I like Sarah Palin...

Just finished watching Sarah Palin's acceptance speech for VP on the web. Funny, funny, funny! She has spunk. My favorite part is when her youngest daughter (is she about 6 or 7?) was holding Sarah's 4 month old and right in front of the camera, licked her whole hand and proceeded to smooth down his hair. (the girl did this, not Sarah.)

I wasn't really behind McCain as I disagree with a lot of things he believes in but with Sarah Palin on the ticket, I am a little more excited!

We did it!

Well we made it last week on $7.00 and we ate well. By Sunday night I had to get creative with the meal but it was still good. The best thing was we didn't use our credit card although it was tempting. I can't wait to get 6 mth emergency fund going and we will cut up the card!

More Graedon!

Grae fell down on his bottom the other day and I heard him say "Ouch, I hurt my feelings."

We were talking about tatoos and how one of my relatives has one. Grae didn't think this was a good idea and told me the God had a pressure washer and could wash it off. He has a thing for pressure washers ever since he saw Brian washing the house.

Molly is 14 mths old and is starting to say some words we can actually recognize! She says: Daddy, bye, cracker, snack, na-na (for nursing), ama (when she want's something), Mama, Ellie, Aba (Ava), Grae-Grae, baby, cheers (we touch cups together), nana (banana), gookie (cookie), Tin-Tin (for the book), Gah (God), ay-n (amen), mm-mm (food) and more I'm sure. I love this age!

We are over halfway done painting the house and it's only the weather that is stopping us. Either it's too hot to paint or raining. I can't wait until it's over.

Well, I'm off to make dinner now. My least favorite chore of the day. Maybe I can convince one of the girls to do it. We'll see.

Can't think of a title.

Hey, I checked our online banking and we have $6.21 to last us until Monday's paycheck. Woohoo! Brian said he had $7.00 in his wallet so that should buy us milk until then. Oh we do need salt too. I didn't know how hard it was to live without salt. I have low blood pressure and salt helps keep the dizziness away.

Anyway, back to sewing. I have some diapers and wool covers selling tomorrow here...if you want to check them out.

Oh happy day!!!

This is paid off today!! I put every available penny toward it and paid it off in 1 and 1/2 years. What a relief. Praise God we are out of debt except the student loan. That will be paid off next and then we'll start saving 6 months salary. Yay for the Dave Ramsey plan!

Hey, it's July!

Wow, it's July and my last blog post was June, oops. This will probably be a totally random blog post as I'll just type as I think.


First, Molly is walking! There's nothing cuter than a baby walking with their hands up in the air for balance, a big smile on their face and a staggering step. She loves this new freedom. She thinks she's quite the big girl! I do have a video of her first steps and maybe I'll get that posted later.

Graedon is such a good boy. Just yesterday I gave him a pop tart (I know but they were on sale) and I reached back in the package to give Ellie one. I turned to hand it to Ellie when I noticed that Grae had split his in half and gave one half to Ellie. So sweet. Molly has a runny nose right now and I was looking for a "snot" rag. Grae piped up, "I have one." He got it out and wiped Molly's nose for me!

He is sure to tell us if a boy hits one of his sisters, he will protect them and hit the boy and tell him to leave his sister alone. That's my boy! However he does embellish the story sometimes and tells me that he will have a flaming pirate sword and will run after the bad boy.

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On a completely unrelated note, what's up with this? I admit that I think sposies are gross now but this is one of the most disgusting things I have seen. You change the pad at the back but leave the diaper on. Pampers claims that the moisture is pulled to the back leaving the front stay dry. How? Magic? There has to be some urine soaked in the front. I'm going to buy some stock in Desitin as this is sure to give babies/toddlers even more diaper rash. Do you know that ever since Molly has been in cloth, she has not had one diaper rash? I'm sure it's because her skin can breathe in the cotton or bamboo and we change her right after she wets.

Anyway, they are trying to promote this as a quick thing to do. Hey you don't even have to look or interact with your child to change their diapers. Wohoo! I don't know about you and your baby but Molly and I have fun at diaper changes. I sing to her, play short games and give her lots of kisses. Okay, done with that rant. ;)

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We've been having fun in school lately. I really enjoy teaching the girls. (we do school year round so no summer break). Our science curriculum is really good. It's Apologia and the Exploring Creation series. Very comprehensive but understandable. I love doing the experiments with the girls. The best thing is that it acknowledges God as creator. Very important to us as we do not seek to seperate God from our studies. That would be impossible as God made 2+2=4, as well as ordered history, made all things, created language, laws of science, etc.

I'm going to be adding an art series to our school program but I need to find a time to squeeze it in. The following may not seem like a lot but it takes all morning to get through. We don't do these all on the same day.

Right now we're doing (with links):
Saxon math 65 (Maddie and Ava)
Saxon 76 (Lauren)
Student Writing Intensive Group B (Lauren, Maddie, Ava)
Exploring Astronomy (Maddie & Ava)
Apologia General Science (Lauren)
Proverbs study (Lauren, Maddie, Ava)
Catechisms (all kids)
Veritas Press History: Ancient Greece and Rome
Beginning reading/writing (Ellie)
Mavis Beacon Teaches Typing (Lauren, Maddie, Ava)

Will be adding back Shurley Grammar 7
Lauren will be starting Traditional Logic

We just finished a world geography course and will be adding in a poetry course. There is so much more that I want to do but it's so hard with Grae, Ellie and Molly awake and roaming the house, lol.

Okay so this post was totally random and I've had to get up 4 times to tell the girls to be quiet so Grae can sleep. Off to make Bri and I some dinner or at least to dish up the low carb cheesecake ;)

Oh my...

So my last post was about how we just got over head colds and then we were hit with the stomach flu. Monday night Brian complained of his stomach hurting and within a few hours Maddie and Lauren were throwing up. The next day was Ellie's turn followed by Graedon, Molly and Ava. I was feeling pretty proud that I didn't get it when Thursday came along and I got it.

The funny (or not so funny) thing is about 20 families in our church got the same thing at the same time. Thankfully the bug is short lived and we're all feeling much better. I lost 2.5 pounds in 1 day! Not a great way to lose weight and I'm sure it will come back when I feel up to eating.

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On another note, in an effort to remember the cute things my children say, here's one by Graedon.

We were watching the Pirates of Penzance again and the song was "how pitiful his tale, how rare his beauty...." in reference to a particularly handsome pirate with a sad story. This is repeated several times.

Graedon turned to me and said "Mommy?".

"Yes."

"Pirates don't have tails."

I had to stop and think for a moment and then agreed with him. I'm sure he didn't understand what I found so funny.

Cute shoes, oh my

Just had to rave about a website, Gumshoe.com. I ordered from them last week and got my order super quick. Grae has been wanting Crocs so since they offered a 20% coupon and free shipping, I jumped at the chance.

Turns out his feet grew overnight and they are too small. (we tried them on at REI last week and they fit fine). Anyway, I emailed them to find out how to exhange them and not only did they get back to me rather quickly but offered to send me the crocs now. I'll be shopping there again I'm sure. They have the cutest UMI shoes for Miss Molly ;)

Ouch that hurt...

A few days ago I hurt my elbow. Oh man did I hurt it! I was carrying a huge load of laundry in one arm and Molly in the other. As I flew through the bedroom door I banged my elbow on the door jam. Immediately pain filled my arm and I thought I was going to pass out. I quickly threw Molly in her crib, dumped the laundry and myself on the bed.

You know when you hurt yourself and the only thing that will make it better is to scream? Well I grabbed a pillow and screamed into it. Molly thought this was funny and she was grabbing all of her wool longies and throwing them at me.

After awhile I didn't feel like dying anymore but my arm wouldn't bend well. I knew I hadn't broke it but it was sore. I figured I had just bruised it. Brian came home a couple of hours later and gave me some Tylenol (because I never think of those things). If I didn't move my arm, it would go slightly numb but feel okay. Finally I just had to pop my elbow. I'm a knuckle, neck and elbow popper. So I popped it and then took my wrist and pulled while turning. Suddenly I heard a pop and I could move my arm. It was still sore but mobile.

I banged my elbow so hard I gave myself nursemaid's elbow!

Now I'm sporting quite the bruise and when I forget to be careful, I bang it into many things. This results in a loud "ouch!".

Moral of the story - don't do laundry. Well I wouldn't go so far as that. Don't attempt to put away your laundry. Adopt a "floordrobe" philosophy. ;)

that kind of day...

phone rings...

"Hello."

Brian: "Hey, how's your day going?"

Me: "Do you want to get a vasectomy tomorrow?"

Brian: "That good, huh?"

Me: "Yep."

We're changing...

I thought I would list the things we have done to change our lifestyle in the last year. It will be fun to look back on it and see if we still feel the same way we do today.

As I've said before, we don't buy into all the "global warming" stuff but we do think that we need to care about the environment God gave us. His creation is worth taking care of well.

So we're changing the way we use and dispose of products. We're changing what we eat and finding out where it comes from. We're thinking about where we spend our money and more about what we buy. We're looking at ingredients in some of the products we use and promptly getting rid of them. You could call us crunchy (or Crunchy Conservatives as this book calls us but we just want to live healthier and more compassionately.

Now to the list. Things we changed.
1. Cloth diapering. I sat down and figured out how much money we've saved since we started. I've spent about $250 for diapers/covers. I do 3 loads of laundry a week at a cost of $.25 a load (I'm not totally sure of this figure but it's the best I could come up with). Approx cost for 7 mths = $271. Works out to $39.00 a month but she won't outgrow these diapers for at least another 6 mths. So assuming she lasts 1 year in the current stash that would mean: $24 a month.

If we had been using disposables the cost would have been more. We used Pampers because I didn't like the fit of the cheap ones. So about $.30 per diaper and average 7 diapers a day. I'm sure you could change less but yuck. Would you want to sit in your own urine for hours at a time?. Anyway, that works out to $2.10 a day x 30 days = $63.00 a month. We would have to get the bigger garbage pick up so that would be $15 more a month. Total: $78 a month.

Obviously we're not cloth diapering just to save money but I don't like to think about all the diapers we threw from previous kids.

2. Using reusable bags. This is so easy. Almost any store (including Home Depot) offers reusable bags. We bring them everywhere including Joanns, Costco, Home Depot and Goodwill. The cashiers don't bat an eye.

3. Using natural cleaners/soap. I've been hating the smell of Lysol, Scrubbing Bubbles, etc and found some great natural cleaners. My favorites are Mrs. Myers, Bio-Kleen and Bare Naked Cleaners (she's a wahm). I've found some moms that make some great soap and ordered a bunch. This isn't too much more expensive then the regular cleaners. They smell great and they are all natural. We also use vinegar as fabric softener and baking soda to clean.

4. Buying free range and local meats. Now this is expensive so we have to limit how much meat we eat but it's worth it. We have starting buying meats from New Season's. They offer free-range, grass fed, Oregon meats. They taste soooo good. I'm looking into buying half a cow so the cost won't be so high. We're also going to order chickens from Deo Volente Farms (the family goes to our church). I've tasted some of that chicken meat and wow! I didn't know chicken could taste so good. We're buying local brown eggs and trying to find a dairy that will sell us milk. In the meantime we're making sure that the milk has no hormones. We're also trying to buy local produce and we'll be growing our own this summer.

5. Throwing out the plastic cup and plates and moving to glass. I had no idea that some plastics were bad for us, especially when heated up. I'm looking for a sippy cup for Molly that doesn't contain bpa's but haven't found one I like yet.

6. Going to antique stores and Goodwill and buying stuff there. Why go to Target and get something new when you can find something similar that needs a new home? It is so fun to discover something you've been wanting for $2.99 instead of $20. Plus it won't have to go to the dump/landfills.

I'm sure there are other things we're doing but I don't have the time to list anymore as Molly just woke up. So I'll leave it at that.

ETA: We also try to buy only high quality items instead of getting the cheapest one we can find. Most of the time that means that we just have to wait longer to get something (we only pay cash for things now). Not only does this mean we don't have to replace the cheap items all the time, but it keeps them out of the landfill.

Oh and we compost our table scraps for our garden.

Have you done anything differently than you were doing years ago?

Randomness

Lauren was up sick last night so she, Molly and I stayed home from church. It was a relaxing & quiet day. We watched the first Lord of the Rings movie and I did some wool interlock dyeing (oh and some low water immersion bamboo velour dyeing).

When Molly went down for her afternoon nap we popped in Gone with the Wind. (I know, I know but we don't have a lot of movies to choose from and we watched Pride and Prejudice the last time we stayed home.) Lauren had never seen it nor read the book. When I was 13, I spent the summer reading Gone with the Wind. I read it 11 times and it's a long book! It isn't a particularly wholesome book but Scarlet does provide a good example of the kind of women not to be. By contrast Melanie is the "good" one. She's a little too trusting but is full of love. Anyway, we didn't finish it before the my little troops stormed into the house from church and demanded my attention.

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Tomorrow is an exciting and expensive day for us. We're getting a new gas hot water heater installed. The one we have now is electric and about 15 years old. I would estimate it costs us over $70 a month to use based on our current electric bill. The new one is supposed to only run about $20. Hope so! I've been doing laundry like a mad women so our mud room looks okay and the guy can actually move around without stepping on someones dirty underwear.

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My 34th birthday is at the end of this month and the only thing I asked for is a day without kids. ;) My backup idea was to not have to cook dinner or make my own cake. The girls agreed and I can't wait!

Graedon asked me what I wanted for my "birfday" and I told him taco salad.

He said, "No, what do you want?". I said I wanted cheesecake.

Apparently that didn't please him because he asked again. This time I told him a purple shirt.

"Oh okay," he said. "You want a purple pirate shirt?" I thought it was a question but I was mistaken.

"No, just a purple shirt," I said.

"No, you want a purple pirate maid shirt. You do."

"Okay." I agreed.

"Yes, okay." he said. I'm glad I finally got it.

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Brian's 40th birthday is coming up in April and we're having a party for him. I think since we want to invite so many people, that we'll have an open house style party. That way our friends can show up when they want. I'll just have food out all day to snack on. That reminds me, I had better start sending out invites. Maddie thought of a good idea for some presents for him but I can't share as he reads the blog.

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Well off to take another load of laundry out of the dryer. I'm secretly hoping that our washer and dryer break so we'll be forced to get some new ones. We actually have a tax refund coming for the first time in 4 years but we've already spent it (in our heads) about 3 times over. In reality it will go into savings to pay for exterior paint for our house, oh and a new porch, and a new front door, and....

Back from the dead..

Well, it looks like we'll live. I wasn't so sure a few days ago. This virus is nasty and we're still pretty tired from it. In fact, around lunch time I gave Molly to Lauren because my eyes were burning. I laid on the couch and 20 minutes later woke up. Oops! I actually got the sewing machine out and worked on making diapers while the girls watched Pirates of Penzance. Have you seen that movie? Totally cheesy but enjoyable.


A sign we need to go to Disneyland? Is God using chocolate chips to tell us something? The only way we would get to Disneyland is if someone gave us some money as all of ours is currently spoken for.

The weather is starting to warm up and sometimes we see sun. With the nicer weather comes the familiar pull of home renovation. Currently I'm working on painting our tv stand, recovering some lamp shades, making school room curtains, recovering the school room chairs & peg boards and trying to save some money for a new school room rug. We're going to go with the Flor system as you can wash each square fabric tile and put it back down.


I'm also working on expanding my diaper sewing business. I've had 3 offers from stores that want to carry my products and everytime I list some on Hyena Cart, they sell out in less than a minute. My friend Bev is sewing some diapers for me and I asked another lady from my church to help out as well. Then I got sick and everything came to a halt. But since I care about life again, back to work, lol. Brian has all these crazy ideas about what I need to do, but he always does, and I largely ignore them. Not being disrespectful here, I promise. It's just when you live with an idea guy, you can't possibly implement them all. I take the good ones and just nod politely to the rest.

Anyway, Molly is trying her best to eat every single thing off the floor so I better go vacuum her mouth out. I'm kidding. Well sort of, I should probably see what's in there though.

So so very sick

I'm tired of us all being sick with this flu. I'm on my 5th day of a fever. Molly, Ellie, Graedon and I each have a fever today. Not to mention runny noses and hacking coughs. Brian has it too. Ava, Maddie and Lauren are over it.

We've been eating bread, cheese and whatever else we can scrounge up as no one has the energy to make anything. We all want a home cooked meal, something cheesy and comforting. But we have hardly any ingredients to make it and no engery to go the store. Brian is picking up something to eat for us on the way home.

I wish there was a store that sold comfort food or hot soup that tasted homemade for time like these! Anyway, Molly is down for a nap now so I've got to get some more laundry done, although I just want to curl up and take a nap myself ;)

Sometimes I struggle...

I noticed that lately when I sit around on the floor and watch my kids play, I feel a slight resentment. Like I should be doing something better with my life. Like I'm just wasting time and could be doing the laundry, sewing, working on my websites.

I didn't feel this way when my first 3 were small. I sat around with them and played and didn't think twice about it. I also didn't have 3 business to run, a house to clean and homeschooling to do.

Nevertheless, I tell myself that I'm a stay at home mom for a reason. I don't want someone else raising my kids. I don't want to miss the firsts. I would miss my kids and do enjoy being around them all day (for the most part). They are so creative and make me so proud everyday. But I also feel happy to have my businesses. To chat with other moms with the same interests and feel like I'm providing some great services, whether to help spotlight work at home children's clothing designers or make some super squishy diapers, it's important to me.

I guess I just need to focus on the fact that my kids are only small for such a short time and I want to enjoy them. To not get upset when I'm laying on the floor and they are crawling and jumping all over me and I have other "work" to do. To stop and watch the beautiful children God gave me. I know I will want these days back when they are all grown up.

So there...my struggle put into words. I already feel better and ready to face tomorrow. I hope it's sunny and we can go for a walk together. Who cares about the laundry ;) it won't go anywhere.

13 years ago...

I married the man of my dreams (yes you!). We spent this 13th anniversary cleaning up vomit from a 4 year old and trying to figure out why Molly went on a nursing strike (14 hours without eating, ouch). No chocolates, no flowers or jewelry were exchanged but moulding was put up in the school room. I couldn't ask for a better present than your time. Thank you for being an excellent father to our children and a loving, patient and serving husband to me. I don't say it often enough, but I love you.

Easy way to save & earn $$$

I try to use Ebates when I make online purchases. Ebates gives you cash back on all your online orders. Sometimes they even offer special coupons you can use.

For example, I just ordered a Britax car seat for Graedon. I went to Ebates first, searched for Baby Universe (the place I wanted to buy the carseat from) and clicked the link. Baby Universe offered 4% back through Ebates. The 4% will show up in my Ebates account and then Ebates will send me a check or paypal.

Anyway, the carseat was originally $299 but was on sale for $224. I then found a coupon for $20.00 off and the seat had free shipping. So total price was $204.00. Baby Universe gave me $9.00 back in my Ebates account. So I actually paid $195 for a $299 carseat! Not bad at all for one of the best carseats out there!

I just found out that Ebates is offering a special holiday bonus sign up. You can get $10.00 in your Ebates account for signing up and then making one purchase through them. Oh and I also get $10.00! Yippee! Oh the offer expires on December 31 so you need to get your purchase in by then.

Here is the super special link:
Click here!!! My email address for the referrer box is amyshearer @ alittlebusy.com (take out the spaces)

Hope this can help you some as you're searching around buying Christmas presents.

Thanksgiving...

Wine Brined Turkey (a la Martha Stewart): $10.00
Homemade cranberry sauce: $3.50
Homemade bread: $2.50
Homemade pumpkin pie: $4.50
Homemade chocolate chip cookies: $2.50
Me staying home due to two sick kids (Grae and Molly): depressing
Having Brian and the 4 girls going to my Grandparents house for Thanksging: priceless

Molly has an ear infection, major congestion and a croupy cough. Grae has major congestion and a cough. We stayed home and watched the Macy's Thanksgiving Day parade and the dog show while Brian took Lauren, Maddie, Ava and Ellie to my Grandparents house. From what I've heard my Grandparents enjoyed it very much. They had plans to go the senior community center because they figured everyone else was busy.

Grae and Molly slept practically the whole time so I ate my turkey dinner alone in front of Country Living magazine and the dog show (which I recorded for the girls). It was surprisingly relaxing ;)

Hope your Thanksgiving was really enjoyable!

Oh my...

Guess what this picture is? I took it at 6:00 pm last night.



It's our oven! I turned the oven off after taking dinner out last night and then a little while later noticed it was still on. Brian tried to turn it off and it just wouldn't. He hit the breaker and unplugged the oven and I got on google to see if there was an easy fix. We'll the easiest would be to buy a new oven ;) but that is not in the budget right now.

We figured out it was the oven panel control thingy. Brian called our local appliance store and they could order a part - at $138 - tomorrow (which is today). We would have it tomorrow (today) afternoon. Except I have to bake all day. So he took the panel thingy off and we disconnected some wires and then reconnected them, plugged it in, turned the breaker back on and it worked! Yeah for small miracles.

So far it's working fine. I have the first pumpkin pie in the oven and then Ava will bake cookies followed by the turkey. Lauren made the cranberry sauce and Maddie is just about ready to make bread. Then we need to do something with green beans. We're doing all of this while taking turns holding Grae and Molly who have their Wednesday-after-attending-church cold of course.

Hope your day is going well!

The politics of the holidays

We are in the throes of trying to be just and fair where we spend the holidays. It is by far the most stressful undertaking of the year.

Both sides of the family are in the area so that presents the problem of where to spend the day. My side of the family is usually content to celebrate the day or two after a holiday. Well except for Christmas morning and then we all get together bright and early. That morning is so fun and soooo noisy. In addition to my 6 kids, my brother has 4 girls and my sister has 2 boys and one girl. All under the age of 12. Gift wrap is flying everywhere and the air is punctuated by screams of delight.

Anyway, my grandparents are now in the mix. They've always lived a couple of hours away but now they live just 30 minutes away. All of their kids live far away so they are alone on the holidays. I hate the thought of them spending special holiday's alone but how can we be in three places at once?

We have the only kids on Brian's side of the family. The only kids in Oregon. Brian's brother doesn't have any kids. One of his cousins in Idaho has 8 kids, I think, and I would love to meet them.

I really think that when your kids are grown you forget how tiring having little ones can be. My dad gets tired out just watching all of his 13 grandchildren play but he doesn't have to go home with them. ;) I mean Brian and I haven't had a full night sleep in years. We're awake every couple of hours every night. For years now.

We're also not super portable. When we go to a relative's house, we have so much stuff to bring. Lots of toys and busy stuff so Graedon doesn't knock stuff over in his quest to climb higher and higher and then jump off anything that will hold him. ;) Oh and two of the kids take naps - much needed naps - so we factor that in as well.

I really want everyone to be happy and get the most from this holiday season. So how do you balance making everyone happy with keeping your sanity? What does your family do for the holidays and extended family?

On being crunchy...

Well I was intending on talking about the wonders of baking soda and apple cider vinegar but our family was attacked by another round of viruses. This time bringing fever & chills and sore throats. Brian and I have pretty much sat on the couch all day only taking turns walking Molly around and doing laundry.

We feel a little better now and hopefully we're on the mend.

So onto baking soda and apple cider vinegar. I now use them to wash my hair. Yep, I'm going no 'poo. (no shampoo). My friend told me she and her daughter were using baking soda to wash their hair and I thought "hmmm, okay.". Jump to a few months later and I thought I would give it a go. Everything I've read said to expect gunky, greasy hair for the first two weeks while your scalp "detoxes" and then you will have beautiful, shiny hair.

So I tried it. I mix up 1 tablespoon baking soda to 1 cup of hot water in a squeezable ketchup bottle (like the kind at the restaurants, you can find them at the grocery store, minus the ketchup). I massage my scalp to loosen the dirt and then squirt the mixture all over. I also massage this in and wait about a minute. Then I rinse it thouroughly. Next I take 1/2 cup of apple cider vinegar and dump it on the ends of my hair (not my scalp). I work it in and then rinse it a little. The vinegar makes my hair so soft. The vinegary smell goes away when it's dry.

I did find that the first 2 weeks my hair was a little greasy and my scalp itchy but now my hair and scalp feel so clean. My hair is full and shiny and my wavy hair is back. In fact, one day I hopped in the shower without my mixture and just used regular shampoo. My hair felt so weighted down and greasy the next day.

So there you have it. I'm becoming crunchier everyday. First cloth diapering, now baking soda. Actually now that we cloth diaper we are not only saving money by not having to buy disposables, but we went down one garbage can size. That saves us $15.00 per month. We've also bought a huge pack of microfiber towels at Costco to use instead of the million paper towels we were going through. Brian is building a worm bin in the backyard so we can start composting our leftover veggies, egg shells, tea and coffee grinds.

God created this beautiful world and charged us with taking care of it. I don't buy into all the global warming talk but I do think we can do things that are healthier for our children and the enviroment.

Since so many of you asked, I'll be writing more about cloth diapering. It's really fun and really not that much work.

Friday, friday, friday...

Will the illness never end? Grae and Molly are getting over their colds and now Lauren is in the throes of a fever/sore throat. Brian and I are feeling some head congestion coming on. I haven't been to church in two weeks straight and it looks like we may miss this Sunday too. Can't we all have it at the same time instead of dragging it out for weeks?

It's a beautiful day here so I grabbed my camera and shot things around my home.

First is my latest vintage pyrex find. Brian found it for me at Goodwill and I love it.

Then I recovered a boring white lamp with one of my favorite quilting fabrics. This lamp makes me smile everytime I look at it now.

You can see one of the blue paint swatches in the background. Here's some in the dining room. We decided to go with a nice pear green (none of the swatches pictured.)

My Craigslist chair from the 1920's. This is a very nice and sturdy chair. The lady we bought it from said we're the 3rd owners. It had been recently reupholstered in some really nice (but boring) fabric. We only paid $85 for it which I consider a bargain.

Carnage from the day after Halloween. I ate so much chocolate I swear Molly is drinking chocolate milk today.


I have one more pic to share that involves baking soda and apple cider vinegar but Molly is whining for a nap now so I'll be back.

Tagged....

I'm so bad about completing tags but I'll give it a shot. The wonderful April of Momo's Clothes tagged me to reveal 7 random facts about myself.

Rules for the tag...
1. Link to your tagger and post these rules.
2. Share 7 facts about yourself: some random, some weird.
3. Tag 7 people at the end of your post and list their names (linking to them).
4. Let them know they’ve been tagged by leaving a comment at their blogs.

1. I have red hair, freckles and blue eyes and none of my kids do. Well all of them have blue eyes and some of them have freckles but not one of them has even one red hair. Grae is the closest with being blonde.

2. When I worked at the Oregon State Capitol(before I had kids) the then Governor came out of a meeting room and almost knocked me down. I was 6 mths pregnant at the time. He didn't even say he was sorry (but he was a democrat so I didn't expect much, hee-hee).

3. I wear my husband socks and his Keen clogs around the house even though they are much too big for me. Actually he doesn't even wear them (probably because I do). I really need to get some house shoes but never think about it when I'm out.

4. I can't stand to have anything that is not absolutely necessary laying around the house. If I can't find a use for it, then I sell it or throw it away. I really want a big fabric stash but it stresses me out to have all that fabric looking at me and not have the time to sew it up.

5. My best friend Melodie and I have been friends since 1st grade. She lives about 5 minutes away from me now. We've never lived more than 20 minutes away from each other (well she did go to college in Washington for 4 years). What's funny is that Brian (my DH) and Melodie are distant cousins.

6. I recently found a love for vintage Pyrex. I can't believe how much I'm finding at Goodwill (and cheaply too!). My favorites are the turquoise blue pieces.

7. Every morning for breakfast I must have 2 eggs scrambled, 1/2 cup of cereal and an earl grey tea with 2 packets of Splenda and a splash of whole milk. That has been my breakfast of choice for over 3 years now. Boring - yes, but it really gets me through the day. Sometimes that's all I have until dinner.

Okay - so I'm only going to tag 3 people 'cause I'm a rule breaker... ;)
Kerri
Melanie
Rachel

I heart The Office

Funniest show on tv!

That kind of day...

Have you ever had that kind of day...the day where nothing goes right and it's only 12:00 pm and you have the worst headache of your life?

Where 4 of your 6 kids have spent the morning crying and/or throwing tantrums until you want to walk out the door and not come back for hours. Where one boy wants chocolate and you are more than willing to give some to him just so that he will be quiet for two seconds so you can teach some science to the girls but he won't say please and just keeps demanding it over and over again. First you try to ignore his tantrum, then move on to spankings, all the while trying to keep Molly happy and quiet. Finally after 1 1/2 hours of crying about various things (sorry you finished reading that book and there are no more pages to look at) I stuff said boy with chicken nugget dinosaurs and send him outside.

Meanwhile Molly wants to take a nap but won't settle down so we walk and walk while teaching mixed whole numbers and improper fractions, pausing long enough to switch shoulders because an arm is very likely to fall off it's so tired of holding a 14lb chunk.

Just when you think it might be quiet so you can go gulp down some wine water, your oldest (who rarely cries) is crying because she just started a new math book and doesn't understand the problems. What she is really crying about is that this new math book will take her longer to finish the problems and more brain power, hence she doesn't like it. You tell her to suck it up and get cracking because life is about work and isn't fun so get used to it. Okay well you didn't really tell her that. You really said something encouraging and told her if she needed help to just ask.

Now it is quiet, 2 advil are down the pipe, Molly is asleep, Grae & Ellie are playing outside, it is t-minus 5 minutes until the boy's naptime and things are looking up. Maybe your husband will read this post and bring home something special for you tonight, maybe something involving chocolate or fabric or paint samples? I'm just saying...

What I've been up to...

Just got back from Maddie's vision screening and she doesn't need glasses. To say she is relieved is an understatement. She's thrilled. Lauren went in for her screening last week and we found out she needs prescription reading glasses. Fortunately our insurance covers hardware up to $250 so we won't have to pay anything out of pocket. Ava's screening is Thursday so we'll see what she needs.

Molly is 3 months old now and I really need to get some pictures of her. Hopefully by the end of this week. That girl will be crawling by the times she's 5 mths. I can't leave her on the bed alone or she will scoot herself right off.

Oh and a big hooray. I just paid off two of our 5 medical bills! It feel so great. 3 more to go (and they are the bigger ones). I thought I ran out of things to sell on eBay but then I find a box here or there will stuff we don't need.

I was sewing on Saturday while Molly took her long nap and Grae, Maddie and Brian were running errands. There is a soccer field pretty much right behind our house and I could hear a girls soccer game. The parents were cheering, the referee's whistle blowing, the coaches, well, coaching. One thing that bothered me though was a male coach (at least I think he was the coach), yelling at the girls. I don't mean encouraging, "go get 'em" yelling but borderline abusive yelling. It really upset me.

I played sports when I was a kid. Basketball, baseball and softball. I know the excitement that a coach feels during a game but since when did it become okay for a man to yell at girls like that? Why didn't the parents step in and tell him to cool off? What kind of example does it set for the kids? Well, it's just a game, he's really nice in real life...NO I don't buy it. If it was just a game, why act like it is the most important thing in the world? I hope he doesn't act that way at home with his wife and daughters. Get a life coach.

Making Red Grape Pie

Every time red grapes go on sale, Brian asks for this pie. Well, they went on sale for $.99 lb so I HAD to make it. Here are the steps:

1. Wash the grapes:


2. Enlist children to cut them in half for you because you don't want too:


3..Assemble your ingredients:


4.In a large bowl mix everything together and dump in a pre-made pie crust because you hate making crust (or maybe because you are no good at it).


5. Put crust on top. Brian likes when I tear the crust and squish it on top. Hey, it's easier that way too. Be sure to place it on a baking sheet to catch the splatters.



6. Pull it out of the oven and stick it on your very favorite Fiesta ware blue plate.



7. Repeatedly tell your 2 year old son that we can't eat it yet. Tell him again and again as he asks for pie all afternoon.

8. Eat it but forget to take pictures.
Red Grape Pie

• Pastry for a 2 crust pie


• 5 cups seeded, cut up red seedless grapes


• 2/3 cup plus 2 teaspoons sugar (divided)


• 1 teaspoon lemon juice


• 3 tablespoons quick cooking tapioca


• 2 tablespoons butter or margarine


• 1/8 teaspoon ground cinnamon

Preheat oven to 425 degrees.
Combine grapes, 2/3 cup sugar, lemon juice and tapioca. Place in pastry-lined 9 inch pie pan. Dot with butter.
Adjust top crust, flute edges and cut vents. Sprinkle with a mixture of 2 teaspoons sugar and the cinnamon. Bake 45 to 50 minutes.

I'm not a guy

So I was standing in line at our local REI store yesterday waiting to pick up some Keen sandals I ordered on their website. In front of me was a strapping young man in his mid twenties. He proceeded to the next checkout lady (who also was in her twenties.) She was all smiles and helpful and had a cheery tone in her voice. I thought she was nice.

He finished up and she bid him adieu and it was my turn. I gave her the print out of my order and told her I wanted to pick up my shoes. I think what she heard was I needed her to change my son's poopy diaper. She trod off to the backroom and a few minutes later came trudging to the counter carrying what seemed to be 100 lb shoes. My order was a heavy burden for her to bear. She hoisted them up on the counter, printed a receipt and handed me a pen. I signed for the shoes and handed the pen back to her. She took it from me and dropped it in a can right next to me. I told her "oh sorry" and she gave me the "whateva" look. I thanked her but her attention was elsewhere. Probably searching the store for another guy. ;)

Going greener...

We're making the switch to cloth diapers and I'm so excited. We did cloth for 3 months when Lauren was born but then stopped. Now in an effort to not clog our landfills with more of our diapers and to save money, Molly will be cloth diapered. I spent two days researching and asking questions and am convinced it is the right way to go.

I already do 2-3 loads of laundry a day so 1 or 2 more won't be any big deal. Our clothesline came and I've been using it everyday to hang clothes. Hanging clothes on the line is one of my favorite times of day. It's surprisingly relaxing. I can't wait to see our electric bill this month.

We've come under our grocery budget so far this month and I'm really excited about that. I've been cooking meals everyday and getting creative with what we have here.

We've been able to put an extra $250 toward our van payment so far and the month is not over. I love the challenge of not spending money and looking for ways to earn or save it. I need to pull out the fall clothes to sell on eBay. I have about $300 worth of stuff laying around that I need to list.

I really hate being in debt to the bank for our van. Hopefully by this time next year we can say we've paid it off. We owe a little over $13,000 for it. Ouch - that hurts to type it but there it is. We paid $20,000 for it and have had it a little over 8 months. I don't regret its purchase. We only had one van at the time and we couldn't all fit in it after Molly came. So we just need to be free from the payments as soon as possible. How can anyone be happy with their purchases knowing they don't have the money to pay for them? Credit is dangerous. So many people that we consider "well off" and have lots of new stuff are actually so far in debt that they can't get out. That's sad.

Well Molly is awake and telling me she needs to be fed RIGHT NOW. So no more debt talk for now. Aren't you glad, lol...

Grouchy

Everyone in my house is grouchy today. Ava doesn't like math so she's taking a looooong time doing her test. Maddie actually broke down in tears twice, one in math and another because Lauren beat her to the shower. Ellie slammed Graedon's fingers in the closet door this morning and they have been alternately fighting and playing. Ellie just screamed because Grae just took a cracker from her plate.

Molly is sleeping. Yesterday she was awake practically the whole day, which didn't make for a very happy momma. I felt so defeated by this. How quickly we go from feeling happy and content to feeling sorry for ourselves. How quickly we forget to thank God for everything He brings.

So today I declare comfort day. We will finish up our Friday chores and veg out in front of a movie or make cookies or do some sewing. Oh and eat lots of licorice that I bought. Thank you God for making sugar.

Bye Harry...

Last night Brian and I finished the Deathly Hallows. Wow.

I'm sad there will be no more books to read, but wow, what a way to end it.

ramblings...

We had "proper" school today which consisted of a study of Proverbs 19 (we are doing a chapter of Proverbs at a time), grammar and typing. We are supposed to do Greek and Roman History but Molly woke up so we'll move it to Friday.

It felt good to spend that time with the girls. I've been feeling guilty lately of not spending any time (besides telling them to do their chores and such) with them. We had laughs and discussions about fools and a fun time. I'm always amazed at how creative, witty and funny they are. For example, in grammar today we learned about Predicate Nouns and the sentence we were working on was "Sally was a very nice lady."

We classified that sentence and I turned to write their next assignment on the board when I heard them saying "Sally was a very nice lady, what happened to her? Did she die?" "No, Sally was a very nice lady until she tied me up in the back room." Where did that come from?

The next assignment was to write a non-rhyming poem about a color. Ava chose grey and her last line was: "Grey is the color of the silver bells at Christmas." When I pointed out that grey is not silver she replied that silver is just a shiny grey. Well, I suppose she's right.

This all makes me wonder if we should be done having kids so we can spend more time with the ones we have. Of course we won't make that decision when we have a 1 month old. We've been down that road before. A few weeks after we had Ava, Brian went in for a vasectomy. Low and behold 3 years later we wanted more children and had it reversed. It was a success obviously and now we have 3 more children. We most likely won't travel that road again but what do we do?
Brian will be almost 60 when Molly is 20 and I'll be 54.

I want to teach the older girls so much more before they get married and leave the house but I never have any time because I have younger children. It's a struggle and and I don't know what to do about it. Fertility is in the hands of God and we are not promised more children even if we want more.

So those are just my ramblings for today. Off to make Grae and Ellie some lunch.

Look what I ordered!

I have been wanting a clothesline for a while, not only to save money but I love the smell of line dryed clothes. The only requirements I had is that it couldn't take up much room and was able to come down to store for the winter.

Found it here:

Can't wait to get it! Now I need to make an apron to hold the clothes pins.

it's friday

Lest you think from my last post that my life is perfect, let me tell you what happened that afternoon.

Molly Kate woke up and from 3:30 pm - 10:15 pm cried and cried and cried and cried. She had one 30 minute nap when Brian got home but pretty much cried the rest of the time. This is the first time its happened and it was awful. My head and ears hurt so much.

Graedon decided he wanted to pour his milk from one cup to another and spilled most of it on the table and himself. He did this twice before I got wise and removed the cups from the table.

Lauren and I made soup before CryFest 2007 started and I thought it needed more tomato sauce. Bad idea as it made the soup too acidic. Nobody said anything about it but me but they were all thinking it. At least I made bread (ala the bread maker) so dinner wasn't a total loss.

Since it has been raining here, the kids haven't been able to play outside so by evening they were bouncing off the walls and furniture. We finally just sent them outside anyway and let them run.

You should see our front yard. The weeds are about 2 feet tall and we can't cut them down. We only have a push mower and it doesn't cut weeds that tall. So we either need to buy an electric or gas lawn mower or a weed-wacker. But we are slowly getting our bills from Molly Kate's birth and waiting to see how much we owe for Ava's ER visit. This month is also the month to pay for a new life insurance term policy for Brian and I. Fortunately I do have money to pay for that as it's our #1 priority. If Brian dies in the next 20 years, the girls and I will be set financially and I will continue to stay at home with them. Hey then I can buy a proper lawn mower!

On friday's we have Cleaning Day. I really, really want to get some cleaning done as our house is looking like a disaster area. Anyway, we'll see how today goes.

Answered prayer...

After my ranting late last night (it was after 10:00 pm), I took half an Ambien and went to sleep. This morning I called my amazing friend, Melodie (who only lives about 5 minutes away and I have known since 1st grade) and asked her when her parents would be back in town (they have been like parents to me growing up). She said on July 1st. Well that won't help.

I poured my heart out to her about how frustrated and stressed I was about someone watching the kids. She simply stated that she would come over no matter what time of the day. I hadn't really considered her since she just given birth 3 months ago (oh and the birth story is amazing. This is her 4th child and 2nd daughter. She has really fast, non-medicated labors and right as she got to the pushing stage, the doctor declared that the baby was breech and she didn't know how to deliver breech. Another doctor was called. He was 30 minutes away so Melodie couldn't push for that long. When he arrived, she pushed and her little girl came right out and Melodie didn't tear at all!)

So the plan is for her to be "on-call". She and her little one will spend the night and her husband will drop the kids off on his way to work. My girls are thrilled with this plan as they love their "aunt" Melodie and her kids. They are especially thrilled to spend some time with her new baby ;).

God sure answered that prayer fast, lol. I feel so at peace now and not anxious that I actually want to wait until Friday afternoon to go into labor so Melodie's husband will be home on Saturday to help her out.

(so now you know that baby will probably come tonight....)

Hopefully my last...

I just got back from *hopefully* my last doctor's appointment before this baby comes. I'm due June 14th according to my calculations and one ultrasound but June 17th according to the doctor. Dr. Mears thinks I'll have the baby this week though. I hope so! I'm soooooo ready to meet her and see my feet again.

I've run out of "must do" projects so you can find me wandering around trying to find something to occupy my time. Sometimes I'll decide to clean out a closet, scrub kitchen shelves, organize my sewing room, but most of the time I just wander and peek in on what the girls are doing.

I don't like being idle but I also don't want to start a project that I have to abandon to give birth. I think I'll do some sewing for the kids. It is really rewarding seeing them wearing and enjoying something I've made.

Well off to rub down a pork roast. I'm making pulled pork for dinner tomorrow and this thing needs to marinate in the rub for 24 hours. I know I still need to post for Ava - hopefully later today!

My sweet boy...

Brian took Grae and I to Target the other day to buy some flip-flops for my hugely water-logged feet. No shoes would fit.

I sat down and started trying them on. I've never liked flip-flops (or thongs as Brian was trying to call them) but I have no choice at this point.

Grae was going crazy trying on shoes. He loves walking around the house in any shoes but his own, so he was in shoe heaven.

At one point he spotted a pair of pink "crocs" - you know the Target faux brand. He put them on. I wasn't paying much attention at that point as I was still trying to cram my swollen feet into various sizes and shapes of flip-flops. Did you know they sell flip flops that look like they have been worn in the trenches of WWII? Is that called desconstructed? Are the strings and dirt part of the charm? Anyway...

I did pay attention however as Grae grabbed the following shoe and jammed the heel right into my thigh. "Ow," I yelped. Grae simply said "All done, " hobbled away, put the shoe back and picked up another one that looked equally painful. He was on his way toward me again. This time I asked him was he was doing.

"I the doctor," he said. "Doctor hurt self," and jammed the shoe at me again (only this time softer).

I finally realized what he was doing. The nurse at my doctor's office wears pink crocs and she gave him shots about 1 month ago. As soon as she was done with the shots, she had said "all done." I had no idea that Grae would remember that event, let alone that she wears pink crocs. I am amazed at how smart this little boy is and his memory. He is not even two yet!

So as he hobbled away in his pink crocs (that Brian would not let him buy), I finally found a pair of flip flops that fit, were comfortable and only cost $10. It was a fun trip and probably my last trip to a store until the baby comes. Of course I keep saying that. We are going to walk down to Tuesday Farmer's Market next Tuesday (which is a few days before I'm due). We need to buy some Oregon Strawberries. We usually buy enough to make freezer jam for the whole year. There is nothing like the taste of Oregon Strawberries!

So I'm off to take a nap (or more than likely do some laundry).

Feeling much better now....

I went to my weekly check up and mentioned the lack of sleep to my doctor. She asked why I hadn't called her. Well - because I just chalked it up to end of pregnancy sleeplessness. She laughed and prescribed Ambien sleeping pills. I was a little hesitant to take anything but she assured my that it was safe for our baby and that I needed sleep or I would be to tired to go in to labor.

So, I took one last night at 11:30 pm (after mopping and waxing the floors, lol). I didn't wake up until 7:30am this morning. I didnt' dream, I don't remember Graedon crying last night and I didn't wake up to go to the bathroom.

I felt dizzy at first but really good. My attitiude is optimistic again and I have energy. In fact I just took off all the kitchen cabinent doors, washed them, sanded them and put the first of two final coats of oil based paint on them. It's something I've been wanting to finish.

Now off to teach school and then hopefully take some pics of items around here to list on eBay. Trying to clear out the clutter and get some money for our baby's hospital bills.

I'll probably crash a little later but at least I feel good now. That is such a blessing.

Oh I need to go outside to take some pics of the work we got done on the backyard this weekend. Wow! Looks so different.