October 31, 2008

Today was doomed to be a LOONG day. We had a homeschooling co-op at 9:00 am with an active two year old and nursing 3 month old in tow. Our van registration is due. It needs to be smogged. We didn't have the money untl getting paid today and it must be done before Sunday...so...I am taking 5 kiddos with me to DMV and mechanic. I thought we would go for a walk while it was being done....I called to get an appt and they were full. I found a new place and am not sure where it is. It rained. We can't go for a walk if it is raining.....

I dont like Halloween. I dont like the spooky decorations...I dont like any of it. At all. I dont like feeling like I HAVE to do something or listen to children bang on my door.....Our church is having a Reformation party tonight.

My hormones are acting up and Im feeling self concious, sad, tired and just want to curl up in a ball and cry..but I have all these things that HAVE to be done TODAY.

EVERYTHING went sooo well. Went to co-op, came home and little ones napped. Found mechanic on time: very kid friendly place with FREE standing video games and a little toy toddler area. Van passed just fine. Went to DMV, no line, went right through AND they gave me candy.

Only downer so far is the automatic van door. Broken. My child decided to close the door ekectronically, friend's child decided no and held on to it. Door now doesn't work. Sounds like it was innocent and not truly "their fault." Maybe they were both obnoxious. (wait, I know they both are)

Us

I have a dear friend who took pictures of us at the beach the other day....



you can visit her website at:

www.marinamoorephotography.com

BLOGGY GIVEAWAY TIME!!

Oh I love this!!!

NOT just the IDEA of winning stuff but visiting all the blogs..it feels like a big craft fair, with socializing....

If you only have a few minutes:

comment to win these:
Please visit LaneyPottery.com to see the Pottery Apple Bakers for yourself.
How much fun woulf these be on an Autumn afternoon?!?!

and how cute is this? IN PINK!

Diapers?

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Diapers have been a big concern on my mind lately.

Our cost of living is going up. Not because of having a baby. The cost to heat our home, heat our water, have water, food in the grcoery store...all those things have gone up. We were barely scraping by before the increase, now we are running out of money every two weeks. We have so many phone calls about over due bills and I am so embarassed.

At one point in our lives, we had three little ones in cloth diapers. A good friend of mine set me up with her old ones and many that she had made. She also showed me how to contact WAHM to try out tehir diapers and write reviews. (Man, I miss Kellie, she really knows her stuff.) Then we made a move accross the state and everything changed and cloth diapers no longer worked for us. I ended up selling our cloth diapers and I cried. I dont know exactly what those diapers represented to me, maybe it was saying to me that I coudln't have any more babies?

Here I am just a few years later with two in diapers. My youngest is almost 4 months old and I have JUST used up the stock pile I was given when he was born. It's coming down to, do I buy food for dinner or do I buy diapers....What I am thinking through is wether or not cloth diapers are the "solution" for us right now. I applied at www.miraclediapers.com and was accepted BUT I didnt have the $15.00 shipping per child to order the free cloth diapers, and we were dealing with Gabriel's birth surprises and Drs. visits. As usual, I am beating myself up because I didnt buy enough diapers when they were on sale at Walgreens and I didnt stretch the money enough....my husband is beating himself up that he doesn't have a better job.....this is getting us nowhere...Incidentally, my husband just found chlorine free diapers for 16 cents each and Walgreens is having another big sale. He is also getting a raise at work due to a union strike, we don't know how much or how much the retroactive check will be or when.....
Does anyone have an opinion on our diaper "situation?" Looking at the cost of cloth diapers Im not sure how much it would really help. I need t know before I make the monetary investment...I also need diapers now....

Meal Planning Monday

Sunday:
Pork Chops with Pears in Crockpot, over rice

Monday:
Ox Tail Soup

Tuesday:
Hamburgers/Potatos

Wednesday:
Pizza and salad
This is our big day home so I will have help kneading the three pizza's dough

Thursday:
Macaroni and Cheese
This will be quick before Boy Scouts

Friday:
Reformation Day Potluck

I am posting my meal plans in hope they can encourage someone....They definatley aren't fancy or complicated or worth "writing home about" :)

There is a whole group of great ladies sharing their weekly menu plans over at

Giveaway!

Head on over here
http://rebekahmerkle.blogspot.com
and see this cute teapot

and a SKIRTY--if you don't know what a skirty is you must go and read up--every little girl NEEDS a skirty!

Meal Planning Monday

There is a whole group of great ladies sharing their weekly menu plans over at






Monday: kids will be at a birthday/pizza party....

Tuesday: Tacos

Wednesday: Hamburgers

Thursday: Baked Chicken and rice

Friday: Spaghetti & Sausage/ Mac N Cheese, salad, and a vegetable
My husband will take this to work the next day


Saturday: Hmmm....

Sunday: Homemade chicken soup

Raingutter Regala 08

This will be one of our last Cub Scout events for awhile. Come February, we will have two boys in Boy Socuts and none in Cub Scouts for atleast 4 years. This is always a fun event. The boys sand, paint and design their own boats and then, with straws, blow them down a rain gutter filled with water. There were some really creative boats: a few pirate ships, some lego men captains, and one boat with working headlights.

Events on Sundays are hard for us--we rushed home from church, didn't eat lunch and we were STILL 25 minutes late :) My husband left to get us snacks (took my camera) and came back right as we were done. He felt horrible but our kids had a great time and didnt care :)

Make video montages at www.OneTrueMedia.com

Fumigation Evacuation Vacation

My head is once again spinning.

I dont know how much of this is us making things into a bigger deal than they need be or the fact that life is a lot of work.

We were told by the fumigation company that we didnt need to move anything out but baby matresses or anything "plasticized" and to put food and anything that goes into the mouth into plastic bags. Then I got thinking about plastic and which plastics are a problem...we moved out baby toys, most toys, and all food. AND we moved out the kids' matresses. We couldn't find anywhere to put our Queen size

It took a day to move into the hotel (we brought food for lunch, a swing, stroller, bouncy seat, our blankets and pillows...)I liked our little diaper changing station :)

We had a good time! We spent time together as a family with no school almost no chores and a change of scenery (kind of) It was a nice hotel and we had two adjoining rooms, 4 Queen sized beds and two television sets :)

here is after the maids visited and made the beds with our blankets :)

3 biggest boys chose to sleep in one bed. Middle of the night I heard a huge thump. Two yeart old son pushed 12 year old son right out of bed :)
They provided a breakfast bar and 24 hour coffee bar :) We ate Chinese food delivered one night and had dinner at dear friends two nights. The last night, we were due to a Bible Study and invited to dinner before hand. We waited in the van for my husband to come down. He came down 35 mintues later to tell me that he couldn't find his wallet. He had turned the room inside out looking for it. I went up and looked some more (I also called our friends to apologize) We finally went. We ate, prayed, and sat down for Bible Study. our 3 month old started to fuss and my husband went to get him. Sitting in the baby's car seat, safe and sound was his wallet :)

My husband told me to wait until he got back from running errands to take the kids swimming. Insinuating I'd need his help. psshaw, why would I need his help? We all got ready for the pool (I even used sun screen and brought sunglasses) I put our infant and two year old in the double stroller and headed down. We stopped by the front desk and the lady commented on how my two year old just let himself out of the stroller. uh yeah. So we walk in the gate, two year old bolts for the pool, gets a running start and cannon balls three feet in. Now, I tend to a hothead loud mouth but he time I could scream my 12 year old had already dove in and gotten him. He was flailing and face down. BUT he thought it was a great time. My 12 year old son was embarassed because, this is sooo something that he would have done.

We always seem to have a lot of laundry. Camping generates laundry. Being gone for days generates laundry. We werent home to do said laundry. We grossed ourselves out and wnated towels, sheets, balnkets, etc that went throught the umigation to be relaundered. OH MAN has there been a lot of laundry around here. I thought taking a day to go to the laundrymat but I dont have the cash. It was so much WORK to get moved back in. Literally felt llike we had moved house altogether. In the middle of it all, my overworked daughter laid down on the floor and fell asleep :)

CAMPING

Camping was wonderful! My friend did EVERYTHING while I stood there in awe of how much work everything was. I realize that I have no ownership over this dear friend but it seems weird to use someone's name on your blog if they arent also a blogger...

My dear friend: planned everything, did everything, planned the menu around our annoying dietary issues and then paid for all the food. Yes, she bought everything. We went shopping together and then when we were done I tried to pay for half and she said "no" I said "no" then added that I didnt mean for her to do that. She said that she had meant to. Did I graciously and allow her to bless my family? OH NO I argued and she replied that she had more money than we do to do this. Did I let that go? OH NO! I retorted "BUT THATS NOT YOUR PROBLEM!!" Is there a verse anywhere about being a gracious receiver? She also gave my two year old a Thomas the Tank Engine sleeping bag.

This is my first attempt at blogging a montage..you may want to scroll down and pause the background music..or maybe you'd rather hit mute altogether.....

Photo and video editing at www.OneTrueMedia.com

I learned many rules of camping:

1/ no soda
2/ no electronic entertainment
3/ dirt is OK
4/ it'll dry
5/ no shoes in the tent

I snuck soda and my 10 year old rule lover FLIPPED OUT. I dont even drink soda often, but because someone said I couldnt....

I had gotten my two year old a very cute stuffed monkey backpack/leash. It worked well but I cringed everytime a little girl would ask me if she could "walk him."

The past week or so has been stressful for me and my hands are doing that hormonaly related thing they do:

Not pretty huh. Its also pretty painful and bloody.

This was "family camp" weekend with BSA and it truly was a family friendly crowd. At about 5am my two year old woke up and had enough of camping. ALthough I was sleeping enxt to him he screamed "MOMMY MOMMY MOMMY" for awhile. Then my 3 month old woke up and demanded to be nursed. He has never demanded anything before but he really menat this. Ofcourse being woken up, I had to go to the bathroom but they wouldnt let me leave. The next day people commented about when "the baby's went off" and said they wanted to help but werent sure what to do.

My dear friend knows that I am a coffee drinker so she brought coffee just for me. She got up early and started to boil water. I right away saw the word "DECAF" and grabbed her cute stainless steel mug ready to make a run for it--I made a new friend who always had one enamelware pot of coffee warm and one brewing. How's that for gratitude?

There were no camp fires allowed because of fire warning. I thought that camping REQUIRED a fire-but what do I know. I dont normally come accross as prissy, but boy was I out of my element!!

Great weekend. Great time away to put things to the back of my mind. Wonderful wonderful friendship.

Friday

The Fall Festival was great! I was so glad we were able to go! The Girls' Club sold their homemade soaps and Playdough and made $21.00.
We then went to our the new library in town and worked on our Bible Study on kindness. The girls are also keeping a journal each day on ways they were kind and on ways that they could have been kind but passed up the oppurtunity.

While we were gone, my husband was home. My oldest son and I have been moving Rubbermaid totes of stuff out of the garage to the backyard for the fumigation. My husband reorganized the garage. He didn't leave room for the totes that are temporarily in the backyard to be returned. He also made the things that I need to get to unaccessible. He meant well and worked all day and killed his back. I came home to pack for camping and couldnt find or get to the sleeping bags. I felt violated. He felt unappreciated. I cried and bawled. He couldn't figure out what my problem was. Then he noticed that a tire on our van was totally unsafe and worn down low. It was 6:30. We stared at each other-our 12 year old interupted to tell us HOW I had ruined the tire. We tried to figure out how I could get the van in to Big Brands tomorrow before camping. (My husband leaves for work at 5am) I called Walmart to see when their tire center closes and they said they would squeeze us in. They were sooo great about it. Now I need to figure out how I am going to pay the car insurance tonight...

It has been in the 80's here for awhile. Now that I am going camping and staying in a hotel with a pool (during fumigation) the weather cooled WAY down and the wind picked up:)

Standards

It has been a strange week for me. I KNOW that my hormones are still wacky. I have been trying to prepare for camping and to evacuate for termite fumigation. I dont know how to do either.

I have been camping once before in my life and my husband isnt going on this trip. I have been trying to figure out how warm to dress to sleep outside and what I will need for a two year old and newborn camping....

The fumigation company says that we dont need to wipe anything down or take anything out (except baby matresses) don't need to wash dishes or anything else....we just cant buy that line. We wnat matresses out, food gone, anything baby related somewhere else, toys out....But where do we draw the line. We dont know because we really dont know what we are dealing with. They say we can come right back in. We want to clean first and air the house out for atleast a day...Are we going overboard? Should we just listen to the professionals? We dont want any regrets.

My head had really been spinning.

Im not a very organized person. Things work out and I adjust. Im not too keen on rules and not too cooperative with them either. As a driver, I respect the driving laws and see the need for them. As a parent, I see the need for and the use of rules and schedules. As a homemaker, I value lists....

Thinking through my fumigation and camping trips have made me more grateful for Chirst showing us himself and his standards through Scripture. My head doesnt need to normally spin-He has shown us what is important. Our emotions dont need to dictate right and wrong we dont need to change our standards and boundaries at whim. some things are black and white--They are in there :)

Giveaways!!

There are some fun giveaways at this great site:
http://www.momtrends.blogspot.com/

Odds and Ends

Gabriel was weighed:


3 months, 13 lbs. 5 oz.


My sons' dresser is a project needing to happen...It is a very LOOONG dresser that fits under our 6 foot plus wondow. Before it came to live with us, someone put a dark oil on the light soft wood. Everytime it was TOUCHED huge dings would show up. Then the (very ugly) handles, fell off. In the back of my mind I have been thinking about sanding it down and buying new handles. There is never extra money to do that. There is never enough money to do what we HAVE to do. The dresser sits. I saw a very talented woman on another blog make "for now handles" from black ribbon. I was late to dinner knotting strips of rope to make handles. I still WANT to do it well, but for now, my sons can get to their clothes :)
My two year old likes coffee. The first time we discovered this we were asleep. it was 5 am. He came in mumbling and exclmaing in gibberish holding a bag of coffee beans and chomping away. My only thought was "Please let that be decaf!" Yesterday, there was a brief moment of silence in our house-I quickly went to investigate. I noticed him hiding under the dining room table eating coffee beans. I got the camera and held it under the table. He looked terrified and "caught red handed" and started scooping the beans back in the bag and handing it to me. Then I laughed and he had thee CUTEST mischevious grin we may ever see. I snapped and flashed away. He was relieved. I thought I was clever. I sat down to review my pictures. they didnt come out, nothing but a blur. Here you can see him under the table.

AND I need to get frames and create a picture wall and frame this:

My walls are full though. I thought we were moving and got excited that I would ahve more walls.....until then....

Whirlwind Week

I woke up very very early this am. I just stared at nothing and tried to process the week ahead. We are going to a Fall Festival on Friday to sell homemade play dough and soap from Girls' Club, then meeting with the girls to go voer our Bible Study on kindnes for the week. Then we rush home and go to Family Camp. My 10 year old has been in Cub Scouts since he was six and is coming up on crossing over To Boy Scouts and earing his arrow of light EXCEPT that he needs to go camping!! he has missed amillion campouts and this is the last campout and someone needs to take the poor kid!! His dad is working this weekend and can't get any time off because of the time off he took before the abby was born (he was 10 days overdue) and then for the hospital and extra drs visits. So here I am. Completely clueless on camping and with an infant, a two year old and two others plus Mr Cub Scout. What have I gotten myself into?

THEN we get back Sunday night and have to evacuate by Monday morning at 8am for the fumigation. I need to wash clothes and sleeping bags for that! I also need to figure out everything we will need. They say we can come back in it at noon on Thursday when they remove the tent....I dont know about that.

Nothing is my choice at the moment though--it realy is just doing the best I can and whatever I am capable of. Life is seldom ideal or what I would have planned.

The thing I cannot wrap my ming around is all the water that I am going to have to buy!! I guess techncially I always PAY for the water that we drink but this is a 3 day camping trip and then in the motel for HOW LONG? that could be a lot of water!!

Menu Planning Monday

I am going to take the lemons thrown at me and make lemonade! Bare with me here. We couldnt pull off last minute moving or pull together $5000-we have to tolerate the fumigation of our rental :( I would rahter not bag up food and have it go through the fumigation soo I am trying to use up the food in our freezer. I also want to share the ways that God provides for us. We live on 1,600 a month, including paying off debt etc. We probably dont spend as much as we should on food. If you ask me what we eat, I run a blank. We think a lot about what we put into our bodies. We buy organic whenever we can and avoid MSG, most oils, soy....my son follows the Feingold diet, my daughter and I are dairy free. Ask me what we eat? I run a blank.

There is a whole group of women who plan their meals each week and post them to share...hmm...i could do that!! AND when you ask me what we eat, I can smile and say, "well, this week.." and give you a link :)

There is a whole group of great ladies sharing their weekly menu plans over at





Sunday:
Taco Soup/Split Pea Soup and torillas
this is in two seperate crockpots while we are at church :)
Monday:
Spaghetti & Sausage/ Mac N Cheese, salad, and a vegetable
My husband will take this to work the next day
Tuesday:
Homemade Pizza, salad
This is our big day home so I will have help kneading the three pizza's dough
Wednesday:
Baked Chicken and homemade stuffing, salad and a vegeatble
My husband will be home to clean and prep the chicken :)
Thursday:
Hamburgers
This will be quick before Boy Scouts
Friday:
Something in the Crockpot? or Camping
We will be at a Fall Festival, then Bible study and maybe cammping
Saturday:
Tacos

BUSY TIMES

We ALMOST moved a few times this month. I have mentioned our big Catch-22: We live 30 minutes from my husband's job that doesnt sustain us. We cant afford the commute on his paycheck yet we dont have the paycheck to move. Hmph. We had many miracles unfold before our eyes, but the right house still isnt there and we dotn feel right accepting from anyone the $4000-$5000 it would take to pay first months' rent/deposit, and deposit for utilities.

SOOOO...we have scheduled a fumigation. Wow huh. We are a bit nutty about dust and chemicals and things most people dont even consider. We have some severe allergies and asthma and a 2 month old baby. We dont have the money/mental or physical energy needed to evacuate.

I also just realized has been in Cub Scouts for 4 years and needs ONE more camping trip to earn his Arrow of Light. He MUST do this the weekend before the fumigation. When I would be preparing. My husband is alos working that weekend. I am so not the camping person and dont want to go alone with a newborn, two year old, two rambuctious boys and a little girl. I really don't.

New Autumn Tradition?

I love Autumn! I love the warm colors, crispness in the air, pumpkins, gourds and apples....BUT it has been in the 80's here in Southern California. It's October now, and still warm!

I was at the grocery store tonight and found this on sale:can you make out that is is PUMPKIN SPICE?

AND there was a coupon! If you bought two you got $1.00 off AND ice cream was on sale too...

I liked the idea of pumpkin spice and rich rich chocolate...I dont have any Autumn bowls YET, (I like the idea of a set of brown transferware dishes.) For now, our Autumn mugs were quite fun.



The pumpkin spice sauce was REALLY good. Would it be pushing it to put it on peanut butter sandwhiches?