the weekly 'what's up.'

So.  I've been AWOL around here this week.

The last few weeks have really ushered in a hard new season.  I'm surprised I don't feel more overwhelmed by it all than I do, but I do feel really, really drained.

To start things off, Callista has been giving me a really hard time overnight, and I'm just exhausted.  For the last six weeks or so, she's been waking multiple times through the night, even though she'd been voluntarily sleeping all the way through before that.  The most recent development is that she wakes up to eat, spends nearly an hour nursing, and then spends the next 45 minutes or so wide awake, just talking to herself and making all kinds of noise.  So every time she wakes up, I'm up for nearly two full hours at a time.  One night this week, I logged a total of three and a half hours of sleep, which I got in three separate chunks.  It has been rough.

And, of course, our schedule is just chock-full.  This week we had three eye doctor appointments, two dentist appointments, a speech therapy appointment, and I had four meet-ups with discipleship gals.  We made our regular drive to the Amish, I made a big grocery shopping trip, we babysat for some friends, and we tried to get school squeezed in there the best we could.  The kids have enjoyed doing their work while they lounge around in the girls' room this week.

And remember my motto?  You know.  "In order to be fruitful as a stay-at-home mom, you actually have to sometimes stay at home."  We have been out of the house so much lately, things are really starting to fall apart.  Because we're only home long enough to make a mess, but not long enough to actually clean it up, the piles are starting to spawn.  The house is a serious disaster zone.  In the name of authenticity, here's what our house continually looks like at this point:

Just when I think I couldn't dislike my green-and-orange kitchen any more, I see it in a photo.  One of these days, I'm really going to have to find the time to paint.

And because we have to get dressed in our 'going out into public' clothes so often lately, I have tons of extra laundry to do, but I'm never home to actually do it.  And I started switching out seasonal clothing bins this week, so there's that extra laundry chaos happening.

Luckily, some of my favorite and most relaxing parts of our weeks have remained the same.  The kids are still so very sweet...

..and.we still prioritized together, like during family movie night.  (This week, we watched "B.F.G."  Have you seen it?  It was so. wonderful.  We loved it!)

I do have to say, though:  it looks like we will be averaging about four out-of-the-ordinary appointments per week for the next four weeks or more.  And I have no idea if, or when, Callista will settle back in to a normal sleep pattern.  I'm giving myself permission to blog less during this season, and use the time I usually take to write each day to nap, shower, clean up the house, or just relax so I don't end up going insane.  So if I'm a bit spotty around here for the next month or so, I trust you'll understand why!