Busy Monday Edition, September 30

Today's 'To-Do' List

• Menu
• Shopping
• Write 'Fall Cleaning' blog for today
• Accomplish 'Fall Cleaning Challenge'
• Balance Checkbook
• Dishes
• Laundry
• Lunch with Peter - Still not sure about this one
• Sweep/vacuum
• Clean bedding
• Stop by packaging store to buy boxes
• Go by Texas Roadhouse to buy gift card

Over all today is pretty easy. I don't have any real appointments to run to! It probably wouldn't hurt to go into work with all the appointments later this week but I really need some down time so I'm going to take it while it offers itself to me. Plus, my brain is a little drained getting up at 6am  and by 6:30 crunching financial information numbers. I've adjusted my budget a little bit to a more realistic view. I means this month we are going to be in the red this month. You have to love a 2 paycheck month with 5 weeks of shopping days to it. 

You'll notice a lot of cleaning on my list. Yeah this weekend went NUTS I'll explain in my Last Week section.

Menu

• Crescent Hot Dog Wraps & Tator Tots  
• BBQ Pulled Pork & Chips
• Spaghetti w/Chicken
• Hamburger Helper
• Tacos
• Pizza
• Meatloaf, Mashed Potatoes & Corn

This Week's 'To-Do' List

• Keep up with Fall Cleaning Schedule
• Swimming Lessons for kids
• Dental appointment for kids
• Lunch with Ladies from work
• Drop off donation items
• Saturday Night Family Movie Night

Last Week

Alright let's cover last week and the fiasco that it was! So Friday Peter took work off to stay home with the kids and to watch a friend of ours kiddo because county schools were out for 'teacher in service' and Peter has more vacation saved since I have to hold mine back to cover Thanksgiving and Winter breaks. We still have no clue what we are doing about Fall week next week. I reminded Peter that was last week and I think I watched the color drain from his face as we don't have childcare setup. I need to check with the Y and see if they will be running their holiday camp during that week since we are in County Schools and I'm not sure if City is having their break at the same time.
Back to Friday, so I've been gathering stuff for a garage sale on Saturday and while I had to go into work early because there was a great deal of running to be taken care of all the kiddos decided to drag the garage sale toys back into play across the house. Needless to say I'm still finding items that never made it into the sale. The sale was never my idea but our neighbors who are moving asked us to join with and we said OK not thinking. I have sworn NEVER again though it did encourage the girls to get rid of some toys so the next time I might have them clear things out under the 'pretense' that I'm going to sell them then haul them away to goodwill and hand the girls some cash. I know I'm a horrible mother but getting them to let go of their toys is really a chore. 

So back to Friday again... I keep rambling off don't I.
So I got off of work and then went to a Lady's house who I needed to fill out some loan extension forms because I had loaned them a large sum of money to get out of their eviction notice. I just couldn't let a house with 5 children in it find their way to the street. I stood around there then found out she wasn't there because she was handling some other stuff so then I went to sign the girls up for Swimming lessons at the Y and then off to the dollar store hoping to find some price tags for the garage sale instead we ended up using masking tape. 

The lady stopped by my house to fill out the forms so she could get an extension on the loan and heard we were having a garage sale so she asked if she could bring her stuff too (yes this is an old friend of my husbands could be a full length drama show but that's her business) and I'm like 'sure' which I'm glad of because it gave me someone to talk with Saturday while I sat on my porch all day feeling antsy. And then another friend stopped by and found out we were having a garage sale so Saturday morning showed up with a trailer of stuff and then another friend found out and he added in stuff too. 

So Friday after work and all that running around I spent the evening cleaning out the carport, mowing the front lawn, weeding out some flower beds so my house didn't look awful outside, pricing out items and finding my way to bed around midnight to get up at 6:15am Saturday and start setting up. 

So what did I do Saturday? I sat on my porch pretty much all day until close to 3 o'clock when we packed up what was left. After Friday and then Saturday I was done and vegged for most of the night. I made chicken nuggets and french fries and called it a day. I did chide Brielle several times about her science experiment and we realized it was due Monday (aka Today). 

So we started a mustard stain experiment and we let the stains sit for 14 hours. 

Well around 2 o'clock as we are trying to get the poster board taken care of Peter reads over Brielle's shoulder and asked her what this, "Trial 1, Trial 2, Trial 3" thing was. Que doom music. We were suppose to do 3 different trials to make sure there wasn't a fluke and we had just done a 14 hour wait time and used the only white felt I had so Peter grabbed one of his still good shirts and shredded it with scissors and we started the experiment from scratch! Needing the stain to set quickly we BAKED spaghetti sauce soaked strips of T-Shirt! Yum....
We were up until midnight with this experiment and her typing up observations and gluing stuff onto the poster board. Needless to say this morning I'm functioning on coffee alone. 

To top all that because of that fiasco and Saturday's mess of a day I forgot to study with Katherine over her states so guess who gets to go pick up the kiddo early so we can work on homework, Who's got Two Thumbs and a Nervous Breakdown... this girl.  

Lots of stress last week with work too. I'm very happy to be sitting here with a cup of coffee writing a blog having not even jump through a shower yet! I needed some time OFF.