And the award for Best Daughter in the world goes to.....

....THIS girl!!!

Best Daughter Ever!! ;D 

What a star!!!  I had a pretty stressful day with one thing and another so when I put Millie down for a nap I fell asleep.  When Millie and I woke up I suddenly realized that Hubster would be home any moment and the kitchen was a DISASTER!!!  I came downstairs in a hurry and found......

THIS!!!  Bless her heart she had tidied the whole kitchen up for me!!!  I am so proud of her and so grateful to her for her help!!  What a star!  She knew just what I needed!!!  Top that off with a husband who brings home dinner.... (Chipotle AND ribs AND chocolate brownies......) and you can see what a lucky gal I am!!!!  

Thanks so much, Jessie... you ROCK!!! :D  xxxx

"Time to meet your [..] Ice Maker!"*

(*name that movie!!)

So!  Today!!  Last night Millie went to bed about 9:30 and only got me up 3 times between then and 8am.  :D  She was sleeping for four hour stretches .... oh MUCH better than the two or even one and a half I had been getting!!!  I was so thrilled!!!  Today I continued with trying to get her to nap... the stinker seems to fight sleep even though she is obviously tired!!  I found a great blog ( Troublesome Tots ) and whilst I don't agree with everything they espouse, I certainly have seen wonderful results by following a lot of their advice!!  Of course this DID involve me leaning over the crib this afternoon nursing her as she lay in her bed.  Tsk.  Don't tell anybody, 'K? :D

Anyway, I got more sleep, therefore I was a much happier, laid back, relaxed homeschooling Mama, right??!!  (pause for laughter......  ...   ... OK... that's enough laughter!!)  yeah.... No.  Not so much.  I tend to go through these panic stages every now and then about homeschooling ( about every 28 days as it happens.... ahem.... )   and I suddenly worry that the kids aren't learning enough, not learning the "right things" and their lives are going to fall apart and it will be All My Fault... etc etc... cue ranting, running around telling the kids they HAVE to learn stuff NOW... eating all the chocolate and bread in the house and then calling hubby in a state!  I think he's grown used to this as he knows just what to say "Don't worry so much, they are fine, watch some Frasier and relax" and he knows just what to do "I've hidden some chocolate in the truck in the garage, I'll make dinner when I come home" !!  Do I have a great hubby or what?!!?

I'm still on my purging the house kick....  I cleared out more drawers in my room this morning, can you believe my baby has already outgrown stuff??  I also cleared a couple more things  out of the pantry and started cleaning out the junk closet in the entry way.  I say started... I'd pulled everything out when hubby got home... seemed the quickest way to clean up the mess was simply to shove it all back in again!!  I did get a lot of it sorted and thrown out but there's still some to do tomorrow!

In the kitchen for Flylady this week... I haven't done all the missions yet.. I will probably do them all at once on Friday like I did last week but I decided to clear off the fridge.... Here's what it looked like before....

All cluttered and crazy.....!

 So I cleaned it ALL off....!!  Ahhhh... nice and clean and white and shiny.............

All clean....!!!...... but perhaps TOO clean?!!?

And then I panicked!!  Maybe that was TOO clean?!?!  Hubby thought it looked like we had just moved in!!! :D   We've had magnets and stuff on there for YEARS...!!   Hmm......

Ah.... that's better!!!

Soooo I stuck a couple of things back up there.....   That looks a bit better!! :D  LOL!!  

Well once again the kids are asleep... Jessie just came down to tell us goodnight and the other two have been snoozing for a while now.  Here's hoping for some long stretches of sleep tonight and a slightly less Harried Mama in the morning!!  Hey, there's always hope!! :D

Busy? Oh yeah!

Oh boy!!

So I did NOT get a good night's sleep last night either.  I went to bed at midnight ( I know, more fool me... ) and between the hours of midnight and seven am I was up FOUR TIMES with Millie.  I was worn OUT today!  I did get a lot done though....  dishwasher, bathrooms, kids fed...( yeah, I count feeding the kids!!) etc ... I also paid the bills, took everyone to the bookmobile, managed to get some rows of crochet done ( and I mean THREE... sheesh.. they take about 30 seconds a row.. but there ya go... three.  )  I got some school done with the kids, finished cleaning up my room ( though I still have a ton of stuff to get to the Goodwill store.. ) I watched a baby wearing video and tried out several new carries for Millie and I managed to go for a quick walk using the sling and the Baby Wearing coat the fabulous Lisa sent me!!  Millie and I needed to get some fresh air and sunshine!

This will work just fine!! 

Now... now I'm ready to go to bed... I'm so tired!!  I ensured Millie had THREE one hour naps today so I'm hoping that will result in a longer sleep tonight.  I think she has been over tired lately ( I know I have!! )  Well see how it works out!

Here's the "after" shot of our bedroom... looks better than yesterday!! ;D

Out of the closet ....!

Well I feel I have to type fast because it's been such a busy day!!!!  ;D   I did NOT get a lot of sleep last night...  *glares* but I DO have an adorable baby girl soooo... I guess that's ok!! ;D  I spent the morning trying to get stuff done around the house... and failing mostly!!  I did get the beds stripped and the bedding washed, got the toilets cleaned, dishwasher emptied, dinner in the slow cooker, school done at least a little bit, trash cans emptied, two more kitchen drawers cleaned out and sorted and I cleaned up some cat puke ( *glares again!*)  I also did an awful lot of nursing during which time I was able to finish my book "Let's Pretend This Never Happened!"  What an awesome book!  I loved it!!  It really is laugh out loud funny!!   Later in the day ( and I'd say "after lunch" only I realised tonight that we "FORGOT" lunch!!  HOW did we forget lunch?!?!  Jack is usually ALWAYS hungry!  I've no idea how we managed to miss it!!  I guess that Cream of Rice for breakfast really filled him up!!! ( YuK!! The only reason we have that in the house is because when I was pregnant with Millie my iron was low and that was a way to get a lot of iron... only it didn't work because I wouldn't eat it BECAUSE IT IS GROSS AND LOOKS LIKE WALLPAPER PASTE!!!! )  As you know we are eating out of the pantry (Yes, still....!!!) and so that stuff needs to be eaten by somebody and I am NOT doing it !!!  LOL!!  I guess it goes to show just how enough Maple Syrup can make anything palatable.  Almost.

Anyway, I totally digressed!!  So, after all the chores and nursing and reading I got to get back up in my bedroom where I cleared out my bedside table and got to work more on my closet.  It is here that Flylady would have a conniption fit.  I hauled EVERYTHING out of my closet and dumped it on the floor.  It's a really bad idea but I needed to know what was in there so I would know what needed to go where etc!  Ooooh!!  I just remembered I took a pic to show you what a mess it was!!  Hang on .......

Yeah......  and that's not really the worst of it.... I was halfway done when I though to take the pic!! :D  

   

So... yeah.... that's a mess...it actually looks a LOT better now but Millie is sleeping and it's dark so I'll post an "after" picture tomorrow!!

In the meantime enjoy these lovely pics of my littlest ....!!

She looks like something from The Sound of Music here!! 

And now she just looks cute!! :D 

What happens when you have a big sister, a baby sister, and a BIG box?!!? ;D  THIS!!!

Toodles!! :D 

Organization Station! :D

Wow....!!  What an awesome day today!!  Slept like a freaking ROCK last night... may have had something to do with the Corona I drank before bed and also may have had something to do with Millie getting so much sleep throughout the day yesterday... I think she had been overtired.  She got a fair amount of sleep today too so I'm hoping she sleeps well tonight also!

Hubby went out to the sports show this morning leaving me, Jack and Millie.  Millie and I got a bit of organizing in the kitchen taken care of.... I cleared out two drawers and my cupboards containing all my baking pans and so on.  I have two bags of stuff to donate from there!  Jack and I made some Black Bean Brownies but I didn't have eggs so I used apple sauce.  I baked them and they smelled great... came out rather ...um... not cooked.  I stuck it in the fridge to see if it would harden up a bit... but... nope.  Then I reread the recipe. I'm thinking if a recipe DOES NOT CONTAIN FLOUR... then you shouldn't be skipping the eggs!!! LOL!!  Oops. So Jack had black bean chocolate pudding!!!  He enjoyed it !!  (he'll be regular!!!)

Once hubby came home he came upstairs with me and the baby and entertained her whilst I went through my closet and tried on every single thing I own that was in there!!!  Anything that did not look GREAT got thrown into a huge pile!  I now have a lot less stuff, but everything I do have looks awesome on me!!  ( Or at least, looks better than the other stuff!!!)   I've been going through my dresser drawers too.... tomorrow I'll be going through all the sheets and towels, Christmas and craft stuff....  I just love not to have tons of stuff around me!!!  It's so FREEING to get rid of things...!! I'll be taking a few trips to the Goodwill store I think!! ;D  I'm also trying to make sure the house it nice and organized for when the lovely April and her family arrive to housesit for me next month!!  I want it to be that she can quickly and easily find anything she needs!

Anyway, the kitchen needs a quick clean then it's time to get some crochet done I hope!! :D  I fell asleep at 10:30 last night I was so tired... hopefully I can stay up a LITTLE later tonight! ;D

Night Peeps! :D

Just a quickie!

Today started off kind tricksy....  Millie slept NOT A LOT last night... she's probably getting teeth and was up and down like a tart's knickers....  !!  I got to the point where I was DREAMING I was feeding her and couldn't tell if I was sitting in the chair or laying in my bed.... ugh...!  Anyway, a cup of caffeinated tea and a dark choc or two later and I was good to go.  Jessie went to a sleep over at her friend's house today and I spent the majority of my time on the couch.  Millie made up for not sleeping last night by sleeping most of the day away in my arms ( never a bad thing....! ) I managed to get a little of my crocheting done, face timed with my mum for ages, and managed to get some of my book read.  I'd borrowed the book "Let's pretend this never happened" by the Bloggess from the library, but everyone else got to read it before me!!  Finally I got my hands on it and it's just as funny as I thought it would be!!! ;D  Hysterical in fact.  I wish I could write half as well as she does, but then of course I'd have to have had the crazy experiences she had, and, well, I just haven't yet!! ;D  So anyway, if you haven't read the book, DO, it's awesome!!!  ( just don't try and read it in bed next to your sleeping husband... your stifled laughter is sure to wake him and he'll be cranky about it...  oh he will... you know he will.....)

So, yeah, reading, crocheting, laughing, playing with baby... not a bad day eh?  Top that with 45 degree temps, a quick walk in the fresh, sunshiney air, beating a friend at Words with Friends ( YES!!!  .. I'm quite terrible at WWF! ) and having take out Chipotle for tea... well... it's a day that would be hard to beat!

Now Jessie is off sleeping over, Jackster is fast asleep as is Millie....  I'm off for a quick drink of something yummy... Here's a little clip of Millie ... she may be crazy....!!

Blabababababalllllllll

One of these days is not like the other!! :D

Well I thought today was going to go one way, but it swung around and went in another direction.   It basically swayed like a tree in the wind, and I just hung on for the ride.  It wasn't crazy or anything, just not what I was expecting!!  I guess that shows me, eh?  Don't expect, just ride.

Well I decided to get on and get the living room all done in one go instead of doing it every day last week.... Monday through Thursday were rather ugh days with fog, and snow, and cold etc.... today felt like a day to get stuff DONE so I did this week's missions all at once.  I took anything out of the living room that didn't belong, I checked under the couch cushions, I dusted everything that needed dusting ( HAH!  Get a log fire and see what DOESN'T need dusting!! ) and I moved the furniture and vacuumed along the baseboards and around the whole room.  The place looks lovely now!!
I made a simple pasta and cheese sauce dinner with another loaf of banana bread for tonight, I've got the kids to sleep ( well, Jessie is still awake in her room but the other two are sleeping )I'm showered and ready for bed and I can't WAIT to sit down and rest.  Hooo boy.  Busy, busy day...

But now for something completely different.....  

Miss Millie this morning !!


Cute eh?! :D

And January is GONE! 1/12 of the way through the year!! :D

Yeepers!

Today was super....  Rex had to get up early to go to Omaha for a root canal.  That wasn't super.... but since he got up early that meant I got up early and was able to get a great start on the days chores and so on.  Millie got up early too though.... so.... that was sort of that!!!  I did manage to sit on the floor with her and finish off a book I was reading whilst she played happily!

This afternoon I took Jessie to her drama class.. a rather dramatic event all in itself since, whilst the north south roads were dry as bone, the east west roads were THICK ice and snow where it had been drifting and blowing off the fields.  Talk about your terrifying ride!!  It was a pretty quiet journey that's for sure!  We made it one piece though so Jack and I and sat and waited for Jessie, me with my 3 crochet projects and a book to read..... turns out that was rather ambitious of me since, rather than stay sleeping in her car seat, Millie chose to wake up and need a constant supply of milk and attention!  Jack made a new friend and spent some time teaching him the ins and outs of Angry Birds and other assorted games on his MY iPad!!  It's practically his...I barely see hide nor hair of it most days! Jack's new friend's sister joined us and serenaded Millie and me on her violin.  She wasn't allowed to use the "stick" yet, so she just plucked the strings!!

Jack in the corner with his bud, as Millie listens to the violin!

Where IS Perry??

Anyway, we made it home again through the treacherous roads and I spent the rest of the afternoon with laundry and Millie!  She must be growing since she's eating MORE and napping LESS.... dang it. She'll be 10 by the time I get that sweater made for her.... might be a tad small by then!!! :D

When Daddy got home he'd purchased a calendar for Jack.... I THINK he likes it!!!

Snow day! :D

Well... what a week!!  A blown off Monday, a Fog Day Tuesday and today a Gen~ You~ Ine Snow Day!!  Perfect!! ;D  We woke up this morning to six inches of snow so despite a relatively good night's sleep I still felt that we should indulge ourselves once more since we can after all!! I got up and lit the fire and put some Easy Peasy breadstick dough into the oven.  The kids saw the neighbor lady clearing her driveway so they put on their snowgear and went out to help...  they came in to hot chocolate, a warm fire and fresh out of the oven bread!!  Not a bad start to the day at all..!! :D Nor, I might add, a usual one!  I could get used to it though...! We had a lovely day all round really, I got some laundry done, made fabulous soup ( using the left over soup from yesterday and an added ham bone ... oh man, I ate three bowls of it!!! ) and I also spent some time cutting up plastic bags to make plastic yarn!  I'm going to crochet a basket from the bags... they look great!  Right now I'm just cutting and knotting !! ;D I'll keep ya posted how it goes! :D

Stack your plastic bags and then roll them up so you can cut the handles and bottoms off.....

Like this!

undo the strips and, looping them together

make a long string of plastic yarn...

Roll it into a ball and you are ready to go!! ;D 

Banana Bread, Baby! :D

So.... another uggh sort of day!  Bleary and grey, a non perfect night's sleep and I did NOT feel much like getting Up and At'em this morning!  I DID get up and I suppose I was SORT of "at 'em" but what does it tell you that I finally had my breakfast at noon??  Yah.  That sort of a day!  I fought along for a while, the kiddies both did Math and I helped them both with it whilst juggling a tired and squirmy baby who would frequently yell in my ear and I bounced her and helped with math...  I did a load of laundry, cleaned the toilets, emptied the dishwasher yeah yeah yeah but didn't get the mission done today.... I'm hoping that my mojo will return with the sun and I'll get the whole week's worth of missions done on one day!  THAT'S my new plan!!!

I'm still working on going through the pantry to eat....  today I made Quinoa for breakfast  lunch, Jack ate pumpkin oatmeal left over from yesterday for his breakfast. The Quinoa was delicious!  I grated some sharp cheese on it .... Yumm!  For dinner I made bean and vegetable soup using a bag of dried beans, I also made some Easy Peasy Breadsticks... LOVE those things!!  For a post lunch, pre dinner snack I made Vegan Banana Bread... I was surprised how delicious it was!!  I didn't have the oil it called for so I used coconut oil and I used less sugar than suggested but it was fantastic and I'm sure as heck making that again!!  I am constantly amusing myself at my "there's nothing to eat in the house" thinking!!  There's TONS of food!!  For instance, if the family would put up with beans beans and more beans we could eat for weeks!! :D

Oh......  You want the recipe!?!? ...... OK!!  The recipe came from this blog and it's really simple. 

You need...

4 very ripe bananas

1/3 cup Earth Balance ( I used coconut oil)

1/4 cup applesauce ( I DID use applesauce!!)

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1 cup sugar ( I used 2/3 and actually that was a little too sweet for me) 

1/4 teaspoon salt

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour ( I just used up any flour I had.....)

1 teaspoon baking soda. 

Directions

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F. 

Mash bananas in a large bowl.  Add melted Earth Balance (oil) and mix.  Add everything else but the flour and baking soda, mix to combine.  Add flour and baking soda and stir until just mixed.  Pour into a greased loaf pan.  Bake uncovered for 15 minutes, cover with foil and bake another 30 minutes until toothpick inserted in center comes out clean.  Let cool a few minutes in pan and transfer to a wire rack or plate ( or to a cutting board where it will be sliced whilst warm and the entire thing devoured before it even has chance to cool.... it's your call...!!)  

Taking a Fog Day and a Harried Homeschooling Mama's guide to Math....

Now, to be fair, most days I could easily be described as Foggy but today was a real pea souper!  One glance out the window at 3am last night told me that it was going to be pretty nasty out in the morning!! I could barely make out the trees across the driveway.  Sure enough, at 8 am when I finally awoke to my husband's goodbye kiss it looked pretty flipping gross out!!  I didn't really have to worry about it as I didn't plan on going ANYWHERE today but I was surprised at how lackluster I felt and how hard it was to get motivated to do anything....  I DID get the beds stripped and washed and yaddah yaddah but the Whole House Cleaning thing.....  ppttthhh.  Didn't happen.  Sorry!   We decided to call it quits and spent the day doing as little as possible or as much as we felt up to.


Miss Millie had a fun day......

Helping me with laundry.........

Feeding herself a cookie!! (Farley's Rusk...!)....

And just chillin' in her spaceship!!!

 I spent a little time working on some crochet....

On the hook today... a cardigan for Millie.

I've realised that this blog has moved away from it's original purpose, that of showing how to be an AP Parent.  I still AM an AP parent but these days the title of Harried Homeschooling Mama seems a touch more ... hmm.... apt??  So in that vein, here is Harried Homeschooling Mama's guide to Math on Fog Day.......

Did it suddenly get to be bed time and you've just realised the kids have not done their math?!?!  A simple and speedy solution can be found with the help of a lipstick and the bathroom mirror!!

LOL!!!! ;D   Simple AND fun !!! :D

Night all!!

Sunday.... renew your spirit and all that jazz! :D

The Bayer / Hrdlicka clan went home this morning leaving a huge hole in their wake...it's always so quiet when they leave....  not meaning that they are a noisy bunch, just that there is always someBODY someWHERE to talk to, have a cup of tea with, play with, sit with.... when they leave the house just seems so EMPTY!  Anyway, they set off early because the weather was due to be foul in Minnesota and they needed to reach MN before a) it got worse and b) it got dark.  They called this evening and had made it home safe and sound.  So, once they drove off I decided to spend sometime cleaning up and then dedicated the rest of the day to sitting by the fire, reading, crocheting and... yes... a little Frasier!!  

I cleaned up the basement, swept up popcorn, picked up glasses and plates, put away the tumbling mats, switched off the wii, stripped the bed in the guest room, ran the bedding through the laundry, cleaned up the dining room, vacuumed up MORE popcorn ( whenever my kids have popcorn somehow it manages to get EVERYWHERE!!!) vacuumed the living room, cleaned the kitchen, ran the dishwasher and tidied up Jessie's room.  She had worked really hard lately to get her room nice and clean but you can imagine after having 3 girls in it all weekend long it got rather messed up!  I knew she was going to be so disheartened to see it messy and she gets overwhelmed trying to clean it up so I did it for her.  It doesn't take me long, somehow I've learned how to quickly tidy a room and she was so thrilled when she saw what I'd done!  Anyway, once the house was tidy hubby lit the fire and we spent the rest of the day loafing around.  It was a rainy old day ... perfect for loafing!

Millie decided that SHE was going to do something today though.....  she rolled over!!! :D  Yeahy Millie!!  To be honest I wasn't in a hurry for her to roll since we all know what comes next.... crawling. Oh boy...!! ;D

Here's a few pics from our weekend... Enjoy!!

My Miss Millie!

Alicia with her baby, Fiona and my little cherub!

Sleepover!

Fun FUN fun!! :D

It's always a blast when the circus Alicia comes to town!!  This morning we got up about 8:00 ish and putzed around a bit trying to get going KNOWING that at 9am Shawn and her family would be arriving to visit!!  We kept telling each other "We should REALLY go and get dressed...." but at 9 am as Shawn and the gang drove up we were all in somewhat of a shambolic state! :D  We covered it pretty well I think!! :D

Alicia made Apple Cake ( Gluten free no less! ) for breakfast using the apples she had brought along and assorted ingredients remaining in my pantry! ;D  I DID break down and have Rex buy some real sugar though.. apparently having powdered sugar in your tea is less than satisfactory and the poor woman, she does LOVE her tea when she visits!! :D  LOL!!

Shawn and family stayed for an hour or so and got to visit, they hadn't met Alicia before so it was nice for them to put a face to the name!  The kids then all played outside in the balmy 64 degree winter day!!   Then at about 1:30 Jessica A's mother came to pick her up, then Mary came to get Charlotte.  We begged Mary to stay longer and visit with us and the kids played and played some more!!

We managed to make potato soup for dinner which was SO good and then we played some games with the place mats...(!!) We have presidents and states place mats so we played guess the VP, name the capitols etc...!!    The kids played and played some more and more and the babies ate and ate!  Now everyone is winding down, Millie is sleeping, Jack is refusing to go to bed ( meaning I left it too late... uh oh!! ) and Jess and Anna are playing Rock Star or something or other!!!

Flylady's mission today is Family Fun Day and I think we have THAT covered!!! :D

Night all! 'D

OMG WHAT a busy day !!!

We got up at 6 this morning to take Jack to Omaha to get his ears tested....  the doc said his ears look good... he has minor hearing loss but it's not enough to worry about!  After the hearing test we had a quick visit with Michele to drop of something for her, a quick stop at the mall for Rex then back to Lincoln for Chipotle for lunch.  After lunch we headed home after dropping Rex off at work and I started to get ready for the Bayer / Hrdlicka bunch's arrival....  !!  Mary arrived with Charlotte for a visit and Charlotte decided she would like to stay too!  The Bayer bunch arrived and there was much excitement and joy!  We managed to make dinner with rice, carrots and broccoli. ( I say we, I mean Alicia!!  She's awesome!)  Then Jessica's friend Jessica (!) called and said she would like to stay the night too....!!  So tonight we have Me, Hubby, Jessie, Jack, Millie, Alicia, Daryl, Victoria, Anna, Jack, Alex, Fiona, Charlotte and Jessica sleeping over !!!  It's a full house but we love it !! :D

I can't really type though as I'm chatting at the same time!!! :D

Still have to clear off my dresser this evening in order to get my Flylady mission today... it may have to wait until tomorrow!!

Night all!!

Hey there! :D

OMG I'm going to have to type so fast!!!  What a busy day and I've still got a bunch to do and we have to leave early in the morning to go to Omaha for an appointment and then when we get back we have to get the house ready for Alicia and her gang ( HUZZAH!!  it's been so LONG!!!) to come and Mary and Charlotte are coming too and I think Charlotte's going to stay too and ....... breeeeeathe..........!!!

LOL!!

Got a good night's sleep last night....  5 hours... not too bad!!  It's no 9 hours, but I'll TAKE it !! :D  Had a lovely time with the kiddoes, played our geography game again with a cunning twist from Jessie!!  Both kids did their Kahn academy math, Jack worked more on his number recognition.  He did some physics on an iPad game, I chatted on the phone with dear Uncle Weldon for a while and also had a brief chat with me Ma...!!  I did a couple of loads of laundry, made bread rolls for lunch and made a pasta bake and a fruit cobbler for dessert STILL without having had to buy any extra ingredients!!!  ( We are now OUT of white sugar and butter....!) ...  Now the kids are ALL sleeping, my Flylady chores are done ( today's mission... clear off the bedside table... looks lovely now! ) the spare room is made up for the tribe, and Jack's, Millie's and my clothes are all laid out and ready for morning.  The kitchen is a disaster area though, so I'm going to go and clean that up, pick up Millie's blankets and then maybe sit for half an hour and fall asleep watch TV!!

G'night!!  

9 hours sleep doesn't buy you as much as it used to!

Oh boy!!  I got NINE HOURS of sleep last night!!!  Ok.. I didn't get nine hours, Millie did, but that translates to me getting EIGHT FULL HOURS SLEEP!!!!!!  Oh MY!!!!!!!   Honestly when I woke up and looked at the clock I was dumbfounded!!!!  I felt like Cinderella when she wakes up in the morning and the bluebirds are twittering around her head and it's all peaceful and Vivaldi is playing the four seasons and and and .....   SCREEECH.....!!  Cue the sound of a needle scratching over a record ( oh god....  the Young 'uns won't have a clue what I'm talking about......)  anyhow.... today started off awesome and quickly slipped into insanity.  I feel like I should be sat here chuckling and looking sideways at the wall whilst sucking my fingers....   This house CAN be a bit of a nut farm once in a while.  It starts out simply enough... I might state the intention to put a basket of laundry in the washing machine.  No biggie, I'll do it after breakfast.... only ... breakfast never comes.... somebody wants something, then someone else wants something else... the dog wants out, the phone rings, a kid needs help pouring milk, another kid needs help with math, the baby cries, the dog wants back in, the phone rings again, kid with milk now needs help with bridge building, kid with math needs more help with math.  Baby wants me to pick up her blocks so she can throw them again... PHONE RINGS.......  Good grief!!  Somedays, MOST days the phone doesn't ring at all and I'm totally OK with that... today it was ringing off the wall !!  I didn't get the laundry IN the machine until 4 pm.  I brought it down with me when I got up at 8.

The kids and I had a fun day....  More French... this time.... "Can you speak more slowly please?"  and "Where are we on this map?"  LOL!  I LOVE how all our phrases demonstrate a COMPLETE lack of faith in our capabilities!!! :D  We also played Land the Plane on our US map.  I can't tell you or comprehend WHY the kids love this game so much!!  Jessie was LITERALLY jumping off the ground  with excitement to play it.  Barmy kid.

Insanity!

Absolute lunacy.

Genius!

And Millie quietly looks on!!

  Jack plays a game on the iPad called Bridge Odyssey or some such where he has to construct bridges to carry animals across yawning chasms.  He really enjoys it so I thought it might be fun for him to construct a real bridge from Tinker Toys from a chair to the table! It was great fun and Jessie and I joined him in building.... it was very hard to stay out of it really!!  What I liked best though was when Jack opened up the iPad and turned on the game so we would have Theme Music for our building!!!

Donkey Kong tries out the bridge! 

I finally got Jack signed up on Kahn Academy for Math so he can have his own page and I can keep a good track of how he's doing.  He started it today and they worked on number recognition using blocks and so on.  He really enjoyed that and kept wanting to do more and more and more!

We decided, since it was a whopping 34 degrees and sunshiney out, that a nice walk to the post office would be a lovely treat.  I have barely been outdoors in weeks!  We bundled up a bit, got the lead on the dog, fielded yet ANOTHER phone call and headed out!!  Brr... brisk out....  walk fast.....   YIKES the wind is COLD walk faster.....  RUN KIDS!!  RUN FOR YOUR LIVES!!!!  SAVE YOUR SELVES!!!!..... Holy MOLY.  Next time I'll be sure to check the wind chill.....   Shudder.

We got home and warmed ourselves right back up with chocolate milk and a bit of Frasier....it was then that I got to the laundry and to putting on some rice for dinner!  We are STILL managing to eat from the pantry and had a really tasty dinner of rice with beans, onions and sausages !!!  Delicious!

The flylady task today was to clean off the tops of the door and windows in the bedroom!  Easy McPeasy.  Took me five minutes tops!  I like the quick ones!!  My friend April sent me a link to this app for the iPod called Carrot which is basically a To Do list with attitude!  I downloaded it and plugged in my chores.... so far I've made 100 points and I think I may have annoyed it! :D
We ended the day peacefully with me reading some of Treasure Island to Jack as he snuggled up in bed!

Yo Ho Ho.... mmm... RUM....!!! :D  Night all!!

Tuesday !! ;D ( sheesh, I had to write that three times!! Must be tired! )

So I changed the blog format.... you like?!!?

Today was excellent!  Started off screwy, I kept dropping things, I tried to make some folders on my iPad and was driven to the point of insanity by it...  I had Jessie help me... she rules!!

Later I had all the children sitting at the table trying to do school..... ahem...... Jessie was working on decimals through Khan academy, Jack and I were working on the iPad doing Math on the chalkboard app and Millie... well Millie was having a wonderful time throwing her toys, puking on things and squealing at the top of her lungs!!! ;D

Millie likes to eat the table.

Working hard!

Math master!

We did some more of our French language learning and all learned a new phrase... today's phrase was "Can you write it down for me please!!" ...  ( I see we have NO faith in our language abilities!)  and we played a game  about Europe to learn the countries.  Oh and we also learned a new card trick that wowed us no end.  We couldn't wait for Daddy to come home so we could show it to him!  We dramatically dealt out the cards, he picked his pile, we did all our hocus pocus....  drew out his card ....aaaaaaaand..... nope.  That wasn't it.  Shoot.  Tried again.... nope.  He was nonplussed.  Tsk.  Back to the computer and a recheck. Turns out I had stacked them wrong.  Doh!  Not so impressive that way!!  One more time and we got it right!  MUCH better!!!

I did all my Flylady chores PLUS I took down our bathroom curtains and washed, dried (IRONED) and put them back up! (I KNOW!!!!)  I did the Flylady mission which was to go through the sock drawer and weed out any that don't get used.  I did one better and went through my underwear, sock and nightwear drawer and threw out all sorts of unmentionables! :D  

For lunch we are still keeping to our using up the pantry plan so I made the kids white beans and bacon!  O. M. G.  it's sooo good!  I totally felt like a cowboy on the range or something but MAN that stuff is delicious! Filling too!!  For dessert I wanted to use up some canned organic pumpkin we have so I made pumpkin muffin donuts ( or something like that)  oh BOY they were good!  Once I made them I had to run to the bookmobile to return some movies and I instructed the kids not to even TOUCH them until I got back!  I had to race back home when it was discovered that I had forgotten to put a disk back in the box... so many times I have done that .....  Oh and when I was there, the library lady, Rebecca, told me that two of her stops were schools and of those two schools each had reported finding a dollar bill in their books!!!  (!!)  One lady said a little boy ( and I think they were kindergarden age) found a dollar.  His teacher is very sick and they have a collection fund for medical care for her.... he put his dollar in the collection!!!  I think that is freaking awesome!!!  I'm so thrilled that the little boy got a chance to pass it on....!  Wonderful wonderful!!  Aaaaaaanyhoooo.  I finally got home and we raced around to get everything set up... I put some laundry in to assuage any guilt, made a big cup of coffee, curled up on the couch with my baby and my muffin / donut thing and... yes.... an episode of Frasier!  What a treat!! :D

Oh!  And Millie slept for over 5 hours last night!!  Finally!!!  She had been consistently sleeping well for ages then suddenly she began waking every two hours or something.  I'd only need to nurse her for about 10 minutes or so, but still, waking up that frequently wasn't working for mama.   I couldn't think what was going on... I wasn't drinking caffeine... or alcohol...  just having one or two ( or SIX) dark chocolates every night before bed.  .....     oh.     yeah.    Dumb.

So, once I cut out the nightly chocs I got a good night's sleep.  TOTALLY WORTH IT !!!!

Fingers crossed for a repeat tonight!!

Oh oh oh and one MORE thing.... I got a call from the Funny Bone comedy club in Omaha today!  My name had been randomly pulled from their database to win four tickets to their comedy club this weekend to see Chris Rock's brother perform!!!  Hah!!!!  I told them we couldn't use them, but it was cool to win!!  :D

So...  yeah.... awesome day!!!

Monday..... Booooo!!! (now with PICTURES!)

***... sorry about all the alliteration!  Must be too much coffee.... though... it IS decaf....!!??***
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Wow!  Mondays STINK!!  Even when I'm at home with the kids like every other day, for some reason, for us, Mondays are a big fat ppttthhhh.   Still!  Got lots done again!!!  Hee heee!!  I stripped my bed and washed the bedding... I didn't bother with Jack's this week as he is sleeping in a sleeping bag on top of his bed... don't ask... it's not an interesting story...!!  Jess decided she didn't want to wash her bedding.. so it was just mine and the wee one's!  Today's mission was to clean under the bed and since I'm a bit of a fuss pot about things being "UNDER" other things, there was nothing under our bed but piles of dust and hair.  Yum.  I got the vacuum out and took care of that tout suite!  I also did the usual Whole House cleaning stuff but just remembered I didn't do the windows.  Oh dear... !!  

We did lots of OTHER stuff today too!!   We learned some Fun French Frases... ( yes I know... PH, not F....)  The first one translates to "Does anyone here speak English?"!  It amuses me that this was the first phrase Jessie wanted to learn!! :D  We marched around the house chanting the phrase in rhythm!  It was a heap of fun!!!  ( Jack's phrase was "Where are the toilets?"  LOL!!! )  We learned a little about France, Jack drew the Eiffel Tower and the French Flag.  Jessie worked on Khan academy and editing her book.  Jack built a huge contraption out of Tinker Toys and did some phonics on a new program I downloaded for the iPad.  We watched some of the inauguration, learned a quote from Martin Luther King and watched Frasier over lunch! ( of course! )  

Oh... and it snowed.  Just an inch, but it looked pretty as it fell... lovely big fluffy flakes!  My favorite!! (alliteration alert!)

Oh and one more thing... I've decided to not buy any groceries this week and to only use food that is already in the house.  We have tons of stuff ( not tons LITERALLY, but A LOT ) that we seem to be storing...!  Dried beans, lentils, canned goods, rice... and yet week after week we buy in more food ( at great expense ) to add to the ever growing pile!!  NO MORE I say!!!  So today I made us beans and rice for lunch and cornbread to use up the cornmeal in the pantry!  The kids were ecstatic! Lunch was lovely and just what we needed with the snow and all!!

So anyway, I was in the mood to capture the moments so here ya go.... this happened today....

Cornbread on the couch! Comfy!

Tried to capture the big flakes... didn't....!

Jack's BIG contraption!

Nap time! :D 

Sunday..... renew your spirit day... ahhhhhhh!!!

That was a peaceful ahhhhhhh not a screaming AHHHHHHH!!!!

Today was lovely.  I had decided that in order to "renew my spirit" I was only going to do things For Me today.  Well of course and Millie.... I have to feed and change and play with and cuddle her, and of course for the kids, I have to make them lunch and pay some attention to them.... and of course for hubby, I have to make dinner and clean the kitchen and put Jack to bed but other than THAT I was only going to do things for me.  LOL!!!   Yeah.  I actually brought a book down to read today and realise now I haven't even cracked the spine!! ;D I still managed a fairly relaxed day though.  We lit a fire and watched a ton of Frasier, I played Words With Friends and took Jessie and Millie out to Michael's to buy new beads and string for Jessie to make bead things with.  We had a lovely dinner, ate a ton of chocolate, drank ample amounts of tea and coffee and generally just lazed about.  It was super. I sort of wish tomorrow was Sunday too!!  Even though we stay home and homeschool it does make a difference what day it is!  Hubby goes out to work, things need to get done in the house...  I can fight it all I like but I still have Things To Do!!

Anyway, I'm waffling on, so I'll go and spend a little more fireplace time before bed!!

See you tomorrow... where Flylady has us working in the Master Bedroom!  Oh boy! ;D

Saturday night's alright... I guess..!! :D

Today was lovely!  Charlotte had spent the night so the kids were up at the crack of dawn and playing. Well, the two BIG girls were anyway.  Jack slept in until 8:30 which is unheard of for him.  We had to go in and make sure he was still breathing.  Millie did her usual up and then sleeping and then up and sleeping some more...  I did my best to get some extra sleep this morning but it just didn't work out that way.  Hubby and I spent some time together looking at stuff online, Mary arrived to collect Charlotte and we conned her into staying for a cuppa and a chat!  After they left the boys went to play Wii and I made us some lunch  heated up some soup from a box.  !!  We sat in the living room and dozed in front of a fascinating show about Egyptian Pharaohs.  It was kind of neat to look back and recall when the kids and I were studying the Egyptians....  we built pyramids and a model of Egypt and the Nile... all that stuff!!  Jessie said she remembered some of it!! :D  It was pretty interesting!  After lunch we pretty much just putzed around!!  I folded some laundry... I remember taking it out of the drier and thinking "Oh!  I can watch an episode of Frasier and fold laundry!!"  LOL!!  Meh, I just folded it quick and took it upstairs  ( full disclosure, it's still in the basket....!! )

I made a breakfast casserole for dinner tonight... the same as the one I made on Christmas Morning.... but THIS time I remembered to put in the eggs.  All twelve of them.  Yeah.   They make a difference, those eggs.
Sigh.

We had a bit of drama where we thought we'd lost the cat.  We searched high and low and finally found him in our tornado shelter under the stairs.  I guess he must have gone in there yesterday because no one remembers opening the door today!  Crazy kitty.  I guess he'll be more careful next time..

My pretty kitty, Herman. 

Well I'm having a little drink of Bailey's as I type and I have to say I'm getting a nice warm feeling.  Think I'll stop now and go snooze watch TV for a while!

Toodles!!!  **insert finger wave**

OMG it's Friday again! What a fun day!

Busy fun and full day today... !  Started early enough ( not too early, just right! ) and I needed to get the house ready for company arriving at 11.  First problem arose when I stepped on the top step of the stairs to find the dog had puked on it.  I cleaned that up and manhandled the baby and a basket of dirty laundry down to the top of the basement stairs to find the CAT had puked on THAT one.  Sigh..  I cleaned that up, went into the kitchen and realised the dishwasher had not run last night.  Oh it was all ready to go, powder in etc, just no one pushed start.  And by no one, of course I mean ME.  Tsk.  So there ya have it.  Great start eh!?! :D   Ah well.  The day improved!!  My friend Michele was coming to vist with her kiddoes and a friend of hers.  The house was ready, cookies were baking, kettle was hot.... no Michele.  They said they'd be here at 11.....  11:30....... nope..... 12:00.... nope....12:30.... nope... Jack was sitting by the window asking me every 5 minutes where they were!!  Finally around one they arrived and we were all very pleased to see them!! The kids had lots of fun playing together and Michaela and I had a lot of fun trying to stop her little one from doing a header down the stairs.  Guess I'm not ready for a crawler yet!!  Uh oh!!!  Mary and Charlotte arrived about an hour after Michele so there was more fun, tea and cookies to be had.  Michele had to head back to Omaha after a short while but Mary stayed longer and Charlotte decided to spend the night!!  Dinner was easy and the kids are all busy doing something upstairs!  I'm about to go and get Jack into bed and get myself ready too.  Phew! Busy day!!  I DID do all my basic Flylady stuff BUT haven't yet cleaned the bathroom baseboards.  Won't take me a minute though so I'll do it when I go up to shower.  It's also Boogie Your Backpack, purse and car day today!  I didn't do that either, though it's one of my favorites!  My purse is in good shape and the car is pretty tidy.  I'd like to hoover it, but it's toooo cold for that.  It will be pretty in the summer time! ;D

Toodles y'all!!  Family Fun Day tomorrow!!! ;D

Thursday... Flipping good fun! :D

WOW it was FOGGY out this morning!!  I could barely see the house across the street... and of COURSE hubby had to go to Omaha at 6:30 am.....   yikes... I was a wreck until I knew he'd got there ok....  At 9:30 I had to pack the kids up and go out myself.... it was still horribly foggy so I drove as carefully as possible too.  We went to the homeschool co-op's registration day where we said hello to some old friends and met Mary and Charlotte who was also signing up for drama.  ( yes, the fact that I am PAYING MONEY for a drama class when I already HAVE a thirteen year old girl has NOT eluded me!! :D LOL!!  )  Anyhoo... after registration we made our way back home and Mary and Charlotte came too!  We got to drink tea and chat whilst the kids went bananas!!  There is always a lot of screaming and running around when Charlotte comes to play!!!  :D Whilst Mary looked after Millie for me I put a roast and veggies into the slow cooker for dinner.  I LOVE slow cookers....!!  They make life sooo much easier!! :D   This morning I had done all my Flylady stuff and after Mary left I did my mission which today was to inventory the things most used in the bathroom.  I made a list of everything we used regularly but we weren't out of anything so there was nothing else I needed to do.

I've been looking at some great blogs lately to help teach reading to kids.  Jack can read ( a lot more than he lets on I think....) but his reading level is not as high as we would like, so I had a scan over this blog this afternoon and decided to play a game with him....  The blog is called www.playdoughtoplato.com and it's excellent.  ( I may have previously mentioned it...!) The game we played was Flip the Eggs!  I made some "eggs" with paper and a yellow sharpie marker.  I wrote some words I'd like him to read on the eggs, got him some props and away we went...

He had a heap of fun!! :D   The neat thing about Jack is he really gets into games and playing with me so he will want MORE and MORE and MORE....!!  I like to end with him wanting more so always quit before he's had enough, that way he's super keen to play again another day!!  We also did some math using our Math U See manipulatives and some number cards.  He had to read the number on the card then "build" the number using the blocks.  After he'd done that a few times he then got to do some addition by building both numbers and adding the blocks.  Again he wanted more and more but I made him stop!! ;D  Jessie and I made up another game using the Periodic Table and scrabble tiles... we actually had quite a lot of fun playing it, naturally Jack wanted to play that too... and so he did!!  At one point today Millie was sleeping, Jessie was doing Math on Kahn Academy's website and Jack was playing a physics game on my iPad !!  I didn't say a WORD incase I ruined it!!!

Anyway, again all is quiet now... showers have been taken, kids are sleeping ( actually I think Jessie is in her room working on writing another book...) and I should go and sit with hubby for a while.  Catch you on the Flip side!!!!  ( get it?  Flip??  Eggs?!?!? LOL!!!)

Sheesh... it's Wednesday... I swear time is starting to go faster.....!!!

Is someone out there spinning the earth a bit faster these days?!? Time is WHIZZING by and needs to SLOW DOWN please!!  I looked at my TINY (Pah!) baby today.. ( well.. hang on,  I look at her all the time of course.. but I really NOTICED today ) and saw how HUGE she is getting!!  She just turned 5 months ( and if I was a GOOD mother I'd have pictures from her photo shoot to share...!! ) ... Oh look!!  What's this!!???  LOL!!

Anyway, yeah, time is going so fast....   yikes....

But... today.... Wednesday... a good day really!  Did my usual morning routine, a little slow starting but I've decided to not let that bother me.  Flylady is all about family and being nice to your kids and all that stuff... she wouldn't want me to get all het up because I haven't done my morning chores yet and allow that to get in the way of my parenting.  Oh no, that is not what she's all about.  So I took it easy on myself, got everything done, got a load of laundry done, got the mission done.. ( actually it turns out I accidentally did today's mission yesterday so I just did yesterday's mission today!!  See how flexible I can be?!? :D )   I got to chat on the phone for an hour with my Best Bud, sat and drank a coffee with my best big girl and watched Frasier and also managed to find time to meet Hubby in town over lunch.  Once I got home I made Leek and Potato soup for dinner!  I also sliced open my thumb with the bread knife and discovered that one of the cats had done something nasty on my bed... which soaked through to the down comforter.  Which meant more laundry.  yeahy.   LOL!!  Ah well..!!  Kids are again sleeping, dishwasher is ready to go, kitchen is clean, I'm showered and ready for bed.... ***contented sigh***  ..... ain't life grand?! :D

Hmmm... let's see.... Tuesday, right?!? :D

LOL!!  I honestly don't know what day it is most of the time!  The only reason I knew it was Tuesday was because I know the recycling guy came and picked up today!! LOL!!  Thank heavens for the recycle and the trash guys...  I'd NEVER know what day it was otherwise!! :D

Anyway, today I did my Flylady thang.  Today's mission was to wash off the fronts of the bathroom cabinets.  It didn't take me long to do, which is good, because I didn't FEEL like doing ANYTHING today!!  I did all the basic Flylady chores, make up on, dishwasher emptied, load of laundry washed, dried and put away yaddy yaddy yaddy, but didn't feel like doing much of anything else.

SO I got out the world map, US map and the Periodic Table of the Elements poster and the kids and I came up with some new games!! :D  We played three different games with the periodic table and two games with the US map before Millie got fractious and her noises started to freak me out a bit! We decided a little while on the couch with Frasier and some milk would sort her out... and it did!!

I began to get a sneaking feeling that hubby would be coming home early today and, sure enough, when I called him he was already on his way...!!  We did an emergency clear up and I'm amazed at how much got put away in so short a time!!!  I mean the place was a TIP!!!  It looked great when he got home!!  Jessie was a huge help, bless her!!!

Well, baby is calling...  apparently she's busy freaking out Daddy .... crying, laughing, yawning, crying, yawning, fussing.... bed time much?!? :D

Night all!!

Phew... another Monday over with!

Yow.  Why do Mondays stink so much?!!?  This one got off to a shaky start when we discovered it was FOUR degrees outside.  That coupled with the fact we had lit a fire last night and thus the flue was left open all night... as a consequence any heat that HAD been in the house was flying out the chimney at a rate of knots. It took a good while before I felt supple enough to move around the house it was so chilly!!  I eventually got moving and tackled the Whole House Clean (stripping and remaking the beds etc... )  I didn't get the windows washed but got just about everything else done.  The mission today was to clean the extractor fan in the bathroom.  I remember doing that a while back with Flylady so pretty much dreaded doing it today BUT to my surprise it was still in excellent shape.  A quick wipe off and it was clean.  I decided then, since I had extra time, to take the globes off the overhead lights in the bathroom and wash them AND to take apart the glass light fixture on the landing and wash that!!  It was amazing how much BRIGHTER the place looked with all that clean glass!! :D

The rest of the day was taken up with baby care, laundry ( laundry, laundry and some laundry ) a bit of Frasier here and then when I was nursing... oh.... and I made some more cookies.   We just needed some more cookies....!!

On a related note....   I decided to try and see what Millie weighed since we haven't taken her in to the PD for some time.  I stepped on the scale..........     yeah.   There's quite a lot more of Mama than there used to be!!!!!  Oy.

So.  The cookies.  Uh huh, I'll be leaving them for the children.  *hangs head.*   *sighs*

Sunday is renew your spirit day. I think I missed it.

Hmmm.  Went to bed too late last night.  Millie woke up a dozen  three times and Jack ended up in our bed around 3am.  He's 10 years old, BIG and wriggly.  It Does Not Work Well.  Hubby went out with his buddy around 9 and then every thing went downhill.  The fire would NOT start.  I got it going enough that I couldn't then shut the flue and be done with it so I had to sit there and basically watch all the heat in the house disappear up the chimney.  It was FREEEEZING today too.  I tried and tried with the fire, no luck.  Millie would NOT nap.  No sir.  5 minutes?  Sure.  Ten?  Nope.  That couple of hours I'd planned on.... hahahahahaaaaa  are you kidding me?!?  AaArrrgghh.  I had hoped to "Do Something for Myself" today....  Flylady suggests "read a book, take a hot bath, watch a favorite movie...."   Hah.  I had hoped to redo my nail polish on my toes ( TMI? ) and maybe henna my hair.  But noooo.  Millie said Noooooo.  LOL!!  ( well, I wasn't really laughing to be honest. )  Then the other two would occasionally spat with each other. Which I didn't take well.  At all.  It was basically a powder keg.  Then poor Rex got home.


BOOM.


Poor guy.

He wasn't entirely sure what hit him I think.   He DID get the fire going, first thing.  Then he made me a cup of tea since I had started making one about 3 hours ago and hadn't got beyond putting in the milk.  He made me lunch... The big kids had eaten thanks to Jessie...!!  I finally managed to get my nails and hair done but it was a struggle I tell ya.  That baby didn't sleep all dang day.  I finally knocked her out with some milk at 5 ish.  She woke for her 8:30 feed and then played for a while on the blanket.  She's SOOOO close to rolling over.. any day now!

It's now ten pm and I'm ready for this day to be over.  I've been a crotchety old bat all day long and I'm not proud of it at all.  Somehow I feel I am owed this day to myself and I'm just not going to get it at this time of my life!  Having Millie has thrown me for a curve... I couldn't love her more but I'd got used to sleeping through the night and being able to go out by myself once in a while....  it's still a culture shock to me and I'm taking a long time getting used to it!!  Ah well...she's worth it!!

Night all!