Summer Catch-Up

I have so many things I want to blog about from our summer.  But sadly, our iMac crashed last week, taking our hard drive and our pictures with it.  We believe we will be able to restore the lost data (please, Lord) for about the price of a small car.  I would sell an organ, though, to get the last 18-months of pictures back. 

Side note:  don't procrastinate on backing up your data...even if you believe you have an unbreakable Mac.

Here are some bullet points that I want to touch on from the past few months.

-  Our summer started off slow, as we were done with school around May 23rd and the weather had not yet consistently warmed up.

-  I started a job at the end of June.  I work for my dad's magazine publishing company, from home, as much or little as I want.  It's a pretty great arrangement.

-  I started training for a half-marathon, that I will be running in October.  Brian is doing it too - yay!

-  We had three amazing camping trips with friends.

-  Emma, Isaiah and Noah took swimming lessons and did so great.  I was completely amazed at their progress over four weeks.

-  Braxton started wearing Thera Togs.  It's therapy grade compression clothing that helps stimulate his muscles and helps him work on controlling his movements. 

-  Braxton finally cut his first tooth at the end of August - a top molar!  He has since cut another molar, and just this morning, his lower front tooth.

We finally started the new school year late last week, and are still getting used to our new schedule.  We have some new activities I am super excited about, like horseback riding and violin lessons. 

I can't wait to get my computer and all my pictures back so I can get back to some regular blogging. 

Happy Fall!

Missing my Cave

I am a home-body.  I can easily get to Thursday or Friday on any given week, and realize I haven't gone anywhere (with the exception of Wednesday nights, when we drop our kids off at their church classes).

I love being at home.  And I hate running errands.  Not that I mind the actual errands once I'm doing them. It's just that I lack the motivation to get going.  Plus I don't like that they mess up the rest of my day.

This week I have had something going on every day that has pulled me away from my cave.  Monday was a trip to the ENT for Noah.  Yesterday was the bunk bed adventure.  Today was more Dr. appointments, plus other random errands.  Plus I also still have to bake cookies for Emma's class tonight.

All this to say, I am feeling behind and un-motivated.  I haven't done any laundry, and we've barely done any official school lessons.  But then again, one of the reasons I decided to home school was to have the flexibility to do this kind of stuff.

I think everything is just feeling out of sorts this week.  Even the weather - yesterday was almost 70 degrees; today we had a snow storm.

Anxious to get back into a routine in the next few days....

Tuesday Blurbs

Here's a quick Tuesday update for you, since I am under the weather and not up to actually writing a real post.

1.  Our house addition is temporarily on hold while we sort out some things with Brian's job.  Nothing bad - just some possible changes for him that may or may not have us living here.  That's all I can say for now - sorry.  Oh, but the good news is that enough of the estimates have come back favorable enough that we think the project could become a reality.

2.  I am done with the top of my first quilt.  Now I am working on the top of the second one, and then I will assemble them both with batting and the back portion.  The quilt isn't perfect, but I'm pretty happy with how it turned out.  (I'll post pics of it later.)

3.  I was in hot pursuit of a bunk bed last week that was posted on craigslist.  It was listed at $250, but I had talked the seller down to $200 over email.  That was still a little more than I had wanted to spend, but it included both mattresses and was the closest thing to "ideal" that we'd seen.  Since it was located about 45 minutes away I wanted to make sure it was what we really wanted.  So I asked a couple follow-up questions (in addition to my initial price-negotiation), like if the beds had been in a smoking- or pet-home.  When the seller finally responded about 24-hours later (I'm sorry, but that is FOREVER in the world of online selling) she completely berated me for asking so many questions.  I quote:  "If you are trying to find something wrong with these, you won't.  If you are not interested in them, please stop wasting my time."  Excuse me?  I was asking some simple questions because I AM interested, and I don't want to waste MY time by driving all the way out there.

I was so burned that I withdrew my interest in the beds.  I am still occasionally checking for a new listing, but we have decided that we will likely have to buy new bunk beds for around $250.

4.  I signed up for a free month of Netflix.  We are really liking the fact that we can stream movies through our Wii for instant viewing.  But I'm too cheap to pay even the $9.99 per month, so we'll be going back to the status-quo at the end of the month.

The end.

Confession Friday

This is what my stairs look like.  Yes, that rag is taped to the carpet.  Three days ago my son pooped on the stairs.  And I just don't have it in me to clean it up.  Might just rip up carpet.

This is what my dishwasher has looked like for five days.  Hand-washing dishes for a family of 6 = not fun.

This is our school-room floor.

I'm getting there

1.  Today was our fifth day of homeschooling.

2.  At lunch time, I didn't bang my head on the counter and say "what the heck was I thinking?"

3.  That is an improvement.

4.  The nasty cold I came down with seems to be getting a little better.

5.  I take naps every day.

6.  It's the only way I survive.

7.  Next week I am going on a trip, by myself, to Florida.

8.  Oh, settle down.  It's to visit my brother and sister-in-law and two adorable nephews.

9.  Later this month, hubs and I will be celebrating our tenth wedding anniversary.

10.  We sold our car, and have a new car, and paid cash.  I really should share more about that, as it is such a blessing.

11.  We are REALLY close to being out of debt.

12.  I haven't gone real grocery shopping in probably a month.

13.  Our neighborhood pool is closed for the year, and I am really going to miss my morning lap swims in the cool, fresh air.

14.  I forgot to blog about Isaiah's birthday.  He turned 4 last week.  Happy birthday, buddy!

15.  Biniam turns 16 next week.  There, I'm covered just in case I forget again.

16.  The end. 

Currently...

...neck-deep in housework.

Getting ready for company this weekend.

Wishing that when I ran (yes, ran) to the pool yesterday for a swim, I hadn't discovered that it was closed.

Thankful that the pool is opening back up today.

Glad that summer has finally arrived and that we will be pushing triple-digits for the foreseeable future.

Excited that we will be harvesting beans from our garden in the next few days.

Thankful for good friends.  And a loving husband.

Things I say way too often

We don't eat plates.

We don't come out of the bathroom until our pants are UP.

Your penis is not a toy.

Let me be the parent.

We don't eat the bubbles/dirt/bugs/toys.

You need to go find your self-control.

Did you flush AND wash?

Is that tooth still hanging there?



Okay, I feel like I should follow this up with things I can't say enough:

You CAN do it.

I believe in you.

I'm proud of you.

I forgive you.

I love you.

A few things

My hubby is finally home from a 2-week business trip.  He was out of country, so we only got to talk a few times, which was a bummer.  It's so nice to have him back now, even if the jet-lag has him wandering around like a zombie. 

It's amazing how much laundry and mess men produce.  My work load was noticeably lighter the last two weeks.  (But you're worth it, Honey.)

I had a wonderful Mother's day.  Given the fact that Brian didn't get home until late Saturday night, I took matters into my own hands for Mother's day.  On Saturday I treated myself to a pedicure, then called Brian and told him thanks for the gift.  Then my bff and I cooked up a storm and made some of our favorite foods to have on Sunday.  We had guacamole, bacon, quiche, and PW's cinnamon rolls.  Yum.

This week I'll have an update for you on my garden experiment.  A hint:  some of you Seasoned Gardeners might be saying "I told you so". 

Now I'm off to try and work off some of those cinnamon rolls!