Ramblings of a SAHM

Tuesday, January 31, 2006

What did people do before the internet?

My Brownie Troop is learning about China for Thinking Day in February. And you would not believe how many cute ideas I've found. I love having so many options for the girls to pick what they would like to do. There's dragon puppets along with dragon stories, panda books with panda pins, homemade fortune cookies, decorating chopsticks as hair accessories, learning about Chinese symbols and calligraphy, and so on. And since the Chinese New Year was Sunday, the girls have learned a bit about China already at school, giving me a good starting point. I'll probably visit an Asian market today to see if I can find anything else neat.

I *heart* my computer.

Katie at 10:06 AM

Monday, January 30, 2006

They delivered the wrong dryer, grrrr... I'm not sure when this will be fixed so I guess it's another afternoon at the laundry mat!

The in-laws are flying back to Ohio as I type. It was so wonderful to have them here, I love company.

So far this morning I've taken out the trash and paid the bills. Hold me down, my day is getting way too exciting.

Here's Emily and Ally in their ponchos. I know, ponchos are so last year. But they did say a friend wanted me to knit her one. $30, girlie!

Quote of the Day: "It's always the badly dressed people who are the most interesting." -Jean Paul Gaultier

Katie at 11:28 AM

Sunday, January 29, 2006

Sorry for the lack of weekend updates... hehe

My in-laws are here! Greg's 30th birthday is Wednesday so his sister and mom flew out on Friday to surprise him. Yesterday Zach had a hockey game in Virginia so afterwards we drove through downtown Washington DC and walked to the White House. Greg and I are getting pretty good at this, I'm very tempted to slap a tour agency type sticker on the big van.

The guinea pig died overnight so a funeral is planned for later today. The kids understand death a little bit, we had the mass gerbil death last year at this time. (What is it with January and small animals around here?) And I've never seen another black guinea pig with a white stripe on his nose so he would have been hard to replace from a pet store. Does anyone need a pound of guinea pig food, timothy hay, and an almost full bag of Care Fresh litter?

Today the dryer is being delivered between 9 and 11am (so helpfully vague). I can't wait to do laundry again! Also today Zach has a birthday party and if the weather stays nice, we're going to walk through an old section of a quaint little nearby town. I have no idea what's for dinner but breakfast is waffles, pancakes, and sausage (enough carbs for ya?).

There, consider yourself updated. *winks*

Katie at 8:43 AM

Friday, January 27, 2006

Quick updates:

We're getting a new dryer!

The guinea pig is not improving. It makes me very sad, he's still not eating and just sleeps in his fleece blanket.

I finished one knitted cap and have started another (these are actually "chemo caps", I'm donating them to a local hospital). I've heard that knitting is as relaxing as yoga. And it can be when you're not fighting with double pointed needles and figuring out weird directions like *K 3, yo, ssk, k 1; repeat from *. Which I actually understand now but was confusing as hell in the beginning.

The kids and Greg are healthy and happy and I am praising God, the dog, and all the other random deities out there. Now if Kyle would stop wetting the bed, I'd be golden.

I think that's about it. I'm going to do some cleaning, may be walk on the treadmill, color with Kyle and Kelly, and in general just enjoy Friday. (Especially since it won't involve a trip the laundry mat.) Have a lovely weekend all!

Katie at 9:04 AM

Wednesday, January 25, 2006

The verdict on the guinea pig: he has a respiratory cold in his lungs and a possible tumor near his colon. I have antibiotics and am upping his vitamin C intake to see if he improves on both issues. And then we're taking the "wait and see" approach. It's a tough road, one side says "you spent $80 on a guinea pig?!?!" and the other side says "why aren't you getting tests and scheduling surgery for the tumor?" He did get his nails done though.

Today I'm washing clothes and then taking them to the laundromat to dry. I'm still working on getting someone out here to look at the dryer. It came with the house and is kinda old so... Oh well, nothing like spending an hour at the laundromat watching clothes spin with two kids who think it's the neatest place on the planet.

Crafty-wise, I finished the twins' ponchos! They are wearing them tomorrow, I'll take pictures. Kate's quilt is also finished and in the mail. So now I'm attempting a knitted hat on double pointed needles. It's been tricky but I welcome the challenge. Next up on the sewing machine is either my new blue quilt, the Project Linus quilts, or the girls' spring jumpers. And I really should scrapbook... It's just difficult to start because scrapbooking requires my computer desk to be clean and as hard as I try, it never is. Maybe I should take over the dining room for scrapbooking (cause I already have my knitting in the family room and the sewing in the front room, hehe).

Now to the laundromat!

Katie at 11:42 AM

Tuesday, January 24, 2006

UPDATE: And to top it all off, the guinea pig is not eating. He won't even touch his absolute favorite food, carrots. I have a 10am appointment with an "exotic animal" vet tomorrow. I'm not sure what to expect, I'm just really worried about the little guy.

I'm tired of puke and "lack of errand running" posts. I'm tired of being tired. So let's move on to cheerier topics, shall we?

I'm thinking...

*crickets*

My dryer doesn't work. It tumbles but doesn't dry. Oh wait, that's not good news. Especially since I need to lug at least two loads of wet towels and sheets to a laundromat, nevermind the other three overflowing baskets of dirty clothes.

Ugh, this is tough...

I've got it! A picture will save the day! This is Ally back in December with one of her many little snowmen. I really should have been a better mommy and taken pictures of all the little snowmen but it was cold outside. I hate snow, I hate cold, one day I will move to the rain forest.

Katie at 8:51 AM

Monday, January 23, 2006

I'm having an "ARGH!" day.

Did anyone catch my mistake yesterday? Zach and Greg haven't caught it yet. Guess who were sick all last night? ARGH!

So of course since the kids didn't have school today, they slept in right? Nope, up an hour early. ARGH!

And we were out of Sprite/7-Up type drinks so I had to run to the store at 8am with 4 extremely unwilling children. Seriously, pulling out their teeth would have been easier than getting them out the door. Kelly finally went in her pj's. ARGH!

Kyle threw a fit about wearing his jacket in the 40 degree rainy weather. ARGH!

Kelly screamed about wanting to be dressed after everyone was strapped into the van. ARGH!

Emily and Ally wanted candy and Burger King. ARGH!

Kyle and I knocked heads (literally) while getting out of the van. He has a very hard head, I was seeing stars. OUCH!

Home again, they fought over cereal boxes and Kelly changed her mind about which cereal she wanted after I poured a cereal into her bowl 5 different times. I'm looking into putting her in "Making Good Decisions for Your Life" classes. The girl cannot decide anything without flipping her answer several times. And of course, no milk. Until 3 minutes later when she was screaming for milk. ARGH!

I think I may never make it to the post office or bank ever again. ARGH!

Did I mention it was raining? ARGH!

Happy Monday! ARGH!

Katie at 9:26 AM

Sunday, January 22, 2006

The kids' flu bug finally caught up with me yesterday. Thank goodness it was a weekend day and Greg was home to order pizza. Kyle was also briefly sick in the morning so that just leaves Zach and Greg who haven't caught it yet. I must say that Heather was right about the kids only flushing every 3rd time because every time I went to the bathroom to puke, I had to flush first. I wonder how expensive it would be to install sensor flushing toilets.

It was a weird week. I still haven't run any errands. I'm at least a day behind in laundry, craft projects, showering, etc. And I screwed up the date of a birthday party the twins were invited to, I thought it was today and nope, it was yesterday. They are a bit upset with me now. The kids are actually off school again tomorrow (this is why they will go until the end of June!) so maybe I'll take them all some place fun to make up for it.

Quote of the Day: "Consciousness: that annoying time between naps." -Author Unknown

Katie at 9:13 AM

Friday, January 20, 2006

My random thought of the day:

Cinnamon Toast Crunch cereal with milk in a Blues Clues bowl is really yummy for lunch.

What's your random thought of the day?

Katie at 11:28 AM

Thursday, January 19, 2006

So much for the other kids not getting sick... Emily and Kelly kept me up all night. To the point where I just fell asleep in Kelly's bed (risking the chance of being puked on) instead of running from my bedroom to their room every hour. I don't remember the last time I've been this tired. I think it may have involved a nursing infant (or two).

Oh at least the Brownie meeting was fun! Ally stayed in her room since she was "sick" but she was feeling much better while we were grocery shopping. Course now I've pretty much exposed the entire Brownie troop to whatever the girls have. Wonderful... Although Ally picked up this flu bug at school so I suppose they've probably already all been exposed there.

Now I'm too tired to even think about running errands even if I could. ha

And Mary asked about our water usage. If I'm reading the bill correctly, we average 207 gallons a day so a month would be about 6,210. I googled it and the daily average for a family (some numbers you'll see are per person) is between 230 and 350. So we're actually under? Weird...

Katie at 8:47 AM

Wednesday, January 18, 2006

Well, crap...

Ally's still sick. She's not puking but she's not feeling well enough to eat anything. She also has a low fever and headache.

The problem is that I didn't run my full list of errands on Monday because the kids had the day off school. I didn't run errands yesterday because Ally was sick. So that leaves me today with all those errands still to run and Ally home again. And the kicker is that I have a Brownie meeting after school today that I need to buy several things for. Plus we're practically out of food (Greg brought home Chinese last night for dinner). I should have gone at least grocery shopping last night but after the kids' bedtime I was too tired to even think about it.

I thought about canceling the Brownie meeting but it doesn't seem fair to do that to the other girls just because Ally's ill and I don't have my act together. I guess I need to whittle my list down to the bare minimum and put off the fabric store, yarn store, post office, and Staples again (printing out nine 8 page both sides Brownie Camp applications killed my printer cartridges). Although I need to print out more papers today so Staples might be a must.

Sorry for the ramblings, I become a bit indecisive when I'm presented with a problem like this and I can't go with my original plan.

Katie at 8:50 AM

Tuesday, January 17, 2006

I jinxed myself. Just the other day I was saying how the kids have been so healthy this flu season. Yes I'm an idiot, one day I'll learn to keep my mouth shut. And it's Ally who's sick.

***Disclaimer: Puke Post ahead, you've been warned if you are eating anything***

Some kids get the hang of puking in the toilet or sink or bucket. Toddlers don't often have this skill but by 5 or 6, it's usually there. Except for Ally. While learning to whistle and skip and read, she missed this important life lesson. Let's recap the night:

Carpeted hallway versus toilet, carpet wins by landslide. (Pull out the carpet cleaner at 11pm, what fun!)

Bedding versus toilet (and bucket in bed!), bedding wipes up all over. (And why did she have to sleep on the top bunk last night?)

Bathroom floor and rug right in front of the toilet versus the toilet, toilet loses miserably. (Seriously, she was inches from the toilet and still puked on the floor, what's up with that?)

She's sleeping soundly right now and obviously not going to school. I need to push the rest of the icky stuff through the washing machine and dryer, she was making messes faster than the machines could get through a cycle. And I'm preparing myself for all the other kids to come down with this, pulling out the extra sheets and blankets, making a menu of bland food items, painting a bulls-eye in the toilet bowl, etc. Our water bill really was too low last month anyways...

Katie at 8:35 AM

Monday, January 16, 2006

Play Dates

I'm still trying to work my head around this whole play date thing. (Warning: this may be a long post...) When I was a kid, we didn't have any such thing. You played with your friends at recess at school or maybe at soccer practice after school. There were the occasional sleepovers. Mostly my brothers and sisters and I played with each other. Or our cousins. Cousins are a wonderful thing although I don't have any nieces or nephews. Due to the large size of both our extended families, Greg and I actually have our own 1st cousins who are about our kids' ages. (Therefore "1st cousins once removed", I have a knack for that genealogy thing). But they all live in different states so this play relationship isn't available at the moment.

And hey, I have 5 kids. I always say I have a built-in play group. It's not like I need to bring in any other children to entertain my kids. I think this may be the only positive aspect of having 5 children in 5 years. But kids need to play with other unrelated kids, you say. Fine. They can play with other kids at school recesses and Brownies and Cub Scouts and hockey and soccer and, and, and...

I guess other parents don't feel this way. My kids are in high demand which really freaks me out. Emily and Ally were invited to Chuck E. Cheese on Saturday and last week two neighborhood girls invited the twins to join their "club." Zach has a couple of different play date options at least every other week. The kids have more dates than some people I knew in high school.

Okay I'll admit it. Dealing with the other parents is what freaks me out the most about play dates. There's trust and "I pray to God they aren't some unconvicted sexual predator" thing. But actually I can get beyond that. It's the whole small talk during the exchanges that kills me.

So for example, Zach's friend Rick's (not his real name) mom sent me an email last night asking if Zach could come over to play today (no school!). I sent one back saying "sure, call and let me know what time!" while trying to figure out where in the world she got my email address. Rick has been over here to play and I've talked to his mom on more than one occasion (okay so like 4 times). She called (I was in the shower, of course!) and we awkwardly set up a time:

Me- I'll drop him off after we run a few errands.
Her- Oh, you can drop him off before if it would help.
Me- (I don't want her to think I'm trying to use her as free babysitting!) Um, we're getting Zach shoes so... *white lie*
Her- I suppose you'll need him then.
Me- Uh, yep.
Her- After is fine, we'll be home all day.
Me- Okay thanks, see you then.

I also should point out that I've never been to this lady's house before. I know it's down the street but I don't know which house. And you'll notice I completely forgot to ask her house number because I am a dork and I don't know how to talk to adults any more. I swear everyone needs to be like Dora the Explorer and repeat everything to me 3 times in a sing song voice.

So we ran our errands and I thoughtfully picked up some chocolate chip cookies since she brought cupcakes to our house before. We drove down the street and I asked Zach, "which house?" And of course he doesn't remember. Fine. We drove back down the street to our house and I ran in to look up their name in the phone book. Back down the street again.

And guess what? They are vegan vegetarians. She took one look at the cookies and was like "nope, can't have them!" Um, okay. So with my face 3 shades of red and holding the rejected cookies, we went through the list: no allergies, which games are acceptable, what time to pick up, can he have snack (I felt like saying "only if you serve meat, we aren't vegan vegetarian!"), and so forth. Zach ran off to play with Rick and I walked back to the van with the cookies. Much to the delight of Emily, Ally, Kyle, and Kelly. And me. Just a little bit.

What exactly is the protocol on reciprocating play dates? I don't want to take "Chuck E. Cheese friend" to Chuck E. Cheese. I never want to go to that place ever. I'm a little nervous about having Rick over for anything more than playing in the backyard because I'm the fruit snack and store bought cookie mom. Am I allowed to chat on the internet or sew with other kids in my house? And why do I want more kids in my house anyway? 5 are enough really for me, that's why we didn't have 6. Even Kelly has an invite for a play date, one of the Brownies has a younger sister her age.

It's all too much, I'm going to hide in my hermit hole again.

Katie at 1:19 PM

Sunday, January 15, 2006

When Crafts Attack

I may have gone a little bit overboard with buying craft supplies. I have:

10 yards of corduroy and fleece to make a quilt for a friend

8 yards of red, blue, and green fabric, 3 packages of yellow bias tape, and batting to make 2 kid quilts for Project Linus

8 yards of 5 different shades of blue fabric and batting to make a new ragged edge quilt for me (to replace the Christmas tree ragged quilt I've been keeping out all year)

4 yards of pink, blue, and purple corduroy to make jumpers for the girls

chipboard, bookcloth, paper, glue, etc to make 10 scrapbook albums for the kids

137 pictures fresh from dotphoto.com to scrapbook (Nov & Dec 2003, Jan 2004)

4 balls of blue yarn to make a knitted shrug for me

I just "frogged" (which means to unravel knitting) Emily and Ally's ponchos. I had cast on too many stitches, they were too wide. So now I still have 2 ponchos to knit.

But I did finish a project! This "Booga Bag" (pattern) knitted up so quickly (not to mention that my yarn arrived in only 2 days regular shipping from yarncountry.com). I used color 147 and seriously it took only hours to knit. And this was my first time felting, fun! What I'm going to do with it, I have no idea.

I guess I should go chain myself to the sewing machine now.

Katie at 6:33 PM

Friday, January 13, 2006

I've got nothing today. So talk amongst yourselves...

Quote of the Day: "The quickest way for a parent to get a child's attention is to sit down and look comfortable." -Lane Olinghouse

Katie at 12:21 PM

Thursday, January 12, 2006

The house has been returned to an acceptable level of "5 little children live here, it's not a museum." *evil grins*

And since I'm always a day late and a dollar short, I finally read Confessions of a Super Mom. I don't usually write book reviews here because frankly, I don't seem to read a lot of good books (unless Dr. Seuss ones count). But this one... You have got to read!

The author, Melanie Lynne Hauser, really tapped into the secret super hero desire in all of us, to make the world a safe and better place for all children. I can completely relate to her descriptions, from the helpless feeling every parent has when their child goes out into the big bad scary world to the unshakeable hope that everything will be okay. It's a page turner too, I could not put it down until I finished. You will definitely enjoy this well-written and funny book. And I kinda want to buy a Swiffer WetJet now...

Thanks to all the lurkers who came out and played yesterday. You may go back to your hidey holes now and I promise not to bother you for at least another year. hehe

Katie at 8:04 AM

Wednesday, January 11, 2006

Today's entry in my day planner: Zach Dentist Appointment 4:15pm, Greg to Texas

Yesterday was one mad cleaning frenzy because we hosted Zach's Boy Scout meeting here last night. How'd that go? I couldn't tell you, I took the other 4 to Burger King's playland (which consists of two tubes and a slide but whatever, they were happy). So today the house is still clean to the point of being sterile, it's beginning to bug me. And I did all the laundry yesterday too. So there's nothing that needs to be done. Thank the Lord.

I have several possible projects I could work on: print my recipe album, move MP3's from Greg's computer to mine, make the kids' new scrapbook albums (the actual book part itself), work on the "Scrapbooks" web page, plan the next Brownie meeting...

Or maybe I'll just veg on the sofa with Kyle and Kelly.

I'm told it's National De-Lurking Week. So leave a comment. Yes, that means you.

Katie at 10:25 AM

Tuesday, January 10, 2006

Monday turned out okay after all. Especially because the girls and I went shopping while the boys went to hockey practice. (What gender stereotypes! Oh well...) Who can have a bad day when they now have an oriental rug for a mouse pad? And I finally bought a desk chair, I've been using a dining room chair for awhile. The color is a bit weird but I figure with $10 of fabric to recover it and the fact that it was only $40 to begin with, I'm still way under the usual price of desk chairs. It's pretty comfy too.

But I was a little shocked by the stores. It's January, right? The middle of winter for most of the northern hemisphere? Then why the heck are all the spring/summer clothes out? In my inbox this morning Old Navy was advertising 2 for $12 tank tops. Target has out Easter dresses and capris and pastel short sleeve shirts. I'm not ready for spring yet. Heck I'm not even ready for Christmas and it's over. Now I feel pressured to buy the kids' spring/summer wardrobe because the selection is good right now but they won't be able to wear the clothes for at least another 4 months (April is iffy). The stress of it all!!!

The good news about the spring/summer stuff being out already is that all the winter clothes (my original purpose) are on clearance. I bought stretchy pants, sweatshirts, and sweatpants for $2 each at Target for the twins. They have PE twice a week now and can't wear jeans those days. For Christmas, they received 3 pairs of jeans each. I hate it when irony smacks me upside the head like that.

Now if you'll excuse me, I have a TV bench to build.

Katie at 8:43 AM

Monday, January 09, 2006

I'm having a bad mommy day. Although I suppose it started last night. I called the twins "freaking idiots" because they were jumping from the top bunk down to Kelly's bed (which is about 5 feet from the bunk beds). I apologized but I didn't really mean it. It happened during bath time and I hate bath time. 8 1/2 years of it and I am so done helping people wash themselves. I hate getting soaked from head to toe between hair shampooing and drying off the kids. I hate gathering towels and soaps and lotions and q-tips and pj's and underwear and hair brushes. Even if I think I have everything in the bathroom ready to go, there's always something missing. This is one aspect where I wish the kids would hurry up and become teenagers and shower by themselves every time the wind changed.

Oops, sorry about going off on the bath time tangent. Where was I? Oh yes, bad mommy day. So as Greg pointed out, the kids went to bed with me yelling at them and then they woke up to me yelling at them. *cringes* Ally couldn't find her school shoes and began whining and helplessly staring at the ceiling. Because you know that's the most obvious place for school shoes to be, the ceiling. Zach wanted to go to the bus stop 10 minutes early and updated me on the time every minute (and who could blame them with their mom yelling at them?). Kyle was mad at Emily for copying him at breakfast (I'd have to think there would be some copying with the whole "spoon in cereal, spoon to mouth" action going on). Kelly refused to walk downstairs and yelled to be carried and then wanted to sit next to Kyle at the table which again royally pissed him off. All this and I woke up with the start of a migraine (I get the light/sound sensitive type) and a kink in my neck.

So here I sit with my cup of tea (cold) and I feel rotten. And not just because of the head and neck aches. I hope the twins don't have a bad day at school because they had a bad morning at home. I wish Zach wasn't so nuts about being at the bus stop at 8:10 exactly (the bus doesn't usually arrive until 8:20 and they've never missed the bus). I wish I could find the patience to make it through bath time without becoming a complete grump. I want this migraine to go away. I need a do-over.

So how's your Monday been?

Katie at 9:07 AM

Sunday, January 08, 2006

A nice slow Sunday...

Greg's taking the boys to the local ice skating rink this afternoon. I'm going to set up the twin's new art easel. I may even sneak in some scrapbooking. Course there is that small matter of the Christmas tree and decorations that still need to be taken down...

A new "Sewing" project is up here: When scrapbooking, sewing, and cross-stitching have a menage a trois *cringes at the possible Google searches from that*

Quote of the Day: "I scrapbook therefore I am - broke." -Author Unknown

Katie at 12:49 PM

Saturday, January 07, 2006

As requested, I changed the way the links show up in the main part of the site (i.e. light blue section). I'm still using black and a smaller size font on the darker blue side bar and if you can't figure out which are links and which are plain words, tough cookies. From now on (until the next style change, I suppose), links will be this color and underlined as well. So they will show up like this. Everyone happy now? I'll go back to doing laundry then.

Katie at 9:53 AM

Friday, January 06, 2006

It's a wonder my kids survive through breakfast. First there's the mad dash to see who's first to the table. Kyle and Zach were fighting over this title this morning. I didn't see, I didn't even have the kitchen lights turned on yet.

Next it's jockeying for position at the table. Our table seats 8. There's no configuration that allows all the children to sit with one empty chair between them. I don't know why this is so important but it is. Kyle's the biggest stickler about this, "I don't want to sit next to anybody!" He's going to be the office grump in the corner cube, I can tell. So after several minutes of musical chairs they are all seated to their "I can't seat next to him/her!" satisfaction.

Finally breakfast was served. The kids are on a "no milk" kick. But only a couple of them at a time. And it changes daily. Half the time I don't hear (or bother to listen, I'll admit. There's no tea yet in this equation!) which way they want their cereal. So this morning I instated the overriding mommy rule, milk for everyone!

And then the boxes... I hate cereal boxes. I'm going to start buying cereal in bags so I don't have to deal with boxes (only I'm afraid then the cereal will turn to dust in my oh, so organized pantry). And the way my kids go through cereal and different varieties of cereal, I'm not going to take the time to deal with those clear cereal Tupperware plastic things. So boxes. Of which we had 3 this morning. And everyone wanted the Frosted Flakes one. Fine, next overriding mommy rule, no boxes on the table!

As if my temples weren't throbbing enough, Emily started kicking Ally. Or was it Ally kicking Emily? I heard two stories so there was probably kicking on both sides. Ally was nearest at hand so she was moved. The only open spot away from Emily was next to Kyle. Which made him mad and he pushed his cereal away and said he wouldn't eat until she was moved again. And Kelly's chair was crooked which was bothering Emily. And then Zach called Kyle a baby which made Kyle even more upset and then...

I had my cup of tea in another room so I'm not sure what the final outcome was. If I've learned anything in the last 8 years, it's when to walk away and enjoy a cup of tea while it's still at some temperature above cold. Eventually everyone ate some cereal and the kitchen wasn't destroyed in the process (I paid Kyle a quarter to clear the bowls into the sink).

I'm thinking we should switch to cereal bars and a shot of milk, both of which I hand to the child as they are walking out to the door. Then the bus driver can deal with them fighting over who sits next to whom as they eat breakfast and my tea might still be warm when I sit down to drink it.

Katie at 8:49 AM

Thursday, January 05, 2006

You know what I love? Fruit snacks. Not for me, for Kyle and Kelly. Sure, fruit snacks aren't terribly healthy with ingredients like modified food starch and red dye #40 but at least they provide 100% of daily vitamin C. It's a tradeoff I'm willing to live with because fruit snacks are educational. Seriously, they are!

Give Kyle and Kelly each one package of fruit snacks. First they sort them by color, often trading ("sharing!") to get an even number of each color. This task also involves "counting" and "comparison", both great math skills. Then they figure out the shapes. Today's fruit snacks are Sharks. So we are learning about marine life too, bonus! All this with a $1 box of fruit snacks, it's a great bargain.

Okay so I really just like fruit snacks because they keep Kyle and Kelly entertained for several minutes while I do something frivolous like empty the dishwasher. Although... I wonder if they make fruit snacks in letter shapes. We could knock out all this preschool learning stuff at snack time!

Katie at 11:34 AM

Wednesday, January 04, 2006

I think my brain may be oozing out my ears. Why? Because it exploded after an hour of crafts with 8 sugar high Brownies... Bead bracelets, custom stamped stationary, foam decorated picture frames. I can't believe I'm saying this but if I see another kiddie craft like never, it'll be too soon. I think I'll stick to the girl empowerment and outdoor aspects of Girl Scouting for awhile.

I know, this coming from a crafting freak? Important note about that, I prefer to craft alone!

Maybe stuffing cotton balls decorated like snowmen in my ears will help.

Katie at 5:56 PM

I like routines. Heck I even wrote a whole post on how to make a schedule. Our old daily schedule went something like this. But then we moved to Maryland and now the Big 3 ride the bus to all day school (previously I was doing drop off/pick ups at the school at 8:30, 12:30, and 3:30) and Greg's home every evening. Five months later I'm still trying to work ourselves back into a good schedule.

"Good" is the key word there. Currently I get up at 7:30, wake the kids, make breakfast and lunches, see them out the door, and plop my butt down at the computer with a cup of tea. Which is why most of my blog posts are time stamped around 8:30am. And depending on the day and emails and new blog updates by friends and IM conversations, I might sit at the computer all morning. Not "good." I lose the entire morning with nothing tangible accomplished. By the time Kyle, Kelly and I are ready and out the door, it's lunch time. So I'm running errands at the same time all the working people are running errands. That totally negates the crowd free shopping privileges I receive as a stay at home mom. Plus being out at lunch time makes it too easy to drive through some fast food place. Damn them taking debit cards... Fast food, not "good."

Then there's the mad dash to clean the house before the Big 3 return home from school. Although if I've been errand running, I'm usually too worn out to give this much effort. If we didn't go out, then I'm probably attempting to plan a Brownie meeting or do one of my million and two craft projects. The Big 3 come home and it's a whirl wind of snack, homework, after school activities, dinner, and bedtime. There are not enough hours between 3:30 and 8:30.

After 8:30, I'm "off" work. Seriously, I try not to do anything work-like once the kids are in bed in order to spend some time with Greg and unwind. Occasionally I'll fold laundry or mop the kitchen floor but that's it. If it's not done, it can wait until tomorrow. The world won't end if the dust bunnies live another night. I use this time to knit or scrapbook (ha!) or read. I think this may be the success to my "super mom act." I plan and cram all the productive stuff into the daytime hours so I can relax when I need to relax the most.

So the part I need to change in my schedule is the "plop butt at computer all morning" time. I can do it when I need to like when company is coming over or I have a deadline project (Christmas dresses, etc). But the other random days of the week? It's harder to prevent.

I want to get in my half hour of exercise right after the kids get on the bus. I want to make an effort to do preschool stuff with Kelly and Kyle (he's been writing the letter "A" and is so proud of himself). I'd like to cut my errand running down to two days a week (one would be fabulous but probably not do-able). It's a bit of curse being so close to everything now, before it was a half hour drive to shop. In Ohio, I did everything all in one big trip and anything forgotten usually waited until next week. Now I think "oh I'll just run out again for one thing" and I lose an hour "for one thing" every day.

24 hours isn't a lot of time. Especially not spreading it out between 5 children, a husband, and a house. Not to mention being a Brownie leader and all the kids' other activities. And those 8 hours of sleep I have to have. Live life to the fullest, squeeze out every drop. Leave the world a craftier place. hehe

So that's the plan, less computer and errand time, more time exercising and teaching the children. Maybe I'll bump my computer time to an hour in the evening. That's actually what I used to do when Greg traveled but now that he's home, I tend to sit with him in the family room instead of at my computer desk in another room (*cough* laptop!).

See I just "wasted" the entire morning on the computer again. But at least I did it with a teaspoon less of sugar in my tea and a bottle of water. Baby steps, baby steps.

Katie at 10:28 AM

Tuesday, January 03, 2006

Gotta love it when Tuesday feels like Monday and I only have 4 days to do what I usually try to do in 5. Cause I take the weekends off, you know. *winks*

My desk is a wreck, the groceries aren't put away (well the fridge/freezer stuff is), the laundry needs folded, the kids' school papers are everywhere (1 day back, geezy petes!), and Ally and Kelly are taking turns screaming at the top of their lungs. See the blue paper in the picture below? My to do list and schedule for this week. Too bad real life isn't equipped with DVR capabilities.

Edit to add: Crossed one thing off my list! My About page has been updated. Now to tackle the Scrapbooks one.

Katie at 4:17 PM

Monday, January 02, 2006

The guests are gone, the trash taken out, the gifts are 95% put in their places, and the laundry started. I'm not cleaning (vacuum, mopping, etc) until tomorrow when the Big 3 are back in school and the tree will remain up until at least the Epiphany. Not because I'm really into the whole Jan 6th thing but because I need a quiet evening after the kids are in bed to pack up all the ornaments and that probably won't happen until Friday anyway.

So that pretty much leaves looking back on 2005 and looking forward to 2006. I never manage to do any of that in the week between Christmas and New Years Day itself because we're usually traveling or I'm playing hostess at home. Jan 1st, I'm too busy with a hangover to think so Jan 2nd is my day of contemplation. (Aren't you lucky? *winks*)

The highlights of 2005 for me include: sewing quilts for each of the children, finally using my passport (to the Bahamas with Greg!), creating my website you see here, finding a new home in Maryland and moving all in two weeks, being asked to be the matron of honor in my sister's July 2006 wedding, learning to knit, becoming a Brownie leader, writing a 50,000 word novel in one month, and watching the kids reach new milestones in their lives.

The not-so-great parts of 2005 involve: going to therapy (necessary but not necessarily fun), scrapbooking less than 25 pages (probably more like 15, ick), finding a new home in Maryland and moving all in two weeks, and gaining about 5 pounds over the course of the year (and I was 10 pounds overweight at the beginning of 2005 in the first place).

Looking forward to 2006: I want to start scrapbooking again (hope to start by the weekend on this), lose those 15 pounds (will get a post of its own very soon) and on a similar note run a 5K race, get into a "better" routine (again, another post), join a local chapter of Project Linus (which I wanted to do last year and never got around to it), and in general aim to be a good mom, wife, friend, etc.

So not exactly "resolutions" but just little reminders to keep myself on target to reach those goals that make my life happy and worthwhile. Happy New Years!

Katie at 4:17 PM

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