Sorry it's been so long....again.

Sorry I haven't been on in so long. We have been battling colds, gone out of town, babysat for friends and been just busy. You know, the life of a mom stuff.

Thankfully my cold seems to be leaving finally, the girls have been fine for several days, today was the last day of babysitting for a few weeks and life can resume to it's semblance of normal. Well, as normal as it ever gets.

Tomorrow, in honor of the first day of spring, we are supposed to get a snow storm. Doesn't that sound like fun? Personally, not really. We got to play outside this afternoon in short sleeves. I liked that. Also, tomorrow, we are going to plant lollipop seeds. What we are doing is make dirt pudding (the only stuff the seeds will grow in ;) and "plant" the "seeds" (small hard candies). Then, the next morning, lollipops will be "growing" in the "special dirt." It is going to be great fun. You can only get this to work on the first day of spring (or, if you choose to do this, on the particular day or occasion that works for you...)

Then, Monday we are planning a trip over to Bass Pro to see the ducks in the store and then a trip down to Lambert's for lunch as a special treat with the girls before going to our favorite salvage/discount grocery store to do the monthly stock-up. Then on Tuesday, it is back to the daily grind of school and chores.

Oh, and I got to order my homeschooling curriculum for next year (a HUGE thank you goes to my MIL who gave us most of the cost for it) and it should be here on Tuesday (got to love the tracking numbers...). I can't wait. Though, I'll probably have to open it up after the Bugs goes to bed for the night. I can imagine her wanting to read everything right away. I'm going to do the language arts this summer with her as I also ordered her the Readers 1 package and the corresponding LA book for it (figured she's already learning to read and I don't want to bore her to tears with LA that she has already mastered).

And now for a simple housekeeping note. I have gotten some anonymous comments. For the sake of transparency, I chose not to publish them. If you can not sign your name (or identity) to a comment, then please don't leave one. If you are so ashamed of what you have to say, then don't say it please. One of those, play nice rules, if you will.

Excuse me for cutting this short. My husband has finally returned home from work.

Why Won't they Sleep?

My babysitting boys were here about five thirty this morning. They didn't go back to sleep like normal. I had to get on them to keep from waking up the girls. Well, Bugs we think is starting to sleep walk. She got up at eleven thirty last night. Then, crawled into bed with us at twelve thirty, and then tried it again at three. Then, had to get up to get my boys, who didn't let me return to slumber, and then Bugs woke up at six, and I let her get in our bed (should have called her octopus. Sharing a bed with her is like trying to sleep in a tank of 30).

The youngest of the boys got sick, so he ended up sleeping all day. The eldest was quieter than normal, stems from not going back to sleep. And the girls didn't get a nap/rest time for a second day in a row, so they were tired, and very cranky come around supper time, so they ate, got a bath, got to watch one movie and got tucked into bed by seven. Didn't take long for them to go to dreamland though.

I got NOTHING done again today. Starting to feel bad about it. Like, I get the living room and kitchen and bathroom looking great, it lasts for a few days, then things get off kilter with Hubbs' work schedule, things going on and such and it is trashed in the blink of an eye. Well, my bathroom still looks pretty good. The kitchen and living room, not so much. I want to cry over it. However, that won't solve anything. Tomorrow, after church and Hubbs leaves for work (hate retail in the holiday season, his schedule is so messed up) I intend to fix the living room and kitchen. Not necessarily in that order. They aren't as bad as they have been in the past, believe me, but after all our work into it, I feel horrible they got as far as they have. Then, Hubbs is off on Monday so hopefully we can tackle our bedroom in a joint effort. Then, he'll have judo that night.

Well, the washer is done, so I need to transfer some clothes to the dryer. And the hot water tank has finished heating, so I can go and take a much needed shower. Then maybe doze off. Though, I'm scared that if I go to sleep before Hubbs gets home, I won't know it if he comes in. I need snuggles. And supper with him. I snacked while the girls ate. I like eating dinner with my husband after he gets off late. It is nice us time. Though, he may be propping me up for it.

Oy

Well, for today, nothing got accomplished. Had a few potty training mishaps that resulted in an extra load of laundry that had to get done. And then I nearly stepped on a dead mouse that was lying on a pair of MY jeans at the foot of our bed. I managed to not scream (thankfully as the girls were following me at the time) and I managed to keep the kids from seeing it. I got the jeans out back on the patio and came into the house and shook for some reason. That kind of wigged me out. So, I was extremely leery of going back into our room to continue the reorganization I started yesterday.

Last night, on Mom's night out, I somehow got conned into letting the whole family come along. My fault really as my last like 3 chances to go out alone at night, I ended up inviting everyone with me. We did go to the library. I got a stack of books. Today, since it was such a waste anyway, I'm reading a fluff book. I did get a lot of good ones on homekeeping, organizing and home crafts so I'll be reading them and sharing about them in the near future. I'm glad our library has a three week check out period. I got way too many. But I can't just say no to a book. If I see a good one, it just jumps into my arms and says, "You must take me home and read me." Between what I chose for the girls and my stack (and poor Hubby's 3 small books), there wasn't room in the bag for them all. Good thing most of what I like from the library isn't in too high of a demand and renewals are easy. We then went to Wal-Mart. Used the 2.00 coupon for fabric softener from last Sunday's paper. Got a box of sheets for 1.87. Wal-Mart kept my 13 cents in overage. I decided to try the system. Next time, (and for your information), get something else to make the total just above what the coupon amount is for. No one gives you cash back if your coupon is over anymore. Sad. I gave them 13 cents. And the manufacturer gives them like an 8 cent handling fee on top of the value of the coupon anyway. Oh well, I have learned from my mistake. We then drove around and looked at the Christmas lights. Bugs loved it. She kept pointing out the window saying she loved all the sparkleys. In the next week, we hope to run over to the monastery about a half hour from here and see their huge light display. They do it as a thank you to the community for letting them be there. We went last year, and it was great. I think at last count it was well over 20,000 lights. It is lovely, and now that the eldest is more verbal (well, she's always been well above her age's average) and very observant, she will just love it. She liked it last year, but I think this year the wonder of the season is hitting her. I can't wait.

I'm babysitting tomorrow. The girls love it when the boys come over to play. I do too. It keeps them occupied and not hanging on me the whole day. (don't get me wrong, I do love my kids dearly, but it is nice when they are occupied a bit longer than normal and don't think they need me for something every ten minutes). That, and I'm saving all my "extra" money to replace my phone. It is two years old and you can tell the kids have gotten a hold of it. The track ball sticks whenever you try to scroll to the right with it. Sometimes it goes, other times it won't. I'm due for an upgrade, however, all the good phones cost money. And I want an android phone so bad. I'm still debating as I will have to add a data plan with it (Hubbs has one already,a data plan, not an android. Though he wants one too and isn't due for an upgrade yet himself) and in order to do that, I'll have to give up my newspaper subscription. I love my newspaper. Granted, there are a lot of editorial mistakes in it, and I have read better (read a lot worse too), there isn't anything like having a cup of coffee and a newspaper to help start your day. I don't know if I can be dependent on the internet for ALL of my news, local, national and world. And the comics don't seem to be as funny online as they do in print. I'm still weighing my options. I have already told Hubbs though that there is no way I will go without the Sunday paper. I need my coupons. He understood. I think.

Well, time to just be quiet for a while. And probably read a bit more. I should do something to redeem this day, however, I'm not feeling too bad. Except for maybe not getting the dishes done like I should.