Happy Friday!
Happy Last Day of November!
Happy "I didn't finish NaNoWriMo this year and it kinda sucks" Day.
Considering the
Anyone have any fun plans for the weekend? I think I'll be folding laundry, sewing, and going to hockey games.
It's only Nov 29th and I'm already thinking Bah Humbug.
I'm trying to decipher the kids' Christmas lists into "we're buying", "Santa's bringing", and the family's "what can I buy the kids?" lists. Zach's list includes a video iPod and cell phone (yeah, right). Ally has 62 items on hers (um...). Emily has odd things like a Santa costume and her own room (what the?). Kyle wants everything 100 or more pieces and Kelly's can be summed up into Barbie, American Girl, and The Littlest Pet Shop.
This is when I turn to the advice of my
Even the twin's (will be 9 years old in about two weeks) largest (size wise) present won't be much bigger than a clothing box.
And then Kyle will probably get a bike and I've already bought him a Leap Frog Smart Globe
(Although I paid a lot less during the insane Black Friday shopping.) I mean, his gifts just look cooler all wrapped up compared to High School Musical 2 the Dvd and a Gameboy DS game.I also hate buying "stuff" just so they have lots of "stuff" to open. Cause with a household of 7, the last thing we really need is more "stuff." (In fact, I'll be purging the toy room of Fisher Price Little People very soon. *sob, sniff*) And don't get me started on the fact that everything is made in China. I'm actually buying the kids one gift each from Etsy. Yay, handmade!
I miss the Christmas Past when a box and some wrapping paper were the best presents ever. Although the box & paper were probably made in China...
Remind me again why I always do this to myself?
I have a Girl Scout meeting tonight that I have not planned and do not have a babysitter for Zach, Kyle, and Kelly. Plus the Etsy store is going gang busters so I'm a bit behind in the sewing. Let alone the Christmas gifts I plan to sew or knit.
Oh, the ironic part? Tonight the Brownies are doing the Stitch It Together Try-It. At what age is it no longer considered child slave labor?
Between hockey games on Saturday (yes plural, games, I'm a bit over ice hockey at the moment), we went to one of the Smithsonian Air and Space Museums. (There are two, who knew?) Anyway, we had a good time for the bargain basement price of $12 parking. With a 12 passenger van, that's a dollar per person!
Kelly and Kyle next to Kyle's favorite plane:
Zach next to a computer. He really wants a computer but maybe not one that would take up his entire room.
And this one is for my dad:
A showcase cabinet of air and space.
The twins were there but they hung back with my in-laws so they didn't end up in any of my pictures. And now I can belatedly cross another thing off my 30 before 30 list, woot!
I'm an aunt!
Kelly and Lucy
Okay, so not really. Lucy is my sister-in-law's new schnauzer puppy. And seeing that this is maybe the closest I will be to an aunt any time soon (no pressure to my siblings and all), I'll take what I can get. So I'm planning to knit her cute puppy sweaters and she'll need her own tote bag and maybe a doggie quilt and...
She's really cute, isn't she? And I'm not just being bias because I'm her aunt. hehe
I never thought I'd say this but I'm looking forward to sleeping in to 7:30am on Monday.
Thursday I was up around 7am to start the turkey.
Friday 3:30am for Black Friday shopping. (After going to bed at 1:30am, not so bright on my part.)
Saturday we were up around 6am for Zach's 8:30am hockey game in Virginia. Which wasn't as bad as...
This morning's 7am hockey game (also in Virginia) which meant I was awake at 5am.
I'm just a wee bit tired. Good thing we have tons of Thanksgiving leftovers so I can direct the kids to warm up their own meals while I doze on the sofa.
The Feast
(Kyle sat down at the table last Thanksgiving and declared we were having a "feast" and has been looking forward to this year's "feast" for a few weeks now.)
So breakfast will be eggs, Canadian bacon, and toast. (I'm feeling lazy.)
The appetizers are ham pinwheels, veggie tray, apple slices with dip, pita chips with roasted pepper & feta dip, Skyline Chili dip (for the kids and man, we like our dip around here), crescent dogs, and dried beef ball with crackers.
Then we have the turkey, mashed potatoes, sweet potatoes, dressing, two veggie casseroles my MIL is bringing (thanks!), corn casserole, cranberries, chicken & Amish noodles, and dinner rolls. I think that's everything...
Dessert, I have a pumpkin pie, a pumpkin tart, and a cherry pie (all store bought, I'm only one woman! lol). One of our guests is bringing another desert and my MIL baked cookies yesterday. I think I'll also let the kids bake some cookies because they've been bugging me forever to make Snickerdoodles. And there's always a few dozen boxes of Girl Scout cookies still here...
Let the feasting begin!
Have a Happy Thanksgiving!
Today's the day! (What kind of day? The "Day Where You Can Be Anything You Want to Be" Show!)
Please tell me I'm not the only one who has old Blues Clues songs stuck in my head all the time. And don't get me started on Dora the Explorer. Although I think the "I'm the Map" song is an ingenious way to teach the next generation of boys that it's okay to ask for directions.
(I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map, I'm the map!)
Any way today's the day where I try to do five hundred million things in preparation for Thanksgiving. And also when Greg's exasperated with me because I could have easily done half the stuff last week. But not really because the toilets would just need cleaned again and who wants chicken and noodles that was made a week ago?
The school system has thoughtfully closed the schools so that I have all my children to help me. < /sarcasm > We still have some fuzzy math going on here: 1 computer, 2 TVs, a Wii, a PS2, and 2 Gameboys combined with 5 children still does not equal peace and quiet for me yet. If all else fails I'm going to throw them outside and tell them to play in the street. (Kidding. Sort of. I'll make them put helmets on first.)
Maybe I'll update my progress as the day goes on.
At 8:45am, I've taken out the recycling, watered the plants, snuggled with Kelly, and had my morning tea. Next up, making vegetable stock (I use this recipe for the turkey.) and cleaning the kids' bedrooms.
At 1:30pm, I've cooked and deboned a chicken (for chicken and Amish noodles), prepped 4 appetizers, and cleaned the kids' rooms. I'd be further along but I had to drop the twins off for a play date. Now to the nitty gritty of cleaning.
Right so do you think my Thanksgiving guests would be happy eating a lovely selection of Girl Scout cookies? (Which are still not all gone, argh...)
Okay, I'm off to buy a turkey, really! And unfortunately pick up another case of Girl Scout cookies.
What I should have done over the weekend:
steam clean the upstairs carpet
get the trash together
wash the walls
fix two kitchen chairs
clean the bathrooms
write out the Thanksgiving grocery list, followed by
grocery shopping
laundry
sew Etsy orders
fix BKD Excel spreadsheets
write 15,000 words for NaNoWriMo
What I did over the weekend:
sewed a quilt (Christmas gift, yay!)
picked up Boy Scout popcorn and delivered it to 10 houses
Hmmm... I think I may be a bit behind.
The kids have a total of 8 hours of school this week (today and tomorrow are half days, off Wednesday through Friday) so it's going to be interesting. Oh yeah and this afternoon is a bust because I have parent/teacher conferences. I already know what they are going to say: Zach is smart but forgets his homework, Ally is great but talks too much, Emily works very hard but is often frustrated and cries easily, Kyle understands the material but gets out of hand during transitions or when bored. There I just saved myself 2 hours at the school.
Right, I need to go buy a turkey now.
It's going to be a long day.
Zach had a 7:30am hockey game today. Note the time stamp of this blog post: 7:23am. We didn't go. Not that I didn't try. I began to wake up all the kids at 6:30 and then Zach started coughing. And coughing. I think it's whopping cough, it's been going around here. But crap, he can't go to a hockey game if he can't catch his breath during a coughing fit. And at that point all the kids were awake and wouldn't go back to bed. At 6 in the morning. If it had been a school morning, I'm positive they all would have fallen back to sleep until the bus arrived at 8:10. It's going to be a long freaking day.
And also? Greg's out of town.
Looong day. Please send chocolate and Mountain Dew.
So seriously I don't watch a lot of TV. I know I may seem really knowledgeable about a lot of TV but that's just because I'm one of those odd fact picker upper type people. I used to read the TV guide for the hell of it as a kid, 'nuff said.
My must see TV shows are Eureka (currently between seasons) and Battlestar Galactica (starts the 24th) both on SciFi, Anthony Bourdain on the Travel Channel, and What Not to Wear on TLC. If I get the chance, I'll watch House and The Soup. In theory I like Project Runway on Bravo but this season (premiered Wednesday) is already annoying me because they all are already designers. I'll sit through several other shows that Greg likes but for the most part, those mentioned above are the only ones I'd watch on my own.
And my most favorite show currently is The Office. Which is funny because I've never worked in an office my entire life. (Unless that small stint as a very part time copy person for a secretary back in college counts.) But The Office cracks me up. My sister and I have crazy thing for Jim and Pam. Jim and Pam!
But The Office is Closed. As well as a bunch of other great shows. And this pisses me off. What do you mean that the only major network channel show I like is no longer making new episodes?!?!?
Of course there's not a lot that we can do about the writer's strike. You can sign a petition here and read more about it at United Hollywood. And wait. Cause even though I can watch The Office extras online for my Jim and Pam fix, it just seems wrong since the writers aren't being paid for any of that. And as a lovely unpaid blog writer, I know how much producing content for free sucks. Just kidding on my part. But seriously, pay the writers what they are worth and bring back The Office already!
(Jim and Pam!)
I am grumpy.
Kelly's birthday was long. And I didn't find time to bake her cake. I know, I feel horrible that she didn't have cake on her birthday. She did have birthday ice cream... Other than the lack of cake, she did have a pretty awesome day in my opinion. She was the only one in Build-a-Bear so they made a big fuss over her, we ate lunch at the mall and she rode the carousel, and then we ice skated for an hour (my quads are killing me this morning). Oh and I bought her a hot chocolate at Starbucks, she likes their colorful cups.
And then the downside... My babysitter canceled for last night's Brownie meeting so I had to take everyone (Greg's out of town). It's just hard and I don't enjoy it. And the parents weren't that helpful last night. "Oh that email that I owe cookie money? That was for me? And you said you want it tonight and you really do want it tonight?" ARGH!
This morning was a disaster. Zach and Kyle have been really bad about falling back asleep after I wake them up. And they pull the thing Greg always does and they refuse to get out of bed while I'm in the room. Why? So I was fussing with lunches (money, screw finding time to pack today) and the girls were whining over clothes and I realized that 10 minutes have gone by and the boys were still asleep. And then Ally needed me to sign something so I asked her to hand me a pen and she's out of the room for several minutes so I went look for her and a pen and she's brushing her hair because she forgot about the pen. Emily has lost her (new!) jacket again. The twins have like 10 now but of course we can't find any and the bus is now at the bus stop so I made her wear her new winter coat that she *had* to have and I went to 2 different Targets 5 times to finally get it in her size. And now she says she hates it and ran wailing across the lawn to the bus. Also I don't think Kyle ate breakfast (see "sleeping in" above).
Right now I need to go to the store to buy 12 paper cups for Kyle's class that I was suppose to send in yesterday. And Zach just called because he forgot his math homework and could I please bring it in? At least I remembered the twin's field trip permission slips and money. Which brings the grand total of money sent to the school for field trips to $90.25 so far. I wish I was kidding. It gets even worse because that accounts for about 6 of the 16 they will probably have. (About 4 per grade at anywhere from $8 to $25 a pop.) Although I did forget to sign their report cards.
Stick a fork in me, I'm done.
Happy birthday Kelly!
I can't believe my youngest is 5 years old! When Zach was five, the twins were 3, Kyle was 11 months old and I was pregnant with Kelly. A lot can change in 5 years.
Anyway because I'm a rotten mom (i.e. no "without Kelly time" and I forgot to order anything online a week ago), Kelly doesn't have any presents to open at the moment. So we're going shopping. Which trust me, is not a hardship for this girl. At Target, she's going to pick out a Barbie something and a Littlest Pet Shop toy. At the mall, she's going to use some money and a gift card (thanks Aunt Liz!) at Build-a-Bear and then I have to find Lelli Kelly shoes for her. Stupid commercial TV. We're also going ice skating. I kinda want to be 5 again.
Oh and I still need to bake her cake. And plan tonight's Girl Scout meeting. Maybe I need to enroll in a time management class. Or invest in a Time Turner. One or the other.
Happy Birthday Kelly!
The boring life of a stay at home mom.
I had a mole removed this morning. And tonight I'm going to steam clean the carpets after the kids are in bed. I also may fold a few loads of laundry in a few minutes. I'm currently scratching Kelly's back.
I have a crazy exciting life, let me tell you...
Quote of the Day: "It would seem that something which means poverty, disorder and violence every single day should be avoided entirely, but the desire to beget children is a natural urge." -Phyllis Diller
The word of the week is Sewing.
Last week it was Girl Scout Cookies. (Yeah, I know that's three words.)
Next week it will be Cleaning. Followed closely by Cooking. And having fun with family. (Hi hi!)
Eventually it will be Christmas. And then Bah Humbug.
No where in this mess that is my life will there be Writing (aka NaNoWriMo). Which sucks because I was kinda on a roll with the wins the last 2 years. I haven't given up hope completely but I sit at 6,000 words written when my goal for today would have been wrapping up 24,000. An even more conservative goal would have me at 20,000. While time has been an issue, the story is also throwing up a few road blocks. I'm attempting sci-fi and I didn't plan very well. My poor main character goes to another planet and what's its name? Who lives there? I don't know and I really don't have time to figure it out while I'm writing. Probably a hundred words in the novel right now are "insert alien" and "insert planet". Although I just crunched some numbers and if I write 3000 words a day through the end of November, I could still pull this off. "Insert keyboard on fire."
But for now, I'm off to the sewing machine...
I'm feeling a bit better today stomach wise, at least I'm not hanging out in the bathroom. But I still feel kinda crappy especially since I'm another day behind in life. I'm beginning to think my last dying thoughts will be "damn, didn't finish the To Do list" instead of "Lots of love to my family and friends!"
And while I've been "lalala, I can't hear you!" about Christmas, I completely spaced that Kelly's birthday is next week (14th). Which is silly since she's been asking for gifts, cards in the mail, and a marble cake for weeks now. So I sort of knew, I just didn't equate all that to "I need to go gift shopping and buy a cake mix." I guess I still have a few days, right? My excuse is I'm not used to having a family birthday in November. (It's only been 5 years...) Also Thanksgiving is NOT in two weeks. Seriously why can't we spread these holidays out a little bit more? I just recovered from my Labor Day hangover.
I am sick (stomach thing). The only decent thing about being sick nowadays is that Kelly is content to sit next to me on the sofa and watch cartoons. And also that I can blog while laying down with my laptop. Life would be good if it weren't for the whole sick part.
The post where I start sewing our clothes and canning jam
Oh wait...
Anyway Steph asked what I meant by a diet overhaul and basically I'm trying to make our meals healthier. This is the point where Greg adds "again". To which I say "continuing with a few setbacks."
My current goal is to cut out High Fructose Corn Syrup and Trans Fat. The trans fat one wasn't hard because we don't eat a lot of processed baked goods in the first place. Although I found it in the microwave popcorn from the Boy Scouts. And we have two boxes worth. Hmph.
The HFCS, like I've said before, is in everything. I bet in a typical grocery store, it is in 90% of the processed food. I've found it in bread, chocolate syrup, ketchup, salad dressing, granola bars, salsa, cereal, spaghetti sauce, and saltine crackers. Let alone the obvious ones like soda, jam, and cookies. It's insane and it also makes me mad. If you read the long term health effects of consuming it, it's practically a poison. And it can be really hard to avoid. I thought I did a good job yesterday getting rid of it here but this morning I noticed it's also in Miracle Whip Lite (our favorite version of mayonnaise). Grrrr...
You'll notice that I didn't say we're going "organic." I need to do some more research on this but some of my initial findings, organic isn't *always* better. They are organic pesticides that are still toxic. And if I have pneumonia, I want an antibiotic. If a cow has a treatable disease, it should receive an antibiotic, not be made to suffer so it can be labeled organic. (We'll just ignore the whole "dying in a slaughter house" part at the end.) Don't get me wrong, I like the idea of less pesticides and unnecessary drugs but I'm not positive the FDA's current regulations are the best way.
That said I did purchase a lot of organic foods yesterday. Organic versions of most processed foods (ketchup, salsa, etc) are often the only way to avoid HFCS. And I'm okay with that. Because while I'm willing to make my own jam, I'm not quite prepared to be making cereal and crackers. Yet.
Which brings me to my last point. Greg always says "Cheap, quality, or convenient, pick two." Quality food usually isn't cheap (unless you have a nearby Trader Joe's, I'm in LOVE with that store now). Taking the time to read labels and making your own food from scratch isn't always convenient. I'm doing trade offs where I feel it's important. I'm still letting the kids have Catalina dressing since it's a sure way to get them to eat salad (next goal, more veggies!) while I search for a HFCS-free alternative. I'm spending more money (tons more) on lots of fresh fruit to replace fruit snacks and other processed foods. Today I'm making strawberry jam and stock piling homemade wheat waffles (to be eaten with trans-fat free margarine and a dab of real maple syrup). I figure we're so extremely lucky to not have any food allergies in the family that going out of my way to avoid a few unhealthy ingredients isn't that much of a hardship.
Actually the hardest part of all this is giving up Mountain Dew. If I refuse to buy Coco Puffs for the kids anymore, I can't be a hypocrite and keeping drinking it all the time. (I reserve the right for the occasional can, like once a month or so.) If I seem a little sad (and caffeine deprived), I'm mourning the loss of my favorite drink. RIP my Mountain Dew addiction. It's been a fun and HFCS filled 15 years.
Oh wow, it's Monday again.
It was a long weekend. I did end up throwing away all the Halloween candy on Friday. Mean, mean mommy. I'm still finding candy wrappers around the house and pulled out about a dozen from the washer/dryer this morning. The cookie booth sale went surprisingly well considering my complete lack of planning (although really all I had to do was show up with the cookies and some change to break $20's). The twins won their soccer game 1-0 (Em scored the only goal) and Zach's hockey team lost 9 to 6 after having a 5 to 2 lead for awhile. Zach did have a nice assistant for one of the goals (he plays defense). And the Colts and Bengals lost, booo...
Today I found out what a PITA Kyle's been on the bus. What a great way to start the morning. The house is a wreck because I'm *trying* to organize some stuff and so everything's pulled out and it looks terrible in this in-between stage. The kids' clothes storage (dressers/closets) are a mess because we're at that crappy inbetween weather stage where sometimes they can still wear shorts but they are pulling sweaters out of storage randomly on the chilly days. I'm also completely overhauling our diet which means I have half an hour to throw away food before the garbage truck comes for the week (I'll donate the unopened stuff though) and then I will *have* to go grocery shopping. Multi-tasking is for the birds...
Seriously I need like 2 days with no one in the house, no outside demands on my time, and no internet (hehe) and I could get this all finished. Except for Kyle's misbehavior, I'm still thinking on that one.
NaNoWriMo? At Friday's 1314 words. By my 2000 word a day goal, I'm only 8686 words behind. While I'm dreaming, I should ask for 3 days instead of 2...
How's your Monday?
Random Thoughts:
- Target's Halloween clearance section is a lot of fun. Except not when your husband starts questioning the need for pumpkin and ghost pillows and cauldron shaped coffee mugs (they have little feet, too cute!).
- I'm *this close* to throwing away all the Halloween candy. Seriously the kids are driving me nuts with *sneaking* and then leaving the wrappers everywhere. I've already eaten all the mini Butterfingers so it's okay to pitch the rest.
- Yes, it's NaNoWriMo time. I'm already behind in my word count because I literally only had 2 hours to write yesterday. Rotten family and their needs. Other than the lack of time, it's going okay although one of the secondary characters is now throwing a party that wasn't in the outline and my main character is saying "WTF?"
- I have a Girl Scout cookie booth sale scheduled for tomorrow and I have done absolutely NO planning and haven't even filled one of the hour time slots with girls and a parent yet.
- There's no school today. That probably should have been Random Thought #1 but I'm still rather excited about the cute coffee mugs (and only $2!).
- No school equals no time to write plus the kids keep demanding annoying things like breakfast and computer time and carving pumpkins. I should have paid one of the neighborhood teenagers to smash all our pumpkins the other day.
- Just kidding on the pumpkin smashing. Sort of.
- I also maybe might have promised them a trip to IKEA today. And baking Snickerdoodles. I really need a filter on my mouth.
- I'm still working on Tuesday's To Do list.
- Kelly made me count the number of days remaining until Christmas. 53. I think I'm going to faint.
- It is Friday right? I swear I'm losing big chunks of time. Like what exactly happened to Nov 1st? Or the rest of 2007 for that matter?
- Current NaNoWriMo Word Count: 1,314 (out of 50,000) No title. Main character: Keely Ohio Genre: Sci Fi Adventure Mystery Romance
- Swedish meatballs, flat packed sofas, and stick figure instructions will make everything better...
What do you mean it's November?
(post dated cause I swear November 1st didn't happen)
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