Whew!

Today was much easier. We didn't venture too far during the day. Tonight I was crazy and took out all 5 kids shopping for a baptismal dress for M. Imagine taking that many little ones to a store where everything is white. I know it sounds nuts but it had to be done. I just didn't know when there would be time.

On the way there the kids were watching episodes of Hannah Montana (that were then returned on the way home). S says to me, "Mom, sing with me. It's the best of both words." (She doesn't say worlds, just words.) She has charm that one.

C has added thank you to her vocabulary. It's pretty cute. She says it without even being asked. What a funny little thing. She showed me today that she can go down stairs. I was right behind her. But of course on the very last step she stood up and fell down and bonked her head on the wall. It's a good thing we have a gate on the stairs at our house.

Positive Note- Hmmm... I am really thinking no potty accidents today but I should be more creative. Well, I am grateful that the kids didn't touch a bunch of white things in the store today making it necessary to buy a bunch of extra stuff.

And dang it why won't this thing let me spell check. It obviously will let me change the font!

Spelling

I just have to note that this thing will NOT let me run a spell check tonight ;)

Random comments for a random day

I have a bunch of randomness to write today so I'll just get to it.

First of all, my dear friend's 11 year old is going in to her doctor tomorrow. She has some thyroid 'bumps' that are growing larger ( about an inch around)and are concerning. Of course I am worried because of the nasty C word. I'm not really letting on to how worried I am but of course that side of me comes out in these types of situations.

Another thing I thougth about today is that the things that fluster me the most are things that are my own dang fault. (Okay, I'll admit I wasn't really thinking dang there.) I was running around like a chicken with its head cut off trying to find this and that and the frustration was mounting quickly. And you know what? It was my own fault. If I had a home for everything in my house I wouldn't be so crazy. I just don't know how to dig out. GRRRRR.....

So today in a not so nutshell started like this. Somehow my neck ended out of place. I attribute this to bad posture, especially in the car. But by last night I had lost all range of motion. In fact, last night, when I would try to bend over to get somethign I would have to literally hold my very large noggin because the weight of it was killing me. So I would support my head with one hand and pick up things with the other.

You can imagine what sleeping was like. It took me over 15 minutes to get myself out of bed when the baby cried in the night. I just couldn't get over my head because the pain was so sharp. I took a bunch of pain meds and hoped for the best. I kept thinking that maybe I coudl work it out to go to the chiropractor. Now that is different can of worms. Let's just say that the last time I visited was a few days before Joshua and well, I just have never been able to go back. I have spent too much time regretting laying in a position that might have been slowly killing him. Anyway, that is the past and today my neck was kililng me enough that I was contemplating visitng the chiro anyway. I chatted with a friend and realized that it wasn't going to happen. There is just no way to take the 4 kids left home in the morning to a doctor's office and the two neighbors with whom I could leave them weren't available.

It turned out to be a good thing becuase I noticed that the house was getting chilly. I turned up the heat but it didn't get warmer. Oh, that would be because the furnace went out on me. So I got T ready for school and then it was too late to go anywhere anyway. (What was I thinking? I coudlnt' have actually gotten much done this morning.) So the women come to my house a little after noon and we decide to call a heating person to come and fix my furnace.

The first place could come tomorrow. WHAT? I can't sit in a freezing house. My neighbor found a place that would come today. Later, the company called to tell me that a serviceman was on his way and that a PHOTOGRAPHER from the newspaper woudl be coming to get pictures for a story. WHAT? Did I mention that I felt overscheduled already, that I had no milk in the house, that I had forms and paperwork due today to get some assistance for S and D?


So the man comes and shortly after, a photographer. The boys, without any information that a photographer is coming, take their buckets of 'tools' to the basement to 'help' the man. The photographer ended up taking their pics too. I don't know if they will end up in the paper or anything. It was just such a weird thing. Maybe that is why I could get an appointment today. No one wanted the photographer to come along.

Luckily, I had a great friend that felt like she shoudl offer to watch my kids for an hour. I ran myself here and there trying to get my paperwork put together and dropped off. I finished it about 3 minutes before the government office closed. I then went and got some milk without anyone along to beg for treats.

The day worked out. I squashed some whining earlier. I told D I couldn't tolerate it and then told T to stop being a bully. They'll have to be best friends if they keep it up because no one wants to be friends with a whiner or a bully.

S still seems to be somewhat potty trained. Yesterday she tried to be sneaky and wore her pull up backwards so that when she didn't want to go to the potty that the butterflies woudln't change colors. She is brilliant that one. Now we have to channel that billance into something other than sneaking.

C is now nicknamed Sharky. I was checking for her 9th tooth yesterday and found that she has 3 molars in. No wonder she is biting on anything and everything.

Positive note for today- Hmmm.... heat. I love it!

Just a postive note

There has been and will be more snow to shovel.

BUT

It's nice light and fluffy snow!

Sad or Happy

A dear person passed away tonight. I never met him. I saw him from far away and via the television. Nevertheless, what he taught impacted my life forever. I just read of his death and immediately felt my eyes fill with tears. How happy he must be to be free of his aged body and reunited with his wife.

He was great because he didn't say to just go out and be perfect. Instead he challenged everyone to stand a little taller.

I will go to bed remembering his lessons. And tomorrow I am going to do a better job of living the way I need to.

Tomorrow I will make sure I remember to 'be'.

Be grateful.
Be smart.
Be clean.
Be true.
Be humble.
Be prayerful.

Tomorrow I am going to write a few notes of thanks to people that have touched my life and let them know what they do for my spirit. I am going to help my kids in the be smart category by getting out a few extra books so that we can read together. I am going to turn off my television immediately if I see things that don't add to the spirit that I want in my home. It's usually somewhat easy for me to be true to the major covenants that I have made. It isn't always easy to keep my word on simple things. So, tomorrow, when someone asks me to get a drink or something else when I am busy I will either do it or give a true time estimation of when I will instead of just saying 'in a minute.' I am going to try to be humble and remember the lessons I learned when I spent some time in prayer over how to deal with my life. And lastly, I am going to engage in a little extra prayer tomorrow. I'm sure I need more of it.

Tomorrow I am going to try to be a better person and in doing so will try to honor my 'friend.'

The Money Marathon

I was listening to Dave Ramsey last night as I was driving. I'm a big talk radio junkie and so this is totally normal. For the most part I agree with what he says. He was telling a caller that for the most part rich people are rich because they have a marathon mentality and are willing to wait things out and just plug along.

This really related to my day because I had this FABULOUS (and can I repeat it was fabulous) idea to make my days easier. The Fed dropped rates significantly and I thought we can refinance our house add in the money for the basement, have someone quickly come do it, and not change our payments.

Basements are sanity. How great is it to be able to keep quarrelling kids on separate floors? How great is it to send noisy kids to the basement where they can have fun and be a little noisy and still have the upstairs somewhat quiet? How wonderful is it to have ALL the messy toys in one room in the basement so you never see them? In my mind it would be instant heaven. That's a lot to expect of a basement. I guess I have that sprinter mentality.

DH on the other hand is a marathoner and has the mindset for that. He LOVED the idea of refinancing. But he put together a bunch of spreadsheets to show this and that and showed how much we would save if we did a 15 year and then DIDN'T do the basement. Did I mention that it would be 200 dollars a month more out of potential spending money? Then he wants to do the basement little by little with cash. Is is smart? Sure. It saves more than I care to comment but it's a huge sum, especially if you invest what your payment would be over the course of what would have been the length of the loan. But it isn't a basement. Is he a wise money marathoner? Yep he sure is. Am I still disappointed? Yes. The worst part though is that I know I am wrong and he is right. I hate to be wrong.

I mentioned how much he is going to have to fork over to cover my shrink someday or maybe my hearing aides from so much noise and his response was, "Insurance covers it."

Positive Note- T's violin teacher is going to let him go into a different group lesson today. Yesterday we drove to a neighboring town for his lesson to find that he had forgotten to put his violin back in the case after practicing (another positive note). I'm glad she's giving him another chance.

Grout

Tonight I was scrubbing the grout for the tile that DH put in the hall. It had to be done. (Much more of a story than I am going to leave here ;) ) D and S were not going to sleep. I really should have been doing the ignore so they will go to sleep thing but I just couldn't help but sneak smiley then frowny faces then smiley faces at S. She just looked so happy to have the little bit of interaction. It might come back to bite me in the butt later but it made me love her tonight.

And after doing that she went to sleep without any screaming.

Positive Note- My tile is done!