I can't do that. So I will write one, even though it is lame....wait, is it politically correct to say "lame"? Wait, I don't care.
Meatballs, homemade, in the oven covered in sauce. Water boiling for three pounds of pasta. Table set. Three loads of socks washed, the last of which is in the dryer. Lots of laundry done today. But is the place clean and tidy? Of course not!! Camille and Charlotte Claire live here...they live here, they play here, and they dump things out here. Jonathan the Toy King lives here too. He likes to see his things.
Snow is coming. More snow. I am trying hard to stay home and save money, so far it is working. I sent Mirielle to the grocery store after her dentist appointment. She got only necessary things, like carrots and tortilla wraps and burger and bananas and milk.
Well....token post is ending....dinner time approaches, kids are crazy as can be...it is loud in here. Joseph is playing music in his room, Kathryn is playing that dratted ukelele, someone is watching something on Youtube......I need to put the pasta in the water and get on with dinner. (Charlotte Claire just got out Candyland, and Sonja slipped on a Hess truck...blah...
Tuesday, January 4, 2011
Monday, January 3, 2011
emmy's here!
And since she is so nice, she is doing origami with Suzanne, Sonja, and Jonathan.
Paul is working on Ashley's room. He is putting the door on, so she can sleep in there tonight, even though the carpet is not down yet...the padding is there though. And she has a nice air mattress.
The two little girls are "helping" him. I am taking a break after doing major chores today: I took all the hampers out of the laundry room and sorted clothes....sorted and washed and dried and put away....then I made stew for dinner.
My Camille has a cold. That means she has gone back to being two years old for a while. She still "want you, Mama", quite frequently but when she doesn't feel so great, she wants me more. So I don't mind.
Tomorrow Mirielle has a dentist appointment, and she is going to bring Ashley to register for classes at the college she goes to. I have an appointment tomorrow too, so I will bring the two little girls.
I hate when I spend so much time doing something like sorting laundry and organizing one room, then look at the rest of the house. It doesn't just freeze and stand still while I am busy, no new messes are created continuously. Charlotte Claire took advantage of my busy-ness to take some Little People playsets out of her closet. Her room...oh my goodness...she just messes more than she is capable of picking up...she enjoys herself in there, to put it nicely. The two little girls are very happy, they play dollies and Barbies and house and store and Candyland and matching games and playdough....they make me dizzy sometimes. They ARE getting older, so today I made them pick up the Bendaroos before they could have a candy. No, I didn't exactly bribe them...I was having a few caramels and they wanted some....
Right now Camille has a dollhouse camper packed up with people, with a car on the roof, and she is crawling all over the livingroom pushing it around. She is being the voices of the people, and in her polka dotted party dress, she is looking cute.
Mirielle reminded me today of a part in the movie, "The Family Stone"....the mother woke up in the morning, went into the kitchen, and the coffee pot was empty. Her son's fiance had just taken the last cup, and before she thought about it, the mother said, "What? there is supposed to be coffee when I get up!!" And the fiancee stammered that she was just about to make another pot, and the mother said, "Oh, it's fine..." We told Ashley that lots of things like that would probably happen....I told her that when she tell the younger kids to knock it off, I will know she feels at home. Or when someone steals her spot on the couch and she stands there and snaps her fingers and tells them NO WAY, she will feel at home. I desparately want her to feel at home here. She is going to be for such a long time....
The interesting thing is that I wish I could magically transform myself into a totally longsuffering and patient and softspoken mother. A mother who never ever demands to know who was responsible for drinking the last of the orange juice and leaving the carton on the counter, a mother who just picks up the dirty socks without interrogating the boys to find out who left them there. A mother who would never think of embarrassing her children by enquiring who forgot to flush the toilet, or who used the rest of the toilet paper and didn't replace it. Because it is inevitable that one of these times it will be ASHLEY who was the perpetrator, and I am going to feel like an idiot....
But that perhaps will be the moment that defines her feeling at home.
At any rate, I shall work on thinking before I speak. I have noticed that we humans tend to fear people more than we fear God. If God was standing in the kitchen when I discovered that orange juice carton, I would certainly just humbly crush it and gargbage it myself.
Well, Jonathan is getting his homework folder out for me to see......
Paul is working on Ashley's room. He is putting the door on, so she can sleep in there tonight, even though the carpet is not down yet...the padding is there though. And she has a nice air mattress.
The two little girls are "helping" him. I am taking a break after doing major chores today: I took all the hampers out of the laundry room and sorted clothes....sorted and washed and dried and put away....then I made stew for dinner.
My Camille has a cold. That means she has gone back to being two years old for a while. She still "want you, Mama", quite frequently but when she doesn't feel so great, she wants me more. So I don't mind.
Tomorrow Mirielle has a dentist appointment, and she is going to bring Ashley to register for classes at the college she goes to. I have an appointment tomorrow too, so I will bring the two little girls.
I hate when I spend so much time doing something like sorting laundry and organizing one room, then look at the rest of the house. It doesn't just freeze and stand still while I am busy, no new messes are created continuously. Charlotte Claire took advantage of my busy-ness to take some Little People playsets out of her closet. Her room...oh my goodness...she just messes more than she is capable of picking up...she enjoys herself in there, to put it nicely. The two little girls are very happy, they play dollies and Barbies and house and store and Candyland and matching games and playdough....they make me dizzy sometimes. They ARE getting older, so today I made them pick up the Bendaroos before they could have a candy. No, I didn't exactly bribe them...I was having a few caramels and they wanted some....
Right now Camille has a dollhouse camper packed up with people, with a car on the roof, and she is crawling all over the livingroom pushing it around. She is being the voices of the people, and in her polka dotted party dress, she is looking cute.
Mirielle reminded me today of a part in the movie, "The Family Stone"....the mother woke up in the morning, went into the kitchen, and the coffee pot was empty. Her son's fiance had just taken the last cup, and before she thought about it, the mother said, "What? there is supposed to be coffee when I get up!!" And the fiancee stammered that she was just about to make another pot, and the mother said, "Oh, it's fine..." We told Ashley that lots of things like that would probably happen....I told her that when she tell the younger kids to knock it off, I will know she feels at home. Or when someone steals her spot on the couch and she stands there and snaps her fingers and tells them NO WAY, she will feel at home. I desparately want her to feel at home here. She is going to be for such a long time....
The interesting thing is that I wish I could magically transform myself into a totally longsuffering and patient and softspoken mother. A mother who never ever demands to know who was responsible for drinking the last of the orange juice and leaving the carton on the counter, a mother who just picks up the dirty socks without interrogating the boys to find out who left them there. A mother who would never think of embarrassing her children by enquiring who forgot to flush the toilet, or who used the rest of the toilet paper and didn't replace it. Because it is inevitable that one of these times it will be ASHLEY who was the perpetrator, and I am going to feel like an idiot....
But that perhaps will be the moment that defines her feeling at home.
At any rate, I shall work on thinking before I speak. I have noticed that we humans tend to fear people more than we fear God. If God was standing in the kitchen when I discovered that orange juice carton, I would certainly just humbly crush it and gargbage it myself.
Well, Jonathan is getting his homework folder out for me to see......
first monday of a new year
How is that for a lame title? I wrote Mr. Benjamin a letter this morning, stamped and adressed it and got in the mailbox via Sonja, who had to go out to get on the bus anyway. I need more stamps, it is on my to-do list to get two packages, one for me and one to send to Ben.
He has to do push-ups everytime he gets a letter, so it makes me feel like the letter has to be worth the effort.
Benjamin gained 12 pounds over vacation. He has always been extremely thin, he now looks healthy and handsome.
I feel like I always do when I send a child to kindgergarten...I hope they realize how special this boy is.
Cold and chilly and freezing and icy and slippery and snowy....and it is only the beginning of January. This winter has been long already. We still have our snow, it has been here since the beginning of December. After driving across the whole state yesterday, and seeing fields of green, I realize that we are an exception even around here. South of us has lost snow, north of us didn't have as much....we have a few bare patches, but mostly snow and still those snowbanks. Yesterday when we got home I felt like we arrived back at winter.
Charlotte Claire is up, playing with her princess dolls with Jonathan's two LittleTikes tractor trailers which he inherited from Benjamin. Why the dolls would drive trucks like that in their ball dresses is beyond me, but to her it makes perfect sense. They do have a few RescueHeroes to protect them, riding on the roof.
Suzanne is home today. She was taking her temperature at bedtime last night, and I just thought, :oh here it comes, school is starting and the thermometer, which we haven't seen for the whole vacation, appears again. Imagine the guilt I experienced a few short minutes later when she ran to the bathroom and barfed up all her roast beef dinner.....she was totally white, and shaky....she said her tummy hurt badly....so she is home today.
And as horrible as is sounds, I would rather her be such a good faker she can throw-up to be convincing than this be a REAL bug, that travels through them all....
So has anyone kept any New Year's resolutions still? I keep forgetting about the Eating Right one. I remember when I get in bed at night, but during the day, I forget. I have been doing pretty well, actually, except for when I talked to my sister on the phone the other day and ate the whole bag of Dove Chocolate covered almonds....it IS only a four ounce bag, but for some reason that still adds up to way too many calories. But almonds ARE good for you, lots of protein.
My excercise one - not yet. I did take Rosie down the road farther than usual on Saturday, but all that did was make her want to go farther every morning. Today is so cold, and she thought it was fine out there....brr.
My Spending Less has worked so far. I went to the small grocery store on Saturday, and spent just thirty bucks, and got two movies from Redbox, which are only a dollar each...if one returns them the next day, and oops. I will try to get them back today.
I would like to start taking the kids to the pool again, but it is so hard to do when the people who run the pool are such meanies. They make the kids wear the horrible foam squares-attatched-to-belts, which ride up and itch them and choke them and bug them, instead of the nice and fashionable floaties which I have aquired through careful 75% off shopping. rrr.
The house seems so empty with the tree gone and all the pretty and sparkly stuff put away. It makes me want to go shopping and buy stuff.
Today I shall work on laundry, since one of the kids wet the bed, it shouldn't be too hard to decide what to wash first. I also want to empty the hampers and sort things again. We have five hampers, all for certain colors, one for socks, and one for bedding. Well, my kids have inherited my organizational skills, so we end up having five hampers with all sorts of things mixed up together. But I will not give up so easily. I will dump all the hampers, sort the laundry again, pick up all the things that fall on the laundry room floor, and get it all back the way it should be. Maybe.
Suze is up, she doesn't feel well, she is all cuddled up in her new pink fleece blanky, she is pale and blah.
I could easily go back to bed and sleep for a few hours. But I can't, so I won't waste my time wishing and wanting. I shall get up from my comfy chair and get to work....
He has to do push-ups everytime he gets a letter, so it makes me feel like the letter has to be worth the effort.
Benjamin gained 12 pounds over vacation. He has always been extremely thin, he now looks healthy and handsome.
I feel like I always do when I send a child to kindgergarten...I hope they realize how special this boy is.
Cold and chilly and freezing and icy and slippery and snowy....and it is only the beginning of January. This winter has been long already. We still have our snow, it has been here since the beginning of December. After driving across the whole state yesterday, and seeing fields of green, I realize that we are an exception even around here. South of us has lost snow, north of us didn't have as much....we have a few bare patches, but mostly snow and still those snowbanks. Yesterday when we got home I felt like we arrived back at winter.
Charlotte Claire is up, playing with her princess dolls with Jonathan's two LittleTikes tractor trailers which he inherited from Benjamin. Why the dolls would drive trucks like that in their ball dresses is beyond me, but to her it makes perfect sense. They do have a few RescueHeroes to protect them, riding on the roof.
Suzanne is home today. She was taking her temperature at bedtime last night, and I just thought, :oh here it comes, school is starting and the thermometer, which we haven't seen for the whole vacation, appears again. Imagine the guilt I experienced a few short minutes later when she ran to the bathroom and barfed up all her roast beef dinner.....she was totally white, and shaky....she said her tummy hurt badly....so she is home today.
And as horrible as is sounds, I would rather her be such a good faker she can throw-up to be convincing than this be a REAL bug, that travels through them all....
So has anyone kept any New Year's resolutions still? I keep forgetting about the Eating Right one. I remember when I get in bed at night, but during the day, I forget. I have been doing pretty well, actually, except for when I talked to my sister on the phone the other day and ate the whole bag of Dove Chocolate covered almonds....it IS only a four ounce bag, but for some reason that still adds up to way too many calories. But almonds ARE good for you, lots of protein.
My excercise one - not yet. I did take Rosie down the road farther than usual on Saturday, but all that did was make her want to go farther every morning. Today is so cold, and she thought it was fine out there....brr.
My Spending Less has worked so far. I went to the small grocery store on Saturday, and spent just thirty bucks, and got two movies from Redbox, which are only a dollar each...if one returns them the next day, and oops. I will try to get them back today.
I would like to start taking the kids to the pool again, but it is so hard to do when the people who run the pool are such meanies. They make the kids wear the horrible foam squares-attatched-to-belts, which ride up and itch them and choke them and bug them, instead of the nice and fashionable floaties which I have aquired through careful 75% off shopping. rrr.
The house seems so empty with the tree gone and all the pretty and sparkly stuff put away. It makes me want to go shopping and buy stuff.
Today I shall work on laundry, since one of the kids wet the bed, it shouldn't be too hard to decide what to wash first. I also want to empty the hampers and sort things again. We have five hampers, all for certain colors, one for socks, and one for bedding. Well, my kids have inherited my organizational skills, so we end up having five hampers with all sorts of things mixed up together. But I will not give up so easily. I will dump all the hampers, sort the laundry again, pick up all the things that fall on the laundry room floor, and get it all back the way it should be. Maybe.
Suze is up, she doesn't feel well, she is all cuddled up in her new pink fleece blanky, she is pale and blah.
I could easily go back to bed and sleep for a few hours. But I can't, so I won't waste my time wishing and wanting. I shall get up from my comfy chair and get to work....
Sunday, January 2, 2011
29 years ago today....
I met Paul...I asked him at the dinner table what today was, he had no idea. But he is a keeper anyway...he spent his day finishing up Ashley's room. He put in wood blinds and a new light fixture, the walls are painted and it is ready for the carpet. It seemed right to me from the start to have Mrs. Ashley live here with us, and I rather marveled that it just plain seemed right to him, too, no questions asked.
Our tree survived without tipping over that whole time....Joe took it out for us today...that is him in his sweatshirt, and that is Emily having some tea....
Our tree survived without tipping over that whole time....Joe took it out for us today...that is him in his sweatshirt, and that is Emily having some tea....
Suze in the Indian Girl shirt. We have had this since Emily was a toddler, so it has been in use for twenty something years. It is for a two or three or possibly four year old, but Suze thinks it is fun to squish into it....there is a zipper to close the tent, then unzip and voila! The Indian Girl. (we cannot change our thinking to refer to her as a Native American girl)
Charlotte Claire with someone's old cell phone, and Camille with the ever-popular ukulele.
So....my Poor Me story about going to the airport: I stayed up late late late last night, couldn't fall asleep. Absolutely could not settle down, knowing I was getting up at three o'clock. So at one, still wide awake, I got up and got dressed, then tried to rest on the couch. ha. It was lumpy and bumpy and my arm was falling asleep and then Rosie would rattle in her cage....then, just when I was getting relaxed, I looked at my phone: 2:48! Time to get up. Wait just a minute here, I hadn't even gone to sleep yet! blah. And coffee sounded awful. Plus, I had to get the buzzers out (hairclippers) because Ben had trimmed half his hair and his set broke, so he looked hilarious....his friend came over at three a.m. to say goodbye to him, and Rosie thought it was Barking Time from her cage....his friend fixed his hair, Ashley activated his new track phone, so that when he does get an evening with permission to use it, he has one that actually works down there....then we were off. But wait, he had left his military issued sneakers back at the place they had stayed this week, at least nine miles north of here, and we were going south and west....and wait, it was snowing! Huge heavy lake-effect flakes, driving into them was like a science fiction movie....by the time we hit the thruway, we were forty-five minutes behind schedule. We had no time to stop for coffee....and the miles went on and on and on....we got there with no time to spare...he got on the plane at 6:16am and it took off at 6:30....we watched him go through security, through our tears, and he didn't have to take off his boots, they waved him right through.....
So...the drive home was torture. Ashley said they didn't even go to sleep at all last night, so she conked in the back. I made poor Evelyn, my Co-Pilot, stay awake the whole way home...I was so tired, I would blink and then have to use my will of steel to make my eyes open again....I did get a coffee at McD's for the way home, they were any size for one buck, so I got any size. (who would get a small?)
I came in and got back in my jammies and slept for three hours.
Abigail was here visiting when I woke up. Then Emily came in. It was a good day....I put a few roasts in the oven, so we had roast beef and gravy and mashed potatoes and green beans and Italian bread and butter for dinner....the good part was that it made the house smell so good all afternoon while it slow roasted....
We undecorated and took the tree down. But the pile of presents is still there in the corner. I am really tired and feel like I am moving in slow motion....I am looking forward to bed time tonight...for me.
Saturday, January 1, 2011
wow, third post of the year so far....
Ben and Ashley came by...he wanted to say goodbye to the kids...and of course that included tears and tears....as soon as they got out the door, I let loose, and just plain couldn't stop. Just couldn't. Not with Jon sobbing that the next time he would see Benjamin he would be seven years old.
I get to see Ben tomorrow morning, so it isn't goodbye for me yet, but seeing the kids tell him goodbye was not easy. Six months or so isn't forever, but we are a close family, and he is going to be so sorely missed. Plus, I am his mommy, and heck...he has to finish boot camp! Ouch for my soul. He is still my little boy.
He has grown up so much the last few months, gotten so much more responsible and respectful. Wah, I don't want to see him go.
But we will be busy with Mrs. Ashley here with us...and since there is never a dull moment around here, time will fly. And I know that God will watch over my Benjamin....because He always has.....
I get to see Ben tomorrow morning, so it isn't goodbye for me yet, but seeing the kids tell him goodbye was not easy. Six months or so isn't forever, but we are a close family, and he is going to be so sorely missed. Plus, I am his mommy, and heck...he has to finish boot camp! Ouch for my soul. He is still my little boy.
He has grown up so much the last few months, gotten so much more responsible and respectful. Wah, I don't want to see him go.
But we will be busy with Mrs. Ashley here with us...and since there is never a dull moment around here, time will fly. And I know that God will watch over my Benjamin....because He always has.....
ten kids home....
so that means six kids are elsewhere....let's see....Emily came for "dinner", and left for work at the hospital, Abigail is at the Dome, Benjamin is with Ashley on his last evening of his honeymoon, Mirielle is at the Dome, as is Joseph, Aaron is at work at the grocery store in town, Mali is at the Dome. All accounted for. I don't always know where the two older girls are, since they live down the road, but it is a habit of mine to count up the kids and know where they all are. When we had our laundry room fire last year and had to get out of the house, I kept counting kids and getting fifteen, and totally flipping out....I guess they kept telling me that Emily was in Norway, but I was in Panic Mode, so it took a few minutes for that to sink in.
Anyway....we went to town and got a few kid movies from the Redbox, then went to the small grocery store where Aaron works....he likes when we visit him at work. He calls his two little sisters, "the babies", and "small ones", and he says it so affectionately.
We just got some milk and eggs and bananas and carrots and cheese and orange juice and also chips and dip and soda, since it is New Years....we had a snacky dinner with Emily.
Emily informed me at said snacky dinner that Benjamin's flight is leaving at 6:30 A.M.! From Buffalo, which is over two hours away!! He will have to be there at least an hour before the flight, so that puts us at having to leave at....rats, like 3:00!! May as well just stay up, since Paul won't get home 'til around midnight tonight. Oh Benjamin, it was so kind of you to save some money on your ticket, but.....blah.
Okay, this has nothing to do with anything, but here is something I have learned about husbands. Husbands, being men, do not always like to talk as much as wives do, since wives are women. There are probably exceptions to this rule, but unfortunately for me, Paul is not one of them. Don't get me wrong, sometimes he loves to talk. But just not all the time, like I do, and not about interesting things like good sales and coupons and my blogger friends and birth rememberances......and sometimes I forget that he is him, and I take it rather personally, and I think he should be different, or that he just doesn't like me. My experience is that a husband is a husband, a friend and more of course, I love him dearly, but one needs friends, women friends to talk about blah blah blah things with.
I don't know where I was going with that thought, but Ben and Ashley just walked in....
Anyway....we went to town and got a few kid movies from the Redbox, then went to the small grocery store where Aaron works....he likes when we visit him at work. He calls his two little sisters, "the babies", and "small ones", and he says it so affectionately.
We just got some milk and eggs and bananas and carrots and cheese and orange juice and also chips and dip and soda, since it is New Years....we had a snacky dinner with Emily.
Emily informed me at said snacky dinner that Benjamin's flight is leaving at 6:30 A.M.! From Buffalo, which is over two hours away!! He will have to be there at least an hour before the flight, so that puts us at having to leave at....rats, like 3:00!! May as well just stay up, since Paul won't get home 'til around midnight tonight. Oh Benjamin, it was so kind of you to save some money on your ticket, but.....blah.
Okay, this has nothing to do with anything, but here is something I have learned about husbands. Husbands, being men, do not always like to talk as much as wives do, since wives are women. There are probably exceptions to this rule, but unfortunately for me, Paul is not one of them. Don't get me wrong, sometimes he loves to talk. But just not all the time, like I do, and not about interesting things like good sales and coupons and my blogger friends and birth rememberances......and sometimes I forget that he is him, and I take it rather personally, and I think he should be different, or that he just doesn't like me. My experience is that a husband is a husband, a friend and more of course, I love him dearly, but one needs friends, women friends to talk about blah blah blah things with.
I don't know where I was going with that thought, but Ben and Ashley just walked in....
on the walls he left nothing but hooks and some wire...
The grinch did that. He did the same thing to the other Who's houses, leaving crumbs much too small for the other Who's mouses...
The Christmas tree is looking rather gloomy...
I dread un-decorating. It is just filled with the exact opposite of the excitement that propelled me to get it all out and put it up.
We had omelets for breakfast this morning....
Today is a good day. Paul and the older kids went to the Dome, again. I am here with only Evelyn and Suzanne and Sonja and Jonathan and Charlotte Claire and Camille, and my niece Olivia. Sam is at his friend's house, Margaret is at her friend's house, and Kathryn spent the night at Emily and Abigails' apartment. Emily will be picking Sam and Margaret up, and bringing the three of them home on her way to work this afternoon.
So now it is quiet in here. The dryer is running, Charlotte Claire is sitting on the couch with eight Barbies singing and humming and in her own little world. Evelyn is playing SIMS on the computer, and the other kids are playing school in Suzanne's room. The house is a mess, which does indeed niggle at me, soon I will get up and restore some order.
Our feast last night....
bouncy house...being the supervisor to the kids in there can give the nicest mommies headaches.
watching the kids/youth play blindfolded musical chairs in which the chairs are moved all around...hilarious.
playing the freeze-dance game with all the kids and youth (and noticing that you are the only "old" person playing).....why the heck did I do this? It was fun, but David was walking around with his camera...if any of those pictures land on facebook or the church website, it was NOT me. It was Cheryl.
serving rootbear ice cream floats......of course I had one...but I chose diet root beer.
dinner.....how can one not be thouroughly thrilled with taco salad? Oh, the black olives and tomatoes and green peppers and onions and hot sauce....
sitting around and talking with the other mommies.....ooh, that is the best. I got plenty of opportunities to work on my listening skills, and found a bit of contention in myself. How could that not be good? And of course it is so nice to have fun and fellowship with my friends....
the chicken dance....yes, I joined in....what can I say?
the countdown to midnight.....honestly, I was glad it was getting time to go home, I must be getting old...or perhaps it tugged at my conscience a bit that Charlotte Claire had fallen asleep in her sister's arms....
So today it is very logical and understandable that I am here with several grumpy children. Miss Sonja is sitting here in a chair for her role in the Jon/Sonja fight. I don't even want to know the details. But if you are going to hit your brother, you shall sit in the chair. The poor girl is just sitting here in a daze. We should have naptime for everyone....
What I AM planning to do is get the place cleaned up quick, then pack them into the van and take a quick trip to Blockbuster to get the movie, "Beauty and The Beast" for the girls. Charlotte Claire wants to know the stories behind her princesses, and seems fascinated with this tale....she has never watched the movie, and when she found out one existed, she decided she really wants to see it. I wish I had Netflix today.
I am imagining the house all quiet and cozy while we snuggle up and have movie time....
See, I do not learn. It won't really be like that, but I am ever-hopeful.
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