update on those goals

This winter has been crazy it seems.  I am still trying desperately to find some balance in my life.  I had a bunch of goals that I set out for this year.  I'm doing OK with some, great with others and totally given up on others.  And I am OK with that.  It's all about priorities.  I can only do so much and I have a lot that is non-negotiable...like laundry and making dinner every night and helping kids with homework and working and sleeping.


So here's where I am with some of these things...


--get back to more consistent menu planning and making use of the food we have on hand


I've done really well with this one.  This is the first week since January that I didn't make a meal plan for the week.  I have really tried to look at our freezer and fridge as I planned meals and I've stuck to the plan even when I had second thoughts.  It really does make life easier to know what I am supposed to be doing in my kitchen.

--get back to making our bread, probably using more of the 5-minutes a day approach


This one has been good and bad.  I was doing great until a couple of weeks ago when I made a bread that was a flop.  (I now have a big canister of whole wheat bread crumbs!  lol)  I've been thinking all week that I should start some bread.  And I will...maybe today even.


--make our yogurt


I'm doing pretty well here.  I am having a hard time keeping up in fact.  The kids really like yogurt with banana and some chocolate chips as a snack or dessert.  I've been doing 4 pints at a time and I really need to step it up to 4 quarts.

--read the Bible in 90 days (our church is doing this and my Emma wants to do the kids' portion too)


This one has been totally abandoned.  I just couldn't do it.  It's not that I'm not interested in spiritual things or in being better at my devotion to God.  I just couldn't commit to that much reading every single day.  I guess I could have, but I chose other things as more important.  And I'm OK with that.

--spend more time knitting or blogging or reading for information and less time playing silly games on the computer


Good and bad...I am trying to spend my time better, but I find myself choosing to be lazy and unproductive and using facebook as a really good distraction.


--lose the 15 pounds that have crept on in the past 18 months


I've lost 5.  I'm good with that one too.

--do the Couch Potato to 5K program


It's still too cold and snowy.  Summer is coming...summer is coming...summer is coming.  I did get a yoga DVD and have been doing that the past couple of weeks.  I think I am actually finding my butt under all those peanut M&M's and carmel corn!  lol

--make breakfast for my kids


Doing this one really well.  I have found a couple of new things to put into our rotation and I plan to make some granola soon that they can use as cereal.  This one is really important to me because I want them to have a healthy breakfast and not just eat a processed cereal for breakfast.  It is also complicated by my working nights.  I get home from my current contract around 6:20, and the 2 oldest head out the door and hour or so later.  I have to have a plan for breakfast the night before.  That's where meal planning has been a lifesaver since I plan breakfasts, too.

--incorporate more homeopathy into our family


I've purchased a couple of things.  I want to do better, but it takes research and I've already admitted that I am highly distracted with this laptop!  lol  The one thing that has been great is callendula cream.  I got it because it's kind of an all around thing for skin.  I get cracks in my skin on my thumbs and index fingers especially...all that handwashing from baby care and cooking I guess.  Emma and Clay get chapped chins and faces.  The callendula has been great for both.

--eat more fruit


Definitely better.  I'm opting for a piece of fruit for snack as opposed to bread and butter.   Maybe that has something to do with my shrinking behind, too?

--try to salvage my kefir grains and get back to using kefir for soaking oats and flour for pancakes


Yes and no.  I was doing great until last week.  Now my grains are shoved in the fridge again.

--figure out my sewing machine enough to do simple mending


I haven't touched it!  But Trey has taken a family sciences class in middle school and he's used it!

--clean out closets and donate more of our excess


Always a work in progress...

the ultimatum

I just told my oldest that she's got to put it away or I'm giving it away.  *gulp*  Did I really just say that?!


I am so tired of the "clean your room or else" conversation.  We have taken away priveleges...we have restricted activites...none of that is working.  So I'm done.  Now I just have to do it.


Somewhere along the lines of going to work at nights and working LOTS of nights, I feel like I have lost control of the stuff in this house.  It is driving me crazy!  I know there are 8 of us here, but we are such accumulators of stuff!  Why do we need to keep so much stuff?  I find myself not wanting to let them buy anything (even with their own money) because there's so much stuff already in their rooms or in the basement or in the front room.  I have got to do some major tossing around here.


I can say that I just got rid of 3 trash bags full of VHS tapes!  One bag was just junk...old TV shows and such but I have 2 of the bags in the back of my car to take to Goodwill.  I'm guessing someone out there still has a working VHS player?


OK...off to figure out some lunch and then fill another bag of stuff.  And I need to bake a couple of cakes today too

I'd forgotten...

...how much I love crochet.  I've been doing a lot more knitting for the past 8-10 months.  Crochet has been on the back burner (as in the projects I've started and pushed to the bottom of my craft shelves).  But I wanted to make some simple washcloths for a classroom basket for the elementary school auction.  I decided to crochet them because I knew it would go faster.

Then I picked up some yarn to make an afghan for my new nephew who will soon be here in the US.  I started knitting a gauge swatch and realized I didn't have the right size needles.  Instead of running out and getting different needles, I crocheted a swatch instead.  I really like the look of the knitted fabric, but I'd forgotten how quickly I can crochet a baby blanket.  I'd forgotten how easy it is to rip a little out and go back to fix a mistake.  I'd forgotten how easy it is to pick up the project for 5 minutes here and there.

The blanket will be done really soon, and I will keep working on knitting my second pair of socks.  But for now, I am blissfully hooking away.

Monday holidays

They always mess up my routine around here.  Usually when I get the kids out the door for school on Monday morning, I do a pick up and put away (and lots of throwing away) of what has been lying around all weekend.  But when the kids are having a day off from school it just seems....wrong somehow to do that kind of thing.  So it will be pushed off until tomorrow.  I did some of the picking up and the kids will all have a 10 minute clean up later when Clay gets back from the movies.

His 5th grade class was meeting at the theater today to see The Lightening Thief.  They have read the book this year so took this day off from school to see the movie.  D took him and stayed to watch the movie.  It's a good time for them to do something together on their own.  Clay was really excited to do something on his own today.

One of the best things about February is the broken up school schedule.  My elementary don't have a full 5 day week of school all month.  Two of the weeks they have their late start for teachers to have professional time.  This week is President's Day and last week they had early dismissal on Friday (with no kindergarten at all on Friday).  It gives me something to look forward before spring makes its appearance.  Then again...this is Colorado.  We could get a huge snowstorm in April or May.  I'm ready for t-shirts and flip-flops.....

up early this morning

I'm talking about Jack E and Kelli, not me.  I worked last night so I was hoping to come home and nap for a while on the couch before anyone else was up.  Then I would make them breakfast and we would all be happy.  I'm getting a nasty sore throat (first sickness since the flu in October) and I really wanted that nap.

BUT...I walked in the door and saw the 2 little ones playing and having a good time.  Jack E is planning a stuffed animal puppet show for later.  Honestly he wants to do it now, but I told him he has to wait until it's not dark outside...and the rest of the family is awake.

Yesterday my Kelli went to a Fancy Nancy birthday party at her friend's house down the street.  They all were supposed to wear their fancy clothes.  And she came home with some extra glam.  Here's my fancy girl

Time to make them some breakfast I guess!

checking in

I've been reading my regular blogger friends the past week or so and have found a new one.  She has 16 kiddos and still blogs a couple of times a day.  HUH!

So I guess instead of playing a game on Facebook and thinking about saying something, I could actually take that time to blog.

The 3 kids in elementary school have all had their Valentine's Day parties today (or yesterday for miss Kelli the kindergartener).  They are sufficiently sugared up now I do believe.  So I made them cookies of course!  Trey bought flowers for today telling me they were for his teacher.  He has 2 female teachers, one he absolutely can't stand and the other he mildly tolerates.  I tried to get the truth out of him this morning, but no luck.  So his older sister ratted him out.  They were for a friend to give his girlfriend.  Don't know why the friend couldn't buy his own flowers, but that is so cute.  It makes me think of getting my first little Valentine gift from a boy in 6th grade.  He gave me a necklace with the smallest speck of what looked like a diamond.  I think we broke up like 2 weeks later.

Tonight D and I are going to a Naughty or Nice valentine's party.  I am so not a naughty person.  I have no idea what to take.  Maybe some of those fresh baked cookies?  Or some chocolates?  Or some little panties from the dollar store?

I'll think of something I guess...