Daily Musings of Nothingness

Ben was sick last week and now he is back to his happy, giggly, messy self. Sam is sick this week. I would rather my almost 5 year old be sick than my almost 2 year old. Not that I want Sam to be sick but he just lays around, rests, and is willing to be cuddled. Ben cried and was irritable, constantly. Any questions.

I went to the school this morning to get the Read-A-Thon daily prizes organized. The principal forgot to draw the winners and announce them. Tomorrow I'm going to do it for her and give her a written note to read and hope it gets done correctly tomorrow. If you want something done right....

I went to Brad's office after the school. I didn't have much to do. Tobie showed me the inventory list we have to do for tax purposes. I really hate stuff like that. We'll do it later.

We had someone come over tonight and talk about renovations on the new house. I wonder how we will pay for them? Cash or loans. Now or later. convenience or total inconvenience.

I miss Rochester's library. A LOT! My new one only lets me check out 50 books at a time. Can I get a gold card for the library. They don't know who they are dealing with. 50 books at a time; what a joke!

I reread Twilight. It was better the second time. Just like the movie.

I spent Monday cleaning my house. I got rid of all the little clutter piles that mysteriously appear around the house. Today you could never tell that that was how I spend President's day.

Yesterday Ben wrote on the wall with a pencil and on my computer screen with a pen. Brad said that he was lucky it happened while he was at work.

When Rick came over this evening he asked Emily what grade she was in. Her reply, "I'm in first but I read at third."

Ben loves to wear shoes. Especially mine, Brad's, Emily's and Sam's.

I took a nap today and I didn't even feel guilty about it. It was lovely. Unfortunately, the kids made a mess in my office. It was worth it.

I made dinner tonight (shock!) and everyone loved it and ate it (shock again!!). Emily even gave me a hug for making the best dinner ever. Hawaiian Haystacks: 2 chicken breasts, cooked and cubed added to 2 cans of cream of chicken. Dilute with milk to desired consistency. Serve over rice. Top with Chinese noodles, cheddar cheese, olives and add a dash of lemon juice. Emily will have the left overs for lunch tomorrow.

I love Emily's lunchbox-sized thermos. It keeps food hot or cold. Makes packing a lunch much more imaginative.

Even though I had a nap today, I'm going to bed now. Thanks for reading my random thoughts. I should do more posts like this. So easy!

Eleven Reasons Why I Haven't Been Blogging (in no particular order)

1. The house has been sold and I'm taking advantage of the fact that my house can be messy. (oh and it has been!). It is a lot of work messing up a house.
2. The weather has been beautiful (save for yesterday when it was freezing-no kidding) We have been playing outside and having fun.
3. I'm reading again! As soon as the kids are in bed, I'm on the couch with my book.
4. Brad has been a computer hog. Do we really need to back up the hard drive before the move (well I guess so).
5. I can't be on the computer with Ben in the room. He is trying to improve his typing speed.
6. I'm having a garage sale this weekend and I have been sorting and piling and pricing. So fun! I don't think I'll make much but at least my stuff will be gone!
7. I have over 300 pictures to sort through before I can post them. I'll do that later.
8. I keep forgetting all the cute things I would blog about.
9. I have been busy with "stuff" that needs to be done before we move. It's boring stuff but needs to be done.
10. I taught a lesson on Sunday in Relief Society. If I was on the computer I was working on that or see below.
11. I have been reading your blogs! So much fun!

50 Degrees-Hopefully

I just checked the weather forecast for the week. We might get up to 51 degrees!!! I'm so excited I can hardly stand it. It is currently raining/snowing and is 37 degrees (with a feels like temperature of 28 degrees) I say raining/snowing because it was raining but now it is snowing a slushy snow.

Emily got all dressed in her rain gear-rain boots, rain coat, umberella and went outside for exactly 3 minutes. She decided it was too cold and the rain/snow was not fun. By the time Sam got all ready to go outside, Emily was already undressed and had moved on to another activity. Poor kid. He didn't want to go outside without his buddy.

Maybe later this week he'll get a chance. It is Spring Break and some sunny, warmer weather would be lovely.

Toys, Toys, Toys

My kids have a lot of toys. I mean they really have A LOT. Someone once walked into my basement and asked if I ran a day care. I mean that is a little embarrassing.

I'm to blame about the overabundance of toys because I love toys. I love to see my kids play with toys. I just think toys are fun and since they don't watch TV I feel like they should have toys to play with. Alright alright, I'll come clean...I can't resist toys on sale. Okay, okay I also love to buy everything that belongs to the set. Once I bought a Sweet Street house for $1 at a garage sale. It turned into me buying most all of the Sweet Street line (all at amazing prices!).

Well, I have learned something in the last few months. All kids really need are their imaginations and a few basic toys. Take for instance this picture.This is how Emily and Sam (and tag-a-long Ben) spend many afternoons (side note: notice the toy in Ben's mouth-that is typical Ben). They use their imaginations and create boats, picnics, forts, whatever with whatever is around (mainly my furniture). They spend hours doing this and most of the toys stay in my basement untouched.

So I packed up the majority of their toys in order to declutter my house and they haven't missed any of it. I left out what I feel are the basics:

• A play kitchen with food, basic tea set, shopping cart
• A few dress up items for girls and boys
• Cars and trucks, driving mat
• Train set
• Misc. dolls, ponies, stuffed animals, dinosaurs
• Blocks of various shapes and sizes for building houses for above dolls
• A few play sets i.e. barn, castle, etc.
• Puzzles and games

My life is so much simpler now. There is less to clean up. I have learned a valuable lesson. They don't need much to entertain themselves. I need less stuff to clean up. Put it together and life is better.

I wonder what I'll do with all that STUFF when we unpack...

Painting is Done!

The painters finished today-HURRAY! They were really nice people-an older man and his sweet wife. But I'm so glad to be finished with the project and not have to greet them tomorrow morning at 8:00 am. Trying to keep the kids out of the way, dealing with the hasle of an ongoing project, and painting supplies in my entry way were really annoying me.

Now I'm trying to get things back to normal before the carpet man comes Monday morning. After that I'll starting painting the basement-just the top portion of the 3 walls. Then I'll start packing more stuff away and the cleaning will begin in earnest.

Today I found out someone at church sold their house in TWO days! Oh, how I hope and pray that could happen to us (even just to sell it in two weeks would be nice)!

Tomorrow Brad starts hospital service. It is going to be a horrible schedule. I hope I'm still sane in April.

PS Still spell check trouble - what is up with that?

Quick Update

Okay, I finally have a few seconds to blog so I'll make this quick. Ben is plundering at my feet and I have just a minute before he goes to bed. Here is what has happened so far in my life since my last blog (please excuse any grammatical errors due to my haste in writing):

• I came down with strep throat an hour or so after I wrote my last blog. Lost 2 days to couch confinement-too weak and sick to move. Thank heavens for a doctor husband who called in a prescription and even brought it to me on his lunch break (since I was too sick to drag three kids to the pharmacy).
• I only have ONE more day of teaching Sam's preschool. I would already be done but I had to cancel 2 days in a row due to previously mentioned strep throat (Emily had it before me and I had to cancel a day because she was sick). As much as I enjoy teaching preschool, I really need time to get stuff done (see below).
• Brad had Friday - Sunday off. We spent Friday at the Children's Museum and The Cheesecake Factory!!! (I'll post pictures someday).
• We finally cleaned our office!!!!!! I have packed boxes, and boxes, and boxes of stuff away. We moved out 2 storage cabinets and a bookcase and cleared out quite a bit of the closet. It is so nice and clean; I feel like working on a craft project. Oh no, it has all been packed away! No more projects until I move (and then get unpacked and settled-I'll probably never get around to them:-(
• I met with our realtor today (after spending the morning frantically cleaning, dusting, and vacuuming). She is optimistic but says we need to paint the entire main floor, replace the carpet on the stairs and expand the laminate in the living room (how are we going to do that!!). Oh, and get rid of just about everything. This is my current stress! How on earth am I going to paint with 3 kids around along with everything else!!!!!

Well, Ben is done plundering (he couldn't make too much of a mess because the office is CLEAN!!!! Now I need to read my book club book. I still have 300 pages of The Woman in White to read. It is really good and I have hated not being able to read but I promised myself after our realtor meeting I could finish it.

So farewell until I finish my book.

A Tablespoon of Honey is the Medicine That Goes Down

I have had a cough since Saturday and it has been driving me crazy. Brad read an article that said that a tablespoon of honey is more effective than an over-the-counter cough suppressant. So I decided to try it and I have to admit that it works great. For the past two nights I have taken a tablespoon of honey at bedtime and I did not wake up coughing. This afternoon I was coughing a lot (Sorry Sarah, I was coughing throughout your lovely birthday luncheon) and I took some when I got home. Sure enough my coughing has eased.

I have to admit, I don't usually use alternatives to drugs. I'm more than happy to relieve my symptoms by taking a little pill but I'll vouch for a tablespoon of honey (just don't give it to babies younger than one).

First Big Snow of the Season

On Saturday we had our first big snow of the season. My unofficial report is that we had about 4 inches of snow and ice. I say snow and ice because the snow at times felt like little ice balls which stung your face as it fell from the sky. It also plastered our front window with ice which gave it a frosted look.

Later, the snow started to melt but then froze which made everything very icy. It was very pretty though. Our mailbox, roof, and house were covered with ice which glistened in the sun. Once it stopped snowing, we started to shovel. It was difficult to shovel the snow because of the ice layer on top. We had to break the ice with either the shovel or in some cases a heavy, metal ice scrapper before we could get to the snow to shovel it out of the way.
The kids had a great time playing outside. They bundled up and played for quite awhile (and Brad thought I was crazy to buy snow pants:-). They thought it was really neat because they could walk on top of the snow and not leave footprints (because of the ice). Emily and Anders, the boy across the street, slid down the sidewalk with sleds. Everything was so slippery, they had a blast.

Eventually, we all got too cold and tired of being outside. So we went inside and had hot chocolate with candy canes. Oh, it is beginning to feel a lot like Christmas!

Happy Thanksgiving

This has been an unusual Thanksgiving. I haven't been in the holiday spirit. Here are some maybe whys:

• Maybe because Ben has been sick with a cold and has been a total grouch and hasn't slept well for days (I'm exhausted!).
• Maybe because I did not host a large dinner this year (last year we had 20 people for dinner).
• Maybe because Brad had to work and just made it home to help with the last minute preparations before we had to go to dinner and then he had to go back to work after dinner.
• Maybe because my "famous" crescent rolls went flat and I can't figure out why and I actually cried about it.
• Maybe because the Black Friday ads did not hold the usual excitement for me (I can't go because Brad will be at work and I'm not taking 3 kids out at 4 am or later).

But now that I think back on it I should be more grateful. I'm grateful for:

• Teri B. and her family for inviting us over for dinner. The food was delicious and we actually got to play games while the kids played downstairs. Girls against boys Taboo actually ended in a tie (I got stuck on the word fling).
• Emily and Sam helped me clean the basement so we can decorate for Christmas tomorrow.
• Brad at least had a few hours off so he could join us for dinner.
• Ben took a nap during game time!
• Other than a few colds, my family is healthy.
• My mom's health scare is hopefully minor.
• A loving husband and adorable children.
• Sam recognizing he was so tired, he went to bed on his own.
• Most of my Christmas shopping is done so I don't need to go out and fight the crowds and spend more money.

So excuse my negativity and lack of holiday spirit at the beginning of this blog. It felt good to get it out and now I can focus on the Christmas season. I can't wait to put up our Christmas tree!

My Room Smells Like a Monkey

As I was putting Sam to bed tonight he said, "My room smells like a monkey."

I have to admit it does smell like a monkey and for the life of me I can't figure out why! I have washed all the sheets and blankets, taken out the trash, washed everything in the hamper and I even washed all pajamas. It is driving me crazy!

Wait--maybe it is my kids! They act like monkeys most of the time and we call them our little monkeys. Could it be???

This is a weird post. Sorry.

"Meatloaf, Peatloaf, I Hate Meatloaf"

Tonight for dinner Brad made a meatloaf. He decided to experiment and used two recipes-his Mom's and Alton Brown's. I generally make my MIL's recipe; it is easy and good.

At the dinner table, the kids, especially Sam, were complaining about eating meatloaf for dinner. We, of course, say all the typical parent-trying-to-make-their-kids-eat things like, "It is really good" and "You can't say you don't like something until you try it", etc. So Emily takes a bite and says, "Yuck, I don't like it." I'm starting to comment about giving it another try until Brad says, "I don't like it either!" This stops me in mid sentence because he made the meatloaf. I taste it and sure enough it is gross!!!! It was too salty! We were so confused. Why would it be too salty? What had we done? After a little investigation we discover there is a misprint in my cookbook. Brad added 1 1/2 tablespoons of salt, as listed in the cookbook, instead of 1 1/2 teaspoons. When he was making it he asked me if I usually put in all the salt and I said yes-not realizing there was a misprint. It is one of those recipes I can make without thinking too much about it so I never realized there was a mistake-until now that is.

So there we were without our main course. No meatloaf to compliment our scalloped potatoes (which were delicious!!!), mixed vegetables and rolls. I have to eat protein with my carbs or else I get sick so Brad saved the day and made hamburger patties.

Next time I'll think twice about making the kids eat something when they say it is yucky. Maybe it really is.

PS The title of this blog is from The Christmas Story when Ralph's little brother doesn't want to eat his meatloaf and his mom is trying to make him. He eventually eats it-piggy style!

PPS If you have a copy of my red cookbook make the change to Dianne's Meatloaf so you don't repeat this experience (if you haven't already-oops).

Creative Minds

My kids LOVE to do art-draw, color, paint, create, cut, glue, staple, whatever. Lately, my living room has been covered in paper, markers, paper, glue sticks, paper, scissors, and more paper. The other day I had to demand that they play outside with their neighborhood friends (it was a beautiful day-they will have all of the long, freezing cold Minnesota winter to play inside). Today Sam and Emily were making paper clothes. Emily would decorate a piece of paper in suns, stars, flowers, rainbows, and other girly designs and then staple or tape the paper around her. It took her many experiments to figure out if staples or tape worked best. At one point, I left the room and came back to find her in just her underpants wearing a paper skirt and paper shirt. Sam, of course, had to join in on the paper apparel fun and he designed paper shoes. Tape and green construction paper were the medium. He had formed the paper into shoes but they would not stay on so he taped them to his feet (at least he didn't try to staple them on!). I should have taken a picture, but by the time I thought about it their paper clothing and shoes had torn apart (paper clothes just don't last!).


The other day Brad came home to a disastrous living room and said something to the effect that they are lucky I tolerate such messes. Yes, it is totally annoying that a huge mess is made and I am concerned that someone will drop by and see my living room in such a state, but I tolerate it for a good reason. I believe that creative play is good for a child's brain. As they engage in their creative undertakings their brains are problem-solving and figuring out what to do next. They are imagining and having fun. I think that is really important so I tolerate the mess while they have their fun, but they do have to clean it up before they go to bed!


Sam noticed me posting a picture of Emily's awhile back and he wanted me to scan this picture. It is a balloon. He did it all by himself. He was very proud of it and wanted me to scan it into the computer so we "can keep it forever"!
Here's Emily's latest picture. The dress is colored with glittery pen. You can't see the shine on the scanned picture.

A day in the life of a teething baby

I think Ben is teething. He was up all night crying - a poor little whimpering cry. The kind of cry that means he just does not feel well. I have had to hold him all day long and today was supposed to be my cleaning day. Even Emily can't entertain or distract him. I have been giving him Tylenol just about every 4 hours since last night and he is still fussy and cries whenever I put him down for more than a couple of minutes. Poor little guy and poor me!

When Brad came home at 3:30 pm (he worked last night and slept all day at the hospital) the laundry was not done, the floor wasn't swept and there were sticky spots everywhere from the PB & J sandwiches Emily made for us yesterday, the dishes were still in the sink, there was a huge mess downstairs in the toy room, and don't even ask what's for dinner. I was at the end of my rope. So Brad, the wonderfully helpful husband that he is, took over the kids and told me I could have 2 1/2 hours of no kids time to take a nap, go shopping, whatever.

So what did I do???? I put on my headphones and listened to Digging to America by Anne Tyler (my current book on tape - I'll blog about that another time) and did laundry, swept and mopped the floor, wiped the kitchen counters, table and chairs, loaded the dishwasher, cleaned up the living room, and told Brad to order a pizza (I had a coupon and I didn't want to mess up my nice clean kitchen) after he had the kids clean the downstairs. You might wonder why I chose that instead of going somewhere or taking a nap. That would have been nice, but sometimes what helps me the most is just time to get something done without being interrupted.

Now as I sit here at the computer with Ben dozing on my lap (he had his last dose of Tylenol about 30 minutes ago), I can blog knowing that my kitchen, living room, and toy room are clean (laundry is still a work in progress). Thanks Brad for coming home and helping (I know you didn't have a good night either). I appreciate how understanding you always are. Maybe tonight/tomorrow will be better. As for me, I'll be going to bed early (unless, of course, Ben decides otherwise).