Organizing Amid Chaos

Book Review: "Heaven is for Real for Kids" by Todd & Sonja Burpo

2011-12-01T16:45:00.000-06:00

I sat down with my children to read this book. It was on the computer, which is very different for our normal reading routine, so I feel like we missed out on some of the actual reading experience, but that is just a preference thing. I prefer to hold a book in my hands and to turn pages. But that's just a side note.

We read through this book in a very short time frame. My children loved the pictures and my daughter especially loved the picture of Jesus' horse, with the multi-color mane.

My children have not experienced the death of someone in their life yet, but when they do, I am sure to load this book back up and let them read through it again (or read it to them again). I think this book serves two distinct purposes. The first purpose that this book serves is as a source of comfort to children who is experiencing the death of another person as a reassurance that Heaven is a great and wonderful place.

The second purpose that this book could serve as is one of a more evangelistic purpose. I could imagine a child who doesn't believe in God or who is having doubts about his faith reading this book and being reassured that there is indeed a wonderful life after this one and that there is a God who knows them and loves them.

I really like this book for kids. It is short, colorful and thought-provoking for the child who is reading it or being read to. I would recommend this book to others.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.

Book Review: "A Conversation With God" by Alton Gansky

2011-12-01T10:33:00.001-06:00

It's been awhile since I have been here. I have been extremely busy with things around here, what with school and activities and work and all that. But I came across this book the other day while unpacking (yes, still unpacking) a box of books and realized that I had never posted my review of this book. It is time to remedy that!

This book is easy to read. It is done in conversational context. The author poses questions that are common among believers at some point during their walk. And then he replies, based on scripture, from the viewpoint of God.

It is a well-written piece but it was not really my preferred way to read about God's answers to believer's questions. I guess I might be more of a Bible study kind of girl. I don't know. But I just do not really like the format for this book.

I'm sure that the conversational approach appeals to some, but I am not in that group. I would much prefer direct quotations from scripture with commentary from the author, but to have it written as if it were God writing it? It just makes it seem a bit "off".

Overall, I'd have to say this is a good resource if you have questions, but as I would recommend with any book written about the Bible, always be sure to double check references and make your own inferences from the Bible directly.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Hubby Got Hurt (and other news)

2011-09-11T00:01:00.000-05:00

Hubby has a new job and already is having to miss work. He hurt his arm a little over a week ago and has seen someone about it three times now. The last time was earlier tonight. The doctor who saw him tonight said he is not to work for the next five days and is to see a specialist or a surgeon as soon as possible (like Monday) to be further evaluated. He will need a cortisone shot, surgery or both on his arm to make his arm, wrist and hand functional again. Just what we needed. Sigh.

My baby brother, Bub, who is not really a baby, but an 18 year old young man, found out on his 18th birthday (last Monday) that he has a brain tumor. I don't even know what to think yet. I'm angry and sad and hurt, but more than anything, I am scared. This kid does not need that. He already has a tough enough life as it is.

But at the same time, the kids are doing well. They went on a bike ride with my MIL today. Even little Boo rode his tricycle to the park from MIL's house. She rode next to him REALLY slowly and the older three rode on ahead and then would wait, then ride ahead and wait, so on and so forth the whole way to the park and the whole way back. Round trip, it is a two-mile ride. But it was Boo's first "real" ride and it was on a tricycle. I cannot even imagine. LOL! Nor do I want to. But I have to admit, I am truly grateful for my MIL. As often as we don't get along and everything, I am truly blessed to have her in my life.

2011-09-05T00:26:00.003-05:00

We are now fully in the swing of the school year. I have been swamped at work and therefore, have had limited online time. Basically, at work I have taken on a managerial position and I am now in charge of communications, documentation, scheduling and also have a key role in hiring and firing people. For the first time this week, I had to fire someone. It's hard to do. Well, sort of. The situation that the employee created made it a very easy thing to do, but even still, it took a few minutes to pump myself up to do it.

Hubby got a new job at Applebee's. I haven't quite yet decided if this is good or bad. I mean, it's good obviously because it is steady income (or at least steadier income than previously) but the food is so good and he gets a discount that ranges from free (during his shift) to 50% off (an hour before or after his shift) to 25% off (all the time).

We like to go to Applebees on Wednesday nights when I get off of work because they have their 2 for $20 (two entrees and an appetizer for $20) plus they also have 99 cent kids' meals (limit of four meals per adult entree) so we often get the 2 for $20 plus 8 kids' meals (two for each of our kids - they eat one right away and then save the other one for dinner for the following night). All together, our meal ends up around $28.00-$30.00 before tax and tip. But now, with Hubby's discount, it will end up being $22.00 before tax and tip. Our Wednesday/Thursday dinner will only run around $30.00 total. Which is still quite a bit, but overall, totally do-able on our budget. And that's TWO nights of meals for everyone. (Hubby and I almost always have leftovers as well) $15.00 per night divided by 6 people equals just a little over $2.00 per person. Not too shabby, in my opinion. And that is based on the lowest discount available to Hubby.

We got the older boys enrolled in Cub Scouts this past week. We now have a Webelo and a Wolf. And then Punky is now enrolled in Girl Scouts as well - she is a Daisy. And I am enrolled in Girl Scouts as well. I'm a Daisy Leader. Woot! I have no clue yet. LOL! Still have to go through my training and all that yet. Hopefully, I will get it all figured out soon though!

Natty is enjoying fifth grade and is actually being very responsible about his homework. I finally found a system that works well for him. Money. He is given 10 points each day for homework. Five points are allotted to his planner. He has space for five subjects. He has to have SOMETHING written in each subject to receive his points for the day. The other five points are allotted to getting the work actually done. Since we implemented this system, he has only missed one day of not having his planner filled out. Oh - and each point is worth a penny. Just my price. It does add up (along with some other things that he is expected to do each day for his chores) but I don't mind paying him to be responsible. That's what happens at our jobs as adults, isn't it?

JoNo has also had homework each night. Spelling and Math mostly. He loves it! It's quite surprising, really. He is in a special reading group because he is not on grade level for reading and last year, his spelling was HORRIBLE! But this past week, he only missed 2 words out of 16 on his pre-test. If he missed one or gets them all correct on his pre-test, then he gets the challenge list for the week instead. My poor reader is a good speller? Somewhere that doesn't make sense. But maybe that just means that the reading is about to jump up to grade level?

Punky is thoroughly enjoying her full day of school every day of the week. She is such a big girl now. I don't know what it is, but suddenly instead of being my little girl, she's jumped up to my big girl. *sniffle* It's okay, I'll be fine.

Boo is attending school everyday as well, although he only attends half days. He gets to ride the bus to and from school each day, which he LOVES! And he is actually talking about school quite a bit here and there. His communication skills have really improved over the summer and even since school has started. He still has some very strong and noticeable characteristics of his developmental delay but he is adjusting to a new school, a new routine, new teachers and new friends very well.

Boo might actually even start going to a babysitter a few days a week, when Hubby and I overlap with our work schedules. That will be a new experience for sure! I'm actually hoping that I will be able to start being at work half an hour later than I currently have to be there. That would be great for me, because then I could be the one to drop the older kids off at school and then drop Boo off with the sitter instead of needing to have all four stay the night with my inlaws and have them bring the kids up to school. It's funny the difference 30 measly minutes can make in a routine!

We have been working hard here at the new place to get it all adjusted and organized and comfortable. I have it mostly there right now. The hard part has been with my work schedule lately. It has since calmed down (beginning this week). It is really hard to maintain a house when you aren't IN the house. I seriously was working 2 7 hour shifts, 3 12 hour shifts and 1 4 hour shift each week. It was CRAZY! Plus, most nights I brought work home with me. That's just the way it had to be for a while there. I actually have work that I brought home on Friday that I had planned to have done by now, but the way I see it, I don't have to work again til Wednesday so I have a little bit of time yet. And worse case scenario, I do that work on Wednesday while I'm at work. No biggie. But I'd really like to be caught up at work before I start my work week on Wednesday. Ya know, just for once.

In the meantime, I have plenty to keep me busy here at home. I have laundry to do, menus to make, shopping to do, meals to make, kids to feed and bathe and supervise and entertain. Scheduling to do and keep. Eye appointments to go to, rooms to clean, chores to oversee, homework to supervise, allowance to give, kids to hold and hug and love on. Because you know, the last part is the best part of being a parent.

♥ NattyNu ♥ JoNo ♥ PunkyPie ♥ Boo ♥

Another Long Break (and now some hodgepodge thoughts)

2011-08-07T00:33:00.000-05:00

...from blogging that is. We closed on our house on July 15th and worked like crazy people a few weeks prior and definitely the two weeks following that to get everything packed up, moved (either to the new place or to the storage unit that Hubby has talked me into renting for TWO months) and then unpacked and put away. Well, we are still somewhat in the unpacking and putting away part, but we are well on our way to being completely settled!

We have gotten all 4 kids registered for their new school and even received our classroom assignments this past week. That is exciting stuff! What is really exciting to me is that all 4 of the kids will be in the same school for the first and only year ever in their lives!

My three older children returned home tonight from an impromptu lake camp out with their grandparents. I believe that they left on Thursday morning and they came back late this evening (Saturday) sunburned and tired. I got them bathed and they brushed their teeth and now most of them are sleeping peacefully in their beds. The only one still up is Boo, but his sleep schedule has been off the past few days as he and I weren't feeling well and spent much of our days (AND nights) sleeping while the big kids were gone.

Hubby, Boo and I went out for dinner the other night to an Applebee's restaurant near our place and Hubby was pretty much offered a job on the spot. He hasn't applied for it, but the kitchen manager really wants him to come work for him and to basically be his replacement for when he is not there. Hubby thought about it and still has to go through the red tape of applying and being interviewed and such, but the manager was really excited about the possibility of having Hubby work for him. I'm thrilled about it. We'll see what happens though. The manager might get an applicant with loads of experience in running a kitchen, who knows? But until I know otherwise, I will remain hopeful.

Work has been great lately. A little bit tiring because I have been training new people like crazy and dealing with HR type issues (even though there really isn't HR in private duty home health) and scheduling challenges. I think that is why I ended up sick this past week. Between working TONS of hours and training and dealing with all sorts of stuff at work with other employees and scheduling and all that, plus the move and all that goes with that, plus the housework, the kids and Hubby and all the other things that take up my time, I was burning my candle at both ends and it just caught up to me. That and/or the fact that I was in the hospital the other night waiting on someone who was being seen in the Emergency Room and could have been exposed to any number of things there. But I'm on the mend and that's what is important now and I don't need to be at work until Wednesday now either! Yay for a small break!

This past Tuesday, the inlaws, Hubby and I took the kids out boating. Miss Punky Pie is my water baby through and through! She loved it! Boo actually didn't scream the whole entire time we were out there either! He covered his ears when we would start out with the boat, but once he got used to the sound of the prop, he was fine. Little Miss Punky even went in the tube being pulled behind the boat all by herself (of course, she was wearing a life jacket and we pulled the rope in a considerable amount so that she was closer to the boat and my mother-in-law gave her a gentle ride) but I was so proud of her! She learned the hand signals and used them! We could not get Boo into the tube for anything though! The only thing he wanted to do was stay on the boat or jump in the lake like his big brothers were doing off the side of the boat (when we were stopped of course!) It was a great time had by all! Love it!!!

And next Monday or Tuesday, we may even be going to Worlds of Fun. It will be Hubby, me, Natty, JoNo and father-in-law. Mother-in-law will stay in town with Punky and Boo and maybe take them to the Childrens' Zoo. Hopefully this time, no one will get hurt and require glue to put them back together while we are out of state. (Last time it was Punky - who split her eyebrow open and required dermabond to glue it back together)

And then Thursday, we get to meet the kids' teachers at Open House and then the following Tuesday, all three older kids go back to school. Boo doesn't start until Monday the 22nd. I can't wait! I love back to school time. So many fun things to do and new friends for the kids and new school supplies (okay, really, that is one part that I ABSOLUTELY LOVE!)

But I need to end this post now, so that I can try to get my Boo to go to sleep. Goodnight all!

New House Updates

2011-06-21T05:00:00.000-05:00

Well, I have LOTS and LOTS of updates for you all! Where to start? Hmm, maybe with my mom. She is living in her new place full-time and is loving it there. We still have a gazillion projects to do over there yet, but that will come this fall.

Our new place? Well, after a lot of meetings with loan officers and my inlaws and the sellers and such, an earnest deposit has finally been paid on it. I was originally hoping to have a closing date of mid-June, but at this point, it is mid-July. That doesn't leave us much time to get everything done at the current house and cleaned and repaired and such, but it will work - because it has to.

We took my mother-in-law and two of our closest friends to see the new place a few days ago. That was when the deposit was paid as well. I am so excited! And, some of the rooms are bigger than what I had remembered them being (such as the dining room) and there is a built-in storage cabinet that I hadn't noticed last time in the bathroom. And we found out that one of the garden sheds will be staying there after all. There were two of them and they were going to leave one and take the other one apart and move it with them, but have decided it would be more work than what it is worth and so will most likely be leaving it. So yay! I will definitely not turn down additional storage room when we are in the mode of downsizing!

And now, today, I am working on cleaning and packing our living room. I am being very ruthless when it comes to getting rid of things. I don't want to move a bunch of stuff with us. Plus, our financial situation will be much better once we move (to the point of having a few hundred dollars left over every month as opposed to not even being able to make ends meet where we currently live) and we will be able to afford to replace a few items here and there as time goes on. Not to mention the fact that we have enough of well, everything, to set up at least two full, separate households. It's ridiculous. The thrift stores around here are going to LOVE me by the time we are moved to our new place. Either that or they will HATE me, but I think I'll go with the love option instead. I like that one better.

Today's tackle is to get through the living room. So far, I have done one entire wall in here. I have sorted all the stuff that is on our front wall, cleaned off and cleaned out the chairs, flipped them over, cleaned out under them, cleared off my end table, put away paperwork that needed to be filed into the file box I keep under the table. I have a bag of toys that need to go up to the kids' rooms, I have a box of books that I need to sort through. I have a pile of clothes ready for consignment and I have a bag of dirty laundry (Really? In the living room? No idea.) and I have a bag of trash. Oh and a pile of dishes to go into the kitchen. And yep, I'm only 1/3 of the way done with the main part of the living room. It shouldn't take too long though.

The list for the rest of this room:
Fold clothing in totes next to my chair
Put clothing away or pack it
Clear off cedar chest
Pack items on cedar chest
Clear off entertainment center
Pack items on entertainment center
Sort through books on bookshelf
Pack books from bookshelf
Clear off couch
Flip couch over and clean under couch
Clear off Hubby's endtable
Pack items from endtables
Clear off Hubby's desk
Pack items from Hubby's desk
Clear out front closet
Pack items from front closet
Sort through shoes and outerwear
Make pile for consignment store
Vacuum
Carpet clean
Sweep
Mop
Take out trash

That will be my tackle for today. I had planned on doing it yesterday, but other things came up yesterday. I plan to enlist the help from my children and Hubby as well. If we just plug away at it, I think we could have the entire room sorted, packed and cleaned in a matter of just a few hours. Yeah!!!!

(Then on to the basement to deal with the laundry monster. UGH!)

This post is linked up to the following blogs:

REVIEW AND GIVEAWAY TIME!!!

2011-06-05T10:36:00.003-05:00

Hey there everyone! It has been long-awaited, but now it is here! It is giveaway time! But before I tell you about the product that I am giving away, I am going to tell you about the product.

Look at this fit! I love this shot! Taken with Hubby's cell phone b/c my camera is MIA AGAIN!

I had contacted Izzy of Bum-Ware Cloth Diapers about doing a review and giveaway. She sent over two diapers. One for my little Boo and one for one of YOU! We have been using cloth part-time with our kiddos for the last 6 1/2 years. First for JoNo, then Punky and currently for Boo. I say part-time because it depends on who is doing the changing. If Hubby or Mother-in-Law or my mom are the changers, the child almost definitely will go into a sposie, If I'm the one changing, I'm more apt to put the child in cloth because I love cloth!

So, anyhow, we have had this diaper for Boo and have used it quite a bit over the last month and a half. The diaper itself is wonderfully sewn. The stitching and elastic has held up well. The materials that Izzy uses are quality. The diapers are made with hidden elastic around the legs, which works so well for my little guy. If it is serged, then he will sometimes get marks from it rubbing against him, but not with the hidden elastic.

The inner is made of suedecloth, which is one of my favorite materials to use with my kiddos. It really helps to keep their little tush dry. And a dry tush is a non-rashy tush. The outer is made of strong, waterproof PUL, while the inner (hidden) soaker is super-absorbent microfiber. This is even absorbent enough for Boo, who is potty-learning right now and holds his urine until he is ready to just let go.


Sorry for the blur. The boy was jumping up and down to show off his diaper.

It has hook and loop tabs for the closure with laundry tabs sewn in as well. I love this! Not all of our diapers have laundry tabs. If you have ever washed a bunch of a diapers without laundry tabs, you will definitely know the benefit of having these tabs. For one thing, they prevent the diaper chain (one diaper attached to another, to another, to another, so on and so forth). Two, it protects your fabrics as well. That way, the rough part of hook and loop (not sure if that is the hook or the loop) but hopefully you understand what I mean - doesn't tear into the fabric and make it all messy looking either. It also helps to keep the hook and loop free from those little fibers that can get in there and interfere with closing the diaper.

Some additional features that are also available (but which I didn't request) are the ability to add on a doubler for more absorbency. These doublers can be fleece-topped flannel or hemp. And she is also able to do embroidery on the diaper back for extra added cuteness! She has quite a large selection of embroidery options as well.

In all, I grade diapers on the following criteria - fit, craftsmanship, absorbency, cuteness, customer service. Okay, the customer service aspect isn't a direct diaper grade, but in my opinion, the customer service has to be there for me to be a repeat customer. And Izzy is the BEST! I give this diaper a full 5 stars! You did great, Izzy!

And now, one of you lucky readers gets to win one for your little one! The diaper for the giveaway is a BWX AIO. A Bum-Ware eXtreme All-In-One. It is a size Medium (recommended for 10-23 pounds) with Forest Green PUL outer and white microsuede inner. It also includes the fold-back laundry tabs for the hook and loop closure.

To enter to win, you have some options:

Follow this blog on Google Friend Connect (1 entry) - MUST do this first
Visit Bum-Ware and look around. Leave a comment here with what you would choose if you could pick anything from the site (1 entry)
Like Bum-Ware on Facebook (1 entry)
Like this blog on Facebook (1 entry)
Mention this giveaway on your blog with a link back (1 entry)

Additional entries that can be done daily:
Vote for this blog on Top Mommy Blogs (1 per day) (You can click on the button on the right)
Vote for this blog on Picket Fence Blogs (1 per day) (You can click on the button on the right)
Tweet about this giveaway (1 per day)
Mention this giveaway on your facebook page with a link here (1 per day)

This giveaway will remain open from today, Sunday June 5th until Sunday June 19th at 11:59pm Central Time. Lots of time for mulitple entries! And it is very easy to do!

I will ask that you please leave a new comment for each entry and include the link to the post or to your facebook page to make it easier to verify. But be sure to leave a new comment for each qualifying entry.

I wish that each one of you who enters would be able to win one of these diapers, but I only have one to give away. For the rest of you, I highly encourage you to place an order with Izzy today!

The Houses and Other Updates

2011-06-02T22:45:00.001-05:00

If you missed the first two posts that lead up to this post, you can go back and read them here and here. Go ahead. I'll wait. They will even lead you from part one to part two and then back here to part three.

Okay, caught up now? Great! Here we go.

Well, we met with two different loan officers from two different banks on Tuesday about the house that we want to buy for us. The first told us she would get back to us later in the day. The other told us we could expect to hear from them within 24-48 hours. On Tuesday, we had errands galore to run and my mom was babysitting the kids so we left Hubby's phone home with her in case she had an emergency or something. My phone is still dead and gone at this point. So we were just checking in with her from time to time to see how things were going.

Apparently, the first loan officer called on Tuesday and my mom either didn't answer the call or didn't tell us about it or something because we would have definitely returned that call! By the time we got home that night, it was late (like 8:00) and I was exhausted. I begged Hubby to take the kids with him to drop my mom off at her house (she doesn't drive) and he obliged. I think I was asleep before they even left the house. Hubby and kids returned and my Father-in-Law knocked on our door at around 9:00. He woke me up, but I didn't get up. He said that the loan officer had called him when they couldn't get ahold of us and that they wanted us to call them back ASAP. Well, Father-in-Law, I'm pretty sure that they will not be in their offices at 9:00 at night when you pass on this message to us. Oh and he also mentioned that my mom had taken Hubby's phone home with her by mistake. He had tried to call us to tell us about this and he got my mom instead. So Hubby had to leave to go pick up his phone. Thankfully, he waited until the kids were all asleep so that I didn't have to get up.

As it turns out, since I am self-employed, they need copies of my last two years' tax returns to make a decision on my loan. I had them put up, I knew exactly where they were but when Hubby went to get them, he said that he couldn't find them. So I guess we have to request them from the company that prepares them instead. Whatever, it works for us. Today, I get to go pick those up and drop them off with the loan officers.

Hubby had a chance yesterday to go look at the place for my mom and he pretty much agreed with me word for word. A lot of work but worth it. I emailed the lady back and we have to take my mom over to apply to live in the community. There are three people (including us) interested in buying it. Whoever gets approved and has the money available first gets it. I have the money, I just need my mom to be approved first! So that's an important item of business to be completed today.

Okay, I had to take a break from this post because I had to take care of some other stuff. And it is now evening and I have more news to share.

This afternoon, my mom and I ran a few errands. The first of which was to take her to apply to live in the community where her home would be. The manager there asked her if she could afford $250/month for her rent fee, which she assured him that she could.

Then, we went to pick up copies of my last two year's tax information so that I could show my income to the loan officer since I'm self-employed. Then I went to loan officer one and gave her the information she had requested. She asked me a few more questions and said she that she would email her boss with the information and that she would be in touch with me. I don't know anything just yet though.

Then, we went to the second loan officer. He outright said no. That was expected. It was actually what I had anticipated from the first loan officer actually. But she wanted more info, which is definitely not a no. It's more of a maybe.

Okay, so after that, we went to a store so that my mom could look for a present for my little brother, who just graduated this past weekend. We didn't find anything but while we were there, the community manager called and said that mom had been approved, so we went back to my house so I could email the lady about the house.

We get back, I email the lady and relax for a little bit after running around doing those errands. The lady emailed me back with information about where to meet and everything so my mom and I left again and went to the guy's new house. We meet with them (both the contact lady and the guy - the contact lady is kind of like the guy's caregiver more or less) and we get the title signed over and I pay the man and we are ready to go. We hit Sam's Club to pick up some cleaning supplies and then go to Wal*Mart to pick up new locks and a few other things then head back towards her place so she can pay the manager the lot rent. When we get there, he says that she needs to pay a deposit as well. I hadn't even considered the possibility of a deposit but it makes sense, in a way. The only problem is that I just spent a chunk on the trailer itself. I hadn't budgeted in a deposit and my mom definitely doesn't have it. So I ask him if he is able to be at all flexible with the deposit. He says no. So I ask him if we pay the deposit now (with the money my mom had intended for her lot rent), if I could pay the lot rent late. He asks me when that would be. I was actually supposed to be paid yesterday but because of some issues at work, it won't be until tomorrow (Friday or maybe Monday) but I know I will get paid on the 15th as well, so I say the 15th. He said that is fine but she can't move in until the lot rent is paid too. *sigh* So as soon as I get paid from work (this check) I will pay the lot rent and she will be able to move in. But by then, the house will be all clean and ready for it too! So, not exactly a bad thing either!

And the fortunate thing is that we actually have a bit extra to be able to do this for her. I had planned for it to be spent elsewhere, but this is a definite step up for her. And I think it is really worthwhile. I will just have to plan to make those other purchases next month because this month, I'm pretty sure that all my extra cash is depleted. But that's okay. It is worth it.

And hopefully soon, we will find out about the place that we want to buy too! But I figure, buying one home out of two so far isn't too bad! Even if it is the house that needs the most work and it isn't for my own family. But I'm really happy that I was able to help my mom out and that she will once again have her own place to live and be able to work on stability and self-sufficiency again! ♥

That's it for tonight. Will keep you updated as I know more as well.

The Other House

2011-06-01T11:45:00.003-05:00

I had mentioned that I have another house to tell you about in my last post. That house you can see here:

This is a different place that I came across recently. It's a fixer-upper. I am contemplating the option of buying it for my mom. It's in my own personal monthly price range. It would allow her to be independent. She is currently living with a person who is a bonafide and true hoarder (believe me, I have been in the house - she could be on the show!) and really needs her own space. This is a trailer that is centrally located in our city and she would be close to shopping and restaurants, would be on a bus line and a bike path, next to an elementary school where my brother (who is 17 but has developmental issues and really has more of the mindset of an 8-10 year old) could go play on the equipment. It's a quiet neighborhood and I think it is just a good fit. Plus, she can afford it and wouldn't have to live with her current roommate.

This place has a lot of updating to do. And by a lot, I do mean A LOT. But they are (mostly) cosmetic issues and things that could be fixed while she is still living there and most of it can be done inexpensively. There is something going on with the pipe under the kitchen sink. I can handle that myself. I have fixed many a kitchen sink and pipes pertaining to it in my time. It also needs a new stove. We aren't really concerned about that issue at this point though, because my mom only uses a stove in the winter as a means to quickly warm herself. The rest of the time, she uses a microwave, an electric skillet, a toaster and a coffee pot. As long as she has those four things, she is happy. Plus, stoves aren't all that expensive. We could buy one for just a few hundred dollars or keep our eyes out for one on craigslist or even when my in-laws upgrade their stove. But essentially, it is a non-issue.

In the living room, I would want to pull down some paneling and put up some new insulation and drywall. Once again, something that I can do (and HAVE done before) and can do for low cost materials. The carpet will (eventually) need to be replaced as well as the windows and exterior doors/frames. And once again, I can do that work.

The first bedroom is small but needs very little (if anything) done to it. The bathroom has washer/dryer hookups in it so that would be great for my mom. We'd just need to find a set for her...hmm, maybe that set from the couple selling the other house would come in handy after all! The tub needs new trim around the bottom but that's pretty much it for that room. And the back bedroom (the one that would be my mom's) just needs cosmetic work done in there. And maybe new carpeting if we were already working on the carpeting.

The place first and foremost though, needs a good, thorough scrub down. That would be the first order of business. I took my mom by the place yesterday and we both saw it for the first time. It's rough, but could be a real gem. Plus, it could be her's. I'd gladly pay the cost of it and put it in her name and just go from there. There are a few things we want to have checked out first, like the furnace, the hot water heater and the electrical. Just to make sure they are all in good working order and are up to par on current codes. And so that we would know what the cost would be if we needed to make repairs to it (and by we, I mean my mom funds the repairs as it would be her house and I would do the research and hire any specialized people that we would need - I have a few connections that I would put to good use for cheap or free). Gotta love having an electrician in my back pocket!

So that is the second house that I wanted to tell you about. That place is much more likely to happen. Oh, and the really cool/sad thing about it. I have enough furniture in my current house to furnish not only our (possible) new place but also this place COMPLETELY. Absolutely no need to buy ANYTHING for it. My mom would get a matching sofa and chair, a set of end tables and lamps, a TV stand and a desk from us as well as a kitchen table and chairs, a full size bed frame, mattress and box springs, a twin size bedframe, mattress and box springs, a dresser or two, a bookshelf or two and she is set. And we wouldn't miss it. I am actually really hopeful about both places because it would be such a wonderful boost for both my family and for my mom. And I would feel really good knowing that my stuff was going to my mom instead of to someone that I didn't know and know whether or not they really needed it or if they just wanted it. I know that may sound harsh, but that's just my perspective. So here's hoping!

(EDITED to add: You can read the next part here.)

Quite the Absence...

2011-05-31T14:28:00.009-05:00

I hate not blogging. I feel guilty when I stop blogging and generally, it isn't intentional. Life happens and the longer that I am away from it, the harder it is to come back to it. But back I am. And hopefully, I won't have another unplanned hiatus for quite some time.

I thought I had some super exciting news to share with you guys, but I guess I don't really. You see, we recently found a new place to live. Our current place is MUCH too big for our needs and we have a lot of wasted space (as in rooms that we don't even use) and way too much stuff. I hate stuff.

This new house that we found would be a wonderful thing for numerous reasons. For one thing, it is much smaller than our current place (like by half!). Two, it would force us to seriously declutter. Three, the monthly payments on it (plus ALL the utilities!) would be a couple of HUNDRED dollars less than our rent alone in our current place. That equates to more money to do more things and less stress about money in the first place! Four, we would own instead of renting. That part is the major deal for us!

So, we went in to two different banks today. My father-in-law had already said that they would help us out with this (and I tried not to get my hopes up...long history of getting excited about something only to be let down by it later) but he wanted us to go in and apply for the loan on our own. So, we did. We knew that we would be denied (though we haven't yet talked to the lady - but I'm just being realistic here). You see, the cost of the new place is so low that it doesn't qualify for a mortgage, but a large personal loan. Our credit is not favorable. I know that and so does my father-in-law. But whatever, he wanted us to go apply on our own and so that's what we did.

The one loan officer tried to call us back today, but apparently my mom took Hubby's phone home with her (and my phone - well, let's just say that it got dropped and the back and battery both were lost/trampled by a crowd in a small dark room on a Friday night by heavily intoxicated people a few weeks back...but that's another story for another day - or not) So Loan Officer tried to call Hubby but we missed the call b/c my mom had the phone so she called Father-in-Law because we had listed him as closest relative. I figured it made sense to list him because his original plan had been to co-sign with us on the loan or to just take out the loan himself and we just pay it off.

So, Father-in-Law shows up at our door at like 8:00 this evening and tells Hubby that the Loan Officer called him because she couldn't get ahold of us and that when he tried calling us, he got my mom instead. Oh and by the way, he isn't sure about the loan at the moment. (Mind you, he has been CERTAIN about it for the last week and a half since we first mentioned it all to him, even up to the point of being certain about it at 10:00 this morning.) So frustrating. And he goes out of town tomorrow and I work 12 hour shifts tomorrow, Thursday and Friday. He'll be back on Friday night though, so maybe we have a chance at the whole loan thing either Saturday or next Monday. We'll see. Right now though, I feel so defeated about it and disappointed in myself for allowing myself to be excited. :/

But anyhow, do you want to see the pictures of the house? Hear a little bit about it? If for nothing else, I will at least have it on here as a memory of what could have been and a reminder about getting excited about things...

It has two connected living areas, but one (the bottom right) would be used more like an office area. That is the area that you step into when you first walk in the door. The bottom left shows the room you see when you walk in (though that pic was taken from the corner of the kitchen) There is a sliding glass door on the wall behind the couch (it's actually between the back of the couch and the kitchen bar). And then there is the kitchen. It's beautiful. All the appliances stay. It has a newer (WORKING!) dishwasher and a large refrigerator and the stove is a glass flat top too. I have never had one of those. Hubby was super excited about it too because as he said, "It's flat. That means no more tilted pots or pans and unevenly cooked food!" I love that man! He so gets me!

The dining room is just off the kitchen and that front area that you first walk into. It's smaller and I think we might have to get a smaller table for that area or maybe just different chairs. We aren't exactly sure until we try it out. Initially though, we'd make what we have work in the space. And it even has cute little built-in cabinets in the corners. Love the little details in this space!

It has a large bathroom (only 1 compared to the 3 we currently have - most willing to give up 2 bathrooms though!) and the washer/dryer actually go in there - directly opposite of the tub. So when the kids get into the bath at night, their clothes from the day could go directly in and then be washed once all of the kids were bathed too. Talk about convenient (and no more excuses for laundry piled up!) It has a newer furnace and hot water heater too! They even offered to throw in the washer and dryer but since we already own a set ourselves, we passed on that. They will probably pass that on to her middle son instead, which works for us!

Then there are the bedrooms. The bedrooms are tiny, especially compared to the rooms that we all have now. Punky and Boo would still share, Natty and JoNo would go back to sharing. And Hubby and I, well, of course we share! Eventually, though, we'd really love to get a bunkbed for the boys that also has a pull-out trundle bed for Boo to sleep on. It would be the most space-saving option and the boys will have the biggest room anyhow (since there are three of them) and then Miss Punky would have the smallest room (since it would be just her) while Hubby and I would take the middle room (which has a ceiling fan and a custom closet system already in place....droool!) The kids' bedrooms have smallish walk-in closets that would be the perfect size for their clothing and they also have shelving in there too which would work out wonderfully for toy storage as well.

The front porch has a nice swing and the back deck, well, it's kinda plain, but it's bigger than the deck that we currently have and that is a bonus. Also, we could fence in the yard. There is a grove of trees behind the house which I love, but also scares me a little bit because of Boo's wandering. Because of his issues, he wanders a lot. We can pretty well redirect him into something else, but it can be a challenge. Also, because of his issues, there is a program here that would help out with certain things for him. One of which could be respite care for him. It's not a huge issue because we have a pretty decent support base of people already in place if we need that time. And besides, if we had respite for him, that doesn't cover the other three, so really, it would feel like we were singling him out and sending him away (when really he is probably the easiest child of the four to take care of) and it just doesn't feel right. Anyhow, our family coordinator suggested that as an option for him. But when we were talking today, I said, "Ooooh, a fenced-in yard!" because the form was talking about home modifications. I was joking, but she said that I should put it down because it would be a valid request for Boo.

Of course now, we don't even know if we are going to get the place and if I request a fenced-in yard and they grant it and we don't get it, I'm not sure what happens after that. It's kind of confusing. But anyhow, as much as I hate to remain hopeful, there is still a part of me that is. I will be devastated if we aren't able to get this place. We really need it so badly. We cannot afford to stay in the place we are living right now past our lease (which is up July 31st). The new place is just SO affordable. Even with the much smaller space, the fact that we would move to the other side of town, that the kids would have to change schools, that they would be moving away from some great friends that they had (FINALLY!) made in our neighborhood. All of those things are worth it to our WHOLE family (even the kids are supportive of it - though they will miss their friends but the power of the internet will allow them to remain in touch even after we move)

So, that's where that stands right now. Oh, and there's another house that I want to tell you about too. But that will have to wait til tomorrow my friends. Until then, think good thoughts for our family and our ability to get this place, please?

(EDITED to add: You can read Part Two and Part Three by clicking on their links.)

Tackle It Tuesday - Laundry

2011-04-19T12:50:00.000-05:00

This week, my main tackle was keeping up the appearances of the front closet and my newly created workspace near my chair in the living room. The other thing that I worked on was the laundry situation.

I just sorted and folded about six loads (give or take, I kind of lost count) of laundry. And I am happy to report that I have a small box to head to go to the donation drop-off tomorrow, added a few items to a box that I'm preparing for a friend's son, and added a number of items to both our spring/summer consignment box and to the fall/winter consignment box. Yay for getting rid of stuff! I still have a lot more to go though!

The other major thing that I worked on this past week was our garage. My mom came over again in the past week to spend some more time going through her things out there. We had our double driveway lined with things to go to the dump this morning when the garbage truck came by. It was great! But it was also highly addictive. Hubby had to convince me to come back into the house because I just wanted to keep going. I was so excited about the progress that we were making and I just wanted to keep going. The change out there is just astounding to me. We think that by next Tuesday, we will be able to park both vehicles in the garage. It has been such a long time since we were able to park both vehicles in the garage that it will seem weird to actually use it. I think I could handle it though!

Outdoor Furniture from Pier 1

2011-04-19T09:02:00.001-05:00

This is a Sponsored post written by me on behalf of Pier 1 for SocialSpark. All opinions are 100% mine.

March 20th was the actual start of Spring 2011. We are gearing up for spring and summer weather and I am so looking forward to being able to sit outside and watch the kids run around and play while I sip a tall glass of sweet tea! It's the life I tell ya!

But we don't yet have any outdoor furniture. We have a spot that I'd like to transform in our yard to be able to have a table and chairs for outdoor evening enjoyment.

I was excited to see that Pier 1 has their outdoor furniture in stock, both on their website and in the stores! Since I am in the mode to start looking at outdoor furniture, I was able to look through and see all of the different things that they have available.

Things like this:

I can totally see myself using this at our annual Independence Day block party to wheel our drinks and side dish contributions down the block to our neighbor's house, while back at the house, my family is relaxing in these chairs:

and eating around this table:

I mean, seriously doesn't that just look fantastic? And maybe add these cushions to the chairs too:

Yes, that looks quite nice indeed. Although I must admit, I am totally in love with this option for seating as well! What do you think? Isn't this the greatest look?

Pair up some of those options to create your own custom outdoor sectional! I don't think I'd ever want to go back indoors with furniture like that outside. And the beauty of it all - many of their outdoor pieces are outdoor/indoor pieces, so you could use them outside during the warmer months and then bring them in during the cooler months and continue to use them! Love it!

Have you seen their Papasan chairs? Seriously cool stuff. They even have a a Papasan swing! Who has ever heard of something like that? Check it out! They call it a Swingasan. Love it! All of the cozy comfort of a Papasan but in a swing. I could definitely see myself snuggling up in this with a book and falling asleep in the warm sun this spring time! Can't you just picture it? Bliss, I tell ya! Just bliss!

I hope that this has given you some ideas for decorating for the spring and summer months as well! What is your favorite item from the website? Leave a comment with your favorite item. I plan to do an outdoor feature post sometime within the next few weeks and would love to see your spaces as well! Check out Pier 1 for some great ideas for your yard this season as well!

Also, check Pier 1 Tweetups to see when it will be in your area.

Another Shameless Brag!

2011-04-16T20:46:00.000-05:00

So my oldest child, he knows how to make me eat humble pie or crow or however you would like to phrase it. And I respect him a little more each time he does it, to be honest.

The other night, I sent the three older kids up to bed. Boo was already asleep. He fell asleep on the couch at 4pm and I was sure it was going to be a LONG night up with him. (It wasn't by the way, he slept through til 4am).

Our bedtime rule is that once the kids are upstairs in their rooms, they are to be silent. Not quiet. SILENT. If I can hear them in the living room, they are definitely NOT being silent. And I could hear Natty talking.

I called up to him a reminder of the rules, he apologized and said he would do better, but soon after that, I heard him talking again. I call up a second reminder. He apologizes again. The third time, I tell him to come back downstairs. He comes down and Punky is with him.

I tell her to go back up to her room and precede to lecture the boy. He apologizes again and says in his defense, "I was reading to Punky. She likes me to read her a bedtime story before she goes to sleep. And reading out loud is good for me to do, because it helps me to read faster."

Awwww. Okay, no punishment. Send both back up to their rooms.

Next night the same thing happens. Exactly the same thing. Except he calls down and tells me that he's reading to Punky and JoNo both. Hmmmm. Okay, fine. Finish the story and then go to bed. All goes well.

The third night, same scenario and then after they are supposed to be in their own rooms, I hear Punky and Natty talking. Story time was over. There was to be no talking. I call up to them for them both to come down. Punky comes down with a huge smile on her face. "Natty brushed'ed my hair for me. It's so beautiful now!" as she twirls to make her hair fly out.

"And this way it won't be so tangled in the morning."

Okay, back up to your rooms, you two.

Granted, all of this happens between 8:30 (their "up to bed" time) and 9:00 (the latest point that they are allowed to have lights on) so technically, they are still within the rules, sort of. They have hit on a grey area of the rules and I figure, well, they are getting along, working together, helping each other, I'll let it go.

And you know what? It's worked out so well. Bedtime has been a no stress event. And all three of the older kiddos are developing a stronger bond with each other. I can't fault that. :)

Last night, I had a late night working in our garage with my mom. (I really should remember to get before pics when we work out there but I never remember to) and then this morning, I was really tired. I slept in until shortly after Boo got up. I got up and went out to the den to head up to the kitchen/living room level of our house and Natty says, "Go back to bed, Mom. I got this. I fed my siblings breakfast and they are playing quietly in the living room."

Which of course, makes me worry just a teeny tiny bit. Because well, when I was ten, if I told my mom to go back to bed, I was trying to hide something. I went upstairs anyhow. He was correct though. The younger three were playing quietly in the living room with toys and he was in the kitchen, doing a surprise clean in there. Awww! Such a thoughtful boy he is!

An hour later when Hubby wakes up for the day, the same scenario ensues. Except that Natty tells Hubby that I am up and am watching them. But Hubby doesn't go back to bed either. He sees the work that Natty has done in the kitchen and we are both pleased with him.

We offer him the option of choosing whatever he wants to have for dinner and dessert for the evening. His choice? "Grilled cheese sandwiches! And can I make them?" We have a panini maker. I think that he can make them on there easily enough. With supervision of course. So that is the plan for tomorrow night. Natty's "reward" for his thoughtfulness and unselfishness on a Saturday morning is to make grilled cheese sandwiches for the family for Sunday dinner. And so therefore, that is why I had to do another shameless brag about this child!

Taken last October at JoNo and Boo's joint birthday party. My silly, sweet, thoughtful boy. My NattyNu!

Boo

2011-04-14T23:31:00.005-05:00

I have been debating with myself about posting about Boo. You see, there is just so much that we are still learning and discovering about our sweet boy and his educational diagnosis of PDD-NOS.

PDD-NOS is the acronym for Pervasive Developmental Delay - Not Otherwise Specified. PDD-NOS is sometimes included on the Autism Spectrum but not always. And even though he does have PDD-NOS, we have not been told that he has Autism. It's kind of a weird, confusing thing to me actually.

But to explain what he does have and how we have gotten to where we are right now, I'll go through the basis of his history. When he was born (at 39 weeks via scheduled c-section) he was not breathing. The umblical cord was tied in a knot. Much like the knot you make when you are tying something. Just a simple knot. But a knot that was cutting off vital oxygen and blood to him. We were told that had we scheduled the c-section for later than we had, he could have died. As it was, he wasn't breathing and had to be resuscitated and given blow-by oxygen. I didn't get to see him for three hours. It was horrible. They got him to breathing well on his own and by the sixth hour (I believe it was around that time) he was able to stay in my room with me. Prior to that, he had been able to come in but had to go back for further monitoring. His apgars were something like 2,9,9. The only thing he had going for him during that first set of apgar scoring was his heartbeat. That's it.

He recovered well from his birth and was a nursing pro. When he was just shy of three months old, he began having bowel and reflux issues. We thought maybe it was just reflux. We took him to a doctor who deals specifically with nursing babies and allergies/intolerances. She diagnosed him with MSPI (milk, soy protein intolerance), so those things were eliminated from my diet. But he still was not getting better, so we eliminated more and more things. Eventually, I went on TED, the Total Elimination Diet. I was able to only eat turkey or lamb, baked or boiled potatoes, sweet potatoes, rice or millet, squash, pears, and pear juice. That's not a lot of options. It was hard, but I did it. After two weeks' time, I was able to add items back in one at a time (much like you do when you are introducing solids to your baby for the first time) and then had to watch him to see if he began reacting to it. What we were able to determine was that he had intolerances to not only milk and soy but also to beef, eggs, nuts, hmm, there were more things but now I cannot remember them... Eventually (around 7-9 months of age), he was able to tolerate most of those foods in my diet in small quantities. He stopped nursing around 9 months old and we had him on a soy-based formula, then switched to regular formula. He began babbling and even saying a few words by a year old. Around 13 months though, he started reacting to something again, and at that point, we eliminated all of the foods we knew he had issues with prior to that. We even had him on goat's milk for awhile because he seemed to tolerate that but eventually, he began reacting to that as well, so we switched to rice milk for him instead. It was around this time that his world went silent. He didn't talk or babble anymore, but he was also learning to crawl and so we thought maybe his energies were tied up in mastering this feat. More and more though, he withdrew and after awhile, he wouldn't make eye contact either. He didn't play with the other kids, didn't really even acknowledge them. We made an appointment with his pediatrician.

His pediatrician ran a battery of tests to try to determine a physiological reason for his delays and regression. But there wasn't a physiological one. He referred us to our city's public school program.

At 19 months old, he had his first evaluation with the school system, at which point, he was diagnosed with PDD-NOS. Basically, PDD means across-the-board developmental delay. He was behind in EVERYTHING. From social and play skills to cognitive abilities to gross and fine motor skills. He had learned to walk just one week prior to the evaluation. The NOS part of the diagnosis means that there isn't a physiological explanation for it.

So, we started services. We had a wonderful home teacher, Jane, who came out about once a week to work with us and Boo and he gained quite a bit of ground while we worked with her. We worked with Jane from May 2009 until October 2010, when Boo enrolled in a traditional classroom setting.

We had two options for his classroom. One was more of an ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) format, where most of the children have IEPs (Individual Education Plans) with a few peer models thrown in for balance. The other was basically an inversion of the first. Mostly peer models with a few kids who have IEPs. We chose the second one, feeling that it would be of the most benefit to the boy.

He has done wonderfully! He is still behind quite a bit socially but is catching up. His motor skills are just minimally behind, his play skills are also still fairly behind but we have seen some recent improvements in that as well.

For instance, we went to a classmate's birthday party a couple of months ago and the main activity was bowling. The event was slated to start at 11:00 sharp. We got there a few minutes prior but waited in the car until a few minutes before 11:00. We went inside and I let him run loose around the alley with the other kiddos (it was a confined area at a fun center and we were the only party in there). We didn't actually get started until around 11:15. That is a LONG time to wait for something fun to happen in Boo's world and I was fully prepared for the meltdown that I was pretty sure that would happen, but it didn't.

We started out on lane four, as you can see. The guy is the birthday boy's father. He was helping the kids bowl down the lanes (and we had bumpers for the kiddos too.) Boo was in a lane with two little girls that we didn't know. I think they were family or family friends, not classmates.

He had a hard time waiting for his turn to bowl, though no meltdowns there either. At one point, our lane broke. I don't know what the deal was, but of course, it was Boo's turn. I had just spent the last two kids' turns telling him that it was almost his turn and when we finally got up there, he got his ball and I had to stop him. "Not yet, Boo. The lane isn't ready. They are going to fix it though." So, he stood there patiently and my heart grew with pride about how well my little Boo Buddy was waiting. He stood there and held that 8 pound bowling ball for a full five minutes (it felt like an hour to me!) until they decided that the lane was unfixable and then worked us into another lane that already had three kids bowling in it.

And the kicker? He went from it being his turn to having to wait for FOUR children to bowl before it was his turn again. So in all, he had to wait for TWO children, then for a broken lane repair attempt, readjust to the new lane and then had to wait for FOUR more children to bowl. That was kind of difficult to explain to him. It was supposed to be HIS turn after all. But he took it in stride.

I think this is what helped. His little friend from school, Miss H. Isn't she a doll? So, I got to talking with Miss H's mom and she was telling me that H talks about Boo at home and I just stood there. Because while Boo talks, he doesn't exactly tell stories about things that he has done, people that he knows. All of his communication is in the moment or the immediate past (i.e. "Punky hit my back!" as he tattles on his sister, and even that has been a recent development).

I love this picture of Boo. I think it is probably one of his best. This is one that is going to go into our portfolio this year for his school. We have to make a portfolio of some of the family activities and things that we have done with him.

And then lastly, a shot of Boo with two of his classmates.

One really recent development with Boo has been in his communication. Although he doesn't really talk much about things that he has done, seen or experienced, I try to prompt him for information. After school one day recently, I asked him if he had played with Master C (the birthday boy in the above photos) and our conversation went like this:

Boo: "No. I play wif [Master M],"
Me : "You played with [Master M]?"
Boo: "Yes. I play wif [Master M]."
Me: "What did you play with [Master M]?"
Boo: "We play cars. Vroooooooom!"
Me: "You played cars with [Master M]! That sounds like fun. Was it fun?"
Boo: "Yes. Fun play cars wif [Master M]!"

That was the longest "conversation" we had ever had. It still might be.

I just love the way he talks! He has some really unique ways of saying things and he is very obsessed with letters and numbers. Some examples of Boo's language:

"Open hand!" This is said when someone is holding his hand or arm to keep him from running off. Instead of saying "let go", his command is "open hand". It would get the same result if obeyed, but is just a different way of saying it.

"Mommy, you home. I home." This is what he says to express that he missed me while I was at work. It doesn't matter if we are in our house or if I am picking him up from Grandma's or whatever. If he missed me, this is what he says. He also says this to express love. It's a situational phrase.

"Mommy, I find your blue!" He says this as he runs to me, holding either my (blue) phone or my (blue) camera. I tell him, "thank you Boo, for finding my blue phone!" He will look at me and say, "Blue phone!" and I will hold it up for him to look at and then repeat the phrase.

"Can I cars, please?" He just said this a moment ago. He wanted to go play with his cars, but he doesn't always use verbs in his sentences, so we give him permission as we rephrase his question, "Yes Boo, you may go play with cars."

He knows all of his alphabet letters on sight and can put the alphabet in order when using manipulatives. He also knows his numbers by sight up to 19 and can count up to 49 now. He also rote spells his name, his sister's name, JoNo's name (well, an abbreviation of JoNo's name but says it as the full name), as well as Mom and Dad. He does get stuck when spelling Dad or just refuses to spells it.

His Magna Doodle Jr. is his best play toy. I keep that in his backpack at all times if possible. No matter where we are or what we are doing, I can almost always get him back on task (or at least out of a meltdown) by using this toy to practice letters or numbers. He also knows the sound that each letter makes. He will spend quite a while "reading" letters off of signs or walls or whatever he can find. He loves it! A while back, I was dropping him off at church and he sat down and started "reading" the wall. "J-E-S-U-S-L-O-V-E-S-Y-O-U" It's all just one big long word to him, although he does recognize the words as separate items when I am reading to him.

And that is Mr Boo in a (VERY large) nutshell. He is such a joy to have around and to experience life with. The world is such a different place from his prospective. I love seeing things from his point of view. ♥ ♥ ♥

I am also going to link this up to Company Girl Coffee and

Tossed It Tuesday - April 12

2011-04-12T23:54:00.002-05:00

First of all, I want to give a little shout-out to Violet for her wonderful encouragement on this weekly post! It seems that she and I have been trading off weeks where we have a lot to post about.

Well, since last week, I have gone back to the consignment shop and paid my consignor's fee and am now ready to start taking over loads and loads of kids' clothes! Yay! So, you will see my box total each week for the consignment shop.

We rearranged our living room this past weekend and as a result, we had lots of miscellaneous items that we were able to get rid of. I don't even know what all left the house because as soon as I came across something that needed to leave but wouldn't fit into a trash bag, a child was summoned to take the item directly to the trash outside. There was absolutely no "make a pile until there's more to go out" for this project. Lots and lots of stuff went out.

Then, last night (because Tuesday is our trash day) my mother came over to continue going through her stuff that is stored in our garage. We also went through a lot of our stuff that is stored in the garage. I got rid of a LOT of stuff. I don't know what exactly all I threw away because honestly, I didn't look all that closely. My main plan with going through the items was to look for the one or two items in each box/container/whatever that was worth keeping around (if there was anything worth keeping around) and the rest of the box got pitched. I gave myself about 30 seconds per box. It doesn't take all that long to look through an item to see what is worth keeping. The thing that took the longest amount of time was books (we LOVE books around here and kept more than we tossed) and clothes (because of the whole consignment situation!).

In the end, out on our curb was:

our two regular trashcans, plus another trashcan with our yard waste
an endtable/microwave cart/stand type piece of furniture
an old smaller television that actually belongs to my mom
some old broken or just worn down toys of the kiddos
an old lamp that no longer works
and probably about 10 boxes of useless junk

We also got rid of three boxes of recyclables. Yay for purging stuff that we don't really need in our house or in our life!

Tackle It Tuesday - Shaklee Style

2011-04-12T09:09:00.003-05:00

This week, we did a number of tackles. We tackled our living room and re-arranged it while also going through a bunch of "stuff" that was in it. At the moment, it is slightly messy due to kids and well, living in the room, but it will be cleaned up as soon as I am done with this post.

Our living room is long and rectangular and has a bank of windows on one side that make it difficult for some arrangements. Also, we have three vents in the room, which we try to not to cover up with furniture. We have a dog that covers the vents enough as it is.

So, here is what the room looked like before:

The main problem with this layout is the corner where the chair is. Stuff would get stuck back there and it was difficult to get to without pulling the chair out. I was getting tired of having to do that. Plus both the dog and Boo loved to hang out behind the chair (next to the vent) so there were a myriad of issues with that there.

Another was the entertainment center. The couch sat in front of the bank of windows and we would get a horrible glare on the TV if we had the windows open, which we didn't very often because it made watching TV up here nearly impossible.

The area behind the other chair (closest to our entry way on bottom right) often was the spot where we would put things that needed to leave the house, which makes sense. But it also often made it look cluttered and messy and let's face it, you open the door and that is the FIRST thing you see, followed by the entertainment center.

So, we changed it. The couch went to where the entertainment center was, one of the tables went with it, the entertainment center went to where the small bookshelf was, the small bookshelf went next to the door, and the two chairs and one table scooted in towards the middle of the window bank to balance out that side of the room. The cedar chest also got transplanted next to the entertainment center, instead of being used as a coffee table.

So now it looks like this:

Personally, I'd prefer to have the tall bookshelf on the wall next to the entertainment center, but Hubby says no to that for now. Plus that bookshelf may soon end up in our bedroom anyhow, so it's kind of a non-issue anyways.

And now, the small bookshelf next to the entryway is for our shoe storage, instead of having the shoes on the rectangular linoleum area that you all have seen before here. And that was okay, but it just didn't stay neat. And I am not about to spend 5 minutes ten or so times each day, straightening up the shoes. It's just not my thang. Yes, I said thang. No, it was not a typo. So anyhow, that's why the small bookshelf is over by the door. It is called the small bookshelf because it's short. Lower shelf, upper shelf and then top of the set. Three levels total. Lower shelf is generally used for kiddo shoes. The shelf has an open back and allows the vent to shoot air through it. The upper shelf is for more of the overflow shoes. The top of the unit is used for the things that need to leave the house. It can still look messy, but it still looks better than having the stuff sit on the floor behind the chair. Much better!

Then this weekend, I traveled to Erin's house to try out some Shaklee products. So, as of now, she and I are no longer online friends. We are in real life friends! Yay! So, anyhow, I came home Saturday night to a mess that Hubby left for me from his preparation of the family's supper. (I ate at Erin's house that evening. Thanks again Erin and Dusty!) The house was empty when I got home. Hubby had arranged for the kiddos to spend the night at Grandma's house and he had gone to his friends' house for the evening, so there I was with a stove looking like this:

Yummy right? Inviting? Wanna come over for dinner right about this point? If that isn't bad enough for you, try removing the burner and the drip tray. Just for fun. However, if you have a queasy tummy, I'd suggest looking away right now. Because I removed the burner and the drip tray and this is an example of what was below.

Yeah, um, gross. Just sayin'. I have no idea what it is or how it gets down there, but I *do* know that I don't like it and I had an idea that my handy dandy bottle of Shaklee's H2 would clear that issue right up, so I decided it was time to give it a try. I sprayed a generous portion of the H2 into the areas below the drip trays. Yes, our style of stove can lift up, but it is screwed shut and one of the screws is stripped, so I can't do it the easy way.

I let it set for a few minutes, just so it could do its thang under there and then I got busy and cleaned all the gunk out. It took several swipes and a few paper towels (sorry, but my nice microfiber was NOT going in THERE!) and then it was done. The end result?

Okay, let's do the before and after thing now:

I also took the time to do my microwave (inside and out), my fridge (inside and out) and my freezer (inside and out). It was awesome! I love the H2! I also have a bottle of the Basic G to try out in the bathrooms, but I haven't made it in there just yet. I was more concerned about the kitchen at that point.

I am sold though! As soon as my check situation at work gets figured out and settled, I am DEFINITELY going to be ordering my own shaklee! And then you can sign up to become a member under me as well! Doesn't that sound AWESOME?! I think it does! And besides who wouldn't want to transform their icky yucky stove from the before picture to the after picture? Seriously? My stove SHINES now. It truly does!

And that was my main level tackle for this past week. Phew! I'm exhausted! Even if Hubby was the one that did all of the work, except the kitchen cleaning. But I am so happy with the results!

Menu Plan Monday - 4.11

2011-04-11T21:41:00.000-05:00

Last week was terrible about the menu plans. I honestly have no clue what we ate most nights and it worked out, but man, do I ever prefer to have at least a guideline AND follow it!

This week our menu includes:

Monday

beef roast with mashed potatoes and gravy

Tuesday

pork ribs

Wednesday

grilled cheeseburgers

Thursday

chicken stirfry

Friday

homemade pizzas

Saturday

kids choice

Sunday

company's choice

It should be good! I don't know why I try to plan for Sundays usually. For lunch we always have sandwiches, something just quick and easy for the purpose of getting something to eat after church and before the littles' nap time. And then for supper time, 9 Sundays out of 10, we have company over and we usually try to coordinate with what they want to eat. Saturday lunches are usually something Hubby fixes for the kids and we eat leftovers and Saturday nights, the kids choose to have a light supper so that they can have more junk food during our movie night. Saturdays are kind of the fly by the seat of our pants day of the week. We just never know for sure (until Friday night) what we plan to do on Saturday.

Ultimate Blog Party 2011

2011-04-05T23:12:00.000-05:00

For the very first time ever, I am joining in on the Ultimate Blog Party excitement! So, here we go!

I am Deanne, a mother to four children, who I affectionately named NattyNu (age 10), JoNo (age 7), PunkyPie (age 4), and Boo (age 3) for the internet. I have been married to my wonderful husband, Hubby, for 10 1/2 years now and am incredibly grateful for everything he does for our family.

I am a busy lady. I work as a housecleaner Monday-Friday and have a very "flexible" (read: unstable) ending time each day. Some days I am home by 2pm, other days, I'm not home until after 6pm. It's hard on me and I cannot imagine how hard it is on the family to never know when to expect me home.

I am also a CNA and wanting to get back to doing that as soon as I possibly can. Not that I don't love my job, but okay...so I really don't love my job. lol I also want to go back to school and finish my degree in Business Administration with an Accounting focus, but first I have to make sure that I am doing my part to make ends meet at home.

I also work out of my home as a crafter (I have an Etsy shop with a few items in stock - more as soon as I get around to taking photographs and listing the items!) and I also sell Tupperware and am looking to possibly start selling Shaklee as well in the near future.

I am a kind of crunchy mama. I believe in being as green as possible, we use cloth diapers at least part-time (Hubby and MIL prefer sposies and that's okay too - we do what works best for all of us - and this is how it has been for the last, oh, six years or so in the diapering department). I also try to use safe, homemade cleaners as often as possible. I want to be able to have any of my children help with the cleaning without worrying about the chemicals that they may end up having on their skin. (That is kind of part of a big reason behind wanting to become a Shaklee distributor.)

I have recently been working to lose weight by making better food choices (not dieting because dieting is temporary and I want this to be a lifestyle change that will be forever) and getting more exercise. So far, I am down 30 pounds over the last two months and I am very excited about that! I still have about another 60 to go, but already I am feeling better and overall, healthier.

My blog here is a cross between a mommy blog and a niche blog for cleaning/organizing and crafting. I tried doing multiple blogs before and you can see them if you click on my picture and go to my profile, but I tend to just be more of a one-blog kind of girl, with the exception of one blog that I am a contributor to.

Hmmm, I am trying to think of what else there is to tell you all, but I can't really think of anything, so if you have questions, feel free to ask! I'm pretty much an open book. Glad to have you visit! And if you'd like, follow me via Google Friend Connect and like my blog on Facebook. I will start hosting giveaways when I hit 25 followers on here. And considering that I am a crafter (a knitter and scrapbooker to be exact) AND sell Tupperware AND plan to sell Shaklee AND will be reviewing products from time to time as well (not too often because I don't want this blog to become all about reviews - they can get kind of old when that's all you see in feed reader), there are a LOT of possibilities for giveaways! So, come on in, sit down with a cup of tea (instant with artificial sweetener is my current choice) and have a nice read. Leave some comment love here and there so that I can check your blog out as well!

Until next time...

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-04-05T00:00:00.013-05:00

This week for Tackle It Tuesday I tackled my lower level bathroom. I don't have a before picture, but let me describe it this way - I live with four males and one of them is potty training. And it seems that none of them can actually hit the target. Just sayin'.

So, I started with my shower. I sprayed some straight vinegar on my shower door to help tackle the hard water and soap scum build up and let it sit. Then I moved on to the mirror and used the same straight vinegar there and wiped it dry with a microfiber cloth.

Then, I moved down to the sink and sprayed an all-purpose cleaner into it and scrubbed it down really well. I used an old toothbrush to get between the faucet and the sink itself and really scrubbed it out well. Then I wiped it all out with a second microfiber cloth. After doing that, I used my first microfiber from the mirror and shined up the faucet and the knobs and the drain stopper thingie. Because that is what it is called, right? A drain stopper thingie? The vinegar and the microfiber together really makes it all shiny and nice.

Then I cleared off the toilet and picked everything up off of the floor. I think it was something like 6 bottles of shampoo and conditioner and other things, plus a large container of laundry detergent. Doesn't everyone keep a large bottle of laundry detergent in their bathroom? And then I cleared off the little shelf we have hanging above the toilet and straightened it up and made it look nice and neat.

Then it was time to tackle the toilet. I'm sure you all know how to clean a toilet, but bear with me. I sprayed the entire toilet down with the all-purpose spray, tank lid, tank sides, top of toilet lid, underside of toilet lid, top of toilet seat, underside of toilet seat, toilet rim, inside of the bowl (and then a little bit of powder in the bowl), then sprayed the outside of the toilet base, being sure to get the area by the bolts that hold the toilet to the floor. Then I started wiping it off with a large terry cloth towel. I like to use barmop towels personally because of their large size, but you could use a standard 12x12 terry cloth cleaning towel as well. But anyhow, I used my barmop towel and began wiping in the same order as I did the spraying, down to the toilet rim part, then I used my toilet brush and cleaned the inside really well. Then I finished up with the toilet rim and the outside of the bowl, all the way down to the floor.

The floor area in our bathroom is very small so it is more trouble than it is worth to try to use a mop in there, plus our toilet is not placed squarely in there either, so it's a very tight space between the side of the toilet and the wall anyhow. So, I just used my all-purpose spray and sprayed the floor on that side of the toilet and hand-wiped it while I was hanging over the toilet to get the area by the bolts cleaned on that side. I then worked my way from the wall behind the toilet to the wall in front of the toilet and then worked my way around the toilet. I used a thin line grout brush to get the area around the bottom of the toilet and let me assure you, it was DIS-GUST-ING. Blech! Then I continued hand wiping the remainder of the floor area. Oh - and in case it wasn't clear, I used the same rag for the toilet and the floor. Because honestly, the floor is much worse than the toilet 'round these parts. You could use a separate rag if you wanted to though.

For the finishing touches in the bathroom, I also shined up the handle of the toilet with my mirror microfiber cloth as well as the toilet paper holder and the switch plate. Then put things back into the bathroom neatly. The only thing left to do was to finish the shower.

Normally, I would have done the shower completely in one shot, but because of the hard water and soap scum, I wanted to give the vinegar some time to cut through it and break it all down. One warning though - when I opened the shower door to clean it, the vinegar smell assaulted my nostrils. It was a little bit overwhelming at first. It won't hurt you, but it is powerful.

I used a steel wool scratchy on my shower door - I don't think my shower door is glass, but it might be. But I used that scratchy on my shower door until it looked pretty decent. It always looks clearer when it is wet than it does when it is dry though. I then wiped the door with the mirror cloth. Then I sprayed down the inside of the shower itself and scrubbed it all really well and then dried it off with the same cloth I used for the sink, and then finished by shining the metal in the shower - the shower head, the shower knob, the shower door handle and the piece that holds the shower door on. Not sure what to call that piece though.

The one thing I realized that I missed when I was done was the window and blinds. I should have used a dry microfiber to dust the blinds before starting the toilet and then cleaned the window with the straight vinegar and mirror cloth and then dusted the window ledge with the dry cloth as well. But oh well, it's definitely in much better shape now than it was before I did it.

And that my friends, is how I clean our tiny bathroom.

Using this method, it took me all of maybe 15 minutes to clean the bathroom. Do you have 15 minutes available to kick your bathroom into tip top clean shape? I bet you do!

Also, I will be linking this up to Works For Me Wednesday at We Are THAT Family.

Tossed It Tuesday - April 4

2011-04-05T00:00:00.010-05:00

I don't have much to report about things tossed out this week. There's a few items and I will list them, but what I want to talk about is something else that I came across yesterday as well.

Okay, so my list first:

Punky's old plastic play kitchen
Three boxes worth of paper recycling
One box worth of cardboard recycling
One bag worth of glass recycling

And for the other part - the thing that I wanted to share? I stopped in at a newer consignment shop here in our city yesterday to find out about their consignment program. Turns out, it has some really awesome things going on and two minor not so good things going on. I'll start with the no so good things. The first part is that it costs $12 to consign for 120 days. Not horrible, but not great either. But probably cheaper than listing things on ebay and still something that I'm willing to do.

Second thing is the consignment ratio payout. The shop gets 60% while the consignor gets 40%. Not the greatest payout, but when I take into consideration the fact that they do all of the work (and their overhead costs and the fact that it gets the stuff out of my house super easily, well, it's worthwhile to me, I think.)

Now for the good parts - all I have to do is wash it (which I would do regardless), toss it into a box (therefore, no need to go back to pick up my container) and drop it off. They do EVERYTHING else. They will sort though the stuff, keep what will work and either have me come pick up the items that won't work or they will donate it to the homeless mission here and they also take care of the tagging and pricing and marketing of the items. If there are certain items that I want to have back, then they will make sure I get them back if they either choose not to sell the item or if the item does not sell within 120 days. It's a very cool deal. Right now, they are taking clothes for spring/summer and in three months, they will be taking fall/winter clothes as well. And if I take clothes in as late as day 119 from the first date of consignment, then I will have 120 days from day 119 to have the items sell as well for no extra charge. I hope that makes sense. LOL!

And the best part, it gets it out my house super quick and easy. And doing this supports a local business, which is something that I feel strongly about. And if the items don't sell, then they will go to a charity that I think is worthwhile as well. So, in my opinion, it's a win-situation all around.

So very soon I will be getting more and more items out of here and it will be well worth it!

Small Things - April 1st and 4th

2011-04-04T15:24:00.001-05:00

Even though I was on a blogging hiatus, I did still read blogs while I was gone - well, a few of them anyhow. And Home Sanctuary is one of the ones that I continued to follow. I just wasn't sure when I was going to get back to posting about my participation in her Small Things. But today seems like as good a day as any!

On Friday, which also happened to be April 1st, we were supposed to do something silly. Only one thing. Well, I'm going to count my day at work as being silly because I was a) sleep-deprived and b) hyped up on caffeine and no-calorie sweetener. I don't know what could make me more silly than that to be honest. I had my trainer, myself and trainee cracking up. It was crazy silly fun.

We were to receive 40 points for doing something silly and then an additional 10 points for sharing about it, so 50 points for Friday.

Then today, we were to take a damp cloth and wipe whatever you can with it until you run out of moisture. When you run out of moisture you are done! I did this in the kitchen. I got our counters wiped down, the stove top, the fridge front, the sink and the front of the dishwasher. I even got the small appliances and the primary knickknacks wiped off as well, such as our One Touch canister set (like this one here) and some of the other things we have set out full time on our counters.

So, there was an additional (and EASY!) 40 points! So, now I am up to 90 points for the month!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-04-04T12:48:00.001-05:00

I have been absent for a bit and so has my menu planning. But I'm back and so is my menu planning. So here goes!

Leftover burgers from grilling out this weekend (I had 20 patties made up and we still have about half of them left over)
Lasagna
Hamburger and noodles (Kind of like Hamburger Helper, except not out of a box)
Enchiladas with beans and rice
Breakfast for dinner (pancakes, eggs, sausage)
Grilled pork chops
Salad bar

So there you have it. This is the plan for our meals for this week.

Unintended hiatus

2011-04-03T12:31:00.000-05:00

Well, as you may have realized, I have been absent from the blogging world again for the last two (and a couple of days) weeks. But I have a really good excuse - at least I think I do. :) I started a new job on St. Patrick's Day. I'm cleaning houses for a living now. It's intense. It's fast-paced, thorough and after the first two days, I was fairly sure I was going to die.

Floors are all done by hand on your hands and knees. No brooms and mops here. As a result, my knees have been incredibly sore and my wrists have been acting up quite a bit. Tendonitis and working on hands and knees don't exactly go together real well.

But just the same, I have been plugging away at it. And I'm doing really well at work. At home, ehm, not so much. That's the one major drawback. I work so hard during the daytime and then by the time I get home, I am often so worn out and exhausted that I don't want to do a thing around here. Plus, since I spend all day cleaning homes, I'm kind of used to a certain level of cleanliness now that the house is just not living up to. It will eventually though. I just need to be able (and willing!) to thoroughly clean one room each day after work. If I do that, then it will be much improved. I just have not had the desire to do more work each day.

Also, I am planning on sharing a few tips with you all that I have picked up from work. I can't share all of it though, because well, there are policies and everything...but some stuff I already knew and do at home anyhow (when I'm not dead tired from work!). So look forward to that in a future post.

I am also excited because this next weekend, I am going to finally get a chance to visit a new(-ish) blog friend, Erin and finally get a chance to try out some Shaklee products as well! The company I work for uses green products, but I'm wanting to try out Shaklee because I think that their products are going to be even better than the ones that we use at work.

Also, during my blog absence, I was given my first blog award from faithful reader Patty.

As a recipient of this award, I am supposed to list 7 things about myself that someone may not know from reading this blog. Yikes! Which part of my life do I want to ~~scare you all with~~ share with you all? Well, here goes...

1. I am thinking about possibly opening a home daycare again. I need to look into the requirements and get all those things worked out, but I'm seeing it as a definite possibility.

2. I am really a private person. I bet you all would never realize that, given the frequency of the posts and the amount of stuff I talk about and share, but it's true. I'm actually really timid until someone gets to know me.

3. I am seriously addicted to sweet tea. Instant tea with artificial sweetener to be exact. LOVE the stuff! And I will easily go through a full jar of it each week if I allow myself to. Which I try not to, because I don't really need that much caffeine and artificial sweetener isn't really that good for you either.

4. I am starting to love cleaning again. In spite of my current job as a housecleaner, which I figured would make me hate cleaning even more, I am actually starting to get a little high from cleaning people's houses (and no, it's not the chemical fumes! It's the joy of a freshly cleaned house!)

5. I'm starting to play online games again. I have a bit of an addictive personality, so I try to avoid things that I think will get out of control in relation to my own personal time management and online gaming is one of them. However, recently, Hubby has gotten me onto World of Warcraft, which I do enjoy playing but haven't played much since one weekend shortly after Punky was born when I power-leveled from 1-42 in a weekend. The only thing I did that weekend was play the game, take bathroom breaks and short sleeping breaks. Everything else was done at the keyboard. I nursed Punky while playing, I changed her diapers there, I ate my meals there. It was horrible and something that I have never wished to return to, so therefore my gameplay has been in severe moderation because I know how badly it can take over. Oh - and I'm handling it much better this time around. About an hour's worth of game play two or three times a week is more than good enough for me.

6. Wow, this is harder to do than I thought. Um, I watch way too much TV - particularly on Mondays and Thursdays. We have DVR so I don't have to watch TV on that particular night, but my DVR series list includes the following shows: Sister Wives, 19 Kids and Counting, 90210, Make It Or Break It, The Secret Life of the American Teenager, Hoarding: Buried Alive, Law & Order: Special Victims Unit, Downsized, Parenthood, Modern Family, Hoarders, Private Practice, Grey's Anatomy, NCIS, and Criminal Minds. That's like 13 hours of TV each week! Now, granted, I only record/watch new episodes and they have different running seasons, and sometimes there are conflicts on my DVR so I have to choose to not have one of them record, and that is never a hard call. I have definite preferences among the shows on my list. As for my viewing choices, well, I kind of like a hodgepodge of shows. I like teen dramas, I like shows with a medical basis, as long as it also has a storyline that includes interpersonal relationships, I like crime shows as well, as I like to guess whodunit along the way, I like some inspirational shows as well, And nothing makes me ready for a huge purge at home like an episode of Hoarders. :) And then I like special genres, family life, I suppose, like Sister Wives, Downsized, and 19 Kids and Counting.

7. Hmmm, one last thing. I love to rearrange furniture. Or rather, I love to have my husband rearrange our furniture. I think I come by this honestly though. My grandmother, who I spent most of my childhood with, rearranged her furniture every 3-6 months. And my parents moved about every 3-6 months when I was growing up, so I was used to constant changes in furniture arrangements.

Yep, there you go. Seven facts about me that you may not know from reading my blog.

Now, I get to choose 15 blogs to receive this award as well, so here goes:

1. With A Little Help From My Friends
2. Delightful Order
3. Grandma Becky L
4. Kingdom Twindom + 1
5. MckMama
6. Feeding Four
7. Good Enough Mommy
8. Life With Katie
9. Marni's Organized Mess
10. Organized Everyday
11. Ramblings of a Stressed Out Mom
12. Seams Inspired
13. sweet view from the hills
14. White House, Black Shutters
15. The Boys & Me

Okay ladies, there you go! It's now your turn! Grab the image, post it on your blog and then list seven things about yourself that someone reading your blog may not know and then choose 15 of your favorite blogs to receive the award as well!

2011-03-20T02:00:00.002-05:00

I came across this site via a link on a blog that I visited through a blog hop. I love how things like that happens sometimes! :) Anyhow, she is hosting a Spring reading 2011 party. And I'm most definitely going! I love to read but often don't make the time to do it. I have books upon books on the Kindle (for pc - I'm too cheap/poor to buy a "real" one LOL!) and I also have a number of physical books on my bookshelf that I haven't gotten around to yet. Brand new books just sitting and waiting patiently for me. So this is perfect!

For starters, I am posting the list of books that I would like to read during this spring:

Daughter of Joy by Kathleen Morgan (I'm currently on pg 100 of 334)
Somewhere to Belong by Judith Miller
Sunrise by Karen Kingsbury
Summer by Karen Kingsbury
Someday by Karen Kingsbury
Sunset by Karen Kingsbury

I also want to read with the kiddos each night, even if it is only for a few minutes. Natty has some great longer chapter books that I would love to read to him, JoNo has a number of short chapter books and Punky and Boo have lots and lots of childrens' books that I intend to read to them. I'd like to start by reading to Natty and then sending him up to bed, then JoNo and send him up to bed and then Punky and Boo and send them up to bed. The idea behind doing it this way is that Natty would have time to read to himself after he went up to bed, JoNo would have a little bit less time to read after going up to bed and Punky and Boo wouldn't have time to read. All the lights upstairs would go out at the same time. I think it is a good plan, in theory. We will have to see how it works out though.

You can click on the button at the top of this post to join in on the book reading party. You know you want to! :) Happy Spring and enjoy your reading time!

Deanne from A-Z

2011-03-18T09:00:00.004-05:00

I came across this last week while going through the Company Girl blog hop, and decided that I was going to do it for this week, so here you go:

A. Age: 29
B. Bed size: Queen
C. Chore you dislike: laundry
D. Dogs: 1 - cocker spaniel

E. Essential start to your day: prayer and kiddo hugs
F. Favorite color: purple
G. Gold or silver: I love the look of silver or white gold
H. Height: 5' 4"
I. Instruments you play(ed): piano, clarinet, trumpet, baritone, french horn
J.Job title: CNA although currently I am a homemaker
K. Kids: 4 - three boys and a girl
L. Live: Southeast Nebraska
M. Mom’s name: Rosetta, but everyone calls her Sandy
N. Nicknames: Dee (also spelled Dea)
O. Overnight hospital stays: one for each child's birth, appendectomy, twice for what the doctors thought were strokes (they weren't though), twice for depression as a teen
P. Pet peeves: being late
Q. Quote from a movie: "Never leave your partner" (Fireproof)

R. Righty or lefty: Righty for writing, lefty for sporting, amby for most others
S. Siblings: 1 brother who is 12 years younger than I am
T. Time you wake up: roughly 3 hours after falling asleep, but it varies. Usually by 6:40 am
U. Underwear: The last person did “Uniform” instead. I tend to wear jeans or cotton pants and nice t-shirts at home, slacks or khakis and a dressier shirt when I am going somewhere.

V. Vegetables you don’t like: I LOVE veggies. I don't know that there isn't one that I don't like...
W. What makes you run late: Waiting on the kiddos or Hubby to be ready.
X. X-rays you've had: oh wow, really? Hmm, back, teeth, shoulder, lungs, wrist, foot, ankle, knee...not sure if there have been others.
Y. Yummy food you make: Lasagna is a family favorite, as are enchiladas.
Z. Zoo animal favorites: This one is hard because I don't really like the zoo. I hate seeing the animals in captivity for the viewing enjoyment of people. But, if I had to choose an animal, I'd probably say either the bears, monkeys or penguins. Sharks are pretty awesome though too.

So, there you have it - Deanne from A-Z. Hope you enjoyed reading this as much as I enjoyed answering it.

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-03-15T04:14:00.004-05:00

Yesterday, I tackled the bottom portion of my front entry closet. It has been on my to-do list for quite some time and I am really happy with the way it turned out! I didn't get a before picture because it was really an impromtu thing to tackle.

So, I started by pulling everything out of there, from the rod down. Yes, the rod too but that was only because it fell down and it wasn't intended, but it also came out too, so therefore - I took everything out from the rod down.

We have tons and tons and tons of shoes. And after going through the shoes that were on the floor of the closet, I have come to a conclusion. One, most of them are mine and two, I have no idea where to store them. But we'll get to that yet.

What was in there before I took everything out:

tote full of shoes
box full of other shoes
huge round clock
picture
wooden boards left over from our old entertainment center (formerly were shelves on there)
plastic drawers - set of six
Natty's walking stick from Cub Scouts

Yikes! I just took some finished pics of the closet and didn't realize that the littlest one took this pic while I was working on the closet. You can see how much stuff was crammed in there! That grey tote full of shoes, the short box next to the dog - shoes. The big box behind the dog had shoes too. Hmm, thought there was only one box and one tote of shoes... guess I did more than I thought I did. Oh - and pretty much everything you see here was IN the closet. And excuse me in the middle of the pic. Not the most flattering pic of me ever, but the Boo child was just tryin' to keep it real, I suppose.

I brought up a set of two plastic drawers from our bedroom because I wasn't sure if they were the same size as the drawers that were in our closet. Turns out, they were! So, I put them all together and had them all stacked up on the front right side of the closet to free up more of the rod space. Before taking everything out, the six drawers were stacked on the back left side of the closet, which took up about a foot or so of our hanging space.

But after looking at it, I decided that I didn't like the drawers in that spot, so I took them all out again and started over. I put two stacks of three drawers side by side on the floor of the closet once I realized that doing so wouldn't hinder the hanging stuff at all. That left a small square-ish area in the back left corner. I took a chance and tried the stack of two drawers that came from our bedroom to see if they would fit and they did.

Once I saw that configuration, I loved it! Oh, it looks so neat and orderly! I decided that the two drawers in the back left would hold a few things that the stack had been holding before anyhow. The top drawer has some plastic bags that our new curtains came in that I plan to reuse for something else and our extra vacuum bags. The bottom drawer has extra light bulbs, a heavy duty extension cord that needs to go out to the garage yet and the casters that were on the bottom of the stack of drawers.

The next stack over has three drawers, from top to bottom, they belong to Hubby, Natty, and Punky. The stack on the right side of the closet from top to bottom belong to me, JoNo and Boo. It is really easy to remember whose drawer is whose because of two things. First, if you look at the two stacks, moving from left to right, top to bottom, it is in order of our ages, (Hubby, me, Natty, JoNo, Punky, Boo) and second, Natty and Punky's real names both start with the letter A, JoNo and Boo's real names start with the letter J. We have long joked that the "A" kids belong to Hubby (because their personalities are so much like Hubby's) and that the "J" kids are mine for the same reason.

I put Natty's walking stick back into the closet. It's on the left side, propped up against the front corner and is very much out of sight, unless you are specifically looking for it. On the right side, there is a tiny nook area and I put one of our air mattresses over there. It's all folded up and neat, as it has never been used before. (We have three of them.) I plan to put it out in the garage once we get the room for it made out there. But that's another process altogether.

I decided that with our current weather consisting of both warm and cold temperatures, the jackets and coats and backpacks and shoes in our launch pad were driving me a little bit insane. I don't mind the backpacks and either a coat or jacket on the hook. I don't even mind a pair of shoes for each person on the rug below. But multiple coats ans jackets, multiple pairs of shoes? Uh uh. It was too much and it was driving me bananas. So, I took all of the jackets and coats and hung them on hangers in the closet. I put all of the backpacks on their hooks and I removed all of the shoes.

Speaking of shoes, I went through the box and the tote of shoes and decided on a number of them to get rid of. I probably got rid of, oh, I'd say 15-20 pairs of shoes. Yeah. See why it was driving me insane? I still have quite a few pairs left to deal with as well, but it's much better than it was. I don't have room for them on the floor in the closet, I don't want them by the front door - it gets too cluttered too quickly there and just doesn't look appealing when you walk in. So, now I have to figure out what to do with them all. I have the idea of maybe having the kids store their shoes on the floor of their closets or just under their beds in their rooms, but I don't know. I think that they are more likely to get lost by doing that, so I will be looking for alternative ideas yet.

We have two other doors leading in from outside, one in our kitchen (no room there to store extra shoes) and one in the den. I actually could use that area for the extra shoes very easily. The other idea is actually to store them in an underbed bin in our bedroom. We have the room there and the shoes would stay neat and orderly and I wouldn't have to worry about them. It's worth giving it some thought. Oh - and we have underbed bins that we aren't using at the moment, so it's not like I would need to be spend anything on it. I think I like that idea quite a bit. So, that's where those shoes will be going later today. (Thanks for your help, y'all!)

Let's see, what else came out of that closet? Oh - the former shelves. Those will go down to our laundry room. We have a cupboard full of old wooden shelf pieces. They were actually here when we moved here and since they were already here, we can't get rid of them because they don't belong to us. But we are welcome to use them anywhere in the house. I figure that I can put these boards in there with those ones (they are similar in style, wood tone and everything).

The huge clock we hung up in our den. I'm not sure I like it where it is though. We'll leave it for now and I'll see if it grows on me within the next week. It might be okay there if we just move it up another foot on the wall, because it is seriously a large diameter clock. Probably a good 2 feet in diameter. We're talking big.

And the last thing was the picture. I took it out and I have plans to put it up in the little kids' bedroom. I also took some pictures down in our den that will go in kids' bedrooms too. So, there you have it. My tackle for this week.

I still need to clean off the top shelves, but believe me, I got a lot accomplished on just the lower half of the closet!

(edited to add in the pictures)

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Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-14T02:39:00.002-05:00

I hadn't even given much thought to the whole planning menus for this week due to the family being sick, but now that they are all mostly well again, I guess it's time to get back to the planning.

I have lots of chicken and lots of frozen sandwich meat as well, so I think this week may be heavy with chicken as the main dish.

Monday - homemade chicken noodle soup - made with chicken hindquarters and using the bones to create the stock, homemade egg noodles, chopped carrots and celery. Yum! I will also bake some bread to go along with this meal.
Tuesday - kids will be at Grandma's house for dinner and Hubby and I will probably have leftovers or sandwiches
Wednesday - chicken enchiladas with beans and rice
Thursday - white lasagna, with alfredo sauce instead of a tomato based sauce, broccoli and other greens and chicken. I will bake some super yummy parmesan oregano bread to go with this. Sounds so fantastic! (I will make this on Monday when I make the bread to go along with our chicken noodle soup.)
Friday - chicken stirfry, with fried rice and mixed veggies
Saturday - homemade pizza / kids' choice
Sunday - roast chicken, mashed potatoes, green bean casserole (this is the day that we have company over as well)

Click on the picture above to connect to Org Junkie's site and to see what others are planning for this week as well!

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Saturday Night Special 3.12

2011-03-12T23:30:00.002-06:00

Wow, what a crazy week we have had. I was so ready for our family movie night to begin! Tonight's featured film was a 7pm showing of "Aladdin". It's the original one, which is good. My personal favorite is the third one "Aladdin and the King of Thieves" - now THAT is a funny movie! Our encore presentation was a 9pm showing of the movie "Matilda", a classic. Love this movie! It was the first time my children had ever seen it. They loved it - particularly the older boys.

But for now, a recap of our week. Get ready!

Last Sunday was our family movie date with the kids for Frosty Flicks. Hubby thought that the movie was going to be "Megamind" but actually, it was "Legend of Guardian", based on the first three book of the "Guardians of Ga'hoole" series. Natty has the first three books in the series and had read the first book. I told him to be observant and see where the differences were between the book and the movie. It was the first time he had read a book before seeing the movie. He assumed they would be exactly the same. Man was that ever cute to watch him find the differences. I assume that the differences he noted were in fact accurate as I hadn't read the book and I didn't actually get to see the movie. Between needing pop and popcorn refills, three bathroom trips (two for Punky, one for JoNo) and then the movie being a bit too scary for Punky. (Remember, we thought it was going to be Megamind. By the time we realized it wasn't, we were at the theatre buying our tickets and it was kind of too late at that point to make alternative plans for her.)

Theatrical release poster from wikipedia

Punky and I ended up leaving the theatre and walked around the outdoor mall area where the theatre is located. We went into a few different stores and looked at clothes. Shopping without buying anything. It was a very new concept for my Punky Pie, but I think she enjoyed herself. I mean, isn't it every four year old girls' dream to go shop at Gap Kids, Gymboree, Von Maur (kids section), followed up by a stop at Claire's? Exactly. The stores in a short area were right up her alley. I did have to talk her out of going to Victoria Secret though.

Ever since she was three years old, she has had this thing for VS. I don't know what it is exactly, but I went shopping with a couple of new friends and Punky was with us. My friend, Gabby, asked Punky what she wanted to get at the mall and Punky said, "I need new unnerwears. I need CUTE unnerwears!" So, on the particular mall trip, I bought her some cute "unnerwears" from Gymboree. But even that day, she wanted to go to VS to shop. I couldn't figure out what the deal was for quite some time. I don't show at VS - I'm a plus-sized gal - VS doesn't fit me.

Eventually, I told my mother-in-law about the trip. I say eventually, but in reality, it was probably the following week. It was my mother-in-law who started the whole VS thing. She had been flipping through a VS catalog and had just absent-mindedly commented that she needed to go shopping to get some new underwear when Punky was in earshot. Punky had glanced over, saw the magazine and voila. My three (and now four) year old's obsession with VS. I just hope I can hold her off from the store until she's oh, thirty, or so.

I have to admit though, I have taken her into the store for their bath gels and lotions and sprays and stuff last year right before Christmas. But that's only because the store we were in has two separate entrances and it's divided up between the clothing and related stuff and the bath and shower stuff. She never made the connection that we were in THAT store.

Oh wow. Lots about VS there. Sorry for the tangent. But if you have been around here for any length of time, you know that I do that. A lot.

After the movie/shopping trip and a quick lunch at home, JoNo, Punky and I headed out. I was going to drop JoNo off at his friend, Con's house and also drop off our old stroller, carseat and base as planned and pick up our new lamps from Con's mom. The lamps were HUGE! I love them. They are in our living room on our tables up here. However, I think they match the style of the couches in our den. But the overall style in the den is more modern/contemporary - lots of black and silver and metal going on in that room, whereas our living room is much more traditional. I think these lamps work really well in here though. At least better than the black metal lamps that were in here before. Those are now down in the den, since they fit the style down there quite a bit more.

After dropping off JoNo, Punky and I headed over to Miss M's house. We got there a little bit early and I didn't want to just drop Punky off early, so we waited for a few minutes in the van across the circle from Miss M's house (her family lives on a cul-de-sac). Shortly after parking though, Miss M and her dad came out to their driveway and waved us on over, so we went over.

They have a beautiful house! After being in their house, they will NEVER come over here! LOL! I think our house is pretty nice, even if average, until I go to someone's house that is absolutely stunning. Just wow. So anyhow, Punky and I go in and she gets right to the business of playing with Miss M and the mom (Kate) and I sit and visit for an HOUR. I couldn't believe how easy she was to talk to! While talking, we realized that our lives connect in multiple ways. For one, she grew up near the area where we live and went to school where the boys attend school right now. Secondly, she is an ECSE (Early Childhood Special Education) teacher at another school, but her best friend is one of the ECSE teachers at Boo's school. He attends school in the afternoon and Kate's best friend teaches in Boo's classroom in the morning. It's just funny how closely things overlap like that. Also, Punky's teacher from last year at the private preschool is now teaching with Kate at her school. I guess Punky and Miss M had the same teacher last year, but I don't know for sure if they were in the same class or not. I honestly cannot remember if Punky went to morning or afternoon classes. I am thinking she was in the afternoon class. I might just have to pull out some of her old papers to see if I can figure out if they were in the same class together last year too.

So, then after visiting for a long while Kate, I left with plans to go pick up Punky at 7:30 at night, which is super late for a playdate for her, but it worked out so well! Then it was off to pick up JoNo from Con's house and then head to the store to get supplies for dinner, then to come home, where Hubby, Natty, Boo and our friends Chris and Missy were waiting for us. We fixed dinner and then played some cards. During dinner I had a bottle of beer, not thinking about the fact that I was going to have to go pick up Punky shortly. I remembered that I still had to pick her up at about 7:25 and Miss M lives about 10-15 minutes from us. Crap. I'd had a drink AND I was going to be late. Just the impression that I wanted to make! Oy!

So I commandeered Missy as a driver and we took her vehicle to go pick up Punky. I called Kate to let her know that we were running late and that I'd be there shortly to get my child. She said that it was absolutely fine and that there was no problem with that. They'd only had one incident the entire time and that was when Punky needed to go to the bathroom and Miss M wanted to go in with her. Punky told her "no, I need my privacy" which I thought was hilarious and adorable! Can you tell she has three brothers?!

So, we get there and I get out and I'm standing in the driveway talking to Kate and the girls say goodbye and all is well. We go to the ice cream store and pick up ice cream for everybody and then I notice I don't have my phone. Oh crap. Figuring that the phone is in the car somewhere, we drive home and eat our ice cream, then continue looking for it. Still not able to find it. I call the ice cream store to see if they found it there. Nope. I call Kate and she and her hubby go outside and look for it. Nope. Missy and I check the vehicle. Nope. Chris and Hubby check the vehicle. Nope again. They leave and go to the ice cream store to see if it is in the lot there. Nope. Oh crap, oh crap, oh crap. I have things on my phone that I don't necessarily want other people to see. Missy teases me because she knows. But still the phone is nowhere to be found. I'm freaking out over it, hoping and praying that it isn't at Kate's house or that if it is, she doesn't go through my phone.

Eventually, Chris and Missy leave and then Hubby heads over to Kate's house to check for the phone. He finds it in the grass at their house. Oh. My. Goodness. I am so relieved! He comes home and all is well! Thank you!

Monday, the family starts to get sick. I'm feeling supremely blah and I sleep in and just don't feel very well. Tuesday night, JoNo gets sick. Wednesday, Natty is sick, Thursday, Boo and Hubby both get sick. Friday, they are both feeling pretty rough, but I'm feeling a lot better and JoNo gets sent home from school. Hubby took him in to see the doctor and we discovered that he had a bulging ear drum. The nurse practitioner, who we LOVE, says she is surprised that the ear drum hadn't ruptured. Poor guy! So we start antibiotics and numbing ear drops to help with the pain. Today (Saturday), Punky gets sick. Really sick. I had actually held out hope that she had missed the whole thing, but no such luck. Poor girly! Hubby was feeling better finally, but Boo is still under the weather. Since I never got sick like the family did, I'm wondering if I was able to skate through with just the blahs this week or if I'm going to get slammed like Punky did. At least, if I end up getting slammed, everyone else will be better (maybe?) by then.

I went through this week and did a major disinfecting of the common surfaces in our house. But I think for the most part, it was too little too late, as the bug was already in the incubation stages in the kiddos. Sigh. Oh well, the house needed it anyhow. And today, I'm going to go through and do it again. As well as clean the carpets. I did what I could as it was needed, but really, the carpets now just need a good, thorough cleaning. Motherhood. It's not a glamorous job. But definitely worthwhile!

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

"A Century Turns" by William J. Bennett

2011-03-12T05:59:00.001-06:00

It took me a long time to read this book, as it is not a genre that I find enjoyable, generally speaking. However, I wanted to give the book a fair chance and so it took me awhile to read through this.

William J. Bennett authors the book "A Century Turns" and covers events in U.S. History from the election of George H.W. Bush through the election of Barack Hussein Obama. Mr Bennett's writing style in this book is mostly narrative, which I find can be hard to get through at some points. However, the writing itself is very nicely done.

It was an interesting read, as I learned things I didn't know much if any about while I was growing up. When the book begins, it covers the 1988 election. I remember bits and pieces of the election, but I didn't really know many of the details of President Bush's history or campaign or anything. I was only seven years old at the time. This book has provided insights that I hadn't even realized I missed out on and opened my eyes and my mind to all that was going on and surrounding the events that occurred in these years.

These events were too recent to have been covered in my history classes in high school or college and too time-consuming to be discussed in my other classes, except for little bits and pieces that pertained only to the class in which the discussion was held.

This book is one that will be on our bookshelf for a long time to come. I want my children to be able to read this book and to be able to use it to understand events that happened in their parents' childhood up to the events that occurred in their own childhood as well, so that they don't have such a narrow view of what these events mean for them and for our country, as I did growing up.

I would recommend this book to others interested in more recent history as I think it provides valuable insight into the timeframe of 1988 to 2008.

Disclosure of Material Connection: I received this book free from the publisher through the BookSneeze®.com <http://BookSneeze®.com> book review bloggers program. I was not required to write a positive review. The opinions I have expressed are my own. I am disclosing this in accordance with the Federal Trade Commission’s 16 CFR, Part 255 <http://www.access.gpo.gov/nara/cfr/waisidx_03/16cfr255_03.html> : “Guides Concerning the Use of Endorsements and Testimonials in Advertising.”

Showers and baths and cleaning, oh my!

2011-03-11T22:00:00.002-06:00

Today's Small Thing was something that I had planned on doing anyhow. As you all know, we have had the sickies around here and when that happens, I like to go around and disinfect as much as I possibly can, as soon as I can possibly do it.

I had planned on doing today's Small Thing before kids' bath time, but tonight was so unorganized and poor JoNo and Boo were just having a rough night in general with not feeling well and I guess I should mention Hubby still isn't feeling the greatest either. All that to say, I didn't get to today's thing until after bedtime.

But I did it. I cleared the bathtub of the toys and all the bottles of shampoo and conditioner and soap and bubble bath and loofahs and then gave the tub a good scrub down. We still have some paint drips on the tile surrounding our tub from when Hubby painted last year and when I am in there taking a bath, I pick at them. I didn't feel like trying to work on those tonight, so I skipped the paint removal part of my bathtub scrub routine.

Then I went downstairs and gave our shower a good scrub down too. I don't know if it is hard water or soap build up or what, but our shower never looks clean. EVER. I cannot wait to get the Shaklee so that I can finally have a shower and shower door that look like I clean it every once in awhile. So frustrating! Agh!

I did end up needing to add some supplies to the upstairs bathroom, and thankfully, I had enough on hand to do so without cutting me short in the kitchen. Yay for that! Boo for it being harsh chemical cleaners, but one thing at a time, right? Right.

Okay, point totals. Today's first bathtub or shower scrubbed down was worth 40 points, then the second one was worth an additional 20 points and assessing the cleaning supplies was worth another 20 points for a grand total of 80 points! Which I would just like to point out that I earned all of. That brings my monthly total up to...400 points!

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

40 in 40 - Week 1

2011-03-11T20:21:00.001-06:00

Today is the first link up for the 40 bags in 40 days challenge. I am excited to be a part of this challenge. I have so many areas to declutter yet (it really is a continuous process - the more I get rid of, the more I am willing to let go of) and this will be a great aid in doing so.

First off, I'd like to share my plan of attack for this challenge with you. The recommendation was to use black trash bags, so that you cannot see what is in them. But I don't have black trash bags on hand and I didn't want to have to go out and buy a box of bags just for this challenge when I have a HUGE box of white bags from Sam's Club.

So, my plan of attack around the house:
Day 1 (Wed. 3/9): ~~Master bedroom closet~~ (3 bags + loose items)
Day 2 (Thu 3/10): ~~Yarn storage / cedar chest~~ (1 bag)
Day 3 (Fri 3/11): Front closet ()
Day 4 (Sat 3/12): Laundry room / clothing #1 ()
Day 5 (Sun 3/13): Old Hyundai ()
Day 6 (Mon 3/14): Little kids' bedroom / toys ()
Day 7 (Tue 3/15): Laundry room / clothing #2 ()
Day 8 (Wed 3/16): Bookshelves ()
Day 9 (Thu 3/17): Kitchen drawers ()
Day 10 (Fri 3/18): Laundry room / clothing #3 ()
Day 11 (Sat 3/19): Hall bathroom ()
Day 12 (Sun 3/20): Van ()
Day 13 (Mon 3/21): Laundry room / clothing #4 ()
Day 14 (Tue 3/22): Newer Hyundai ()
Day 15 (Wed 3/23): Entertainment center ()
Day 16 (Thu 3/24): Laundry room / clothing #5 ()
Day 17 (Fri 3/25): Storage area #1 ()
Day 18 (Sat 3/26): Outside ()
Day 19 (Sun 3/27): Laundry room / clothing #6 ()
Day 20 (Mon 3/28): Garage #1 ()
Day 21 (Tue 3/29): Storage area #2 ()
Day 22 (Wed 3/30): Laundry room / clothing #7 ()
Day 23 (Thu 3/31): Kitchen cupboards ()
Day 24 (Fri 4/1): Storage area #3 ()
Day 25 (Sat 4/2): Laundry room / clothing #8 ()
Day 26 (Sun 4/3): Kitchen cabinets ()
Day 27 (Mon 4/4): Garage #2
Day 28 (Tue 4/5): Laundry room / clothing #9
Day 29 (Wed 4/6): Kitchen counters ()
Day 30 (Thu 4/7): Storage area #3 ()
Day 31 (Fri 4/8): Laundry room / clothing #10 ()
Day 32 (Sat 4/9): Bedroom closet ()
Day 33 (Sun 4/10): Storage area #4 ()
Day 34 (Mon 4/11): Garage # ()
Day 35 (Tue 4/12): Armoire ()
Day 36 (Wed 4/13): Pet area ()
Day 37 (Thu 4/14): Boys' room ()
Day 38 (Fri 4/15): Guest room ()
Day 39 (Sat 4/16): Storage area #5 ()
Day 40 (Sun 4/17): Garage #4 ()

Total bags = 4
Days of non-bagged items = 1

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Company Girl Coffee 3.11

2011-03-11T06:51:00.003-06:00

Well, I guess I will get a post in today, contrary to what I said yesterday. I am still feeling pretty rough and I wasn't able to sleep last night due to one child or another being awake and not feeling well. But at the moment, the only thing plaguing most of the children is a cough. There were no incidents of bodily fluids being expelled in an undesirable manner, no fevers, just the cough. Well, I have a fever, but I think all four kids will be able to attend school today.

I have been attempting to lose weight recently. I started in earnst on February 7th of this year and so far, I have lost 18.5 pounds! That is incredible and I am so encouraged by that! I still have a long ways to go yet, but I feel like I have gotten off to a great start already. I am really pleased. My largest weight drop actually happened just this past week and a half when I lost 5.5 pounds. It was a lot at once and it wasn't necessarily intentional either. I think it was just that I have had a lot of anxiety lately and plus, I was starting to come down with something, so I'm sure that factored in as well.

My house is a disaster area today and I will probably only be doing a minimal amount around the house today, unless I start to feel much better very soon. I found a number of different recipes last night for making homemade furniture polish. I decided to try one out last night that called for 2 tsp. olive oil (or canola oil or whatever oil you use to cook with), 2 tsp. of vinegar mixed with 32 oz. of water. I have a bottle of extra virgin olive oil in my cupboard that I don't use because I don't like the flavor, so I used some of that along with some apple cider vinegar that was under my kitchen sink. The bottle of vinegar is a 32 oz. one and it had very little left in it, so I emptied the vinegar into another smaller container and then mixed up the polish in the vinegar bottle.

My kitchen has a LOT of wood in it. Well, truly, my whole house has a LOT of food in it. Our house was built in 1964 and I'm sure the wood accents and such are original to the home. Anyhow, I took this mixture and poured some onto a rag and tried it out. I think it did an okay job on the areas where I tested it. The one thing about the mix is that just before applying it, you have to shake the bottle to mix the ingredients together well enough to use.

I also decided to look up some information about freezing different items. We have a lot of eggs and potatoes to use up one way or another and I discovered a few different things. The first one being that egg noodles are incredibly easy to make and at very little cost. Two, potatoes can be cut up into french fries or wedges and then seasoned and baked, allow to cool and the freeze in a freezer bag or other storage container. (I would use a freezer mate container from Tupperware myself.) The third item I discovered last night is that you can freeze eggs. All you have to do is take the eggs, crack them into a bowl and whisk them (much like you would if you were going to make scrambled eggs) add a little bit of salt and then place into a container to freeze. Who knew?! Oh, well, I suppose somebody did before they posted it on the internet. I would also recommend that if you are going to do that, you write on the container or on your label or tape how many eggs you used for the mixture. And the last item is that you can freeze milk. You just open it up, pour out a glass or so and then put the lid back on and place in freezer. When you thaw it out, just place it in your fridge and allow to thaw. You may want to give it a good shake when it is thawed though, as milk will sometimes separate in the freeze/thaw cycle.

A whole load of easy tips and tricks that will save money and time and is just good information to know. I even discovered a recipe for crackers, in the event that I would need to make some today for upset tummies. I love the research power of the internet!

Today I plan to rest as much as possible and see if I can get at least a little bit of work done around the house. If I don't get around to housework until Monday, I will be just fine with that too. The most important thing to me at this point is to take care of my family and to get better myself too.

Happy Friday to all of you and hope you are all well or at least on the mend. Here's to hoping my house(hold) will be on the mend soon as well!

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Tupperware Feature Friday

2011-03-11T00:30:00.001-06:00

This week I am going to feature some items from Tupperware that will be available coming up on March 12 - April 8. This month features ways to "go green" in the kitchen and in keeping with that theme, many items are green as well. Some of these items are only available for a limited time and others are at a great discount. I will note which of these (or both!) is the case after each item shown. Also, you can click on the Tupperware bowls to the left of this paragraph to visit my Tupperware site to order your own products today. Or let me know if you would want to do a party. It doesn't matter if we are near each other or not. That is the beauty of the internet! All product information and pictures are copied and pasted from the Tupperware website. Please click on any picture to take you to my website.

Tupperware® Fresh Herb Planter System
Grow your own fresh, healthy herbs at home without worrying about daily care requirements. Our system waters herbs accurately and automatically. Now you can savor the robust flavor of seasoned food without relying on expensive, pre-packaged fresh or dried herbs. The modular design uses very little space, so you can extend your garden as needed. Includes base, pot, microfiber water absorber G and water bottle with cap. Insert features helpful herb cooking tips and culinary uses for specific herbs.

Special introductory price! New!
# 81998 $14.99 (Reg. $18.50 value)

Chop ’N Prep™ Chef
Chop fresh herbs, vegetables, fruit, baby foods and more in “turbo” time with this compact and earth-friendly tool. The easy pull-cord mechanism lets you do it all in just seconds and without electricity. Plus, it’s small enough to store in the cupboard, drawer or pantry. Includes virtually airtight and liquid-tight seal. 1¼-cup/300 mL capacity. Gift-boxed for added convenience.

Save over 35%!, Save $14.50!
Or host a qualifying party and pay only $10! See page 8 for details.
# 81907 $25.00 (Reg. $39.50 value)

Spin ’N Save™ Salad Spinner
Meet our “spin” doctor! Place your greens and other produce inside this 4-qt./4 L prep tool to quickly transform them into a healthy salad. Or use it to dry cooked pasta or thaw frozen fruits and vegetables. The virtually airtight and liquid-tight seal that’s included helps you save time by making it now and storing in the fridge for later. Includes bowl with four anti-slip feet, colander, spinner cover and seal. Gift-boxed for added convenience.

Save 35%!, Save $18.50!

# 81916 $34.00 (Reg. $52.50 value)

Thatsa® Bowl 4-Pc. Set
The unique thumb-loop makes it easy to safely grip these bowls for prep work or serving snacks. They’re perfect for family popcorn nights—everyone can have their own bowl! Deep walls help prevent messy spills, while textured interiors resist scratches. Virtually airtight, liquid-tight seals keep contents fresh for later use. Each set includes 6-cup/1.4 L Thatsa® Bowl Mini, 12-cup/2.8 L Thatsa® Bowl Jr., 32-cup/7.6 L Thatsa® Bowl and 42-cup/10 L Thatsa® Mega Bowl.
Get eight bowls for the price of four.

Buy 1 set, get 1 set FREE!, Save $75!

# 81917 $75.00 (Reg. $150.00 value)

Saucy Silicone Spatula
The soft-grip handle of this indispensable kitchen tool helps you make quick work of mixing and whipping of wet or dry ingredients. Angled tip lets you easily reach into the corners of straight-edged bowls and pans. Stain and heat-resistant up to 400°F /200° C. Pulls apart for easy cleaning.

Save over 45%!, Save $8!
Requires a $100 order
Limit one with each $100 order.
# 881839 $9.50 (Reg. $17.50 value)

Measuring Cups and Measuring Spoons Set
We give you more! Designed for a lifetime of everyday use, the Cups and Spoons each come in a set of six-that's two more than most others. They also feature easy-to-read, embossed measurements that won't wear off. Cups include pour spouts on either side for left or right-handed use; measurements are ¼, 1/3, ½, 2/3, ¾ and 1 cup. Spoons feature raised, curved handles
that allow them to sit flat on a counter; measurements are 1/8, ¼, ½ and 1 tsp., plus ½ and 1 tbsp.

Buy Measuring Cups, get Measuring Spoons FREE!, Save $11.50!

# 81915 $14.50 (Reg. $26 value)

Classic Sheer® Midgets® Set
No home is complete without a set of these little miracles. Now you can get two six-pc. sets for the price of one! Each container includes 1-oz./30 mL, 1½-oz./45 mL and 2-oz./60 mL markings. Seals are virtually airtight and liquid-tight, so you can tote small
quantities and not fret about spills or leaks. Use them for salad dressing; sprinkles for baking; travel-sized portions of liquid soap, shampoo and make-up; or sewing and craft supplies. When empty, simply stack for compact storage. Get 12 containers for the price of six.

Buy 1 set, get 1 set FREE!, Save $11!

# 81913 $11.00 (Reg. $22 value)

Stuffables® Super Set
Stretch your storage capacity with this unique set. The flexible seals expand, reducing the number of containers needed. They also make odd-shaped or bulky foods easier to store. Includes 4-cup/950 mL, 6-cup/1.4 L and 8-cup/1.9 L containers. Note: Remove seals before microwave reheating. Set of three.

Save 50%!, Save $23!
Requires a $50 order
Limit one set with each $50 order.
# 881840 $22.50 (Reg. $45.50 value)

Double Colander—now in exclusive color!
It’s two tools in one! Don’t prepare pasta or salads without it. Use the top and bottom separately or together for maximum straining and draining capability. The stay-cool handle and tabbed lid ensure your safety. 2-qt./2 L capacity.

only at a party—save 50%!, Save $10!
Limit 10 when you attend a party.
# 89448 $10.00 (Reg. $20 value)

Those are just a few of the great items available from the catalog this month! Contact your local Tupperware consultant (or me!) for a more detailed list! Enjoy cooking and being green with Tupperware!

And just for fun, some of the other products available for a special price this month:


Disney Fun-tastic Friends Tumblers*			(sale $17.50)

Floresta 1-Gallon/3.7 L Pitcher (sale $18.00)

Jel-Ring® Mold (sale $11.00)

Floresta 10-oz./310 mL Tumblers (sale $12.50)

Floresta Bowls (sale $19.50)

Host Gift Special (free with qualifying show)

Kids Cake Taker Set* (sale $11.00)

Kids in the Kitchen Set* (sale $25.00)

Mickey Mouse Ice Tups® Set (sale $10.00)

Microwave Extreme Collection (free! with $750 party and two datings)

Mini Party Set (sale $17.50)

Mini Gelatin Mold Set (sale $19.00)

Mini Serve-It® Set (sale $9.00)

Spider-Man Lunch Set* (sale $18.00)

Shape-O® Toy (sale $17.00)

Forced Absence

2011-03-10T21:45:00.001-06:00

Just wanted to let you all know that I will most likely be absent from the bloggy scene for a bit. At least this weekend, I am guessing. I have a post that should be finished to go live tomorrow and then that is likely all you will have of me for the weekend, depending on how things are going here.

Skip the next paragraph if you don't want to read the specifics of what illnesses are currently plaguing my family.

Hubby is sick with some sort of a gastrointestinal infection. Natty is kinda sick with the same and a bit of a cold as well. I don't know if he is in the process of getting sick or if he is just mildly sick, but anyhow... Then JoNo is sick. He's had vomiting and is showing major signs of respiratory illness as well. He's hanging in there though. He got sick Tuesday night but has been semi-well since then. Punky has avoided it completely and Boo has had both vomiting and blow-out diarrhea. Poor baby guy. I've had an upset stomach and fever myself and just feel like I'm dragging. It's been awful!

I think most of the household (with the exception of Boo and myself) is asleep at this point and I plan on jumping in and doing some kick-butt cleaning. I need to do laundry. But I also want to do a very detailed cleaning in the house. I'm going to start with the main living areas and just try to get as much done tonight as possible. A full, top-to-bottom clean, including dusting and windows and vacuuming and carpet and upholstery cleaning and disinfecting all common surfaces. I wish I had already made the trip over to Erin's house to get some Shaklee to try out, but I haven't yet, so I will have to use the cleaners that I have on hand, which is what I would have had to do anyhow, but I still wish I had made the trip prior to this.

So, anyhow, if you don't see me around within the next few days - this is why. Feel free to leave me some comment love and I will try to get back to y'all as soon as I can.

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

100 Truths!

2011-03-09T22:11:00.000-06:00

This is actually a note from facebook, but I don't want to do it on there, so I'm doing it here instead. Also, 100 Truths is actually a misnomer because it asks less than 100 questions, but here we go anyhow - all you have ever wanted to know about me...
1. last beverage→ water
2. last phone call→ to Hubby
3. last text message→ Incoming- BFF Chris Outgoing- BFF Chris
4. last song you listened to→ I wasn't paying attention actually
5. last time you cried→ Last night while going through some old mementos

SIX HAVE YOU EVER:
1. dated someone twice → Yes.
2. been cheated on?→ Yes.
3. kissed someone & regretted it?→ No, if regret implies you'd do it differently given the opportunity.
4. lost someone special?→ Yes.
5. been depressed?→ Yes.
6. been drunk and threw up?→ Once.

LIST FOUR FAVORITE COLORS:
1. green
2. purple
3. pink
4. brown

THIS Semester HAVE YOU: (this implies that it is for someone in college but I'll just go with this year)
1. Made new friends → Yes.
2. Fallen out of love → No.
3. Laughed until you cried → Yes. My good buddy Iris makes sure this happens quite frequently.
4. Met someone who changed you → Probably.
5. Found out who your true friends were → Yes.
6. Found out someone was talking about you→ Yes, it's called family gossip. One of the (sarcasm) joys of being in a loose-lipped family.
7. Kissed anyone on your facebook friends list→ Um, you could say that.
8. How many people on your facebook friends list do you know in real life →225 out of 281
9. How many kids do you want to have→ I always wanted 5. We have 4 and I'm content with that.
10. Do you have any pets → We do. One dog, one guinea pig, one mouse.
11. Do you want to change your name→ No, I don't think so.
12. What did you do for your last birthday→ I don't honestly remember. Hmmm...
13. What time did you wake up today → 2:20 p.m.
14. What were you doing at midnight last night → probably on the computer.
15. Name something you CANNOT wait for → To find a new job.
16. Last time you saw your father→ Don't know if I ever have.
17. What is one thing you wish you could change about your life → That I felt guilty less often.
18. What are you listening to right now → Boo playing on a computer toy instead of going to bed.
19. Have you ever talked to a person named Tom → I have.
20. What's getting on your nerves right now? → Kids not cooperating with bedtime.
21. Most visited webpage → Oh, that'd be a toss-up between facebook, blogger, and my email inbox.

1. Whats your real name → Deanne Marie (Burson) Foote
2. Nicknames→ Dee
3. Relationship Status → married
4. Zodiac sign → Gemini. Although with the way it got changed this past year, I believe I'm now supposed to be a Taurus?
5. Male or female or transgendered→ Female
6. Elementary?→ Seriously? Be right back. Belmont, Elliott, Hartley, Huntington, McPhee, Park, Prescott, West Lincoln. I thought there was more than that, but I guess not? Oh - and one that I don't remember the name of in Florida.
7. Middle School?→ Goodrich, Park
8. High school → Lincoln High School
10. Hair color → brown
11. Long or short → shortish, around shoulder length almost
16. Height → 5 foot 4 inches
17. Do you have a crush on someone? → yes
18: What do you like about yourself? → I am an amazing mother and teacher.
19. Piercings → Two holes in each ear
20. Tattoos → not yet. I don't know if I am brave enough to ever actually get one.
21. Righty or lefty → It depends. Writing - right. Sports - left. Other things - ambidextrous.

FIRSTS :
22. First drink → whiskey, I suppose - for teething way back when. Otherwise, a screwdriver when I was ten, not realizing it.
23. First piercing → Holes in both ears when I was 6, I think.
24. First best friends → Nicholas Gene Ankeny
26. First sport you joined → Basketball. Eighth grade year.
27. First pet → No clue.
28. First vacation→ Worlds of Fun, age 14, as a nanny.
29. First concert → one at the fair with Hubby when we were dating. I don't remember who it was but it was horrible - we left early.
30. First crush → Ehm, probably Nicholas Gene Ankeny

RIGHT NOW:
49. Eating → nothing
50. Drinking → water
52. I'm about to → get back to knitting after this.
53. Listening to → Boo playing.
55. Waiting for → Boo to go to sleep.

YOUR FUTURE :
58. Want kids? → I'd be okay with more. It's highly unlikely to happen though.
59. Want to get married? → How about stay married? Yes.
60. Careers in mind? → Nursing or teaching

WHICH IS BETTER WITH THE OPPOSITE SEX? :
68. Lips or eyes → Lips. Although eyes are what first attracted me to Hubby.
69. Hugs or kisses → Depends on the person.
70. Shorter or taller → Taller.
71. Older or Younger → I prefer a bit older actually.
72. Romantic or spontaneous → A little bit of both. I'm not a real romantic person myself.
73. Nice stomach or nice arms → Arms.
74. Sensitive or loud → Probably more to the loud side.
75. Hook-up or relationship → Relationship.
77. Trouble maker or hesitant → Hesitant, I think.

HAVE YOU EVER :
78. Kissed a stranger → Yes. I was 12. Yuck!
79. Drank hard liquor → Yes.
80. Lost glasses/contacts → Yes.
81. Sex on first date → No.
82. Broken someone's heart → Yes.
83. Had your own heart broken → Yes.
85. Been arrested → No.
86. Turned someone down → Yes.
87. Cried when someone died → Yes.
88. Liked a friend that is a girl? → Yes. I like all of my female friends! Hello! They are my friends!

DO YOU BELIEVE IN:
89. Yourself → Most of the time.
90. Miracles → Yes.
91. Love at first sight → No. I believe in attraction at first sight. I believe love is a choice and a commitment.
92. Heaven → Yes.
93. Santa Clause → No.
95. Kiss on the first date? → Well, I have, so I suppose so.
96. Angels → Yes.

ANSWER TRUTHFULLY:
97. Is there one person you want to be with right now? → Yes.
98. Had more than one boyfriend/girlfriend at one time? → Yes.
100. Posting this as 100 Truths? → Yes, I titled this blog post 100 Truths

Insomnia

2011-03-09T05:25:00.001-06:00

Man oh man, this insomnia thing is just kicking my butt. I haven't been able to sleep very well for the last few weeks and so I end up spending my nights either puttering around on the computer, working on projects around the house or laying there in bed, waiting for sleep to happen.

Last night (Monday night) I even took some Melatonin to try and help me fall asleep. Well, technically I guess I should say to help me fall back to sleep. I was really tired on Monday night and conked out around 8:00 when the kids did. I was awake again around 9:30. It was so disappointing. Then I couldn't fall back asleep, so I took some Melatonin around midnight or so. I finally fell back to sleep around 8:00, but woke up around every 30 minutes until 1:30 when I finally just got up for the day.

My schedule is so wonky and it is driving me crazy. I can't stand this! I hate sleeping during the day time when I don't have to work nights (which I'm not right now!) but I can't sleep at night and I sleep fitfully during the day. This is just not working for me! Gah!

Okay, so moving on...when I work on projects at night I have to make sure that they are relatively quiet projects. I'm not the only one in my household who sleeps like crap. We have kids who get up in the middle of the night and change sleeping locations. Tonight alone, Natty came downstairs to the living room while I was taking a break from the project that I was working on and asked if he could sleep on the couch in our den because he had a nightmare. I'm sure he would have just taken the couch in the living room but that's where Hubby and Boo put each other to sleep tonight. (awww, so cute!) So anyhow, Natty went down to the den to sleep. Before that, I had been working on my project and came up to the living room to take a break and found JoNo in my chair. I promptly sent him back up to his own bed. And before you think that I showed favoritism to Natty, let me assure you that had Natty been in MY chair, he would have been promptly sent up to bed as well. No one gets Mama's chair. Just the way it is.

So, as I was mentioning, my project. Unfortunately, I didn't get a picture of the closet before I got started on it because I wasn't really sure how much time I was going to spend on it or if I would even get it done. But surprise surprise! I made a HUGE mess in my room when I emptied that closet out! I took EVERYTHING out of the closet. And when I say everything, I mean E.V.E.R.Y.T.H.I.N.G. The closet is roughly 4'x5'. To the right side of the closet, there are shelves and cubbies that take up about 2' of the 5', which leaves an open floor area of 3'x4'. Let me just start out by saying that the shelves and cubbies were PACKED full of miscellaneous stuff. Okay, really, who am I kidding? The closet was packed full of miscellaneous stuff. I had no clue what was in there. The only thing I did know was that the pile of "stuff" in there was taller than me. I'm 5'4". Yeah. Stuff and stuff and more stuff.

So, I started with the spot right in front of the door and worked my way down to the floor. By this time, I had acquired a sizeable trash pile, three totes that held items that belonged in different areas (kitchen, living room and kids toys), and a clear floor area in the closet. Oh - and I had "lost" my queen size bed, most of my bedroom floor and a card table under the mountain of stuff that had come out of this closet.

Since the main area of the closet was clear, I grabbed a chair and stood on it to get totes and boxes and more down from the upper shelf (the one that is like six and a half feet off the ground! Then I started in on the shelves and cubbies. What a workout!

First of all, I want to tell you some interesting (or perplexing) things that I found. First, I found six rolls of Christmas wrapping paper left over from the after-Christmas clearance sales from 2008, so I took those and stuck them into my Christmas tote that was in my room anyhow waiting to have a home cleared out for it in our basement. Only one thing at a time, please!

Let's see...what else did I find? Oh - I found two air mattresses. One twin, one queen. I know one of them doesn't hold air, but I can't remember which. They are both laying on the floor next to my bed at the moment because I am trying to decide whether I want to test them both out and purge the one that doesn't hold air, or if I want to just go ahead and get rid of both of them since we never use them anyhow.

Hmmm...I found lots and lots of clothes that I am going to have to wash because I have no idea how long they have been in there and it was dusty and yucky in there from being neglected and having more and more crap thrown in on top. At the bottom of the pile I found my mother-in-law's old vacuum cleaner that she had given to us when ours stopped working about two years ago. She had just gotten a new one and figured she could part with this one. It doesn't do the greatest job but it is still a decent vacuum. I plan to put it out in the garage to use on our vehicles once I get the garage cleared out. For right now, it's tucked back into the back cubby area, where it fits wonderfully. I might even just keep it there and vacuum the cars out in our lower driveway, which isn't far from our bedroom and has an outdoor outlet right there anyways.

But the real kicker, the one that really took the cake for the finds...a used pregnancy test. The cap had been put back on, by the way. But the thing of it is, this test was most likely taken in, oh, February of 2007. That is the most recent it could have been taken. Let me also point out the fact that we moved into this house in December 2008. So not only is this test 4 years old, but it flippin' moved with us! I just don't know. I mean, I remember keeping it for a short while in our master bathroom, but really? I thought I had thrown it away. It just boggles my mind. And just for the record, the test has been thrown away.

Speaking of throwing things away, this is what the closet yielded:

3 kitchen size Glad Force Flex trash bags full of trash
3 hot wheels race car tracks with missing pieces
1 or 2 air mattresses that may or may not hold air
1 folding chair that has a severely torn seat
2 full boxes of papers and cardboard (really it's for the recycling, but I didn't want to make a whole separate category for recycling for that one little bit)

Then things that got moved to another area:

books to my bookshelf in the living room
books to the kids' bookshelf in the living room
medicines (still within expiration date) to the cabinet in the kitchen
vhs tapes and dvds to the entertainment center in the living room
kids' toys and stuffed animals to their floor of the house
a set of 2 stacking shelves which I repurposed - you will see this soon in another post

Things that got put back into the closet:

questionable laundry bagged up and ready to be taken downstairs as I work on laundry today
3 table legs that go to a kiddie table that belongs to the little ones. I think the 4th leg is in the basement and I know the tabletop is down there for sure.
sports cards (in binders and sleeves or in cases)
a few board games
2 small totes of keepsake items and pictures
a small tote of bags (backpack, messenger style bag and rolling duffel bag)
a small tote of cords that I am going to have Hubby go through. He knows what we need to keep and what we can toss out. I'd just toss them all and end up having to buy a replacement one. I don't want to have to do that. I already had to buy a VGA cable (I think that is what it is called) to hook up our new monitor to our new computer tower earlier this year. Guess what I found in that tote? A VGA cable. Darn it! That was a waste of $15 right there. Wonder how much money I have truly wasted in this one closet alone. Eh, scratch that. I probably don't want to know.
and 2 empty laundry baskets and 2 empty totes

So, the closet probably wouldn't look incredible to some people, but if you had any idea just how much crap was crammed in there, you'd understand. Seriously. I know it still needs work, but it is soooooo much better than it was before! I am really pleased with the amount of work I got done in there tonight. And maybe, just maybe within the next few weeks, we will be able to start using the closet in a more appropriate manner. Just sayin'. It's a goal.

And for the record, I'm still not tired. Grrr. Hopefully that means that I will be able to get a lot accomplished today! It's worth trying anyhow! Or at the very least, get our bedroom back to normal before Hubby goes in there to get ready for the day (kinda seriously doubt that will happen though!)

Oh - and how perfect is this?! Rachel Anne's Small Thing for today was to just start something. Don't get caught up in the details, don't over-analyze, don't wait for the perfect time or the perfect opportunity or the perfect plan. Even if it isn't the right time, the right plan, the right whatever...Just get to it! And, as you have read above, that's exactly what I had done this morning. Woo! Love it!

Oh - and that gave me a quick and easy 40 points for doing what I had already done today! Yay! My monthly total is now 320 points! I still need to bake something from scratch to earn points either today or tomorrow. That particular "assignment was from last Thursday and she gave us a full week to get it done, and I'm quickly coming up on the end of that time frame. I may be back later today with another Small Things post. We'll see!

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-03-08T23:46:00.001-06:00

If you know me, then you know that I'm a knitter. I love love love to knit! But my life is not always conducive to allowing me the time to knit, so I try to sneak it in when and where I can. Which means that my knitting supplies and my yarn both end up sometimes in disarray.

Today, I took the time to dig into the depths of my cedar chest where I keep my yarn, and to sort it all out. I separated my wool yarns (I didn't realize how much I still had on hand - that is GREAT news!) from my acrylics (and I only kept the acrylics that I actually loved - I have a real love/hate relationship with acrylic) from my cottons (once again - I had more than I realized, which once again, was GREAT news!)

Now, my cedar chest is well organized and I can find what I need quickly and easily! I also put a couple of WIPs (works in progress) into little plastic drawstring bags so that I could grab a project and go if I so desire. I still need to figure out a good system for my knitting supplies - extra needles, tapestry needles, scissors, measuring tape, row markers, stitch markers, pom pom makers, etc. etc. etc. but I'm taking it one step at a time. And right now, all those items are together - on top of a bookshelf so that the kids can't get to them. Maybe tomorrow I will have a chance to get to it.

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Tossed It Tuesday

2011-03-08T23:38:00.001-06:00

To be perfectly honest, I have no idea what I have tossed out this week. I had hubby take out the garbage last night (as it was trash night) and I barked out a bunch of stuff that I wanted him to make sure he got out there. Let's see if I can remember some of them...

There were the two long boxes that some curtain rods came in that have been hanging out around our house for way too long.

There was the top front wooden piece to an entertainment center that we used to have in our living room that we got rid of, oh, about 8 months ago. For some odd reason, this one piece has hung around ever since then though.

I finally got rid of a carseat, base and stroller combination that has been here since Boo was a baby. He's now 3 1/2. That was nice to get rid of. Hmm, not really thinking of anything else at the moment. But that's a pretty decent list, I do think.

Oh - we also took two more boxes of clothes to the clothing drop. We will be doing that forever, I think.

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Tables, tables everywhere...

2011-03-08T23:28:00.000-06:00

Today Rachel Anne was talking about the tables and furniture pieces in our homes that do such a great job for us. We need to give them a little bit of attention too, you know! So she offered up a full 15 points per furniture piece that got some attention today. Limit of 10 pieces. Still, that is a possible 150 points for ONE day! Wowza!

So, I dove right in. First I had to clear off the end tables in our living room so that I could give them a good dusting off and a quick shine up. The shine doesn't really last on these pieces because they are hand me downs that were rough when we got them. I still got them to look as nice as I could though. That part netted me 20 points.

Then I moved on to the cedar chest that has functioned as nearly everything in this house. It has been a TV stand, an end table, a night stand, a coffee table, a chest, a piece at the foot of our bed, everything. Right now, it is currently being employed as a coffee table / wool yarn storage space. The cedar keeps moths and such from making homes in the wool. Did you know that? So I gave that piece of furniture a quick dusting and a shine too. Now I'm up to 30 points.

Then it was on to my bookcase. It's low and sits next to my chair in the living room. It holds mostly my books and reference books for the kids that they have to have permission before using. I gave the top and the two shelves there the same treatment. The kids' bookcase got the same treatment as well - the top and all four shelves. At this point, I was up to 50 points. Only ten more pieces to do to get the full amount! Woot!

I moved onto the entertainment center and gave that some attention as well. While I was there, I also straightened up the shelves and wiped off the television screen and dusted the TV too, for no extra charge! Funny how doing one little thing can so easily lead in to another! So that left me at 60 points.

Hubby's desk was next in line (because it was the next piece of furniture on that wall) and I did the desk and desk chair both. The chair really needs to be cleaned but I will have to do that the next time I pull out the carpet cleaner so I can use the upholstery attachment on that - well, really, all the furniture could probably use it but Hubby's desk chair and my recliner show it the most because they are both light in color. Okay - slight tangent there, let's see where were we? Oh yes, I was up to 70 points.

Two side tables in the den were calling my name, after they saw what I had done to their friends in the living room, so I went down and settled them down too, giving them a nice rub down and thanking them for their services here. Two more pieces equals 20 more points! New total: 90 points.

The television stand in the den was looking pretty rough. I had just brought it in from being stored in the garage (because I wanted to move the cedar chest up to the living room to use as a coffee table and get it out from under the t.v. in the den) and it was dusty! Blech! Poor thing! It's black and it looked nearly white with dust. So then, the t.v. stand got a good polishing up too. Once again while I was at it, I dusted off the t.v. and wiped down the monitor. 100 points!

Moving on to our bedroom, I did a quick dusting off of our dresser, chest of drawers, both of our night stands and our bed frame. That was five more pieces for an additional 50 points, which maxed me out at the 150 point limit. But I didn't stop there. I was on a roll!

I went upstairs to the kids' bedroom level and also knocked out five bed frames, one night stand and two dressers. I came back down to the den, realized I had forgotten the armoire, so I took care of that as well. Then went down to the basement and knocked out two more dressers! That left me with a total of 11 extra pieces that I dusted and made to look nice. It was just so easy to keep going once I got started. Maybe that's the key to the "small things". It's a gateway to bigger and more involved things around the house. But yay! The wood furniture is dusted, so this weekend's Mega cleaning (formerly known as perfect clean) will be just a touch easier to do!

Total for today was the whole whopping 150 points!
Total for March is now 280 points. Wow.

Ketchup Caught!

2011-03-07T19:30:00.000-06:00

Oh man, I cannot even begin to tell you all how happy I was to see today's small thing from Rachel Anne! Apparently I am not the only one who slipped this weekend. I mean, I did do stuff this weekend, but I've been dragging and just haven't been up to doing as much as I have been lately and so while the minimum maintenance things are getting done and I'm still doing okay with my "just good enough", I haven't been going much further than that.

Today's small thing was to just catch up on something. So, I decided to get caught up on the groceries getting put away. It was something that I hadn't done yet because I needed to rotate some food around (first in, first out, you know!) and so I just hadn't gotten around to it. Now it is done!

Today's small thing was worth 40 points, which brings my monthly total for March up to 130 points!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-03-07T19:21:00.000-06:00

Today, I have been seriously lacking in motivation and just feel like I'm dragging. I left dinner up to Hubby tonight because I hadn't even gotten that far yet. So, tonight was a dinner from a box for the kids. I haven't been hungry at all for the last few days. I think I'm either coming down with something or well, I don't know. I don't feel ill, just worn out. But I really don't have a reason to feel this worn out, so I don't know. Anyhow, on to the menu plan for this week:

Monday - hamburger helper
Tuesday - at mother in law's house
Wednesday - spaghetti with meat sauce, green beans, garlic parmesan bread and fruit
Thursday - homemade chicken noodle soup
Friday - breakfast for dinner - french toast, yogurt and fruit
Saturday - homemade pizzas
Sunday - roast, mashed potatoes, corn and fruit

Saturday Night Special

2011-03-05T19:55:00.002-06:00

The movie selection for tonight is "Space Chimps 2". There are two seats left for this showing, next to the 3 year old drinking root beer on the couch. I don't think he has spilled any yet, so the couch should still be dry. And be careful as you approach the couch so that you don't step on that blanket. You know, the one covering much of the floor in the center of the room. Somewhere under there is a 7 year old. He's been stepped on before, but he seriously prefers that it not happen. Something about it hurting or something like that. And those chairs facing each other by the desk? Under the blanket on those chairs is a 4 year old. It took her a serious amount of whining and complaining to drive the 3 year old out of his original spot for the night. Meanwhile, the 10 year old and I are taking up residence on opposite ends of the room, in the chairs. A good night will be had by all, I am sure.

The kids are about halfway through their movie selection for the night, which means I still have about 45 minutes to putter around on the computer and in the blogosphere. One of our big time rules for movie night is that EVERY light in the house is off. The only light generated is from my laptop and from the TV screen. They normally do not get to watch TV in the total dark, but this one night a week I do allow it for the length of one movie.

Tomorrow, we are going to the movies to watch Megamind with the three older kiddos. I was hoping to take Boo with us, but Hubby arranged for his mom to watch the boy instead. Yes, I know that Megamind is available on DVD, but Hubby and I saw it in the theaters when it was out originally and we know that the kids will like it. The theater has something going on called "Frosty Flicks". It's something that Marcus Theaters does during the winter time. It is a great deal too! They have showings on Saturday and Sunday mornings during the winter and it costs $2.00 for admission and you can get a small popcorn and a small pop for $2 apiece as well. We generally go for the large popcorn and large pop for like $11.00, because you can get free refills on them, and they even give you smaller bags to divide up the popcorn as well. It's a pretty sweet deal, really.

We got a lot of work done today, despite the fact that I had a most difficult time falling asleep last night and laid in bed until around 7:00 this morning, when I finally fell asleep. Ugh! I slept until 2pm, though. That made for a lot of work to get done in a short amount of time and it was a bit more difficult because the kids had already gotten off track for their daily schedule. It is so rough to rein them back in.

But I did and so now, the bathrooms are clean, the den is mostly clean (it was clean but then I brought in some groceries from the back of the van and they landed in the den instead of in the kitchen), the trash got taken out, the living room is done, our bedroom is looking much better, the guest bedroom is in good shape and the boys' room is done. Tomorrow (or after the movie tonight, depending on how well the kids go to bed) we need to get the little kids to clean their room, get the kitchen cleaned up, continue in our bedroom and then work on laundry and in the laundry room.

We have some things planned for tomorrow though too. We have the movie in the morning, then after that, I will be running JoNo over to play with his buddy, Con. While I am there, I will be dropping off our old stroller and carseat travel system that we had for Boo. He's three and a half now. He hasn't used the infant carseat in at least three years and the stroller in probably a year and a half. I think it's time to get rid of them. Plus, Con's mom is having a baby soon so it really works on many levels. She also has some living room lamps that she is getting rid of, so I will be picking those up for my living room. I love the fact that we are able to do this! Getting rid of what we don't need for something that we do. Totally awesome! It wasn't worked out to be a trade exactly, but that's kind of the way it worked out, which works for me!

Then Miss Punky gets to go to her "bess fren in whole wide whirl" house for a play date. I tell you, those two girls are like glue at school. They just love each other to pieces. It is quite adorable really. Her friend, we'll call her "Bess", I think had a birthday on Friday (or at least that is when her mom brought cupcakes for the class treat) so we will be bringing a gift for Bess with us when we go over there. I didn't even have to go out and buy one for her either, extra bonus. Last week, Punky had been invited to another child's birthday party, but because of snow and cold, we decided not to go. Well, that and the fact that I had forgotten to RSVP to the parents. But I did buy that child a gift before the RSVP was expected. Since we didn't go to the party and give that gift, Bess will get it instead. Which actually, I am quite okay with because it is a gift that I am certain Bess will like. Not sure about the other kid (because I don't even know who the other kid is.)

So, for a few hours tomorrow, we will have two kids out for arranged play dates, Natty will probably go play with a neighborhood friend and it will just be Hubby, myself and Boo, who should be napping at that point. So, that will give me some time to get some work done.

Then tomorrow evening, we will either have my mom come over to babysit (or have the kids stay the night at mother-in-law's house) so that we can go join one of our friends for birthday drinks. And by we, I mean, I will drink and Hubby will drive. That's just how we roll. I love the fact that Hubby doesn't drink and that I always have a designated driver if I need one.

So, that is our weekend. It is packed full and we have lots to do (both fun and work stuff) but oh, it will be well worth it! What are you doing this weekend?

ALSO - please consider making a donation and sponsoring my boys by clicking on the links under my banner above. They would really appreciate it!

Finish It Friday

2011-03-04T00:15:00.008-06:00

This week for "Finish It Friday" I reorganized my Tupperware cupboard. It was a very necessary thing to do because Hubby had me order some more Tupperware products for him. (How many guys regularly shop the Tupperware catalog, by the way?) I needed to place an order anyhow, so it worked out well. He got some new "toys" as he likes to call them.

But when I went to unpack the box of Tupperware (and the other two boxes from the last order that have just been sitting there for the last couple of months - mostly things for hostess gifts and door prizes and such) I discovered two things. One was that my Tupperware cupboard was once again looking a bit chaotic and number two, that I needed to rearrange some items because I had more Tupperware than I had space the way that it was.

So now, most of the Tupperware is neatly stored in the cupboard and I love it! It is so neat and organized and you just can't beat that! Plus, I love the products so you may see a post or two coming up here about some of the products, especially next month when there is going to be one of my absolute FAVORITE deals of all time coming up. Stay tuned for that.

Well, before I go off on a sales pitch (it's easy to do when you love a product line!) I will share the new after pictures with you all, because really, that's what you want to see right? The inside of my Tupperware cupboard.

This is the top shelf. Up here, from left to right, I have my (and by "my", I mean Hubby's) midgets - those small containers, then some of my Freezer Mates collection (I have the "Complete" collection but some are in use right now), then some of my Fridge Smart collection, (once again, I have the large collection and some of them are in use), then at the back are some of my Thatsa Bowl 4pc. set, but really, it is an 8pc set because it was BOGO free last year and I couldn't pass it up. But I guess technically it is a 16pc set if you count the seals too.

Continuing on around to the other side, is an old ice cube holder thing that is supposed to go in the freezer, but we never use it, so I ended up just using it to store some of the seals for small items, like two different kinds of tumblers and the snack cups. Then next to that are a few pieces of non-Tupperware brand containers that I keep on hand for non-food storage items.

Here on the lower shelf, once again going from left to right, you will see two sandwich keepers sitting in front of a non-Tupperware brand container that I use to store the seals for the midgets, all of which set atop a rectangular modular mate that I have filled with cake mix that I use at parties for demonstration purposes, which is sitting on top of a heat n serve divided dish (which is no longer available). Next to those, on their side are the snack bar keepers (they are red), then a plastic basket filled with seals for most of my products. In the back are some Wonderlier bowls.

Next to the bowls are the Stuffables Super set, with some Crystal Wave dishes stored inside of them. Next to that is my Stack Cooker. In front of the Stack Cooker are my Stuffables Mini set, stored inside a Pampered Chef small Micro-Cooker, which is stored inside a store brand thing that is kind of like the Micro-Cooker, but not nearly as deep or awesome and doesn't have a lid either. Plus, I don't use it, so I should probably get rid of it anyhow... Which leads us up to the front and two of our (many!) snack cups. The one on top belongs to Miss Punky Pie. She has a princess thing going on and she got a set of princess Tupperware for Christmas this last year.

So, that is my freshly organized Tupperware cupboard for today's post. Head on over to Katie's blog to see what she is doing for "Finish It Friday" as well!

I am also linking this up to Org Junkie's 52 weeks of decluttering.

She listed some questions to ponder this week as well, which are:

1.) Do you know what your "good enough" is?
This question is an easy one for me to answer because not only do I know what my "good enough" is, I can easily explain it as well. My "good enough" is surfaces cleared off, floor free of clutter and debris, and the house smells nice. Pretty simple, really. So, on my worst day, that is my "good enough". Some days, it doesn't even get to that point, but when that happens, I'm stressed out and tense and really, quite impossible to live with (just ask Hubby or the kiddos - they will readily agree!) so what I have listed is my definite minimum, basic "good enough" standard.

2.) What did you organize this week?
Um, see above?

3.) Are there any areas you are struggling with in this challenge?
Mainly just posting about it. I have certainly done 9 different projects, but I don't blog every project, nor do I link up every project - mainly because I forget to. I just might start doing it though. I like joining in on things like this and visiting other people's blogs.

Can't Sleep...

2011-03-03T04:28:00.000-06:00

I'm up late as I can't sleep. It works out, I guess, because Boo can't sleep either. At least not peacefully. He is moaning in his sleep and is coughing occasionally as well. I hope he isn't coming down with something that will make JoNo really sick. The school has already sent home letters this year regarding his attendance. He has missed nine full days of school due to illness. At twenty days, the school refers to the County Attorney for a child missing so much school. We have our pediatrician's support, he knows how bad JoNo gets and will back us up 100%. The thing that I don't get, though, is the fact that the school sends him home when he is sick, tells us to send him to school even when we are on the fence about whether it would be a good idea or not, then they wonder why: a) the child is sick, b) the child is not getting better quickly, c) why the child has missed school. I wonder if they tell other parents to send their children to school when they are sick as well? If so, maybe that is part of JoNo's problem. Ya think? Just maybe?

Hubby is once again contemplating the possibility of homeschooling the kids next year. I have been down this road before. I am so not getting my hopes up for it. Because when it comes right down to it, I highly doubt that he will want to actually follow through with it. Plus, I would like to keep Boo in school because of the services he receives, and JoNo may actually end up qualifying for services as well. He has a marked delay in his reading abilities, while still being at the top of his grade level for math. Then again, Natty is the same way, but I don't think it is quite as severe of a gap with him.

I'm also excited for Punky to start school next year. She is so looking forward to being with her big brothers at school. I just don't know. It makes me happy that Hubby wants to do it, but at the same time, it also makes me really sad that he has waited this long to come to this decision. I just don't know what to think really.

I made a cake last night. For no reason. I just thought that the kids would enjoy having it after school or after dinner today. Hubby even took the time to frost it and store it for me. Isn't that sweet?

I have been going through photos of Boo since I have been up and keeping an eye on him. It is just incredible how much he has changed over the last two years. May 2009, when he was 19 months old, he was just learning how to walk, he was pretty much non-verbal for the most part, he didn't socialize, wouldn't engage, didn't look people in the eye generally, would not sit through a story. Now, he walks, runs, kicks, throws, catches (well, it's evolving), jumps, rides a tiny bike with training wheels. He also talks, though not usually in conversation. He can voice requests and he can count and say his ABCs. He can verbalize pain and joy. He can rote count up to 30, knows his numbers by sight up to 30. He knows all of his letters by sight, both upper and lowercase. He knows the sounds they make, where they are in the alphabet (he can place a missing letter into the ABC sequence), he knows many shapes and colors. He has a fascination with Team Umizoomi and Bubble Guppies. He's just a doll. But is he a typical 3 1/2 year old? Not even close. A while back, we were at a birthday party for one of his school friends and after introducing ourselves, one of the mothers told me, "Oh yes, we hear lots about Boo from little miss. She really likes playing with him at school." The teachers say he has the most friends out of all the kids. He likes to play with them, but he doesn't generally seek them out, he still plays solo quite often. He's just kind of in his own little world. And while I love that he has his own little world, I worry about it too. According to the school, they don't think that he is autistic. The pediatrician is uncertain. We were supposed to have an appointment with a pediatric developmental specialist back in January, but we lost the kids' insurance coverage because of a paperwork ordeal that I'm still working on getting fixed. I just don't know what to think about it all.

I have an appointment for tomorrow to file for SSI for him at the recommendation of his services coordinator. She suggested that we apply for him and for JoNo both. Boo because of his educational diagnosis and JoNo for his lung disease and trouble with illness and because of his vision as well. The child has 20/400 eyesight in one eye, uncorrected. With correction, I believe it is something like 20/80 in the eye and he has essentially no peripheral vision in either eye.

Natty has been having some emotional issues the last few days, not really defiance but more things going on at school, but he isn't talking about it much until it all just bursts out. He can honestly go from everything is super awesome at school one day and talking about things he and his friends did and everything to the next day saying that no one likes him and he has no friends and other things like that. We think that the days that he says he doesn't have any friends, there was mostly something at school that didn't go his way and he had a meltdown about it. He can be incredibly responsible and mature, but he just doesn't "get" a lot of social situations and nuances and such.

And Miss Punky Pie - since I'm talking about the rest of them, I may as well mention her too, yes? She has been a handful. Stubborn and strong-willed. Tuesday evening, she kicked her grandma in the stomach at bedtime. I don't know what exactly is prompting this in her little world, but I wish the behavior would come to a close. I am sure it will too. Our main issues with her are direct obedience. She does okay most of the time, but whenever she is asked/told to do something, she digs her heels in and goes the exact opposite way. It's frustrating, but we just continue to work with her, letting her know firmly that we are asking her do whatever (say, clean her room) because we are teaching her to be responsible for herself and that yes, she does need to do what we tell her to or there will be a consequence and she will still have to do what she was asked to do.

So, yeah, that's what is on my mind right now. I think there is a blog meme out there somewhere "Random Thoughts Thursday". I think I might have to look it up and see if I can find it and link up to it, because if this wasn't random thoughts, I don't know what is.

Time For Me Thursday

2011-03-03T03:00:00.001-06:00

Can I just say how much I have been looking forward to this day? I mean, seriously - it is a day that I get to spend time on me! The question is, what are my plans for myself for today? I will share that with you, since you so nicely asked, or since you're still reading, whichever may be the case.

I have some things that I need to get done. I need to do some massive laundry tackling today, I need to get the house in order while the kids are at school, I need to unload some non-perishable foods that are still in the van from our grocery trip the other night when I was too tired to bring them in when we got back home. (It was a long day, believe me!) and all of those things are good and well, but not really "time for me". So in addition to all of those other things, I am going to finally get my bedroom in order too!

I have to admit, there are not many huge things to do in this room, just a lot of small things, like clear off the dresser, clear off the chest of drawers, give my Hubby the use of his nightstand again, move some things out of our room, break down a card table that has been living in our bedroom for who knows how long, clear off my chair in there and the shelves I have next to them.

This doesn't sound like "time for me"? Well, you are right, but this is a means to an end. That end being my "time for me" plan, which is to kick back in the chair and enjoy the freshly decluttered room, maybe even make myself some (instant) cappuccino and drink that while I blog or surf the net or whatever. Maybe Hubby and I would even be able to relax and enjoy a game of Backgammon while we're at it. Or Rummy. We always used to play Rummy after the kids went to bed, but before we turned in for the night ourselves. And lately, we started doing that again here and there. We enjoy it and it is some special time just for us. Kind of like a mini-date for us in our own house.

So that is my "Time For Me Thursday". You should take time for yourself too! What are YOU going to do for YOURSELF today?

Just Throw It Out!!

2011-03-02T23:46:00.000-06:00

Today's assignment was to grab a bag and get rid of things. Just go through an area that we choose, grab anything that we don't like, isn't needed, is broken or we are just ready to get rid of.

I did this in my kitchen on one counter that gets piled up quickly and easily. Flylady would call it a hot spot, I call it a pain in my tush. I hate that counter. It is so set apart from the actual food prep area that it just isn't serviceable for the making of food. Wish I could rearrange my kitchen, but that is not an option, so instead, I will just clear off the counter that gets junked over. Oh - and for the record, it took a grocery bag and a half to clear off the counter, and that doesn't count the recycling that I moved to the actual recycling bin.

Okay, time for points. Yay! :) Today's task was worth 40 points!
That brings the monthly total up to 90 points!

Tossed It Tuesday

2011-03-02T14:33:00.000-06:00

Posting late here, but a post is a post, yes? Violet is feeling better, so yay for that! And she was able to get some things tossed this week too. I am trying to think of what we tossed that was separate from our regular every day trash. Let's see if I can remember:

My mom finally took home a box of her and my brother's clothing yesterday.
We sent a load of recycling home with our good friends when they were here on Sunday evening.
I have two bags of clothes that went out this week.

Yep, I think that is close to being it. I have things already started for this week, but you will find out about that next week! :)

The Refrigerator Door...

2011-03-02T14:18:00.001-06:00

Well, Katie asked and I am delivering. There were so many posts that I had hoped to get done yesterday but I just couldn't get everything done. Why is it that Tuesday is a major posting day for me, yet it is also the day that I am home the least? That's something that I am going to have to figure out how to work out more efficiently. So, anyhow without further ado, here is my refrigerator door before I took everything out, threw three items away and combined two ketchup containers into one:

First picture up is my before picture. You can see that the items are just shoved in there without rhyme or reason. I also did not even realize until I was taking these pictures and cleaning it out that we are missing (and always have been - as long as we have been living here - the top bar that holds stuff on the top shelf. I just never really paid attention to it. Not sure we would have really utilized it anyhow, as it is a short space.

These are my after pictures. You can see that I took things out (wiped down the containers and the door shelves and then put things back in there neatly in a way that makes sense. All salad dressings together, all the condiments regularly used for hamburgers are all together and the top is pretty much just whatever fits up there.

And this my friends, is what we will be looking at being made over next Tuesday. It's yucky! The food is all good - just the shelves and the bottom and sides are not clean. It will get done though!

Seeing It In Lights...

2011-03-01T10:18:00.000-06:00

Today's small thing involves replacing light bulbs, so I went around the house replacing them. There was a lamp in our spare bedroom that had needed the bulb replaced for about a month or so that I just haven't gotten around to, our hall bathroom had four lights out in it. We have a row of seven lights across the top of our mirror and when they had burned out, I had replaced only three of them, spaced out to every other bulb. There were two bulbs needing replaced out of the nine in our kitchen and one of the two in our lower level bathroom.

I try to keep light bulbs on hand although I don't like changing the bulbs. I don't know why I dislike doing it. It's a quick fix and makes everything look so much better, but even still, I just don't like to do it. So, that job is checked off. I think I might need to plan to do this once a month, maybe when I check the battery in my smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, just to make sure that it gets done.

And after replacing those bulbs, I need to replace two full packages of light bulbs. I put it on my list, so the next time I go to the store, I can pick those up so that I can have them on hand.

Today's task of replacing the bulbs was worth 30 points and adding light bulbs to my list was worth an additional 20 points.

March total: 50 points

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-03-01T01:00:00.003-06:00

I have actually done quite a few tackles this past week. So, please forgive me if this is long, but I just really wanted to share all that I was able to accomplish!

First of all, I tackled the assembly of our new air glider workout machine. This was a gift from my mother-in-law. She loves to watch and shop from QVC. This particular item she got from QVC back in 2001. Into her basement it went (still in the original box - never opened, the tie straps were still in place) and remained there until she realized earlier this month that Boo had spilled something on the box. The box that it was shipped in, that never penetrated the box or in any way came into contact with the interior of the box, much less the machine itself. Anyhow, thanks to Boo for getting something onto the box because after that happened, Grandma decided she didn't want it anymore and asked us if we wanted it. And of course, we said yes!!!

It stayed in my trunk for a few days, but I eventually brought it in and it sat for another day or two before I decided to put it together. Eventually, Hubby helped me with the assembly, but really, it wasn't very difficult to do at all. So we now have two exercise machines in our possession. Yay for that!

Another thing that I tackled this past week was a chore chart and routine for the kids that is actually working! It has worked for a solid 8 days and is still going strong. You see, we were struggling with a few things with the kids. The first one being their self-centered attitudes, the second being their unwillingness to help out around the house, the third being their sense of entitlement to whatever they wanted or want to do, and the fourth, trying to figure out the perfect solution for allowance that wouldn't break the bank for us and yet still give them some monetary control. And I think we have found it.

The first step was breaking down their chores into three sections of the day: Before School (or by noon on weekends/non-school days), After School (or between noon and 6pm on weekends/non-school days), After Dinner (between 6pm and 8pm).

Then I listed out tasks, chores or responsibilities that they needed to complete. I'll use JoNo's tasks for this week as my example, which you can see right here:

As you can see, most of his before school chores are really just things that he needs to be responsible for anyhow. You will notice, however, that on his list is something that says, "Quick Clean", which is used as our way of saying that the room looks neat and tidy. It does not involve cleaners (unless there is a major mess to be cleaned up) or tools. It is simply to go into a room, look for anything that is out of place and take it to the place where it belongs and put it away. Very simple.

Then, for after school chores, he requested that for this current week, he be allowed to have two chores because he only had one last week (quick clean bathrooms - we have 3) and he was getting done with those long before NattyNu was getting done with his one (the den). So, this week, Natty asked if he could do the living room instead of the den and then JoNo asked if he could have the den, since Natty didn't want it anymore. But he also made sure to mention that he still wanted the bathrooms as well, so he got them.

After supper, he is to help with dishes. Dishes are Hubby's job (I cook, he does the dishes, it seems fair to me!) Natty clears the table. Actually, Natty clears the table of anything that is on it before supper and then clears the table afterwards. I often help him out with the clearing process, mainly so that I can make sure that the leftovers get put away properly. Then it's up to JoNo and Hubby to do the dishes. Keeps them both on track. And quite honestly, JoNo has loved doing the dishes since he was four. He's now seven. He can pretty much handle them on his own. But Hubby is there to supervise and to make sure that JoNo gets everything really clean and, of course, to wash any sharp knives (though JoNo can and will wash sharp knives with direct supervision).

The boys' thirty minutes of reading time is done right at bedtime. They go up to bed at 8:30 but they are allowed to read until 9:00. They can also go up earlier if they choose to, but 8:30 is the time that they have to be in bed by. If they are not reading like they are supposed to, then lights go out and they miss out on completing that responsibility.

By now, you have probably already noticed the weekend chores as well - the "Perfect Clean"s. It is essentially a deep clean of a room - the same room that they are responsible for all week long, except this is when the cleaners and vacuum or broom and dustpan get busted out. The easiest way to explain this to them and to avoid any confusion about what an acceptable level of cleanliness is for these rooms is to say that the rooms need to be perfectly cleaned (to the best of their abilities and skills). We also use the phrase "perfect behavior" for public situations where they need to behave really well. Most people that I know use the phrase "best behavior" but a short while back, Natty had complained that they "can't be perfect all the time" to which I replied, "I know you can't. But you all can behave well most of the time and you can actually behave perfectly for a short time," and thus began the use of limited "perfect" in our household.

Okay, so that takes care of the chore part of that, now for the other parts. The boys each have a Nintendo dsi, which I am sure that I have written about before. And they both like to play an online game together as well. But they got to be too much. The minute they got home from school, they'd drop their backpacks and coats by the front door and start their gaming session right away. Then it was extremely difficult to get them focused on what needed to be done. So, we told them that they were limited to one hour of screen time (which they choose to use for gaming) during the week and three hours on the weekend days. The one stipulation is that they have to have everything completed before they can play. This means that all before and after school chores have to be done and checked off. And there are no video games after supper, so they have a real motivation to get it done in a timely manner so that they have earned their right to play games.

When they come home from school, they are now eager to get their chores done, they will ask where their list is and just start working on it. When they are done, they will bring me their list and I will ask them if they did each item (going through each one) and they will respond. Then I will randomly choose to check the items. I don't check to make sure that every item is done every day. But I will check to make sure things got done. If the child outright lied about doing a chore, he is not allowed to play games that day and he has to do the chore he lied about, plus do an extra chore. I think it has happened once in 8 days and that was early on - as a test, I am sure. Not a bad track record though. Their only reward for chores is a job well done and praise and the screen time.

We decided that we will give them a dollar per year of age once a month to spend as they see fit. If they want to save it up, they can. Or they can choose to spend it. It is their money and they can do what they want with it, within reason.

I am also somewhat forgiving on things that don't get done every day. The boys don't quite realize this yet, but for instance, tonight, Hubby was working on something else and so JoNo got a pass on the dishes. It wasn't his fault that they didn't get done. I could have stayed in to help him with it, but I have my own chores that I work on after dinner, so tonight, JoNo got a freebie there. And with the weather being poor here lately, I didn't have either of the boys take our dog (Freddy) out for a walk today. Instead, we simply let him out the back door and waited for him to do his business and then let him back in.

Hmmm, I am trying to decide if I want to go on to another item that we tackled this week or to "save" it for next week. I think I am going to save the rest of them. This is really long already and it was mostly about the chore chart. So, I think that is what we will go with here. Expect more things next week! And stop back in, I love visitors!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-28T08:34:00.001-06:00

This weekend, I bought chicken for pretty cheap (1.88/lb for b/l s/l chicken breasts) so I foresee chicken in our immediate future. I cooked up some of it last night, but we ate that amount with the company we had over, so for this week, we will have:

Chicken fajita salads (love love love these!)

Chicken noodle casserole

Homemade pizzas

Leftover bar

Breakfast for dinner

Potato bar

Enchiladas (chicken or beef, depending when in the week we have this)

That is not the list in the order of when we will eat the meals, but rather a guideline for our dinner plans. I can't wait to get the rest of that chicken made up later today! What I make up today, I will set aside for the meals for this week and the rest of it will be stored in my Tupperware Freezer Mate containers. Love those things!

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-02-22T13:54:00.000-06:00

Today's tackle has been working on attacking Mt. Washmore (laundry anyone? I have plenty to spare!), getting our bedroom ready for our new bedroom set that comes some time tomorrow, and trying to get the adhesive and some black covering thing pulled up out of our basement and take it back to the cement floor. Oh and we also pulled up the carpet that was in the basement and took that and an old couch out. Both will be on the curb next week for trash collection day. Unless I get motivated to take it to the landfill before then. Highly doubtful as I have lots of other projects going on first.

Things that I have tackled and accomplished this past week, include rearranging furniture, moving bookshelves to our living room and unpacking multiple boxes of books to stock the shelves with. Going through the boxes and weeding out the books that I don't want to keep. Let's see, we also cleared out our den, moved in our couch and loveseat, took down vertical blinds from all of our bigger windows and sliding doors, put up curtains instead, put together an exercise bike, created chore lists for the kiddos that seem to actually be working! (yay for that one!), cleaned out my front closet, yeah...I think that's it. Or mostly it? I'm so exhausted. But I'm trying to get a number of things done before this weekend. I want my house to be in nearly perfect order before this weekend. I know that truly perfect order is not attainable, but I want the entire house to be company-ready. I don't care that no one ever goes into my basement, I want it to be done so that if a person ever were to need to go down there, they wouldn't be frightened. :)

I may go around and take pictures later on today, but for now, I want to get the post up. You can check back later for some pictures of the dones and the to-dos. It'll be fun, I promise!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-21T12:00:00.001-06:00

It's Monday and that means it is time to plan this week's menu. So without further ado (because I have a household full of various projects), here it is:

Monday: take-out (major projects happening today)

Tuesday: dinner for the kids will be at Grandma's house, Hubby and I will do sandwiches or leftovers

Wednesday: beef stroganoff

Thursday: beef enchiladas (I made some this weekend that the kids said were the best that they have ever had and Hubby feels he needs to correct this, so he is making enchiladas to attempt to regain his status as resident best cook)

Friday: homemade pizzas

Saturday: chicken casserole

Sunday: tomato soup and grilled cheese sandwiches

That's our basic plan for the week. It should work out fine. And since the menu is planned, it makes my life so much easier! :) Gotta love that!

Finish It Friday

2011-02-18T22:18:00.000-06:00

Well, with it being Friday, I am supposed to be finishing up something that I started this week. Let's see...since I didn't do much of anything today, this may be a tougher post that I thought it would be. I guess for starters, I finished up Freddy's vet visits. Tuesday, he went to the vet for his rabies, distemper and two other vaccines. Today, he went to the vet's office for a grooming. They have a nice service there, that is affordable plus they express his anal glands as part of the grooming process, which is awesome. Because let me tell you, when my dog farts, it can make a dead skunk smell like a bed of roses. Seriously. Yuck!

Another thing that I wrapped up today was a job contact. I called someone earlier this week about a job and today I had my interview. It will be a while until I hear something for sure due to insurance regulations and such, but that is something else that is finished up today.

The other thing that I was starting to think that I finished up was my ankle. As in, done for. Not to be utilized again. I didn't use crutches yesterday and wore my brace only part of the day while we were working on things around the house. In all honesty, I know I overdid it yesterday. But I knew that I was scheduled to work tonight and I was planning on going in, despite the doctor's note saying that I couldn't. But I was just trying to prepare for the night. And yeah, no go. Once I was done with my interview today, I picked the dog up from the groomer, came home, put my foot up, had Hubby put my air cast back on and took pain medicine. It may have just been over the counter, but it helped some and then I fell asleep because that was the only way I could deal with the sheer amount of pain that I was in.

So, that's that, I suppose. Dog appointments and job leads. Complete for this week.

Relax and enjoy the skin you're in

2011-02-18T21:48:00.001-06:00

It has been stressful for me the last month or so. You can certainly tell that by Wednesday's post which makes today's post seem all the more important to me. You see, I"m a day late for Thursday but wanted to do it anyhow, which means it's my day to do something for myself, encouraged by Katie. In addition to that, Rachel Anne's points for today are also for doing something for myself so that makes it doubly easy to get something in for today.

I have had a lot going on today so my plan for today is to steal away some "me" time by locking myself in the bathroom, filling the tub up with nice hot water, throwing in some bath fizzies and just relaxing. Oh my gosh, does that ever sound wonderful?! Plus, with my ankle, I'm supposed to stay off of it as much as possible and showering pretty much guarantees standing on my foot.

Plus, do y'all have any idea how long it's been since I've been able to just kick back and enjoy a nice long soak? Bliss, I tell ya. Pure and utter bliss. And there's a lock on the door. So that means kidlets and Hubby will just have to fend for themselves the whole time.

I'm linking this up to Katie's "Time For Me Thursday" post and Rachel Anne's "Home Sanctuary" post for today.

Points for today:50 points!
Points for February: 430 points!

When It All Comes Crashing Down...

2011-02-16T22:52:00.000-06:00

I'm kind of in a dumpy mood tonight. Yesterday, I had some things that I wanted to get done and in the end, I was only able to accomplish a small portion of it. While coming down the stairs from the bedroom level of our house, I rolled my left ankle and fell down the stairs. It hurt like crazy and I just laid there for a minute, trying to get a grip on the pain and inhaling deeply. And also realizing just how badly our carpet needs to be cleaned. Pee-eww!!!

But I managed to get up and spent the rest of the day trying to do the best that I could. My foot and ankle hurt but I just stuck it out and did my best. The pain mostly went away until later in the evening. Then it was back and absolutely horrible so I went to sleep.

Woke up today and could barely walk on it. Decided to go ahead and get it checked out. The good news is that it wasn't fractured. It is just a sprain. The bad news is that it is a sprain. Did you know that bones take only 6 weeks to heal whereas ligaments and muscles can take up to a full year?

The doctor put me in an air cast, which is like a splint. It has two air chamber thingies that I blow up with a tube and then I strap it onto my leg. The two chambers are connected to each other by this strap thingie that is under my foot. And so I am supposed to wear this until I am able to walk without pain or 3 days, whichever comes last. And he put me on crutches, which I am supposed to use for the next week at least. It's just depressing.

We have had such a horrible run medically since I started the job in the little town. I have been in two car accidents, I had a sinus infection that was so bad, it blew out both of my eardrums, JoNo has had bronchitis, Hubby had influenza, then he had to have emergency oral surgery, I had bronchitis, I sprained my ankle. And then of course, there are other illnesses that are of a less severe nature. I'm just done. I'm exhausted with this stuff. And I'm afraid that I'm going to end up losing my job.

I have been looking for a new job anyhow. Technically, I shouldn't be working at my current facility because of the family supervising family rule. And there are some issues between me and my co-workers. And I really prefer home health to facilities. But I haven't gotten any of the jobs that I have applied for. It doesn't help that my attendance at my current job has sucked either. But it isn't like there was a lot I could do about it either.

In other news, I have another job interview on Friday. This one is for private duty home health, which is my absolute favorite. And I will probably try to see if I can get some hours with my other private duty lady as well. I'm seriously scared about the future of our financial status.

It will work out though. I know it will. And it doesn't help to worry about it because worrying doesn't solve the problem. What does solve the problem is taking action and that is what I have done. I have put in applications, I have had interviews, I make contacts daily and I keep my job search open.

So if I can get the job on Friday, that will help and if I get some hours with my other lady, that will help even more. It won't be enough, but it will be some extra. And I put an ad on craigslist tonight to try to generate some more leads as well. We'll just have to see how that goes.

And the whole parenting thing - yeah, that's going a bit rough right now too. I am trying to figure out the best way to handle screen time and chores and allowance and privileges and I thought I had a good system worked out and then today, my system turned on me. Hubby and I had decided to limit the kids to one hour of screen time per day during the week. And it only happens after their chores and any special requests have been completed. Then on the weekends, they can have up to three hours each day, but once again - only after chores are done. Allowance will be given every so often (we were trying to decide between weekly, every other week or once a month) and the amount was to be $1 for each year they are old. So Natty would get $10, JoNo would get $7, Punky $4 and Boo $3.

But then yesterday, JoNo buckled down and really kicked tail on helping out around the house, knowing that I was in pain and I totally appreciated it. I didn't even ask him to do anything beyond his room and to just do a quick sweep through the den. Oh yeah, and he also cleaned up the yard outside too. Meanwhile, Natty moaned and groaned and complained about having to do any chores and not being able to just play video games right away, so on and so forth. In the time that it took JoNo to clean up his half of their room, the bathroom, the den and part of the kitchen, Natty got almost half of the living room done. It was ridiculous.

Then today, JoNo brings home his book order and shows me the books he wants to get out of it and asks how much he earned for helping out yesterday. When I tried to explain it to him again that chores just needed to be done before screen time and that allowance was going to be a set amount every so often, he got tears in his eyes because he had worked so hard yesterday and he was wanting to use the money that he earned to pay for some new books.

Yeah, I suck. So I need to figure it out. I'm thinking that they will have their set chores to do to earn their screen time, they will have their allowance that they get at whatever interval and they can earn money for doing extra work and going above and beyond. I think that might be the best solution. I just don't know. This parenting gig is tough!

I just have lots of things to sort out and figure out and hopefully soon, it will all come together. And in the meantime, my carpets really need to be cleaned and I'm not supposed to bear weight. Oh Hubby!...

Tossed It Tuesday

2011-02-15T08:56:00.000-06:00

Well, if you read my last post, you would see that I had cleaned out my pantry. From my pantry alone, I tossed out 8 boxes of expired foods, around 12 cans of expired food, and a bag of potatoes. I also got rid of some old chairs that were breaking and weren't in good enough condition to repair. We finally got the high chair out of the house too. I sorted though some books and got rid of some of those and of course, the great laundry sort continues!

Some things that I am planning to get rid of this coming week include: a couch that has been water-damaged from our basement flooding.

Some carpet that has also been water-damaged from our basement flooding.

Shoes. I am finding that we have TONS and TONS of shoes.

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-02-15T08:49:00.000-06:00

My tackle this past week was the kitchen pantry. Oh my word. I could not believe how junked out it was! I had no idea what I had on hand, I was buying products that I already had on hand, while not buying the products that I was low on. It was pantry disorder at it's finest. Absolute craziness!

So I started off by taking EVERYTHING out of the pantry. And I mean EVERYTHING. I grouped all the like items together. After doing that, I then decided to pull out everything from our overflow cupboard as well. And our spice cupboard too. It was a big ordeal! Unfortunately, I only got pictures of the pantry before - not the spice or overflow cupboards, because I didn't intend to get them done too. But it was necessary. Items in there belonged in the pantry and vice versa.

So, pantry before pictures:

Things were grouped together in there but there were some duplicate items in different areas and it just needed a good overall clean out. It also needed to be organized in a way that made more sense.

Things were just tossed in here and while they were grouped together, it wasn't exactly the best plan. Plus there were many outdated items in there. Also, do you see the bag of potatoes? Down there at the bottom? Let's just say that potatoes do not belong in the back of the pantry at all.

And here, there were many outdated boxed goods. And I had too many items that I don't use on a regular basis down low while the items that I was using was up high on the upper shelves.

So, I decided to use the upper shelves for the overflow and store extra of the items that I already had down below. Instead of trying to keep it all completely grouped together, it meant that keeping an amount down below on the shelves that I would typically go through in a certain amount of time, and keeping the extras of those items up on the shelf. Rather than having 30 cans of peaches down on the shelves, I have room for six. The other 24 cans of peaches would have to go up on the overflow shelf. I can just replace what I need from my overflow shelf first.

The area behind the pull out on the left is my baking good center. I have cake and muffin mixes on the top shelf. The second shelf holds crisco bars, powdered sugar and brown sugar. Shelf three is home to flour and sugar, while the fourth row has a container with butterscotch chips, a can of evaporated milk and a cookie mix on it. There's an empty shelf and then on the bottom, there are three jugs of cran-apple juice.

The right side of the pantry behind the pull out shelf has all of the pasta and sauces and helpers. Top shelf is boxed pasta. Lasagna noodles, manicotti noodles. Second shelf is more boxed pasta. Elbow macaroni, penne pasta, mac n cheese. Bagged spaghetti calls the third shelf home, while the fourth shelf holds pasta sauces and a can of yams (may seem odd unless you know that you can use yams to stretch the pasta sauce). Fifth shelf is refried beans and taco shells. And the bottom shelf is Hamburger Helper boxes.

This is the shelf and cabinet above our stove. On the right side of cupboard area, we have our overflow or less commonly used spices. On the right, soup bases. The shelf has my Tupperware containers on the left that hold powdered milk, instant potato flakes, splenda packets, pink lemonade mix and two empty containers. On the right, our more commonly used spices. So handy to have all of this stuff right here above the stove.

Before, this was our spice and overflow cupboard. I hated it. It was cluttered, there were so many things in here that didn't belong in here and it just wasn't nearly as convenient. Now, it holds only what it needs to. Top shelf is for currently unused items on the top left, and cooking oils on the right. Middle shelf has a sandwich section on the left (peanut butter - SIX jars - no kidding!), honey and strawberry preserves. The right side has two 24 packs of microwave popcorn. Extra butter and light butter. Bottom left is more baking supplies - baking soda, baking powder, cornstarch, and yeast. In the middle, there's the citrus juices - lemon, lime, and key lime and then a can of french fried onions. On the right is a drink mix center. We have hot chocolate mix, coffee, cappuccino mixes, malted milkshake mix, apple cider packet, crystal light packets, and tea packets.

So there you have it. That was the tackle that I did this past week. And once again, I apologize for the poor quality of the photos. At that point, I was still taking pictures with my phone. I have since gotten a new power cord for my camera. Well, sort of. I bought Hubby a camera that was similar to my own, that I was pretty sure would have the same power cord as mine (it did), and so I am using his until I actually locate my own.

Valentine's Day

2011-02-14T23:40:00.000-06:00

Today's small thing was to let someone know that you were thinking of them today. I did this before I even read Rachel Anne's assignment for today. This morning, when I got onto Facebook, I dropped by the walls of a number of friends and wished them a Happy Valentine's Day, sent them my love and let them know that I was thinking of them.

The one friend who stands out most right now in my mind and my heart is my friend, Erin. Her hubby recently deployed and she's home with their three kiddos, adapting to yet another period of time with him gone for the military. She is one of the most incredible women that I know and she knows that I think that too. I wish I was there today to bring her flowers and chocolate and coffee and to give her a chance to relax and rejuvenate, but we live many many miles apart and it's just not possible. But she was the first one on my mind when I got onto Facebook this morning. I visited her page, another friend's page (who doesn't like Valentine's Day - and then to boot - her grandpa died today too), and many more.

This afternoon, Hubby and I sat down and talked with the kids about some changes that we have decided to make around the house involving screen time and chores. We have decided to limit the kids' screen time to one hour per day. I am so tired of screen time being such a huge focus and the kids not knowing what to do with themselves without a screen in front of them to entertain them. We also decided that allowance will be freely given, chores will be done before screen time is allowed and it will be done with a cheerful attitude or screen time will not be allowed at all.

Natty complained and whined and cried about the changes, while JoNo buckled down and got right to work. JoNo went so far above and beyond that there will be little for the kids to do tomorrow. Well, there will still be plenty to do, but in comparison to what there was to do today, there will be very little.

Natty was incredibly upset and at one point, we sent him up to his room, where he laid on his bed, whining and complaining about the changes. I laid down on JoNo's bed across the room from Natty and we talked. He poured out the troubles that were in his heart and I just listened. Sometimes that is the hardest thing to do. I want to jump in, give him advice, tell him how to fix it, analyze it, whatever... But all he needs is someone to listen. Which, thankfully today, I did. And it seemed to do wonders for him as well. As I was leaving his room, I told him that he was welcome to come back down whenever he felt ready to.

Then, Natty and I made supper together tonight. We did a breakfast for supper, which is a family favorite. I let him do all the measuring and mixing for homemade pancakes. I didn't even supervise directly. I just told him what he needed and let him measure and pour, stir and mix and all of that. It also gave him a chance to show off some of his math skills, since we were doubling the recipe. Amounts like 2 1/2 cups of flour, he was quick to know was 5 cups with our modified recipe. And 3 teaspoons, he immediately knew was actually 1 1/2 from the original recipe. We changed it up and some of the time I would tell him the amount from the original recipe and some of the time I would give him the amount from the modified recipe. I figured a bit of a confidence boost would be good for his spirits and it was. He is very proficient in his math skills and I knew that having the opportunity to show those skills off and to cook at the same time would be a major mood lifter for him.

He also wanted to make a special pancake for Boo - so Boo got a Mickey Mouse pancake. Then he wanted to make a special one for Punky - so we made her a flower - complete with petals and a stem. I made a car-shaped pancake for JoNo, which he loved. It looked like a VW Bug. It was cute.

And to show my Hubby my love today, when I was helping the kids get their Valentines cards finished up before school, I also stashed away a bunch of mini bars of Hershey's milk chocolate. We had gotten a mixed bag of mini bars - Hershey's milk chocolate, Hershey's special dark chocolate, Mr Goodbar and Krackle. Hubby prefers milk chocolate to any other chocolate and I wanted him to know that I was thinking of him too, so I grabbed a bunch of the regular milk chocolate bars and "hid" them in a decorative cup next to the container where I put all of the leftover Valentine's candy. I let Hubby know about his "secret stash" of milk chocolate and he seemed quite pleased that I had thought of him in this way today.

But it is late now and I am tired, so I am going to end this now and tally up my point totals.

Points for today: 50 points!
Points for February: 380 points!

'Round the table they go!

2011-02-11T12:00:00.000-06:00

We have four children. Four messy eating children. We have six chairs at our table, one for each of us. I try to get the chairs wiped off at least once a week. My grandmother did it every single time she did dishes (which was directly following each meal and then once before bed - four times a day in all!), but well, I'm not that accomplished. Although, I suppose if I did, it'd be less of a job for both the chairs and the dishes to get done. Hmm...something to think about.

Today's task is to clean off the chairs around the table. I did it the best that I could. At some point, Boo has gotten pink paint on a couple of the chairs and I have not been able to get it off. Although, let me tell you! I have most definitely tried to do so! I wiped down the chairs, getting the magic marker off of one, crusty milk off of another, and then just giving them all a good overall cleaning. Which is great because Hubby wants to have guests over tomorrow for dinner, so provided that the chairs stay clean, they will look as great as they can for our guests.

Nice timing on this one, Rachel Anne! :)

Points for today: 40 points!
Points for February: 330 points!

(There were extra points available for today - an extra 30! But I didn't wipe down an extra set of chairs. I got distracted by some other jobs that I wanted to get done and well, yeah, it just didn't happen!)

Time For Me Thursday

2011-02-10T08:00:00.000-06:00

Thursdays are the days that Katie had deemed as a day to blog about some time that we spend on ourselves. As a parent, a spouse, an employee or whatever, it's hard to find time to really do something for yourself. You spend so much time focusing on your kids, your mate, or your job, that you don't often stop and take time just for yourself. Katie's designation of Thursday to blog about this is also my reminder of my need to take this time for myself.

I consider blogging to be something that I do for myself. It's my time to get my thoughts out of my head and into written form. It's also a place to share the things that I am working on around the house or with the kids or whatever, that the people in my regular, everyday life are really not interested in hearing about. And who knows? Maybe you all don't really want to read about it either, but it's still there. :)

I have not had much chance to knit recently, so I am contemplating that as an option of something to do today. Maybe a little bit of knitting and some Grey's Anatomy on the agenda for tonight. Sounds like a date with myself to me! :) That is my plan for this evening. Knitting and Grey's, pure bliss!

Workin' Out Wednesday

2011-02-09T17:00:00.000-06:00

I have joined a friend on their weight loss blog and I have been working out quite a bit and trying to watch/limit my calorie intake and so far in the last three days that I have been really working on it, I have done really well. I joined a site called "Lose It" and I have been using it to really monitor my calorie intake and my exercise. It's been a real eye-opener, let me tell you! Oh and if you are also working to lose weight or exercise more or whatever, and decide to join (it is free, by the way!) leave me a comment and we can be friends on there and encourage each other!

So, today I want to share about my work out summary and goals for the coming week:

Monday, I had planned to do my Jillian Michael "30 Day Shred" dvd, but every time I moved my right shoulder and elbow or my left knee, it was just bone on bone grinding, which neither sounds nor feels good. So instead, I did some vigorous housecleaning and weight lifting.

Tuesday, I did some weights again and also did the exercise bike at the inlaw's house.

Then today, I did some sit ups. My stomach muscles are definitely not what they used to be! Oh wow! But it still felt good to do that.

After reading some information, it says that you need to give your muscles a day off between working out, so if I want to work out every day, I need to make sure that I'm working different muscle groups. So I think I will do arms one day, legs another day and abs a third day. That way each muscle set will have two days off between workouts. I think that is a good plan.

Quiet Corner

2011-02-09T12:00:00.000-06:00

Hmmm, my own corner...well, that used to be in our bedroom. We have an old brown recliner in our room that came from Hubby's paternal grandparents (I feel the need to distinguish this because there is a pink recliner in our living room that came from Hubby's maternal grandparents) where I often would spend time on my laptop or reading or just relaxing.

I have not been able to do this much recently because our room has been undergoing some major changes (new drapes, planning on a new bedroom furniture set sometime soon, hopefully) and well, my corner is currently buried under boxes that need to be gone through and sorted and well, honestly, I don't have time for that at this point. Also, I need to do a number of other tasks before I can deal with that one.

So, I decided to do my second corner, which includes the pink chair in the living room. It is my second choice for reading, writing, relaxing and reclining. I tidied this area up, vacuumed, cleared off the table, brought up a small pillow I like to tuck in behind my lower back and even sprayed the chair with some fabric refresher just because I like the scent. So nice and comfy and pretty looking (and smelling!) now.

There was also a secondary assignment to enjoy the space for 10 minutes, which I definitely did. I sat down and relaxed and read blogs and typed up this post and did some hunting online for exercise bikes. I'm sure I spent way more than 10 minutes on this assignment. But um, I just wanted to make sure that I had a chance to enjoy the corner before the kids got to it again! LOL!

Points for today: 40 points!

Bonus points for today: 20 points!

Points for February: 290 points!

Wordless Wednesday

2011-02-09T10:16:00.000-06:00

I snapped this picture of Miss PunkyPie yesterday afternoon. She had been playing around putting sunglasses on her stuffed animals and on our family dog, Freddy. Then she asked me to take a picture of her and her little brother's stuffed puppy. I complied because, honestly, who could say no to this face:

Back Door

2011-02-08T12:00:00.001-06:00

Yesterday I posted about our launch and landing pads and today's assignment from Rachel Anne is to clean up the area near our back door. Well, this is really easy. We actually have two back doors. One we refer to as the back door, which is directly opposite the front door and goes out to the yard behind our house. The other back door opens to one side of our house and we refer to that one as the side door. But that door often gets mistaken as our front door because we live on a corner lot and our address is on that street, while our front door is actually facing the other street. It confuses delivery people to no end!

So, for this task, I actually did the area near our side door. The reason that I said that this was really easy is because during the winter, we keep this door closed and locked and don't use it at all if possible. The main reason is because it's a sliding door that opens directly onto carpet and I don't want the salt and mud and wet coming in onto the carpet.

However, there was some tidying up to do down there. And I also needed to get things ready for later this month when we will be changing out the window coverings. We live in a rental and it has vertical blinds covering this door. We want to put up some energy conserving drapes. They have a thermal back and they also block out light. I don't know if I want to get rid of the blinds completely, but I do want the drapes up over them at the very least.

So I prepared the area for that and overall did a quick tidy of the area. It looks so much better now! And I didn't even think it looked bad to start!

Points for today: 40 points!

Points for February: 230 points!

Tossed It Tuesday

2011-02-08T07:30:00.001-06:00

This week, we tossed out a bunch of stuff. I cleared off our entertainment center and got it all nice and neat. I also did the same thing to our bookshelf and our desk area in our kitchen. There was plenty of items from those two places alone that got tossed out.

We also have a number of boxes and bags of clothing for donation/consignment that are ready to go. As I am working my way through our laundry and our stored clothing, I have been weeding out as much as I can right now. It is a process that I am sure I will be working on for months to come. So don't be surprised if you often see clothing on my "Tossed It" list.

We also sorted through the kids' toys and eliminated the ones that were broken, missing pieces or just not played with.

Still have a long way to go but I like where it is heading,

Shameless Brag

2011-02-08T04:51:00.000-06:00

This is my NattyNu. He's ten years old and in fourth grade. He is great at math, okay in reading and a terrible speller. He loves to be active and he plays hard. He can be a tremendous help around the house. He is also an emotional kid, who feels things very deeply.

Today, he went to a friend's house to play after school. JoNo went to another friend's house to play as well. Hubby told them both to be back at 5:00 but then our plans changed and so Hubby picked Natty up from the friend's house on his way home today. JoNo had already come home on his own.

Anyhow, when Hubby went to pick up Natty, the friend's parents commented to Hubby how happy they are to have Natty there and how wonderfully behaved he is. They said that they were grateful to Natty for being patient with their son, who is extremely shy and has a hard time and major fear of making new friends. They said that Natty is a joy to have over at their house and that he is more than welcome over there anytime.

Those words made this mama's heart swell with love and pride. I am so proud of my Natty for being patient with his friend. I am happy that the two of them have become friends. Natty has a hard time making friends sometimes too. He tends to think that people are his friends when really they aren't. He doesn't understand all the fine nuances of relationships and communication. But he is learning. And he has found a new friend in this other child as well. I am so happy for both of them.

It was also nice to hear those words because kids often behave differently at other people's houses and in different social situations. Well, really, that is true for most human beings, not just kids. But I don't always know how his behavior is when he's away from me and sometimes I'm concerned that the behavior is not as good as it could be. But this report, well, it warms my heart.

Thanks Natty for being such a good friend. And thanks for being so well-behaved and showing good choices when you are away from home. I love you Buddy!

Menu Plan Monday

2011-02-07T16:15:00.000-06:00

This week's Menu Plan is going to be mostly from my freezer and my pantry because I like those challenges that I have seen on other people's blogs for eating from the pantry and freezer without having to go to the store - or going to the store for minimal amounts of groceries.

So, here we go:

Monday - beef roast in the stockpot (It's simmering as I type...smells DELICIOUS!) mashed potatoes and mixed green veggies

Tuesday - homemade beef stroganoff and mixed green veggies

Wednesday - chicken noodle casserole and carrots

Thursday - goulash (ever have it? ground beef, tomatoes, macaroni noodles, a little of this and a little of that)

Friday - leftovers

Saturday - kids pick

Sunday - chicken with mashed potatoes and green beans

Menu Plan...

2011-02-07T12:00:00.001-06:00

Well, this is something that I do when I link up every Monday to Menu Plan Monday with Org Junkie, but I really like the concept of this menu plan idea. And it will be easier for me to do because it will change up the menu more frequently, which I am sure that my family will definitely appreciate!

It also goes along with the home management binder project that I have been working on recently as well. I haven't had much chance to post about everything that I have been working on. And trust me, there is a LOT going on right now. Hopefully, I will be able to come back and get some of the stuff posted about. But anyhow, moving on...

I did it and I was able to come up with over 3 months' worth of menu ideas! That was incredible! I have the ideas listed and I can pick and plug them in based on what's on sale, what's in our pantry or freezer and what we have going on each week! Woo Hoo! Love it! Menu plan made easy! It was a lot of work first, but it was most definitely worth a lot of hard work now for an easier time later on!

Points for today: 100 points!

Points for February: 190 points!

Tackle It Tuesday

2011-02-07T07:30:00.000-06:00

Tackle It Tuesday originated with 5 Minutes for Mom and then Katie put her own spin on it and is doing assignments, so this post will be linked up both places. Oh - and please excuse the poor quality photos. They are taken with my phone because I STILL have not found my camera cord and I'm too ~~cheap~~ frugal to buy a new one.

For starters, Katie suggested we clear off our entertainment centers. For me, this is a huge necessity because I use it as a dumping ground all of the time. It's the highest place in the room and the Punky and Boo children do not have access to the top of it.

I bought these three crosses at Christmas time that I figured would be nice to have on display year round, so I have placed them up here, but it's all the junky clutter that piles up there that drives me mad. Also, the little DVD player that is up here. We rarely use it now (since we got cable installed again) and I have a mind to tuck it away, but I think it is something that is still used often enough that we should keep it there. It does need to be kept up though, because Boo is just a little too, um, investigative, with this item.

And actually, while I am at it, I should clear off these shelves too. They are a fright! I had attempted to make them nice and neat and sort like items into similar containers, etc. etc. but it just doesn't work for me like this. Plus, when you pull out the containers, you can see the other stuff that has gotten mixed in with it. Yeah, definitely does not work for me!

So, that was the challenge. And here are the results:
Top of entertainment center before:

Top of entertainment center cleared off, leaving only the three crosses, the DVD player and some (old!) pics of the kids:

First shelf of the entertainment center before:

And after:

Second shelf of the entertainment center before:

And after:

Third shelf of the entertainment center before:

And after:

Bottom shelf of the entertainment center before:

And after:

And the area under the television before:

And after:

The whole entertainment center before again:

And the whole entertainment center after:

Looks so much neater now, doesn't it? And in reality, it only took about an hour to clear it all off and make it neat and presentable again. Yay for quick projects! And here I thought I didn't have time for any projects right now. But in reality, if you make your mind up to make time for something, you can do it. It also helped that I had a couple of nights off from work due to having bronchitis.

Week #2 Challenge - The Launch Pad

2011-02-06T18:00:00.004-06:00

The second weekly challenge from Toni at "A Bowl Full of Lemons" is our launch and landing pads in our home. Well, technically, it's from Laurie, of "Handy Man, Crafty Woman" who is guest posting on Toni's blog for this week's challenge.

So here I am to show you our launch and landing pads. Our system maybe isn't the greatest, but it works well for our family. And I need to apologize right now for the pictures, I have misplaced my camera cord so I am using the camera on my phone to take pictures with and it's not the greatest quality.

First off, when you come into our house, you are standing in our living room. Our living room is mostly carpet, except for the part of the floor that you are standing on when you first come through the door. That area is about 3 feet by 5 feet and is linoleum. I hate linoleum, by the way. But we live in a rental and the flooring is not our choice. If it were my choice, the whole area would be hardwood.

So, anyhow, we have a rug here where we put our shoes and boots while they are wet and/or muddy. With six people in our family and with each person having mulitple pairs of shoes, we have a LOT of shoes, so we try to keep only one pair of shoes in use at each time. The rest we try to keep in the front closet, which is just beyond the linoleum.

We have four hooks on the wall above the linoleum (and behind the door). These hooks are used predominately for the kids' coats and backpacks. It's an easy system for them because they all have hooks at their schools as well. Plus, it seems to be easier for our kids to keep their coats picked up when we remove as many extra steps as possible, such as opening a closet door and using a coat hanger. When we have guests over, we move the kids' coats to the closet and we use the hooks for our guests' coats and purses.

We also have a little shelf with three hooks on the wall next to the door. I use these hooks for our keys as they are really not sufficient for coats and such. I also will occasionally hang a gait belt on one of the hooks so that I don't forget to put it on before leaving for work.

For our kids' paperwork from school, I go through their backpacks once they are on their hooks and pull out all of the papers that I need to look through, which I do at the kitchen table. That is also where I sort through the mail. It's convenient because it is also right next to the trash can and the recycling bin. I sit down with the kids' paperwork and have them rapid-fire decide whether to keep it or toss it once I have had a chance to look through it. I do the same thing with the mail. I sort through it and then toss out anything that doesn't need to be kept. I need to come up with a better plan for organizing the bill paperwork, but I recently brought up an old plastic file box that I can use to sort it. I plan to keep it under the desk.

There is also our large family calendar on the wall close to our kitchen table, so I can mark down our activities as well as the due dates on the bills.

That pretty well covers most of the landing and a little bit of the launch. For the kids, our launch includes their backpacks, coats and shoes being ready and accessible by the door and the things that need to go back to school being already in their backpacks.

For Hubby, he doesn't really need to launch each day so he is kind of on his own for that. For me, I keep my work bag and my suitcase in my car, so that I don't have to try to remember it. Because here's a little secret - I constantly forget it otherwise. :)

So that is our home and our launch pad.

House Progress

2011-02-06T08:15:00.001-06:00

Well, in the time that I have spent AWOL from the blog this past week and a half, a lot has happened. I went back to work, we got a ton of stuff done around our house (including throwing out probably about 15 bags worth of trash above and beyond what normally goes out) Almost our entire house got cleaned up and sorted though. Our living room got arranged, all of its clutter (minus the entertainment center) got corralled and gone through. Our end tables and floor areas were all neat and spic and span.

In the kitchen, all of the dishes got done, the Tupperware cabinet got rearranged so that things wouldn't fall out on my head when I opened the door. The counters all got cleared off and decluttered, our built-in bookshelf got decluttered, our table got cleared and cleaned off and looking nice and neat. Our garbage can found it's way back to the kitchen and our floor was nicely swept and mopped.

The kids' bedrooms all got neat cleaned up and organized. Everything got pulled out from under their beds, their closets (which are used for toy storage) were neatly arranged and organized, their beds were stripped and made with fresh sheets and blankets, their bathrooms were cleaned, one of the bathrooms, which has been out of commission for awhile finally had a date with a repairman who pulled a tiny pink toy teacup from somewhere in the pipes below the toilet. That toilet was draining slowly and, um, solid matter would not make the trip down the pipes. So, yeah, it was time for it to be fixed. The repairman even offered to give me back the teacup. I politely refused.

Let's see, I got a bunch of laundry washed, dried, folded and put away. I had Hubby bring an unused dresser up from our basement to put into our guest room so that I could put the kids' clothes in there. You see, the kids have this horrible habit of putting clean laundry in with dirty laundry, so at this point in time, I do not trust them with clothing in their rooms. Yes, it is something that they need to learn and it is much more beneficial for them to learn to be responsible with their clothes than it is for them to be responsible for their toys, but if their toys make a huge mess, it's an easy fix. If their clothes get all jumbled together and end up in the laundry room, it's not such an easy fix. Well, it is, but it's also much more time-consuming. So, therefore, all four kids' clothes are stored in two dressers and the closet of the guest room. In addition to all of that, we also got the guest room all nice and tidy and arranged. I also managed to get rid of a ton of clothes. There's still a lot of work to do in the clothing department but I'm making serious progress.

The linen closet got cleaned out and linens placed neatly inside. All of my washcloths are neatly folded and placed in a basket for easy retrieval. It makes me very happy!

Let's see - next area - the den. The den got completely decluttered of big items, there are still a few items that need be gone through or that need to find a home yet, but the den has shown an amazing amount of transformation. The furniture that is going to be in the den is still out in the garage at this point though, since we have also had a TON of snow lately and we're not anxious about carrying a hide-a-bed couch and a loveseat through a foot or more of snow and ice. Sorry, it's just not happening. Plus, we still need to carpet clean the entire house - including this room.

The other bathroom also got thoroughly scrubbed down from top to bottom. And the medicine chest and small decorative shelves in there got cleaned out and cleared off. That one tiny bathroom took almost an hour to do. Let me tell you - my boys need to learn to aim - that was what took most of my time. I was cleaning up the area under the toilet where there is a gap between the toilet and the floor. Blech! I will be happy if I never have to do that job again!

Our bedroom got a lot of clearing out as did the basement. Hubby rearranged our storage area in the basement to make it look a bit more neat and presentable and rearranged two areas down there as well. There is still a lot of work to be done down there, but it's showing huge amounts of improvement at this point.

And that is why I haven't been around on the blog much to post about the progress being done on our house - we have just been so busy making the progress that I haven't wanted to take the time to post about it. Oh, and we found the missing Nintendo dsi. MIL gave one to the boys (to share) for Christmas and about three weeks ago or so, they lost it. Couldn't find it ANYWHERE. It was under the couch. Oy! But it has been relocated and now we are once again a 2 dsi family. We got one for Natty for his birthday. Natty was saving up his money for one and he had $60 saved up, JoNo chipped in $10 of his own money - realizing that if Natty got a dsi then the one from Christmas would be his, and then we took care of the rest. Now if we could just find and keep track of the games, we would be set! :)

So now what we have left to do is: (on the bedroom level of our house) maintain the work that we already did, clean out the bathroom cupboards upstairs and vacuum and shampoo the carpet. The management company needs to come out and repair some screens and fix two windows and then this level of the house is done! Whew!

On the living level, we need to maintain the work that we already did, organize the entertainment center in the living room, clear out and organize the front closet, vacuum and carpet clean, organize the cupboards and cabinets in the kitchen, organize the built-in bookshelf, and give our fridge, freezer and pantry a good scrub down. Then of course, sweep and mop.

On the lower level, we need to maintain the work that we already did, clear off and organize the shelves in the den, take things to the garage, to donation or to the consignment shop, vacuum and carpet clean, continue on the laundry quest, clear out two closets in our bedroom and make them neat and orderly. Clear off the shelves next to our chair in our bedroom and move a few items out to the den area as well.

In the basement, we need to continue working on the great laundry quest, continue to sort through the clothes and get rid of the excess and then we also need to take out the carpet pieces we put down there, since we had some water come in through one of the windows with snow melting. We also need to take a couch out of the basement as well to be put out by the curb since it also was damaged by the water. And then, our house will be pretty much in order once again.

Okay, that's enough of a post for now. Just know that there has been an incredible amount of work done around here (though I still haven't found my STUPID camera cord! Grrrr!) and there is still a fair amount of work to be done. It's all happening though. Sometimes slowly and surely, other times, it happens quite rapidly. I'm hoping for the rapidly option at this point.

Also, in other news - related to the job front. Due to the nights I missed at work due to JoNo and Hubby's illnesses and then Hubby's surgery, my hours this month were seriously cut. I have put out the word that I am willing to pick up shifts and work PRN (as needed) just to be able to keep some hours and income flow, and I have also applied at a few other places as well. I applied for a job with our public school system, I applied for a job with the home health company I was with before I took the job in the other city. I plan to put in more job apps this week as well. I'm not worried about a job and our income, yet, but I really need to find something before the end of this month. That much I do know. So, wish me luck!

There's a much smaller singles scene around here!

2011-02-04T12:00:00.001-06:00

Well, if yesterday's task was number two on my most dreaded household task list, today's task would go along with my number one most dreaded task, which in general is laundry. But today's task was to mate socks. It is a huge job around here and there have been times that I have had the thought to just go out and start over with socks. Get rid of all of our current socks and just start fresh. Brand new socks for everyone. All socks for one person being exactly the same, like all ankle socks for the older boys. They wear different sizes and I love the socks that have a different color stripe or lettering for each size. And actually, we do have a few of these as well. But I'd really love to just buy the kids (and well, Hubby and myself as well) all of one sock style so that anyone in the family could easily mate socks. All you'd have to do is match the colored stripe or lettering and you'd know it would be an exact match. Ah, the stuff my dreams are made of! LOL!

But until then. match I must. And match I did. And now I think I know why I dislike this task so much. JoNo alone had a whopping 54 pairs of socks that I matched up today. His was the most, but if that just gives any idea to how many socks our family owns...yeah, I'm embarrassed to even admit that we have that many. I think that it might be time to declutter some of our socks too. Gah!

Okay, point total time! Cuz I more than earned my points today!

Points for today: 40 points!
Points for February: 90 points!

Item #2 on my most dreaded household task list

2011-02-03T12:00:00.001-06:00

Dishes, that is. I hate to do dishes. I hate having them sit dirty on my counter even more but still, I do not like to do the dishes at all. But thanks to today's task, I gladly did them. Anything for points, right? :) So, yes, for a few fleeting hours, all of the dishes were washed, dried and even put away. Woo!

Points for today: 50 points!
Points for February: 50 points!

Two Weeks

2011-01-27T03:14:00.000-06:00

Wow, it has been two weeks since I last posted and that doesn't feel good to me. So much has happened, so here we go with yet ANOTHER catch-up post.

Okay, this is sad, but honestly, I can't remember exactly what was happening prior to the weekend before last (so roughly the 15/16 or so. I had that weekend off from work and we had been working on projects around the house. JoNo was starting to have symptoms of a cold, which wasn't good. He has mild intermittent asthma which generally does not bother him AT ALL but when he gets a cold, it flares up in a severe case which often leaves us in an urgent/emergency situation. Not fun at all!

I don't recall for sure but I believe we sent him to school on Monday. He is in a special reading class that requires great attendance and after his fall sickness, I think he had only three days available to miss before he would be dropped from the program. (They can have a total of 8 missed days and then the next time, they get dropped) His teacher is aware of this, but she isn't the one who sets the guidelines for the program - some university in another state sets them. But she has tried to work with us, by having him often be the first child she meets with that day so that if he does get sent home, he won't get dropped from the program. We also had some other arrangements made with her, but her supervising teacher said no, that it would not work out, so she just has him scheduled as the first kid as much as she can.

Anyhow, JoNo was doing okay when I left for work on Monday night. Hubby was also not feeling well, but sometimes, as a parent, you just have to push through and try to make it work. I wanted to stay home, but I knew that really was not a possibility as I had just gotten a poor review from my boss at work the previous Friday (okay, so I guess I do remember parts of that previous week as well - oh well, I will just fill in with other things as needed). So, anyhow, I got to work and I was going to be working on the floor and going into our secured Alzheimer's unit for last rounds until the end of the shift (so roughly 4a-6a). But then one of my co-workers and one of the residents on our Alzheimer's unit started having issues with each other. It has been happening frequently and I often end up going back there and the co-worker coming out to the floor because I have the easiest time settling this resident down. Anyhow, I was back there and the decision was made to just have me stay back there the whole night. No biggie.

Around 2:30 or so, Hubby texts me to tell me that JoNo is doing very poorly and needs to go into the emergency room. I tell him to call and talk to my charge nurse because I think the chances of me being able to go home are greater if he calls and talks to her. (Which is the case I am sure.) So he calls and talks to my charge nurse and she eventually comes back and talks to me. Apparently, our boss had said that I could not go home to help with it and that Hubby needed to figure it out on his own. I was not pleased with this AT ALL. I let Hubby know what the boss said and he started getting all of the kids up and ready to go so that he could get JoNo to the hospital. Meanwhile, my charge nurse decides that the boss is being unreasonable and has me call around to see if I can find someone to come in early to cover the rest of my shift. (Nothing I like better than calling people around 3am to see if they want to come in to work early!) Ugh!

Eventually, even though I didn't find anyone who was able to come in, the nurse told me to go ahead and go on home. It's an hour and fifteen minute drive. I made it in just under an hour (maybe 50 minutes?) I didn't intend to go faster, but I was worried about my sweet JoNo.

So, I get to the hospital where he is being seen and after a bit we find out that he has bronchitis and a double ear infection. They put him on an antibiotic for both and send us home. Later that day, I call his pediatrician to see what he wants to do and when we should bring JoNo in to see him. He says that he wants to see JoNo the next day (Wednesday). I ask him about work for me (for various reasons which I didn't have to explain to our pedi because he knows us well enough) and he tells me that I need to stay home from work for that night because of JoNo being sick and that Hubby needed me to be home as well, since he'd be up all day with the well kids and then have to try and be up all night with JoNo for his round-the-clock breathing treatments and the fact that breathing issues tend to flare up more severely at night, etc. etc. Plus, Hubby was starting to feel ill as well and he was likely to get really run-down and get very ill as well if he didn't have a chance to take it easier. He offered a note to substantiate it as well, if needed. I took him up on the offer.

So I called work and let them know. They said that I needed to try to find my own replacement. So I called everyone on the list. No one could work for me. We have three aides at night, but fairly often we are scheduled short with only two aides, so the fact that I wouldn't be able to be there wasn't a huge issue (in my opinion).

The older boys had a school function that evening. It was a free all-school skate for the students and their families. We generally cannot afford activities like that and the next day was Natty's 10th birthday and he really wanted to go to the skating party but wasn't hopeful about it at all because he knew that JoNo's health often preempts all else when he is sick. But JoNo was resting peacefully, Hubby was doing okay at that point and Boo was just watching cartoons so I decided to take Natty and Punky to the skating party.

They had a blast! Natty is not a skilled skater by any means and neither is Punky, but they both did okay and most importantly, had a lot of fun! Plus, it was totally free, which I liked a lot. At one point, my boss calls me and he hears the background din and gets mad that I wasn't home with JoNo. Well, the whole skating party was a grand total of two hours, we didn't get there right when it started, as I didn't want to be away from JoNo and Hubby for three hours (the amount of time we would have been away had we been there for the whole thing) but I also didn't feel that Natty and Punky should have to miss out on the party either, so I took them.

My boss was asking me about why I had to leave work the previous night/morning and why Hubby couldn't handle it himself, etc. etc. and why I had to miss work that night as well, and I did my best to explain that Hubby was sick as well the night before and we have three other kids that also need to be cared for and that JoNo's lung disease makes any sickness a real health issue. He tells me to call everyone on the list a second time. We leave the rink about 30 minutes later (had to round up my kiddos) and as soon as I get home, I call everyone a second time, which seems pointless to me. Not to mention the fact that according to policy at work, we only need to call and find our own replacement for weekend shifts UNLESS we have a doctor's note. I had a doctor's note AND it wasn't a weekend, which meant that, according to policy, I wasn't required to call anyone to find a replacement, much less, call everyone TWICE. But, whatever, I tried anyhow, and texted him to let him know that I still was not able to find anyone to cover.

So, Tuesday night, Mike ends up going into the emergency room because he is having breathing issues and chest pressure, etc. They tested him and as it turns out, he has influenza. So, I had been up all night Monday night/ Tuesday morning, all day on Tuesday, most of Tuesday night, so when I was finally able to get some sleep on Wednesday morning (after kids left for school and just before JoNo's doctor's appointment) I crashed. Hubby, even though he was sick, took JoNo to the appointment and ended up writing another note for my work stating that due to Hubby's illness I needed to be home to care for JoNo. My inlaws didn't want the kids or Hubby over at their house because my father-in-law was about to go on a business trip and didn't want to get sick from the kids or Hubby. My mom, well, she isn't real attentive to the kiddos, so we try not to have her watch the kids much. So we really didn't have any outside resources. Plus, considering the fact that I am gone for work 11 hours per day in good weather and would need another 8 hours or so to sleep, I would end up needing 19 hours of childcare if I were able to find someone to watch the kids. 19 hours, most of it during the night. Not likely to happen.

So, I get the note from Hubby and I take it to the inlaw's house to fax it in to work. The note says that I am not to return to work until JoNo's illness had improved. Which I thought was pretty plain to mean that I would let them know when he was better and when I would be able to return to work.

Wednesday night was my scheduled night off. I was up with kids and taking care of JoNo and Hubby and trying to catch up on housework that Hubby had fallen behind on. Thursday, kids went to school, JoNo and I slept much of the day as we were able to and then Thursday night, I was home with the family. Friday afternoon, I get an inbox message on Facebook from my boss telling me that I was a no call/no show for the previous night. We discuss this off and on throughout the afternoon via Facebook's email system. I disagree that it was a no call/no show, but it's not really up to me to say what it was, so I leave it alone. I let him know that due to JoNo's illness, I will not likely be back to work until Monday night (which actually is my next scheduled night off - so really Tuesday night).

On Monday, JoNo is back to school. On Tuesday, everyone else's sickness catches up to me, so I miss work for my own illness. On Monday night, Hubby goes back into the emergency room for tooth pain caused by a broken tooth and what likely is an infection caused by it. They give him an antibiotic. Tuesday evening, the nurse line tells him to go back in because he has severe swelling and pain that isn't being helped by the current medications. So he goes back in. They change his antibiotic and his pain medicine. He goes home. Then he gets even worse. His face is so swollen on one side that he can't even see out of his eye. The nurse line says that he needs to go back in again. So back in he went. They ended up admitting him.

On Wednesday, he has emergency oral surgery. They remove 3 teeth and insert a drain. The tooth that was causing him pain was broken and had started an infection in his face. Then it became necrotic and the infection worsened and in the end, he had the three teeth removed, the drain inserted through his gumline,up into the cheek area, approaching his cheekbone, to drain any excess fluid/pus/infection. The gross part for me is that it drains into his mouth. Yuck! That has to be nasty for him. Thankfully, they have also kept him pretty well drugged up.

I got 3 (maybe) hours of sleep on Wednesday morning, from around 9am to 12p when Hubby called to let me know that they were going to be taking him in for the surgery. He asked that I come back to the hospital. Oh, and MIL had decided that she was going to take the kids overnight on Tuesday night since they were all well b/c of how much pain Hubby was in. Forgot to mention that part.

So I come back in on Wednesday afternoon, and it all happens so fast that I actually meet him on his way down to surgery. Thank goodness that I didn't catch an extra red light or anything! And then I spend the next three hours in the waiting room. Two of those hours with MIL, who also came to be here with Hubby. I wait to talk to the surgeon and then realize after he was gone that I had neglected to find out the post-op plans. So I didn't know if Hubby was going to go home afterwards, if he was going to stay in the hospital for a bit, or whatever.

So, then I wait for him to come out of recovery. I decide to call up to the nurse's station for his room and they tell me that he isn't up there yet and that I can wait in his room for him to come back. So up to the room MIL and I go. It wasn't long before Hubby was brought back up from recovery. He was still mostly sedated but I stayed for about another hour or so then headed on home to make dinner and try to get some sleep before work.

By the time I got home though, I knew that work would not be a good idea. I was so tired and so sleep-deprived that I felt it would be really risky to try to commute. I called work and let the charge nurse know, then I made a few phone calls to see if I could find anyone to cover and I couldn't so I called her back to let her know who I had tried to call so that she could pick up where I left off. I made spaghetti for supper and then Hubby texted me to let me know that his mom had just left. And then I slept for the next three hours until Hubby texted me again, asking me to bring up his pillows and blanket.

My mom had been staying at our house since Tuesday night and she came up to the hospital with me as well, so we stayed for a little bit but he was mostly sleeping and groggy so we left to go back home and try to get some more work done around the house. Not too long after arriving home, Hubby texts me again and asks me to bring up his toiletries. I gather them up and try to get a few things done, but I can tell from the tone of his messages that he is really anxious about being in the hospital, so I head back in, leaving my mom to finish up the kids' bedroom level of the house. I am not making much headway on the chores I had been trying to accomplish, but one can only do so much while also trying to manage everything else.

I am grateful that my mom is over to help out with the cleaning and getting the house back into shape. I am also grateful that the kids are better and that my mother-in-law is willing to keep them (probably until this weekend from the sound of it), I am grateful that Hubby has the care he needs and everything right now. But I feel like I am being stretched so thin at the same time.

There are a few things that I didn't mention yet in here. Last Friday (in addition to everything else) I had a meeting at Boo's school. They have four regular meetings per year in addition to this IEP/IFSP meetings. But we decided to cut his schooling back to three days a week from the five that he had been going, because it is throwing his sleep schedule off so much. He has days where he is rested and alert and ready to learn and cooperate and then he has days where he's tired and cranky and has a "ain't no one gonna get me to do nothin'" kind of attitude. And I knew it was likely to happen, because he is a child who still very much needs his naps. Often times, he falls asleep on the bus ride home and then he sleeps until about 5pm and then goes to bed last among the kids. Yes, my 3 year old has a later bedtime than my 10 year old. It's just the way life works at our house. But then there are other days where he doesn't fall asleep on the bus and he gets off and comes inside and will lay down and look at books quietly for awhile and then he will get up and be active again. These are the nights that he crashes around 7:30 but he doesn't sleep through the night. He will sleep until about 10 or 11 and then he's awake and wired for the next three or four hours. Then he will go back to sleep.

So we hope that by changing his schooling to three days a week, it will allow him to be alert and ready to participate in school on the days that he is there, since he will (hopefully) be getting adequate naps on his days off from school. We will be meeting again in another month to see how it is working and if we can bump him back up to five days. They also are going to recommend that he be in morning classes next year.

But apart from the scheduling dilemma and changes, they had lots of good praise about his accomplishments at school and how well he is doing. They reported to me that he is a very pleasant, friendly child who is eager to learn and to please people (when he is rested) and that he is very social and doing well in that aspect as well. He knows all of his letters by sight as well as numbers up to 20 and can rote count up to 20 (at home, it's 29 but still...) It was a very good meeting and I was pleased with his progress.

Let's see...what else... Oh, on Monday, I had a job interview at another facility. It is also out of town but it's closer and they are in the process of building a location in the city where we live, and just a few miles away too. It is scheduled to open in November and if I were to be hired on to this facility out of town, I would be able to transfer to the facility here in town once it opens. I have my fingers crossed for his job because it would solve a lot of issues. Plus, it's on a stretch of highway that doesn't get hit nearly as hard with our winter weather and overall, I think it just would be a better situation.

Hubby also wanted me to call another facility that I have worked in as a home health aide that is literally five minutes from home with both stoplights between here and there being red. That would have some serious time advantages to it and that particular facility is an Alzheimer's one so it is right up my alley too. Plus I know the staff there and have known many of them for years. My first assignment as a home health aide there was back in 2008. So the staff and I - we have history together. A good one too. Unfortunately, the only thing that they have available there right now is part-time evenings. Part-time would not work and evenings are my last choice for a shift. Preference would be days and then nights and then evenings. I will keep tabs on what is available over there though.

We also have a house inspection coming up next Monday. We had applied for government housing assistance and our name came to the top of the list last June. In September, we got our voucher. In December, we got an extension on our voucher, and now we are finally getting the house inspected to make sure it passes their guidelines. (It should.) But I have been trying to get it ultra-cleaned in the meantime because it also makes me nervous. I feel like they are going to be coming in and judging me personally, even though I am not the one home to maintain the house on a regular basis. In actuality, they are coming in to make sure that the house is safe and meets their safety criteria and so on and so forth. But this program will reduce our monthly rent expense by nearly half, which will go a long way towards us being able to take care of debt and such.

And in other news, I finally got my last W-2 today in the mail. Well, one W-2 and one 1099 really. But I got them and so as soon as I find the one that Hubby had "put up" so it wouldn't "get lost" we can call up our tax preparer and get everything filed. We are going to be getting a decent return this year as well, which is awesome because we really need it to help us catch up on our month-to-month expenses as well as to make some repairs to the house that our darling little children have caused and to catch up on past debt too. I have this goal that by this time next year, we will be debt-free with the exception of my student loans. And with any luck, those will be in deferment (because I will hopefully be back in school) and therefore will be able to pay them down quickly while making payments on them when they aren't due for payments to be made.

Wow. This was a long post. And I think it will hit every tag that I have - or nearly every tag anyhow. If you made it the end of this post, kudos to you! You are a brave, brave soul! Also, instead of trying to catch up on all of the activities and old postings that I had missed during my unscheduled bloggy break, I will just be jumping back in. But with a little less pressure this time. I am going to do what I can as I can. Because when life happens, it won't feel like yet another way that I'm falling behind in my obligations. Does that make sense?