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   ♥

New House Updates

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:

The Other House

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.)

Menu Plan Monday

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!

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