Blowing the day away!

Today Jessie got to sleep in!! ;D  Well, technically she didn't... she woke up at her regular time but I sent her back to bed!!  There is no reason on earth that she needed to be up before 7 on a Saturday especially when it was all of 2F ( - 16.6 C) outside .. no siree... back to bed for all!!  Jackster got up fairly early considering, but we told him to put his dressing gown and slippers on before he headed down!  Brrr fricking rrrrrrrr !!!   Hubby decided to run the snow blower and clear the driveways off as we were heading into town this morning.  I watched out the window as he worked only he spotted me and said I should try it out too!!

more fun than it looked!

After breakfast and snowblowing and nursing and changing ETC Hubs and I were going to head out with the baby and Jess and Jack were planning on a dance party.  They like to put on loud music over the computer and dance their hearts out!!  Jack put on his dance costume specially!!.....

Y.M.C.A !!!  :D 

I was later informed that it was actually his NINJA costume.  Orthopedic Shoes.  (I stand corrected!!)  :D  This kid just cracks me up!

Anyhoo, hubs, baby and I ran to the store and also dropped off tons of donations to Goodwill and to the Children's Home.  We stopped by Target and picked up some bits and pieces, stopped by to visit some friends who hadn't seen Millie in months.. ( we had to show her off, it's only natural!)  and then to  Michaels and finally Famous Dave's for ribs!  If we don't take food home for the kids, well, it's not pretty!! ;D 

On our return we were greeted by happy kiddoes who snatched the food and scurried off to the kitchen.  Luckily I stepped in to divvy it up fairly ( one fourth a corn muffin each doesn't amount to much, FYI!) and then we sat together and ate lunch, each of us fending off Millie as she tried to snatch our bones from our mouths!  

Jackster had been watching a lot of Phineas and Ferb ( and when I say a lot, I mean a LOT.  Enough that the average person would have been heartily sick of the quirky pair a LONG time ago, but not Jack... he devours that stuff...!) and he'd decided he wanted to build a machine.  I think he's after a sort of Rube Goldberg effect.  He'd made a drawing of what he wanted to happen and he described it to his Dad.. together they set to work setting up blocks, rigging ways to knock things down.....

He's getting somewhere with it!!  I'm going to watch a few of the videos on YouTube tomorrow with him and we'll see what we come up with !!  I love seeing him work on stuff like that, he's got a great imagination!!  

As Jack and his Dad worked on the machine, I sat at the computer and fiddled about whilst watching Millie at my feet.... by the chair...no... under the curtains.... at my feet...... AAACKKKK!!!!   She's moving around!!!!!  She's only MOMENTS away from crawling..... NNNNOOOOOOOO!!!!

Rex grabbed a camera and captured my expression as I saw her lift herself up onto all fours....!!

People!!!  This is SERIOUS!!!   HOW can my teeny tiny baby be crawling?!??!??!!    We've got so much childproofing to do now..... every little thing needs to be picked up...   OMG!!!!!!  and ...... eeeep!!!!

Tsk!

The Four S's... (and a half*)

SNOW....

We did get some more snow over night last night and ended up with probably 7 inches or so.  Sure, sure, it's not the 18 we were promised but it was really dry, small snow.  If it had been that lovely big, feathery snow, we'd be up to our necks by now!

Deep enough to look pretty, not so deep as to be a pain!

SPOONS.....

Miss M found out that measuring spoons make a LOVELY sound when jingled together......

But the sound was MUCH improved when she tossed them on the floor.... over and over and over again!

SHOES.....

Millie also found that shoes make a fun and tasty toy.....

I don't have a picture of her eating one....!!  I was too busy trying to snatch it out of her mouth!!!!

And finally STORIES

Jessie was her usual SUPER helpful self today.  You KNOW she sets her alarm so she can wake up before any of us and get dressed then she goes downstairs, empties the dishwasher and makes us tea???   I mean seriously!!  How amazing is that!?!?  Today she and I traded off Millie care... 15 minutes each.  That way I got some chores done whilst she watched Millie, she got to spend sometime doing whatever she wanted to do whilst I watched her... and so on.  It was a good deal!  ... For ME... she is lovely with Millie and Millie adores her big sister!!  Millie was getting sleepy this afternoon so Jessie lay her down on the floor and read her a story.......   It just warms my heart right up!

And so, another week draws to a close.  I can not believe how quickly these days of ours fly by.  Slow down... slow down....  

*SHEESH.

Ever have a snow storm and no body came?!?

Today was the Day of the Big Snow.  Pffffttt.   We were ready, Baby.  We had supplies.  We had enough food and toilet paper to last us a month.  Ok, I lied, enough to last us through the weekend.  We  were all set to get snowed in and then THIS happened.....

Snicker.

And so we waited.  And crossed our fingers.  We're all big kids in our house and we love a good storm.  A snow storm means log fires, hot cocoa and snowman building.  The piddly ass snowfall we got was not going to cut it and we were steamed!!!  Ok, I was steamed.  And I'm betting some Jose's in Lincoln are going to be pretty well p'o'ed too since they shut down / left early / closed schools / cancelled events....!! Now, to be fair, more snow is expected tonight so I hope to wake up to drifts up the wazoo.  Or at least halfway up the door!!  

So, in other news.... this is totally happening....

Up on all fours, Baby...!  Oh no you don't!!!

Millie thinks she is going to crawl!!!  I think not!!  If I keep her off the floor she can't learn to crawl.. and then she can't learn to walk and then she can stay my baby for ever and ever.... right?!? :D  Uh oh...!!

So basically the day just sort of passed itself along.  We spent much of our time moving from one window to the next checking to see if there is more snow on THIS side of the house...  Pressing our noses onto the cold glass straining to see into the sky hoping desperately for the "Heavy Snow" we were promised!!! ;D   I managed to get a couple of rows of crochet done as I baked the potatoes for tea.  I read a little Magic Tree House book to Jack (not all of it, just some....) and I also managed to sneak in a 20 minute nap.  Only 20 minutes because Millie woke up from her nap... I'd have taken a four hour nap if she had let me! 

Anyway, bed time for Jack is here and he's asking me to sit and snuggle with him. He loves me to hold his hand as he falls asleep...!  

So I best go.. goodnight all!  Stay cozy!

Jack's P Bag.

:D   Don't you just love a title like that!?! :D

Another simple and yet lovely day!  AGAIN with the tea and the emptying of the dishwasher! Actually the day started a bit earlier than that with Miss M waking up at 6:30.  I brought her back to bed with me and fed her and as she dozed off I played some Words with Friends games on my iPod.  Seems all my friends play in the wee hours of the morning or in the latter hours of the night!  I was enjoying the peace in the soft glow coming from the machine when suddenly there was this HORRENDOUS blaring noise!  It was so loud I couldn't even figure out what it was or where it was coming from.  I could also hear some sort of shocked grunting sounds and then suddenly the noise stopped.  I realized, slowly, as my senses returned, that it had been Jessie's alarm clock. ..  which had clearly and obviously inadvertently, been turned up to it's fullest!!  Poor kid!  I'll bet she nearly ... well... I bet it gave her quite the surprise!!  So yeah, there was that....!!

The empty P bag!

Anyway, after we got the day going and I started some Quinoa for breakfast (... oh yeah... Quinoa and Parmesan cheese... breakfast of champions baby!!  ( and I was out of bread and grapefruits...!)) I turned my attentions to my boy.  He generally gets by with flying under the radar ( except when he is constantly asking for food!!  "I'm HUNGRY here!!"  he will declare when I walk in the room... and most of the time he doesn't even  lift his head when he says it!!!   Poor boy is always half starved!!  Aaaaanyway, this time I was ready for him.  I pulled a brown paper bag out of the pantry and taped a ziplock bag to the front.  I got an index card and a sharpie and asked Jack to think of a letter.  "P!"  he decided.  I wrote P on the card, tucked it into the ziplock bag and told him to go around the house and fill the bag with things that start with P.  He was quite happy to do so, and off he went!

Jessie got to work on all things Algebra and then later continued with her Zombie romance.  I got Millie  in to her swing for her nap and then worked on a booklet I'm putting together for April ( the friend, not the month!) for when she comes to stay at our house.  I want her to be able to find anything she needs and to be able to operate the TV and stuff... don't you HATE going to someone's house, thinking you might sit down and watch a show and then you discover.... dun dun duuuuunnnnnn..... about 64 remote controls and you haven't got a bloody clue which one does what.....?!?  I've totally done that before and ended up sitting picking my nails all bloody night long.  ( I was babysitting years ago...!)  Ho hum.  So anyway, that sort of thing is what I want to avoid happening to her!

Just a quick torture session trim!

Before long lunch time came around and after that it was time to shave the dog.  Ha.  Not quite.  It was apparently time to pull her nails out... nope... not that either... but it was dang hard to keep hold of her.  Poor pooch has knots in her ears and it's a job getting them out.  I finally got the scissors and gave her a good hair cut.  She looks so CUTE with the hair cut around her ears!!!

Watch this space....!!

The TV news people and everyone online were all a buzz about a giant snow storm named Q, that is headed our way.  We've all heard it all before though so no one really knows just how much snow to expect.  My friend Diana said she heard on the radio we are to expect anything from 3 inches to 45 feet!!!  Har har....!  A nice snow would be fun.... but also a pain in the rear.  So I guess we'll just see.  Hubby came home loaded with supplies though.... bread, cheese, and chocolate.  What a guy!

And this space....!

So anyway, back to the P bag!! :D  Jack found all manner of objects that fit the bill.... a pillow, some pencils, a jar of Peanut Butter, Perry the Platypus and Agent Panda....  then a rope, a tape measure, a candy wrapper and Mario.   Hmm.... what's your thinking Jackster?!  Turns out rope, tape and wrapper all have P IN them and Mario....??








He's a Plush toy... AND a Plumber!!!  Aha!!  Do NOT underestimate that kid!!! :D  He really enjoyed that game so tomorrow we're going to try it again... he thinks the letter B next time..!! :D  ( No other letter is as fun to say as P Bag.. :( )

Toodles, Peeps!!!  :D

A full day!

Well hang on to your hats folks, this was a really busy day!  It started at 5:30 when Millie woke with a horrible cough.  She's been coughing for a few days but now it really seemed to have settled in her lungs.  We had a well child visit scheduled for tomorrow but I didn't like the sound of her cough and knew I'd want her looked at today.  I called the PD office at 6am and left them a message asking them for an appointment as soon as possible.  Once again Jess brought us tea and she tidied the kitchen and emptied the dishwasher...!!  She also got Jack up and dressed and made him breakfast!  I'm loving this!!  Every morning we wave off hubby as he goes off to work,

this morning Jessie captured my silhouette as I stood in the window watching him head out the door.






After breakfast I remembered I had downloaded a free Algebra app that I thought Jessie might like.  I showed her how to use it and away she went!  She was determined that she wanted to be mopey today, she wasn't feeling very chipper so was very frustrated to find that, thanks to the new app, she
was ENJOYING doing algebra and being successful was making her
HAPPY!!  LOL!!  Funny girl!

Jackster was watching Curious George on PBS and they were talking about Nocturnal and Diurnal so I took that as an opportunity to teach him something.  I took a piece of paper and had wrote Nocturnal on one piece and Diurnal on the other and had him practice copying the writing.  Then he had to draw an animal that suited each word.  He drew a fantastic Owl for nocturnal and a squirrel in a tree for diurnal! ;D

Jack's Owl! 

I decided to quickly check my email and found one from the place where Millie went to get her picture taken last week...!!  Her photos were in!!!  (The link should take you to the slideshow! **edited for password...  bakertiffany2013  **) Oh boy!!  They were LOVELY!!  Images for a Lifetime did a fabulous job with her pictures!  I was blown away! THEN the mail came and our Shutterfly photo book we made recently arrived too!!!  What a day for photographs!  I really liked the Shutterfly book... we'd got a Groupon and used it to make the book and I think it came out really well!

Millie's appointment was scheduled for 2:00 and Hubby said he would meet me there so I knew I had to leave about 1:30.  We played around with algebra for a while longer ( !! ) and then I made some lunch. Jessie and Jack love Kale chips so I made some of those... Jack loves blueberries too so his lunch ended up being kale chips, an orange and a stack of blueberries!  Talk about your healthy eating!!  I had some warmed up homemade Leek Soup which was pretty flipping delicious too!

"Instagram is down!!  Just DESCRIBE your lunch to me!!"

After lunch I headed out with Millie and we went to the doctors.  I love our pediatrician.  He's a super man.  So kind, he has a lovely manner, the children adore him and he is so gentle and patient.  He is also happy with my no vaccines approach and declares the best medicine to be no medicine.  What a guy!  He took one look at Millie and said "She's BEAUTIFUL!!"  and I know he must say that to all the parents of baby girls but it's lovely to hear it! We weighed and measured her (she's 15 lbs 3oz ) and he listened to her chest and said that she did have some nasty rattling in her lungs and said she had a touch of RSV and Bronchialitis.

Millie loved the neat friend she met at the doctor's!

He gave her a breathing treatment and listened again.  This time it sounded much better.  We decided that since she was in such great spirits ( he marveled that there was anything wrong with her at all as she was having such a great time tearing up the paper that covers the bench) perhaps she was on the mend and that we would refrain from any more treatments unless she gets worse.  I thought that sounded very reasonable!

Kissy face!

wrecking the joint!

                 Hubby and I went our separate ways after the appointment.. him to work and me back home.  When I got back it was time for the bookmobile so back out to the car with our books and we drove the few blocks to the van.  It is still waaay too cold to be outside for long but I still feel crazy driving such a short way!  If you look outside it's blue sky and sunshine... don't let it fool ya!  20 degrees with a nasty windchill and you'd soon regret that "quick walk" ! :D  The bookmobile did it's thing and we soon had our arms full of books!  We just love that place!!  Jessie got a book about Zombie love that she dove into no sooner had we opened the door!

A neighbor lady had come by and left us some more coupons for the military so I picked those up and a pair of scissors, made a cup of tea, grabbed a cookie, put the left overs from yesterday back on to warm up for dinner, popped on an episode of Raising Hope and that's how hubby found us when he got home from work.  After dinner we impressed Rex by telling him that Jessie had done 30 algebra equations today and only stopped because the free version of the app we bought only HAD 30 questions.... yep... we bought the full version and Jess spent an hour or two working on those before bed!!  Algebra!!  Who'd have thought!?! :D

So once again this brings me to the end of my day... Millie is still up tonight, I can hear her playing with Rex in the other room.  She's giggling and he's playing Peek a Boo.  ( He just called through and said she's rubbing her face... a sure sign she's ready for bed!)  Jack and Jess are in bed though... and I think I may head up the stairs pretty quick myself!!  Goodnight all!

I am a blank slate.

Every time I sit down at the computer at night my mind goes totally blank!  If I'm honest my mind goes blank several times during the day but at night, it's at it's worst!  I can never remember what we did all day, even though I know I've thought to myself several times "I should write about this on my blog..!"  ...  ah well.. suffice it to say a day was had... !  I remember it started well... with a cup of tea from Jessie!  I came downstairs to find she had once again emptied the dishwasher and tidied up the place.  Man, I am so lucky to have that kid!  She's a treasure!

After breakfast we cranked up Pandora's Pop radio station and the kids and I danced our behinds off.  The music always reminds me of when I used to go the gym so we started doing crazy exercises and running laps around the house!  It was fun!  For some reason the day was really hard to get going in after that.  It was a bleary old, grey day with the threat of snow in it.  Once in a while we did get a snowfall here and there but not enough to settle.  I spent some time on line trying to find an old game that Jessie and I used to play, an algebra game.  I finally put a request on Facebook and a friend of mine found it in minutes!  Awesome!  I was so pleased.  It's a really neat game and helped Jessie a lot when she was smaller.   I thought maybe Jack might be able to have a go....

I did get my bed stripped and washed but could not get really moving at all.  Millie had a good nap, Jessie and I watched another documentary on cruise ships and played some more Words With Friends.  Jack helped me make lunch... he's always trying to help in the kitchen and time after time I put him off because it's "just quicker" if I make it myself.  ( yeah yeah, some homeschooling Mama, right?)  Well the other day I asked him what he wanted to be when he grows up... he said a cook!  Hmm.  Well then I guess he  needs to spend MORE time in the kitchen, not less!  So he helped with lunch.  He went a little bonkers with the pickles in my opinion, but there ya go.  He likes 'em a lot.  I also put a bunch of veggies and a ham shank in the slow cooker for dinner with some beans I'd soaked over night.  ( wow, that always turns out SO well and it is so cheap to make! )

Jack and his lunch.... he'd already eaten all the blueberries and about 20 pickles...!!

A friend phoned a we chatted for a while and I told her I could not get motivated. She sympathized and said she has felt the same way recently.  We decided it was probably the Government doing some secret testing and both felt a lot better about it.  About 4ish I saw the bottle of Vitamin D on the counter.  I took two along with three Hershey Dark Chocolate miniatures.  4:30 and I was tearing around the house cleaning it up.  I even cleaned a week's worth of ashes out of the fire, vacuumed the living and dining rooms, cleaned the downstairs bathroom and the kitchen floor, sorted the recycling, emptied the trash cans, loaded the dishwasher, cleaned off the dining table, tidied the couch cushions and baked cornbread!  When hubby arrived home at 6 the place was spotless and dinner was ready to eat!!  I'm going to take the vitamins a bit earlier tomorrow!!!

After dinner I put Millie to bed then had a shower and laid my clothes out for morning.  I've been neglecting to shower before bed or lay out my clothes lately and it really REALLY affected the start of my day.  I'm glad that I made myself do it tonight!

In other news, I found my wedding ring and eternity ring today... I hadn't lost it, but it had been in the safe as my fingers had swollen up with Millie and I wasn't able to wear it.  Apparently Rex had brought it upstairs and left it on the pie safe.  I found it and put it on!  Yeahy!  Finally I can get my ring back on.  It's not EASY to get on and it's almost DIFFICULT to get it off, but hey, it's on and that's what counts! I actually find it a little ostentatious now having grown used to the simple gold band we bought to replace it.   Millie was intrigued by it tonight, that's for sure!

Well there ya have it.  Today, such as it was.  They may not be exciting days but there is always a lot of happiness in them.  We enjoy being together, the kids and I.  I think that says it all.

Cruising through the weekend.

Another up and down night last night... ( oh when will this crazy END?!? ) but also another lovely start to the day thanks to the kiddoes bringing us cups of tea and coffee in bed again! ;D  SO wonderful to start that way! :D   Jessie had gone downstairs this morning and found Jack on the couch reading Millie's books!  It's always lovely to see a kid with his or her head in a book!  It happens a lot around here, but usually it's with Jessie!  It's good to see Jack picking up the habit!

I didn't do a great deal of anything much today.  Hubster went out with his friend this morning as they do most Sunday mornings.  The kids and I had some breakfast and ... oh yeah... we watched a National Geographic show about the world's biggest cruise ship!  I'd been watching You Tube video's on Cruise Ship Disasters and the one about the world's biggest ship came along too!  We can watch You Tube on our TV so we set it up and watched it.  It was absolutely fascinating to me!  I love stuff like that!  I don't think I'd EVER go on a cruise, but it was fun to watch the show!

Jessie and I played some Words with Friends games and then, when Millie went for her morning nap, I took the dog out for a quick walk in the fresh air.  When I got home hubby was back and was fixing some light fixtures for me that had burned out bulbs.  I spent some time on Face Time with my Mum and I sat Millie in front of the window to look outside.  She'd never done that before and she was fascinated by it!  Isn't it funny to think that there is a first time to sit by a window and look out!!?!

I spent some time on line browsing through all sorts of neat blogs and Pinterest pages for things to do with toddlers...!!  SO many fabulous ideas!  I'm going to be overwhelmed before long with all the neat things there are to do!  I'm sure there weren't this many things out there 10 years ago when Jack was a baby!   I've also been online trying to sell some of my stuff from my closet clear out... There's a Facebook consignment group I belong to but so far no one wants to buy what I'm selling!!!  Rex and Jack spent some time playing Wii together in the basement.  They both really enjoy it and Jack LOVES the special time he gets with Dad that way.  They seems to have a great time playing!  Later Hubby took Jack out to the store with him to pick up one or two groceries and to get the van washed for me.   The rest of the day was spent with Words With Friends, Raising Hope and eating junky treats!  I did make a nice leek soup for dinner but I don't think I could possibly eat enough of it to make up for all the cookies and chocolate I ate too.  Ah well...!! ;D Grapefruit for breakfast will make me feel better!! ... so would 100 sit ups I suppose...!!