A fun, quick trip

We went to Iowa this year for Christmas. I will admit that we went because I NEEDED to get my hands on that newborn baby (and hug Lacey), but it was also fabulous to see Lucas' family.

We had an amazing trip as far as the travel part went. There was no slow traffic at all. We were there in 11 hours and home in 12. The way home took longer because we had a gift card to Cracker Barrell we wanted to use for supper and anytime we sit down to dinner it takes longer. My children amaze me with how long they will sit in a car. I know it helps that we have DVD players and snacks out our ears, but still, it's pretty much amazing.

I've taken so many trips recently with just the kids and it was great to have Lucas along. He did alllll the driving on the way home, although I'm not sure what is better - driving or crawling around in our van helping children. Sometimes I think driving is easier!

Our van is great for travel. At lunch time, I just crawled in the back, sat on the floor, and made sandwiches. Couldn't do that in the car. Lucas still complains (somewhat jokingly) about our van, but I won't go back to a car until the kids are much older.

While in Iowa, the kids opened gifts on four different occasions. They're not going to know how to go back to real life. They (especially David) were toast by Saturday night, but did okay on Christmas Day. Hard to see everyone you want to see in just 3 days!

When we got home, Danae said, "Mommy, I missed-ed my bed." My sentiments exactly. Visiting is wonderful, but there's no place like home.

I'm a fake aunt!

I won't share a lot of details because this isn't my child to share about, but my best friend and Lucas' best friend are married to each other and they had a baby on Sunday!

I'm pretty much estatic!

I fell off the wagon

I was doing so well about blogging every couple of days, but Christmas busyness got to me and I have fallen off the blogging wagon.

So I'm back now!

We had our family Christmas on Saturday and it was SO much fun! We got up, the kids looked over their big gifts and then Daddy read the Christmas Story from Luke. We opened stockings, ate some breakfast, and then opened gifts at a slow pace. Danae opened hers quicker and was done by lunchtime, but David opened his last gift at 4pm. It was fun to just be here and have a quiet day of playing with new toys and games. We tried this year to buy things they would really love and that they could play with for a long time. I think we did well.

Books, games, imaginative playthings, V-Reader games, puzzles and crafty supplies make for happy kids :)

I believe that from now on we will plan to have Christmas on a day that isn't the 25th so we can enjoy the day like we did this year.

I didn't cook (crock pot did that) or clean (put it off until the next day) and we just enjoyed the day and I played with my new toy - a Kindle Fire!

Mixed emotions

I feel a bit on the emotional side today and decided to share.

We moved from Iowa to Ohio two years ago. We are closer to my family, but away from Lucas' family. And of course I lived in Iowa for 13 years so I left a church family and a lot of friends. When we moved, I gained my parents, my bother...I mean brother and his sweet wife, cousins, aunts, uncles, and a whole new church family.

My conclusions become

I really love living in Ohio.

I really miss people in Iowa.

My best friend is married to Lucas' best friend and they are going to have a baby any day now. I would give so much to be there making meals for them and helping decorate a nursery. We talk on the phone often and we're going to go see them and the baby at Christmas, but it's not the same.

On the other hand, last night I attended my great Aunt's 80th birthday party. I got to see cousins and cousins and COUSINS! And my kids had a ball playing with cousins. It was so fabulous to catch up and hug and visit (and eat)! I have missed nearly 20 years of famiy get-togethers and I love being able to go to these events.

There's no solution here except to shove the states of Indiana and Illinois out of the way and I don't think that's within my power. ;)

Christmas Fun!

This week is our last week of formal preschool until after Christmas. I have difficulty working Christmas activities in with our regular preschool curriculum so I decided to finish off this week and then do just Christmas activities next week. The following week we are going to Iowa, so we will do nothing but get ready that week.

I've done a little preliminary planning and this is what I have come up with! I think it will be fun.

First, I bought Truth in the Tinsel. There are lots of cute crafts in here and there are modified schedules so you don't have to do every single craft if you don't want to (or don't have time!) These were created by a mom and are geared for the preschool/early elementary age. This e-book costs $4.99 and is delivered right to your e-mail.



http://truthinthetinsel.com/buy-the-book

And then to sneak some learning into all of the fun crafty-ness, I downloaded this preschool pak, which is free. I love free.



http://overthebigmoon.blogspot.com/2011/11/nativity-pre-k-pack.html

Then we have to have some reading! The curriculum we use for preschool is literature based and we have a book called The Lion Storyteller Book. This book has fun illustrations and stories that Danae really enjoys. I discovered there was a Lion Storyteller CHRISTMAS Book. And well, that's all she wrote. I had to have it!

If you are really picky about Bible stories being accurately told in literature, you're going to have to modify some of the Bible section as you read. The Wise Men did not show up at the stable, but they do in this book. I just preread everything because I. am. picky.



http://www.amazon.com/Lion-Storyteller-Christmas-Book/dp/074596916X/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1323440343&sr=8-5


I'm hopeful that it will be a fun week for my kids as well as the daycare kids!

I am a cleaning fool

After our experience with the flu (we all ended up getting it AND so did the daycare kids), I have been cleaning like a crazy person. Partly because the house is cluttered beyond what I can stand and partly because I had to rid us of germs.

On Sunday, Danae and I went through her room. That sounds so easy. Clean one child's room. Right? Not so easy. It was fairly destroyed, but we came out alive and the room looks great. Then I tackled the toy room and threw away broken toys and packed away baby toys on the sly. The kids haven't asked for anything I took away so either they really weren't playing with those things or my suspisions about the fact that we have too many toys have been confirmed.

Yesterday I cleaned my upstairs desk where I use my computer. It's a small rolltop desk that doesn't get too messy because it's too small to stuff too many things into. Today I took a deep breath and went through my downstairs desk. Everyone has a catch-all space. My downstairs desk is my catch-all space. Receipts, bills, colored on scraps of paper, the first time Danae wrote her name, pictures, everything gets thrown on that desk. It was such a mess. It was so bad that while I cleaned it, I found THREE hairbrushes. Three. I had bought a new hairbrush because for a week I had to use a comb because all of my brushes were missing.

Sigh.

I was voted Most Organized in high school.

Oh how the mighty have fallen.

Happy December!

I am so glad to leave the last day of November behind. I will spare you the details, but Danae, David and I all had the stomach flu yesterday. In a word - Horrible. But we got through it and it's over and I'm completely ready to take on the month of Christmas!

My shopping is done, the gifts are wrapped, and I have our book-a-day-until-Christmas books pretty much ready. We're going to start that today, although I don't have quite 48 books. I wanted one per child per day and didn't have quite enough, although I did buy a couple new ones this year. The Scholastic website was my friend. I planned to make a library run for the last 9 books but with being sick that didn't get done. I'll probably do it tonight. Hopefully the kids won't notice that the stack grew :) I think the kids will be thrilled to find new books when they unwrap mixed in with their old friends as well.

Christmas gets more fun every year as Danae "gets it" more. She is very excited to dig into the gifts under the tree and we are focusing as much as possible on baby Jesus so she understands the true meaning of Christmas.

We also wanted her to have the fun of giving gifts this year so we took both kids to Dollar Tree and let them pick out gifts for each other, a couple of friends, and mom and dad. It's hilarious to see the things they pick out! She keeps talking about how she got to go "shopping." The whole thing was kind of lost on David, but he'll understand it better next year.

Right now I have Christmas music blasting and the tree lights on. Happy December!

Back to normal

I LOVED our Thanksgiving break. Four days of family time, relaxing, shopping, getting the tree and the house decorated, playing, visiting extended family, everything! It was fun!

But

I am glad to get back to normal today. Whatever that is!

I have only one daycare kid today, so it's not completely normal, but nice all the same. This morning we got up early, worked on schoolwork, had a play date, ate lunch, read a few books, watched some TV. I'll start working on supper in an hour or so. Tonight is dance for Danae. I'm just glad for normal.

I think I need breaks in routine to appreciate the quietness of my day-to-day.

O Christmas Tree

It was Christmas tree day today! We went to Pioneer Trails Tree Farm again this year. Last year it was somewhere around 30 degrees so we really appreciated the 50 degree weather this year!

The people at Pioneer Trails have this tree thing down to a science. Once we had the tree picked out, it only took a few minutes to get the tree shaken, tied up, and paid for and we were on our way home. If you live locally and go there, be sure to print a coupon off of their website for $3 off!

It took us a long time to find the right tree. We started out looking at one kind of tree, but ended up with the same kind we had last year. The first kind we looked at were just way too big. This one fit in our van once it was all wrapped! I was so glad to not have to tie it to the van. That made me really nervous last year. The one we ended up with looked smallish in the field, but it goes to our ceiling. Lucas had to cut off the end of it to make it fit with the angel tree topper.

Here are some pictures of our adventure!

I'm a proud mama

I try not to spend a whole lot of time going on and on about how smart I think my children are because I find that annoying in other people, but this is my blog and if you don't want to read about the genius my child is, just ignore this one :)

We bought Math U See curriculum for Danae about a month ago. We have been working through the Primer book and most of it has been really easy for her (mainly counting, which she has been doing since she was 2), but focusing on math has made it so that she counts all the time. She's as into numbers as she was into letters a year ago.

She keeps saying things like, "Mommy! Two and Two equals Four!" and "Mommy! Three and Two equals Five!"

Well, today my grandmother gave her hair clips. There were six of them - three pairs. While I was busy doing something else, she kept insisting, "Mommy! Two and Three equals Six!" I held up my fingers and showed her how two and three do not equal six. She was ADAMENT that two and three equaled six. And then I saw how she had her hair clips laid out.



Now, obviously, we needed a quick explaination of how Two TIMES Three equals Six, but still. Proud mama here. I don't know if every mother feels this way when their child is "getting it" but when you are your child's teacher this is a huge deal.

So yes, Danae. Two and Three do get to Six one way or another. :)

A Great Thanksgiving Day

Thanksgiving day was hectic this year, but it was completely worth it! Today we slept in, which for Danae meant 7am (which meant 7am for me!) and then hung around the house until around 10:30. I read to the kids, we watched some tv, they colored, cut and taped for awhile. I tried to keep things low key because I knew the rest of the day would be busy.

We headed off for Grandma and Grandpa D's house first and ate a fabulous turkey dinner with all of the trimmings. There were fourteen people at that dinner. It was a fun morning/afternoon of eating, visiting, football, playing pool...you get the idea. Grandma made homemade bread. There is nothing better on earth than my Grandma's homemade bread.

My grandparents live one hour from me, but only 2 miles from each other so in the late afternoon we headed over to Grandma and Grandpa K's house. There were (if I counted correctly) twenty-six people there. It's a small house. It was loud and it was much chaos, but it was so great to see everyone. I only see several of these people at Thanksgiving, and that doesn't happen every year because our plans seem to be different every year.

The fabulous news of the day is my children did not become wild people today. I never know what will happen when we run around this much.

Danae asked me today why she had so many grandmas and grandpas. I told her because she is one lucky little girl. :)

Such a fun day!

I *heart* Pinterest

I was introduced to the wonderful world of Pinterest a few months ago. I am sort of crafty, but I love how on Pinterest I can find these ideas and the directions and I don't have to come up with these things on my own or search the entire web just to find one construction paper craft.

I try (operative word is try) to do one organized craft a week with the kids. They play with construction paper, markers, tape and crayons every day, but I try to have one thing that's organized so they can take it home and their parents can try to find somewhere to keep it ;)

For Halloween, we made pumpkin seed pumpkins, which turned out well and then today we made construction paper turkeys. The turkeys were a bigger kit because they can be played with. There are two little girls gobbling away in Danae's bedroom right now.

Here are links to the directions. I did take my own pictures, but these are better :)

http://www.crafts-for-all-seasons.com/thankful-turkey-craft.html

http://www.allkidsnetwork.com/crafts/fall/pumpkin-seed-pumpkin.asp

How to approach this week

It's Thanksgiving week! Part of me wants to cram as much learning into this week of daycare kid-less days as I can and part of me wants to be a lump on the couch and enjoy the break. I think what will happen is probably a mixture of both. When the kids are older and complain about schoolwork (because I am sure that day will come), we will for sure take this week off, but this year Danae still thinks that cracking open a workbook is a fun experience. Especially if it's Math!

We ran a little behind last week so we will probably do some catch up and then do what we get done this week, depending on what Danae wants to do. I do have one fun craft planned, but we'll do that tomorrow.

We do plan to get our Christmas tree this week and I am very excited about that! The weather is supposed to be pretty, which will be a nice improvement over last year when it was FREEZING. I'm sure the kids will also enjoy it more. There were lots of tears last year. Ahhhh, memories! :)

Christmas Shopping

I LOVE Christmas shopping for the kids! Today Lucas and I left the kids with mom and took Toys R Us by storm. I bought a few things through the year as I found sales and scored an AWESOME stash of (used but in great condition) Thomas the Train stuff for David so I didn't have a whole lot left on the list, but we had fun picking out a few more things. And then we ate out at Red Lobster. YUM! A date and shopping all rolled up into one great package - my kind of morning!

I have a couple more things to pick up for the kids - stocking stuffers and an ornament for each child - but we're pretty much done with their shopping. And then I have one little bitty baby to buy for, but he or she won't be here until right before Christmas so I have to wait on that. (Impatiently wait!) Otherwise, I can just about call Christmas shopping accomplished. Good feeling!

Thankfulness

First, I have to stop and say that I cannot believe it's November. Where did 2011 go? I'm just getting used to writing 2011 and it's going to be 2012. Craziness!

But since it's November and the month of Thanksgiving, I have been coming up with one thing to be thankful for every day of November until Thanksgiving. Actually, I came up with most of them before I began and have them on a spreadsheet. Yes, I am that person. I admit it. I embrace it. I am THANKFUL for it! :)

I have also been making a conscious effort to remind my children to be thankful for the things that they have. Next month begins the toy festival, also known as Christmas, and it's so easy for them to get the "gimmies" while perusing the Fisher Price and Toys R Us catalogs.

I am really not so good about doing unit studies on Pilgrims and Native Americans and all of that with paper bag costumes and construction paper headdresses. We did make paper turkeys and attended a Thanksgiving dinner with my mommy's group. And next week I will break out the Thanksgiving books so we can talk about what the holiday means and some about Pilgrims and Native Americans and who they were. Maybe next year I will develop some sort of themed learning quality. Good thing my children don't know what they're missing ;)

This year I just want them to learn what thankful means and about the God we are thanking. That's enough. More than enough.

So THIS is what normal feels like

Lucas has worked strange shifts for the last two years. He was either working days, but not off on the weekend or working second shift. About a month ago he began working for a company that only has a first shift and they work Monday - Friday. That means he is home for the day at 4:30. We eat supper together and then spend the entire evening with each other. I knew we were missing out on family time before, but this is truly wonderful!

The kids anticipate daddy coming home, which makes my heart all warm and fuzzy. We get to get together nearly every night of the week around the table. Last night, Lucas played cars in the basement with the kids for quite awhile. I loved hearing their squeals coming from the basement.

I know that no family is really "normal," but I am enjoying this kind of normal a whole lot.

Dancing Danae

Look at me posting two days in a row! ;)

We enrolled Danae in dance class in September. Initally, I was concerned that she wouldn't go in the room without me, but during registration they held a mock class and for her first time, she did great! From that first class on, she has enjoyed tap tap tapping away with the other little girls.

Yesterday was parent observation day so we were able to watch what she is doing in dance. They do 20 minutes of tap, 20 minutes of ballet, and then 20 minutes of tumbling. She says tumbling is her favorite.

There is just too much cute in that room! Seven or eight little girls with pink leotards and skirts are simply adorable. It's fun to see their different personalities.

The part of dance I didn't expect was mommy time! While Danae dances for an hour, I get to sit and sip Diet Coke and talk to the other moms. I love Monday nights so much!

I'm such a bad blogger

I start blogs with the best of intentions, but tend to lose interest. I am going to try to keep up now and blog every couple of days so I can record some of the fun things we are doing as a family.

So a quick update on us! We had a fabulous summer. Vacationed at Sesame Place, met up with some friends in Philly, went to St. Louis, and went to Iowa again for another friend's wedding. This fall we went to pick apples again and get pumpkins at Detwiler's. These are things we do every year. I am loving creating traditions with our children! Can't wait to go get our tree again this year!

Danae and David have both reached their half-year mark. So Danae is 4 1/2 and David is 2 1/2. Danae is almost halfway through her preschool year and we are talking about what Kindergarten will be like for her. David very much a two year old and is testing my patience at every turn. He isn't doing any formal schooling at this point because he isn't interested. Danae was at his age, but we're going with what his interests are. He will begin his first Preschool year in the fall when Danae begins Kindergarten.

Lucas began a new job, which has been wonderful. He works days, Monday-Friday. It's so nice eating dinner together and having family time in the evenings and weekends. I don't think the novelty of this is going to wear off any time soon. He is also going to school full time online through Liberty University. His major is Christian Counseling.

I am still working at the church 10 hours a week doing secretarial work and then I have two full time and two part time daycare kids. Between work and teaching Danae and just keeping up with life and parenting, I am pretty much always busy!

So that's us in a nutshell for now. I will try to keep up with this better!

A Perfect Day

Last week we spent a lot of time trying to figure out what we were going to do on Memorial Day. We kind of planned to go fishing, but that fell through. We were invited to a friend's house, but in the end decided to just cook out here in the evening and do some chores around the house during the morning/afternoon.

It was such a nice day! We didn't do anything spectacular, but at 10am this morning I dressed my children in their swimsuits and sent them outside to play in water all day long. Lucas and I cleaned out the garage, a task we have put off for nearly 2 years. It is so nice and picked up now. I love it!

The kids got along so well today and it was nice to not have to break up fights all day long. My parents came for supper and we grilled out. I wish every day could be like this - a little work, a little play and a LOT of family time :)

When it rains, it pours

We moved from Iowa to Ohio nearly two years ago. I had a thriving in-home daycare business in Iowa, but of course when we moved I had to begin all over again. I have one little girl who started in my daycare two weeks after we moved and she comes two days per week. For awhile I had a little boy who came three mornings a week and I have had some drop-in kids every now and then. And then about six months ago I got a little girl who comes four days a week. BUT in two years I have not had any full time kids. Money has been TIGHT. No, not tight. Nonexistent.

I. hate. money.

But that's another blog post.

About two weeks ago two families contacted me needing childcare services. I told them I would meet with both of them, but the one family moved faster when setting up an interview and I started with three full time kids last week. And then I actually had to turn work down for the other family! We have been struggling so much that it was really weird to tell this lady that I was full.

The new kids are really great. I mean really. They're normal kids and they do normal kid things, but for the most part they are mannerly, clean up after themselves, and don't fight with each other very much at all. I like them! And my kids like them too, which makes the day go so much better.

In Iowa I did this every day. I almost always had 6 kids to take care of. I was used to it. I am SO out of practice now! I go to fix meals and don't know where I am going to set 6 plates! And then there is a child every time I turn around needing something else! Play doh! Crayons! Tape! Paper! Books read! Play a game! All. day. long! I know I will adjust, but right now I'm pretty much whipped by 9pm because I have expended all of my energy during the day.

But I am thankful. SO THANKFUL for the income. Not stressing over the budget is such a wonderful blessing.

A Very Blue Birthday!

Danae and David's birthdays are 2 weeks apart so while they are small and aren't complaining about it, we have joint birthday parties. This past Sunday we had David's 2 year and Danae's 4 year birthday party. They invited three little friends and then the family was here. We played Pin the Tail on Blue, had a pinata, and two of the cutest Blues Clues cakes ever. The weather was beautiful and everyone had a great time.

When it was all over and the toys had been put together and the boxes and paper were in the trash I collapsed into a heap of exhausted mama, but it was ALL worth it! I loved every bit of it!

Library Success

I try to get to the library once a week. We don't always manage to make time for it, but I like to have a new selection of books for the kids to read (and sometimes I get something for mommy too!) I will admit that my poor David has been deprived of the library since he started walking. I had visions (and I'm pretty sure they were correct!) of him either screeching like a baby dinosaur or running away through the shelves while I tried to keep track of both him and Danae.

In the past couple of weeks, David has become a lot better at listening and following instructions so yesterday when I had a day off I put on my big girl underwear, took a deep breath, and took both of my children to the library. It went SO WELL! They stayed in the children's area, looked at the fish, played with the stuffed toys, picked out some books, listened to a few books and had a wonderful time! We were there for about an hour. They even left without visiting Melt Down City. I must admit I was quite proud of them.

I am so glad to have this as an option for something (free!) to do when I am off and in the evenings now that it's nice we can walk to the library. Maybe I'll get brave and try story time on Thursday mornings with the daycare kids too. Maybe. :)

Preschool Year One: Complete!

We started our preschool adventure last April and that year came to a close this past week. We are taking some time off and then beginning our next year in May.

For Danae's 3 year old year, we did Sonlight's P3/4 program, which is basically a bunch of really wonderful children's books with extension activities. We discovered stories that we will read over and over and over again as the years pass. They are truly wonderful books. About a quarter of the way through the year, we added in Handwriting Without Tears PreK, which I am happy to say is also a wonderful curriculum. Danae thought handwriting time was play time, which is the goal for me at this age. She loved the wood pieces and her very own tiny chalkboard. I am so glad that this program is out there!

Danae requested that I teach her to read last summer, so we started working slowly through the Explode the Code workbooks. She enjoys these, but only in small doses so we are working very slowly. She knows all of her letters, upper and lowercase, and all of their sounds. I can't say that Explode the Code taught her these things, though. She learned her letter sounds from http://www.starfall.com/. She loves playing with that program.

We had a math program that we worked through and although I love the manipulatives it came with, I didn't love the program. It is Hands On Standards PreK/K. I found that it jumped around a lot and Danae would totally understand one thing and be totally clueless in another subject. We spent a lot of time just playing and learning with the manipulatives once we made it through the book.

David became interested in Danae's story books about 3 months ago, so he's been along for the ride for the past few months. If he wants to sit still, he sees the pictures. Otherwise, he's just playing in the room. Any seatwork we do has to be done during David's nap or we would get nothing accomplished!

I look forward to beginning Sonlight's P4/5 Program in May! Those books are sitting on the shelf begging me to read them!

Iowa Weekend

This weekend the kids and I traveled to Iowa to attend a wedding of one of my dear friends. We were not sure the wedding was going to take place (due to circumstances beyond the bride and groom's control) until 2pm on Thursday. I had been packing a bit here and there, but at 2pm I got the magic text that said the wedding was indeed on. I wanted to be out of the house by 4pm. The daycare kids were leaving at 3pm. I cannot tell you what I did in those two hours, but I know both of my kids cried at least once, the daycare kids were looking at me very bewildered and the dog whined. the. entire. time. I cannot say how many times I ran up and down our stairs and how many times I went into a bedroom and realized I had no idea why I was in there...only to remember again when I was in the garage or some other odd place.

Anyway, we got out of the house by 4 with everything we needed and drove past Chicago that day and then made the rest of the trip Friday morning. The original plan was to leave Ohio on Friday morning, but the forecasted snowstorm sent us out early.

The car ride here was good. My kids are such great car travelers and I am so thankful for that. The trip has been good. The wedding was lovely and I have had nice visits with family and friends...BUT! It is SO HARD to be a single mom! It is so hard to do all of the planning, herding of children, breaking up of fights, and all of the rest by myself. I miss my husband and am so glad to go home to him tomorrow.

Absence makes the heart grow fonder and more appreciative!

Baby twins = Love :)

My friend had twins and I got to see them for the first time today. They are beyond precious! So tiny and perfect. :) We are undecided about whether or not we are going to have a third baby and I am not sure I would really wish twins on myself, but oh, they were so much fun to cuddle...and give back!

I really look forward to watching them grow up!

Chores

Chores. I do lots of chores. As a (basically) stay at home mom, all domestic responsiblities fall onto my shoulders. On Facebook the other day we were talking about chores we like/dislike. Here's my list.

Dislike:
I hate to vacuum. I think this one tops the list. I don't like to dust either, but I hardly ever do that so vacuuming wins. I hate it for several reasons. One, the word is hard to spell. Every time I spell it I have to think really hard and sometimes use spell checker just to make sure I have it right. Second, I don't like to deal with the cord on the vacuum. Cordless/rechargable vacs never make it in my house for some reason so a cord is inevitable. I hate having to unwind the thing, move outlets at least twice, and then wind the thing back up. Third, I hate that no matter how much I vacuum, the carpet never seems clean. Lucas bought me a Dyson three years ago for Christmas. It was then that I realized I was a domestic goddess - that vacuum MADE MY DAY! But even with top of the line equipment, I dislike this task. A lot.

I don't like to dust either, but I really (this is terrible) only dust before company comes...and my parents do not count. I like the way the house smells so clean afterwards, but I don't like having to move everything in order to get all of the dust. It never looks right when I put it back.

Scrubbing the bath tub is another chore I don't like, but again...I must admit I rarely do it, which is probably why I hate it so much. If I didn't allow scum to cover the entire thing it wouldn't be so hard to deal with. That is another company's coming chore. I don't like to clean the bathroom, but I do it often or it gets icky. I don't know anyone who actually likes to clean a bathroom.

I am counting grocery shopping/meal preparation/menu planning as a chore. I would not mind this work if it wasn't so expensive. Lucas tells me to "have fun" when I leave for the store to get groceries. I do not know what he thinks is fun about buying food we have to have with money we don't have, but I guess he (mainly because he is male) thinks shopping is shopping and since I love shopping I should love purchasing groceries. Ummm...no.

I used to like yard work, but then I had two kids and my yard size more than quadrupled. Yard work is a never-ending task that I sometimes get enjoyment out of, but it more often than not just overwhelms me.

Likes:
I LOVE to do laundry. Yes, I know that qualifies me for a psychiatric evaluation. But really, I like laundry. The machine does 90% of the work. All I have to do is sort, fold and put it away. I fold straight out of the dryer since we do not own any laundry baskets (on purpose!) so it doesn't pile up. I do laundry every Monday, Wednesday and Friday without fail so it doesn't get overwhelming. I enjoy seeing those piles of clean clothes all stacked up and then put into drawers.

I like to clean my kitchen. Sorta. It's just so much more pleasant to have a clean kitchen and since I feel like it's the room I spend the most time in, it's nice to clean it so that it is pleasant to be in there.

I like to make beds...for basically the same reason as the kitchen. I like getting into a bed that has straightend covers. I like looking in my bedroom and seeing my bed all neat and nice.

I like to garden. Gardening is very different from yard work - you get to EAT when you garden! Last year, we planted a square foot garden and I enjoyed picking the veggies out of it and I enjoyed planting. This year that will be even more fun because Danae will really enjoy seeing everything grow. David will still just enjoy eating the dirt out of it.

I also do not mind flower gardens, although the weeds begin to overwhelm pretty quickly, which makes it a little too close to yard work!

I also like to organize. When I'm bored I clean out kitchen cabinets or the garage or the toy room or a closet. Again, I probably need an evaluation.

TV

I consider myself to be picky about what the kids watch on TV. Some kid TV just isn't valuable (*cough* spongebob *cough*) and I try to have the programming we watch be either educational or at the very least have a moral. The one show I really wanted her to get into was Backyardigans. She hates it. It scares her. Sigh.

So we have gone through the phases of Dora the Explorer and Diego (when Danae knew more Spanish than I did), Kipper (when she ran around speaking with an English accent), Barney (when she sang the CUTEST songs all day long - the purple dinosaur might have an annoying voice, but he does teach cute songs!), and Blues Clues. She was on a total Blues Clues kick when we began planning her birthday party next month so they are having a Blues Clues party. And then came Busytown. Danae. loves. Busytown. I liked Busytown for the first 10 episodes. Now I'm SO tired of it! Soooo, along comes Max and Ruby. I was so glad to leave Busytown, I'm letting her watch it, even though Max and Ruby is not my favorite show in the world.

So now she is on a Max and Ruby kick and we only own one Max and Ruby DVD and have no cable so we are limited to what Netflix offers on instant download. The powers that be at Netflix do not have Max and Ruby on instant download, which means they should get a personalized thank you note from me. BUT I decided I could handle two days of Max and Ruby, so I went and borrowed a couple of DVDs for her from the library. Yes, she is happy and yes, it is driving me insane. I have all the normal questions - where are the parents? why is Max allowed to be so naughty? why is Ruby in charge? why doesn't Grandma or Bunny Scout Leader call child protective services about these neglected children?

I hope the Max and Ruby phase is short-lived. I'm ready to take a trip back to Busytown.

The Joy of Amazon

Amazon.com is my friend. They probably like me too because I am pretty sure I financed their webhosting fee for the month with all of the things I have purchased in the past few weeks. I am a careful shopper. Especially with big purchases, I go into hardcore research mode. I recently purchased a sit and stand stroller. I have been researching this purchase for over a year, reading reviews, thinking about it, reading more reviews, thinking some more. I ended up not purchasing from Amazon because another site had a better deal, but I find the reviews so helpful! Reviews from real people who have actually used the product are simply wonderful.

I did end up purchasing a tricycle for David for his birthday through Amazon and I think we are really going to love it. The tricycle purchase leads me to the other reason I like Amazon, or any other online retailer - MAIL TIME!

"Here's the mail, it never fails, it makes me want to wag my tail! When it comes I want to wail: MAAAIIILLLL!" Blues Clues is a regular part of my life ;) But I must admit...

I. love. getting. mail. I think this stems from when I did daycare in Iowa and I would get MONEY in the mail twice a month. Money is a huge incentive to mail excitement! But so are packages!

Anyone wanna send me something? Ya know it makes me happy! :)

Mommy's Night Out!

I get to go bowling with my mommy friends tonight. I have a bit of guilt over this, mainly because David refused to nap while I was at work today so Lucas has already dealt with a crabby toddler all day and now I'm leaving him with bedtime.

BUT I also must admit I am really looking forward to the the time out of the house with the girls! We had so much fun the last time we got together to play board games at my house.

I am a horrible bowler, but it'll be fun to hang out and eat junk food. I have saved 340 calories for this evening, which means I can't pig out too much, but that's okay. I feel gross when I pig out anymore anyway.

Well, David is on the kitchen table, so I should stop typing now :)

Just when I get it figured out...

Parenting is much harder than I expected it to be. I spent a lot of time with my friends' kids and I had daycare kids at my house 10 hours a day. Although I knew it would be a challenge, I did not expect to want to pull my hair out as many times a day as I end up wanting to do that. Bald would not be a good look on me, so I manage to refrain.

The biggest challenge right now is SLEEP! I did not think that at almost 2 years old David would be so hard to put to bed at night. He was always the child who I could read to, cuddle a bit, and then put in his crib and he would put himself to sleep.

Enter separation anxiety.

David will not go to sleep without crying and crying and CRYING unless I am in the room when he falls asleep. Then, even once he falls asleep I have to remain in his room or he will wake himself up and cry because I am gone. As I type this, he is staring at me...from his crib. I know it is a phase. I know he will grow out of it. I hope that when he is 15 he does not require me to watch him fall asleep. Right now as I am living it, it seems like I will NEVER get an easy bedtime with this child again.

Date Night

Date night has changed since I became a mom. It used to be Lucas and I in a restaurant. I would have on nice clothes, fixed hair, and make up. We would order and sit and enjoy our meals.

When we had Danae, we pretty much quit going on dates. After awhile I realized we were spending way too much time being parents and not enough time on us. We talked about it and instituted "date night." Date night now happens once a week, but it looks a little different than it used to.

Date night now consists of a movie and junk food on Monday evenings after the kids are in bed. It occurs in our living room and I wear pajamas. My hair is usually wet from my shower and I have on no make up. We are almost always interrupted by a child who needs put back to bed or has to use the restroom.

Despite the fact that date night is different, I love it. And we do sometimes go on "real" dates out of the house. I love those a lot because I don't have to cook!

Hello...Hello...Is this thing on?

I have been contemplating starting a blog for a few months now. I had a blog before, but didn't keep up with it so I quit. I am an all or nothing kind of girl and I wasn't giving it my full attention so I closed it out. So this is my second (better!) attempt at this.

The hardest part about starting this blog was thinking of a name. People have such cute names for their blogs and everything I could come up with was taken. But I. Love. Purple. I have a dear friend who used to say that "purple is the only color in Kelly's crayon box." A blog name is born.

I plan to blog about life, parenting, homeschooling, marriage, work, my never-ending diet (blech) and everything in between!