December 29

It's about 9:45 a.m. The girls were just picked up by their Dad. I miss them already. I really have a hard time balancing the fact that I love to be with them all the time and the fact that I do need some me time. I grew up in a house where my Mom rarely took her own me time. and that is how I parent. The problem with that is I do tend to burn myself out a lot. While I worried constantly when they are gone, I do feel some sense of relief that I do not have someone in the house needing my constant attention. I won't post much on here about the girls' Dad. Out of respect that he is their Father, I will keep his privacy as much as I can. He has had a difficult time in the last several years. I know he loves them beyond all measure. But it is very difficult for me because he works part-time and I get very little support money for the girls. I could launch into a thousand reasons why things don't work for him but I won't. The only other thing I will say is that he gets the girls four days out of the month. Every other weekend. And that is it. We just don't see him any other time.

On a better and much happier note, Brigid wrote her name by herself for the first time this morning!!! Yea!!! Abby can write her name. I spell her name to the tune of Beethoven's Fifth. Now everyone in the house can spell her name. Caroline has a tune for her name and it is set to classical music. Only problem is I don't name the name of it. She is working really hard on her name and I think by the end of January she will be set. Caroline has had a lot of issues for her fine motor skills and received OT until she was three. I am working with her to use a marker because she doesn't have to press to hard for it to show up thereby making it easier to write. Caroline is so much like me that it is scary. She is always wired for sound. She gets upset easily, and she worries constantly. I'm trying really hard to work with her on that as well. I don't want her to struggle through the same things I did when I was her age. Funny she is also left-handed like me too. she is a mirror image lefty, like me, which means that she does everything left sided. Uses her left ear for the phone, left eye for cameras, kicks with her left foot. Abby and Megan are right handed and Brigid is left-handed but uses her right side for everything else.

Yesterday we babysat for a friend's twin girls. They are 5 years old and almost as tall as Megan. Ali and Julie are cute as buttons and they were here from around 11:30 to almost 8 p.m. Their Dad picked them up around 5:30 and actually stayed that late trying to fix my broken dishwasher. To no success. So it is back to handwashing dishes again. My sister sort of took over that job. All six girls had a blast. My house will never be the same but I'm glad they had friends over. Their big brother, Brandon, did not stay with us. He is the same age as Megan and they get along really well together but he didn't want to come over here because there were too many girls! His Dad said that there will always be too many girls here! yesterday there were 8 females in the house, to female cats, and one lonely male cat. I sometimes refer to this place as the Harrigan House of Estrogen. Can you imagine the teenage years?!?

Time for me to start sorting and purging the playroom. I can't even walk on the floor in here without stepping on something. I am going to take this two day opportunity to get rid of lots of toys they don't play with anymore. And I always try to pay it forward. They will go to Goodwill and anyone who would like them. We have been so blessed with so much kindness and help that I always feel the need to do the same. It may be foolish financially not to sell everything, but we would never have made it without others' generosity so I feel compelled to do the same. Every so often when things have gotten really tight, I have sold some things. I always feel better giving it away though.

Chat with you soon!!