Dread

I have to go to the dentist today.

AHHHHHHH!

It's just a cleaning today, but AHHHHH! I don't like going to the dentist.


I broke my tailbone about 3 weeks ago. It's still really sore and I can't sit properly in chairs or lay on a bed without being in awful pain. So today I've got to go, reline in an uncomfortable chair in the best circumstances and have them dig at my teeth, while my backside (to put it nicely) hurts.

AHHHHHH!

This is why I don't exercise!

I take 20 rare minutes for myself to exercise. This is what I have to deal with now because I took time for myself. A bathtub filled with water, clothes, towels, toys, shoes and cups. There is water all over the floor and my daughter peed on the floor as well. My one year old and four year old were very busy.

I need to shower. The bathroom needs to be cleaned, and my daughter is crying because she is ready for her morning nap. She won't nap unless I hold her. That means it will be another 2 hours before I can shower and clean up this mess.

All because I decided to exercise. My kids are not my excuse for my lack of exercise (as a doctor had the nerve to tell me) they are my reason for my lack of exercise.

I've learned from my mistake.

Mom, the Reminder System

I've had a complete lack of wanting to do most everything, except writing and weaving. Even those, I do here and there.

I'm tired of reminding people to do stuff constantly.
-I have to tell my oldest sons to brush their hair before they go to school - every day. If I didn't, the would go to school with the bed head rat's nest that is their hair every morning.
-I have to remind all the kids to brush their teeth and use the potty - every night, although I'm finding out that most of the kids forget to brush their teeth, even after I ask them to go do it.
- I have to remind my oldest son to do his homework and I have to ask about each individual subject or else he won't do it - every day.
-I should be reminding my other son to practice his piano, everyday, but I usually forget this.

You would think that after 7 years of school, my oldest son would be able to remember to brush his hair each morning and do his homework each day, but he doesn't.

I'm starting to forget everything I need to remind the kids of everyday. Hubby has to remind me. I know he doesn't remember everything either, but I don't remind him. I feel like if I do, I'm being a nag.

I need a reminder to exercise each morning. I get busy with projects, cleaning, kids, hobbies, cooking and a variety of things and forget about exercise. Maybe I can get my computer to remind me.

This has no point, obviously.... just me rambling on and on and on.

More Adventures of Peanut

My oldest son shocked me while he was a baby of all the amazing things he could do and his many moods and behaviors. I was a first time mom and a mom of a very intense little person. I thought I had seen it all.

My second, third and fourth kids came, each with their own little quirks, but didn't do anything that really astonished me. My oldest had prepared me well.

Then comes kid #5. We knew from the very beginning she was different from the others and different she has remained. She amazes me with the things she does and says. The other day while thinking about the unique talents each of my children possess, I was startled to realize that she has a mechanical ingenuity that I've never seen before in a baby. I can't explain it and if you've followed this blog at all, you'll know about many of the amazing things (good and bad) that she has done. I can't wait to see what she is going to do with her inborn mechanical talent as she grows. It's going to be one interesting ride with her.

Recent adventures of Peanut:
-Today both phones disappeared. I pushed the "find" button on the phone base and waited to hear where the phones would beep from. I could tell they were in the kitchen, but it took me a few moments before I found their exact location. They were both - are you ready for this - in the microwave!

-Peanut is a Houdini. She can push the button to unbuckle herself from her car seat. She doesn't do it every time we are out driving around town, but she does it most times. Now, she has fat little thighs and sometimes she can't get her thighs out of the straps, so it keeps her stuck in her car seat. What to do? A friend suggested duct tape. A good idea. Another friend suggested a baby cabinet lock. I think I'll go with that instead.

MAT

Today I'll be taking the MAT, Millers Analogy Test. I hope someday to get back into school to get my Masters. I can't apply for school until I have an entrance exam done. I've chosen the MAT.

I'm worried about not getting a good enough grade for the schools to accept, but I have to try or else I'll never know.

Well, here I go.

fun with my loom

I got a nice loom for Christmas. So far, I've just been playing with it. I used up almost all of the yarn that I have. Next month I'm going to buy some real weaving yarn and attempt to make a real item with it.

Here are a few of the things I've made with it. They are all place mat or washcloth sized.

These blue ones are just regular yarn. The white stripe in the dark blue is a crochet lace yarn. I love the contrast it made in color and texture.
The little purple and green one is quite little. It is also made from the crochet yarn. Because that yarn is so thin, it takes a whole lot to make just a little bit of weaving. The white and blue is about the size of a place mat. It is regular yarn and the blue's on either side of the white are the same size.
These four are fun too. The green/blue one is really fun and probably my favorite. I used the crochet yarn again, but I doubled the threads with one green strand and one blue. It came out with a great effect. The one next to it is a single yarn, but it changes color within it's self from blue to purple to white. It also turned out nicely. It's a yarn, but it isn't as thick as some of the other yarns I used.

I also like the rainbow one. It is the size of a washcloth and it is soooo soft. Kind of a luxury washcloth. The last one is a Christmas yarn. This used the last of two skeins of yarn I had. The colors are the same in that they are red, white, and green, but the shades are different. It gives it a funny look.

Now my loom sits naked and empty. The problem is to keep my busy one year old off of it. She seems to think it is a jungle gym and is constantly trying to climb on it.

I can't wait to get my weaving fibers next month! It's going to be great!

The many adventures of our hosuehold

Life's an adventure. Especially with 5 kids in the house. Really, life is adventure with my 2 youngest in the house.

*My keys are missing, again. I've cleaned the living room, the dining room, two of the bedrooms and I haven't found them yet. I know they are no where on the kitchen counters, but I haven't checked cupboards yet. That will probably be the next place I clean and search through. After that, I go to my other son's room, the SUV and finally my bedroom. Well, at least my house is looking very clean.

*A new bed! With good fortune, we got a king size bed for free! It's currently sitting in the floor of the garage and the kids are bouncing on it like a trampoline. They love it! We might now use it as a bed and just keep it in the garage for the kids to play on.

Well, I had more adventures to write about, but I've forgotten them again. Well, life is never dull and before I can finish doing anything, I've gotten side-tracked and done about a dozen things before I remember what I was doing first of all.

Forgetful

Can I just say that I thought of something totally awesome to blog and now I can't remember. Whatever it was, it was going to be good.

Good taste = expensive

I have amazing taste, but you wouldn't know it from the way I live. :)
I have expensive taste, but not in frivolous ways, in practical ways. Who knew practicality could be so expensive?

The houses I would like to live in the most are very expensive.
-I want an Hobbit house with a root cellar and smoke house. (OK, the smoke house might be frivolous, but it's also good self-sufficency.)
The decor I would love to decorate my house with is very expensive.
-I'm partial to the English manor look, but I'd be happy with a Hobbit look for my Hobbit house.
The vehicle I want to drive is expensive.
-I need are large vehicle to fit all my kids comfortably in. It would be ideal if I could drive one van with five seperate compartments within it. One for each kid so they can't touch each other or look at each other or hear each other singing or talking. (I don't think that exists and if it did, it would be REALLY expensive.)

See, I'm practical....

Recently, I bought a beautiful picture of Christ for our home. The only one we have is quite small and we wanted something larger so we could actually see Him in the picture. So, my great taste choose a lovely picture and Hubby agreed to it. The picture arrived before Christmas, pre-mated. It is just as beautiful as I had hoped, but it needs to be framed. Here is where my expensive taste comes in. The picture is not an ordinary size, meaning I'll have to purchase a custom frame.

Those things are expensive! Wow, I have good taste.

The New Year

How does the Christmas song go? "And mom and dad can hardly wait for school to start again!"

Really, it's fun to have the kids home (most of the time), but my daughter is really missing Kindergarten. She has been asking me for a week when it is time to go back. She is counting down the days, three to go! I don't know that my older sons are quite so excited...

I've been weaving away on my new loom. I'm having so much fun and have made lots of funny, odd little washcloth sized things. My threads keep breaking and I don't know what to do about that. I'm learning. I'll get a picture soon of the things I've woven.

I love Christmas music, but for about 6 weeks at the end of the year, that is all I listen too. It's nice when it is over, because I really appreciate my other favorite music a lot more.

We had snow earlier in the week. It was so pretty, but our driveway is terrible for it. Whatever it is made from, it is slippery, even when it's just wet. So, when there was snow, it was really slippery. I fell and fell hard. I've been in a great deal of pain since then. It has slowed me down considerably, but not stopped me. I hurt when I sit, when I drive, when I lay down, when I stand and when I walk. Bending over to pick up things is so difficult. So far, my computer chair has been the most comfortable thing to sit on. It isn't necessarily soft, but it is up higher than the other seats in the house and I can sit in it better. Church is going to kill me tomorrow. I'm not sure I'll be able to sit in those hard seats for three hours. I feel completely ridiculous about the whole thing.

There are so many things going on, so many thoughts, so many plans.... thank goodness it is a new year. We no longer have the house sale hanging over our heads like we did all of last year. I'm grateful for that. Maybe without that burden, this year can be more productive.

Happy New Year!

Another odd photo

This is an orange stuck into the exhaust tube of my shop-vac. Once again, my one year old can be thanked for that. If I had turned on my vac with the orange stuck in it, the vacuum probably would have blown up (OK, that's quite dramatic, but it would have died).

She's been very busy lately.

The Pen and the Toaster

This is my daughter's work. Really, it's amazing we haven't burned the house down. I was cleaning the toaster. It needs to be done once in a while and I was dumping all the crumbs into the sink. I could hear a strange noise, but I didn't think much of it. As I was putting the toaster back into it's normal place on the counter, I happened to look into the slots and I saw something purple. With the use of a knife and two forks, I was able to dislodge a very melted pen. The pen has been tossed. The toaster is working again, clean and debris-free.

Almost Christmas

Christmas with the kids is always funny and tiring.

*We've had our tree fiasco's, but those are mostly over.
*I've had to re-wrap a few presents thanks to a busy one year old.
*We've attempted driving to look at lights, but that hasn't gone so well. (the kids fight the whole time)
*We've gone caroling to about 10 people.
*We have not done Secret Santa drops like we've done in so many past years.
*My 11 year old is driving me nuts.
*My one year old loves to see the lights on the houses, but her favorite thing to see are the lit up snowmen.
*Because of our location in the world, the weather has been quite mild and the youngest kids have been spending their Christmas break outside riding scooters with no shoes and no coats. It's made caroling very pleasant.
*We hung lights on the house, but they look pretty pathetic as every strand has only half of the lights working.
*I took my two youngest kids to Target early one morning and let them play in the toy aisles for about an hour. My 4 year old son would finish looking down one aisle and ask me if we can move on to the next "island".
*My 6 year old has had to re-write her wish list several times as she keeps loosing it. Good thing it's short and easy to remember what is on it.
*We've had two Secret Santa's visiting our house for over a week now. One of them is feeding our spirit with a piece to a Nativity set each night along with a poem or story to go along with the piece. The other Secret Santa is feeding our taste buds as they have provided us with very tasty treats. I have no idea who is doing either and I don't care to find out (I love not knowing). I just wish I could tell them thank you.
*We are working hard to clean because grandparents will be arriving tomorrow night.
*I'll still have a grocery trip to make tomorrow or Thursday for those last minute things.
*Did I mention my 11 year old is making me crazy? He is. I hope this is a phase that he is going through. My biggest worry is that the phase is called "pre-teen" and it's going to be worse when it becomes a teenage phase.

It's my last Christmas with a one year old. It's sad, but I love how into the Christmas lights my little Peanut is. Watching Christmas through her eyes is really exciting.

Ooo

I must introduce you to the word "Ooo". It's like "boo" but without the "b". It is a short word. Almost like you've been punched in the stomach. Ooo. Got it?

This word is my four year old son's creation. It began who knows how many months ago when he was three years old. It is used constantly. I've had to ban the word from the dinner table. Here is how to use the word, Ooo.

I want a glass of Ooo.
You are an Ooo.
What do you want for Christmas? I want Ooo.
Let's go for a ride in the Ooo.
Rudolf the Red Nosed Ooo, had a very shiny Ooo.
Once there was an Oooman....

The possibilities are endless for this word.

Think back to the Smurf's cartoon. Remember how everything was just Smurfy? It's a lot like that here. Everything is Oooy. Now, my youngest, my 20 month old, is slipping Ooo into her everyday speech. She sings, "A, B, C, D, E, F, Ooo" or "Oh boy, I've got Ooo."

It's funny and annoying at the same time. I don't know where my son got the idea for this word or why it has stuck. I don't even remember how many months it has been going on, but it's been many, many Ooos, I mean, months.


PS, the spell checker doesn't like the Ooo word. :)

Sweetest gift

My six year old daughter want to give everyone a Christmas present. Today she asked if she could give Santa Claus a present. I told he we will leave him some cookies.

"No," she said, "I want to give him a present. I want to give him the scriptures. Then he can read them to his elves and his wife."

I'm smiling big, "I think that is a very sweet gift."

Days go by

I have so much running through my head, but none of it seems interesting enough to blog about.

Let's see:
-Christmas tree is up, lights on the house are up, presents are wrapped and sitting in my closet, Christmas music plays almost constantly from my computer. There is even a touch of snow left on the mountains from the snow storm three weeks ago. Yep, it's Christmas time! The kids are very happy. They have only one week of school left, well, three and a half days to be exact.

-I have a fear of the post office in December. I haven't gone in the last few years. Presents from me to family members are usually late. Well, I discovered the tiny town up the road from me has a post office. I went there today. I didn't have to wait! No line. It was wonderful. As I was driving away, a car passed me. The man in the car tipped his hat at me. I don't think anyone has ever tipped a hat at me. I've only ever seen that in movies.

-I have a one year old with anger management issues. When she can't have what she wants, she grabs anything within reach and throws it and if there is nothing in reach, she will pinch and scratch me. I've got a few bruises on my neck from her pinching and a large scrap on my arm tonight from her angry cat-like claws. Thank goodness I know this is a phase that will eventually pass.

-I bought a floor loom on Craigslist. I'm so excited. Unfortunately, it is in the Dallas area. My good brother picked it up for me and is storing it in his garage. I was hoping my parents could bring it out somehow when they come at Christmas, but I don't think they will. In fact, my mom is pretty upset with me for buying it. Well, I'm excited and my good hubby supports me on this. If they won't bring it next week, I'll go to Dallas and pick it up myself in a few months.

-It has taken over an hour, but the kids are finally in bed and most of them are asleep. We've had a stomach bug going around our house. As of this evening, my four year old son and I were the last healthy people. As of about 15 minutes ago, I'm the last healthy person. Well, it seems to be a fairly short lived illness and we should all be well by Thursday.... Wednesday if we are doing really good.

-I'm walking to Rivendell again. This is a venture I began back in 2006. I made it about halfway and quit. I joke that I got stuck in the bog. The walk is 458 miles. I'm down by three. I need to get working on this. I would like to have it completed by July 1. I would need to walk about 18 miles a week. I can do that. If I do 3 miles six days a week or four miles five days a week, I'll reach my goal with no problems. So far I've done a mile a day. Time to kick things into gear. I'm going to see the elves this time. No bog will bog me down!

Getting ready for Christmas

I past three hundred post with my past entry. How fun. Or maybe how sad. I guess it depends on how you look at it.

And now, the obligatory photo. That is my cell phone, sitting in a sandbox filled with ice water. It went missing last Monday afternoon and I figured it was around the house somewhere. On Tuesday morning, as I was admiring the snow on the mountains I saw my phone at the bottom of the pool. It sat there for about 12 hours, overnight, while it rained, snowed and iced. I let it dry for a week. It isn't working. Thanks to Peanut for that mess.

The Christmas season is turning out to be interesting, but if it wasn't interesting, it wouldn't be nearly as much fun.

It has snowed twice in one week here. Long time residents tell me that hasn't happened in years and it probably won't happen again for a long time. That's OK by me. I love seeing the snow on the mountains. Its a nice change from the usual drab brown color that the mountains are. But I'm glad I don't have to deal with snow on the roads.

Our Christmas tree is up and is suffered a bit the first 24 hours it was up. Peanut pulled off many ornaments and managed to break 5. She also pulled the tree over one time. It's a 6 foot plastic tree. It didn't suffer much, but some of the lights and ornaments did. So, after two days, I took off every ornament that wasn't made of felt, cloth or foam. She still pulls them off the tree, but she can't really hurt them. Usually we put presents under the tree as we wrap them or if a friend gives us a present it goes under. Not this year. Nothing will be put under the tree until Christmas eve. Even then we are going to have to watch them closely. Peanut loves to unwrap presents.

We had a pie party with some families we have never had over. That was fun. One of the families had two teenage daughters. They were very nice girls. They sat on the couch and tolerated us fuddy-duddies while we talked about 80's music.

My four year old son has really be loving Tom and Jerry cartoons the last few weeks. I love them too. My brothers, sister and I grew up watching them. So, it's nice. There is nothing worse than your kid loving to watch something over and over that you hate. We can all agree on Tom and Jerry.

Let it Snow!

It doesn't often snow where we live, but it you go 6 miles up the highway, you enter a tiny town at the bottom of the mountains. It snows there! We have some friends who live in the tiny town and they called us this evening and said there was 7 inches of snow.

We grabbed all of our coats, gloves, scarfs, and hats and we headed out. Not half a mile from where they live, there was just rain on the ground and rain falling from the sky. I was thinking, these people are just yanking our chain, there is no snow. 100 feet later, there was snow all over the ground. We had to put our SUV into 4 wheel drive or we would have never been able to enter their neighborhood.

We bundled up and played in the snow. Unfortunately, our youngest son had on sandals. I didn't see until it was too late. Thankfully our friends had some kid boots (that were about 3 sizes to big) and some thick socks. He walked funny, but he was happy as could be and I think he had more fun than anyone else out in the snow. Peanut was not sure what to think about it at first, but she decided she really liked it. Her shoes weren't the best for snow either and her feet got cold quickly.

We built a snowman, had hot chocolate and hot chicken noodle soup for dinner. We stayed for about 2 hours. When we left, there was several inches of snow on our SUV. About 4 miles from our house, the snow was gone and we were just on wet roads with a light sprinkle of rain. I was kind of sad. I want to go back to that tiny town and see snow falling silently outside of my window.

Thanks to our friends, we had a wonderful time!

Happenings

Things have been so busy lately. I feel like I'm falling behind in so many things, but for the most part, I'm happy. Well, not happy to be falling behind or loosing my mind, but just over all happy.

We had a lovely Thanksgiving.

My one year old is crazy. I can't describe her. She is sweet, she is a pill, she is busy, she is smart, she is into everything.

We put up our Christmas tree today. I put together the tree and put on the lights. I let the kids decorate. It's not too bad. Now that my older boys can reach the higher places on the tree, the ornaments are a little more spread out, not just on the bottom half.

My oldest son brought his cello home for the long weekend. We enjoyed hearing him play and practice.

I crochet another snood, it's light purple. I'm having so much fun. I've started another. This one I've begun will be white. My mother-in-law helped me through a new snood pattern. The problem was, I didn't look at the fact I would need an enormous hood and just crochet with my normal hook. Instead of a snood, I ended up with a cute little beanie for my one year old. Well, the snood didn't work out, but I learned a few new terms in reading crochet patterns, and I reviewed a couple of stitches I hadn't done in a while. It's all good. I'll have to get pictures up later.

I can't remember things anymore. I forget a lot almost as soon as I think of it. I carry a pen and paper with me most of the time, but by the time I get out my paper and pen, I've forgotten whatever it was I was thinking about. It's been frustrating. (See, i just thought of something else I wanted to write, but it's gone from my mind before I could type a new sentence.) Oh well, I'm turning out all the lights except the Christmas tree and I'll be enjoying it's colorful glow soon. Happy Holidays.

Happy Thanksgiving!

What a day it's been. I really should be cooking. Nothing except two pies are done yet. Instead, I'm holding a sleeping baby through her morning nap because she woke up too early. Hmmm, what's more important on this thanksgiving day? Cooking or holding my baby. I think I'll be sitting here for a while and love her. Lunch can wait. Shhhh.

(whisper)
Happy Thanksgiving!