This past week I have thought about a lot of things that happen that I wish someone would have informed me of before having children that might have made me think twice before having four.  Oh who am I kidding?  We didn't plan any of our kids and I never read a book about parenting, but I think that the information needs to be put out there for all mommies-to-be.  Mind you it isn't traditional information like sleep when the baby sleeps or anything like that.  And a lot of it has to do with the bathroom since that's where we spend a majority of our time.  Deal with it.  If it offends you, don't read it.
  These are just a few off the top of my head.  Please log in and leave your comments to add your own!  I love a good laugh!
 1.)  Never EVER change a baby's diaper without wipes nearby thinking that they have only peed.  It will not work out well for you.
  2.)  Why is the toilet paper roll out whenever I sit down and take the two seconds to go to the bathroom?!
  3.)  Why do the kids have to all go # 2 right before we have to go out the door and be somewhere?
  4.)  Why does someone need me the second I get into the shower?  And continue to ask me things through the door when I repeatedly yell that I can't hear them?
  5.)  What exactly is the radar that I emit whenever I come into or leave the house that causes all the children to scream, cry, and need me simultaneously?  Or better yet, how do I lose it?!!
  6.)  Why whenever I sit/ and or kneel down to do anything, that I instantly become a human jungle gym?
  7.)  Why can't I get skinny by just chasing my toddler away from the toilet and dining room table?  It is an every five minute thing...
  8.)  Why hasn't someone invented an automatic car seat cleaner so you don't have to take the darn thing apart every time your kid pukes, poops, or leaves crayons in the hot car (hypothetically speaking, of course)?
  9.)  How do your breasts return to a normal size when your over 6 month old baby stretches them out about 6 inches while nursing and trying to watch his brothers wrestle at the same time?  Wait, scratch that question-they DON'T.
  10.)  How do little people that can drive you so crazy make you also the happiest?!!
 

Who Am I??????

  Mitchell had his first cross-country meet of the after-season today.  He had to run 3K (1.8 miles) in the rain and it was so cold.  He did really well and I'm so proud of him-next week he'll run in the regionals in Oregon.  Mitchell is such an intellectual kid that isn't really into sports, so I'm so happy that he seems to have finally found his niche.  I believe with continued practice, he will be really great at it.  One thing that I noticed while he was running today was that he tended to look behind him a lot.  After the race was over, I told him that he shouldn't do that while in a race, because it's counter-productive.  He should always have his eyes forward, on the finish line.  I was chatting with my grandma on the way home and I had an epiphany.  Isn't that what so many of us do with our lives?  We are constantly looking behind us rather than toward the future.  And what does that give us besides bitterness, regret, anxiety, and all the emotions that we want to avoid?  Or maybe it's to the other extreme and we are looking at all the happy times that happened before and living in the past.  The problem with that is we tend to have a very skewed and biased view of our past.

  I have been struggling lately trying to figure out who exactly the present-day Sarah Curl is.  I am David's wife and mom to my four boys, but if you take away that identity what do people know about me?  When I was in college, I thought I'd graduate with my degree in advertising and move to a big city and work in an agency.  I thought anyone who followed their man around for his job was crazy!  I guess God had other plans for me, because not only do I follow my man around the world, but I'm also a stay-at-home mom to 4 boys!  I've always thought God has a great sense of humor, especially when it comes to our plans.  But I have just felt so restless lately, like God has a plan for me that I am not fulfilling.  Of course I am so thankful to be at home with my boys, but I just feel like something is missing.  Cue the second life-changing book that I talked about in my last blog, and that is "Creative Journal Writing-the art and heart of reflection."  I've always wanted to keep a journal, but have never really known where to start.  I feel like this blog is part of a journal, because it is therapeutic to write things out instead of having them ruminate in my head all the time.  It has helped a lot!  I feel encouraged and hopeful that my future holds more for me than constant house cleaning and chasing of toddlers.  I am optimistic that with further reflection and journal writing I'll begin to know the plans God has for me.

  Those who know me well also know that I have a love affair with music-especially songs that are gut-wrenching and soul-piercing.  I find it fascinating how my mood can be affected so drastically by whatever song I am listening to.  I can be ready to go out dancing one minute and then moved to tears the next.  There is a song out right now by Natasha Bedingfield called Strip Me that I absolutely love.  I feel like it goes along with everything that I am feeling and trying to say.  It is so hard as a mother of 4 young children to have any time to dream or even think for myself.  I am constantly taking care of everyone else's needs.  But it is so important not to lose sight of myself as an individual, apart from my husband and kids.  These are the lyrics-I hope you enjoy them as much as I do!

      Strip Me by Natasha Bedingfield

Everyday I fight for

All my future somethings

A thousand little wars

I have to choose between

I could spend a lifetime

Earning things that I don't need

That's like chasing rainbows

And coming home empty

And if you strip me,

Strip it all away

If you strip me,

What would you find?

If you strip me,

Strip it all away

I'll be alright

Take what you want

Steal my pride

Build me up

Or cut me down to size

Shut me out

But I'll just scream

I'm only one voice in a million

But you ain't taking that from me

Oh no you ain't taking that from me (4 Xs)

I don't need a microphone

To say what I've been thinking

My heart is like a loudspeaker

That's always on eleven

And if you strip me,

Strip it all away

If you strip me,

What would you find?

If you strip me,

Strip it all away

I'm still the same

Take what you want

Steal my pride

Build me up

Or cut me down to size

Shut me out

But I'll just scream

I'm only one voice in a million

But you ain't taking that from me

Oh no you ain't taking that from me (4 Xs)

Cause when it all boils down

At the end of the day

It's what you do and say

That makes you who you are

Makes you think about

Think about

Think about it

Doesn't it?

Sometimes all it takes is one voice

Take what you want

Steal my pride

Build me up

Or cut me down to size

Shut me out

But I'll just scream

I'm only one voice in a million

But you ain't taking that from me

Oh no you ain't taking that from me (4 Xs)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vnhDIGTldho

Until next time-keep looking forward friends!

Dinner madness

  To everyone that has checked out my blog and commented-thank you so much!  It is a lot of fun-and I am always open to suggestions to what I should discuss.  Send me a message and I'll see what I can try to write.  I think it would be kinda fun!  

  Yesterday I introduced two different life changing books to my life.  Maybe not that dramatic, but at least game changing!  The first one is a book called "Once-A-Month Cooking".  I struggle every night figuring out what to fix for dinner.  Not to mention I'm trying to figure it out and make it during what our family affectionately calls the "arsenic hour."  It's where you either want to take some arsenic and put yourself out of misery or give it to one(or all) of your kids and put them out of misery.  A couple of kids are wrestling and screaming that someone hurt the other one or that someone's life is more unfair than the other's.  My three year old is usually screaming for me to hold him and my 18 month old is usually swimming in the toilet.  I am screaming at all four simultaneously and then I usually find that whatever I have started is missing a few ingredients and I have to load up all of them to take them to the store.  That's usually when I have an out-of-body experience from fear and stress.  They're just as unhappy to be going to the store as I am to take them, and they let everyone within earshot know that. I'm pretty sure that I could get paid really well to be a traveling birth control troop to local high schools and other community organizations.  Does this happen to anyone else?  Didn't think so...

  Okay, so enter the Once-A-Month Cookbook.  It's written by two busy moms, and they provide a grocery list, meal plan, and recipes that are supposed to make my life a lot easier.  You do all of the cooking on one day, which is a long day of pain but then you have a whole month of meals in the freezer.  

  I decided to start with the two week cooking plan because I was unsure I had the patience to do a whole month's worth yet.  And it's a good thing that I did, because I almost croaked trying to get the two weeks prepared.  The baby was up on the dining room table countless times, removing my decorative balls from my hurricane in the middle of the table, spilling drinks, jamming keys on the laptop, and in general wreaking complete havoc.  He also found a box of nerds and opened them and dumped them all over the kitchen floor, so I was slipping, sliding, and sweating while running around my kitchen trying to make 75 dishes at once (again, an exaggeration).  To sum up this painfully overly long story, I got almost all of the recipes for the next two weeks done and in the freezer.  The best part?  We had one of the meals last night and one of them tonight and everyone HATED them.  Awesome.  

  I do think the book is a great idea and I actually liked the recipes, so I think once I get the hang of it I think it will make my life a lot easier and save us a lot of money.  So check it out and you, too can be a new person like me.  I will discuss the other book tomorrow because I am exhausted from just writing about everything that happened yesterday.  Until then, I will leave you with a picture of the awesome decor that my kids have provided in my house.  For a nominal fee I can provide you with the same look if you'd like.

                                                               D's butterfly garden

                        Wyatt's love note held in place by packing tape, which I find to be a classy touch

Today was a good day...

  I have decided that I am much too sporadic when it comes to writing blogs.  So I'm going to make an effort to be better!  Today was Halloween and we started the day off with a decision to try out a new church.  We have been going to the same church for the 3 months since we moved here and it's not that I don't love the message and the church, but I felt like we were still at square one there.  No one had introduced themselves to us or had made any effort to get to know us or our kids any better.  The decision to try a new church was met with great resistance from our kids.  They were comfortable at the other one and the poor kids move around so much that I felt bad for springing another new thing on them.  But I just felt like God has something more in store for us.  We were met at the new church with smiles and people bending over backward to help us with our kids and getting everyone situated in their classes, which is no small feat.  Then we had a great service with a pastor who talked to us about the difference between being a fan and being a true follower of Jesus.  The message struck me to my core, and I was moved in a way that I have not been moved in many, many years.  I realized that almost my whole life I have been a fan of Jesus, watching and admiring Him from afar but not really having an intimate relationship with him.  And my life and my family's life have suffered because of it.  No more-I made a commitment to really know Him.  And I felt such a peace as I left church.  Bonus-the hubby and kids liked it a lot, too!  And I think my sis liked it as well.  I am hoping to get involved in a small group and hopefully they have one for college-aged kids so Megs can get involved here and start meeting some more people.
  The rest of the day was rather uneventful-everyone took a nice nap except for my hubby who was sweet enough to go clean my car out.  Wyatt went to a costume birthday party and then the boys went trick-or-treating with David and I stayed at home with Linky and handed out candy.  The best part of the day happened when I was putting Wyatt and David to bed and reading to them.  We did a devotional on Jonah and the whale and the boys loved it.  Wyatt asked me how we know when God is talking to us.  I told him that when you ask God into your heart, that he speaks to it.  So Wyatt prayed that God would come and live in his heart.  Then he told me that he could feel his heart beating and he knew that God loves him!  It melted my heart and made me so thankful for my boys.  Then I was laying with little D and he told me that I made his heart happy!  I am just amazed with God-how he took a day like Halloween that is traditionally a pagan holiday and made it full of Him.  I am overwhelmed with gratitude and hope!  Happy Halloween everyone!

I know this to be true...

  I have a million ideas for this blog that run through my head on a daily basis, but it is harder than anything to sit down at the computer and actually write them!  As I'm writing this my sweet baby boy is pulling all of the books off of the book shelf.  *Sigh*  But actually this is perfect because it goes along with what I'm writing about today.  And that is things I have come to terms with having 4 boys (5 including my husband) in the house.  If you do not have children or have only girls, I'd highly discourage you from reading this, because it may contain some highly disturbing material.  So here they are, in no particular order of importance or nastiness.
1.)  My house is perpetually disastrous, aka messy.  Messy isn't even the right word for it, because I can deal with messy.  Unhygienic would be the word-or is that actually a word?!  I am in constant fear of the disease control coming in and declaring my house condemned.  Ok, so maybe I am exaggerating a little, but seriously.  Going into the bathrooms is like a Where's Waldo game.  Where can we find urine in here?  On the wall?  Check.  On the floor?  Check.  On the trash can?  Check.  In the toilet where it actually belongs?  Nah...
2.)  Everyone in this household will grow up with some form of hearing loss.  Between the wrestling, fighting, Wii playing, tattling, laughing, etc.  There is enough noise in my house to rival a rock concert.  Poor Lincoln (the baby) probably secretly hopes he was switched at birth.  He could possibly sleep through an Apocalypse due to the noise level he is accustomed to.
3.)  Toys are completely unnecessary, except maybe to add to the mess.  Things in the household that are apparently more fun are the trash can, toilets, household cleaning supplies, and even better, the toilet brushes used to clean the bathrooms referenced to in example one.  The more diseases or germs that you can get, the better it is.
4.)  The master bedroom will never be the love nest that gurus like Oprah, Super Nanny, and anyone else refer to.  I have never been able to rise above the crack house, mattress in the corner look.  Every time we move I have high hopes of accomplishing the serene haven that I can run to when things get crazy.  But it never happens.  All money used to possibly furnish such a haven is spent on making sure our little angels have a suitable room to trash on a daily basis.  Why?????  Our bedroom is the catch all.  Dirty and clean laundry, school papers, food, and who knows what else can be found in our bedroom.  Not to mention usually 2 of our four children will wind up in our bed during the night.  What love nest?  Which makes me wonder, how did we get 4 children in the first place?!!  But that is a completely different topic altogether...
5.)  There are a lot of wieners in my house.  And I am not talking about Oscar Mayer kind, either.  And my boys are obsessed with theirs.  So I know that that's not the PC term for them, but I find it much better sounding than the correct terminology for them.  As a matter of fact, now that I think about it, I think that that might be their favorite toy.  So disturbing.  And I have to say things to them that I never thought I would, like "get your wiener off the table" or "your brother" or other things that are completely mortifying.  And no, I'm not running a nudist colony.  They just happen to like running around naked.
6.)  Boys have an ENORMOUS appetite, and consequently we never have any food in the house.  I go to the store almost daily and spend a ton, and it is never enough.  I have been tempted to take the boys to the doctor to be tested if they have hollow legs or tape worms.  Whatever it is, I wish I had it so that I could be as skinny as them.  But I'm dreading when they are teenagers, and we have to sell our home to be able to feed them.
7.)  Boys are dirty and smelly.  5 of them in one house is exceedingly dirty and smelly.  Enough said.  See above references.
8.)  Everything in my house belongs to my kids.  I might think that it belongs to me, but once my kids get their hands on it it becomes theirs.  Like the TV, laptop, cell phone, or anything else that might be for my entertainment.  And the nicer it is, the quicker it gets broken.
9.)  I am the only person in the household capable of putting my dirty clothes in the hamper.  It must be a special gift that God only bestowed upon women, because I could literally put the hamper right next to their bed and the clothes would still end up on the floor.  No exception to this rule-not even my husband.  Why do they think it is there?  For decor???
10.)  Although my boys drive me nuts on a daily basis, they make me laugh and I wouldn't trade them for the world.  I am honored to be the mom to 4 of the most handsome, talented boys that I know.  I love them so much.  Urine, mess, and all ;).
Until next time...

The Beginning

  When it comes to technology, I'm CLUELESS!  I would rather just forget about it than try to learn more about it.  But I've been told by numerous people that I should hop on the blogging bandwagon.  So I decided to give it a go.  I have no idea what direction this blog will take, but I'm open to suggestions.
  So, a little about me for the readers that are sure to start following this blog.  I don't know what I want to do when I grow up.  Never mind the fact that I'm already grown up.  I used to be very smart, and I used to have dreams of working in a big corporation and wearing suits and awesome shoes and living in a big city.  Living a charmed life.  Fast forward about 11 years.  I stay at home with my kids, and my daily wardrobe consists of comfy pants, a t-shirt, and my hair up in a crazy hair concoction.  My hair is in dire need of attention, since I go to the salon about once a year.  If it's a good day with the kids and I don't feel the need to drink before 10 am, I wear fancy comfy pants that don't have food, snot, or excrement on them.  I dress them up with a great piece of Stella and Dot jewelry (my newest love and, ahem, shameless plug) and rock my tennis shoes proudly.  I love fashion, though, and dream about the day that I can wear something in style and fab for 5 minutes without getting kid crud all over them.  I now have the attention span of a nap-deprived two-year-old.  I'm in the midst of reading 5 self help books and I never seem to finish them.  I'm extremely self-critical, so I'm a master at self-deprecating humor.  I'm also extremely sarcastic, love to laugh, and find a good cup of coffee or wine and a good (non-self help) book to be a little slice of heaven.
  I also love my family.  I have a great husband whose career keeps us flitting around the world, and I have 4 adorable, slightly crazy boys who make me insane on a daily basis but also fill my life with laughter.  I love God and I thank Him for his grace and faith in me and hope that I can figure out my life calling and make Him and my boys proud.   Although I am honored and grateful to be a stay-at-home mom, I find it to be a little mind numbing at times. I feel something is missing, and I need to be contributing something else to this world.  I'm hoping that this blog starts me on the right path.  I'm extremely real about my life.  My life is far from perfect, and I embrace that.  I hope that by my telling things how they really are and not sugar coating them, I'll free other people to embrace their imperfections and learn to laugh about them.
  Anyway, my hope is that this blog will be full of musing about life and motherhood, and full of humor and hope for all the other imperfect mommies out there.  Wish me luck!!