiet. Although I am not an advocate of television, I will pop in a learning DVD so the children will calm down momentarily to help me catch my breath. Children hate timeouts but they are so lovely when you are a parent. Sometimes I hide in the nook of my closet for a few and pretend we were playing hide and seek. Either way, you choose to do it, send yourself to time out more often, you’ll thank me later.
6. Bribery
Yup, bribery, and even blackmail if it works. It’s usually bribery for the little humans and blackmail for the bigs. Children can be bribed with more than candy too, (we want to avoid bad habits and cavities). A trip to the park, a fruit salad, a visit to grandma, anything that makes them smile and gives you peace. Unfortunately, I don’t get to use blackmail on my bigs often because they are pretty well-behaved children. Maybe I’ll be able to use it in a few years on my littles.
7. Quick Meals
We are not meat eaters so the crock pot is a no go for us. But I can throw a whole meal together in 15 minutes and that includes plating. Remember, we are 80% chaos so I never plan meals. Who needs that kind of stress right. I usually grab some veggies and create some type of concoction. The downside to this is a meal is rarely able to be duplicated in this house, but I hate repeat meals anyhow so it actually works for us. But if you are meat lovers, go friend a crockpot, it makes life so much easier.

That’s all I have for now.

iRush