Speeeeding along! ;D

Remember my quest to slow down a little, be more mindful, do more yoga... yadda yadda yadda... and remember my complaint that since making that quest life has instead sped up to be a blur!?!? LOL!! Well yeah, here I am, speeding along!!! ;D

It's Rex's birthday party tomorrow night ( and if I hadn't invited you, please, consider this your invite! ) and I have to get the house organized and cleaned, food prepared, cake baked, children bathed ...*** breathe, breathe***!! :D Actually, I'm not all that worried about it, it will all be just fine. I HAVE asked Rex to take the kids out for the day though... it's SSOOOOOO much easier to clean a house when no one is in it, even if they ARE really willing to help! :D

Anyway, I have just found this blog, and it has inspired me, again, to slow down. Ahhhhhh. One of the things it suggests is to go to bed early and get up early... yah... I seem to have forgotten how to do that but it was something Rex and I were talking about today, so tonight, I am going to cut this post REALLY short and get an early night! ;D

Suffice it to say we had a lovely day, the weather was very nice ( a bit windy but not too bad! ) and the children played outside a lot! I got a lot of the housework done so it won't be too frantic tomorrow and I even cleaned out the fishtank and washed the dog! ;D

I hope you had a super day too! :D

Good (early) night! ;D

Rex's Birthday!! yeahy!! ;D

What a sweet birthday we had today! :D The children woke us up at O Dark 30 this morning with a rustling of packages and a Happy Birthday song!! ;D They couldn't wait to give Daddy his gifts and, as usual, bickered over whose present Daddy should open first!! The children had each picked out fun T shirts for him.... Jessie's was a bright blue "Team Mario" T shirt so they can wear Mario shirts when they play Wii !! Jack had picked out a brown T shirt with Hersheys printed across it "because Daddy likes cwokwick" !! He also got Daddy a large Hershey bar to match his shirt! ;D Daddy opened his cards and presents and then the kiddoes made him some coffee and toast. We got up and got moving and Daddy suggested we go to a restaurant in town for some breakfast. We had faaar tooo much cake, brownies and lemon scones! It was delicious! After breakfast we went to Greenwood to visit some friends at their store...we chatted with them and checked out their warehouse! We drove around for a while just enjoying the peace and the lovely weather then came home and worked on Spring Cleaning the garage and the house ready for The Big Party on Saturday! :D

We were just getting ready for our date night out when the phone rang... it was the babysitter's mother....uh oh.... the babysitter was sick... could we reschedule ????? Uuuuuhhhhh!!! After a few minutes of being really disappointed we realised we could still have a nice birthday so we tossed around a few ideas and landed on going to Applebees for dinner. It's cheap, cheery and the kids love it. We ate some yummy food and the kids were about asleep at the table. Jack fell fast asleep in the car and when we got home we just carried him straight to his bed! Poor little fella! :D We'd chosen to not get dessert at the restaurant and opted to stop at the next door grocery store to pick up ice cream on the way home, but now we are home, we are too full to even think about eating it!! I'll bet it will still be good tomorrow!! ;D

Just a quickie tonight, I'm exhausted! ;D

We had a lovely day today... the children and I went to the mall to get a couple of things for Rex's birthday tomorrow. This is the first year we have been really short of cash in a long long time and it was nice to not go crazy with big purchases, rather to just get one or two little things that he will like. I did splurge on something for him, felt guilty about it and returned it about 10 minutes later! ;D

Jack had been a real weirdo at home in the morning before we left and I was dreading taking him out in public!! Sometimes he will argue ANYTHING with you!! He will tell you the sky is green if it suits him! ;D Now I don't care what color he thinks the sky is but if I say he needs to hold my hand or walk by me in the mall.... that sort of thing is not negotiable, so I'm less than keen to take him when he is in a contrary mood! Funnily enough, once we got OUT the house, he was a sweetie and he sat in the back of the van with Jessie singing his HEAD off to Carly Simon!! And heaven forbid I should try and put any other kind of music on... oh no.... Carly is the only way my friend!! He sings at the top of his lungs and knows ALL the words!! It's so cute!!! I'll video it one of these times...!!

Anyhoo, thanks to Carly Jack was in a great mood and the mall trip went well. We Taco Bell'd lunch ( cheap cheap again! ) and bought some ingredients for tomorrow's birthday cake! Once home the kiddoes weren't all that hungry due to their very late lunch so Jack had an apple and watch Thomas with Daddy whilst I went downstairs and about killed myself on my bike!! Lisa, of the bike, sent me a link where you ride for 30 seconds at full tilt and then ease off for 20 seconds, rinse and repeat for 20 minutes. I. About. Died. Still, it IS a damn good workout and I can see myself punishing myself again tomorrow!!

After my ride it was time to put the kiddoes in bed. I conned them upstairs by reminding them they had to wrap their presents and write their cards so there was much whispering and hustling around the house with wrapping paper, scissors and tape!!! Bless their hearts! They LOVE to surprise Daddy on his birthday!! ;D Jack wrote Happy Birthday all by himself in his card but made me write the rest as it was a pretty slow process! ;D Poor kid!! ;D

Anyway, now they are sleeping, I'm ready to sit on my beehind and rest before bed. I suppose I could have one more chocolate? After all, cake tomorrow...!! ;D

Fractions make us frantic, a solution to the cat problem and when sleeping kids lie...

So I thought it would be "fun" to do some fractions with Jessie, you know, 'cause I'm insane!! ;D Turns out I can only remember the absolute basics of fractions but I DO remember how much I hated them as a school child! We abandoned fractions for a day or so and I got some advice from my buddies online. This time I told Jessie we were going to take it reeeeeeally slowly. If she didn't get it, then we would work on it, slowly, until she did. It's not a biggie, if it gets to be a worry for her then I'll back off and we'll try again another time but today we had a bit of a breakthrough! ;D I made a few strips of paper, one to equal one whole, one was two halves, another was four fourths, up to 16 sixteenths!This website was super helpful. We played a game with a fraction die that we made, where you roll the die and then use the fraction on the die to cover up the "whole" ... it really helped Jessie to see what each fraction was worth and she caught on very quickly that 2 /16 was the same as 1/8 etc. She asked to play several times and I was so proud of her! : D

This was after one round of the game... see the paper "die"


Playing again..!


Jessie wanted to show me what she'd figured out for herself!

We used dominoes as fractions... she had to show me what the dominoes represented.



two fourths OR one half! We did things such as 5/4 so she could see that this meant one whole and one fourth etc. She's getting it! It's so exciting! ;D


So after solving some fraction problems we decided to tackle another problem....the CAT problem! ;D We realised that if we simply close the door to the upstairs and no longer allow the cats up there then they can't pee on the beds any more!! ; D WOW!! What a concept!!!! LOL!!! It's good too, as we see a lot more of the critters now!! Kitten objects... he sits behind the door and meeeaoooowwwwws at us!! ;D Pah! he had his chance! He's lucky he's not "on the farm" !! :D Bloody cat!

And finally...!! I had a real scare tonight. Jessie had gone up to get ready for bed. Jack and I faffed around downstairs, getting his vitamins, putting on his PJ's and loading the dishwasher etc. I intercomed Jessie and told her that Jack was on his way up and could she make sure the cat didn't come up too. She didn't reply so I figured she was probably doing her teeth and didn't hear me. When we went upstairs Jessie wasn't in the bathroom where I thought I'd find her. I looked in her room, darkness, nothing. I looked in Jack's, mine... nothing. I ran downstairs and searched the place... nope... not there. I went to the basement calling for her at the top of my voice..... nowhere. I went outside and looked as best I could in the dark, trying to think where on EARTH she could be. All I wanted was to hear her voice...I was getting really panicky and Jack was scared, sitting on the couch with his fingers in his ears. I hit the intercom button to Jessie's room again...."Jessie....if you are hiding, come out now. In 10 seconds I'm calling Dad...!!" I was really starting to lose it. I couldn't think HOW she could have disappeared and kept wracking my brain to think if she had said she was going outside or what....??? Suddenly and from seemingly out of nowhere she appeared looking all frantic and scared, running down the stairs. In my panic I yelled at her "WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!!?!!? WHERE HAVE YOU BEEN!?!?!??" She was in such shock she couldn't respond...!!! It turns out the poor thing had been fast asleep in her bed. When I looked in her room I wasn't expecting her to be in bed, so I didn't see her there. She had been dreaming, had a scary dream and woke up to hear me yelling for her.....!! Sheesh. We were both freaked out by the whole thing!!

I think I'm going to need a stiff drink...!! of coffee probably! ;D LOL

This cat is pushing my buttons, poetry in hand, biking hurts my butt, sunshine, wheat grass, and making a hash of everything!!

Well.... we woke up this morning to find TWO piles of cat poop on the floors. One in my room, one in Jessie's. I later discovered the cat had peed on my bed. I was so FURIOUS. DAMN CAT !!! I hoisted all the bedding downstairs to wash ( it's no wonder I can't keep up with the laundry.... ) and ... once down there... discovered the bathroom door had been inadvertently closed ( we had kiddoes over playing yesterday ) and so the cats couldn't get to their litter boxes all night long. OK. So I didn't strangle the cat. ... However.... tonight, I went to put Jack to bed..... PEE AND POOP ON HIS BED!!!!!!! GAAAAAHHHHHHH!! I'm DISGUSTED and HORRIFIED and FURIOUS....!!!!!!! aaaaaaaaggggggghhhhhhhhhh. What to do what to do??? I know for sure we're keeping the cats shut downstairs from now on. I don't know why I didn't think of that sooner. They just can not go upstairs anymore. It is probably too late though....GAH!!

Anyway.... deep breaths..... moving on......!!!

The children had a go at some dice poetry from Alicia's Examiner Page You pick a topic and then roll a die. You then write the number of words as on the die until you are satisfied with your poem.

This is Jessie's

Spring.

Flowers,
Bunnys and Birds
Sprouts
Deer, fawns at dawn
The sweet berries
Love Spring.

This is Jack's.

Swings

High
and low
Go high, go fast, slow
wind on face
feel joy.

( helped him with the last bit... he had too many words so we picked the good ones! ;D )

It was really fun and the kiddoes enjoyed it!!! Waaaay more than the fractions I tried to do with Jessie later on! : D

The children spend oooodles of time outside today, playing Pioneers! I spent my time riding my bike on the trainer. Again. I put on another movie ( Ocean's 12 ) and gingerly lowered myself back on the seat. Oh dear!! My poor back end!! ;D I ended up stuffing a small cushion into my pants just to be able to sit down!!! Looks like I need to build up some calluses!!!! ( oh wait, that's the guitar..!! )
I did ride for two hours, but man, they were LONG tortuous hours!!! ;D I also had several breaks in the meantime as the phone rang a lot, Jack wanted a smoothie etc etc !; D But I did ride for two hours.... and I'm NOT looking forward to tomorrow!! ;D

Once I was through with my ride we went for a quick walk in the sun to stretch our legs. The BLUE sky was marvelous and so good for the soul! It's lovely to be warm again! ;D

I read this about growing wheatgrass the other day so decided to start some this morning... I was already sprouting the wheat as I wanted to know what would happen... now I know and I'm going to have me some grass! All the more stuff for the blasted cat to chew on! ;D I'll be sticking it in the smoothies as soon as it's long enough! ( the wheatgrass... not the cat...! )

Finally I have to share a miracle that was dinner tonight! You may have heard about my lovely recipe for Brussels Sprouts with caramelized onions? Well I was going to make it tonight only I had no onions!! GAH!! So I improvised!! I chopped the sprouts in my chopper, then chopped potatoes and mushrooms in the chopper too, so it was all REALLY finely chopped. I heated up some olive oil and cooked up the veggies! The kids LOVED it!!! I was AMAZED!! They ate and ate and ate!! They asked for more and more and more!! ;D You could have knocked me down with a feather! ;D

So there ya have it. Kid friendly Brussels.... who knew?! :D

Friends for bagels, tea and chatting, friends and family calling, two hours on the bike, a walk with the dogs and lasagne for dinner!

My friend Sandi and her gorgeous kiddoes came over today bearing a giant bag of bagels and cream cheese!!! We sat and drank tea and caught up on each other since it has been MONTHS since we saw each other last. The kids played happily and we yapped and yapped!! After they went home I chatted on the phone with my pal Alicia and then talked for a while with my Ma ! THEN I headed downstairs to my bike!!! The trainer that Jay lent me is set up so I took my copy of the Sex and the City movie, told the kids to stay upstairs and I biked and biked and biked! ;D I'm not sure how many miles I'd have done since the bike computer is rigged to the front wheel and that doesn't spin when I ride... hopefully Rex can switch that out for me soon, but I did ride for 129 minutes! My legs were pretty stiff when I got off so I did some yoga stretches and some sit ups and then suggested a quick dog walk! The kiddoes and I, the dogs and one kiddie bike made the short jaunt around the blocks and down the hill and back. Just enough to stretch every body's legs! ;D Rex got home not long after we did and he was carrying Vegetarian Lasagne and garlic breadsticks...!! Oh YUM!! I stuffed myself!!!

The kids are now sleeping and I'm headed, once again, for the couch!! An early night tonight I hope! ; D