What a weekend

You might remember I posted a blog entry after last Easter about my children fighting while searching for eggs. The older ones would run and grab them all before the little ones could get any. This year was different. Thank goodness. My youngest, who is now two years old, really got the idea of egg hunting this year. She loved it. My oldest wasn't quite into the egg hunt as he has been in years past. It's good that he is growing up, but kind of sad at the same time. I want him to grow up, but I don't want him to grow up.

My 2 year old had fun on her birthday. She really liked opening the presents.

The older daughter got a jump rope for Easter yesterday. She jumped roped most of the day. Her face was red and by the end of the day she was hot, sweaty, tired and easy to upset (because she was so tired). I put her in the shower and got her cleaned and ready to sleep. When we gathered for our night prayer, she was jumping rope again. She really improved. When she started at the beginning of the day, she could hardly jump four times in a row. By the end of the day, we watched her get up to 71 jumps. I wish I had her energy. My jump record for the day was 16. Nothing to brag about. What was funny was when Peanut wanted to jump rope. She would hold both ends of the rope and she would jump up and down (while the rope lay still on the ground). She was so pleased and we cheered her on.

What a fun weekend.

Happy Easter!

Check out my weaving blog to see my latest project. It's looking good!

Inkle and Weave

Happy Easter, everyone.

Peanut is TWO!

I can't believe my little Peanut is two years old.

This year has gone by quickly and we had many adventures and misadventures with Peanut.

She had learned to speak, pretty well for a two year old. I love to hear the things she has to say. She loves to talk on the phone and when she does, it's about her siblings.

She is the creator of many of the biggest messes in the house. She is the ring leader of all the messes made by her and her brother.

She loves the Muppet's and watching the old Muppet Show.

She loves to push her babies around in their baby stroller. She gets frustrated when it gets stuck somewhere and she can't move it.

She loves to be outside and this is sad when we have no yard for her to play in. When I take her to the playground, she loves to climb all over the set and go down the slides.

She has a fantastic laugh. You hear it the most when her siblings are being silly and falling to the floor. She loves that.

She loves to have her picture taken. Right now she makes this weird face when she sees the camera. I guess she thinks she is posing, but it's not flattering.

She still screams and throws a lot of tantrums. She can be frustrating, but she is sweet and funny and I'm happy Peanut is Peanut and two years old.

Nails

Yesterday my six year old daughter asked me to paint her nails. The almost 2 year old saw this and wanted her nails done too. I figured since we were on a roll, I would do mine too. I don't usually do my nails. Personally, I think fingernails are unattractive and I don't like bringing attention to them. Today I've been self-conscious, thinking that everyone is just staring at my nails and thinking, "wow, that's ugly."

Have you ever really thought about fingernails? Aren't they odd things? And yet, we put paint on them to bring attention to them? I don't get it and I'll probably take the pink polish off my nails soon. My daughters look adorable, though. A little pink nail polish on little girls can look so cute. I'll let them look cute. It's not working for me.

Venting

So, I've started reading The Happiness Project by Gretchen Rubin.

(OK, I'm not really reading it, I'm listening to an audio book. Who has time to sit and read anymore?)

I'm only about four chapters in and I'm really loving some parts of it. I think some of the author's goals could work for me and would be great for me to try. Other ideas and goals she sets for herself wouldn't work at all for me. It's got me thinking, though.

One of the goals Gretchen has was to spend a certain amount of time, like a week or a month, and not dump all her problems on her husband. I must raise my hand at being extremely guilty about this. My poor Hubby. He has to listen to me vent all my frustrations on him. Some days there is very little to vent. Other days, like today, I have a lot more to say. The kids were being destructive, I had to deal with a stupid "customer service" person on the phone, etc.... He is pretty good about just letting me vent, but I still feel bad about it.

Maybe I need to set a goal like Gretchen's. I need to go one week without dumping my frustrations on my husband. I can write them in a notebook when I need to vent. I need to try and tell him about the good and the funny things that happen. One week, how bad can it be?

green vs. brown

We had a fun spring break. I love the area my parents live in. It's green, it's slightly hilly, there are trees and lots of cattle. I go there and I never want to leave. They have a wonderful view. When you look out their door, you see a big field with a house in the background and a large pond in the middle of the field. In the early mornings, the sky is pink and purple and a morning fog hangs over the pond and fields. It's so peaceful and pretty. The new spring grass was almost lime green it was so beautiful and new.

I never knew cows were so talkative, but they are. One day, it wasn't too hot or too cold. The weather was just right that day and those cows must have felt good because they chatted up a storm.

I come home and I'm sad. It's so brown and everywhere you look is dead scrub brush and rocks. I've warned my husband, one day I'm going to go visit my family and never return. Why leave beautiful lush green, ponds and trees for tumbleweeds and brown rocks? Well, I guess my hubby is worth it. ;)

(Don't mind me... just having some fun with color.)

Spring Break

It's that wonderful time of year again, spring break. This year we are headed to east Texas to see family and friends. It will be lots of fun.

Check out my weaving blog and see my latest project. I'm quite proud of it.
Inkle and Weave

Crying

The entire neighborhood probably thinks I'm terrible to my one year old. She cries every time we walk out the door. Sometimes it is just because she doesn't want to leave what she was doing. Sometimes there is no reason at all.

I've been to the library twice in two days. I had her with me both times. She cried and yelled through the trip. I was in and out of that library as fast as I could go, but I got a lot of disapproving looks.

When we go to a store, she cries because she wants to walk. She cries because she wants something and I make her put it back. She cries because she wants to go down one aisle and I want to go down another.

Well, if you see me and Peanut in the neighborhood, the store, or the library, and Peanut is crying, just know that I'm not mean to her. She is almost two years old and I'm a frazzled mom of an almost two year old.

If she would stop crying, you would see that she has a pretty smile.

Boo! Got you.

There is a never ended quest between my two oldest kids, my husband and myself to try and scare each other.

Several months ago, my 2nd son was hiding out in a room from his brother. He kept opening the door and peeking out. I quietly walked up to the door, got my face right in the door, so when my son opened the door ever so slightly, I yelled "boo!" and boy did he jump. It was so funny. We all laughed pretty hard.

I guess that same son got my husband good by hiding behind his bed and jumping out at him.

You get the idea.

I was just now in my daughter's room saying good night. I gave her a kiss and backed up towards the door while blowing a kiss her way. As I turned around, there was my 2nd son, yelling "boo!" and scaring me.

He and I had a good laugh as we headed back to his room. I had just tucked him in and I thought he was in bed. Sneaky little boy.

Don't squash "Booleh"

"Booleh" is the made up language of my 6 year old daughter. I don't know if that is how it is spelled, but it is the closest phonetic spelling I can come up.

One day my daughter came home from school and started speaking sentences in some strange language. I asked her if she was learning Spanish at school. No, she informs me, it's Booleh.

Once in a while she will come up to me and say something like, "Do you know how to say 'dinner' in Booleh?"

Nope

"It's fretoh" (Roll the 'r')

It can get pretty annoying when she is constantly telling me these words she made up. I can't squash her enthusiasm, though. What if Mrs. Tolkien had told her young son to stop all his made up language nonsense. Lord of the Rings could never have been what it became without those fabulous languages that he created.

Who knows where Booleh might lead us!

Mess of a cake

I suppose it's my fault. It's time to make a change.

Last night, I went out for an hour alone, to write in my journal. I love my journal time, but I only get it maybe once a month. Anyway, last night we had nothing going and I headed out.

When I got home, my oldest son ran out to the drive way to meet me. I asked him how everything was going.

He answered, "It depends on who you ask."

Uh Oh, do I want to hear this?

"When you bake a cake," he begins, "and you use two boxes of cake mix, and you only put in enough eggs for one box, does it make a big difference in how the cake turns out?"

Yes, it does.

I go into the house. The smell of cake is in the air. Hubby is on the phone with his family and working on my computer at the same time. I peek into the kitchen and my second son has a towel and is mopping up the floor. I assume one of the kids spilled some water. Slowly, I begin to find out what was going on during that hour I was away.

Hubby told the boys they could bake a cake. They've never done this on their own, but they are 11 and 9 years old, smart, and they know how to read. Hubby assumed the boys could follow the directions on the cake box well enough. Well, it seems, they couldn't find a cake pan, so they used the bundt cake pan. The mix only filled up a fourth of the pan, so they decided to add another cake. It seems they forgot to put in the eggs for the second cake. They added green food coloring to the cake, too. Boys... they love to see foods that aren't normally green turn green.

They also spilled the brand new bottle of oil all over the floor, dumping about half of it out. That's what my son was mopping up. Well, they didn't tell us that is what they did. Hubby went into the kitchen to get something and nearly fell when his tennis shoes hit the oily floor.

To make a long story short (too late) we discovered they boys aren't ready to bake on their own yet. I need to invite them into the kitchen more often and supervise. They need to remember to put in all the ingredients, close bottles when they are done using them, time what they bake, and clean up after themselves! There is a big mess in the kitchen this morning thanks to them.

The green mess of a cake was immediately iced by the boys, so the icing melted on the hot cake. everyone tried it. Amazingly, it was edible. It falls into the "ugly but tasty" category.

We'll try it again sometime soon, but this time, Mom's going to be watching their every move.

Things

Things are moving along like normal.

Peanut is into everything, making huge messes, and generally being a one girl wrecking crew. She is just too cute, though.

My four year old son started preschool. It's run by a friend and there are seven kids in the class. He's really enjoying himself and it's helping us all out at home. He was so bored. He wanted so badly to play with other kids, but we could never get anyone to come over. Now he sees his friends a few times a week, is learning some fun things and just enjoying being out.

My daughter is caught up in a school fund raiser. The fund raiser is, they say, for the American Heart Association. She wants to help the AHA, but we keep trying to tell her that most of the money from the fund raiser won't go to the AHA. She is insisting on putting her own pennies into the envelope. I'm so torn. I want her to help others, but I don't like school fund raisers. So much of the money goes toward the promotional company and all the little prizes they give out. Very little will go to the charity and if any of this is for the school, the charity will have to split what money there is with the school. I would rather donate directly to the school or the charity. I really don't like fund raisers and I hate how they play on the emotions and innocence of kids and then tempt them with prizes. I can get the same prize at the Dollar Tree for a dollar. Anyway, she has defied her Dad and my wishes not to put her own money in the fund raiser and has put her coins into the envelope and sealed it. I don't know what to do.

The older boys are not liking school. Good thing spring break is in two weeks.

I'm dealing with my own personal issues. I'm so tired of cleaning up toys and picking up laundry off the floor. I really hate the way my fingernails feel on these tile floors and yet they are constantly scraping the floor because I'm constantly picking up everything off the floor. We are going to have to move at the end of this year because I won't beable to deal with the feel of the floor anymore. It's really making my skin crawl and yet, there is nothing I can do. Things have to get picked up off the floor and I seem to be the only one in the house willing to do it. Ug, just thinking about my fingernails touching this floor is giving my skin the creepy-crawlies. I'm deffiantly developing a .... ?.... what is it called when you can't stand the way something feels? I'm becoming that way with my house floor.

The almost 2 year old

Peanut will be 2 one month from today. Problem is, she is already 2, or acting like it. During the last couple of weeks she has started throwing major tantrums about anything and everything. Horrible screeching, throwing herself to the ground, kicking legs, and if you try to hold her during one of those tantrums, she will hit you in the face.

This isn't unexpected. As a highly emotional child, I only expect the grandest of performances from her. I think I would be disappointed if her tantrums were little weak things. Still, it makes for difficult times with her.

She wakes up each day and within 5 minutes, she is throwing her first tantrum. It is usually because she wants Daddy to hold her and he has to get dressed for work. The tantrums go on all day long at whatever injustice she sees. Mom won't let her watch Blues Clues for the 3rd time in a hour, she throws a tantrum. Brother is playing with a toy she wants, she throws a tantrum.

The worst of them is the midnight tantrums. She will be sleeping and just wake up for no reason, angry and crying and throwing a tantrum. She hits and kicks and cries and is inconsolable. We don't like the midnight tantrums.

I'm hoping it's a phase. I'm really hoping it's a phase.

pretty scarf

I finished a weaving project today. It turned out nicer looking than I thought it was going to be.

Next project will be silk!

best of friends, worst of enemies

My two youngest can be sweet friends and playmates and they can be fighting enemies - all in the same minute. Here they are looking out the window together. This is a sweet picture of them together, resting side-by-side, and probably watching a movie together.

I love it when they are sweet and friends. I wish all their moments together were like this, but knowing that they are not always so sweet, so I try to capture the moments when they are.

sicky

Sickness has invaded our house. It hasn't been fun. I spent two days this past week in kind of a delirious daze. Let me tell you, it wasn't pretty. I'm on the mend and most everyone else seems to be too. This is good, but I'm wondering why we have been so sick and why for a month have we not been able to get over it.

I think this week I'm going to do some serious deep cleaning. I'm pulling out the carpet cleaner and I'm going to clean the cushions on the couch, all the mattresses, the rocking chair and perhaps it is time to replace some of the small floor rugs. In this part of New Mexico, the weather is quite nice and I heard that the temps could reach 70 this coming week! I plan on opening up doors and windows during the hottest part of the day and see if I can air the place out a bit.

Because I was sick this week, meals were whatever. It's time to start cooking again. I need to plan ahead on these things. I know that if I don't, come 5 pm, I just end up making pancakes or eggs as a quick meal.

My weaving is not going like I want it too and I don't understand why. I really need a teacher to help me through a few problems I'm having. I'm following the patterns and using the types of yarn they suggest, but it just doesn't look right. I'm upset by this, but I'll continue to press on. I'm also terribly slow. If I can pick up speed, it would be better. Practice, practice, practice!

Goings on

I've had no odd dreams lately. You are spared my strange dream theme.

The kids are off from school today, so there is lots of playing, mess making, and it is noisy! I'm glad they are happy.

Hubby's home today because he is sick. No fun for him, but Peanut loves having daddy around. He is holding her through her morning nap, giving me time to work on projects. I'm getting ready to weave! I've got some beautiful thread and I can't wait to use it. I've got my warping board out and I'll be threading the loom today. I hope by tomorrow morning, I'll be able to start weaving.

My sweet little Peanut has turned into a TV addict. She loves to watch her DVDs. We recently acquired a Blue's Clues on DVD from a thrift shop. She loves Blue's Clues. When she is done watching one show (which could happen anytime during the course of a movie) she switches discs and starts up a new one. We might start with Blue's Clues, and move to Angelina Ballerina, then we go to Baby Einstein, back to Blue's Clues, then Tom and Jerry and on and on until I put it all to a stop. I've had to take a bunch of movies and hide them. If I were to let her, she and my youngest son would watch movies all day long. We will be having a lot of movie-free time this week.

Great idea!

I had the greatest idea during the night!

I need to get a grocery cart for my house! My entire house is tiled floor. I could just push my cart around the house, picking up things, putting them in the basket, taking them to different rooms and dropping them off.

It would be great for laundry! Just think how easy it would be to throw all the clothes from the dryer into the basket, and after folding them all, I could load it all back into the basket to take them to the different rooms.

Bringing in the groceries from the van would be so easy! I could do it all in one trip. That would be especially nice on those days I go to Sam's Club.

I could even fit Peanut into the basket and push her around the house with me while I do stuff.

I think that would be FANTASTIC! Now, where can I buy a grocery cart?

continuing the dream theme

I have, over the last few years, dreamt of a house. I can say right now, I've never been in this house, but I dream about the same one over and over. It's an interesting house and I like it, but it's always messy. (No need to wonder where the idea of a messy house comes from. lol) I wish I was an artist so I could draw this house and it's rooms, but I'm not. Instead it lives on in my mind.

In the latest house dream, there was a huge pond behind the house that a second or third story window over looked. The pond was amazing. It was a perfect aqua blue, like a thermal pool in Yellowstone National Park. My pond wasn't thermal. It had an eerie feeling, but it was absolutely gorgeous! Certainly a beautiful sight to admire from a second or third story window.

In other news, Peanut had a wonderful week last week. She was just a sweet, wonderful, curious little girl. She made her share of messes, but there wasn't much fighting or screaming. Yesterday she was back to her normal ways. Oh well, the sweetness was nice while it lasted.

Over the weekend, Peanut became enchanted with Hannah Montana, or "Tanna Tanna" as Peanut calls it. I'm not sure why. Is it because the show is about girls and girl stuff? Is it the way they wear cute clothes? Is it the physical almost slap-stick humor? I can't figure out what attracts her so to a show that is meant for older girls. She actually doesn't watch much of the show, but she likes to have it on and when the show ends (we have a few episodes on DVD) she calls out for Tanna Tanna to be turned back on and knowing how to run the DVD player, she will usually turn it back on herself. I don't understand, but it's funny and super cute to hear her say "Tanna Tanna."

Dream update

Last night I dreamt about being in a craft store, looking for yarn to weave. (Not unusual, I've been researching yard online) but then an armadillo wandered into the store!

What does an armadillo mean in dreams?

I wonder what dreams are in store for me tonight??

Strange Dreams

A few days ago I watched some Beverly Hillbillies reruns. What a fun show! Well, that night, I dreamt about the Beverly Hillbillies. It was funny and I wouldn't have minded the dream except we were counting everything. We counted chickens, we counted eggs, we counted, counted, counted. I was annoyed! I didn't want to count anymore, but every time I woke up and tried to go back to sleep, there I was with Jed, Granny, Jethro, and Ellie Mae, counting!

Two nights ago I dreamt about tornadoes. These dreams are fairly common. I've dreamt about tornadoes since I was a kid. This time, we were running from it. RUNNING! We ran for miles and miles down a country road as the tornado swept the country side. Finally we reached safety and do you know who was there? The prophet Jacob from the Bible! I don't know what he was doing there, but he was sitting on a rug, under a canopy, talking. We were very tired and no one felt like walking all the way back home, so I told everyone to wait and I would walk back and get a car to take everyone home. I walk for a long time and finally had to get on a train. The dream changed at that point and I never made it home or picked up the others. I guess they are still sitting there with Jacob, listening to him talk.

If I dreamt last night, I don't remember it. I was woken up way to many times with sick kids. Three of the five are sick today. Oh well. Dreams are strange. I've never had a dream where I believed it predicted my future. I've dreamt about babies, lots and lots of babies, but none of them were mine or ever joined our family. I've dreamt about tornadoes, and while I have been in a couple of tornadoes, none of them were preceded by a dream. So, my dreams are just strange stories my brain sticks together. Thank goodness!

Change is constant

There is always change going on.

Some change I embrace.
Some change I do my best to run from.
Some change is so small I don't really notice.
Some change takes time for me to appreciate.
Some change is for the better.
Some change is for the worse.

Over all, I like change. Usually I like it better, however, when I have some control over it. Don't we all? Some times it seems that things never change, and I guess for some things, that is true.

Why the thoughts on change? No reason. Right now in life, things are pretty consistent, and I like that too. I know that we have to get up and do certain things, my kids have homework every evening, my one year old is going to make some kind of mess each day, there is always more laundry to fold. Constant.

Do I know that change is coming? Of course! If change never occured, life would be very dull. Do I know what change is coming and when? Nope. For now, things are good and I'm not looking for change.

Is this getting quite dull and monotonous? Yes

Time for a change! (Sorry, I couldn't resist)

I've been enjoying the public library's audio book collection lately. I found a series I've been loving. There are many books in the series. Unfortunately, the library only carries about 8-10 of the books on CD. I've listen to them all (except one and it's checked out). What am I going to do? I might have to start reading again.

The audio books are fabulous for riding in the car, or for putting in the CD player at home to listen to while I weave. It's been great fun.

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!

Getting ready for the week

So much to do, so little desire to do it all.

But, there are two very important things that need to be done this week:

Clean daughter's room. It's a mess and Grandpa and Grandma will be staying in it this weekend.

Thaw some turkey!

Now, I've had quite a few people tell me lately that I don't post enough pictures, and if I did, they would enjoy my blog more. OK, here you go... It's my son at the end of the day on his birthday. So much fun with friends, cakes, presents, and playing that he just got tuckered out.

He is in his new alien shirt. Shhh, happy birthday little buddy.

Busy, busy

The kids are squabbling, the house is a mess, the husband has had a constant migraine for about 2 weeks. Can I just hide under the table for a while?

While all those things are true, life isn't too bad right now. I went to the post office today to mail off my 10 pages of manuscript to the interested publisher. Yesterday I spent most of the day rewriting the second half of my book. I just didn't like the way it flowed and it needed a little something. My mom provided me with a really fun idea, I added it in, and I really like the way it is turning out. I just hope the publisher likes it too.

My in-laws are coming for Thanksgiving. We are very excited. They haven't seen the kids since the summer and Peanut seems to change and grow each week. We hope we can get Peanut to sing for the grandparents.

Things are busy as always. We've been working on Boy Scouts with one son and Cub Scouts with another... I finally bought pants for my youngest son (he has been wearing shorts even in the chilly weather) but pants for that boy are tricky. He has no rear end to speak of. Nothing to hold up those pants. I accidentally got him a size 3T. They fit perfectly in the waist and for now they are a perfect length, but if he grows even a tiny bit, those pants are going to become highwaters. The other pair I got was a size 4T. They are a great length, but they fall off his skinny body when he runs around the house. I guess I'll be sewing those up a bit.

There is always something going on. Life is never dull here.... Oh, next post, remind me to tell you the haircutting story.... :)

No Way!

At the beginning of October, I sent in a query to four publishers for my book I had finished. The info I had about each one said a reply can be expected anywhere from 2-4 months. I was thinking today how I could start hearing from publishers soon. I expected they would all be rejection letters. That sounds bad... I expected to be rejected, not because I don't have faith in what I wrote, but because I never heard of anyone getting accepted right away.

Today I checked my mail and saw one of my self addressed stamped envelopes. I was excited, my first reply on my book. It was a form letter and at quick glance it said "we will no longer respond to unsolicited submissions" hardly surprising, but then I realized they responded to mine, so I read more closely, "we will no longer respond to unsolicited submissions UNLESS interested in publishing."

NO WAY! They are interested!

Now I need to get 10 pages of my manuscript ready. This is in no way an acceptance letter, but it better than I could have hoped for. Now, if I send in my 10 pages and they do not like it, I will never hear from them again. If they are interested, they will contact me. This could take up to four months.

This is so great! My idea intrigued them, lets just hope my story does too.

Christmas snood

So, I've been learning to crochet and for my first project I decided I didn't want a scarf or a blanket, I wanted a snood! I'm totally crazy for these now. With the help of my friend JoAnne, I've finished crocheting my Christmas snood. I still need to put the elastic on it that will make it wearable, but the crochet is done!

What do you think?

(OK, I just realized this isn't the finished picture, but it looks like this, only with a few more rows along the top)

I'll get a picture of me wearing it next. Watch out!

Birthday time

This week we had two birthdays in our family. One was on Tuesday and the other is today! Happy Birthday kids. It's hard to believe how fast they have grown, how big they have grown, how mature they are becoming, and how funny they are.

Yesterday was the party with friends. We had 4 girls and 2 boys come to the party. It felt like about twice that many and the girls made enough noise for about 100 kids. They were really fun and I enjoyed having them for a couple of hours. We played pin the nose on the clown, Twister, and they played dress up in my daughter's room and out back in the sand box. The boys played in my son's room most of the time. We ate hot dogs, chips and cupcakes. Is there anything better for birthday parties?

Now, we have a birthday break. The next birthday for our family is in April. Thank goodness. I think I'm birthday-ed out for the moment.

I'm so snoody!

Over the weekend, at the Faire, I discovered the joys of a snood! I bought one because I thought it was so elegant looking, but I have found it to be quite practical.

What is a snood you might ask? Here is a picture of one:

Yes, technically it's a hair net. But, the snood has been around for centuries. It was last most popular during the 1940's. My snood is black and beautifully crochet. I love how it keeps my hair out of my face. I feel so pretty when I wear it, too.

A friend is teaching me to crochet and I found a snood pattern. So, I'm making a Christmas snood! It is red, white, and green. I love it, but I've come to a part in the pattern I don't understand, so I'm going to have to get together with my friend so she can show me what to do next. When I have it finished, I'll post a picture.

Yes folks, I'm a snoody snood lover!

picture credit to knotsindeed.com

Meet me at the Faire!

I've sat down to write several times recently, but I always get distracted. From the sounds coming from the kitchen (where Peanut is) I'll probably be getting distracted again. haha!

First of all, today is my youngest son's birthday. He is 4! I can't believe it. He has grown and changed so much this past year. He has become a sweet boy. He still has his moments, but really who doesn't have their moments. He has the sweetest laugh. He loves to play "spider" and his active imagination has created his friends, Jayden and Caden. He loves to help me cook and I'm sure he will be helping me later when I make his cake.

This past weekend was the local Renaissance Faire. I love that kind of stuff. I love to see the local artist show their work, I LOVE the costumes and the music. I got to see one Scottish dance. I have an idea of my own crafting that I could try and sell. I'm going to work on that for the next year. Maybe I can sell them next year at the faire.

Things have been so busy lately. I got to hear my oldest sons orchestra play last week and I'll hear them again at the beginning of December. My second son has started piano lessons. The younger kids always keep me very busy.

I've been so distracted so many times since sitting down to type, I can't remember what I wanted to say anymore. Oh well. Today, besides being a birthday, we have several errands to run and food to cook and a very special cake to bake.

Off to be busy!

Shoes make me late

I'm one of those people who are early to everything. I never like to arrive late to anything and perfer to be there 10 - 15 minutes before anything begins. I've always been this way. I have continued to be this way until baby #5 came along. She is 19 months old now and I can not get out the door on time for anything. I am always rushing out the door and usually yelling at my kids to get out the door too.

There are many factors which is making this so, but I think the number one reason I'm having a hard time getting out the door on time are kids shoes. We can never find shoes. I can't press them enough that when they take off their shoes to put them in their room, in their closet. The closets are always empty of shoes. We have to go on a shoe hunt for 2-3 kids every time we go out.

There are other things that make it hard to get out the door with the kids, but the missing shoes is the biggest obstical. I'm going to have to get a shoe basket and put it right next to the front door again. Something needs to be done about the shoes.

Lights

I'm not ready for Christmas and I don't want to put up the Christmas decorations just yet, but can I have Christmas lights up in the house without all the other decorations?

I love Christmas lights.

Weekend recovery

What a fun weekend. What a mess it left for me today. I knew the bug guy would be coming this morning at 10:30. My boys room was a disaster. Not only were there a great many books, clothes and stuffed animals all over the floor, there was a crushed popcorn ball, a dead half eaten apple, and several smashed peanuts. I didn't need the bug man to see that!

I cleaned all evidence of popcorn, peanuts, and apples from the floor of their room.

I've noticed an interesting thing about my kids. None of them are very neat, but considering their parents, I can't expect Mr. Clean for a child. With all the candy they got from Halloween, I've noticed that each child gets rid of their candy trash in different ways. Let me explain:

Son #1 - 11 years old (going on 15) - his candy trash is all over his desk and the floor. None is in the trash can that is sitting next to his desk.

Son #2 - 9 years old - Candy trash into the trash can! Hooray!

Daughter #1 - 5 years old - Candy trash goes right back into her bucket of candy. It isn't thrown away, but it isn't laying all over the floor either.

Son #3 - 3 years old - Some goes into the trash, some goes on the floor, some goes back into his bucket. There is potiential for good here, with a little work, he could be like son #2.

Daughter #2 -19 months old as of tomorrow - She can't open most of the candy and surprisingly, she doesn't each much of it. She will take a bite and be done, so I find trash and candy all over the floor.

Well, it's time to clean more before dinner preperations begin.

Annual October Activity

Materials needed:
4 pumpkins
5 children
4 pens
sheets of paper for all
table
cookie tray
1 large butcher knife
2 small knives
3 spoons
1 ice cream scoop
1 power drill
2 drill bits
Halloween music

Activity:
1. Obtain pumpkins and place on table.
2. Let the children gather around the table and argue whose pumpkin is whose.
3. Hand out each child a sheet of paper, but only have enough pens for 4 out of the 5 kids. Let the art and fight ensue.
4. Upon everyone reaching a decision about their jack-o-lantern design, draw the face on the pumpkin. Watch out that the 18 month old doesn't get a hold of a pen, she will draw her own scribbles on the pumpkin. Ooops, too late.
5. Mom and Dad are the only ones allowed to use the knives. Mom cuts off the lids of each pumpkin. Three year old will provide the sound effects of the pumpkin getting cut. Ugg, ooof, aaahhhh.
6. Now, let each child reach into the pumpkin and pull out the innards. New sound effects are heard: ewww, blech, blah. Use the spoons or ice cream scoop to get out as much as possible. Mom will finish getting out the hard to get stringy insides.
7. Watch Mom and Dad carve the faces. There's one eye, there's two eyes, there is the mouth. Let small children stick their arms into the mouth of the jack-o-lantern. "Ahh, it's eating me!"
8. Watch Dad use the power drill to create a crown around one pumpkin and hair on another pumpkin. See the cute little pumpkin curls left by the drill bit.
9. When all is done, try to clean the mess. Try.
10. Now, turn off all the lights.
11. Turn on several lights so Mom can get some candles and matches.
12. Turn off the lights.
13. Mom turns the lights back on so she can see herself lighting candles and not get burned. Put the lids back on the pumpkins and turn the lights off.
14. Ooo and ahhh over the creepy faces glowing from the table.

Success! Four very different faces glowing from the designs of four very different kids.

The cloud and the sun

A black cloud seems to sit over our house and van right now.

Still, we are doing what we can to get the sunshine to peek through. Service has become a big part of our lives. Working together can be rewarding. Snuggling the baby is always sweet. Trying to laugh and make more time for each other.

Yet, despite all this, things that have never gone wrong before are going wrong. It's odd how when you are trying so hard to do your best, things that have never happened before are coming at you left and right.

The cloud and the sunshine seems to alternate day to day, minute to minute of which is out in front. One day, I hope the sun wins.

Thank goodness for cool weather! It's 57 degrees and I LOVE it!

Thirds

Third time's the charm.
Trilogies.
Go down for the third time.
The third degree.
The third wheel.

There are a lot of phrases that have to do with "threes". Our dryer went out several months ago. I called the repairman's office. The receptionist recognized my name since I had called them two weeks previous because of my oven. When I told her the dryer was out, she replied, "These things come in threes."

Oh no! Don't tell me that. Well, she was right. The dishwasher has quit too. OK, no more appliances can go out, we've got our three - oven, dryer, dishwasher.

Saturday the SUV started having problems. The dashboard went out, completely. It's hard to drive when the speedometer doesn't work. Neither do the radio or the a/c. I could live without those two things if it were for the fact that when the dashboard went out, the heater kicked on and is now stuck on. I'm sorry, but in southern New Mexico, it's still warm. I don't need the heater, yet. This is the third problem with the SUV in two weeks - flat tires, bad muffler and now dead dashboard. That's three, no more problems with the SUV are allowed to happen.

Gosh, I sure hope there aren't many phrases about the numbers four or five.... I could be in big trouble.

The Bottle Incident

We were sitting in the chapel at church, enjoying the service as much as we can with 5 little kids. One of my children wanted a pen to draw with. I picked up my bag and set it in my lap. Immediately, I feel a very cold wetness on my lap. At the same moment, my husband points to the floor and whispers, "Oh no!"

I look on the floor and huge puddle of milk is soaking into the carpet. I pull out the offending bottle from my bag. The lid wasn't screwed on all the way. My wallet is soaked. My cell phone is soaked. My checkbook is soaked. Next I pull out a size 5 diaper, open it up completely and then laid it down over the milk. I put my foot onto the diaper and pressed hard. Hubby leans over and whispers, "It's very absorbent." Thank goodness it was. We didn't leave too much of a mess behind us.

October music

In the Hall of the Mountain King

Night on Bald Mountain

Anything on the organ by Bach

The perfect soundtrack for this most spooky month.

Adventures of Peanut

The Microwave!

Yesterday I found in the microwave:
2 apples, one of them was half eaten
a bottle of children's Tylenol
a tube of antibiotic cream
a one cup metal measuring cup
5 napkins

Standing at the microwave was Peanut. She had pushed a chair up to the counter and was pushing all the buttons on the microwave. Thank goodness she didn't find the start button. The last thing I want to do right now is replace a microwave.

crazy week

This week's schedule:
Monday
2:40 pick up kids from bus stop
3:00 - meet with someone about a temp job for myself
after dinner FHE
run to grocery store
Highway is closed due to filming

Tuesday
7:30 am - parent/teacher conference for 3rd grader
Clean house like crazy
laundry
2:40 - bus
5:00 - dryer repair guy comes
6:30 - Cooking club - Fondue at my house!
Highway closed due to filming

Wednesday
clean, laundry...
1:30 pick up 2 kids from school
2:20 dentist appointment
Highway closed due to filming - it will be horrendous to get to the dentist
7:00 - Cub/Boy Scouts

Thursday
9:15 - 18 month well baby check up - can you believe it?
11:00 - RS meeting at my house
2:40 - bus
3:15 - parent/teacher conference for kindergartner
4:45 - pick up son from science club meeting
At least the freeway is opened
not sure where cleaning will come in
send out weekly newsletter

Friday - so far it is open! I'm sure something will come up though, it always does.
2:40 - bus
clean/laundry... always

Saturday
Highway closed again, but evenings now
pot luck in nearby state
5:45 - kids Halloween party - I don't even have costumes yet!

This all might not be so bad if the highway wasn't closed most of the time due to a film being done on our highway. I'm not happy with Hollywood this month.

Photo-less

My one year old took my camera, put it in the bathroom sink, and turned on the faucet. I won't be taking pictures anytime soon.

How did she get up to the sink? She pushed a chair up there, of course.

How can someone so little be so destructive?

ready but not quite

This is one of the projects I have been up to lately. I finished my manuscript for my book several months ago. I've been working on for around 2 years. I finally got the courage to try and send out query letters to publishers. I have the query letter written, the synopsis written and the self addressed stamped envelopes ready. Yet, they still sit on my kitchen counter. WHY? I ran out of money to buy stamps. As soon as October 1st comes around, I'll buy stamps and send out my letters.
Completed manuscript, all 83 pages.

Three query letters - ready to go, they just need stamps!

Blogging Break

I'm taking a blogging break. Except for my weaving blog, Inkle and Weave, I'm not writing much right now.

Instead, I'm working on many other projects around and about the house.

See you later, alligator.

Rio Street

Our street that we must travel on everyday to leave the neighborhood floods badly when there is a rain storm.

Poor city planning!

We have nicknamed our street Rio Hatter. Hatter isn't the real name of the street, but I do my best to keep some things private and of course, Rio is Spanish for 'river' (Spanish is, I think, the official language of this city, even though it is in America).

Last Friday, Rio Hatter flooded many cars, including several city trucks that came to help those cars that were stuck in the flooded street. This evening, as I headed out for an alone trip to the grocery store for milk, Hubby and I noticed all the lightning in the area. "Watch out for Rio Hatter," he warned me.

It rained in town while I was out, but thankfully it didn't rain on Hatter Dr, yet. I was able to get out, get milk, and return home on a dry street. I'm home.... NOW it can rain!

simple joys

Through my children, I see the world in a different light. My small children are exploring the world, discovering how it works and how they themselves work in the world. I watch them learn to jump. I watch them search through the rocks in the yard. I watch them feel water as it rushes over their hands while the bath tub fills up. I'm reminded how much there is to learn.

I am tickled by the simple joys they seem to find. Things that I don't think about at all, but are there in the world to be explored and enjoyed.

This afternoon, I pulled the couch away from the wall so I could vacuum under it. The two small children who are at home found this to be a delightful change (the moved couch, not the fact that I was cleaning behind it). They giggled as they ran laps around the couch. Tickled by the experience. Moving the couch is nothing in my life and means work to me, but they thought it the funnest thing they had done all day.

It doesn't rain here very often, but when it does my children run out into it. They love to feel the cold water splash on their arms and faces. They put on their swimsuits and run up and down the sidewalk. How wonderful to be free to run like that, feeling the rain, and laughing.

My oldest daughter had a shirt with green sequins on the front. One afternoon, she found if she stood in front of the glass door, the light would hit her shirt and send green sparkles all over the wall and ceiling. She danced and danced in the light. My youngest son would jump along the walls and try to catch the sparkles in his hand. My one year old would stand there and look at the green lights moving along the side of the wall. She was enchanted by it.

Simple joys that I have forgotten about and are re-discovering through my children. Now it is time for the joy of the nap.

Birthday Fun

My birthday was on Friday. It was a lovely day for me. I went to Albuquerque and Santa Fe for the weekend. It took the combined work of many people to make the weekend nice.

First there is my Hubby for letting me go away for two nights to hang with some great friends.

Second there is "Miss H", a lady friend from church. She babysat my two youngest kids during the day so I could leave by 11:00 am for ALB.

Third there is "Miss S" a neighbor and another friend from church. She made sure my two elementary age kids got off the bus and home safely.

Then, there is Hubby again who took the responsibility of caring for all the kids while I was away. The older kids helped and I'm glad they did.

To make my son's weekend a little more fun, "Miss R" let him go to her house Friday night and roast marshmallows over the stove.

Last of all were my two good friends from Virginia who traveled so close to my home (for a business conference) on my birthday weekend and invited me to come and spend the weekend with them. We had fun talking, shopping for turquoise jewelry, eating great Mexican food, and walking all over the historic district.

scarf

Check out my weaving blog - Inkle and Weave for some pictures of my first real weaving project. It's a scarf and I love the way it turned out.

More from Jaws of Steel

It is almost impossible to find a pencil with an eraser in this house. Of course, if the kids would put the pencils away when they were done with them instead of leaving them out for Peanut to find, we wouldn't have that problem.
Jaws of Steel hard a work.

Jelly update

The jelly set and it tastes good. One thing I was worried about was prickles getting through the straining process. So far, we've eaten jelly with no prickles.

My second batch was quite rushed when I made it. It turned out the color of honey instead of the pretty orange and when I took it out of the boiling pot at the end, it was still liquidy. I was disappointed, but decided that syrup wasn't a bad thing. However, after a day of sitting, it seemed to be setting. So I packed them away on the pantry shelf and will let them be for a few weeks. We might have jelly after all.

School is going well for the kids. Somedays at home with the two littles is great, other days it is really rough. Today Peanut is having a rough day. She has a cold, didn't get much sleep last night and has fussed all her awake time today.

Things aren't going so great with the house sale. They want us to scrape all the paint downstairs and re-paint. We just did that right before we listed the house! I'm not paying someone, again, to re-paint. This whole thing is ridiculous and it is getting worse and worse. Every time we hear from the buyer's agent, they want more done. If we could afford to do it all, we would have done it while we lived there. No idea how this is going to turn out.

Well, it's lunch and laundry time! See ya around.

Prickly Pear Jelly

A neighbor down the street has a nicely landscaped yard filled with cactus. My kids have to pass it each day walking to and from the bus stop. They call it Cactus Alley. Earlier in the week, we notice their prickly pear cacti were dropping huge fruits. So last evening, Hubby and I went to meet the neighbors and ask them if they would let us have some of the fruit if they weren't going to use it. The said take what you want, so we did.

Hubby had a leather glove and a grocery sack. He picked a lot of fruit, about 8 pounds of it. We came home and I started to read about making jelly from the fruit. Hubby, meanwhile, started to pull the needles from his fingers where they went though the gloves.

I don't do jelly much, in fact, I've only done it once. I don't keep the supplies around to can things on a moment's notice. After some research, I had simple step-by-step instructions. With the use of tongs, I washed the fruit, cut them into quarters and boiled the fruit. I ran to the store for cheesecloth, lids, and pectin. I had about 6 jars without lids that were in good use condition. Last night before going to bed, I drained the juice though a strainer and ended up with a lot of beautiful orange juice.

Draining the fruit. It isn't pretty once it's been boiled and mashed.




The most beautiful orange I've ever seen. I'm always amazed at the colors in nature.


This morning, with instruction in hand, I made the jelly. I'm never sure if it works. I guess every one who makes jelly has the same worry. I'll know tomorrow by 11:00 am if the jelly set or not. If not, I guess we'll have prickly pear syrup. Isn't it a gorgeous color?



I was able to get 8 cups of juice out of those fruits. My recipe only used 2 1/2 cups and I got enough to fill 3 of the 8 quart jelly jars. I'll be doing two more batches. I need a lot more jars! I want some small jars. If this works, I want to be able to give some away as gifts. There is no way we'll be able to eat all the jelly we'll be able to make from this batch of juice. Watch out, friends, you might get a jar of Molly-made Prickly Pear Jelly for Christmas!

Overheard

This evening on the way to Sam's Club to get milk with my 3 year old son.

Son: Mom, I ate the air!
Me: You ate the air? What did it taste like?
Son: Pepperonis!

On the way home from Sam's Club:

Son: We lost the house.
Me: We did? Where is it?
Son: (very sad) I don't know
Me: Don't worry, we'll find the house, I know the way home.

Lovely Quote

The more I learn about CS Lewis and read his works, the more I like him.

CS Lewis said, "The homemaker has the ultimate career. All other careers exist for one purpose only - and that is to support the ultimate career. "

CS Lewis had insight to the world unlike many others. On days like today, when I'm stuggling to figure out what to do with a pre-teen, I'm glad to read this quote.

what to say?

I started a long post about the kids and school and decided it wasn't very interesting. They are doing well in school and as for the two little ones I have at home, it has been fun to get to know them a little better.

The weekend was busy, but fun for the most part. We are doing what we can to sell the house, but it isn't going well. I don't quite know how it will all work out. The scary thing is, it may not work out.

We've had some rain the last few days. I love that, but it makes it hard to dry clothes out on the line. The dryer is still broken.

Hmmmm, yeah, this has been most uninteresting. Isn't it lovely to have uninteresting days?

Wallet appeal

What is it about wallets that attracts small children? All of my kids have at one point during their one year old time when they have loved to get a hold of my wallet and empty it's contents.

My fourth son managed to loose my drivers licence for a few weeks when he was little. Peanut has joined the list of wallet attackers. Every chance she gets, she opens it up and pulls out the drivers licence, the library card, Sam's Club, health insurance cards, any business cards I keep, and if I have any, money. The also likes to pull out the little pictures I keep in my wallet.

I find the contents of my wallet strewn all over the floor. This last time I had to do a little digging for my drivers licence. She let it slide under the couch.

I need a kid proof wallet.

keeping busy with everyday stuff

Things are staying very busy. Life is sending Hubby and I on an unpleasant roller coaster, but in the every day mundane things of life, I try to stay positive and do my very best to stay afloat of the housework.

Our family motto has been for years, "It never rains, but it pours". I know a pretty depressing motto. This week reminded me of why that has been our motto in the past. I'm not going to go over any of the difficult things here. I want to focus on the more positive and funny things that are going on.

Peanut is amazing in every sense of the word. Her vocabulary is so sweet and funny. Her word for food is "cookie". When she is hungry, she asks for a cookie. She says milk and cheese. She loves babies and says baby over and over. Thanks to Baby Einstein, she uses sign language as well as words. Sometimes she just uses the signs when she can't say the word. A few days ago, she brought me some of her sister's stickers. "Barbie," Peanut announced and she was quite right. The were Barbie stickers.

The dryer went out. No idea why. It still tumbles the clothes, but the heating element must be out, so cloths stay wet, even after tumbling around in the dryer for hours on end. Money is gone for the month, so I've been making very good use of our clothes line. Thank goodness we put up a clothes line and thank goodness it was the dryer that quit working and not the washer.

Today was day 2 of school. It is going well, so far. My 5 year old daughter got to go meet her teacher today and see her classroom. Actual class for her doesn't begin until Thursday. She was happy to see a friend from church in her class. She isn't very happy about going to school, but after seeing the classroom today, seeing her friend, and meeting her teacher, I think she is a little more assured of what is going on and will be ready for her first day on Thursday.

Come 8:05 Thursday morning, this mom will be doing the Happy Back to School Dance! I'll have just two children at home and I'm really looking forward to the time I'll have with my three year old. I think he really needs some one on one time and he never gets it with three older siblings and a younger sister who is mischievous and takes a good deal of looking after.

Some things in life sure ain't fair right now (pardon the bad grammar), but I'm so happy for the chaotic, mundane day to day things that keep me normal.

Drilling a Straight Hole

This has got to be the best instructions for drilling a hole that I have ever seen.

Click Here

Healthy Gravy?

In July, my sister-in-law announced she had a healthy biscuits and gravy recipe. I started to worry. See, in the southern states, like the one I grew up in, love their biscuits and gravy. Don't mess with biscuits and gravy! I wondered how in the world she managed to make it healthy. As long as it wasn't made from soy or tofu, I'd give it a go.

In the end, all she used was the Low Fat Bisquick. The gravy had pieces of ground sausage floating in it. It was great. If lower fat biscits make it healthy, I'm all for it! Someone pass the gravy please, I've got some reduced fat biscuits here that need to be smothered!

Cooking with my 3 year old

My youngest son, who is three, has been my big helper in the kitchen lately. He seems so left out of everything that goes on in this house. The older boys play computer or Wii together or get to go to the pool together. But the three year old gets left out. I have been inviting him to help me in the kitchen and he is happy to come in and help.

In the last week, we have made cookies, breads and cake together. He holds the measuring cups and dumps the ingredients into the bowl. He loves to mix with a spoon and use a hand held mixer with my help.

What is funny about the whole thing, though, is the way he does all of this.
This will be hard to write, but I hope I can make the words and ideas clear. I will give him a measuring cup filled with flour. He takes the cup and dumps it into the bowl. As he does this he makes a sound. It is his idea of the sound the cup of flour would make if it were alive and being poured into a bowl. So it is a sound like someone just punched you in the stomach.

Every ingredient poured into the bowl is given a similar sound by my son. Then, when I give him a spoon to mix with, he stabs the ingredients in the bowl and says he destroyed it. Then, each swipe of the spoon in the bowl has the stomach-punched sound.

It is really pretty funny. I love how the food takes on a personality while he cooks. He has the most wonderful laugh. I hear it a lot while he helps me. He is a funny kid.