How We Do It, Up In Here….

On Saturday when we were the family cleaning machine, Jon was helping Jeremy to clean the Fridge.

Jeremy was responsible for washing the front, sides and top of the fridge. He managed to pick the pictures and magnets and all the other crap off the front and sides of the fridge. He washed it all down nicely. He needed a chair to reach the highest part, but he did it and he did a very good job.

He was a bit put off by the fact that he had to do the top of the fridge. Frankly, he had the right to be put off. It was more work to do the top of the fridge than it was to do the whole front and sides. There was so much crap up there…..bottles of vitamins, and medicine and bandaids and all sorts of other things.

We got a giant box and put everything from the top of the fridge inside it and then you oculd see just how gross the top of the fridge was. It had the whole greasy, dusty, nasty thing happening. The one where you need to scrape the crud off the surface and even then, it mostly just smears around and is so terribly hard to actually clean off.

At first, Jon lifted Jeremy up on his shoulders so that he could reach the top, and then I came into the kitchen to see this……

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And that…..that is how we do it, up in here!

Relaxin’

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Hey, didya miss me?

I had planned on posting EVERY DAY this month. I was doing pretty good, too! I had made it 8 straight days and then…..

Well, Jon and I and Siah went to Harrison Hot Springs for a few day and I did bring my computer so that I could post and upload pics and continue on my little plan of posting every day and well……Jon was the one who actually packed my computer and he forgot to pack the power cord.

See, I have his old cruddy laptop that is seriously considering dying. The battery lasts for about 20 minutes. The Enter button is broken off. And……I have 16 lines running vertically across my screen……………and well, this baby has been running non-stop for almost 4 years and has been though one melt down already and she’s pretty much on her last leg.

All of that means absolutely nothing to you, but it’s a frustration to me…..

So, back to the power cord – Jon forgot it and so I was screwed. And……once I figured that out – I just relaxed and enjoyed our time away.

So, this is the lame post for today and tomorrow we shall resume with the regular scheduled nonense.

Sandal Weather

So today is our LOOOOONGEST day of the week.

Typically we leave the house at 7:30am and then get home around 9:30pm. Today being Daylight Saving’s Time – it coulda been horrific, BUT….my in-laws decided to re-arrange the service schedule and only have one service at 11am today and that meant that we didn’t have to even wake up until 8am and then we left at 9:30am…..so SO nice.

On these LOOOOOOOONG days, we usually go over to Jon’s parents house and put the kids down (and ourselves) for an afternoon nap. I LOVE SUNDAY AFTERNOON NAPS…..when you eat a delicious lunch and then crawl into a cold bed and it gets all warm and snuggly and you feel so delicious…..Mmmmmm!

Any way, we all went down to their basement and crawled in our beds. it wasn’t a super nice day today, but it wasn’t a horridly dreary rainy wet day either. It was bright and dry and just a little chilly.

There are no windows in this basement and so it’s nice and dark. We went to sleep and when we woke up – BOY! Were we in for a huge shock.

There was almost 2 inches of snow on the ground. It was absolutely dumping big fat heavy clumpy drops of snow. It had started after we went to sleep. It was so bizarre to have woken up that morning, slipped some sandals on and thrown a sweater over your shoulders and headed off for the day and then to be needing snow boots, or at the very least, just a pair of shoes……

We drove home tonight wondering what the weather would be like out here, because we are further inland and……NOTHING. Not even a skiff of snow…..but one report said that the low tomorrow could be down at -14. And here we are just 2 weeks from Spring. Too funny!

What was the weather like today, where you’re from?

Just Get Busy, Already!

I feel like I’m constantly encouraging my kids to stay focused when it comes to helping oout around the house.

I hate feeling like the weight of the house cleaning rests entirely on my shoudlers and I don’t feel like I’m doing my little “angels” (and I use the term loosly) any favors by “just doing it all for them” and so…….this means that I am constantly feeling like I’m trying to figure out a way to encourage them to do their part.

I jokingly typed the word “force” instead of encourage and then had to erase it because that is SO not what I’m trying to accomplish with my kids….and this leads me right into a whole ‘nuther topic with a whole ‘nuther post for ‘nuther day…remind me of this sometimes soon, eh?

So, We’ve tried charts and and points and we’ve even tried reasoning with them. Ha Ha HA HA HA HA! That one didn’t work so well – *shrugs* but I tried.

My mom read a book recently and was so excited to tell me all about this amazing system that she had found and how it was changing her life and that blah, blah, blah, blah de de blah blah blah…..

I tuned out about that point. I really don’t hold much hope for really exciting systems. Especially if I have no idea how they would possibly work with MY family and MY husband and MY kids…..and….who are we kidding…..ME!

So, Things were getting better as far as house cleaning and keeping things tidy and I was excited with the forward/upward momentum that my life seemed to be having. Especially seeing as I was now working outside the home 4 out of 7 days a week.

And then………oh and then……my baby decided that sleep was for wusses and the kids went on strike and the husband freaked out about work and money and time and blah, blah, blah – I tuned him out too after a bit – and I was so tired that I slipped a bit further behind and then even a bit more behind and then even a bit more behind and well……I ended up feeling like things were hopeless.

So I asked my mom for the book and well….it turned out that there might be some merit to the system after all.

I sat down on Thursday to start planning things out the way the book says to and really if I were honest with you all….I half expected that by the time the kids came home from school on Thursday afternoon – that the house would already be moving back towards where it should be. Ha Ha Ha Ha HA!

Two phone calls, and a lunch appt later and I had written down exactly 4 cards for my new system and the house was in no better shape than it had been that morning.

BUT…..I sat down after they got home and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote and wrote. I must have filled in more than 200 cards, and I still think that I’ve got more cards to write up, but HEY! It’s a start.

And so I started using the system on Friday and it was okay!

This system by the Slob Sisters uses index cards to help you and one thing that they said in their book that has really hit me is that there is now way that I can get it ALL done right away but…..if I’ve done 4 or 5 cards, that is 4 or 5 jobs that I hadn’t previously done and I’m actually better off than if I had done nothing. So WIN, right?

You write up jobs on each card and label them daily jobs, weekly jobs, monthly jobs, seasonal jobs or yearly jobs….they can be anywhere in between there, but I’m shocked at how it seems so much more managable when you just finally file all your cards over the month and realize that while you might not get everything done right away….that you will eventually get caught up and things will definately be better off than you were.

The kids have bought into this whole idea….I’m actually combining the cards with points. If they complete the card they get a point….if they complete the card within the “approximated” time written on the card then they get two points.

Today we plowed through a TON of work in 3 hours and while there was a whole lot of “JUST GET BUSY’s” thrown around – somehow, somewhere it seemed to click that this was easy and managable and they could totally buy into this.

Jeremy even said to me, “Mom, did you see how many cards I’ve done. I never even knew that I could do this much work.”

He’s my BIGGEST whiner when it comes to helping out….followed closly by Geli who just doesn’t like to work – but to see how he was excited by this and how he felt that he could do this….

I can actually SEE this system working for us.

I love the fact that once I do a “monthly” job that I can remove the card from my pile and file it with next months cards. And once I do a job for the week…it goes into next week. It also helps with other things like appointments and remembering to bathe the kids regularly – as opposed to the whole, “Freak, you stink! When did you last take a shower? Do not pass go! Do not collect $200. Get your butt in that shower and get that funk off you.” system that we’ve been rocking recently. I can file Jeremy’s bath for Wednesday night and if I get the girls on opposite nights, then it’s not like we have a melt down because the hot water has run out.

I can really see this working, and I’ve even talked with the kids about helping me on Thursday this next week to get things done for this next week so that we can take Saturday off and just have a family day.

I’m sure that I’ll be updating on this, but….we may have found something that actually works. I seriously hope so. Regardless, my house is in WAY BETTER shape than it was this morning. It’s not perfect, and honestly I have a LONG way to go, but…..progress, baby! Progress!

The Family That Eats Together…..

I had planned our weekly menu for the week and tonight we were going to have stuffed potatoes…..kind of a twist on Taco’s….Baked Potatoes – topped with ground beef and lettuce and tomatoes, and cheese, sour cream and salsa……Mmmmm Mmmmm Delicious!

We picked the kids up from school and came home and I was farting around on the Internet and read this post at Balancing Everything. It sounded like so much fun, and I figured that my kids would love to make some potstickers. I found this recipe and figured that I could adapt it slightly and we’d be golden.

We used Kamut Flour instead of regular flour and aside from that – we pretty much followed the recipe.

Jeremy wasn’t too excited about all of this. He pretty much hates anything new. I had high hopes that he’d help with cutting and grating the veggies and that somehow the actual involvement would mean that he would love this meal. Ya….not so much!

Totally Involved and Engaged

He did help out some, and even ate two of the potstickers, BUT that was only after some serious threatening forcing cajoling encouraging.

Siah helped out by throwing his incredible cuteness around…….

Ahhhhhh

Geli made some of the most amazing potstickers. This photo does absolutely NO justice to how amazing looking her potstickers looked. Even if they were not traditionally looking potstickers…..still – AMAZING!

The Real Deal

After all was said and done, the potstickers tasted amazing. It was an easy – if somewhat involved – meal to make and mostly everybody liked them.

I think that we’ll probably make them again and we might even try pyrogies sometime soon…..maybe Jeremy would like those….then again – probably not!

Click here to see the Potsticker set in all it’s glory.

The Most Precious Moments

It’s these little kind of things that you want to just grab a hold of and never let go. These are the kinds of things that melt your heart.

Let me set the scene….

It’s after 8pm and all three of the older darlings are in their beds. In the time from after school until bedtime, we’ve had some minor squabbles, but nothing that couldn’t be solved with a hug and some extra love. Now the house is quiet, and Siah has been asking for “Rocky Bye Bye”. He’s just started this recently. He is asking for our night time routine of snuggling in his rocking chair and nursing him to sleep. He seems to really look forward to this special time and I do to.

He and I sit in the still darkness of his bedroom, and snuggle in peace. There is nothing that is pressing. No older children wanting things or making noise to distract from the business at hand. It’s a very special time that is just for he and I.

Typically I sing to him while we cuddle and nurse, and tonight is no different. I open my voice and the sweet gentle sound (all in good fun, people) of my voice fills the air. I start to sing “our song”.

“Rocky, Rocky Bye Bye
I want the Moon to Play with……”

Siah reaches his hand up in a loving gesture towards my face. I look forward to his gentle caress. I love it when he plays with my face or skin or hair. His skin is so soft and smells so sweet. He is still so babyish. His chubby little index finger touches my lips and he stops nursing and gazes lovingly up into my eyes and says,

“SHUSH!”

Beware the Vampires

A few weeks ago, it was my niece’s birthday and she had a sleep over.

My two girls went for the party and everything was all fairies and roses and was going along fabulously.

We had some plans that got all re-arranged and we ended up asking my mother-in-law to pick up the girls and she (being the amazing person that she is) agreed. We talked to my sister and all was set up and organized in the exact way that I like it to be. You know, wrapped up with a big red bow and seeming all perfect.

My mother-in-law was actually on her way and had just connected with my sister and mentioned that she’d be there in just a few minutes. That sounded great to everyone and somehow…….someway……in the few minutes between when they chatted on the phone and my mother-inlaw showed up…..everything turned crazily upside down.

Apparently the girls were out in the yard bouncing on the trampoline when my niece went all vampire on Xandra and tried to bite a chunk out of her head.

It, being a good head wound, bled ALL OVER THE FREAKING PLACE and scared the crap outta all the girls. They came running to the house screaming and crying. Xani was holding her head and Bri was holding her chin and…..well….it was not a happy situation.

Chelle got the situation sorted out and Xani was laying on the couch bleeding nicely when Mum arrived…..and after some discussion it was determined that the wound was gaping entirely too much and she should probably have a few stitches.

They got to spend 4 hours in the Maple Ridge ER and came out with this…….

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Pretty, Isn’t it?

Apparently, according to Mum, the ER Doctor was AMAZING. He was so gentle and careful that Xandra didn’t end up with a giant hack mark in her hair. He didn’t have to cut any of the hair around the wound, he just took extra time and stitched carefully and for that I am so grateful.

She was allowed to take a shower that first night to wash all the blood out of her hair, but then she wans’t allowed to wash her hair for the next 4 days – as they were dissolving stiches. Nice!!! And wouldn’t you know that week was the week that she was doing swimming for PE at school. We solved that problem by getting her a swim cap, and by the end of the week, the stitches had dissolved and her head is all better.

She only has the giant nasty scar, but fortunately it is in the scalp and not on her face.

She is such a brave little girl. She didn’t flip out or cry while they were doing the stitches or anything. She told me later that she was just trying to be as calm as she could. What a little cutie.

This evens up the score for the girls. Now both of my girls have had stitches on their heads. I’m hoping that the boys don’t try and even things up on their end.

Opinions……everybody’s got one!

Okay, so I’ve borrowed my father-in-law’s camera because I’ve been wanting to take some pictures of my kids and so far, I’ve been able to get some good pics of Geli.

I’m hoping to be able to plow through the other kids soon, and I’ll be asking for your input on those pics as well…..if ya don’t mind.

We are wanting to blow up a pic of each of the kids and…ya know…plaster them all over our walls…that kind of thing….

So, without further ado….

Click on the picture of Geli to see the set and can you let me know which are YOUR favorites?

Still Holding My Breath

It had been so long since we’d had any “major issues” with allergies that I was beginning to wonder if we had totally made it all up or, if at the very least, that we had blown it out of proportion or if Siah was just growing out of it all – because I’d heard that it was possible for some “intolerances” to be grown out of.

It turns out that we are just amazing at being very careful and not letting Siah get “into” any of the things that he’s not supposed to have.

Not an issue with dairy as we are just typically a dairy free home. Soy doesn’t seem to have wicked reations with him. We’ve stopped buying cashews or ANYTHING that would have cashews in it and I didn’t really think that there was too much else.

BOY WAS I WRONG!

We made some crepes the other day and we made a batch with eggs and another one with egg replacer so that Siah could have some with us. I cracked the eggs into the bowl and then asked one of the kids to throw the shells away.

This didn’t happen, and the shells were left on the table. Somehow Siah manages to get up to the table and grabbed the shells. We saw him do it and quickly took them away from and then I asked one of the girls to wash his hands off as he had some of the raw egg white on his fingers. Again, this didn’t happen and I’m guessing that he rubbed his face and within………..5 minutes, he was scratching and clawing at his face. I started to wonder what was up and was panicing trying to figure out what could have happened and within 10 minutes he looked like this……

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I’m not sure if you can see the full extent of the mess, but it felt like within seconds he had gone from fine to brutal. His face was swollen and puffy and red and the hives were turning into blisters and it was horrible.

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We dosed him up with Benadryl and washed his face off and decided to throw him in the bath to see if it would help with washing the stuff off and possibly soothing the irritated skin.

Here he is about 15 minutes after we gave him the Benadryl.

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Despite the trauma of it all, I think that I was more upset about it all, than he was. After the initial attempts at clawing his face off, he seemed to calm down fairly quickly and returned to the happy, easy-going baby that we all know and love.

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Despite how we seemed to “sail” through this allergy attack, it sends me back to a state of feeling like I’m holding my breath. I know that I’ve still got to be careful of what he eats (or rubs on himself). It’s so frustrating and slightly scary. I’m thankful that it was a skin reaction and SOOOOO THANKFUL that we’ve not had to deal with anything more serious than that.

I can’t fathom how awful it must be for someone who sends their baby or child off to school or daycare or with friends or relatives and is unsure of what might or might not happen while their child is not with them. This whole “food allergy” thing is not a joke nor is it something to take or treat lightly.

If you’ve not had a food allergy touch your llife or your child than count yourself blessed and please, PLEASE support those who do have this issue as a part of thier lives. We know first hand how difficult altering your lifestyle is, and we are eternally grateful to all who support us by making the world around our children a safer place for them.

Where are the Poop Flinging Monkey’s When You Need Them……

Last night……..OOOOOOOOOOOOOOOH last night.

You only wish that you coulda had “HALF” the fun that we did last night.

So, last night Jon and I watched a movie that I think my littlest brother would like, BUT he’s probably already seen it. Chris?? You seen Nick & Nora’s Infinate Playlist, yet? The whole indie music scene is right up his alley. You should ask him about his cuh-ray-zee music collection – seriously insane, people, SERIOUSLY!

Anyhoo….we watched the movie (It was a little young for us – we are such geezers now), and started it early as we wanted to get to bed early cause we had an early start to the day today. Managed to make it to sleep by 11:30pm. Not early enough, by our standards…..

Anyway, in the middle of the night Jeremy comes into our room clutching his stomach and crying hysterically. It was one of those moments where you go from dead asleep to wide awake with a serious shot of adrenaline in .001 seconds. Not a nice way to wake up at all. He’s crying about how bad his stomach is hurting and how he needs to go to the hospital and how he can’t move or breathe or cry or anything, except that he’s writhing all over the place, breathing at about 1000 miles an hour and, like I said before, crying hysterically.

We’ve been down this road before and even took him to the hospital. We ended up with blood tests, and x-rays and all sorts of fun over a 4 hour period and in the end, the nice doctor even showed us the x-ray and mentioned that the poor kid just needed to “release” a little and he’d be fine.

So, we figured that this was the same situation.

And we were right…..well, if it wasn’t poop, then it was gas, but regardless – it was not worth a hospital visit.

And so,

1) 2 hours,
2) 3 supppositories (oh yah, baby…you try inserting one of those suckers into an 8 year old….not only that, but an 8 year old who is freaking out and screaming and doesn’t understand the concept of just holding “it” all together for 15 – 20 minutes and well……it took 3 tries to be able to wait long enough for the desired effect to take place.)
3) 3 large glasses of water
4) 4 trips to the toilet
5) 3 large belches and
6) 2 nasty farts

….all of that lead us to “the mother load”, which in turn lead us all into being able to go back to bed and to finally getting to sleep.

After all of that, it was only 3:30am…..Jeremy had come into us around 1:30am…we’d only been sleeping for 2 hours when he came in crying.

So, when the alarm went off at 5:45am, I cried. The End!

ps. It’s been a very tired day, today! To say the least……