without vision, pettiness prevails

I don't want to be petty...

more later

so ADD

I started the day by cleaning out my "stash"' I was thinking last night before bed about how I could fit it all on this shelf thing we have that is basically empty. So this morning I set out to organize my yarn by weights and project. That's when I realized how ADD I am. I have at least 6 things started and in process. And I have ideas for 3 or 4 more things I want to do that I have yarn and patterns for. I'm not sure why I get started and then move on. Maybe it's because my craft time is limited and I totally get bored with a project before I finish.

Anyway. I totally want to try my hand at knitting socks. But before I will let myself go there, I HAVE to finish at least 2 of my crochet projects. One of my knitting projects is different colored 6x6 inch blocks in different stitches. I've decided that will be Jack E's big blanket, so I really don't need to work on it. But it's so easy to work on that I WANT to do more squares. I HAVE to finish Trey's afghan. I started it when I was pregnant with Jack E...over 3 years ago. It's about 2/3 finished, but I get so tired of working on it. It really is my goal to get that one done this summer. And I have another baby blanket that I started for a little girl who will be 2 in the fall. Maybe I can find another little girl to give that one to now? LOL

Speaking of works in progress...the dryer just summoned me!

not a good way to start the day!

This morning I went out bright and early (like 5:20) to put stuff in the Suburban for our trek to the farm. It wasn't until I opened the passenger door to look for my book that I realized the driver's window had been busted out and the GPS was stolen. Totally a bummer. We called the sheriff and he came out and did a report. Then D cleaned it all up and headed out to the farm with 3 of the kids in his car. Now I am home waiting for the mobile glass replacement people to come out...between 8 and 12.

I guess I have NO excuse for not getting some laundry done this morning now, huh?

I never would have found it!

This summer, I have been passing around the chore of unloading the dishwasher. It's usually a chore that I ask to be done by the time I get home from work. Different kids have been doing it lately. I'm not sure who put it there, but today I opened a random cupboard and there was my 9x13 baking dish! I use that thing all the time and I NEVER would have looked for it there.

On a totally different topic, this is a great article about my Grandma Joy, the one who's husband, my second grandpa, just passed away last month. I think she is just adorable!

I needed that!

My weight has been an issue for me lately. Don't get me wrong, I'm not gaining, but I haven't lost my couple of pounds from vacation either. I'm just not motivated. And I think it's because I still see myself as that size 18, nearly 200 pound mama. Just a few minutes ago I was looking for a new profile picture for my beloved facebook profile. I found this one


I decided on this one instead

weekend wrap up

What I've done since Saturday morning:

shredded and frozen 30 cups of zucchini and 10 cups of yellow squash

baked whole wheat zucchini bread (4 loaves), whole wheat sandwich bread (2 loaves), summer squash bread (1 1/2 loaves), zucchini oatmeal cookies (double batch)

dinner for the family on Saturday night of chicken in BBQ sauce sandwiches, turnip puff, broccoli salad and wilted lettuce

washed, dried and folded 4 loads of laundry (all Sunday morning so it IS impressive)...still have clothes in the washer and dryer and 3 loads of darks to do. Plus towels and sheets *sigh*

baked zucchini brownies

got chips and dip and salsa and brownies to a party then drove an hour to pick up a dozen free range chickens all dressed and frozen...then back to the party till after 9

what I didn't do since Saturday morning:

haul my butt out of bed this morning to get me and the family to church (which was a gathering at the park anyway)

clean my house...that kitchen floor needs to be SCRUBBED

guess I know what I can do tomorrow...laundry! and the floors...after work of course!

what did you do this weekend?

a new creation!

Yesterday at the farm (our CSA) the talk was about what to do with the multitude of zucchini we were all getting. I love zucchini, it's like native tofu to me. I can throw it into anything and the family will eat it. And I bake A LOT with it. A couple of my friends were asking for my zucchini recipes. I said I'd email them later, but then I decided last night that I would just put them all on a blog so they are easier to get to. I didn't put them here because I didn't think you all wanted to learn 5 things to bake with zucchini this afternoon. But if you do, go visit my new blog!!!

facebook

I'm addicted. It's a bad thing.

milestone

This is one I can't believe is really here. Jack E just pooped in the potty. He has been doing great at wearing underwear and keeping it dry day and most nights. The poo thing has been hard. He stands to pee and he's been so afraid of sitting on the potty. Or the potty seat. Or the potty chair. So I've washed it out of the undies. Or put him in a diaper for a little while. Neither of those is terribly fun for any of us.

But today he was running around with no underwear on and he had the urge. We were headed upstairs to get a diaper but I put him on my potty backwards. He was yelling he wanted off then got strangely quiet. I looked down to see the little guy was doing it right into the potty. WHOO-HOO!!!!!!

He just watched the process himself. I think we were both in shock a little that it just happened. I'm really hoping he remembers how easy that was next time he gets the urge. Of course we had to call Daddy at work. Thankfully he was very complimentary.

The really big deal in all of this? We have had at least 1 child in diapers (and sometimes 2) since January 28, 1996. I bought my last jumbo pack of diapers in April 2008. That is a freaking LONG time to be buying diapers. Like 12 years and 2 months.

And it seems to be over!!!

April showers?

I thought April meant rain not snow! Then again I should know better since April is Colorado's third snowiest month. First is March and second is November. So even though we have had some beautiful sunny and warm days this spring already, today is WINTER again. I am cold and unmotivated to do much of anything.

I have been a busy little crafter this week. I made this the other night and started on this one. I love just hanging out and "yarning" like Emma used to call it.

I took the 2 littles to the grocery store the other day for their big re-grand opening party. That was our excitement for the day. Free food in the form of little tiny samples. Kelli enjoyed everything. Jack was in a 2 year old mood and didn't want anything until after Kelli had eaten his sample. She even got her picture taken by the artichoke guy. He was serving chili with artichoke leaves for dipping. She was really enjoying hers so the man asked to take her picture for his promo department. It will probably be on their website soon. I'll let you know about it then.

Kelli also had cake and sushi and bread and meringue cookies and oatmeal and waffles and cut up fruit and brie and crackers. I think that's it. Pretty funny since the girl could eat mac and cheese every single day of her life for lunch. Who'd a thought she liked anything else?!

Tonight we are going to an open house for our friends that have just finished a house to flip. They were hoping to do kind of an outdoor thing, but the snow is really coming down now. We'll have to see how that turns out.

And the snow has really put a damper on Jack E's potty training! LOL I guess once it warms up he'll be back to peeing in the grass. But for today, he's just using those pull ups!

peep show for the neighbors once again!

Kelli used to be known in our neighborhood as 'naked Kelli' since she would disrobe way too often in the backyard. D was quite concerned about her love of jumping on the trampoline in the nude.

Well today was Jack E's turn. When I had my friend's kids here yesterday, one of the little boys had to go so just stopped his outside play and peed in the grass. I know they do this all the time at home or hiking or whatever so I didn't say anything. But Jack E saw him. He thought it was so funny that his friend would pee outside. He's been wanting to do it ever since.

Today after lunch he had his chance! The top half of him was still in superman jammies complete with a little red cape. He pulled his pull-up down to his ankles and let it go right there. The part of me that just wants to be finished with diapers was really proud of him. Got that pull-up back up and ran off to play.

Then he thought he might have to go a little more. So he wandered around the back yard with the pull-up around his ankles till he finally kicked it off. True to his Y chromosome, he never took his hand off his "handle". He didn't have to go anymore so we finally got him to put his pull-up back on.

But it was quite a site seeing our little superman peeing in the grass with his cape waving in the breeze. Trey got a picture but I don't think it's G rated so we'll skip it for now! LOL

what do you eat?

I was listening to the radio this morning and they were discussing a study done in the UK where families say they really only eat the same 6 dishes at home. I don't mean that a cut of meat or type of dish made up the list of the 6 dishes, but actually the exact same 6 recipes. Their reasons were things like fast and family likes it, don't want to look up new recipes, don't know how to cook anything else and always have the same ingredients on hand.

I admit that I tend to have many of the same ingredients on hand all the time. But give me a pound of ground beef and I could make a dozen different things with it. Maybe it's because we buy our meat as a quarter of beef or a huge batch of mixed pieces of pork. I grew up like that, too. My mom had to get creative with some of that stuff. And in the summer since we get our veggies from the farm and don't pick what's in the basket at all, we have learned to try new veggies. And find yet another thing to do with zucchini.

I am really blessed that my kids like a lot of different foods, too. And they don't always expect their food to look the same. If they know there is stuff on the table they like, they are happy. And my big boys are the kind that think their mom is THE best cook ever.

I must say that we do have some old standby's here, though. We do have eggs about once a week. They are fast and cheap. And I don't have to do any preplanning. I serve waffles or muffins with them and whatever fruit is in season. And for a while we were having homemade pizza every Friday night. But now it's a little complicated with Trey's guitar lesson when I need to be shaping pizza dough. I think there is some comfort in having the old standby's. I know that meatloaf will always be a winner. And my tangy porkchops in the crock pot is a great way to deal with bone in random cuts of pork. But I can't imagine having them all the time.

she did so great!

I was so proud of Emma at the dentist the other day. She has had such a hard time even getting in the chair and opening her mouth before, but this time she did awesome! She had her valium beforehand that worked great. Then they gave her the "goofy air". She did well with all of it. And our dentist was awesome at hiding that big ol' needle full of novacaine! He got the bad tooth out and we'll go back in a few weeks to get a couple more out.

I also made an appointment for the older kids to get their teeth cleaned in June once they are out of school. And Jack E and Kelli have a cleaning appointment in May. This will be Jack E first time. I'm hoping he'll just let them look. Then he can back in the fall for more of a look.

Trey and Clay were both home sick yesterday. And Aleena came home in the morning saying she felt dizzy. Thankfully D was still home to go pick her up since I was up the mountain at work. Both the big boys are back today. Trey's been out of school for almost 2 weeks after spring break and his virus. But Aleena is still home today. She did throw up last night so I don't blame her for being pretty cautious this morning.

Now it's time to get Kelli ready for preschool. It's raining and snowing here today. I'd really like to just get back into bed and read. Do you think anyone would notice?

just a bruise

That's what the ENT had to say yesterday about Kelli's ear. He was great. He looked at it and said, "that's what I was hoping it would look like". Only the skin is bruised but the cartilage underneath is still healthy. It will take a while to heal but it will all be fine.

The drama for today is taking Emma to the dentist to see about her cracked/broken premolar. Not sure what she did to it on Sunday. I think it probably had a cavity that left it weak. We'll see. Her appointment isn't until after lunch so I am sending her to school this morning to keep her mind off of it. She seriously HATES going to the dentist. I will be picking up a prescription for valium for her before we go. And even then I'm hoping that she will let the dentist look in there. My friend is coming over after lunch to watch Jack E and Kelli so I can give Emma my undivided attention.

Wish me luck!

our spring break extravaganza!!!

Yeah, right. We've had a tummy bug going around. First Aleena felt icky on Wednesday. I felt icky on Thursday. Emma had to take it to the next level though and actually throw up a couple of times on Friday.

But Friday night is where it got interesting. Kelli was hitting Jack E so he kicked her and she fell off the couch, hitting her head on the side of the coffee table. Her ear lobe started to swell right away so we put ice on it. We also applied a little topical arnica to help with the swelling and pain but we didn't want her taking any pain meds orally so we held off on that.

At 7:45 I told Emma she could try to keep down a few more crackers. So Jack E and Kelli had a couple too. By 8:30 Kelli had thrown up twice so I called in to urgent care to see what they thought.

It was such a toss up as to whether the vomiting was from the head injury or the virus. But better safe than sorry, D and I took Kelli to urgent care at 9 that night. The pediatrician said her motor skills and all that looked fine, but she wanted to drain the bulging ear lobe. It is just as fun as it sounds!!! Then the doctor and nurse wrapped her head in gauze with a padding over the ear to try to keep pressure on it so it didn't fill with blood again. That dressing was supposed to stay on for 24 hours.

We were home after 11. Kelli slept for a while in our bed, but from 1-2 kept getting up every few minutes complaining that she might throw up. I finally got to sleep after that.

On Saturday morning I took our suburban in because the brakes were making that noise they make just before you spend more money on them that you'd like to. It was ugly. It was expensive.

Since Kelli's bandage thing fell off while she was sleeping, I called urgent care again while I was waiting for the truck to be fixed. They wanted me to bring her back in. (Thankfully, poverty brings really great state subsidized insurance so our copay is only $3 for these urgent visits. Otherwise, she may have wound up with cauliflower ear and long hair for the rest of her life!!!) So I took her back so they could check her ear. The pediatrician from the night before was my least favorite there. On Saturday morning we had a great doctor I love. Both the pediatrician and the PA decided to call the ENT on call to talk to him about it. The ped from the night before had also talked to him so he was well acquainted with the situation.

They all 3 decided to not do anything with the ear until Monday morning. I have an appointment with the ENT downtown at 8:30. Hopefully it will all be fine. She does still have a bulge on her earlobe that is a nice purple color, but it's firm not soft so they don't think it's blood but just the injured tissue.

It really is a good thing that Kelli started throwing up since if the ear hadn't been drained it could have led to deformity of the earlobe. We're just such wait and see kind of parents that we wouldn't have taken her in for a bruise to her ear like that. It's like when Emma broke her arm. Good thing I could actually see where it was broken or I probably would have given her an ice pack and put her on the couch with a movie.

So, after Kelli and the truck...we just wanted to have a quiet evening at home last night. D was doing some beer stuff with the neighbor down the street. They were kegging what they brewed last weekend and turning a turkey frying pot into a beer pot with the magic of solder and some inexpensive parts. And of course tasting what they brewed last weekend!!!

While he was gone, Jack E started throwing up. We were supposed to go to some friends' house this morning so D could help a couple of guys brew some beer. (which is why he needed to transform the turkey pot) I made a sour cherry cake to take. I made muffins for the kids' breakfast. I was getting ready to make a tossed salad when Jack E came running into the kitchen. I picked him up and he threw up in my face and all down the front of me.

So I am staying home today with Jack E and Emma who still has a little tummy ache.

And just a bit of advice: When a 2 year old has a tummy virus that very well may lead to diarrhea, it's important that the child has pants on over the diaper. Especially if that child is standing on a previously unstained section of the white living room carpet.

Yes, my day really is that exciting!!!

my name

I totally swiped this from another blog. It's pretty accurate on some things, but the traveling part? Yeah, D will tell you there is no place I would rather be than on my own couch!

What Noelle Kersten Means

You are very intuitive and wise. You understand the world better than most people. You also have a very active imagination. You often get carried away with your thoughts. You are prone to a little paranoia and jealousy. You sometimes go overboard in interpreting signals. You are well rounded, with a complete perspective on life. You are solid and dependable. You are loyal, and people can count on you. At times, you can be a bit too serious. You tend to put too much pressure on yourself. You are friendly, charming, and warm. You get along with almost everyone. You work hard not to rock the boat. Your easy going attitude brings people together. At times, you can be a little flaky and irresponsible. But for the important things, you pull it together. You are relaxed, chill, and very likely to go with the flow. You are light hearted and accepting. You don't get worked up easily. Well adjusted and incredibly happy, many people wonder what your secret to life is. You are a seeker of knowledge, and you have learned many things in your life. You are also a keeper of knowledge - meaning you don't spill secrets or spread gossip. People sometimes think you're snobby or aloof, but you're just too deep in thought to pay attention to them. You are wild, crazy, and a huge rebel. You're always up to something. You have a ton of energy, and most people can't handle you. You're very intense. You definitely are a handful, and you're likely to get in trouble. But your kind of trouble is a lot of fun. You are the total package - suave, sexy, smart, and strong. You have the whole world under your spell, and you can influence almost everyone you know. You don't always resist your urges to crush the weak. Just remember, they don't have as much going for them as you do. You are a seeker. You often find yourself restless - and you have a lot of questions about life. You tend to travel often, to fairly random locations. You're most comfortable when you're far away from home. You are quite passionate and easily tempted. Your impulses sometimes get you into trouble.

What's Your Name's Hidden Meaning?

avoiding the laundry...

...that seems to be how I get blog time. I haven't been reading as many or visiting mine much either because of that laundry pile. I think I have finally figured out that if I am out for an hour in the morning then run in the door, I can actually go down and fold a load and throw the next one in to be worked on in another few hours. I've always like to just do it all at once, but that is becoming less and less feasible as time goes on. The kids clothes are bigger...there are more of them (kids AND clothes)...and my time is crazy between working and mama stuff.

I really love to read about all my cyber folks, but then I get distracted and spend too much time online and not enough time doing my "work".

Last week I had sooo much running around. This week I have tried to slow down a little, but Easter is coming so I've had to go visit with the Easter Bunny. And then trying to find the right size clothes for everyone. Money is still really tight, but we haven't had new Easter clothes here for a few years so I thought this year was time. I still can't find something I like for me. And I need to find a shirt for D to match the 3 other boys. Maybe I'll get a pic of all the kids this weekend and get a current one posted.

Off to face the laundry. There are piles and piles of folded laundry to put in each of the kids' baskets so they can put them away, too. Plus the mountain that needs to be washed still!

I hate my dog

seriously. She was barking to go out at 4:15 this morning. So I let her out and then stumbled back upstairs to my cosy bed. Then at 5:30 she was barking like CRAZY to get back in. Yeah, the snow is cold DOG!

Then at 6:15 she wanted back out. I hate her.

making friends

I went to the park last Friday with my new friend. And this Friday I am going to hang out with another new friend.

How exciting! Mama has someone to play with. Amazing what companionship can do for your soul, huh?

I told D last week that I have made a new friend who likes to be in her kitchen as much as I do. Sometimes I feel like such a shallow person because so much of my life seems to revolve around my kitchen. Who am I kidding? I feel like a shallow person because I think I really am. Not that I'm super vain or anything like that. I'm only moderately vain! :~)

I just don't find it easy to think deep thoughts. Or maybe I have just allowed that part of my brain to atrophy. Maybe I just find it easier to cook and do laundry and bake and run to lessons and plan meals and pick up toys and unload the dishwasher and change diapers incessantly than to be profound.

Anyway. I have a play date for the second Friday in a row and I am so excited!

word cloud

OMG this proves I suck as a mama. 5 kids names are huge. 1 is tiny. He's right...it sucks to be the middle child!!!