Life with 4...

I googled before having my fourth child something like "how does life change going from three to four kids?" I just wanted to see what other moms had to say about the transition. Some said it was the easiest yet and others said that that is when life got crazy. My youngest is only 4 months old so I'm sure things will get changed up when he starts becoming more mobile but here are the things that have changed in my life...

I have never been able to keep my house consistently clean. It was mostly so so and now it is I would be kinda embarrassed if someone were to stop by unannounced but I'd get over it pretty quickly. 

 I let my 2 1/2 year old watch a lot of TV. He will sneak my phone and go hid in a closet to watch Netflix or Amazon Prime. I should be more embarrassed that he knows how to navigate my phone than the state of my house. 

I haven't been able to find the motivation/mental capacity to consistently have planned meals every night. We have frozen pizza with cut up cucumbers, avocado, strawberries, and ants on a log or hot dogs or waffles. And if I am missing any one of the ingredients to make those we have PB and honey sandwiches. I am afraid of when I start making dinners again my kids won't eat anything that has food mixed together. 

I have to remind myself when I am stepping over toy after toy and shoes and dress up clothes that it's not that big of a deal. I have four kids six and under who like to dump things out and have short attention spans. If they see another container filled while they are in the middle of playing with what they just dumped out, they will leave those toys just to go dump out some more. It can be exhausting to keep on reminding them to say thank you and to take their plate to the dishwasher and to flush the toilet and to turn off the lights and to put their clothes in the hamper...I feel like a broken record a lot of the time. Hopefully one day it will stick. Every now and then I get glimpses of them 'getting it' so that helps me to keep on truckin', and maybe one day I will make dinners again and have a clean house at the same time. Fingers crossed.