I woke up early this am and decided to check email, blogs, groups, etc. One thing led to another and I ended up on Oprah's blog. I read about her 21 day cleanse and her "Are you happy?" show.
I gotta say....one of us is crazy!
"Are you satisfied with your life at this moment?"
The smell of urine is a daily occurrence for me. My two little guys sleep with me (and I wouldn't have it any other way) and they both wear pull ups. Sammy is probably ready to get rid of his, Johnley, not at all! So when I roll over at night and lift up the covers, chances are I am going to get hit in the face with the smell of urine. Add to that the fact that our 11 year old house guest is a bed wetter, and Johnley's pull ups don't always do the trick, and I am washing urine soaked sheets at least 3 days a week. And we won't even talk about how often I have to clean the toilet (and the surrounding area, because we are dealing with three boys here!). Satisfied????? Not so much!
"My friend sent over her cook, and I had no idea there were so many options with vegetables." And "I thought conscience eating was to just eat when you are hungry, but now I see that you need to be aware of what the animals have been through before you put them in your mouth!"
(I am seriously paraphrasing here...)
Yesterday when I mopped the dining room (and let me tell you, that is a MAJOR cleaning day) I pushed the table back and realized that the sides of the table are all sticky. The whole table and the chairs need to be scrubbed because I have a million little sticky hands running around here. Hell, who am I kidding, this whole damn house needs to be scrubbed! Now I'm imagining stickiness everywhere, followed by germs and ants. Yuck! Yep, let me put that on my schedule.
My vegan chef fed-exed food to us in Vegas, we will be eating lasagna on the plane.
My boys woke up this am (when Markeese came out at 6 to tell me he wet the bed - I had him change his clothes, sleep on the top bunk, and stripped his bed and put a load in the wash) and I had put my tea cup down and go lay with them until they fell back asleep. It was the longest 40 minutes of my life. I wanted to start my day, maybe take a shower, watch the news, sit and stare out the window, anything. But I HAD to lay there, perfectly still, so my little angels would get enough sleep and be able to handle the day, what ever it may bring. (After about 10 minutes, which seemed like an hour, I realized Johnley wasn't asleep. He smiled and said, "Nope, I am waiting for it to be morning!" He finally fell back asleep!)
Sunday was perfection. I only got out of my pj's to get a massage. Ah, much needed rest, I was running on empty!
Yesterday, I had Owen and it was raining. We had an awesome homeschooling day, though. Taishauna is working with grammar and math with absolutely no complaining. Markeese is doing practice tests to pass fifth grade (with a LOT of complaining!). The boys and I started making alphabet books that involved cutting, gluing, and drawing. Of course there was drama all around. Every time some one found a cool picture there were meltdowns and we said apple so many times (we were looking for a words) that Johnley got hungry and had to stop and eat.
I won't go into any more details, but lets just say that it was a very loooong day. The house got cleaned (relatively speaking,!), the kids got fed (relatively speaking!), they all learned something (relatively speaking!). I passed out at 8:30 with the kids and only woke up 4 times with hot flashes!
Seriously, are we living on the same planet??
Thursday, June 5, 2008
Monday, June 2, 2008
Goals for the week
Do school work everyday. (Math and Grammar for Taishauna and Markeese, the alphabet for the boys.)
Finish reading our biography with T and M and work on our report.
Clean the house - dusting would be nice!
Weed the garden around the pool and lay down newspaper and then mulch.
Okay, after going outside I realize I need to add some more stuff to my list.
Clean out shed.
Get tiki lamps out, cleaned up and filled.
Set out solar lamps.
Clean pool cover.
Get outside bin for pool toys.
Get stuff together for thrift shop.
There are only two more weeks until the school kids descend on us and I would like to have Markeese in the mode of doing school work every morning before that happens.
I have a ton of seeds that I never planted. I think I will go ahead and do them even though it might be a little late - good learning experience for all the kids. That means that I have to get the shelf down from the attic and find somewhere else to store the beach towels.
Go to library, return the books we are done with and have Markeese get his books.
Have people over for a swim??
Go to 4H
Mow the yard.
Get papers notarized for Holt and send them.
Hmmm, that all actually sounds doable. Wish me luck!
Finish reading our biography with T and M and work on our report.
Clean the house - dusting would be nice!
Weed the garden around the pool and lay down newspaper and then mulch.
Okay, after going outside I realize I need to add some more stuff to my list.
Clean out shed.
Get tiki lamps out, cleaned up and filled.
Set out solar lamps.
Clean pool cover.
Get outside bin for pool toys.
Get stuff together for thrift shop.
There are only two more weeks until the school kids descend on us and I would like to have Markeese in the mode of doing school work every morning before that happens.
I have a ton of seeds that I never planted. I think I will go ahead and do them even though it might be a little late - good learning experience for all the kids. That means that I have to get the shelf down from the attic and find somewhere else to store the beach towels.
Go to library, return the books we are done with and have Markeese get his books.
Have people over for a swim??
Go to 4H
Mow the yard.
Get papers notarized for Holt and send them.
Hmmm, that all actually sounds doable. Wish me luck!
Coming of Age
Yesterday turned out perfect! Taishauna is such a beautiful young lady and did such a great job. I will have to check out my pictures and video and see what I can put up. (I am on the laptop now, all four kids still sleeping!).
Joe and Dina came to the service and when Taishauna saw them her smile lit up the room. The service was so cool that Joe wants his kids to go there!
They had a big brunch set up (for 200) but it was way too crowded so we all snuck out and went to lunch at Kelly's. By that time the kids were whining and Joe's hangover had really kicked in so it was short and sweet. But Taishauna was in heaven. And then they gave her $50 and she was REALLY in heaven!
I ran out as soon as we got home, met Pam and Roxanne at Barnes and Nobles for a quick (and I mean quick) chat and then met Erin and Tobey at the movies where we saw Sex in the City. Very good. Very entertaining. There were tears and laughter and baby Ella was mostly good thru the whole thing!
Then I went home and picked up Taishauna (and left Sammy pouting on the doorstep!) and went to dinner with Tobey and Erin at the Pilot House. It SUCKED! Poor Taishauna - its a good thing she eats like a bird because she only ordered a salad and the only dressing they have is balsamic and blue cheese. WTF! Would it kill you to stock three or four other dressings????
The rest of us got filet mignon and it was burnt to a crisp. Very disappointing. Good thing they had plenty of brownies and cheesecake and ice cream to make up for it! And lovely Taishauna didn't care because she just wanted the company!
So all in all it was wonderful. We had tossed around the idea for a gift, but after paying for two meals out, we decided that was gift enough. And if Taishauna had to choose, I have no doubt she would take the meals out with family over the money!
Joe and Dina came to the service and when Taishauna saw them her smile lit up the room. The service was so cool that Joe wants his kids to go there!
They had a big brunch set up (for 200) but it was way too crowded so we all snuck out and went to lunch at Kelly's. By that time the kids were whining and Joe's hangover had really kicked in so it was short and sweet. But Taishauna was in heaven. And then they gave her $50 and she was REALLY in heaven!
I ran out as soon as we got home, met Pam and Roxanne at Barnes and Nobles for a quick (and I mean quick) chat and then met Erin and Tobey at the movies where we saw Sex in the City. Very good. Very entertaining. There were tears and laughter and baby Ella was mostly good thru the whole thing!
Then I went home and picked up Taishauna (and left Sammy pouting on the doorstep!) and went to dinner with Tobey and Erin at the Pilot House. It SUCKED! Poor Taishauna - its a good thing she eats like a bird because she only ordered a salad and the only dressing they have is balsamic and blue cheese. WTF! Would it kill you to stock three or four other dressings????
The rest of us got filet mignon and it was burnt to a crisp. Very disappointing. Good thing they had plenty of brownies and cheesecake and ice cream to make up for it! And lovely Taishauna didn't care because she just wanted the company!
So all in all it was wonderful. We had tossed around the idea for a gift, but after paying for two meals out, we decided that was gift enough. And if Taishauna had to choose, I have no doubt she would take the meals out with family over the money!
Sunday, June 1, 2008
New plan
I am now posting what ever I want...to hell with who reads this.
Yesterday, my daughter broke my heart. We were at the boys soccer game and Erin and I were discussing going to the movies today to see Sex in the City. Now today is a ceremony at church for Taishauna's Coming of Age (COA) class. I guess it's kind of like a confirmation. Anyway, the church has made a very big deal of this and I thought out loud that maybe I should do something with T for the day. I asked her if she would like to go see the movie with myself, Erin and Erin's mom (my sister) Tobey. She said she didn't want to go see that movie but maybe everyone could come back to the house after.
And my heart broke. This kid wants family as much as she wants breath. And she got so ripped off. Both her mother and father are the cast-offs of their families so by default so are the kids. My kids are adopted, and black, and home-schooled. I don't know which of those points (if any) have anything to do with it, but mine and Nicks siblings do not seem to think of themselves and aunts and uncles of my kids.
It is really the oddest thing. I am still their kids aunt, and their grand children's great aunt. But its like they are neighbors or something to my kids. It doesn't bother me until something like this happens. I can't get Tobey to come over here just because Taishauna wants her too. I couldn't invite her to Taishauna's ceremony...it's just not done.
Now mind you, I went to all her kids ceremonies. Hell, I planned the parties.
I don't know what I'm trying to say...and I'm not doing a very good job saying it, anyway!
So I called Tobey and asked her if we could all go out to dinner, for Taishauna. She said sure. I feel like I have to pay for it now, which is fine.
I will do anything in the universe so my daughter doesn't have a heart that hurts.
Yesterday, my daughter broke my heart. We were at the boys soccer game and Erin and I were discussing going to the movies today to see Sex in the City. Now today is a ceremony at church for Taishauna's Coming of Age (COA) class. I guess it's kind of like a confirmation. Anyway, the church has made a very big deal of this and I thought out loud that maybe I should do something with T for the day. I asked her if she would like to go see the movie with myself, Erin and Erin's mom (my sister) Tobey. She said she didn't want to go see that movie but maybe everyone could come back to the house after.
And my heart broke. This kid wants family as much as she wants breath. And she got so ripped off. Both her mother and father are the cast-offs of their families so by default so are the kids. My kids are adopted, and black, and home-schooled. I don't know which of those points (if any) have anything to do with it, but mine and Nicks siblings do not seem to think of themselves and aunts and uncles of my kids.
It is really the oddest thing. I am still their kids aunt, and their grand children's great aunt. But its like they are neighbors or something to my kids. It doesn't bother me until something like this happens. I can't get Tobey to come over here just because Taishauna wants her too. I couldn't invite her to Taishauna's ceremony...it's just not done.
Now mind you, I went to all her kids ceremonies. Hell, I planned the parties.
I don't know what I'm trying to say...and I'm not doing a very good job saying it, anyway!
So I called Tobey and asked her if we could all go out to dinner, for Taishauna. She said sure. I feel like I have to pay for it now, which is fine.
I will do anything in the universe so my daughter doesn't have a heart that hurts.
Friday, May 30, 2008
musings
Haven't posted in a while. I know I owe lots of pictures, vacation and what-not. Just haven't had the time or inclination.
Markeese is here, and Johnley is completely out of sorts. It is interesting. Markeese is actually being really great (he always is at first - and I always have hopes that he will stay that way!), but Johnley got thrown, I guess.
He has been just miserable. For three days now. It's exhausting!
He was like this the first couple of days of vacation too. He apparently cannot handle change. At least not yet. And I can't say that I blame him, but some change is inevitable.
I guess this doesn't bode well for a camping trip!
I am up to my eyeballs in paper work. We are finalizing Johnley's adoption. I had to contact someone else who has been through this, to get a copy of all the paper work. She sent me three documents - complaints and judgements and such. I have to substitute all the information and then call the county clerk and find out what documents they need and submit them all. I'm not at all sure how that works.
We got out homestudy back from the social worker for Avena. So we had to make a copy of six documents, send them to be state certified, and simultaneously send them to get translated into french. We received those documents back in two days and then had to send them all to the Haitian Consulate in N.Y. to get authenticated. In the meantime, the adoption agency emailed us and asked if we were ready to send it in! Are you freaken kidding me!
Anyway, we got them back and gathered them all up to fed-ex. I was supposed to do that today, but I noticed we are missing a signature so I will have to wait till Nick comes home anyway.
And today I got another package in the mail of more paperwork to fill out for our match with Avena.... and the invoice.
So the money is flying out (every step has cost hundreds of $s) and my head is spinning!
And I still have to call the county clerk.
Today, the kids worked on grammar and math, (I have started Markeese working as if he were staying, cuz what the hell!) and the little kids worked on their alphabet.
The pool is almost completely clean (not warm yet, tho) and my house looks like a hurricane hit it.
That's my life in a nutshell.
Markeese is here, and Johnley is completely out of sorts. It is interesting. Markeese is actually being really great (he always is at first - and I always have hopes that he will stay that way!), but Johnley got thrown, I guess.
He has been just miserable. For three days now. It's exhausting!
He was like this the first couple of days of vacation too. He apparently cannot handle change. At least not yet. And I can't say that I blame him, but some change is inevitable.
I guess this doesn't bode well for a camping trip!
I am up to my eyeballs in paper work. We are finalizing Johnley's adoption. I had to contact someone else who has been through this, to get a copy of all the paper work. She sent me three documents - complaints and judgements and such. I have to substitute all the information and then call the county clerk and find out what documents they need and submit them all. I'm not at all sure how that works.
We got out homestudy back from the social worker for Avena. So we had to make a copy of six documents, send them to be state certified, and simultaneously send them to get translated into french. We received those documents back in two days and then had to send them all to the Haitian Consulate in N.Y. to get authenticated. In the meantime, the adoption agency emailed us and asked if we were ready to send it in! Are you freaken kidding me!
Anyway, we got them back and gathered them all up to fed-ex. I was supposed to do that today, but I noticed we are missing a signature so I will have to wait till Nick comes home anyway.
And today I got another package in the mail of more paperwork to fill out for our match with Avena.... and the invoice.
So the money is flying out (every step has cost hundreds of $s) and my head is spinning!
And I still have to call the county clerk.
Today, the kids worked on grammar and math, (I have started Markeese working as if he were staying, cuz what the hell!) and the little kids worked on their alphabet.
The pool is almost completely clean (not warm yet, tho) and my house looks like a hurricane hit it.
That's my life in a nutshell.
Sunday, May 4, 2008
This and that!
Not much has been going on around here. We are going to Hatteras next Sunday and we tend to slide into vacation/summer mode for a few week before hand! I have not even begun to pack yet, and anyone that knows me knows that by now I should at least have a dozen or so lists, and most of my stuff packed.
I have gone over the food list, extensively, but only because Merrille is doing half of it and she likes to get a head start. I would venture to guess that she is completely done by now. I haven't bought a single thing.
We plan on starting a new curriculum, in addition to adding Markeese to our homeschooling year, so we've been pretty busy planning for that. I'm actually really excited about this book that was recommended to me called "The Well Trained Mind". It's a bit overwhelming, and I certainly won't be using everything on it, but I think it is good for a basic program. We are going to try it out this year, and I expect that we will have a lot of stops and starts, while we figure things out, but I am confident that we will find our groove. The boys will be in kindergarten (or at least that age) so it should be some fun times.
Nick is in Chicago this weekend for a CIO boot camp. Its a really intensive training session, and an accomplishment just to be able to go. He was very excited about going. He left right from soccer yesterday.
And speaking of soccer; Sammy is doing phenomenal! He has definitely found his groove with it and went from kind of hanging around the ball to getting in there and kicking it and following through. He made like three goals yesterday! Johnley has made some great strides too, he gets on the field now! And that's progress!
Taishauna went to Boston last weekend with her Church group. She is such a beautiful young lady. She handled herself so great and thought to buy t-shirts for her brothers, which was wonderful. She had mucho fun with her friends and at the activities. Apparently they visited alot of churches, and that was BORING! But she had fun anyway!
I was thinking this morning that something is wrong with me because I used to be so organized and was able to accomplish alot. Lately I can't seem to accomplish ANYTHING. And then I realized that with a 4 year old and a 5 year old (not to mention the 14 year old) with me all the time, that is pretty much all I can do. Keeping them fed and dressed and sorta clean, and keeping the house sorta clean pretty much takes up my day!
Somehow I have to fit in packing, some spring cleaning, preparing the gardens and powerwashing the deck into that schedule.
Wish me luck!
I have gone over the food list, extensively, but only because Merrille is doing half of it and she likes to get a head start. I would venture to guess that she is completely done by now. I haven't bought a single thing.
We plan on starting a new curriculum, in addition to adding Markeese to our homeschooling year, so we've been pretty busy planning for that. I'm actually really excited about this book that was recommended to me called "The Well Trained Mind". It's a bit overwhelming, and I certainly won't be using everything on it, but I think it is good for a basic program. We are going to try it out this year, and I expect that we will have a lot of stops and starts, while we figure things out, but I am confident that we will find our groove. The boys will be in kindergarten (or at least that age) so it should be some fun times.
Nick is in Chicago this weekend for a CIO boot camp. Its a really intensive training session, and an accomplishment just to be able to go. He was very excited about going. He left right from soccer yesterday.
And speaking of soccer; Sammy is doing phenomenal! He has definitely found his groove with it and went from kind of hanging around the ball to getting in there and kicking it and following through. He made like three goals yesterday! Johnley has made some great strides too, he gets on the field now! And that's progress!
Taishauna went to Boston last weekend with her Church group. She is such a beautiful young lady. She handled herself so great and thought to buy t-shirts for her brothers, which was wonderful. She had mucho fun with her friends and at the activities. Apparently they visited alot of churches, and that was BORING! But she had fun anyway!
I was thinking this morning that something is wrong with me because I used to be so organized and was able to accomplish alot. Lately I can't seem to accomplish ANYTHING. And then I realized that with a 4 year old and a 5 year old (not to mention the 14 year old) with me all the time, that is pretty much all I can do. Keeping them fed and dressed and sorta clean, and keeping the house sorta clean pretty much takes up my day!
Somehow I have to fit in packing, some spring cleaning, preparing the gardens and powerwashing the deck into that schedule.
Wish me luck!
Friday, April 18, 2008
So much new...
Lets see...
I painted a room....
I painted a room....
A new baby was born! Ella Marie, April 13 6lbs, 10oz.
I bought a new tv for my car....best investment I ever made!
I also bought a membership to Liberty Science Center...so we went.
Then we went to the Franklin Institute.
And I got flowers.
We learned how to make pizza, had some for lunch and went home and made more for dinner!
We went to a class to make cookie bouquets!I made two cakes...one for our play...
and one for a 7 year old girl....
This one was a big hit with all the girls...and boys, truth be told!
Oh yeah, and the boys found the dress up clothes!
Which really makes all the other pictures useless!!!!!!!!!!!
Thursday, April 3, 2008
How to make a Mermaid
Take a beautiful girl....
Add some long hair....
Sprinkle on a little glitter....
And...TaDa....a beautiful mermaidTuesday, April 1, 2008
Super Spy Birthday
We had our super spy birthday on Sunday. We had treasure hunts, we played 'Who Am I?' and other such fun. There were lots of kids, lots of adults, too much food, and yet another masterpiece cake! A good time was had by all.
Recipe for a successful birthday? Lots of chocolate!
Super spys getting ready for the hunt...
Recipe for a successful birthday? Lots of chocolate!
Super spys getting ready for the hunt...
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