How to begin

I've never blogged before. I've read a few, and it feels like reading someone else's diary, which is kind of fun in a voyeuristic sort of way. So it's summer now, and I have to be a real parent again: 3 kids home all day long, constantly "I'm bored"-ing, except for the little one who is just fascinated by everything, especially if it reeks of "off-limits" to a 10 month old. (Found a barbie shoe in her mouth yesterday. She spat it out when I offered her cheerios. I didn't know it was even IN her mouth, and I do know when and where she picked it up, and so she chewed on it for at least 20 minutes. Deep breathing.......)

To introduce my family, I am married to Tom and we have 3 kids: Brent-7, Morgan-5, and the aforementioned Mariah aka Trouble, 10 months. That one is in a hurry to do everything in a way my other 2 never were. I like to say she was 3 weeks early to start with and hasn't slowed down yet. I am a stay-at-home mom since I got pregnant with the last one, and I can already tell this summer is SO MUCH DIFFERENT than last summer. To start with, I don't have a bowling ball pressing on my bladder and I can take deep breaths (sometimes not even in panic mode). But the biggest difference is the number of kids in the house. Last summer Morgan stayed in her preschool most of the day, so I only had Brent at home and really, that boy was never home. There are kids galore in this neighborhood and somehow he found a way to stay gone most of the day. Then Mariah was born and I really can't remember the rest of the summer. At that point, I was so glad Morgan was at school and Brent was gone since I never slept at night. It was all a blur of pain and exhaustion, coupled by occasional wondering of how the laundry load could triple AGAIN with one more kid added (and such a little kid at that). So this summer will be a new experience for me in the kid-raising arena, and I'll let you know (whoever you are) how that goes......