Latest Update–What have I been doing?

What have I been . . .

Reading?

I finished book three in the Beyonders trilogy. Very good. DD 15, Hubs and I enjoy read quite a bit of YA lit. One stand out line was “sacrifice is giving up something good to get something better.” I enjoyed the excitement of the story, but it is the struggle to be selfless and to cling to faith through trials that will bring me back to this book.

Procrastinating?

Removing clutter. I have gotten rid of a few things, but there still seems to be too much. I am overwhelmed.

Accomplishing?

Our living room has made some strides toward becoming nice. I donated an exercise bike, moved furniture, and made a plan to make the sewing machine accessible. There’s more work, but its getting close.

Planning?

Fall high school courses for DD15. I’m also planning to let her drive more. I have to put her need to learn about my own comfort (and safety–ahem).

Anticipating?

Lots of weekly outings to our local Drive-In! Yes, you heard me right; we have one of those!

Not planning to fix?

Typing. I can’t blog in the dark, ‘cause I gotta look at my fingers!

Promising myself I’ll do?

Clear off my desk, blow up my Mother’s Day hippity-hop, write in my kids’ journals. Seriously, why do I put that off?

And what do I wanna do?

I want to start tomorrow like it’s a whole new world! Like Miss Hickory, I want to graft myself into a whole new life of vitality and usefulness. (Just finished reading that book with the littles tonight, too.)

So, in case I don’t see you, . . .good afternoon, good morning, and good night!

Shiny, New Cleaning Lists

As the first year anniversary of our move the this apartment nears, I realize I have never updated our “Detailed Cleaning Lists”. Youch. How did I let this happen? I think we were in mourning over our move.

Whatever it was; it is now rectified. I have brand new shiny lists! But let me back up a minute. Perhaps some of you are as yet unfamiliar with the illustrious FlyLady and do not, therefore, know about “Detailed Cleaning Lists”. If you haven’t heard about her and your home, office, car, or finances are less than perfectly clean and organized, do yourself a favor and check out her site.

FlyLady spring cleans “the Yankee way”, meaning a little at a time throughout the year.  ”Detailed Cleaning Lists” are just lists for each of the rooms in your house itemizing what would be done if those rooms were to be deep cleaned to, not perfection maybe, but I’ll say, “Mrs. Cleaver approves” status. Which is lovely.

These lists are great for my kids: gives them something to check off, and they know what I mean by “clean that bathroom.” I’ve saved a sample of my before and after laundry room lists. One list is not better than the other. It’s just that the rooms are different.

For example, spider webs were a big deal at our last place, an old house surrounded by huge trees and wilderness. Here there are no trees around the house and likely fewer ways for them to get in and hide if they were about, so I took sweeping cobwebs off the top of every single list.

What’s YOUR secret to a clean house?

 

Top Reasons I Don’t Blog at Night

I’ve been blogging every day for a few days now and I usually do it after the kids go to bed. There are some very important reasons that this is a bad plan.

1. I’m sleeping. This is only true most, not all, of the time. But when it is true, it 100% prevents me from blogging. Thank goodness, because if I telepathically blogged my dreams, you all would be seriously sick of hearing “Why Do Fools Fall in Love?” and seeing me try rhubarb muffin recipes. No joke, that’s what I’ve dreamt all week.
2. I’ll be cranky in the morning. Oh who am I kidding, I’m cranky in the morning no matter what. Just ask the kids. Just ask my husband who is standing in the hall with a size 8 women’s slipper stuffed in his mouth staring at me as I walk away mumbling, “stinking yakkity-yak morning people.”
3. I don’t want to wake up the baby. I sleep with the 2 year old who has a startling sixth sense for when I’m out of bed. It’s uncanny. It must be the tug on those apron strings that wakes him, funny I thought those were to keep HIM in line. There’s also the 5 year old who comes into bed anywhere from midnight to 3am, and strictly maintains a full body press throughout the rest of the night.
4. I dislike typing with my thumbs. If I’m going to blog from lying in bed, it has to be from ye ole smartphone. Bah. I prefer good old two finger hunt-and-peck. “What about actually typing?” you ask. R-i-i-ight. Like there’s this magical way of moving you fingers and 70 words a minute will appear. Look Buddy, hunt and peck was good enough to get me through a Bachelor’s in English. Besides, I’m 40 years old for Pete’s sake!
5. My editing skills diminish. Add hazy midnight brain to the above reasons and I’m persuaded to postpone wee hour posts. Hey, at least three people who read this blog actually know me in real life. This isn’t just some Ethernet exercise I’m doing here. I might see these guys in the grocery store, and how would I explain ghastly grammar and pitiful punctuation? I have to be able to hold my head high, and I’m not talking cabbages.

Now here are the reason(s) I do blog in the middle of the night.

1. I’m inspired with something I just have to say. (Sorry this wasn’t the case tonight.)
2. I have to write something, anything. Sometimes you aren’t living up to your potential, and you have to take a baby step toward “back on track.”
3. Umm, there is no three. Either I have to say a specific thing or I have to say anything as long as I say something. It has to be a pretty strong urge to get me to write. Just don’t publish till morning—that’s the rule.

Have a nice day, and thank you for your support.

 

Avacado Bread = YUM!

Some of you know that I’m an ardent admirer of Bountiful Baskets Food Co-Op. I’ve been volunteering as a site coordinator for nearly three years. In that time I’ve learned to use a lot of produce that I had never encountered before such as green chiles and persimmons.

Avacado had only been  used for guacamole up till now. But we don’t eat much guac at a sitting and I don’t like trying to store it. So I surfed up a recipe for avocado bread. Come on, of course it exists, this is the internet we’re talking about.

My kids have yet to turn up their noses at a bread or even better a muffin recipe I’ve used to get rid of some produce. I realize it isn’t the healthiest way to serve them. But hey it’s good enough.

Here is the link: http://allrecipes.com/Recipe/Avocado-Quick-Bread/

I put the avocado in my food processor and beat it a bit, then pureed all the wet ingredients in there. I wanted it smooth. And it was smooth. Mmm, like Santana.

Tried and True Home Remedies I’ve Used

Try using vapor rub on kids with the croup. I like it on their chest and up the neck. My kids get croup a lot.

If your child has eczema, persevere through the whole “it might be your laundry soap” thing and have your doctor keep giving you different prescription until one works. Something will work.

A water pick works great to flush ears, yes the ones that you use to pressure wash between your teeth. Turn it all the way down to low and spray it in your ear (or whoever) till some wax bits come out.

Teething gel will work on an earache in a pinch.

Baby oil or olive oil work well on cradle cap. Rub it in and comb the crud off. Don’t worry about washing it out; just smooth it off with a washcloth and let the rest soak in.

Clear nail polish on ringworm. Paint it on an ring worm is gone, in a day or two which is pretty good.

Duct tape on a wart. Three days and that sucker is gone. Learned this before I had kids.

The Top 5 Easy Things I Don’t Do ‘Cause I Think They’re Hard

Yes, I know I could, and I know I should, but a lot of the time I don’t ‘cause I don’t want to bother, even though they aren’t actually that hard.

Shave my legs—I actually didn’t shave my legs my entire senior year in high school. Little known fact, or the yearbook might have named me “most likely to rule a jungle.” Non-conformist hippie heritage? Hmph. I still managed to snag a husband!

Dust the living room—Why does dusting bother me so much? Good thing my four girls don’t mind. I just wish they were taller. Maybe some of those drywall stilts.

Pack a lunch—Hubs and I were just talking about this. People pack lunches every day. It’s healthy, frugal and only takes a few minutes, well, a little longer if you gotta pack for my whole basketball team riding in the backseat, but still.

Polish my toes—I used to enjoy spending time with them, but I guess we’ve grown apart. (I laugh maniacally at this point. Then defensively declare, “Yes, I can still reach my toes!”)

Write in my kids’ journals— each of my younger kids has a little journal that I wrote in lieu of a baby book. I think I stopped writing because I don’t want to think about them growing up. Yeah, not that funny. Raising kids has its bittersweet moments, huh? Way to stick your head in the sand Mom. They age at the same rate no matter how much you do or don’t blab about it.

10 Websites That Have My Kids Coming Back

My children, intellectual pursuants that they are, spend a lot of time on the computer. We’re computer geeks, what can I say. So here is an inconclusive list of some websites that caught their attention and have them coming back for more.

Warning: these first couple site are not educational, but are just for fun. Learning sites come next, don’t worry.

Club Penguin—my kids love this one. They play arcade type games, buy pom-pom type pets called puffles, and solve mysteries and super-spies. A few weeks ago DS7 chose a Club Penguin book from Barnes and Noble. They’ve been going here since DS20 introduced it to the family back when he was DS13. The younger kids 9, 7, 5 all have login avatars. We don’t have a membership so there are certain things they can’t do, but I’m fine with that. Check them out at www.clubpenguin.com.

Pokémon—DS9 loves Pokémon. It’s his older brother’s fault. On this site he can login and play games or they have, I think, every episode ever made. He watches his favorites, skips to the best part, then runs outside and reenacts the scene. Visit them here: www.pokemon.com/us.

Poptropica—this one is the fault of DD15. I don’t know the back story on how she found it, but she’s been playing games there for more than four years and has gotten logins for DS9 and DD7. It’s here at www.poptropica.com.

Now as promised here are the educational websites. Come on, you know I’m trying to squeeze a bit of learning in wherever I can.

Poisson Rouge—this is an innovative site. I heard about it online through another mom, and when I first went to investigate, I thought, “There’s no way they’re going to like this. I has no words.” But I showed it to them anyway, and what do you know, they love it. The first difference I noticed from the usual kid’s sites is that there is no saccharin excited voice telling them what to do on any given page. They just have to click around with the mouse and figure out what changes when they click where. The next thing you’ll start to notice is how an amazing amount of information is subtly woven into the vast number of pages on this site. It has vocabulary in multiple languages, music, science, art . . . Really just do yourself a favor and check it out. http://www.poissonrouge.com/enfants.php

Peep and the Big Wide World—this site is created around the same named science ed. Series. Peep is a chick who, with his friends, discovers new things about how the world works. The site has featured episodes, games and a lot more info if you want to pursue a specific lesson. It also cracks me up that it is narrated by Joan Cusack. Why does that crack me up? I’m not sure; she just does. Give Peep a peek here: http://www.peepandthebigwideworld.com/

Boowa and Kwala—I stumbled across this site as I searched for preschool songs about three years ago. It is based on Boowa the blue dog and Kwala the black-bereted, yellow koala. There are a lot of preschool and early elementary aged games, songs, and stories. Find it here: http://www.boowakwala.com/kids/boowakwala-home.html

I have to put a couple honorable mentions here.

www.starfall.com   was the first favorite website of DS9. It is how he learned his letters and their sounds. We don’t use this sight much right now, because DD5 is resisting learning and this site doesn’t try to pretend it isn’t teaching you anything. Nice reading and phonics stuff here. Now that DS2 is 2, he’ll be ready to start enjoying it. Or at least his little cousin who we watch twice a week might, since he is talking a lot more than my son.

I also like a lot of the games on www.lego.com, and virtual Legos don’t get left on the floor.

www.jumpstart.com This is the site to which I bought a membership, the one and only. Is that enough said? A couple of pros are the lifetime membership option: who wants to pay monthly for the next ten years. And the preschool through 2^nd grade software you may have seen inn stores come as free downloads with your membership.

www.pbskids.org  My kids play quite a few games here. They especially like Martha Speaks and Dinosaur Train. I especially like Between the Lions.

What websites do you and  your child frequent?