76 Trombones

OK, not really 76. Last night was pick a band instrument night and S picked the trombone of all things. The mind boggles at what that practice will sound like. When E began the sax we sent her to the garage. I expected geese to fly in from Canada to answer her call.

Today the weather was great! The children look like they've been rolled in soot. I guess that's the sign of a good time. It is supposed to thunderstorm tonight though. Next week is Spring break. I'm hoping for at least a couple nice days.

I'll close this with a little mommy brag. If you can't brag on your blog where can you? E, S and C all made honor roll. E and C had all A's. Amazing! Are these my children??? Maybe my genetically programmed underachiever is still not in school.

Happy Birthday Fetch!

Today I'm 4!!! And my mom made a race track cake!

F is my sweetheart. He is in EVERYTHING! A motion machine, but he grins and giggles and frankly gets away with it. The neighbor calls him Dennis the Menace... that pretty much sums him up. He spend quite alot of time in his chair at pre-school but... how can you resist that smile?

Easter was fun. Saturday I took the kids to the town Easter egg hunt, they got baskets yesterday morning. (note to self... do not start traditions like the Easter basket scavenger hunt, the kids will expect it every year), we went to church, hunted eggs in our yard after lunch and then had my dad and his wife over for birthday cake in the afternoon. It was gray but not too rainy so we squeezed in a bike ride.

It was discovered that Mel has a strong affinity (read can eat a half a bag) of marshmallow quacks.

As a Mother

I've really been debating whether to broach this topic. It seems to be everywhere in blogland though, so I might as well stick my toe in the water too. If my baby was ill, irrevocably ill, I would fight to my last breath. I would chew glass for my children. While people debate fine points of law, a woman is dying and her parents' hearts are breaking. The heartbreak of teminal illness (been there) or freak accident (only brushed by that one) is one thing, but to have something preventable done to your child would literally drive me mad. I'm afraid grace would be non-existent and I truly (and I mean truly) might become homicidal. And yes, I do see the irony there. I admit my views on this are based on my own desires. I would want to be kept around. I'm worried about living in a time where someone else's sufferring is an interesting tidbit on the news or a matter of what would be convenient or "cost-effective". So there you have it, my opinion for what it's worth. I'll be praying for her and her parents. I'm shutting off comments on this one, I'm sure I wouldn't change any minds and mine won't be changed either.

Catching Up (on sleep for some)

Gee, do you see a pattern here?



What else has been going on? S had his last basketball game yesterday. They won by one basket so a good end to the season. I cleaned up Mel's high chair and put it away (sniff). She's been sitting at the table and hasn't crawled around in the food or anything so there's no reason to keep it out. I've made three trips to the orthodontist since Friday. One trip to take off something, a trip yesterday to have all new brackets put on and a trip today because a bunch of the brackets they put on popped off about two hours after they glued them on. Grrrr! I let the kids be rowdy this morning hoping they'd be so sick of us they'd do a good job. I still need to get something ready for Easter and F's birthday but my shopping time was taken up by ortho appointments. I need to make lentil soup for E to take to school tomorrow too. It's part of a big project on middle eastern countries. I asked why she couldn't have chosen cucumber salad or something but nooooo.... Something tells me the chip and mountain dew kids in her class are going to leave lots of leftovers for our dinner tomorrow.

Pictures

It used to be you could only bore the neighbors or relatives with pictures of your kids, but now I can bore the world. {insert evil laugh}
Yesterday we went to the children's museum with the youngest three
Here is a picture of wholesome midwestern living

The farmer's daughter

And a child that could single handedly light a city with his energy


I'll also include a picture of S in his basketball uniform. He is with my dad and my brother is standing behind.

We're definitely encouraging him to study since the sport scholarship won't be working out.

Kitchen Or In My Own Little Corner In My Own Little Room

Only if your kitchen looked like this


can you appreciate when it looks like this.


The floor guys kept telling me how hard it was to put down the subfloor because the origanl floor is so old and wavy. Duh!!! That's why I hired THEM. The original part of our house is an old farmhouse onto which people have added and "improved". It therefore does not have an architectural style. When we moved in there was a decidedly '70's feel. Dh is not going to drywall the ceilings so I am stuck with that ugly ceiling tile but things are improving. Purple shag and panelling in the downstairs bedroom -gone. Paneling, homemade bar and kitchen carpet in the kitchen-gone. Added on backporch -gone. Now to rip up the green shag in the family/living room. I can't get in too big of a hurry though because it is a huge room and the cost of new wood flooring in there will most likely require another tax check or the selling of a child ;-). At least we don't have a weasel (though the neighbor has a skunk. Apparently it is the season to look for skunky love!)

Plugging Along

The pounding, grunting, mumbled oaths and general griping from the kitchen make me glad we are paying to have the subfloor put in our kitchen which is neither plumb nor square. Dh and I have put down subfloor before. Let me put it this way, flooring is cheaper than a divorce lawyer. Hopefully they will finish the subfloor and vinyl tomorrow. Then our kitchen will no longer appear condemned.

DD is still sick with the flu. Her temp has hovered between 101 and 102 except for a thrilling interlude at 104.8. I am going to try to get her homework and if she's feeling better this weekend she can do it so she doesn't get behind. She is such a grade-a-holic that she'll stew and worry about it if I don't get it.

Tonight is kindergarten family night. This is basically a pitch in with a craft. Not really my idea of fun but L wants to go. I have saved calories today because the chance of finding something low calorie there is nil to none. I have managed to lose 2 pounds so far. If I could keep up that rate I'd be gorgeous (tic) by June, or at least not a bloated horror. Unfortunately there isn't much I can do about my pasty complexion so I'm just going for presentable.

Will It Never End?

We came home from S's basketball game( they won, GO REBELS) about 6. I was surpised not to see E out playing ball with her friends. She had a Battle of the Books match but she was supposed to be home about 5:30. I found her lying on the couch. Her temp is 103.1. We are usually pretty healthy, but it seems everyone is getting sick one at a time around here. This means it takes 6-8 weeks to get everyone better. *sigh* I will also probably have to fight to keep her home tomorrow. She has one more Battle of the Books match and I know she'll want to go. If my other children were half as over-achieving as she is we could set the world on fire. Ah well, variety is the spice of life {she says hanging her decidedly under-achieving head}.

Questions

I seem to be thinking in lists lately. Here are just some things I'm wondering on this cold, drizzly (soon to be sleety no doubt) evening.

1) If all the neighborhood boys come to get your dd to play basketball, does that mean she's just 'one of the guys' or something else? This could be troubling either way.

2) Why are some adults such sticks in the mud. If you were a cub scout wouldn't you rather hoot and holler and run and be generally boisterous or sit quietly at tables. Heck, I know which I like better.

3) How did I end up with just 2 pair of jeans and three shirts in my closet? I need to go shopping (yuck, which probably explains the state of my closet). Do they have personal shoppers for the extrememly casual type?

4) Why do children who are feverish and pukish all day perk right up at bed time?

Things I'm Growing To Hate (in no special order)

1. Vegetables

2. People who order cake, take two bites, and push it away feeling full.

3. My twitching palms which long to reach out to said cake.

4. Water

5. Water

6. Water

7. Tendonitis which makes shooting a basketball or dribbling left handed HURT. So much for exercise

8. Snow

9. Ice and Snow

10. Ivanhoe (which oldest dd is reading for Battle of the Books, or should I say we are reading. Nothing like that expectant look that says "What did that mean?") Time to introduce her to the time honored custom of Cliff Notes. * if you're a literature snob, please don't comment*

Happy Birthday Honey

Today is dh's birthday!

FIVE THINGS TO LOVE ABOUT DH!
1. He goes to work everyday, even though he doesn't like his job.
2. He appreciates what I do here for the kids and to keep things running.
3. He has total confidence in my smarts and abilities.
4. He does nice stuff just because, not for specific reasons.
5. He totally gets we are two very different people.

He has to go to work so not much partying planned. I'll make him an apple crisp insstead of a cake because he likes it better. I was going to take him out for a latte this morning, but our *&#%$ school system cancelled school today. It's not that bad and now the kids will have to go until June 2 :-(.

Monday...again

So here we are almost in March, and we're due to get 8" of snow tonight. Yuck! Phooey! Blech! I'm longing for crocuses and we're getting more snow. Not how I wanted to start the week. I also have decided that swimsuit season is fast approaching so I should at least make an effort at not embarrasing myself or my progeny at the beach. I'm wearing a size 10 jeans right now and I know my swimsuit is an 8 (unless I want to wear my maternity swimsuit which I'm not thrilled about). There is no getting around it, I'll have to diet. Another Yuck, Phooey, Blech. I like to eat darn it. We'll see how it goes. I'll track my calories over at fitday. Usually if I can keep it to about 1800 cal/day I lose. I know you're now thinking, "hey I thought she was a dietitian, this should be easy for her." It just means I KNOW how bad my eating habits are, not that it's easy to change them. My perfect eating day would be coffee and donuts, coffee, coffee, coffee, nachos and beer, pizza and beer, cake. I don't eat that way but I sure wish I could!

S-A-TUR-DAY- NIGHT

Just thought I'd lead off with a little Bay City Rollers in the title.
I've debated whether to even mention the flap over another blogger's Duggar family comments. I'm afraid I found the whole thing interesting in a "can't turn away from the car crash" kind of way. The original post was sort of snarky but was meant as humor. Lots of mud got thrown both ways after that. What it really made me wonder was how other's are perceiving me just from the blog. Hmmm, lots of kids, goes to church---she must be one of those wild-eyed fundamentalists. Hmmmm lots of kids, swears and drinks----she must be one of those welfare types that expect me to support her. Neither one is true but it is so much easier to pigeonhole people. Then after you've neatly categorized you can move on. A human failing I guess.
I've mostly been working on painting the kitchen this week. I also finally got blinds and hung them in the boys' rooms. I bought E a bed frame and mattress. It should be delivered on Monday. She's been sleeping on the floor. Before you accuse me of child abuse, there are two perfectly good beds upstairs, she chose the floor in the downstairs bedroom. She really wanted a couch, not a bed, but it wouldn't fit with the closet jutting out so... mean mom finally decided to move her off dead center and get the bed. She can put it against the wall with pillows and approximate a couch. S went to spend the night with a friend. L,C and F got some movies from the library and are planning a "movie party" complete with Dots and Snowcaps.
In the mean time, I think I'll pull out some of those "big CD's", which is what my 3yr old calls records, and jam to the Bay City Rollers!!!!!

1-2-3

Perhaps I use one discipline technique too much? Last night L was being difficult so I said "go to bed". Off she goes in a flood of tears. I went up 5 minutes later to talk to her. Why the tears? Not because she was sent to bed, because I didn't count! "Mom, if you don't get to 2 how do I know to stop?" Ummm, maybe when I say quit?

The Weekend

Dh and I went to Lowe's (his favorite store I think) and got rollers, brushes, etc so I can paint the kitchen this week. We also found a nice small vanity with sink for $100. We need small because it would give us more room in the bathroom. The plan is to buy a thing each paycheck. We'll get the fixtures, then the new toilet, maybe a light, a new medicine cabinet then maybe this summer we can work on the bathroom. We'll see. Things have a way of not working out exactly like they were planned on paper. Saturday night we took S,C and L to a skating/birthday party. E watched F and L. Since we were in town and we would have had to turn around right away if we drove home, we had Chinese for dinner. It was something we hardly ever do so it was nice.
Today the boys had a basketball tourney game. They lost, so civic center basketball is over just leaving us with S's school team for now. Of course, I met a friend of mine leaving the game. She and her husband run the baseball league and she handed me the forms so in a couple short months I'll be standing at a ball diamond instead of sitting on a bleacher. I don't have climatic season's anymore, I have sports seasons.
I updated my food blog for this week. This week I hope to: paint kitchen, paint cabinets, touch up wood putty spots in bedroom and mud room. Eventually I'd also like to get to the dining room (in which we will never dine) E and L's rooms also need painted. Maybe by the end of summer.

More Accomplishments

For whatever reason I was still feeling full of youthful vigor and promise today so for fun I recaulked the tub. This entailed removing the old caulk and scraping mildew. You may remember we have the world's smallest bathroom, and not only is it small but it's unventilated, thus the mildew. I figured if I was already wet and gross might as well scrub, scrub,scrub the tub. That was so much fun I drug out the carpet cleaner and did the floor. Why the previous owners carpeted a bathroom is beyond me. Perhaps they didn't have six kids. It was....let's say odorous and unpleasant, but it is now clean. Not sure where this working mood came from.

Tonight dd and her friends have gone to a middle school dance. I think dh is not quite comfortable with her looking nice and going to a dance. I went to a Cub Scout meeting and filled in time by letting them arm wrestle each other and me. At least I can still beat the 10 and 11 yos. It's always good to leave them thinking you could potentially hurt them, LOL!

Accomplishment

It's amazing what you can get done if you work hard (and don't sit down and don't eat). I'm occassionally overtaken by the mood to get all those little nagging jobs taken care of. Yesterday I had one of those days. I dropped F at preschool, took L & A grocery shopping, came home, put away groceries, filled out a tedious form for insurance reimbursement, took said form to the post office and stopped at the flooring store where I put a down payment on my kitchen floor. Yeah!!! It's been stripped to the floorboards, the very old, very dirty, floorboards with attractive spots of 1930's linoleum since fall. The new vinyl should be down in a couple of weeks. I picked up F, came home, gave them lunch. A has been grumpy for 2 or 3 days. I'm not sure if it's ears, teeth or what. After finally settling her down I got out all the paint stuff and primed the kitchen walls. They were three different colors. Now they are nice shiny white. The fumes from the primer though, whew!! Since I was all painty I touched up some spots in my bedroom. I also managed to get 3 loads of laundry done and make a pot roast and apple crisp for dessert. If I were this organized and hardworking everyday either we'd live in a lovely home or I'd kill myself for turning into Martha Stewart. I don't feel the mood today so I'll slink off to my slothful corner now.

Random Acts

Neither hard gym floor, nor roaring crowd, nor obnoxious buzzer nor the exciting sport will keep me from my appointed nap!


I should not have given up swearing for Lent.

Swearing would have been a reasonable response to a 6yr old who felt free to throw books and call her mother Stupo (that was a Marx brother wasn't it?)

It is reported tearfully that throwing books and calling your mother Stupo was not worth losing your electronics, sitting in your room all afternoon and going to bed early.

Proud mommy moments (and I think I deserve some after the above incident) 9yo ds got a certificate and 12yo dd gets to go eat donuts and juice for being kind. Dd volunteered to be in the group of special ed kids for a group project. I'm not sure what 9yo did, he won't say.

My Snotty Valentine

Ah, the mucus marathon!! What fun. It is my fervent hope that runny noses are the last stage of the croup,fever,laryngitis extravaganza. Now I just need to buy another gross of tissues until it passes. I have a horrible confession to make too. This virus has given oldest dd horrible canker sores. Great big huge quarter size ones. I gave her tylenol with codeine last night. I figured if it didn't help with the pain it would at least put her to sleep and relieve my pain. Because even though I know it hurts, her whining was about to drive me around the bend!!! When her mood turns a bit south, as from pain, she brings up every injustice in her life. You may be interested to know that she always gets the smallest pancake, her opinion is repeatedly ignored, I don't know how to raise young children, and that she has no recollection that I ever made her heart shaped peanut butter sandwiches as a young child. I didn't think you'd be interested but you can now understand the dose of codeine.

On brighter notes, L attended her first sleepover party on Friday. No phone calls in the middle of the night. She now declares she is ready for camp this summer. I'm not sure I'm ready to send my 6yo off for a week.

S and C raced their cars in the Pinewood Derby this weekend. They finished firmly in the middle of the pack. I will say, however, that their cars were obviously the only kid constructed ones in the race. They were really, really obviously the only kid constructed ones in the race. I of course forgot my camera, as I was trying to bake treats, set up tables, fill balloons, find ice.....you get the idea. It doesn't pay to be efficient because others gladly expect you'll do what needs to be done.

I remembered that I said I'd send cookies to L's kindergarten for the Valentine's Party today. I really hate starting cookies at 9pm. I pretty much like to sit down by 9pm and only get up to go to bed. I just made chocolate chip but I added "sprinkles" to make them festive. Kids don't like heart shaped, exquisitely decorated cookies anyway...right? right???

The brightest note... today at 2:30 I have a massage scheduled. My dh,( yes it is really him not a pod person as was my first thought) scheduled one for me. I am going to enjoy that hour. I will not make lists in my head, I will not feel guilty, I will not plan the week ahead. I'm going to enjoy this darn it. Now if I just don't fall asleep once I get horizontal!!!

Computer virus?

Every blog I go to seems to have families suffering from illness! It is making me wonder if it is spread digitally ? It snowed more here so at least it looks pretty. The trees look frosted. S has his first school basketball game tonight. I have a sore throat and my ears and head hurt but life goes on. I NEED to buy groceries or it'll be grilled cheese and soup tonight. I think I'll just have another cup of tea (ok, it's more like a hot toddy, but hey I'm sick here) and get moving!