FANTASTIC Friday! ;D

You have got to LOVE a Friday that starts out with friends coming over to visit, hanging out, copious cups of tea, chatting, playing, filthy feet from mud puddles, sunshine on your face AND getting the fridge cleaned... THEN your best buddies from Minnesota arrive and everyone hangs out together ... more tea... more trips to the mud puddle... more chatting .... THEN the local kids persuade their Mom to let them sleep over along with the Minnesota kids, more chatting, excitement, playing, running around, laughing, Wii playing, game playing, dress up, trains, movies, food, laughing some more.... bedtime...lights out...whispering, giggling, patently not sleeping.... !!!

Good times.... good times. :D

Blogging in!

Well I'm back from my third day of Boot Camp and today am feeling pretty good! I woke up feeling stiff but that makes me feel GOOD as if I have accomplished something! I Do have a stupid cold though. Nothing too major but annoying non the less. I can't remember, apart from Migraines, when I was last sick. It's been a year I'm sure! Anyway, that's annoying!!!

Today we are going for another walk with litter pick up in mind! It's a really windy day which makes litter pick up all the more challenging!

The kiddoes are being themselves today! Jack is being stubborn and slow to react and Jessie is being wild seemingly driving him daft on purpose! Who knows!? As long as they do it outside!! :D It seems such an obvious thing but it took me until only recently to realise that Jack's personality means he is slow to move. He can not or rather will not be hurried. For someone such as myself who is impatient and fast moving it's a real lesson to have to slow down and wait for him to be ready to do something. The more you rush him and pressure him, the slower the boy becomes!! Clearly this can set the stage for a battle of wills of epic proportions, but now I have learned it's Just Jack I can rein in my impatience and let him do a lot of things in his own sweet time. Naturally if there was an emergency then all bets are off!! ;D

Anyhoo... there you are, an update on our morning!! I imagine the rest of the day will revolve around tidying the kitchen up and sitting around reading in the sunshine!!

I hope you have a lovely day too! ;D

One Small Change

With Earth Day coming up this month it's hard to not think about the Earth and ways to "save" it. I'm not really an "Environmentalist".... I believe that climate change is a cyclical thing and has happened before and will indeed happen again. Nothing stays the same, everything changes..... However, having said that I will say that I see no need for the people on Earth to cause harm to the planet, to pollute, to use up all the finite resources with little or no regard for the future ahead. I've recently come across the blog One Small Change and have decided to try some small changes over here. We recycle already of course. I'm sure most people do these days? Now we are trying to do more "reusing" too. I try and repurpose plastic that won't recycle by using them to grow wheatgrass and such..and we use glass jars for all sorts of things. I'm trying to buy products with less packaging, buying more local, trying to grow our own produce and hope for a bigger garden this year since I'm usually just a tomato grower!!! We're growing lots of sprouts and have seeds already started to go in the garden very soon. However, we're also going to be putting up a washing line again to hang laundry out to dry. My line used to run under three huge cottonwood trees which would result in my damp laundry being covered first with cotton and then secondly with bird poop. Not a happy result. I'm working on getting my hubby to put up another line for me.... it seems like a lovely idea. I also want to work on our local council to get them to agree to allow chickens to be kept within the city limits.. this year seems like a good one for that.

This coming month the children and I are planning to start taking take trash bags with us on our walks through the town. We often pick up garbage we find but there is sometimes more than we can or we WANT to carry so a trash bag will be a great solution. This Small Change will certainly make a difference to the little footpaths we frequent. Another plan for this coming month is to Seed Bomb the river sides along our walk. There is a small little river that runs through the town and the banks are crying out for wild flowers. I'd LOVE to see some sprouting up, a sort of "Miss Rumphius" kind of thing.

The biggest change I would like to make this coming month is to move towards "Family Cloth".... I'm not sure Rex is keen and I'm fine with that, but I certainly would like to try it out... so there you go.... One Small Change actually inspired several small changes! :D

Are there any changes you would like to make this month?

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We're back from our walk through the neighborhood and happily we collected two full bags of trash. Sadly we collected two full bags of trash and we had to leave some behind as our bags were FULL....



Tomorrow, another walk... another couple of bags.... Small Changes....

Just thinking out loud! ;D

So it's occurred to me this is not so much of an AP parenting blog these days, is it?!?! :D Sorry about that, swings and roundabouts you know! ; D

I went to Boot Camp again this morning and feel fantastic so far.... yeah.... remember Monday??? It could still go horribly wrong but hopefully I took the right precautions today, stuffed myself with carbs, took Gatorade with me and ate Shock Blocks ( or something like that.... gross things but crammed with carbs and electrolytes. ) All being well I'll avoid the migraine today! Boot Camp is really really hard work but it feels SOOOO good when it quits!! Luckily the guy teaching it is soooo friendly and nice you can't help but forgive his obviously sadistic nature!! ;D

The temperature is already 63 outside and the kids and I are going to go for a quick walk with the dogs to stretch out my legs then we're going to meet Lisa at Pioneers Park for a picnic!! Should be lots of fun! We might even get in a bike ride tonight....!!! Are we mad?? Why yes, we are! :D

So enjoy your day, hope it's a warm one for ya! ;D

Totally Terrific Tuesday! ;D

Wow we had a lovely day today!! It really helps that the weather was wonderful and hey, I wasn't puking!! Score!!! I laid in bed for HOURS this morning reading my books whilst Rex slept and slept.... he has a sinus infection and wasn't feeling the best. The kids took advantage and played downstairs in peace! I took the kids and dogs out for a walk after lunch and they played in the huge streams formed from the melted snow! It was so muddy they got filthy filthy but had a wonderful time!!!! Once home the children played outside for a while with Daddy pushing them ever higher on the swings!! They squealed and laughed with fear and delight! I ended up sitting in the shade of the house as too much sun too soon can give me, guess what? Migraines!! I managed to miss another one today SO THAT'S GOOD!! :D Around dinner time Rex suggested calling some friends of ours and asking them to come over and bring pizza!! SCORE!! They came soon after with two huge pizzas and their three small children ( um, the friend's children, not the pizza's children, right? ) Rex and Jay went to the garage to work on a planter they were building and Elayne and the kiddoes stayed inside ... the children all played together and Elayne and I chatted on and on over pot after pot of Darjeeling tea! ;D ( Darjeeling makes me come over all posh and call everyone Dahhhhling!!! Care for some Darjeeling, Daahhhling??) LOL!!

Anyhoo.... after the planter was completed the "MEN" came inside and played a few games of chess whilst Elayne, Jessie, Jack and I played Pictionary! We laughed and played and drank more tea...!! About 11pm my children were asking to go to bed!! Poor kiddoes! They don't do late nights well!! We had thought about the grownups watching The Hangover together ( I love that movie!!) but it just got too late to be a sensible idea and I planned to make another attempt at Boot Camp in the morning so we postponed that plan and Jay and Elayne went home....until next time!! ;D Rex and I walked out to see them off when they left and we listened to the frogs croaking and noticed moths on the side of the house..... the temperature was still 64 degrees..... wonderful! We had such fun this evening, I hope to do it again SOON!!

Given the boot......!

Hmmm...... Went to Boot Camp this morning! Set my alarm, got up early, workout frenziedly and felt fantastic!! The temps were in the high 70's so the kids, dogs and I went for a long walk in the sun.... and my head started to nudge me. I got home and tried to make more to eat ( I'd been eating before and after Boot Camp but thought maybe some additional protein would help my head...... ) ate more food, head really started to bang......by about 3pm Mr Migraine was here. Perfect. Went to bed and left hubby, sick with a sinus cold, to take care of the house and kids. I threw up everything I have eaten over the past week and still my body was trying to throw up more. Bleurgh. I woke up finally at 10:40 pm and feel much recovered. Exercise, it's what's not for dinner.....

Worn out! ;D

I spent most of today in a sort of stupor~! :D I couldn't get myself motivated to do anything and felt really sluggish. I lay in bed reading for a while, got up, dressed, had breakfast and then sat in the sun on my bedroom floor and read some more! Once I'd finished my book I came down and spent some time with the kiddoes ( Rex was out for the day ) and after lunch I lay on the floor talking to the dog who was sleeping in the sun.... and.... I fell asleep too. I really needed the sun I think. It's starting to get warm here but the wind is strong and still chilly. I need HEAT! I need my bones to feel warm again!! I said to Jessie I think I am part Gecko or something! I need to sun to get me moving!! Once I'd slept a while and sufficiently warmed up we all went for a nice walk... Jack took his ( far too small ) tricycle... and along the way Jessie made friends with a sweet dog called Mia and a girl called Maisie. She was excited to make a new friend and I was happy for her!

Once home it was about time for bed and Jack said he was tired! Rex called and said he'd collected a basketball back board that I'd found on Freecycle and he'd picked up a new net to go with it! Jessie is going to be so excited! ;D

Other than that, folks, it was a very laid back day... just the way I like 'em! ;D

What a swell party this is!! .... or was...!!! :D

Today was the day for Rex's birthday party so I had a few things I wanted to get done. Rex asked what he could do to help, so I said take the kids and leave the house!!! ;D He called up his buddy Jay and the two guys and their two kids each set off to the Omaha zoo!! ;D Apparently they all had a wonderful time!! I got SOOOOO much work done in this house!! ;D I completely cleaned out Jessie's room, which had been a dreadful mess, I even moved the bed and washed all the bedding! I did every scrap of laundry in the house, all washed, dried and put away.... I removed all the recycling, cleaned every room, dusted, hoovered, polished, washed, cleaned, tidied, sorted.... yesterday I had even cleaned out the fishtank and washed the dog!! ;D Hey, you never know what people are going to notice when they come to visit! ;D

Rex was out until 6:45.... the party started at 7....!! ;D I was ready when they got here and the birthday cake was warm out of the oven!! Lots of our friends came and they all brought tons of food and wine..... ! We all sat and chatted and ate, ate and chatted! Rex and I said later that we should probably have played some games of some sort, we usually like a good game of cards or pictionary for sure.... ah well... I hope everyone had fun anyway!! All the kids played so nicely together in the basement or up in the kids rooms we barely saw them most of the time! Our last guests went home about midnight and by ten minutes later Jessie and Jack were fast asleep! I think Jack was in mid sentence talking to me when he fell asleep! The dishwasher is now running, the table is all cleared off, the kitchen is clean and everything is back as it was. If it weren't for the fridge full of left overs you wouldn't know there had been a party here tonight! ;D

We had a really lovely time... I'm so grateful that Rex and I have such lovely friends.

Happy (un)Birthday, Hubby. ;D