Vacation Prep (AKA Needing a Vacation to get over Vacation Prep)

Oh vacation, how I love you.

Every year my in-laws rent a house somewhere big enough for the entire family to go stay and be together for a week. We've done Honeoye Lake twice, Autumn Lake (Adirondacks area) twice, and this was our third year in Salvo in the Outer Banks. We stayed in a different house than the previous two years and really enjoyed the new place!

Now I don't know about you, but planning for a vacation is hard. It's easier now that the kids are older and we don't have to worry about diapers and all the other baby things, but still trying to get a family of five packed for a week and getting two animals prepped to leave is challenging.

To Do Lists!

And this year decided to throw us a couple curve balls.

We knew this year would be a little different. Our house still has a For Sale/Sale Pending sign in front of it, and even though we don't live in a village or city, a lot of traffic goes by here everyday. We were a little nervous about leaving our house vacant for a week, but we took steps to make sure that it wouldn't look fully abandoned: our cat was going to stay here and our neighbor would check on him nightly, and some friends were also going to come and harvest our garden while we were away. It's not as much movement at our house to make it look occupied, but we thought it would be enough. (And it was!)

The one problem about the house still being Sale Pending was that we didn't know if we'd need anyone to come through the house for various appointments during the week, and one even got scheduled for the morning we were going to be leaving....meaning we had to leave the house SPOTLESS. That's hard enough to do on any given day, but trying to get your house spotless while trying to leave for vacation is a whole other level of craziness!

The biggest curve ball of them all we didn't even begin to expect.

We swung by my in-law's house on Wednesday to drop off some things, and my father-in-law commented on how our exhaust was sounding loud. We thought it was just a heat shield, so he said to bring it over early Thursday morning and he'd help Pete take a look at it.

Thursday morning came, Pete took the van over. I'm home with the three kids, babysitting an additional two, and trying to pack. Pete calls: the fixed the heat shield, didn't really see anything wrong with the exhaust, but there's a squeaking and squealing noise. They took it to the mechanic's, and the water pump is dying. And two front bolt springs (I think that's what they were??? Definitely part of the front suspension...) were completely broken and could cause real damage at any point....also known as, van isn't leaving the shop OOOOR going on vacation. Big $$$$$ flashed in front of our eyes!

So Pete and his dad checked into rental vans, and we didn't want to pay the price to rent one. We decided to take our car, and my in-laws graciously offered to take one of our kids in their vehicle so we wouldn't have to have three kids crammed in the back of our car. Thankfully we had fixed the car and it's issues earlier in the summer so all it needed was for the air conditioning to be recharged for it to be ready to go.

Even with all of the craziness and our plans going straight out the window, we are so thankful. We are glad Pete's dad had the wisdom and foresight to check our van, thankful there was space for Paige in their truck, thankful our friends and neighbors were able to look after our house, and just so thankful that we didn't try to take the van on vacation (we probably wouldn't have made it out of the state, or at least through Pennsylvania....it definitely wouldn't have made it over the bridges and bumps on the OBX island!).

We were able to leave our spotless house at 5:58 Friday morning (two minutes ahead of schedule!!!!), with Paigey securely in the back of her grandpa's truck and the boys snuggled in the back of our car. We were Virginia bound for the night, and were praying that all the bumps in the road were already behind us!

Up next: Friday afternoon fun in Virginia!

September Thankfulness

Hello, blog! How I've missed you.

It's been almost TWO YEARS since my last post, and so much has changed in our lives. I wasn't sure where to start posting, so I'll just start with 30 things I was thankful for in September, in no particular order.

• Pete getting into the Master Teacher's program! It was a long process, and we are thrilled with the outcome.

• New bus route. The kids started on a bus that came between 6:55 and 7 every morning. It was really full, so we have been put on another bus, and it now comes at 7:30. Those extra 30 minutes make mornings so much smoother!

• Nate has started trombone lessons! He loves it, even though he thinks he sounds like a dying duck right now ;)

• Lunch thermoses. We got the kids thermoses, and they love having hot lunches almost every day.

• Teachers who push my kids to excel. Two of my kids are already being challenged in reading, either by getting put into an advanced reading group or having an independent study created for them. I'm so thankful for teachers who won't just let my kids be, but expect greatness from them. I love our school!

• Cooler weather. It never got ridiculously hot this summer, but it was always hot on days I had to can food. I'm glad it's cooler so we don't bake in the house when I'm over the stove all day!

• Free festival spots. I had the opportunity to set up my art booth at a friend's house for a local festival this past weekend and had a great experience!

• Patience from my author and editor. I'm illustrating a series of children's books, and the author and editor I'm working with have been extremely patient with me as I work around having a family and other obligations.

• Book #1 in the children's book series finally uploading! So many hoops to jump through and having to switch publishers wasn't the easiest, but we finally got it uploaded and ready to be proofed!

• Book #1 proofs on their way! RV (the author I'm working with) and Jennie (his wife, who is the editor) got their proof yesterday, and I'm still anxiously waiting for mine!

• Visiting with Nicky! My best friend was in town for a few days, and I got to spend a couple hours catching up with her at a coffee shop. 

• Airborne. I came down with a cold, and this really helped me get over it quickly.

• Homemade bone broth. The best for coughs and colds!

• Freedom in my schedule. It's wonderful being able to run errands when needed now that I'm done with daycare, not when I can fit them into my babysitting schedule.

• New windows! We had new windows put into our living room and bedroom, and they're amazing. We'll be looking into replacing the rest of the windows next year.

• Book fairs. There is always a book fair during the kid's school open house, and we got some great Christmas gifts for them.

• Crock pots. Hot and healthy dinners ready when we need them on busy days? Yes please!

• Paychecks that show up a week earlier than expected. Love it.

• Hurt toes that heal, even though they probably needed stitches. Yay for great clotting and healing!

• Play dates for my kiddos. They have some great friends!

• Texts for the bus. On the old bus route, the mom at the stop before us would always text us when her son got on the bus so we would have a 2 minute warning. It was great on days we were rushing!

• Walks with my dog. We've been able to take some great walks, even up to 3 miles long because I have the time to do so now. 

• Runs with my boy. Nate and I are starting to run together, just half a mile. It's helping him out in gym and great bonding for us!

• Garden harvest. We had an awesome tomato crop this year!

• Homemade roasted tomato spaghetti sauce. So delicious.

• My office. It's nice being able to have a space to keep all my projects out and ready for the next time without worrying about having space for meals or kiddos touching my things. Plus it helps me focus!

• Time for Bible study in the mornings. I've been doing some great studies through She Reads Truth either before the kiddos wake up or after they get on the bus.

• Date night! It's great to have one night a month to just connect with my husband over dinner or a movie...or setting up my booth for a two day festival ;)

• Air purifiers and....

• Eucalyptus oil. Some oil in our air purifier in the mornings helps get the cold out of the head and chest and clears up the air. 
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What were you thankful for in September?

Thankfulness 2013, Day 2: Nicky

Twenty years ago this school year, I met my best friend.

Man, I feel old saying that.

It was early in fourth grade, and our class had just moved from the elementary building over to the intermediate school building. I didn't know many kids in my class very well, so I was super nervous about this school year.

But then I saw it.

A Lisa Frank binder, just like mine.

I think this is what mine had looked like

It was a different picture, but still, whoever had a Lisa Frank binder must be super cool and have great taste, ya know?

We became fast friends, and her family became a second family to me.

Nicky and I have been thought of as sisters or even twins on occasion, have been known to spend six hours shopping for prom shoes (but go back and buy the first pairs we looked at), and have gotten lost in the city for an hour and a half just because we turned left out of a parking lot instead of right.

Out to lunch and a shopping trip on one
of her last visits to NY

We've gone long periods of time without speaking, either because we were hurt and upset about something or because we've just been so busy (mostly the latter, thankfully).

She was by my side the day I got married, and she has become a beloved aunt to my kids.

The girls (with a little Ry in my belly!)

We live far apart now (why must Florida be so far from New York?!?), but I know no matter what, if I need her, she's just a phone call away. She knows me better than a lot of people, and has seen me at my best and worst.

Okay, now I'm all teary and miss my girlfriend. Anyone have a teleportation device they'd be willing to let me borrow so I can get to Florida quickly?

Love you, Nicky!!! Thank you for being there for me :)

Thankfulness 2013, Day 1: My Phone

*dust dust dust*

*sweep vacuum sweep*

*cough cough*

Excuse all the dust as I brush off the blog and attempt to bring it back to life!

Welcome to November! Last year I tried to post everyday about something I was thankful for in preparation for Thanksgiving. It was hit or miss, but I think that I ended up having something to be thankful for, even if I didn't post every day. I'm attempting to meet that goal again this year, and hopefully I'll get back into the habit of posting more often.

To start off the month, I am thankful for my smartphone.

Okay, it tends to be more stupid than smart, but seriously, I can see why people love having one!

We've had the phones (Samsung Galaxy SIII minis) for just under two months, and they're wonderful. Pete's cell phone screen had broken a few months ago, leaving him unable to text for awhile. He then started using my ancient cell phone which worked, but was very slow. My phone had just started to die (the microphone wouldn't work, leaving me unable to make phone calls), so it was time. Thankfully our contract was up for renewing, and we were able to get great deals on the phones (hello 99 cent phones!).

The downside is that our bill is triple what it had been, but I think although it's affecting our budget a little, it's worth it.

My favorite apps so far (random thought: it's weird seeing our last name everywhere!):

Mint: Mint can be used on a computer or mobile device (including our tablet), and it's a free budgeting system. It links up with all your bank/credit card/mortgage/investment/utility accounts, so you can see what bills are coming due, how much money you have left in a certain budget category, or how much money you have in your checking account at a glance. We use it on the laptop to set up the monthly budget, but have it on our phones so when we're shopping, we can see how much money we have left to spend on food, gas, etc. that month while we're out and about. No more guessing about what's left, we have no excuse anymore. We've only been using the app about three weeks, and I really think that it helped our spending, and we had more money left over at the month than we were expecting (we were $100 over budget when we planned the month, but ended up about $150 under budget. Not bad!) Even if you don't have a smartphone, I highly recommend this for anyone to use on their computer!

Google Keep: Pete put this on my phone, and at first I was all confused by it. I didn't know what it was or what to do with it, but now I don't know what I'd do without it! It's basically a place for me to keep lists and reminders, and I know I don't use all of it's features, but I still love it. I have a note for all the individual stores we go to (Aldi, Wegmans, JoAnn fabrics, etc) , so when I notice we're running low on something (Cheerios or thread), I add it to that specific note. If I'm afraid I'm going to forget to get something off my list, it will pick up on my GPS and remind me (kinda freaks me out how that works, but it's come in handy more times than I'd like to admit....). I can also send lists to Pete, so if I know he's going to get gas after work, he can swing over to Aldi or Wegmans which is just down the road and pick up our items. Pretty snazzy!

Google Calendar: So this one isn't something super new to us, but I'm actually using it routinely for the first time ever. Pete's always using it to keep track of his work schedule, meetings and when he's teaching what unit or giving a test, but I never got into it as I would never think to check it. However, I'm also not very good at checking his calendar for his schedule or the wall calendar in our dining room or my planner that I'm supposed to be taking with me everywhere, or even syncing them up. Having this calendar on my phone, which is always with me, and having it synced with Pete's calendar has been amazing. All of a sudden we know who's doing what when and where, and there's no more arguments about lack of communication regarding scheduling. It also can be used on a computer if you have a Google account, but if you don't think to check it often, it's not super handy.

Minion Rush: Hey, everyone needs a super fun game to play once in awhile...or be addicted to. You get to be a Minion from Despicable Me and run through various locations, like Gru's neighborhood, his lab, El Macho's Lair, and Minion Beach. And you get to ride a Fluffy Unicorn. It doesn't get much better than that! We downloaded it onto our tablet awhile ago, and it was one of the first things I added to my phone. My kids love playing it, and it was a great way to distract them at the doctor's when they were getting shots.

Okay, I need to go make up November's budget on Mint while kids are napping! Happy November, everyone!

What are you thankful for today?

Me vs. The Freezer

I love the unexpected. Things breaking, kids getting sick when we have plans, weather ruining plans....

Okay, not really.

The last Friday of the school year was a rough day. That morning, I discovered upon opening our big freezer that about four inches of frost/ice had covered everything overnight.

Defrosting in progress...

I wasn't sure if the door hadn't gotten shut properly the night before or if the freezer had decided it didn't want to work properly...but I knew I had to do an emergency defrost before I could discover the problem.

So the defrosting began...all while juggling getting kids breakfast and out the door on time for the bus, greeting parents, writing receipts for the week's pay, and entertaining 5 kids ages 4 and under.

Not my way to start a day.

Then a cat sprayed in the mudroom next to where the freezer is. I don't know which one did it (we have one cat, but are cat sitting two others for the summer), but I think they were a little upset that the floor was covered in water and ice.

My kitchen ended up getting flooded from all the water and melting ice as well.

Lots of food waiting to be cold again

I think my Friday was a Monday in disguise.

Things I can be thankful for now that this process was taken care of:

- The problem ended up just being the door wasn't shut properly. Yay for not having to buy a new freezer!

- The freezer is now super organized and we can find whatever we need easily.

- My floors were ridiculously clean after cleaning up all the water!

- The only food that had to be thrown out was a carton of ice cream; it had gotten put in the freezer on it's side, so it melted and leaked out the top. With all the meat we had just purchased and froze, it could have been a lot worse!

- It was a relatively cool day; if it had been hotter, things may have started defrosting while I was cleaning out the freezer.

I guess it wasn't so bad after all :)


Have you had any stressful moments lately that ended up being blessings in disguise?

Thankful

I'm putting today's awesome Financial Friday money tip on the back burner until next week. I've been feeling down the past couple days; having cold, wet, gloomy weather after having nice sunny warm spring like weather doesn't make me a happy mommy! I told myself I had to be thankful no matter what, and here's my list:

My lower back is aching this morning after running over 2 miles last night - I'm thankful that I can get up and out of bed today, that my heart is beating, that I'm alive, and I can still get down on the floor to play with kids. And that I ran over 2 miles for the first time ever! Take that, back and knee joints!!!!!

It's gray and gloomy. And cold. Again. - I'm thankful for the rain to make the flowers grow, for a warm house and a roof over my head, and that the rain will make me appreciate the sun all that much more when it finally decides to poke out from behind the clouds.

I'm behind on laundry and had to do four loads this morning - I'm thankful that we have clothes on our backs to keep us warm and dressed appropriately, and that we have a working washer and dryer.

Pete and I have some decisions looming over our heads, and when we don't have all the information to make these decisions, we're both tired, cranky, and stressed - Without going into too much detail, I'm thankful that he has a job, that we have back up options for all the decisions, and that people are praying for us while we sort through details and listen for God's direction in all of this.

I have to go over my power point presentation and lesson plans for a three hour sculpture class I'm teaching tomorrow, and I'm feeling very unprepared. Sculpture is soooo not my strong suit, and all the little pieces haven't been fitting together this week to get everything where I need it to be as nicely as I'd like. - I'm thankful that my main material for the class arrived today (and I wasn't sure if it would), and Pete's going to watch all the kids this afternoon so I can go out and pick up the rest of my supplies. My power point is finally done and edited, I just need to make sure my transitions are going to be okay. I'm feeling all jazzed up about art again, and I'm even looking into finishing up my painting concentration in the next year or so (I'm only one class away from having it; to not finish would be silly!), and maybe even getting a degree in art history could be an option. Everything will be okay. No one will throw wire and paper at me tomorrow if I get a date wrong (switching from BC/AD to BCE/CE for dates is so confusing for me!) or I misspeak.

The three kids I have here today have been cranky all morning and haven't been as good as they normally are for me today...doesn't help my mood any! - I'm thankful that all three kids are sleeping, and that snuggling and reading books for an hour helped calm them down.


Hey! It stopped raining! Yay! Yet another thing to be thankful for :)


What are you thankful for today?

This Isn't What I Meant!

Last night, I was exhausted.

Okay, so that's nothing new. But after a busy weekend of running errands and trying to catch up on things around here, Paigey's 6 month check up at the hospital, and then a long day of babysitting and a library meeting, I was more tired than normal.

Today I'm babysitting a half day and then after school, which leaves me with the morning off from babysitting. However, I had errands to run: activating my new debit card, making a deposit at the bank, and getting some much needed groceries. Trying to do all that with a cranky almost 3 year old on a tight schedule is not easy or fun.

I remember looking at Pete and telling him I would give just about anything to have a morning off to stay home and get things done. Just a morning! I wasn't even being greedy and asking for a whole day!!!

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I knew I shouldn't have said anything.

This morning, Ryan and I got ready, and I dragged him out of the house kicking and screaming, loaded up the van with our cooler and bags, and off we went.

We didn't get very far.

When I put the van into drive, the van felt funny. I thought it was just because of the temperature changes, it was grumpy. It's an older van, and she's cranky in her old age.

We were driving down the road and were approaching a stop sign.

I started to brake. But I didn't slow down.

I was pushing really hard on the brakes and was able to get down to a coast, but couldn't stop.

My dashboard lit up like Christmas lights, "LOW BRAKE FLUID."

No, really? So very helpful.

Thankfully there hadn't been anyon one was at the intersection and I was able to do a turn around at one of the buildings at the corner. But I couldn't stop.

We slowly started making it back home, but the road we were on is hilly and the end of the road (right across from our house) is not a good intersection. We've witnessed many near accidents over the few years we've lived here, and have even had someone not stop at the intersection and run into our yard.

Let's just say it was the longest few minutes of driving I've had in a loooong time. I'm trying to not panic, and Ryan's freaking out because I made him get in the van to go shopping and then we turn around and head home. He was confused and very upset he wasn't getting his sucker at the bank.

We crawled to the stop sign, still unable to stop. We were blessed by having no cars coming, and we were able to get into our driveway, up the little hill, and finally stop.

I'm frustrated because my cupboards and fridge are still empty-ish, and I have little splatters of brake fluid all over my driveway. We'll now have to find time to fix the van and get groceries, and I'm not sure exactly when we'll have time to do that.

But we are home safe and sound. I'm so glad this happened down the road rather than in the parking garage on Monday, or even while we were out shopping where traffic is much heavier. What more can I ask for?

So off I go to get some jobs accomplished before babysitting kids arrive!


How's your day going? Hope it's a great one!

Friday

I had a Financial Friday post all ready to go....and Blogger ate it.

Instead of pouting, we'll switch it up this week and post five things I'm thankful for from this crazy week:

1) Rocking out with Nate to 'Rolling in the Deep' by Adele last night. This is also my favorite warm up song when I'm running on the treadmill.

2) Lots of hugs and kisses from Ryan this morning. He just says Momma needs extra love today :)

3) Feeling better and less dehydrated than yesterday. I'm not quite back to normal, but getting closer every day.

4) Snuggles with Paigey on Wednesday as we were miserable and sick together.

5) A husband who doesn't care that the dishes haven't been touched, laundry is backed up, the floors are sticky or toy covered, or that I haven't gotten out of pjs in two days, but still calls me beautiful and says he wouldn't trade me for anything.


What are you thankful for this week?

Recovering

Ahhh, feeling somewhat healthy again is a wonderful feeling.

Over the past couple weeks, Nate has had 2 stomach bugs (a 5 day one and a 24 hour one), Ryan had the 5 day bug, Pete and Paige had the 24 hour bug, and looking back over the past week, it looks like I either had the 5 day bug or the 24 hour bug twice.

Not fun.

In the past 24 hours I have lost 4 lbs. Now normally I'd be cheering about that, but in 24 hours? No thank you. I'm pretty dehydrated, so I'm weak and uncomfortable. I'm trying to push the fluids to get my system back to where it needs to be; I feel like my insides slosh as I walk around I've had so much water this morning.

The part I always hate about getting over the flu or a stomach bug is that when I finally start to feel better, my brain is all "YES! Let's clean and do this project and this project and clean out this closet and oh, can't forget about this project!" and my body's all "Umm...you want me to stand up? AND walk 10 feet to the bathroom? You're kidding, right?".

No matter what my brain might say, I've learned in the past to take it easy when recovering. There is a Calvin and Hobbes book by Bill Watterson called Scientific Progress Goes "Boink". We were huge fans of Calvin and Hobbes when I was growing up (still are, in fact), and whenever I was recovering from the flu, some sort of bug, or a high fever, I had a tendency of passing out. Since my initials used to be SP, I was dubbed 'Scientific Progress' by my parents, and passing out became 'boink'. I called my parents today, and both of them warned me to watch it, saying that Scientific Progress was not allowed to go boink today without severe consequences from Drs. Mom and Dad.

So telling my brain to be quiet has been quite a challenge today. My house has barely been cleaned let alone picked up in the past week or so that I've been out of commission, and when it's cluttered like this, I get crazy and almost panicky. I'm only trying to do jobs that I can sit while I work, like fold laundry, but it's tough. I want to clean, I want to wrestle with my kids, I want to get up off the couch and not have to watch another movie.

But for today, I must relax and take it easy. Again.

Oh, and be thankful that I have an appetite finally :)


Am I alone in my crazy recovery brain/body battle?

Thankfulness Days 14 - 20: Hello Busy Life!

Hi everyone :)

As always, it's been busy around here! But there have been many many reasons to be thankful...

Day 14: I have always lived in a village...moving to the country has been a big adjustment for me. I have to walk down the driveway to get the mail, there are no side walks, and we can only see 3 houses from our house. In fact, the neighbor to our left is a mile away!

But Wednesday I was glad we live where neighbors can't hear screaming. Paigey was supposed to be cleaning up her room, and after procrastinating for an hour, she came out and said her finger was bleeding. I bent down to look at it, and she pulled away and began screaming like she was being tortured because she was afraid it was going to hurt. Long story short, Pete had to pin her down and I had to try to cut her hang nail off. About ten minutes later, I ended up having to pull it off so I didn't cut her, and she didn't even notice...she just kept screaming that it would hurt!

I am thankful we live in the middle of nowhere; if we had been in a village, I'm sure the police or child protective services would have been called!!!

Day 15: A year ago we adopted a dog. I didn't want a dog, but my husband and children wore me down. He's a cute little thing, but after our carbon monoxide leak, he's been going through separation anxiety/post traumatic stress disorder. Whenever he thinks we're leaving, he starts having tremors. When we leave him in his crate (which he has never had a problem with), he starts shrieking and whining. He's destroyed his blanket, his bed, his blanket covering his crate, one of Pete's shirts, the cat's blanket, the plastic tray at the bottom of his crate, part of one of our bed sheets and our comforter all while he's been locked up. How did he do all of this? He's been able to actually move his crate around until he reaches something to shred up. We've done some research into it and are working with him, and we're seeing a little improvement, but it's still stressful.

I am thankful for my dog; I hate the dark, and whenever I hear weird noises in the middle of the night, I know Mason's the first one to check it out. He's also very protective of us, and whenever we have someone come to fix something and Pete's not here, he stays between his family and the repair man. He's also entertaining with his tricks :)

Day 16: Friday was very very long. I was exhausted as Ryan was awake for part of the night, I had a heavy babysitting day, all the kids wanted to do was fight, I had a migraine, and lots of cleaning and cooking to do as we were having friends over that night for movie night.

I am thankful for coffee! It helped my migraine go away, and then kept me awake for the extended version of Lord of the Rings: Two Towers with some great friends and good food (3 kinds of pizza and 4 flavors of popcorn!).

Day 17: Our friends left just before midnight, and Pete and I went to bed. As soon as our heads hit the pillow, Ryan started crying. Pete got up with him, got him back to sleep, and came back to bed. Ryan started crying again, so Pete checked him again. We took turns doing this for a while, and then I noticed the dreaded hand holding the belly pose Ryan was striking. We ended up giving him an enema around 1, and got him back to bed a little bit later. We finally got to bed around 1:30, tired, stressed, and completely worn out.

I am thankful for kids playing quietly on Saturday mornings. They let us sleep until 8 and didn't damage anything or create a big mess! Pete let me stay in bed until 10, and I even got breakfast in bed, too.

Day 18: I have a bazillion projects on my to-do list that haven't been getting done lately. I haven't had time to work on them, and whenever I had time to get things done, laundry, cleaning, and paying bills had to be more important. With Christmas coming, my list grew exponentially as I'm making a lot of gifts again this year. Finding time to get things done has been stressing me out.

I am thankful for kids taking long naps/rests, and a husband being on kid duty. I was able to finish Ryan's apron, pot holder and oven mitt and his cape, all things he'll be getting for Christmas. Pictures will be coming soon! The apron, pot holder, and oven mitt are all made out of this fabric:

via fabric.com

Day 19: So many things to be thankful for on this day: my in-laws came over to watch the kids as I had parent teacher conferences to go to, I had great conferences with the teachers, and I finished another Christmas gift, this one is for my niece! It was a long day as Pete was gone 6:45 am - 8:30 pm, but we made it through without major difficulties :)

Day 20: Today was my only day babysitting all week, and it was for our buddy J, who is Nate's best friend. Nate was a wreck this morning; Paige even commented that it was weird that he was the cranky one and she was the happy one! Pete came home a little after 11, and it was nice having that extra set of hands and eyes with four kids in the house. It was a good day, tiring, but good :)

I am thankful for to things today: pie (the new school Pete works for gave out pies to all the teachers, and we had it after dinner), aaaaand......

...*drum roll*...

the final check for Pete's car went out in the mail today! We paid it off!!!!

WE'RE DEBT FREEEEEEEE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Well, except for the house...but we've completed Step 2 in Financial Peace University's baby steps, and after we buy a new mattress, we'll move on to Step 3 - 3-6 months living expenses saved up. We're aiming to have $10,000 saved by the end of June. I'm guessing we'll have about 3/4 of that (we have some saved already as our emergency fund), but who knows what the next few months will bring!


Thanksgiving is only a couple days away! What do you have to be thankful for?

Thankfulness Days 12 and 13: My Kids Are Growing Up...

You hear me complain frequently here that I hate the fact that my kids are growing up. I try to make the most of every moment with them (it doesn't always work!), but there are some great perks of them growing up that we've noticed the past couple days:

Their taste buds change! Paige has been a picky eater, but now she loves new things: hot peppers, beans, and squash to name a few! She even will eat salad now. The trick? She cuts the pieces of lettuce up really tiny! Apparently she didn't like it because she was always getting the dressing all over her face. Who knew?!?

NO MORE DIAPERS!!!!!!!!! This may be premature, but I think Ryan is potty trained! Five out of the past six nights Ryan has been dry! We have been accident free since Friday morning, and that was only because he was a split second too late getting to the potty when he woke up. My budget is breathing a sigh of relief :)

Nate is learning to tie his shoes! One less thing for this momma to take care of :)

But one of my favorite things? I get to redecorate the finished portion of our basement!

Right now it looks like this:

Okay, so not exactly like that. The spider web on the floor was for a preschool activity last month, and now there are toys all over the place...but you get the idea! It's a long narrow room, divided into a play area and then an office/sewing/library area in the back half. Our goal has been to start turning the play room part into a den area and game room when the kids started getting older.

The hardest part of the switch? Picking a color scheme!

We finally decided upon the winning colors this weekend. Here's the fabric which is our inspiration:

via fabric.com

This is going to be a few throw pillows on the couch and futon, and the walls will be a light gray.

We also picked up fabric for curtains, a pale and medium chevron pattern. We had a hard time deciding on fabric for the curtains! The ones we liked were almost $8/yard, and as we were going to need eight yards, there was no way we wanted to spend that kind of money. We went to a local fabric chain store this weekend, and not only did we find the perfect fabric, but it was on sale for $3.49/yard! Less than $30 later, we had our fabric :) We'll be hanging curtain panels between the play room and office area, as well as new curtain panels for our craft and game closet (you can barely see the current curtains in the bottom right hand picture of our play room now).

We're also going to have solid color pillows in coordinating colors, plus a red and white chevron pillow for Miss Paige; she wanted red, white and gray as the color scheme, but the rest of our family voted for the winning color scheme.

A throw rug may also show up at some time as well, but we haven't decided on which color to go with.

One one of the walls, we're planning on doing this with thrift store frames:

via Living Well Spending Less

The frames will be spray painted in the red, turquoise, and dark gray or black colors. The kids can't wait to have their art work on display, and this momma can't wait to have art work that is easy to switch! We'll devote a big portion of one wall to this.

Eventually we'd love to change the flooring and add more lighting; there are only two ceiling lights, and one works half the time. We'll probably get a couple floor lamps for now if we can find them cheaply. We also have a foosball/ping pong/air hockey table that will end up in there, but the kids aren't quite ready to give up all the floor space yet!

Planning this is hard because it means my kids are growing up, but exciting as this is the one room where I feel like I can really show off my spunky side in my decorating and not have Pete cringe (he's the one who found the curtain fabric!). We hope that the colors will be able to grow with them, and that this will really be a room we'll all enjoy for years to come. We want the kids to have a fun space to have friends come over and hang out.


What do you have to be thankful for today?

Thankfulness Day 11: Being Responsible is Hard...

Back in August we wrote about our financial goals for the year, and let me just say it hasn't been as easy to stay on track as I thought!

We might be able to get the car paid off by Thanksgiving as originally planned. We had to replace the water softener system in our house, which set us back by a few thousand dollars.

We don't think we'll be able to get our camera by our planned date either. This time it's us choosing our priorities. Our mattress is really old, and Pete and I are so stiff, sore, and exhausted from sleeping on it. After lots of talking, we decided that our sleep and well being has to come in front of a camera, even if we miss out on getting some great pictures of family memories.

This decision was really hard for me; I feel like we've missed out on a lot of family moments because the camera is just not working very well. Our Halloween pictures came out extremely dark, and other things have come out blurry. But being rested has to be important, too, right?

Yesterday we went and looked at mattresses at two local stores. We found one we liked at one store for $600, and one that we loved at the other store for $2000.

Would we love to buy the $2000 one? Yes.

Could we get a mattress and the camera now? Yes, we definitely have the money for both things.

Are we going to get the $2000 mattress? Unfortunately, no.

Are we going to get both the mattress and camera now? Again, no.

We are soooo close to being debt free (minus the mortgage). We were debt free earlier this year, but then jumped right back into debt because we found something we just had to have right then and there. We don't want to do that again!

We do have the money in our account to buy both mattress and camera, but at what cost? All of our savings would be tapped. Money would be really tight, and we'd have to cut funds to some other areas of our budget, like food. Am I really willing to let myself or my children go hungry so I can have all my wants right now? That would be a big fat No.

Am I bummed? Definitely.

Am I being responsible? Yes...but it's not easy!

Day #11: I am thankful that Pete and I took Dave Ramsey's Financial Peace University, and know when to make those hard choices; even though they're not easy to make, it will benefit our family in the long run.

Oh, and I'm thankful for flexible financial goals too :)


Have you had to make any hard financial decisions lately?

Thankfulness Days 6 - 10: What a Week!

This past week has been long, tiring, and has used up a lot of our patience. There was one night where I didn't get more than 4 hours of sleep, a morning where the kids and I were yelling at each other, and 5 long days of waiting.

All of this because of a glass rock.

If you have kids, you can probably see where this is going, especially if your kids liked to put things in their mouth...

It started Tuesday morning. Our alarm went off, and we heard the kids playing in Paigey's room. They were giggling, so we didn't think anything of it and started about our morning routine.

That's when the screaming started...

Pete ran into Paige's room, and I joined him a minute later. Paige and Nate were yelling at each other, and Ryan was hysterical. Pete couldn't make heads or tails of it, so I sent him off to get ready for work. I got them calmed down as best as I could, and then Paige and Nate start blaming each other. I can't make sense of it either, but then I notice some glass rocks scattered on Paige's floor. Paige said Ryan ate one, that Nate told him it was candy and made him eat it. Nate said Paige told Ryan to eat it too, and she's the one who pulled down the rocks (they were in a vase on a shelf that holds silk flowers). I called them both idiots, grabbed Ryan, and took him to our room where we cried. All I could picture was Ryan at the hospital in the middle of a surgery room with doctors trying to get this rock out. I was mad at the older kids, as they should have known better.

Day #6: I'm thankful that Paige and Nate go to school...if they hadn't gone to school, I probably would have taken my frustration out on them even more. And yes, I apologized for calling them idiots!

So the doctor assured me on Tuesday that he should pass the rock; it's small enough, smooth and round that there shouldn't be a problem. It'd come out in a day or two, and unless he stopped eating and pooping or started vomiting or acting funny, we'd be okay. That night Ryan woke up at midnight and cried for almost 2 hours. It wasn't bad enough that we felt like we had to rush him to the ER, but still enough I thought it might be necessary. When I started to get ready to pack up, he stopped his crying. We think the rock was going from the stomach to the intestines, and it was uncomfortable for him. He refused to leave my side, so we tossed and turned on the couch for the rest of the night.

Wednesday morning I was exhausted. As soon as the kids left for school, I remembered I had to make cookies for a church dinner that night. I had to get menus and grocery lists together, find all the checks for the bank deposit, go grocery shopping and be home by 11:30 for a lunch date I had with a friend of mine, which I was hosting, aka I had to pick up the house (couldn't have her 1 year old swallowing something, too!) and make lunch. I was also babysitting kids after school until after 5, then plan preschool, eat dinner at church, and have Pete's brother come over for game night.

I was ready to throw the towel in by 8 am, but made it through in one piece...barely! For Day #7, I was thankful I didn't have to make dinner, that I could just go to church and have it served to me and relax.

Thursday and Friday blended together. It was filled with feeding prunes to Ryan at every meal, and waiting. Lots and lots of waiting. Thankfully he pooped both afternoons with no trouble (which, as you probably know, is not a normal thing for him!). But no rock...and digging through poop is not something I enjoyed doing!

Day #8: I'm thankful Ryan loves prunes! He likes them almost as much as candy.
Day #9: I'm thankful Ryan's pooping and that soon I would not have to dig through it anymore....

And then today. The day we'd been waiting for: we were expecting to find that rock today!!!! Pete got up, made breakfast, and I stayed in bed to try and catch up on sleep (didn't happen; Paige and Nate were at each other's throats...and as we live in a ranch house, if there's yelling anywhere, you'll hear it...). After breakfast, Paige makes an announcement:

"Oh! Ryan pooped again this morning! And I cleaned it up so you guys wouldn't have to!!!!"

NOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! Of all the poops she has to clean up, it had to be that one. Don't get me wrong, I love that she was thinking of us and being proactive. That's something she sometimes struggles with, and we did thank her and tell her we appreciated her efforts.

However, we may never know if he passed that rock or not. We're assuming he did, so we're all breathing a sigh of relief. Paige and Nate feel awful, and have been really concerned about their little brother. Ryan's been really conscious of what he did and what goes in his mouth now. We used glass rocks to weigh down a preschool project we were gluing on Thursday, and he was panicking! He was afraid someone else would eat them, so he was yelling "NO CANDY!!! NO EAT!!! Make belly hurt! No candy!!!!"

Day #10: I'm thankful that Ryan *hopefully* passed the rock!!!!


Have you or your child ever eaten anything they shouldn't have?

Thankfulness Day 5: My Babysitting Moms

I have four families that I babysit for on a regular basis, and three of these families there has been an 'incident' with one of their kids under my watch that hasn't been very good.

Now, before you start calling Child Protective Services on me, understand a couple things:

1) I take care of these kids as if they were my very own.

2) Accidents happen, especially with kids.

3) I do the best I can to keep all the kids safe and away from harm at every opportunity.

Thankfully the moms (I say moms because they are usually the ones dropping off or picking their kids up) understand this.

Family #1 was the first family I babysat for, and they are friends of ours from church. It happened as an emergency situation; there had been a huge problem at the daycare they had been with and needed to find someone immediately to finish out the school year. Their child was 2, and both parents were teachers. Everything was going great...then the child was bit by a rabid raccoon in my care. I did everything I could to keep the child protected, even put myself between the two, but he was bit regardless of my efforts. His parents were amazingly calm (I say amazingly as this happened only a few short days after their second child was born), and not only did it strengthen our relationship, but I continued babysitting for them, and am in my third year of caring for their children.

Family #2 was a family that I didn't know at all. They were referred to me by a mutual friend, so we barely knew anything about each other. My very first week watching their kids, their oldest fell down our basement stairs and crashed into the wall at the bottom of the stairs minutes before they were scheduled to be picked up. He was shaken up, but okay. It wasn't easy telling their mom what happened when she arrived! She was extremely understanding, and I'm in my fourth year of watching their kids :)

Family #3 is also one I didn't know very much. The mom is a teacher at school, and her sister had been babysitting their daughter. Then the sister moved south, leaving them without a babysitter. It was literally days before the school year started last year that I signed on as the babysitter, and we made it through the year incident free. This is my second year babysitting for them, and past week has been a different story; last week I almost dropped their almost 4 month old by tripping over a toy, and I scratched his face and drew a little blood. Then their 2 year old was fine in the morning on Friday, then had explosive diarrhea (all over my bed...) during nap time, but was fine after I called her mom to come get her. Then today I almost dropped the baby again (I tripped over the cat and the dog, then the bouncy seat in which I really hurt my ankle), but he barely even noticed. Then the older child broke out in random hives after nap today (she's fine now, thank you Benadryl!).

So I was feeling like a crappy babysitter today with everything that went on in the past week with Family #3, which then brought back memories of the other incidents with the other families. For some reason, if something happens with my kids that they get hurt or sick, I'm not so hard on myself. I know I'm doing the best I can, but I can only protect them to a certain extent. But with babysitting kids, if anything happens to them, I feel awful. Almost like I'm incapable of keeping anyone safe. I know, I know, I'm too hard on myself. I just want to do the best I can, and when things go wrong I feel like a failure.


Today I am very thankful for the mothers of my babysitting kids. They trust me completely with their kids, and even when things go wrong, they are understanding and assure me that accidents happen. I have a great group of families I work with, and am so blessed by spending time with each and every one of their children.


What are you thankful for today?

Thankfulness Day 4: Grumpy Children

If you have kids, know kids, or have seen kids at any point in your life, you know that they fight. They fight with each other, with their parents, people in authority...actually, they'll fight with pretty much anything. Paige has even been known to yell at things that she walks into (she's a klutz, just like her momma!).

My three have been particularly testy lately. They won't obey, think of others, or even say anything nice about anyone or anything.

And it's been driving me nuts.

I've been struggling, trying to find the silver lining to this problem, and I hadn't thought of anything that could be good about them fighting over everything all the time.

Until yesterday, when they all just blew me away!

We'll start with Paigey. She was sitting at the table working on a school project. Ryan climbed up in the chair next to her and tried to help. She kept yelling at him, and moved all her supplies farther and farther out of Ry's reach. He ended up standing up and leaning to get them, but ended up slipping and falling head first onto the floor (he's okay!!!!!). Paige was crying and crying, and we thought she was just mad because he was bothering her, but come to find out it was because her leg and foot hurt. When we asked her why it hurt, she said:

"I tried to catch Ryan with my leg...I couldn't get my arms over fast enough, but my leg was there so I tried using that...and he fell on it."

Later she was eating some Sugar Babies for a special treat from her Halloween bag, and after she ate a few, she handed me the bag to finish. I asked her why, and she then said:

"I know you love them too, Mom, and there's only one bag. I thought I'd share with you!"

Nate has been exhausted lately, which means he's a ball of noisy energy that is completely out of control at all most times. Getting him to sit still has been a challenge, even for meal time. Last night I was sitting on the floor with Ry, and he was running circles around us, but stopped long enough to give me a hug and rub my shoulders :)

Ry is smack dab in the middle of the terrible twos. You never know what he's going to do next. I was working on a very time consuming, labor intensive, detailed Christmas present last night (it's the only way it'll get done in time!), and there are lots of little parts to it. Ryan came over last night, and he looooves to destroy things, so I began to panic. But instead, he asks if he can help, and he helped me choose parts, helped lay them out, and was really encouraging about the whole project.

It was just really encouraging to see yesterday that the kids really are listening to what we say (share, think of others, protect them), and thinking about others. We didn't want to send them to bed last night, but wanted to spend more time with them. However, they missed nap time as we were at Pete's parent's house fixing our car (Pete hit a raccoon last week, so he was just putting his fog light back in), and they needed their sleep.

I'm thankful for grumpy children...because it helps me to appreciate the good moments even more <3


Are you experiencing a frustrating situation that is hard to be thankful for?

Thankfulness Day 3: Windshield Wipers!

I love snow. I can't think of anything more beautiful than big fluffy flakes falling gently down, snow covered trees, or a freshly made snowman in a front yard. I get excited every year when it snows...

Our side yard, February 2012

...unless it starts snowing in November (or earlier, eek!). Snow makes me want to get into the Christmas spirit, but I hate neglecting Thanksgiving! In a perfect world I would have it start snowing the day after Thanksgiving, and be gone on December 26th. And it would never snow on side walks, driveways, or roads. I don't ask for much, do I?

Well, it started snowing here yesterday. At first I thought I was seeing things, but then the kids all saw it as well, and they got all excited. It was the fine flakes for awhile, but then it was the big, fluffy white flakes that I adore. It went back to the fine flakes later, and then stopped. Yay! I thought we were done for awhile, but alas, it was not meant to be.

The boys' snowman, February 2012

This morning, being the first Saturday of the month, was prayer breakfast day for our church. The men meet at our church, and the women meet at my mother-in-law's house. Pete's been the head cook for the men's breakfast for a couple months as his dad recovers from breaking his leg in a motorcycle accident, so he and the boys left the house around 7. Paigey and I left around 7:30 and found snow on the steps, railings, and car.

Groaning to myself, we get to the car, I turn it on to start warming up, and go to get the snow brush.

And there is no snow brush in the car.

View from our back deck, February 2012

I moan and groan some more, and turn on the wipers. And they turn on right away, but the snow is frozen to the windshield, so the wipers are basically useless.

After blasting the heat, the ice melts enough so the snow and ice can come off. The wipers had to stay on for most of the trip to and from prayer breakfast as it was snowing again. I'm still complaining about the snow, when a voice from the back seat says:

"At least the wipers are working, right Mom?"


Ouch. A seven year old gets it, but I definitely didn't. I've driven many times with wipers that either weren't working quite right or the blades made more of a mess than I had to begin with...

So today I am very thankful for great windshield wipers!


What's the silver lining in your cloud today?

Thankfulness Day 2: Zzzzz....

Fridays are my hardest day babysitting: I have the most kids, and we are all ready for the weekend! It's lots of cranky people crammed into a tiny space (I block off all but 3 rooms for them), and it's just nuts.

Normally I can keep them well entertained and happy by playing with them...but not today. It's been fighting and whining and pushing and yelling. A bunch of stressed out kids + one stressed out babysitter = not a super fun day.

Okay, so I take that back. They were calm when they were watching the snow fall...but that only lasted for a minute or so until they realized I wasn't going to let them go out and play in it.

So today I am very very thankful for my dear friend, Nap Time, especially when all the kids go down for naps early, and even better yet, at the same time!

Ryan napping in his favorite place: the hallway!

Now off to enjoy the remaining bit of quiet time I have before kids start to wake up....


What are you thankful for today?

Thankfulness Day 1: Yay For Poop?

Happy November, everyone!

As many of you have probably seen, there is a challenge on Facebook where you post once a day something you are thankful for during the month of November. I meant to do it last year, but time slipped away from me and it didn't get completed. I'll be trying it this year on the blog for two reasons:

1. I want to get posting more often, and I think this will be a great way to get me into the habit.
2. I'm going to be taking a story from that day that stressed me out, and try to find something in that situation to be thankful for. You know, the silver lining in every cloud kinda thing :)

So today's thing to be thankful for: Ryan pooped.

You may remember from an earlier post that Ryan had a few rough months where that just didn't happen on a regular basis, and Mr. Enema had to come and help him out often. He's back on a regular schedule (thank you, God!), and has no problem even going on his own.

Which brings me to today's story. I was making Ryan's lunch, and he said he had to go poop. Yay! So he runs into the bathroom, and a minute later I hear the toilet flush...and then flush again almost immediately.

And then there was a splash of water.

I race into the bathroom, and water and poop are EVERYWHERE.

Not only did Ryan poop, but it was big enough to clog the toilet. When it didn't flush down right away, Ry flushed again, causing it to overflow.

How in the world could someone so small create so much poop?!?!?

Lucky me got to clean up the toilet, garbage can, potty chair (which we're weaning him off of, yay!), rug, and floor all why trying to keep a 2 year old out of the mess. As I was grumbling about it, I was reminded that a few short months ago I was praying for Ryan to poop, no matter how it happened, I just didn't want to see him in pain any more. And here he is, pooping on his own, and I'm frustrated and mad because it got on the floor.

Talk about a wake up call for this ungrateful Mommy.

I quickly cleaned up, washed myself off, and then snuggled my boy and told him how proud of him I was that he is going potty all by himself now. He felt bad about the mess, but it's really okay. He's not in pain, and although it's gross, it can be cleaned up.

And on that note, this momma needs a shower!


What are you thankful for today?