Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho! Hi-Ho!

It’s off to work WE go!

Don’t get me wrong, it has been wonderful having my husband home and we managed to not really get tired of each other during this 2.5 months of forced vacation (okay, not TOO tired, anyway), but wow…his being back at work and thus providing some normalcy to our routine is so nice!  I knew he would be going back to work, but I didn’t realize that his being at work would mean my finally getting some work done, too.

Yesterday was technically his first day, but really it was just his human resources paperwork day and he didn’t have to be there until 8:30-9:00 and he was home before 2.  Today, however, he had to be at work at 8 (an hour away…it won’t always be an hour away, though) and is just now leaving, which will put him home around 5:30.  Much more like a normal day for us.

I’m feeling on the mend from the yucky case of strep throat and sinus infection, so I actually got up, out of bed, dressed and had everyone (except me, as usual) fed in time to leave EARLY for school dropoff.  I came home, did some laundry, cleaned my room, updated my webpage, played on the computer while I ate breakfast, did more laundry, cleaned Silas’ room (and when I say clean, I mean I dusted, wiped down walls, cleaned furniture, hung up clothes, sorted through toys…the whole 9 yards!), and put him down for a nap.  During nap time, I went through the new baby’s pile of assorted stuff that has been accumulating in her little corner of our room.  Then I did more laundry (washed, dried, folded, put away…not just clean and piled up somewhere to lie in wait for me!), fed the kids lunch, tried to get Silas to nap again (no dice), emptied the dishwasher, fixed my own lunch, and played on the computer some more.  At 2:30, Jason texted me a reminder to go get Samuel, which I find humorous since I did manage to not forget him for five months before Jason was home every day, and I left to do pickup.  When we got home, Samuel got a snack and did his homework, Silas played, Atley finally picked up all of his dirty clothes from their bathroom, and I did a load and a half of dishes (which are running now).  I actually have a plan for dinner and the kitchen is well on its way to being clean enough for me to carry out that plan.  Oh, how I love the influence of a little STRUCTURE on my personality!

Don’t get me wrong, I’ve been sick, pregnant, and/or unmotivated because my husband is home for quite some time now, so I know that it will take a while to get a handle on this place, but I honestly believe I got more done today than I have in the entire last two and a half months and if I can get even half as much accomplished tomorrow, the house will finally be well on its way to clean and orderly again.

Let the COOKING begin!

Last time I had a baby (which seems so recent…why is that?!), I put over 30 meals for my family into the freezer. It was the first time I’d ever freezer cooked and I LOVED having those meals after Silas was born. We used 1-3 meals a week until they were gone and those days that dinner was already DONE were wonderful. The only drawback to freezer cooking is that you do actually have to plan far enough ahead to defrost what’s for dinner.  Last time, my list last time included 15 meals, which I made two (sometimes three) of.  I spent about $400 on all of the groceries and did the cooking all in a little over a week.

This time, I’m trying to spread it out a little more, start a little earlier, not have to spend as big a chunk of change on it, and maybe not develop pre-eclampsia  the week after I finish the cooking.

To that end, start this week, at 31 weeks pregnant, I’m going to try to put 3-4 meals a week into the freezer.  I’m going to do that by doubling recipes that are on our menu anyway.  Today: pizza sauce and shells (already shaped and baked).  Tomorrow: spaghetti sauce.  Later this week: black bean enchiladas.

Next week…I don’t know.  I’ll let you know when I decide!

2009 Recap

January: Four months old!

February: Brother's room is full of giggles!

March: sitting up unassisted

April: the Easter bunny brought PEEPS!

May: sneaking black beans at dinner

June: popsicles by the pool thanks to Mrs. Sara

July: Oh, wow, this is going to ROCK OUR WORLDS!

August: Cutest beach bum EVER!

September: Someone is ONE!

October: First haircut

November: fun with brothers, daddy, the wagon and the riding mower (not pictured).

December: Santa brought some GREAT stuff!

Desperately Seeking Laundry Help

A little background:

• I’m terrible about laundry.  I always have been, even from the time I started doing it myself in high school
• In college, my solution to laundry was to wear the same color every. single. day.  I had 17 yellow shirts.  When I did laundry, I had a load of jeans, a load of whites and linens, and a load of yellow shirts.  I’m serious.  Ask my former roommate.
• When it was just me and Jason, there really wasn’t a problem with living out of laundry baskets, which was convenient because I had to haul a load of laundry to my nanny job with me every day (perk of the position…I was allowed to use their washer and dryer instead of spending $30 and countless hours a month at a laundromat).  Since I did a load of clothes every weekday, this was the best I’ve ever been about laundry, except that it never got put away.
• As we have added more people to our family, we have added more laundry.  It’s funny how that works, really.  I manage to stay on top of keeping the laundry clean and dry most of the time, but only out of fear:  Fear of losing a pet or a child in a mountain of dirty clothes, fear of bugs eating the dirty clothes because they have food on them, fear of someone knowing that I have mountains of dirty laundry hidden around the house.  Still, folding and putting away the clean clothes is whole different story.  I may yet lose a pet or a child under a mountain of clean laundry.

This summer, about the time I found out I’m pregnant with our FOURTH little dirty-clothes-maker, I decided that I needed to do something different.  I bought each of the older boys (6 and almost 9) a round laundry basket that holds one load of clothes and taught them to use the washer and dryer.  I remind them at least once a week to wash and dry the contents of their laundry basket.  They take it to the laundry room, put it in the wash, leave the basket by the dryer, and when the clothes are done in the dryer, they put them back into the laundry basket and take them back to their rooms.  This is where the system falls apart.  Guess what?  They’re AS BAD AS I AM about putting clean clothes away.  They’ll dump them on their bed, or live out of the laundry basket, or stash them in a corner of their closet until no one can remember if they were clean or dirty and the clothes get washed again.

My goal for Christmas break was to figure out what clothes these kids really have, because they are forever wearing clothes that are too small, stained, or just inappropriate.  Since school starts again on Tuesday and I actually have all of the laundry in the house clean (put away?  nope, not yet, maybe never!), I decided today is the day.  I found that Atley really is short on socks, but only if you consider only 6 pair of socks “short” and that although he only had one pair of jeans that fit, he had about 8 long sleeve shirts.  A trip to the stash of outgrown clothes revealed an entire wardrobe of jeans and shirts that fit him this year, so he’s good.  I will probably buy him a package of socks, just to save my sanity in the morning, at least for the week during which he has brand new socks in his drawer.

Samuel…oh, Samuel.  This child had laundry stashed all over his room, including in every drawer of his dresser and his dress-up basket.  I found one shirt in the stash of “outgrown” clothes that actually still fit.  He concluded he didn’t like the shirt, so when I went into his room to count the clothes he had, I found it thrown on the top shelf of the closet!  Still, we managed to find that he has two pair of blue jeans and three pair of slacks in other colors, along with about 8 long sleeve shirts and 8 short sleeve shirts.  I found all of his socks stashed (singly) in his dresser, mated them, and removed all of his stained, too small, out of season and otherwise not acceptable for public appearances clothes from his room.  Still, as we ready ourselves to leave for a shopping trip (for which the list is now mercifully reduced to Samuel shoes, 2 pair Samuel jeans, Atley socks, and a couple of Silas outfits that fit), I find that Samuel is wearing two different socks.

How can I possibly teach these children that socks must match and underwear, like God’s mercies, have to be new every morning?  Better yet, how can I get them to put their laundry away and not stash it?  And maybe teach myself to do the same thing in the process?  All before I have another dirty laundry producer in March?!  Am I dreaming the impossible dream?  Someone HELP!

Libby’s New Doll

I’ve always wanted to make a doll for my daughter.  Growing up, my cousin had a doll her mother made that was “THE doll.”  Her name was Amy.  I had a doll similar that my mother made me, but I think my Amy-like doll got lost in the plethora of dolls I had.  None of them stand out as one I was particularly attached to, though I played with and loved them all.  In  middle and high school when I started learning to sew, I made a few dolls similar to Amy, though they were mostly used to acquire the skills I needed to sew because I was beyond dolls that that point.

When I found out that I am finally going to have a daughter for which to make a doll, I had grand notions of making a knitted friend from my one and only knitting book.  But the reality is that it took me a year to complete the ball from that book (yes, the one that says it’s supposed to take two hours).  I had to face that fact that a knitted friend is a little beyond my skills.  Besides, I knew when I bought the Doll Dresses bedding that  Libby will need a rag doll with a calico dress like the ones on the quilt to keep her company in her bed.  I thought about Olive and Archie, but their urban edginess and two dimensionality weren’t what I had in mind.  I wanted an Amy doll.  I seriously considered e-mailing my aunt to see if she still has the pattern, but decided that first I’d look around.  Amy was one of a kind, for sure, but her pattern, which consisted of a muslin body, jointed knees and elbows and a sculpted three dimensional head fitted with a mop of yarn hair really wasn’t all that innovative.  She reminds me of a doll you’d see Laura toting around on Little House on the Prarie (it’s been a long time, but didn’t Laura have a doll named Charlotte?).  Surely I could find a pattern, I thought.  It took some digging through pages and pages of American Girl clothes in the McCalls pattern book, but I found one that will work (with modifications, of course, because I’m like that).

I bought a soft, cuddly flannel for the body of the doll and fabric to make the traditional calico dress I envision the doll in (which will coordinate with the crib bedding, of course, because I’m like that too) and some fun retro red and yellow fabric (it really is red and yellow…the light just wasn’t right in the photo) to make a less traditional dress out of, and maybe a dress to match for Libby.

After a little less than two hours, the doll’s body is done.  Still to come: embroidered face, hair, and DRESSES!!  I’m looking forward to making matching outfits for Libby and her doll, as my mother did for me (I remember at least one year where two Cabbage Patch dolls and I had the same Halloween costume).

Butterbeer!

Jason and the boys are watching Harry Potter and the Sorcerer’s Stone tonight.  I think the goal is to netflix all of the movies now that Samuel has read all of the books multiple times.  The spine on one has even broken, which would normally upset me but doesn’t because I love seeing my son read books to the point of showing wear.  I’m not really in the mood for Harry Potter, but couldn’t get any of the computer work done that I need to get done either because the movie is distracting.  I decided it would be a fun time to look up a recipe for butterbeer.  I’ve looked before, but the idea of drinking the amount of butter that a lot of these recipes call for just grosses me out.

I managed to find one that wasn’t too yucky, though, and changed it to meet my standards (substituting real organic milk in the place of liquid coffeemate just seemed logical to me!).  It was a big hit with all of the boys, Silas included.  Jason gave him a sip of his, and then ended up pouring half of his mug into a sippy so he could get his mug back from the little guy.

Here’s the recipe for three servings:

1 c butterscotch chips

2 T butter

1/2 c milk

20 oz cream soda

Combine butterscotch chips and butter in a microwave safe bowl and microwave on high in 30 second increments, stirring after each time, until the chips are melted and the consistency is that of a thick paste.  Slowly add milk and microwave, again in 30 second increments, until the milk is warm and easily incorporated into the butterscotch chips.  In another container, heat the cream soda just until warm, taking care not to overheat and destroy the fizziness of it.

Divide the cream soda equally among three mugs, then divide the butterscotch mixture among the same three mugs.  The cream soda will fizz considerably when the butterscotch mixture is added, so be sure there’s plenty of head room in the mugs.  Top with whipped cream and sprinkle with cinnamon.  Serve immediately.

The Skeptic and the Elf

Last year the Elf on the Shelf was a huge thing in our area, but I didn’t give in because, while it sounds like a lot of fun, I have a child who is a skeptic and I just didn’t want to give him any more reason to be skeptical.  After our conversation this afternoon, though, I think I’ll be finding an Elf on the Shelf to adopt tomorrow (yay!!).

He said to me this afternoon, “Mama, there’s something that almost everyone at school has for Christmas and it’s not really expensive.”  (let me pause here to say that I simultaneously love and hate the fact that my child knows that just because everyone at school has something doesn’t mean we can have it because we have different financial goals and needs than people around us).

“Yes…?” I said.

“It’s called an Elf and it is a messenger for Santa and watches you to see if you’re being good or bad.  And I hope that if we get one, we get a crazy one like Allie has.”

“Why is Allie’s Elf crazy?”

“He does things like hide in her cereal box and empty her sock drawer.”

“Why would you want an elf who emptied your sock drawer?” I said, as I thought, Wow, someone else actually manages to get their kids socks into a drawer?  And then lets the Elf take the socks out?  What if the kid doesn’t put them back?  Oh….wait a second…

“It’s a test, Mama…if Allie puts her socks back, the Elf tells Santa that she’s good at cleaning up and doing what her mom says to do, but if she doesn’t put them back, then the Elf tells Santa that she doesn’t do what her mom says.”

“So, you want a crazy Elf who hides in your cereal box and makes messes just to see if you clean them up?”

“Yes.”

First order of business tomorrow: getting an Elf so I can get my house clean.  Wonder how far I can take this?!  Sadly, for at least a week (probably more like a month!), our Elf will not need to MAKE messes to get cleaned up…there are PLENTY of them around here already!!  And YAY for peer pressure extending the magic of Christmas just a little longer for my too-wise-for-his age son.  Yet another reason to love school!

Well, ain’t that just a kick in the…

Thanks, Calvin, for the perfect illustration for this post.

This summer, Jason started job hunting.  He was offered a job 1.5 hours away from us that would require either a move or a commute (3 hours a day round trip).  He turned it down in August and kept looking.  In September, he was offered another job that was local and would pay more, but only because it was crazy hours with time and a half pay for anything over 40 hours a week.  Still, he was prepared to accept it, until the first company offered to create a position for him that would allow him to work for them and stay in our local area.  It sounded great (in hindsight, maybe even too good)…he would be responsible for maintaining their gas production equipment at sites east of their main location.  It would pay well, have the opportunity for upward mobility, and maybe allow him to be home a little more since he’d be working from home mostly, and would allow him to work for a company that had a good reputation and integrity…something that had been missing from his prior employer.

He started on October 1 at a reduced salary for a 90 day probationary period, then his full salary after 90 days.  The commute was a killer on top of a 10 hour workday, but he was assured it was temporary.  In October, he was out of town for 7 nights, which made things interesting for this on-call midwife.  We made some big changes in our child care plans and even bought a larger vehicle so that we could be sure our kiddos would be taken care of and taken to school if I ended up being called while he was out of town.  Still, by the third week or so, it started to look like maybe there was no end to the commute, although this was supposedly a local position created especially for him because the company was so sure they wanted him on board.  He started to think about job hunting again and got his resume together and put some feelers out.  It’s a good thing, too, because on November 6th, the VP who bent over backwards to hire him decided that “this just really isn’t going to work out” and laid him off.  There was a severance package and according to Jason, he seemed to feel pretty bad about uprooting him from his stable job of 4 years only to lay him off after a month, which I guess is a small consolation.

With 7 weeks to find a job, the sense of urgency is not extreme, but the fear of the unknown is still pretty extreme.  I know that my husband is employable and skilled.  He isn’t limited to one industry and he does the kind of work that has to get done whether the economy is good or not.  But the fact is the economy isn’t good and if that information alone isn’t enough to terrify us, there are lots of people out there who will gladly remind us of it every chance they get.  “This isn’t a good time to try to find a job” and “Well, in this economy…” are getting really old already.

I’m not the best at maintaining a positive outlook.  I call myself a realist.  Some might prefer to use cynic or even pessimist.  It’s not my nature to see a situation and think of all of the good that can come out of it or to think that everything will be okay.  That’s Jason’s gift, not mine.  Even so, I’m looking at this as a chance to grow in my faith.  I know from experience that God works all things together for the good of those who love him (even if all of those things that he’s working aren’t really good…He will make the outcome good).  I also know we walk by faith, not sight.  Yes, I can see that the economy isn’t good.  I can hear everyone who says it’s not a good time to look for a job, but my faith is not in our economy or the job market.  It’s in the God who gave my husband two very skilled hands and a network of church family and friends who know his skills are valuable and will keep their ears open for him.  So I’m choosing (sometimes minute by minute) to walk by believing and not by seeing (2 Cor. 5:7).

It’s a Girl, It’s a Girl, It’s a GIRL!

(Expected to arrive sometime in March)

There have been lots of changes in my world this year.  First, I’m no longer a homeschooing mom (a decision which, incidentally, was made about the time I learned that there was another baby in my near future!).  Second, I’m no longer a mama to all boys…two things that were really an integral part of who I am as a mother have changed in the blink of an eye and it’s taking some getting used to.

I’m really happy with the decision to put S in school and I can honestly say that there is nothing I would change about our school choice.  I’m thrilled with it.

I’m also thrilled to be expecting a girl, although for a few months thrilled and expecting were definitely not in the same breath for me.  I joked for a long time that the only way I’d get a girl is to have an unplanned pregnancy, but honestly, I really didn’t think that was even possible.  God certainly does have a sense of humor, though, and you should be careful what you wish for.  Cliches, I know, but very pertinant cliches for me at this juncture.  I love the idea of a little girl with three big brothers.  I’m not sure how it will play out for her, but my guess is she is going to be the same suprising combination of tomboy and priss that I was as a child.  For the two weeks I’ve suspected a little girl, I’ve had a hard time looking at girl clothes…I find myself drifting into the boy’s clothes and I’ve had a hard time getting into anything pink.  I’m thinking blue, red and yellow for her bedroom and everything I’ve bought so far, while very girly, is not pink.  Part of that is because I can’t see a newborn, all red and scrunched up, wearing pink, and part of it is just because I can’t get into that mode of shopping for pink!

I’m looking forward to all that the next year has to hold, including another school year for Samuel and Atley’s first year of school starting next August.  I’m still not sure how having two babies 18 months apart and a new business will work out, but I know plenty of mothers who have children much closer spaced and survived, so I’m going to take that as a good sign and continue to look forward to completing our family with a sweet little girl.

Holiday Grand Plan Week One: Lists and Front Porch

It’s that time of year again!  I’m really looking forward to the 18 week Holiday Grand Plan.  Having a new baby in the house means things have been cast aside, stashed away, and ignored for a while now and I’m ready for things to feel neat, clean, organized, and ready for a relaxing holiday season.

This week is List Week and Front Porch Week.  I’m so excited to have a front porch to work on this year, thanks to my wonderful husband, who finished the porch up (mostly) a few weeks ago.

Here are my tasks for this week:

• Gifts and budget
• Christmas card list updated
• Visits to make
• Menus: Halloween Party, Thanksgiving, Christmas, New Year’s
• Goodies to bake and share list
• Freeze-ahead list
• Long term shopping list (for parties, freezer meals, and baked goods)

For the porch:

• Stairs?
• Final 4 10 foot boards on west side
• Pick up around edges of porch and weed-eat
• Front door: paint and prep, hang, new hardware installed
• Hang Fall wreath
• Pick up any trash around front yard
• Move landscape bricks to build well house foundation
• Wash door mat
• New porch light?
• Flower pots and mumms for either side of new door

A lot of the porch stuff requires money and/or Jason’s time, both of which are in short supply right now, so they may have to wait for a few weeks.  There are some weeks later in the plan that don’t really apply to our home, so items like a new porch light may be carried over to those weeks.  I’m going to get what I can done this week without feeling guilty for anything that doesn’t get done and if it’s something that’s really important to me, I’ll move it to another week.