Wrap it up Tuesday

So let's see how I did on my To Do List and  dive into my Excuse List. Yes, it was one of those days...

Laundry 

• Wash  - 3/4th washed - Kids decided to show me they had another basket and I found other various clothes hidden around the house. *sighs*
• Fold 
• Put Away

Dishes - Well they are in the dishwasher does that count? I had full intention to start them because I already did the hand stuff I just had that one load but the window A/C was on due to Summer arriving late and we can't run the A/C and the portable dishwasher without popping a breaker so it's always one or the other. I decided I wanted to be cool. (though I will start it this morning) 

Clean Stove

Clean Counters - 1/2 done. I started working on it but Peter was dragging me away from the kitchen to plan out our weekend vacation. It's all set up! I can't wait to talk about it when we get back! 

Make Menu

Shopping List - I didn't actually make a shopping list! I walked in blind and grabbed things! Horrible way to shop but the pantry is stocked up a few months on a couple items. 

Shopping

Put Away Canning Supplies - 1/2 done. I wrapped up jars in newspaper and bagged and box them and got them out to the shed. Well some jars left in the house but loose ones are put up. I've got some canning supplies waiting in the dishwasher so once dishes are done I should be able to finish up the rest of the canning stuff. 

Mow Lawn - 1/2 done. I got the string trimming done and mowed the back yard but when I got to the front yard to mow the mower decided it didn't want to start and it was already nearly too dark to mow so I took that as a sign. 

Vacuum

Fix Screen Door

Organize Coupons - I got the coupon packets out of the papers at least?.... 

Call business to schedule Brielle's birthday party next month - Well I called and found out the information though because she has decided these 2 kids HAVE to go and their parents are divorced it's made it so juggling things has become darn near impossible! It's driving me batty! 

Clean kitchen floor

Dust bookshelf

Pickup living room. - Well I tried to start on this one and then everyone came home....

Lunch with Peter

Pickup Brielle after school for Ortho. appt. 

So I've been writing this over the morning. Brielle totally didn't look like she washed her hair well enough can we say GREASE! The joys of a teenager and it made her hair look like she didn't attempt to brush... truthfully I don't think she realizes she has a back of the head! So I went out last min with a hair brush after yelling at her to get her butt out the door because she was running excessively late to get out to the bus. I started to brush the back of her head when the bus pulled up and the bus driver motioned me over. Apparently Katherine was trying to sleep on the bus today and other children were doing something to her the bus driver didn't go into detail only to say that this was a rough bus which I knew it was we basically live next door to the projects. The driver said she was going to take care of Katherine and that it was nothing Katherine did basically it was just bullying and such so I sent an email to Katherine's homeroom teacher informing her because I was warned don't be surprised if Katherine is upset when she gets home..... I don't know what happened to my poor baby it's got me very worried! There's nothing I can do about it right now though and every bad, nasty thing is running through my head because I was bullied when I was younger too. 

-- In any case Monday there were lots of hitches as I had to drive Peter out his work tablet, then pick Peter up for lunch and drop him off and the orthodontist appointment took half an hour longer than they expected. Basically my Monday got ate by the time monster and there wasn't a lot I could do about it. 

Well I'm going to go work off some of this worry and go mow the front lawn before getting ready for work. 

Hope everyone has a good Tuesday!

Additional: This morning was a bit crazy with everything that happened. I believe we got things worked out.

This weeks shopping trip... this is what happens when I don't have a clear shopping list.. I restock the house.  I went over my weekly budget of $100 because as I was leaving I found a cloth table cloth and finding square cloth table tends to be tricky and it tossed me over budget.  $104.45 (table cloth $10.39)

Additional: After talking with the school bus driver we found out exactly what happened and came up with a game plan for my daughter to keep her safe from bullies. We live in a very rough area of town and I'm glad the bus driver is being upfront with me and has given me her cellphone number incase Katherine talks about anything more. I emailed Katherine's homeroom teacher also to give her the warning about Katherine today and her teacher did say she could tell something was wrong but Katherine wouldn't talk about it so I think Katherine and I will have a heart to heart with her. She likes to keep things in when it comes to bullies and it is important she learns to speak up now because its so hard to try and help her if I don't know what's going on. -- Here's to another start to the year let's pray for the strength to work through this and hope the rest of the year is better. Though if the bus continues to be an issue I am prepared to start driving her. I'll do whatever it takes to give both of my children the best chance they can possibly have. 

Busy Monday Edition

(You notice I've been going between manic and busy on my Monday editions. I really can't decide because they are both pretty descriptive of my Mondays. I think I'm going to settle on Busy Monday Edition.)

To Do List:
(Aka my list of things to get done today!)

Laundry -> Wash / Fold / Put Away

Dishes

Clean Stove

Clean Counters

Make Menu

Shopping List

Shopping

Put Away Canning Supplies

Mow Lawn

Vacuum

Fix Screen Door

Organize Coupons

Call business to schedule Brielle's birthday party next month

Clean kitchen floor

Dust bookshelf

Pickup living room. 

Lunch with Peter

Pickup Brielle after school for Ortho. appt. 

Morning Thoughts:

Ah Mondays and my husband said, "Have a nice day off" as he left the house at 6:15 this morning for work after getting 3 phone calls at midnight because the night shift person refused to go drive over to the new hospital (like they are suppose to) and fix the issue. Well I wouldn't exactly call this a day 'off' but I do feel for my sweetie. 

There were several more things I wanted to put on my 'To Do List' like organizing the medicine cabinet and heck I was tempted to put down 'unblock my ear' since last night my ear was bugging me I attempted to clean it out and somehow it caused it all move back and has completely blocked off that eardrum I can't hear anything out of that side!  I've been off and on all morning flushing my ear with warm water hoping to move stuff around enough for it to finally clear up but so far no luck. 

Some of you might notice that I have 'organize coupons' down again. Well that's for a couple reasons. While I did go through and get rid of the 'old' coupons and coupons I wouldn't use I didn't actually organize them into their normal proper slots as my coupon filer is gone! I will have to purchase a new one today because I had fully expected to have found it this past week. The other reason is I have a friend that works at the gas station and that has it's perks because Monday morning instead of tossing out the Sunday papers this is what I find on my porch some days. 

Yup those all papers that I need to go through... I should probably put down 'stop by recycling' on 'To Do List'. I figured I'd use some of the paper to help me pack away jars though so I can store them in the shed and open up some space in the laundry room. After that though unless we are planning to have a bonfire there is no reason for that many papers. 

Weekend Roundup: 

You may have noticed that there was a lot of attention on my list to the kitchen. Well Saturday I spent the day making jam and Sunday the girls helped me can up peaches in light syrup. 

Boy when I say it like that it sounds like we spent two days doing nothing! The first day with the jam was by far the worst. When you are staring down half a bushel of peaches while making jam it feels daunting but as far as just canning peach slices the next day that went quick especially with the girls helping me and they really enjoyed the peeling part. 

Here's some pictures to go with the weekend. 

Saturday Success Stories

So I really don't do this very often not because I don't want traffic over to Jean's site: http://sonotorganized.com/  because I love her blog! But rather I'm just lazy on Saturdays and morning blog writing doesn't become my thing but as I started typing I realized that I was going to leave a book of a comment. Over at So Not Organized she has a running series of Saturday Success Stories which follows her Follow Through Friday in which we try to make goals and what not and try to follow through on them. It's a really good goal oriented series.

So I posted my goal for yesterday was to write a blog posting. Not that it was the only thing I was going to do that day but it was the one awkward thing that popped in my head that I had started the day before with a pen and paper. I am happy to say I accomplished that goal.

Now into the rest of my day.... (edit: This is Friday's overview)
If you remember from my own posting yesterday my schedule seemed pretty open. I had a lot of gaps in time because thankfully I'm just a part time employee. What I did not say is Thursday work kept me late because we had visitors in and they needed help making sure prints and copies were available for various things so what this schedule does not show is I actually left work at 12:20 yesterday!

That being the case I had decided to go down to our local orchard and buy some peaches because Saturday (today) was going to be their last open day of the season and I know how I am about getting out on a Saturday.
I bought half a bushel of peaches for $25. It still seemed a little steep to me but I did it anyways so now I plan to be making peach jam all weekend. I'm not sure why I created more work for myself. I think I must hate myself! Though I figured out why the price was so high I bought 1sts I didn't know what 2nds were! Next year I will know better. Though since I did buy it by the half a bushel I did save some money that way instead of buying it by the peck.

There on the side of the picture you can see the crockpot with dinner I had started that morning. Much love to my crockpot because dinner was exactly on time last night.

From the orchard I went to the grocery store to price out jars and get new pectin because the stack I had was from 1987! (After my grandmother passed I got her stash.) Brielle also needed a new protractor because the one I got her for geometry wasn't really that good and I needed some superglue to fix the kids angel statue....

I didn't go into that from this past week did I? Brielle pushed on the door from the playroom that has her desk to the bedroom and the door cracked and fell down! Yeah... that was our excitement from earlier this week.

Walking around Kroger I was talking to a person on the phone who was selling canning jars a dozen for $5 so I set up to pick up 2 dozen and then took a roadtrip to the countryside in which I got lost in. I did eventually pick them up but what they were calling jelly jars was wide mouth jars! I don't know about anyone else but buying wide mouth lids and rings is expensive! So instead I picked out some normal pint jars I figured if nothing else a friend of mine is always complaining about too many cucumbers and I can help pickle some up for her.

I got back to town, got Katherine and then got home to put the finishing touches on dinner. Peter walked in the door from work and we ate then Brielle and Peter went to their Magic game and I got ready to leave out the door with Katherine.

Katherine and I made our way to the library for Katherine to pick up her reserved book and then I took some time to pick out a cookbook with bread machine recipes.

From there we went to the YMCA for the family swim session. Katherine ran into some friends who their mother had dropped them off but even with Katherine being 9 I wasn't going to leave her alone so as her and her friends wandered around playing racquetball, foosball, ping pong and air hockey I kind of just followed along with taking a short reprieve to obtain my cookbook from the van so I would have something to do since silly me forgot their cellphone at home and I had thought to myself, "Oh I won't need that tonight." Which I wouldn't have had we been swimming the whole time as I had assumed we were going to. In any case I kind of became the responsible adult following around this hoard of children.

Got home close to 9 o'clock and Katherine and I got ready for bed. She watched a few shows on her PC and I watched a few on my PC (been watching Kitchen Nightmares).

That was pretty much my evening.

As for today well a friend of Brielle's walked over yesterday and invited Brielle to her roller skating party at 3 o'clock today. Talk about short notice! So once I get enough coffee in my system Brielle and I need to go get a present for her friend. I may just wait until after lunch because all the shopping places are on the same side of town as the roller rink.

Otherwise today I do need to start on the peaches and I want to take stock of how much bread flour I have as I'd like to see if I can find some bread recipes we will like. I have a lot of problems with my white bread being crumbly and super hard outside and it never rises properly. Thankfully this book talks about some of these issues. We will see how it goes.

Tetris Time - Multitasking

Recently there has been a big push against multitasking which is not surprising since many of us would like to see life slow down but we are given reasons like; multitasking doesn't work, you're not really multitasking, or other dissuading comments.
I know I can feel a little helpless reading these things because these are other bloggers that seem to be living perfectly. Their homes always seem to be clean, their children never behave badly, they are successful bloggers, homemakers, mothers and homeschool on top of it all! So they must have figured everything out and are doing it correctly, right?
The truth is we are all different and the needs of our families are also different. There is no real right or wrong unless you do nothing at all.

Admittedly multitasking isn't always the way I would like to do things but I look at time like I do tetris. I even find myself humming Korobeiniki while performing tasks. Surely I'm not the only one, especially while rearranging the cabinets or fridge.
Multiple tasks are just apart of a busy life. There are children, pets, chores, shopping, work, clubs and various other activities and only 24 hours in a day and sadly at least part of those hours need to be spent sleeping! Darn that need for sleep I could get so much more done otherwise!
Trying to keep up with all these various tasks I also treat it like I'm playing a game of tetris because there are many tasks that can be fit together or fit into the lulls of daily life.

Uh-hem...
Let me get my geek on and explain this like the game.
It is never that I stop trying to finish a line (aka an activity) but sometimes pieces don't fit in perfectly and I am left with gaps (time). My goal of completing that line is the same but if a block won't fit properly then it just won't fit and trying to force it can cause more problems down the line. So instead I work on stacks to the sides and come back to filling in the gaps with pieces that will fit better. They may still not fit perfectly but something is better than nothing.
Real life example, please don't get too weirded out by my odd habit. I keep a magic eraser in the shower. Sometimes I would like a few extra minutes in the shower by myself so I take my magic eraser and scrub the soap scum that builds up. The tub may not be perfect but it is easier to keep up on for when I have time to do a better cleaning job and I got 5 minutes to myself and didn't have to worry about getting messy before work.

We all multitask to some point if you thinking about what multitasking is by definition: to perform two or more tasks simultaneously.
So if you are on a train to work you could be reading, checking your email, etc. Technically that is multitasking. Folks multi task in the kitchen all the time and while it can cause problems, unless you want to stagger food and take all night eating it or be forced to put things in the microwave then you have to learn to handle more than one thing at a time and instead of blaming multitasking for the fire alarm being the dinner bell instead look at personal organization and timing.

I would also venture to say there is a limit to how much a person can multitask. That limit is set by how involved something is physically and mentally, how long it takes to do that something and how well do you want it done.

If you focus on one thing you will nearly always get better results but if you are as busy as I am then sometimes you have to shoot for 'good enough' and realize any effort is better than no effort.

Using scheduling programs such as Cozi can sometimes help you see where the gaps are that you might not have otherwise recognized. It can also help people know what the schedule is so no one is caught off guard.
Now I don't fill every little thing into my Cozi or calendar. Some things are kind of a given like getting out of bed at 6am, feeding the children, getting ready for the day, and various chores so I don't put those down they either have a set time frame like 6-7:20 I'm getting the family up and out the door or at 8pm I put the children to bed other things I probably should put on (like my husband starting on call this week I just found out about that last night ugh).
The point here is finding the gaps and realizing that they are there. As tired and helpless as we can feel it can be easy to fall into the, "I just don't have time!" It's not that we are trying to lie to ourselves it's that we really do feel that way! I come home after work and will flop down and take time just to get my head straight and while it's not on the schedule I think it's something that is pretty needed.
If you make up your schedule and and you truly don't have any gaps of time it might be time to look at cutting back on something if at all possible. Some days are always going to be busier than others this is a pretty easy fun day for us but if you find everyday hectic you might need to look at your priorities and sanity level.

These are all my observations and feelings and what works for me. I know I used the word 'you' a lot but as I stated at the beginning there is no right or wrong as long as you keep moving forward.

How Two People Met and Became A Family

Today Peter took off work early as did I to meet Beth from the local newspaper to interview us as one of the couples in the area that met online. Her main focus was on couples who met on sites like Match.com and others yet Peter and I have a different story. Over an hour of talking and being interviewed and we glazed over things. I won't even attempt to go into as much detail here to save you all from tired eyes.

Peter lived in Owensboro, KY (where we currently reside) and I lived with my parents in Springfield, OR. Around 1996 Peter and I met each other on a MUSH which was a text only roleplay site. Think of like a chat room where you pretend to be wizards and vampires and such and each person helps tell the story of what is going on like chapters in a book. We gamed with each other for several years and after a time started talking out of character on the site. In 1999 Peter was sleeping on his friends couch, unemployed and depressed. I was just about to turn 18 and I asked him to come spend a week at my parents house with me (with my parents okay of course). Peter's friends knew he had to get up and out and they put him on a greyhound in March and we spent a week together in Oregon with many different stories springing from there that I could spend hours talking about. Neither of us went in expecting a relationship but after that week we constantly talked on the phone (which would later bite us as he racked up a $400 bill with AT&T). In April he asked me to marry him over the phone. We had many adventures after that as we moved to Arizona and then back to Oregon and fumbled through this relationship. We bought our rings at an after Christmas sale in the mall  and a few months later (yes I didn't find out until well along - long explanation) we found out I had gotten pregnant with our first so we pushed the wedding date up.

We've had our ups and downs over the years but there are a few things that I appreciate about how we met and the main one is that it was never a relationship based off of looks but pure personality and the building of trust.

This past summer I went to my cousins wedding and got to talk to my parents and found out how they met in college and got to hear the awkward story of how that all unfolded. I'm so glad that I got to hear it though and I sometimes think it's a topic we don't think about talking about often but it is perhaps one of the most amazing things in life to realize sometimes how by chance it can be or how slow or fast it can all come about.

I'd love to hear more 'how we met' stories from people. I think sometimes we realize how amazing our relationships are but we forget just how spectacular of a chance we were given in the first place.

Monday Wrap-Up

I can't say it'll always be Monday that I wrap things up or heck that I can post my 'To-Do' before I do it but we'll see how things go.

So let's see how I did on my list.

Laundry 

 Wash  

Fold  -> 3/4ths done after 5 loads socks and undergarments bested me again on where I left off. 

Put Away -> Mine and Peter's are put away but the girls' clothes are not.

Dishes

Clean Stove

Clean Fridge

After cleaning & shopping

Beginning of the day

Make Menu

Shopping List

Shopping

This weeks groceries $60.83

Make Beds

Mow Lawn -> 1/2 done I did the front and string trimmed but decided the back could wait off.

Vacuum ->3/4 done Brielle's side of the room had her school work scattered everywhere and the playroom was too much of a mess for me to get into there today.

Clean Bathtub

Organize Coupons 

Put Away Birthday Supplies

Lunch with Peter

Katherine's Birthday Dinner

So yeah I didn't finish everything I set out to do today but that's okay. 

Other News:

Katherine got all her points at school today! She remembered everything she needed to bring home too! We went to Buffalo Wild Wings which is where she requested and the waitress was so surprised that is where my 9 year old girl wanted to eat. We ate until we were stuffed and then the store gave her a free bottle of buffalo wing sauce! She went out of there saying, "Best Birthday EVER". I still think it is funny she turned down the cake and instead took the sauce. We had also made a deal that the next time she got all her points I'd take her down and get what is called 'spray candy' where it's this spray bottle of candy tasting stuff. So we dropped Peter and Brielle back at home so Brielle could get back on her homework and I took Katherine out to get her treat. Mommy keeps her promises!

Also, today I've been going back and forth with the local newspaper working out a date and time they want to interview us for Saturday's paper for an article about online relationships. Know it or not Peter lived in Kentucky and I lived in Oregon and we met through an online game we both played. It may sound like a silly start and we've stuck it out. 

Still in other news:

I started this project Friday when I was laid up but my dehydrator and I have been having arguments. I actually finally just got finished up dehydrating up what I thought would be a ton of rosemary but I guess once dehydrated it really doesn't go far. 

So I cut a bunch of rosemary from out front at least I thought it was a bunch as this is my huge bowl I do lefse in that I used to carry and wash the rosemary in.

I then dried it out some after the washing and arranged it on the trays for the dehydrator. 

And this is what I got out of 4 trays. Now mind you the jar is a little deceptive it was a banana pepper jar. Yes, I know I'm a hoarder of jars! But they come in so handy!

There we have it. Now I think I'll go get some rest. I'll need to try and finish some more on my list tomorrow and actually do things like dust and such so when the lady from the Newspaper comes Wednesday she doesn't feel the need to line her seat with plastic. :)

Another Manic Monday

... I wish it was a Sunday.... *sings along in her head*

Today is Katherine's Birthday! My sweet girl! I got up and actually cooked a pancake for her. I never cook in the mornings especially not at 6am but I thought she'd like something other than cereal for her birthday. So she got a big fat pancake (no pictures it was 6:20 by time I got done making it) and we tossed her hair up in a ponytail. Had a tad bit of an argument she wanted to wear sweatpants to school today!! I finally got her into shorts. I think she'll be a lot happier that way.

I got her out the door after some playful talk at the end of the driveway with me still in my nighty LOL BAH I was properly covered the neighborhood can get over it Katherine was just enjoying talking my ear off and I was going to fully let her.

Rest of the morning has gone off so far without a hitch let us continue it stays that way.

So I started with a rough list this morning though I'm sure I forgot stuff. I'm a bit hazy in the head and must go sing more praises to my coffee pot.

First Monday I've had 'off' for awhile so I've got a list of things to do.

• Laundry -> Wash / Fold / Put Away
• Dishes
• Clean Stove
• Clean Fridge
• Make Menu
• Shopping List
• Shopping
• Make Beds
• Mow Lawn
• Vacuum
• Clean Bathtub
• Organize Coupons
• Put Away Birthday Supplies
• Lunch with Peter

I've already knocked out 2 things on my list this morning. Menu and shopping list. Pretty easy to do one if you've done the other. Other than chicken being on sale I don't plan to really stock up on anything. 

• Katherine's Birthday Meal - Eating Out (Today)
• Spaghetti
• Chicken & Rice w/stir fry veggies
• Grilled Ham & Cheese Sandwiches w/tomato soup
• Pulled Pork & Chips
• Pizza 
• Meatloaf w/Mashed Potatoes & Corn

Pretty standard fare around here. I went through one of my recipe books this morning and everything just seemed impossibly hard to adjust correctly so that my husband will touch it so I just gave up. 

That's where I'm at today on things. Hopefully I make it through the day! 

.....................................

Now flash back to Sunday! Katherine had her birthday party at the park! My big 9 year old! 

In her swim suit because we couldn't let her run around in her birthday suit at the park. 

She wanted dinosaurs and yes those are the colors of frosting she wanted for the trim! 

A very special thank you to everyone that came out!

Of course all of this after having to do last minute shopping for the party. You always forget something.

Here I am half asleep.... *does the timey whimey thing*
Saturday was the day that was crazy! Peter and Katherine went to Pokemon League. I took Brielle out shopping with me for groceries for the party and then gifts for Katherine. After which I picked up Katherine from Peter and I walked down to Hobby Lobby with the girls to get party favors. We then went to the public library for Katherine and Brielle to turn in their books because they had already read them and to check out new books and then it was off to the family dollar where we found lots of discounted party supplies. During the course of this Peter was selling a computer he had worked on and getting a haircut. Needless to say I had my phone by me constantly with Cozi pulled up so I could keep track of taking care of everything!

And that was the weekend folks ;)

Kid's Halloween Party 2013 - Planning Phase

This will be a posting that is updated quite a few times just to make it easier for a few of us ladies to get together and post links and update it as needed as plans come together for an all out kids Halloween Party. We've seen them growing up on the TV or read about them in the books or maybe a few rare friends would have that haunted garage or you'd walk buy kids parties going. Well a bunch of us have been talking for a year and this is something we TOTALLY want to do with the kids!

So here is to planning a great Halloween Party let's hope we can pull this one together!

Creepy Ice Hand I've heard of a few fails on this project so we'll have to do a trial run.

Grape Eyeballs Look like they could be fun with some plastic martini glasses for the kids make them feel all grown up.

Hard Candy "Blood Drip" I had this idea but using candy apple dip but I found this site had a hard candy recipe. I'm not sure which would be better but it does look like it'd be fun to use for the glasses!

Hand-Burger ! Oh a quick add already! I thought this was funny and cute!

http://iblue.hubpages.com/hub/Top-10-Halloween-Homemade-Decorations

http://decore4you.blogspot.com/2013/08/homemade-outdoor-decorations.html

I think this one would be real cheap and easy to do if we start saving up milk jugs right now then all we'd need is to pull out a string of xmas lights. 

Watermelon Brain! Oh this looks neat! I bet my friend Sarah could totally pull this off!

I'll add more stuff up later! Of course we are talking the traditional stuff too like bobbing for apples and maybe a movie like Casper or something showing!

----
More ideas! There's so many and many I forgot to collect to put on here! Eep! And the party date is fast approaching!

I saw this on Dana Made It and thought it'd be cheap and easy to set up! I love anything cheap and easy!

I was getting ready to order Katherine a subscription of Ranger Rick when I was going through their website and found THIS fruity jack-o-lantern.

Busy Thursday

So I spent my day worrying about Katherine and how things were going to go. I was so worried and stressed out about it I forgot my cellphone and my lunch at home when I went to work.

Well great news! Katherine got all her points and remembered all her supplies! She had an awesome day! We went to Kroger after I picked her up from After School and she picked out her birthday cake and I bought her a chocolate chip frappuccino at Starbucks. She even saw a friend when we were there. This from the girl who tells me she doesn't have friends.

After work today I started on the desk. I just needed to be busy with my hands. Sadly I ran into a few problems and I'll have to do some touch up on it later. 1. I had hoped this would be a dollar store project but having never used spray paint before  I went through 3 cans and used paint I had out in the shed which was latex so yeah I've had a few difficulties. I also used some chalking we had laying around and contact paper I bought at the dollar store. I'll do more to the desk later but I wanted to get it inside today.

Before - I should have moved the chair. 

After. It definitely looks different I think! 

I ended up spending about $9 out of pocket on the project. 

Short Update

Well I thought it'd be silly and too much work for me to have 2 facebook accounts so I made a facebook group. While it won't be 'shared' and suggested to others as often traffic to my site has never been my #1 goal rather it has been for me to be able to talk about what we are up to and share it with old friends, new friends and family.
The facebook group link should be: https://www.facebook.com/groups/196139677227028/
Feel free to join. I should mostly be posting just links to a new blog unless something catches my eye completely. If this format does not work well we may change to an additional account but I'd like to avoid it if possible.


----

Other news we've been in contact with Katherine's teacher already there are things going on and Katherine is giving me a blank stare not remembering it and it's behavior issues I've never had with her. Apparently if anyone touches her she screams bloody murder? It has me completely confused I've never heard or witness such a thing with her. I may try to take some time off soon and ask to sit in during a school day because what the teachers are telling me doesn't give with the Katherine I know. Mind you I should be used to this they marked her as a problem child back in Kindergarten and each teacher has passed it onto the next one plus she is getting all of Brielle's old teachers and Brielle is a much more quiet and reserve child so I think they are going in with unreasonable expectations.

It's stressful and as a mom you just want the very best for your child. It's not the end of the world and we will work through this but I just want to sit down and cry because I really getting the feeling they aren't giving Katherine a fair chance. I'll be happy when she gets to Middle School so she can get away from this reputation the teachers have pinned on her. I know what the problem really is I told the teachers some years ago to go fly a kite when they wanted her put on ritalin. For blurting out answers in the classroom and emotionally not being up with the rest of the kids.
Um...
1. she blurts stuff out because she's excited and she's trying to 'participate' god forbid a child does that. I'm not saying she shouldn't raise her hand but it's something very fixable.
2. She's one of the youngest students in the class plus she doesn't have a lot of brothers and sisters and a neighborhood of kids to play with so admittedly emotionally she's not quite up there and I warned them about that. She's a very sensitive child on top of it and loves every little thing. She captures spiders and other bugs that gets in the house and releases them to the outdoors!

If you've read my posts for a long time then you know I'm HIGHLY against medicating children! I was that misdiagnosed case that spent a third of her life trying to fix things after horrible pills and manipulating doctors. Not to mention they tried to pull the same ADHD bs on me about Brielle strictly because her test times were low! Schools need to stop looking for quick fixes and teachers need to do their jobs and states need to properly fund these teachers and support staff so that everyone can do their job properly! If you work with a child and you show them what is going on and why they shouldn't do something and you repeat working on that and giving them structure and the individual attention the need and deserve then problems will be fixed without pills 90% of the time. But you stick one grown up into a class of 28-32 kids and of course they can't see what's going on which also is what allows bullies which there are quite a few of at the school. One kid looked at Katherine in after school last week when Katherine went up to introduce herself and said, "Get out of my life." I really feel for poor Katherine as she tries to find her place in this world.
Here I am about ready to start crying again and I need to finish getting ready for work.

Well this was suppose to be a short update but I found my soap box. Just very stressed out at the moment as I want only the best for my kiddos.

Social Networking Question

So yesterday I was faced with a couple questions that really I really am not sure about. Mostly centered around Facebook though it could be extended to Google+ and others. 

 

The first one is my 12 year old daughter. She turns 13 next month. She has it set in her head that she must be 18 for a Facebook account the truth is at 13 she reaches their requirement. I could very well just tell her 'no' but I feel that she's pretty responsible it is everyone one else I'm worried about. Heck I'd even have to make sure she was blocked from my ranting posts because I would made sure that I could follow her and have her password to check on things. We are pretty liberal about technology around here but it still doesn't mean I'm not cautious. Thoughts or opinions?  

The other question is I see a lot of bloggers have a Facebook or other social networking account or 'group' for their blog. While part of me wants to think it is a little silly the other part of me wonders if it is something I should do also. Opinions?

It's a lot to think about and I've been churning it over in my head since yesterday. 

Manic Monday

"ma·nia  noun \ˈmā-nē-ə, -nyə\
1: excitement manifested by mental and physical hyperactivity, disorganization of behavior"

So it's actually Tuesday right now but I'm writing for Monday while I wait for my jeans to get done drying for work. It was a pretty crazy Monday and I said it last year that I need a Monday series because my Mondays always seem a tad bit crazy but no more crazy than most people. 

Monday I went to work because I had that large format plotter (remember my post from before?) that was getting fixed and I was informed that how I was to deal with visitors that I was not going to put through safety (because he wasn't going into the plant) is that I just needed to escort him and basically be with the guy 100% of the time which means not a lot of work got done. A little afternoon I watch the guy leave. I'm not sure if I was suppose to physically escort him out or not it was all rather weird and went to have lunch with my husband at Cheddar's. I know, I know we really shouldn't have gone out to eat because our eat out budget is about blown already for the month because my husband seems to enjoy going out 2+ times a week. It's rather getting on my nerves. I enjoyed lunch though then went back to work to turn in some paperwork, update some files and fight with an update for my AutoCAD but I did eventually get it to install.

From work it was to home because I forgot my grocery list. I thought about mowing (side note I had string trimmed the front lawn and around the back shed before work that morning) and it looked like rain but I told myself I could hold off until after I got groceries and my youngest daughter from after school.

While getting groceries my oldest gets home (she's a month shy of 13 so her staying home 15-20 min I don't count as a big deal) she calls me up on her cell phone sobbing. When I finally get her to calm down I find out she ripped out the bottom of her backpack. A backpack mind you that I thought wouldn't last a month but she insisted on using it and I didn't buy it so I didn't argue but kept back her high dollar one from last year. So now I have been tasked with trying to figure out how to fix this backpack that will be fun. The only way I could get her to calm down though was me promising I would try.

By time I get out of the grocery store it's pouring down rain. Well there goes mowing the lawn. I go get Katherine and take her home and unload groceries. 

Katherine so far has had a very good year at school and I found out that they brought back her behavior points sheet though I haven't seen it yet. I'm curious if there is anything I need to sign but she told me she got all but 1 of her points and that is excellent so we are having a great start to the school year for her. 

Last night was taco night. Brielle was doing homework which took her over 3 hours last night as she was laden down with geometry and language arts. I think the 8th grade is trying to kill her or she thinks it at least and during this time I took Katherine under my wing since she didn't have homework. Katherine helped measure all the ingredients for making taco seasoning and I helped her with her technique to get the measuring spoons level. She did an awesome job and then I taught her how to use my scale so she could split up the hamburger I bought so we could freeze what we didn't need this week. She thought the scale was great! After all the meat was packaged she started weighing random things. I also had her help me with the stirring and the mixing of the seasonings when it was time. 

Dinner went over well then I worked on laundry and dishes and played a few puzzle games on my computer and watched a show with the husband. It felt much more crazy than it really was. I just don't like going grocery shopping on days I have to work. On that note though I was mean and had my husband go out last night because I didn't have dried onion flakes! Well I did about 1/8 tsp not the 1 TBS I needed! It has me thinking I should take some onion and throw it through the food processor and then try it in the dehydrator. Or should I dehydrate big pieces of onion and then throw them through a food processor? Hmmm I'll have to see what the online community suggests. 

Other than that just trying to get next weekends birthday party in order. That has already begun to be a headache. 

------

Since I'm blogging now I suppose I'll cover this past weekend. 

Brielle enjoyed playing Magic at the gaming shop and Peter said he'd help her out so she can get a better grasp of her deck. 

Katherine enjoyed pokemon but no one was really playing the card game this past Saturday so Peter said he'd get himself a deck for those days so he can play with her. They also do the video game at the shop and that is what a lot of kids are into so we are getting that for Katherine's birthday present. 

Sunday we went to see Despicable Me 2 in the theater and found it to be a very funny movie we were all laughing. We then went to the library.

 

(My camera on my phone decided to play nice!)

After that we came home and and the girls and I made zucchini bread and started on a dinner of spaghetti-o's! It was a silly dinner but I found 4 cans of it on discount the other day and it made things easy. 

Since then Katherine has been hooked into her book "Silver Dragon Codex" and every morning she gets up and starts reading and has an arguement with me (not a mean one just her trying to figure out the whys and hows) because she wants to take the book to school with her but seeing how last year she was getting in trouble for reading during class I don't want to tempt fate. 

Well that's it for the most part. I suppose I could be doing something else while my work clothes dry. 

Friday Night Success?

Well Peter took Brielle out for Friday Night Magic at the local game shop. We are going to try and make this a regular thing but it was nearly 11 by time they got home. I'm fine with it now that I have a time frame but Peter had left his phone at home which left me in the dark.

I found out without Peter home I become productive or crazy I'm not sure which. I washed two loads of laundry but of course I didn't fold them because folding is evil. I moved things around in the kitchen to scrub the floors after I had wiped down the counters and stove. I did two loads of dishes, cleaned the bathroom floor/sink/toilet, vacuumed the living room and then played video games the rest of the evening while Katherine got time on her computer for good behavior this week at school.

I mean to be doing some more cleaning right now but I slept for 10 hours for some reason and 3 hours into this day and I'm still not completely ready to face things.

Tonight we are doing a build your own pizza night! We don't do them very often because it can get expensive but it's always highly enjoyed.

We are also going to fulfill the girls' request of bringing back family movie night tonight.

In other news an awesome friend of mine gave me her TI-83 for Brielle since Brielle lost mine somehow. We've torn apart the house but to no avail. I was getting a big desperate and thankfully I have some very awesome friends that were able to help me out. I've been going through the budget and now with school in session and winter just around the corner meaning higher utility costs, birthdays and holidays I'm cringing as I'm looking at the next few months trying to find where I can squeeze every penny out to make it all work.

We will still be going to the movies tomorrow though as I've already got the money pulled out of the budget for it.

Finally I need to whine a little. This is what I've been dealing with in random spots on my body and it is getting worse before it gets better.

This is what happens when I have to deal with trumpet vine. I'm immune to poison ivy and poison oak but trumpet vine is absolutely horrible! This is what I get for when I was younger leading my friends through poison oak, admittedly I was ignorant of what the stuff looked like.
I'll be glad when this stuff clears up it's been driving me batty! And no amount of anti-itch cream helps and it feels weird when I have to put it on!

Killing Time - Weekend Plans

So if anyone is looking at this they will think, "Boy she sure is posting at an odd time did she not go to work?" Well I assure you I'm at work but I got tied down to my desk waiting on a service call to come in for me to get the appointment time for people to fix my large format copier.

Horrible picture I know but all I've got is my phone which is older than sin (but I still love it).
I put a chair by the copier to kind of give an indication of how large this thing is.

So we are kicking off the weekend here in a few hours! Hooray!
Plans are as follows:
Tonight Peter will take Brielle and play Magic the Gathering with her at Friday Night Magic from 6-9 pm.
Tomorrow from 12-2 Peter will take Katherine down to play Pokemon.
Saturday night will also be family movie night as we slacked off on that and the kids have been asking for it again. I will have to figure out a different snack than popcorn now that Brielle has her braces. I believe we are going to actually watch the Legend of Korra series a little bit at a time because we haven't seen any movies come out on DVD recently.
Sunday we plan to take the kids to see Despicable Me 2 at the theater.

Oh and either tonight or tomorrow I'll be making zucchini bread with one if not both girls to help me. It all depends on when I feel up to it.

We're trying to be come a bit more active as a family. We'll see how it goes. In September the Project 4-H club is starting back up and I've already talked to Peter and we'll be letting both of the girls get involved with 4-H. They also have a Nature Club I think the kids would like but they looked at me funny and then they have a Horseless Rider club where you learn about how to care for a horse but don't actually get to ride one it's for kids who love horses but don't own one. I'm not very keen on the Horseless Rider one I don't think the girls quite fully comprehend why on that so for now we'll just start with one club.

*taps her foot*
I really hope the service technician calls soon because there are a great deal of other things here at work that I need to get done other than babysitting a telephone.

First Day of School & Menu

So just a little post (maybe you know how I can get). Since it is the first day of school and the first day of working our life back into the normal routine with no more crazy running around for at least a little bit I thought I would force myself to make a post and see if I can also get back into the routine.

Getting ready for school was crazy. We went school shopping for Brielle yesterday and then while packing up the backpacks we realized that the school supply list for Katherine had changed from last month! So Peter went back out to pick up the new supplies and also to print out some wedding invitations for a friend of ours since he had kind of been putting it off just because the idea of 'home' was so appealing.

Things got sorted and I even painted the girls finger nails this morning. They are both really excited to get back to school and friends. Mind you at current my house looks like a tornado hit it! There are a lot of things that are going to have to shift now that school has started and on top of it I haven't had much time at all with the kids so while walking through the store yesterday I felt every nerve was frayed. It's not that the girls were being bad I'm just not used to the non-stop questions. I think the children are trying to prepare me for a game show.

I hope the kiddos have an insanely awesome day! 

Other things I need to do is really come up with a clear meal plan instead of things being all over the place. For right now this is how it looks. 

Today: Chicken Helper & Steamed Veggies with cheese sauce (thinking I can just melt some velveeta in a pan that should work)

Thursday: Royal Round Steak (I wonder if I should try to remember to take pictures and give this a new posting by itself since it is just mixed in with one of my blogs)

Friday: Grilled Cheese & Tomato Soup

Saturday: Make your own pizza (which note to self I need to check around for pizza crust I hate making my own)

Sunday: Heck if I know yet. Maybe Chili Dogs? We'll have to see. 

As you can see I'm disorganized as all get out hopefully by next week I'll be ready to put things in their proper order. 

Well I guess it's 8 o'clock I better finish getting ready for work! 

Have a great day!