Sleepless Nights and Thankfulness (But Not Always At the Same Time!)

I have written six blog posts in the last several weeks and have not posted one of them.

That's right...I've sat, and thought and spent upwards of six plus hours writing a combined total of more than 5,000 words and have not posted a single one of them on my blog. 

I just perused them all in my blog post manager tool in hopes that one of them might be fodder for  nice snowy November day like today.

Not so much.

Every time I read through one of them I think...Ugh...too dreary, too boring, too blah, blah, blah...

Maybe this is what they call writers block. Or maybe I'm not wanting to be completely transparent about all of the things that are making parenting life feel a little bit crazy right now.

The lack of sleep hasn't helped.

Did I mention I'm tired?

We've had coughs, and teething and bad dreams and runny noses. When one things seems to resolve itself the entire rotation starts all over agin. All night. For weeks on end.

I once heard a friend of a friend say that after they had their third child sleeping at night started to feel like a game of Whack A Mole (that silly arcade game where you use a mallet to keep bopping the mole heads back down into their little circle!).  I know it's a bit of an aggressive comparison, but hey...if the shoe fits...and oh it does...use the comparison!

It does feel a  little bit like a Whack A Mole game, if I'm honest. You hear one child cry, get up, settle them down (or give them cough medicine or assure them there will be no more bad dreams or that there are no monsters in the house) and just about the time you settle back into your bed and begin to doze off...POP! Someone else starts to cry.

You spend 15 minutes settling that little one down, tuck yourself back into bed under the heavy warmth of your down comforter with your even heavier eyelids closing quickly and then...POP!

You get the picture.

 I wish I were joking about how our nighttimes are going lately, but I'm not. At all.

Therefore, when I sit down to write a blog post these days this is what comes out...I'm tired. I'm tired. I'm tired. What are we having for dinner tonight? Shoot, that permission slip needs to be sent in and book orders are due tomorrow. I'm tired. I'm tired. No one has socks in their drawers. I guess that's better than no underwear. I'm tired.

I wish I were exaggerating...even a wee little bit.

So anyways, instead of lamenting the fact that I have writers blocks and am tired and that it's all building up into large amounts of  un-inspiration in regards to my blogging efforts I figured I'd at last share the titles of those six un posted, half drafted, tired sounding blog posts. After reading the titles myself I realized they will give you a enough insight into life lately without bogging you down with all of the daily details...

So, without further adieu...here are my unposted posts summarized by their titles:

1. It's Been Another Crazy Week in the Littlewood Household 

2. Wanting to Get It Right- The Mommy Thing 

3. Motherhood: The School of Hard Knocks 

4. Helping Your Hope to Fly 

5. Survival Mode Isn't for the Faint of Heart 

6. Working on my Long-Term view 

There you have it. My life in a nutshell of titles.


In other news...the more upbeat kind...I do love thanksgiving and the added opportunity to talk to the girls about being thankful and grateful for the many things that we have. We created our annual "Thanksgiving Tree" on Saturday. I almost purchased a pre-made one from Pottery Barn with some coupons I had, but then realized I love the community effort of making our own.

Plus, as we write our notes of thanks onto leaves and post them on the tree you wind up seeing all of the notes and are able to re-read them throughout the month- unlike some of the pre-made trees I've seen where you stick them inside a pocket and then don't have the benefit of seeing your collective wall of thanks.

Here is a photo of our handmade tree hanging next to the kitchen table on the sliding glass door...

And the girls first "thankfulness" leaves...

Yes, my sweet little Ava wrote down that she was thankful that Jesus had died on the cross...Yes, my dear, me too. And so thankful that that is one of the first things she would think to write down (; 

Blessings to you all from one tired, but thankful momma.

Happy Thanksgiving! 

Here's to hoping my blogging inspiration returns with some much needed sleep in the weeks to come (;