Thursday, March 25, 2010

Wednesday Schedule

4:00a-Feed Eliza. Put her back to bed. She's up again at 5:30a. Day starts early.

4:01a-Remember it will be 3+ days until Eric gets home. Day starts s...l....o...w.

6:45a-Start making lunches. Get kids ready for school.

8:00a-After feeding everyone else, I eat my bowl of cereal.

8:15a-Start cleaning for house showing at 4:00p.

10:00a-Decide to take a shower after Sophie tells me I stink.

11:00a-Make lunch for "the girls" and clean kitchen for final time before showing.

12:00p-Vacuum floors while holding Eliza. My left arm is almost asleep when I finish.

1:00p-Glorious nap time! I clean some more for an hour.

2:00p-My cleaning is going so well, I take a 1/2 hour nap. Whoopee!

2:30p-Up again and cleaning the bathrooms. My favorite.

3:20p-Turn on all lights in the house (I think it is a house showing thing.) Get Sophie up, shoes and jacket on. Load the van with stuff for evening activities.

3:35p-Boys get off the bus. They use the bathroom with warnings of "Don't leave drips!" ringing in their ears. Before they can make a mess, I send them to the van. I load up Eliza and we're off to the public library. (We have to go SOMEWHERE during a showing.)

3:45p-Boys play on computers.. Sophie does puzzles. I feed Eliza in a secluded corner.

4:30p-We leave for D6, stopping at McD's for icecream on the way because Daddy's out of town and we all need a pick-me-up. My kids now love me more that 15 minutes earlier. (Eric, we thought of you the whole time we ate the ice-cream.)

5:00p-D6 worship rehearsal. Ever try to dance, sing, and hold a baby? (Thanks for your help, Nicole.)

6:15p-Drop the kids off at classes and finally get to eat supper.

7:30p-D6 production. Wish I would have done a better job memorizing the lyrics.

8:15p-All kids in the car. Headed home.

8:30p-Jammies, snack, teeth, bed. In that order.

9:00p-Call and make playdate plan for tomorrow. I need some adult conversation.

9:30p-Watch an hour of "Dan in Real Life".

10:30p-Feed Eliza.

11:00p-Lights out. Remember that after tonight, there will only be two more nights until Eric comes home. Not an encouraging thought. Pray for sleep-request granted.

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Birthday Month

March is birthday month. Three of my four kids have birthdays in March. I've baked four, that's right, FOUR cakes in the last four days. Three of them in the last 24 hours. Because when your kids attend public school, they want to take birthday cupcakes to school. And of course you must have the special birthday cake at home. I've still got one birthday to go and I'm wiped out!

And why, oh why, doesn't anyone else in my family like leftover cake? I'm daily repeating my baby-weight loss motto (thanks, Heidi!) "A moment on the lips, a lifetime on the hips." Or the more positive version, "Nothing tastes as good as thin feels." It doesn't seem to be working. I've eaten more than my share of cake. :) It is starting to look gross.

The good news of the past couple of weeks? Eliza is starting to sleep through the night. Not consistently, but enough to please her mama. Oh, glorious sleep!

Friday, March 12, 2010

The Gift

The boys came home from school on Monday excitedly waving a white piece of paper. Turns out the 3rd grade classes were holding a white elephant sale (code for "junk sale") ALL WEEK to raise money for a field trip or something. My boys have their own little stash of spending money, so I let them each take a couple of dollars. Of course, I also gave them a lecture about spending money wisely and not buying something just because you can. Classic "Mom" lecture.

The following day Danny came home with nothing. He had carefully inspected each item for sale and decided nothing was worth his hard earned cash.

Caleb came home with a stuffed monkey, a clone trooper bobble head At-At walker (Star Wars fans, did you get that?), and a plastic ninja turtle (I think we sold one just like it at our last garage sale). He spent about $0.50.

But Caleb kept his money in his bag because they were putting new items out every day! And, oh yes, the kindergarten class got to go to the sale every day. And on Thursday, he came home with a real treasure.

He pulled out a box with 9 items that looked like mock sea shells. Not a great use of the $1 they cost, but no big deal. Then he handed them to me and said, "Here, Mom, I bought these for you because you deserve them." And so, touched by my little boy's generosity (a dollar is a lot to a little kid) I took my gift.

Turns out they weren't mock sea shells. They were smelly, floating candle sea shells. And they smelled like really cheap mens' cologne. Smelly, floaty, cheap mens' cologne candles that my 5 year old bought........for me.

"Hey," I said, "Let's try these out!" And so I lit all of the candles and set them afloat in the bathtub....almost gagging at the smell.....with the exhaust fan on high, of course......and it stunk up the house.....and Caleb and Sophie watched those candles burn for a good 15 minutes! Then we "forgot" about them and they probably burnt for close to an hour.

Unfortunately, they didn't burn as quickly as I had hoped. Still plenty of wear in them. I put them all in a ziplock under the bathroom sink, but I could still smell them, so they now occupy a special place on the shelf in the garage......just in case Caleb asks me if I want to burn them again. :)

I love my Caleb. A scrub brush for Christmas, a half written card for my birthday (I think he got tired out), smelly candles because I deserve them. Gifts only a mother could love.

Thursday, March 11, 2010

Funny Stuff

Check out what happens when we're bored on a Saturday afternoon. For the real "Guacamole Song" that inspired ours, go here.

I love my kids. :)

Thursday, March 4, 2010

Don't tease me, Mr. Winter

There are some things I've been noticing the past few days...there is a trickle of water that has joined the ice mound at the end of our driveway.....I can see a patch of bare ground in our front yard.....there is more bare deck than ice covered deck on our screened in porch.....my boys got out their bikes when playing outside yesterday and asked to take off their snow pants....and the sun feels WARM. Don't tease me, Mr. Winter. You've had a nice, long reign this year. I'm ready for spring. Here's to March coming in like a lamb! (Never mind the saying, we'll hope it goes out like a lamb, too!)