Busy Monday, June 9

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog 
•  Go to work? - I haven't decided if I'm going in or not today. I really won't know until later. 
• Finish washing Laundry
• Get plants in ground in garden - Yes there are still some I haven't transplanted. I've been bad! 
• Move items from attic into kids' room. (I need to wait on Peter for this one too dangerous to do alone.)
• Talk with hospital. They messed up my appointment and have it down for a Thursday! There's no way I can take that much time off in the middle of the week from work. 

Menu

• Eat Out - We are taking our house sitters out to dinner it is our way of saying thanks for watching the pets. 
• Lasagna
• Hamburgers & Chips
• Pizza
• Unknown - OMGCon this weekend so playing it by ear
• "..."
• "..." 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Order insulation
•  Clean up around the house
• Spray weed killer in the many various places it needs it. 
• New siding & ceiling insulation may start this weekend depending on Contractor.
• OMGCon Friday-Sunday this probably will take up all of that time. 

Last Week

So after I got home from work I wanted to spend some quality time with my girls. Now Katherine (on left) did not want to paint fingernails because she's not a girly girl but I had her paint her sisters and that made all the difference and then her sister painted hers and they giggled and laugh and they got nail polish everywhere.

 I'm not sure why they decided to sit so far apart at the airport. Or why they decided to wear the same clothes. I swear they own more than that one outfit. In any case seeing how we had to leave for Nashville by 2:30am I wasn't really going to fuss at them since I was so tired since Peter and I didn't get to bed until like 11 o'clock the night before as we tried to make sure all the suitcases were properly put together and paperwork, tickets, IDs, etc were ready.

We did make it to the airport on time though and I got the girls through security alright. I spent the day snoozing in and out and tightly grasping my phone as Brielle lead her sister through Denver airport. I swear every bad thought was going through my head.... They were going to leave their carry ons (2 purses we tried to keep it small so they wouldn't have to use the overhead), they were going to miss their connecting flight, they were going to get lost, the plane was going to go down...... I mean every bad thought!! It's pretty nerve racking when the airline says your 13 year old is an adult and can lead your 9 year old through an airport! I'm very glad though my girls are very experienced fliers having flown every year pretty much for the last 5 at very least if not longer. The kids did make it to Portland, Oregon where my parents picked them up and they have been off having adventures there. Peter & I will pick the kids back up at the airport next month.

Picture of the geese and their babies. I wanted a better shot but I was walking to my car from work so my arms were full so it was hard to dig out my phone. Yes, we have a lot of geese that like all of our ponds at work. The babies are so cute! It's also funny to watch the adults get after the babies when they do something wrong.

Last week I also got some eggs from my friend who has a farm and collected some other food from people to donate to a lady whose household of 6 just had their food stamps cut dramatically.
It is always nice when a small community of friends can make something come together to help someone else out.

Saturday I finally got around to canning the Mulberries. I Juiced them a day or two prior (days are blending together for me) and I knew I had to get them canned up soon. So I made just Mulberry Jelly and then I made Mulberry Jelly sweetened with local honey.
That big tub of mulberries made 4 jars. Not a whole lot but maybe if folks like it next year we can get out earlier in the season and do several batches. My tree had dropped a LOT of them by time my friend and my children got around to picking them.

There was some other stuff that went on. Big card game at the house. Lots of stress but it's a new week so I'm going to move past that. While my schedule may not look busy it really is a lot more and I know it but I'm trying not to put too much strain on myself considering everything that is going on.

Hope everyone has a wonderful week! 

Busy Monday, June 2

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog 
•  Go to work
• Finish washing Laundry
• Make sure the kids get packed
• Shop for airport friendly snacks (need to do research on this too see what kinds of things the kids can take)
• Pick dinner up out. 
• Early Bedtime for entire family

Menu

• Eat Out (I don't feel like dishes tonight)
• Unknown at this time I'll figure this out tomorrow. 

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Take kids to airport. They will be flying to Oregon to see my family until the start of next month. 
• Clean house
• Finish putting away sleeping bags (I got them washed and dried and rolled but that is as far as I got last week)
• Go out looking for siding. Call around asking about siding. - You're going to hear a lot about siding. Peter and I are having our house insulated. We didn't have enough in the roof  apparently (though I think a big part of that is we have no air flow up there even though we have put in various additional venting systems) and our exterior walls don't have any insulation. So we are having someone  rip off the aluminum siding and putting in insulation. It's not cheap but it is something we've needed to do for years. (the things you don't think you need to check on when you buy a house...)
• Who knows what else other than I know work and my husband is on-call so that limits plans. 

Last Week

So yes I missed last week. It was Memorial Day and then the rest of the week was very busy with it being the last week of school for the kids. So, I owe you 2 weeks and I'll try to highlight it the best I can. 

The Friday before our camping trip we had Katherine's big school project we had been working on and thanks to one of my friends who sewed the bonnet and the apron we were able to pull it off. Katherine's famous person was Laura Ingalls Wilder. She did a very good job and Peter and I made a point to head over there and see her at the school! I never get to see the school projects and events because I'm always at work so I took off early that day so I could make it a point to see her. 

So for Memorial Day we didn't go to Mammoth Caves this year because my teenager decided that she wanted to go to Holiday World (theme park) with the rest of the Orchestra that day. Seeing how they don't do these trips in High School and many people will not be in Orchestra in High School because how they schedule things it's really hard to stay in (trust me they had to do a lot of juggling for Brielle). In any case, it meant that someone (thankfully my husband) was going to have to travel back to town to pick her up so we needed a much closer camping spot. We decided to go to Rough River. 

While there we went down to the water and played on the beach and we saw some friends who were visiting family over there and they showed us around the area some. We went on a nature walk but only one because the ticks were horrible so none of us were brave enough to go adventuring again. Our campsite was on this very steep hill so we put the kids tent in the graveled tent area that was flat and Pete and I took a hill and would wake up every morning having slid down our bed and our feet hanging over. I was very off balance when we came home and would suddenly get the sensation of being on a slope. 

You may noticed no pictures with Brielle walking with us. Our adventure was Saturday while she was gone but Katherine's friend who had never been camping came a long with us so the kids had fun.  

Brielle had yet another Orchestra concert. She failed to even tell us about it until we were unloading the van Monday from the camping trip. Ah teenagers.... 

I took a goofy picture of my husband while we were out to dinner for our 14 year anniversary.
We went out for a nice dinner and because it was the middle of the week we got great service.
Nothing was in the theater we wanted to see so instead we went to Sam's Club to wander around and we ended up running into friends there and talking until nearly the club closed on us! 

I got rather stressed out this past week so when I went down to Hobby Lobby for a silver Sharpie I saw this book while I was walking in and decided that I needed something for me and I knew I had some money left on my gift card from Christmas. Now I just need some time to do projects. 

Brielle was all dressed up for her last year of Middle School. My girl is a High School-er come Fall!
I picked her up early from school though not as early as most students were picked up because I was at work. I missed her Middle School graduation which was sad. I woul have really liked to have been there. 

After school we went downtown to the DMV and got her a state issued ID which made her feel all grown up. 

Saturday we went down to order our family pictures. Oh you don't want to know the costs. It's going to be strange though to take the tapestry down in the living room. I'm probably going to hate it for awhile since I really dislike change.

Saturday morning before Peter and I left to go order our pictures (see above) one of our friends came over and picked mulberries off of our tree so I need to process the berries this week too.

Saturday night we had friends over for a BBQ/Potluck. We had 7 adults and I believe it was 10 children! We had really good food and Peter set up the projector outside for an outdoor theater for the kids. I was a bit flustered but thankfully one of my friends snapped a shot of the theater.

That evening Katherine's friend spent the night too. We had a lot of bumps though because our teenager was so emotional. She was tired and didn't want to admit to it. The next morning I asked her how she felt after I had made her go to bed and she said a lot better and gave me a hug. Our babies will always be our babies won't they. 

Sunday before Katherine's friend went home we all sat down and made stain glass butterflies for a friend of mine who just had a baby and is doing the baby's room in butterflies. 

Later Sunday I tackled a stained shirt. I may or may not have mentioned that Brielle (my teenager) left a root beer flavored chap-stick in a pocket and not only did it go through the wash but the dryer and stained a lot of clothing. Well around ground zero of the accident I tried scrubbing it with soap, with goo gone, with dish soap, with laundry bars and washed it several times over. I even tried using a magic eraser and I used dry cleaning chemicals! This was the result of all that previous work.

It was still pretty bad. So then I started Google searching and I saw WD-40, Dawn and Baking soda. While this did work though a really long process it made my house smell like WD-40 (which isn't too pleasant) and it was a lot of work, especially since the whole shirt was stained.
So I took an old LARGE pickle jar (yes I hoard) and stuffed the shirt in it, covered the shirt with olive oil and then put the lid on and started shaking to get the oil worked around and then let it sit a little bit while I gathered my supplies outside since thing were going to get messy. I then proceeded to cover the shirt in baking soda (I went through half a box by the end of this!) and I scrubbed it with an old tooth brush. I then scrubbed dawn into the shirt. It took a lot of elbow grease. I then put the shirt back into the pickle jar and covered it with vinegar and let it foam up and sit. I would then put my hand in and squeeze and move around the fabric in the jar before emptying the jar (which I did on top of some weeds in the drive so hey double duty! since it kills weeds well). I did this several times over with the vinegar until it was white and no the 'yellow' the oil has been making it. I was very stubborn but here is my result. -->
Other than I noticed I tore part of the shirt during everything, the shirt was good as new. I pulled out my sewing machine and fixed up the seam that had torn and that was one shirt done! (now only like 6 more to go but they aren't as bad).

Sunday night in the rain my dear husband went out with me (since I had hurt my back during the course of Sunday) and and we picked up a baby swing someone donated (Facebook version of free-cycle) and we took it over to my friend's house so she could have a swing for her baby. It was a very nice swing and my husband I went out and bought some batteries for it. My poor dear friend got tripped up by her cat while carrying the baby so she hit the floor pretty hard we were a pretty sorry pair though thankfully my husband was there and helped take care of the baby for a bit.

Well I think think that pretty much finishes off the recap and I'm at work right now actually just putting the finishing touches on this so I can upload it.
I hope everyone has a wonderful week! 

Busy Monday, May 19

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog 
•  Make Menu
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Re-mix and separate laundry soap into gallons
• Work in garden
• Reserve Camping spot
• Pick-up Kat early to work on report

Menu

• Hormel Beef Roast, Mashed Potatoes, Steamed Broccoli w/cheese
• Hamburger Helper
• Lasagna
• ?
• Camping food
• Camping food
• Camping food

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Gym on Tuesday and Thursday after work with my friend. (Days may change)
• Tuesday/Thursday Swim Lessons for girls
• Help Katherine finalize project
• Wednesday Morning drive Katherine's project to school
• Friday get out of work early (will need to work extra hours during the week) to go to Katherine's 'Wax Museum' where she is doing her project. - Or see if Peter will take the day off. 
• Wed-Fri find time to get down to the school before book fair closes with Katherine. 
• Organize all camping stuff
• Leave for camping trip Friday

Last Week

So last Friday was the Extension Service 100 yr Celebration.

After getting a hold of the humane society and finding out how large of an application it was for Brielle to volunteer there I reasoned with myself that it just was not going to happen because of the information required and that they would need to process the application. I think we will try again this Fall.

With Friday's activities at the Extension Service I went ahead and called the school to make Brielle a car rider instead of a bus rider and I left out of work and went and picked her up and then took her down to the Extension Service even though I never got a call back about her volunteering I figured it would be better to just go down there and find out if she could instead of assuming that she couldn't. Thankfully she was able to volunteer and get that last hour and a half of volunteer time worked in.

So while Brielle was dropped off to volunteer I went and got Katherine and then called her friend's mom and got the okay to go pick up Katherine's friend and I took them both down to the celebration.

I was there long enough to get some burgers and baked potatoes they were serving along with the kiddos getting some so that was a nice dinner plus I didn't have to cook and it was free so no complaints here.

Shortly after eating Peter showed up and got some food and then it was time for me to grab Brielle and get her on her way back home while Peter stayed with Katherine and her friend so they could play on the bounce house, shoot bb guns, have their face painted and when I had left Katherine was dancing to the music.

I got Brielle home and we got her ready for her 8th Grade Spring Dance. Thankfully this year she just wanted her hair done very simply so we were able to get her all ready to go and then off to the dance.

By time I got home from dropping off Brielle, Peter and the other girls were home and there was much giggling and video games.

All in all it was a very crazy time but it all worked out thankfully.

Honors Society & Volunteering

You may or may not remember the other year when Brielle (my oldest) got into National Junior Beta Club (Beta Club). It is an Honor Society where there is a focus on not only grades but also community involvement. Beta Club also hosts competitions which Brielle had the honor of making it into the top percent for the spelling bee we were very proud of her.

Not only did Beta Club require the student to go to the monthly meetings and keep a high grade point average but they also require 10 hours of volunteer work every 9 weeks.

This year things changed a little as the teachers that were the supports for Beta Club left the school it meant things were changing. This year the students were in National Junior Honor Society. This didn't change much else other than no longer having competitions.

10 hours every 9 weeks doesn't sound like a lot but when you've got a forgetful teenager that think there is all the time in the world and two parents that work on top of trying to take care of other children then suddenly things get a bit harder.

This 9 weeks has been exceptionally hard as Brielle kept saying there weren't volunteer opportunities posted and then later said she missed all of the opportunities. I have been on full scramble trying to finding opportunities for her.

So last week I got Brielle signed up at the YMCA to volunteer which was very hard believe it or not because they wanted references and though Brielle has volunteered before I didn't have any reference information. It too some convincing and I volunteered with her though I didn't fill out the forms for myself but that made the people at the YMCA more comfortable.
Last Friday she volunteered 3.5 hours and then that next day we started our day before 5am to get her down to volunteering by 5:30 where she put in 5 hours of time.

8.5 hours down and then just needed to find another 1.5 hours. Though a little easier said than done.

What people may or may not know about me is I have severe anxiety problems so when faced with new people, places and situations I'm put on high alert stress. Many of these I've learned loop holes so I could continue to function in society but others I have not. that is why you don't hear about me trying to get her set up at the homeless shelter or soup kitchen because I hadn't been backed s far into the corner that I had to address that stress yet.... but back to topic.

So I filled out the volunteer information for the pubic library weeks ago but they won't contact us back about letting her volunteer. The hospital won't take volunteers until the summer for people under 18, also.
Where did this leave me? Well with volunteering with the Extension Service which I will retouch and volunteering with the Humane Society.

I thought the Humane Society would be a great chance and I still think it would be for the future but not this month. The application is not only long, requiring references but also requiring medical forms from the doctors office which I can understand why but it makes it very frustrating.

So we are back to the Extension Service which is hosting it's 100 year Celebration today. I would have gotten her signed up to volunteer earlier for this but I thought we would have had a shorter application time with the Humane Society. I am currently waiting for a phone call to find out if she can volunteer there this afternoon though we will have to leave no later than 5:30 so we can get home and get her dressed for her 8th Grade Spring Dance tonight starting at 7.

Given the need of volunteer time and all the activities going on Peter is skipping his normal night out to play cards to instead take care of Katherine down at the celebration at least until I have Brielle dropped off at her dance.

In other months the volunteering wasn't so hard especially right before Thanksgiving with the food drives and right around Christmas with so many charities needing help with paperwork, sorting, etc. Right now is just that sweet spot for missing things and really if I was a more aggressive person I probably wouldn't have these sorts of problems but no matter what it does eat into time.

Honor Societies are a wonderful thing and can give kids a leg up when they are looking at going off too college but just be prepared as a parent to be signing up to volunteer your time too. Always thank your volunteers also because they are giving up their time and effort to help make great things happen.

It really is surprising how hard though it can be to get started in volunteering and how much like applying for a job it is. Just the application process and always checking back in on it. It might be a good learning experience for kids to learn the frustrations they will probably face as adults. I do wish it wasn't this much of a headache though because even I would be more open to volunteering more. In a way all this red tape kind of hurts these non-profit organizations. But that's just my opinion.

Busy Monday, May 12

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog 
• Hospital for Monthly Shot
•  Make Menu
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Take books to Library
• Go by Y Supervisor to have Brielle's Volunteer sheet filled out
• Call around to find 2 hours of volunteer time for Brielle

• Laundry
• Dishes
• Make Laundry Soap
• Wash bedding
• Buy tots for organizing
• Mow the lawns

Menu

• ?
• ?
• Spaghetti & ?
• ?
• Pizza
• ?
• ?

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Gym on Tuesday and Thursday after work with my friend. (Days may change)
• Tuesday Swim Lessons for Kat
• Tuesday Brielle stays after school for Orchestra
• Thursday Swim lessons for both girls.  
• Friday 100 yr Extension Center Celebration I'm taking Katherine too
• Friday is Brielle's Spring Dance at school
• Peter has his Friday Night Magic game 
• Saturday Birthday Party for one of the kids' friends. 

Last Week

Life went crazy last week! Completely and totally crazy! So while down at the Y last Tuesday I realized... hey why don't I see if Brielle can volunteer down here! So I fill out the forms, talk to the guy and he made it sound like she could come in Wednesday to Volunteer so I get out of work and drive down to the school and wait for school to let out and while I'm there I get a phone call that Brielle won't be Volunteering until Friday. So Brielle and I go out and do a few things and go about our business for the rest of the day. 

I started off Thursday having to drive Brielle into school for an Honor's Club meeting before I headed off to work.

Thursday I knew was going to be messed up but it got even more so when Pete sounded like he insisted I go pick up Katherine to get her ready for her fancy dinner with the Champions club. So after work I went down to the school and waited until they released the kids and then got Katherine, got her home and had about 40 min to get her hair all done and get her dressed in her new outfit and then wait for Pete to get home so Kat could load up with him so I could get Brielle loaded up to go to McDonalds for dinner and then off to project club.

Brielle had a good time at Project club and because it was only her and one other kid there this time she was able to complete her sewing project while there which is a first for her. She was very proud and happy that she was able to do that.







So here is how Friday went down. I went and sat in the car line for about an hour and a half because I had to make sure I got Brielle fast so I wanted to be one of the first ones there. I got Brielle and by 3:30 I had her in the Y (I get the feeling there were a few speed limits I neglected to notice) and from 3:30 to 7pm I was there with Brielle and we volunteered down at the Y getting packets out for the 5k Run/Walk at the BBQ Fest Saturday. After that we went down and Picked up Katherine from Peter's Magic game and then ran by a pizza place to grab a quick pizza and go home for a late dinner.

Saturday, Brielle set her alarm for 4:30am though of course she refused to get out of bed until 10 after 5 and I was up at 4:45. By 5:30 we had to be down at the BBQ Fest for Brielle to volunteer which meant I was volunteering too. We did that until 10am. It was a long! Busy morning!
After we helped with the clean up Peter and Katherine came down to the Festival and we tried samples and then got some mutton sandwiches and then Peter took Katherine to Pokemon and Brielle and I went home. I went to bed! I passed out for about 2 hours and then Peter got home and we loaded back up and went to a friends house to try and help them with drywall though by time we got there we weren't needed but there just wasn't anyway I was going to be able to go from the festival to drywalling straight I was so tired and hot and it was so muggy.

Sunday it was Mother's Day! I get a day off. All I asked for was a clean house. Peter did try he got the living room pretty clean other than my area which was completely fine. Though I had to help lift couches. Sadly that was the only room that got done and I noticed how much I need to shampoo my main couch so I need to fit that in some how.

In other daily events. Last week I pulled up 7 baby sages and transplanted them and they have done well so far.

Also, ... Tuesday? I painted this while idly helping Katherine with her big school project she decided to leave off until last minute so she was up very late Tuesday working on that and then as soon as we got up on Wednesday she had to do Math homework.
Why do kids do that to themselves? I kept trying to push her to do her work and she ho hummed it. By the end she was like, "Yes, mommy I understand why" for why I had tried to push her so hard before.

Busy Monday, May 5

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Write this Blog 
•  Make Menu
• Lunch with Peter
• Groceries
• Gym?
• Buy new swimming goggles for kids. 
• Buy storage container for winter clothes (I'm tired of having to deal with them being in the mess I need better organization!)

I'm feeling that the last several months I've been slacking and right now just kind of down in the dumps which is probably a combination of a bad nights rest, low vitamin B and general frustration over my weight as I've gained several lbs over the past week with no real good reason. It doesn't help life has been hectic so I'm behind on the house too. 

Here's my 'home to-do list' and I hope maybe if I see some things crossed off I'll feel a little better.

• Laundry
• Dishes
• Vacuum
• Wash bedding

Leaving the list kind of short like I said I'm very tired. I think all in all I might have gotten 5 hours of sleep last night. 

Menu

• ? - Still trying to decide on this one. The whole idea of food to me today has seemed very 'blah'. 
• Crockpot Chicken Tacos
• Grilled Hamburgers, baked potato, side salad
• Eat Out (After much debate with everything going on I'm thinking the drive through would cut down on a lot of stress)
• Pizza
• Hamburger Helper & Corn
• Balsamic Chicken and Pasta

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Gym on Tuesday and Thursday after work with my friend. (Days may change)
• Tuesday Swim Lessons for the girls 
• That's right I signed the girls up for swim lessons again this month so normally it will be every Tuesday and Thursday they will be busy with that. 
• Project Club 4-H - Brielle only
• Katherine will need to be picked up Thursday from a club meeting at school 
• Peter has his Friday Night Magic game 
• Saturday Katherine plays at the Pokemon League 
• Make laundry soap

Last Week

Like I thought would happen extra things got thrown onto my plate last week. First off I went to the gym 3 last week instead of just my scheduled 2 days and then on a 4th day I worked out at home which made me run late to work eep.

I had coke sales pick up which come to find out they lost our order form! I need to see if the check was cashed today and if so I'm going to have to raise some hell because they didn't have our form or our cokes!!

(So far it hasn't been I double checked again. Still annoying though that I have to deal with this.)

Brielle had Honor's Society on Thursday so I had to drive her into school and then Friday she had her big orchestra competition so I had to drive her in early to school that day too. For her lunch for the concert she wanted sushi (or truthfully california rolls) so I got to try my hand at making that. 

I also had forgotten last Monday Katherine had  club activity after school so I went to pick her up and they were like, "Um she never showed up for After School." As soon as they said that I was like DUH! Boy how forgetful am I! 

Saturday we went out to Free Comic Day and then Katherine played in the pokemon league. We ended up going out for lunch because of how the times fell and I have to say I'm very disappointed with Buffalo Wild Wings. I thought it was just my phone so I came home and tried to do research and found out they personally don't post up their nutritional information and if you get 'special' items like exchanging a wrap for a wheat wrap there really isn't any information at all. I got very frustrated and I really thing, especially national chains, need to put up this information. It's pretty bad when McDonald's is that ahead of the game. 

Saturday and Sunday I worked on the yard. Always lots to do and I have a lot more to take care of but I made progress and it was no easy job. (evil crabgrass)

I got some plants in the ground and I'm hardening off some of the plants I had started inside.

I did a lot of mulching though I have more to do. 

There's always something to do isn't there? 

I also dug up several baby sages that my sage bush put out this year. I'm glad my old sage survived. My lavender survived by the skin of it's roots and only had one sad branch with green so I cut away the dead branches. 

Baby Sage

Peas

I think that about covers things though I am a bit scatter brained so I'm sure I missed something. :)

Have a good week folks! Hopefully soon I'll have some DIY projects going that I can update on.
I am trying a new combination for this Crockpot Chicken Tacos so if it turns out well then I'll get that recipe put up with my tweaks to the original recipe.