Ramblings of a SAHM

2009-07-19T11:38:00.002-04:00

Hey all, I'm still alive, thanks for the emails checking in on me! I have a bunch of personal stuff going on in my life that I can't blog about so that's why I've been quiet. The kids are fine, I'm okay, and we'll get through this.

I'm not saying I'm ending the blog but I'm not sure what I'm doing with it at the moment. I'd like to share some upcoming pictures (1st day of school, etc) and my web hosting fees are paid through April 2011 anyways. By the way, comments are being moderated (meaning you can still comment and I have to approve it before it posts). Just give me a bit longer to figure this all out. THANKS!

Quote of the Day: "Just when I think I have learned the way to live, life changes." -Hugh Prather

2009-06-22T17:45:00.001-04:00

It seems absolutely nothing means getting sick. I think I'll go back to sleep now.

2009-06-15T16:28:00.003-04:00

A quick update:

Home from North Carolina, yay!

I survived the first day of Girl Scout day camp today. They are very laid back here which can be good (cause there's no reason to be uptight about everything) but then again my list making nature and "let's not lose any of these 23 girls!" attitude kinda took over half way through the day. So I have a little bit of self imposed work to do tonight before tomorrow morning. And I also need to find the exact lyrics to the 3rd verse of "Princess Pat". Cause the part where she saves Captain Jack is the best and no one knows it here.

I'm really looking forward to next week when there's absolutely nothing going on. Because then I'm going to do absolutely nothing. And it'll be great.

2009-06-05T22:05:00.005-04:00

Um, right, it's June...

See, my life has gone something like this recently:

1st week of May: last Girl Scout Daisy meeting and trying to get 8 parents together to register for next year

2nd week of May: prepare house, 5 kids, and 7 babysitters so I could go to Asia

3rd week of May: go to Hong Kong and Beijing

4th week of May: last week of school

1st week of June: sew, sew, sew, and sew some more for Hoosier Hills Fiber Arts Festival. Also the kids' first week of summer break. Wonder how I didn't run screaming for the hills.

And then...

2nd week of June: drive to North Carolina for a mini vacation at the beach and then to Greg's MBA graduation at Chapel Hill

3rd week of June: volunteer at Girl Scout Day Camp (although I have absolutely NO clue what I'm doing there, no one will tell me but I'm on the volunteer roster *shrugs*) 4 of the 5 kids will be going with me.

So at the moment I'm in between "sewing and selling" and preparing to pack and drive a total of 14 hours one way to the beach with 5 kids (and my mother-in-law and sister-in-law). And then after returning home several days later, immediately going to Girl Scout Camp. Did I mention I don't know what I'm doing there? I don't even know which bus we're suppose to ride.

If you don't see me for a few weeks, I'm either buried under fabric, at the beach, or lost at Girl Scout camp.

2009-05-29T10:51:00.002-04:00

Last Day of School!

(Have I mentioned I'm so not ready for school to be out?)

We're having a little neighborhood pizza party to celebrate after school today (I'm in charge of the ice cream sandwiches, lol). Right now the weather looks gorgeous, it's going to be the perfect start to summer break!

Then we're all driving down to my hometown to see my youngest brother graduate high school. It seems like only yesterday he went to kindergarten. He's been accepted to Indiana University and I'm very excited for him. It'll be a fun evening, I'm looking forward to seeing everyone again.

Hope you all have a great weekend!

2009-05-27T08:34:00.002-04:00

Pictures!

Originally uploaded by katiefleck

It's good to be home. There's something strangely comforting about doing a load of laundry and wiping down the kitchen counter. However reminding the kids to put their stuff away five hundred times a day does not give me the same warm fuzzies, go figure...

I feel I'm back in limbo land. School's out in a few days, I have a yarn show in less than two weeks, afterwards driving to North Carolina for graduation, then Girl Scout camp immediately after we return to Indiana, then Boy Scout camps (Zach and Kyle are in different ones), and then it seems like school will start again (like August 12th, yikes!). I'm not prepared for any of that AT ALL. I know all I need to do is make some lists and cross the items off one by one and it'll all be okay.

Maybe I'll start by doing another load of laundry.

2009-05-24T10:29:00.001-04:00

Hey I'm home!

(Actually I've been home since Friday night, I'm just slow at updating here...)

I was horribly sick on the plane back from Beijing, something in the first meal didn't agree with me. Nothing like puking into a tiny paper bag while crammed in a little seat at 37,000 feet. So of course they served something similar smelling at the second meal and I had to cover my nose and breath through my mouth for 45 minutes. At least I wasn't quarantined for the swine flu afterwards.

I am so glad to be home! And I need to say a huge thank you to everyone who helped with the kids while I was gone. You all rock!

Pictures, right, I have them. Give me a day or two to sort out the good ones to post.

Looking ahead, we have absolutely no plans for Memorial Day weekend. I'll probably turn on the race and make a quick trip to the grocery store for something to grill. And as insane as it seems, this is the kids' last week of school! I am so not ready for summer vacation. The kids are all signed up for a scout camp and we have a trip planned to North Carolina but other than that... I can't believe it's almost June.

2009-05-20T19:57:00.001-04:00

In Beijing! I'm not quite sure what I think about the city. It's hard to be in China and not think politics and I don't share my political views here (much). The parts we've seen are of a very modern city, exquisitely maintained roadways and gardens, huge buildings, lots of shopping. The airport was humongous and everything is new, new, new (including the cars, I haven't seen anything older than a 2005 model except a few vans). It's interesting to think about the recent huge changes that have happened here...

Today we took a private tour to the Ming Tombs, Jade Factory, and the Great Wall. The Ming Tombs are amazing, I wasn't prepared for anything so old and detailed. It's about 600 years old and since the USA is such a baby country in terms of age, I was awed. And Jade is a pretty cool stone (didn't buy any though). The Great Wall was well, great! I'm not sure the age of the part we were on but since it was started 3000 years ago, I'm assuming we were walking on workmanship several hundreds years old. There was some huffing and puffing climbing the steps but it was a lot of fun. I plan to post lots of pictures when I get home.

Speaking of home, I'm kinda ready to be there now. I'm not sure what the plan is tomorrow (Thursday. Maybe shopping? I haven't bought anything!). Our flights land around 9:30pm EST time on Friday and I'm so not looking forward to another 15 hour plane ride. But I really miss the kids (going to call home in a few minutes) and it'll be nice to be home again.

2009-05-15T22:30:00.003-04:00

I'm in Hong Kong! It is freaking amazing! Well worth the accidental 8 hour layover in Chicago (O'Hara, of course). It was suppose to be about 3 but the plane had "mechanical issues" and boarding was delayed for hours. We actually ended up with a different plane in the end. 15 hours in a plane is also not fun but I slept and knit a lot so it wasn't too bad. And actually everything went very smoothly beyond the Chicago part, no problems with security, the health screening (surgical masks are so chic!), immigration, or getting a taxi to the hotel. Knock on wood that the rest of the trip goes as smoothly.

For family and friends, I currently don't have cell phone reception but it seems to just be this hotel according to local sources. We're switching hotels later today so maybe I'll have better luck there. I'll be checking my email once a day if there's something non-urgent I need to know.

I haven't seen much of the city yet, I landed well after dark. We went out to a local bar/nightclub area for awhile. I think I might have seen the famous Hong Kong skyline as we were zinging around in a taxi. The view out the hotel room window is pretty cool, I love the water and the mountains.

And now I need a nap.

Edit to add: My time stamp (and date) are still Indiana time, I'm writing this on Saturday at 10:30AM!

2009-05-13T07:44:00.003-04:00

I'm still sick. Yesterday I was only mildly bothered by it, today I look and feel pretty crappy. The only upside is that I feel too miserable to really freak out about the 15 hour flight to a foreign country or stress over the To Do list. There's not much left though, I knocked the bulk of it out over the last two days. The only kicker is I need to look less sick so they let me on my flight tomorrow. Dayquil is my new best friend.

2009-05-12T09:17:00.001-04:00

Oh no, I'm sick! I woke up shivering with a scratchy throat and stuffed sinuses. I can't be sick! There's too much to do! I'm taking a few hours easy this morning and drinking tea but then I need to push through this. Moms don't get sick days! Especially one with five kids and who is trying to leave the country for eight days.

Changing the subject, have I told you how much I love my new neighborhood? (And not just because everyone brought us brownies and cookies when we moved in.) Last night, 3 of us were husband-less so we threw together an impromptu dinner party. I grilled chicken & brats, one brought sides, one brought dessert. And then as our kids played outside in the beautiful sunny spring weather, we drank beer in the driveway and solved the world's problems as only 3 slightly tipsy housewives can.

This place rocks.

2009-05-11T08:01:00.000-04:00

I have one email left in my inbox! *does the Snoopy Happy Dance* It's the flight reminder so I can check in promptly at 8:16am on Wednesday.

Today's To Do list is long and hairy. I'm trying to break the remaining 3 days into groups. Today run errands, tomorrow clean and prep the house (i.e. scrub toilets and find clown outfits), and Wednesday go grocery shopping and food prep. Although darn it, no one will tell me what they want to eat, they can't live on pizza delivery every night.

I'm a third of the way through my "printing", I have all the flight and Asia contacts done. I still need to print the local contacts and maps. The binder I'm putting together is probably overkill but it'll make me feel better when I'm halfway around the world.

Oh and I need to make a chore chart. I'm totally not above bribing my kids to be good while I'm gone. Payable when I return, I don't need the kids hounding whoever for a quarter because they emptied the dishwasher.

I'm thinking it might be easier to get a couple of PhD's in physics and engineering so I could design and build a clone machine to zip myself through it a couple of times...

2009-05-10T07:42:00.001-04:00

Happy Mother's Day!

The kids have given me all their wonderful little handmade goodies (this part of being a mom rocks!) and a gorgeous necklace with their birthstones (this one in silver). I love all of it.

Today we're off to my hometown to see my parents and siblings and to paint some walls in my parents' new house. It may be an odd way to spend the day but I'm actually really looking forward to it.

Hope you all have a great day!

2009-05-09T18:41:00.001-04:00

I love my kids to pieces! Just thought I'd mention that. :)

(Hopefully that makes up for the other times I've complained about them...)

2009-05-07T08:43:00.004-04:00

So next week at this time, I'll be sitting at the O'Hara airport waiting on my flight to Hong Kong.

Shall we review my last flight?

(Oh right, a little background. Greg is doing the last international leg of his MBA program in Asia. I'm catching up with him in Hong Kong and then going on to Beijing.)

At the moment I'm keeping myself distracted and busy by arranging babysitting for the kids, organizing contacts and emergency numbers, planning meals, and putting together all the random stuff that I know where it is but no one else does. The children should but Emily still asks where the dining room is so I'm not leaving anything to chance. A few examples, soccer cleats & shin guards: blue bags in front closet, water bottles: under the kitchen island, clown outfits: girls' closet. Yes, there will be a need for clown outfits while I'm gone.

I'm pretty much prepared in the physical sense for myself too. My adorable sister-in-law and sister have helped me shop for great new clothes and shoes and I bought my own suitcase (a blue Samsonite Spinner, wee!). I received my tetanus booster & Hep A shots and have a bottle of prescription Cipro (antibiotic). I have my plane tickets, my passport, and visa for China. Ready Freddy!

Now if there was only a way to not think about a 15 hour flight over the Pacific Ocean to a foreign country all by myself...

2009-05-05T07:42:00.003-04:00

Good morning!

It was a long weekend to top off a long week of rain, rain, rain. And the end results were soggy soccer/baseball fields and the cancellation of all the kids' practices and games. I think I almost prefer the nuttiness of getting everyone to games and practices instead of the boredom of sitting at home watching it rain. At least when the kids are running around in a sport, they aren't whining at me about whose turn it is on the computer and if they can eat another granola bar. (I don't know, I don't care, and we're out of granola bars because you ate 3 already today.)

And so of course, tonight's baseball practice has been moved to Friday (coaches aren't available tonight) and on Thursday (Zach's soccer) and Friday (baseball and twin's soccer), there's a 50% chance of rain. Plus if it rains both days, the fields will again be too soggy on Saturday for games.

I kinda miss ice hockey.

2009-04-29T08:40:00.002-04:00

Taking the rest of the week off. I'm way behind on my sewing for the Hoosier Hills Fiber Arts Festival over the first weekend of June and the kids have crazy whack-a-doodle schedules right now.

Quote of the Day: "When dealing with people, remember you are not dealing with creatures of logic, but creatures of emotion." -Dale Carnegie

(That would explain why my kids are insane while getting ready for school in the morning...)

2009-04-27T08:00:00.002-04:00

Hey all, Happy Monday!

So how was your weekend? I sat at 2 soccer games, 1 baseball game, mowed the lawn, watched the kids play flashlight tag, grilled both dinners (spring, I love you!), went on a historic tour of our town with the Girl Scouts, and did lots of laundry. Pretty typical, I suppose.

Right now, I'm enjoying the peace and quiet of a Monday morning while the kids are in school. Doubly enjoying it because there's some rumor going around about "summer break" and the magical wonderful school bus not coming to the neighborhood for a few months. Why would they do that to me?

Just kidding, of course I'm looking forward to summer break! No more 7am alarm clocks and homework! Although the quiet I will miss...

2009-04-22T08:08:00.000-04:00

The bathroom scale and I are having issues.

Back at the beginning of the year, it was giving me bizarre weights like 156 pounds. Ack! At the same time due to the kidney stone incident , I was being weighed a lot at various medical establishments and they said I weighed 148 pounds. Hmmm...

Since I don't want to weigh either 156 or 148 (I'm 5'3" by the way), I gave up Mountain Dew (not good on the kidneys anyways) and have tried to eat a little better since January. My bathroom scale now says I weigh around 141 pounds. Yay!

Except...

I've already hit my deductible with our insurance for the year (again, kidney stones!) so I've recently done a lot of my annual check up stuff (seen my general practitioner, all good, went to the GYN, all good, travel specialist for shots to go to Asia, ouch) and have been weighed at those places. And all three said I weigh exactly 147. WTF?

To recap, according to my bathroom scale, I weighed 156 in January and now 141 in April, a loss of 15 pounds. According to most medical places, I weighed 148 in January and 147 now, a loss of 1 pound. See my confusion?

Yeah, yeah, it's just a bunch of numbers you say, how do your clothes fit? Well some of my size 8 jeans are looser and my tight size 8 jeans fit better now. Shirts, some of the mediums are a bit baggy. But a 1 pound weight loss wouldn't cause any change and a 15 pound weight loss should mean my clothes would fit a lot differently.

Hmph. I would like to weigh 137. So either I need to lose 10 pounds or 4. Your guess is as good as mine.

(For Dad, since I know he's going to ask, the Wii Fit says I weigh 143. On carpet. So I'm taking that number with a grain of salt too.)

Also, is it weird that I could care less discussing my exact weight with the entire internet but that I don't really want anyone to know I'm *cough, sputter* 29 + 2 years old? I'm oddly looking forward to my 40th birthday though. If my life ever starts making sense, I'll make sure to rent a billboard announcing the news.

2009-04-17T08:35:00.002-04:00

So my latest obsession on the internet is Google Calendar. Which is really odd because I've been a die hard Franklin Covey paper day planner user for years. Like 14 years... Gah, that makes me old...

Anyway I have never ever liked Microsoft Outlook. Never. Granted the last time I used it was probably last century but still, not a fan. So it may have a super duper calendar set up now and I'm just sitting here with my fingers in my ears "lalala-ing, I can't hear you!" but whatever, Google's been good to me so I thought I'd give their calendar a whirl.

(The main reason I looked into a computer calendar is because hello, you try to pencil in 5 children's schedules plus your own in a 1" x 1.5" space per day on the monthly tabs. And also writing in the repeat sport practices each week for the kids was beginning to cramp my hand.)

Google didn't let me down! I'm quite happy with the ease of adding in events and making them auto fill through the weeks. It'll send alerts either by email, a pop up on my computer, or a text message to my phone. (Handy for those pesky dentist appointments that always sneak up on me.) Plus the website page shows up very nicely on my cell phone browser so when we go to a soccer game and I forget which field we are on (because it changes weekly *sigh*), I have all that information quickly at hand.

As long as my cell phone doesn't die... Or I get service wherever we are... Or Google doesn't eat my calendar...

Which is why, for the most part, there's still a written copy of our schedule in my day planner (also serves as To Do list holder and address book so the Franklin Covey people still love me). Course I forget my day planner at home half the time. But okay, between the two I should be covered this season. Although Zach and the twins have 3 games that overlap at exactly the same time (bonus: 2 of those are at fields across town from each other) and I haven't even received Kyle's baseball game schedule (played at yet another location no where near the soccer fields)...

Anyone know of a good internet application to help with that?

2009-04-16T07:51:00.006-04:00

Katie Fleck...

has overdue library books.

doesn't want to take the trash out.

wonders where the cat's collar is.

needs to start exercising again.

is tired.

should be sewing.

loves her friends and family.

needs to stop spending so much money at Starbucks.

killed a bunch of flower seedlings.

is drinking tea.

saved $18.60 on groceries yesterday by clipping coupons.

has been corrupted by Facebook and will never be the same.

2009-04-15T08:03:00.002-04:00

Bob Parr: What are you waiting for?

Kid on tricycle: I don't know, something amazing, I guess...

-The Incredibles

I'm in wait mode at the moment. Waiting for the weather to warm up and quit faking us out (seriously is 60 degrees too much to ask?). Waiting for school to be over (not that I want the wonderful 7 kid-free hours to go away, just the homework and early morning alarm). Waiting for my next yarn show (um, I should be sewing for that). Waiting to go shopping for spring/summer clothes for me, waiting to go to Hong Kong & Beijing... Waiting on my brother's graduation, waiting on Greg's graduation...

And I don't know, something amazing, I guess...

2009-04-10T10:50:00.000-04:00

Okay so I'm not quite back into the swing of blogging thing...

Monday we went clothes shopping for the kids. Plus a stop at the sporting goods store for soccer stuff. (Is it just me or is the season here starting really late?)

Tuesday we stayed home and the kids drove me insane. (Short drive...)

Wednesday we went to the Children's Museum and then had the Byers clan over for dinner.

Thursday we went to my parent's house to dye Easter eggs. (And then came back home.)

Today I need to do laundry, clean the house, get the kids' hair cut, and buy dress shoes and sandals for the kids.

Tomorrow I think involves me running for the hills. (Greg arrives home tonight, seems like good time to skip town...)

Hope you have a Happy Easter weekend!

2009-04-06T10:14:00.000-04:00

It's the kids' spring break, yay!

We're going Easter/spring clothes shopping today, yay!

Greg's in Chicago, yay!

The economy sucks, yay!

It's snowing, yay!

Now if you'll go up and replace "yay!" with something more like "why is the world messing with me?" and "omg, please no...", we'll be all set.

The good thing is I have prepared for days like today. It's called a Sock Yarn Stash. Sock knitting = meditation for my frazzled brain.

Oh yeah, to answer some recent questions in the comments:

For Kathy about sewing machines: I wrote this a month ago. Scroll past all the Facebook stuff. :)

The socks seen in the previous post are Firefly colorway in Playful from Twisted Fiber Arts. You could buy it here except she's out. She's an awesome indie dyer but knowing what it's like to be a "one person show" business owner, it can be hard to keep up with demand sometimes. And no, I didn't spend $31 on sock yarn, she's raised her prices. (Although I'd pay $31 anyways, shhhhh!)

2009-04-02T08:19:00.002-04:00

My most favoritest knitted socks

Originally uploaded by katiefleck

(Don't say I didn't warn you.)

You know what's fun about moving to a new house? Well besides being in a new house? Finding out what flowers the previous owners planted! (And hopefully not finding mold...)

Yes, I'm a master wanna-be garden nerd, why do you ask?

So far, I have some daffodils and some tulips (not sure what colors yet). There's a bunch of irises by the garage (again, waiting on the color) and *drum roll please* lilacs along another side of the house (the bushes are tagged). Yay, I love lilacs! There's kind of a sad forsythia bush in the front with some pitiful hostas and then several other random foundation bushes. But overall we're off to a very good start.

And in the back yard... There will be tomatoes. Lots and lots of yummy red tomatoes.

Home ownership. It rocks. (Except when you find mold...)