TMI

The Living Room got worse before it got better.

Jason stayed out with Claire a bit longer than the rest of us so that she could model.

Deck the halls with cheerios and play-doh, fa, la, la, la, la....

Well. First things first. It snowed. I mean really, really snowed. This is the first you-can-play-in-it snow that Jason and I have ever shared together. It was so fun and if the girls weren't already sick we would have played in it for hours.

Second. My house is in its worst state of all times. It is just so messy. So, I fgured that at some point in your life you had let a room that you were responsible for just get away from you so therefore you wouldn't judge me too much for what I am about to do. I am going to share the disaster and then share the cleaned version. Please still love me. Please still come to my house. Please don't judge me.

I didn't take a before picture of the kitchen but here's the after shot.

Isn't it so nice and clean? It leaves you feeling so peaceful...but wait! No! Don't do that! Do not look to your right!

I told you not to. That still doesn't seem too bad, right? Let's look closer.

See. It get's worse the more you look.  But even that mess seems like something you could knock out rather quickly in a day. But then you turn around. *shudder* I can not believe I am showing you this.

Oh. My. Word.  How horrible is that? Never mind. Don't answer me. Look at the clothes waiting to be washed again. That's right. AGAIN.

These are almost all "clean." They were dumped on the living room couch on a day that I had devoted to laundry and then this and that got in the way and they never got folded. And then they got trampled on and sat on and burrowed in and rolled on. I decided the best way to tackle this situation is to rewash everything and fold the clothes AS THEY COME OUT. So far it's working. Back to the other messes. Look at Eily's area of the dining room. Blech.

Double blech.

It looks like I had swept this in a pile but I hadn't. There was just so much that it started to be a thick layer of grossness.

Even Pink Bear looked forlorn all cast aside in the rubble.

So yesterday I cleaned the kitchen and then today I cleaned the dining room. I mean some deep, deep cleaning.

Now these pictures I am more than happy to share. :)   (Notice these are all extra-large.)

Let's zoom in on the floor where all the laundy was earlier.

Ahhhhh. It feels good to be able to breathe again. Unfortunantly, we are about to turn to the left. Here we go again.

And this is where I start tonight. I have to go fold the rest of laundry and then start in on this, this terrible, awful situation.  Believe me, there will be after pictures posted very soon.

Hope you feel good about yourself now.


just keep swimming, just keep swimming, just keep swimming...

Sometimes one feels the fatness a bit too keenly and is forced to let up on the Cherry Sours.

That one is me.

Churn girl, churn!

When I was Little I thought the neatest thing that could happen was to suddenly have to go back and live in Laura Ingalls Wilder times. There was something so wonderful and clean and romantic about having to wash your clothes with a scrub board, about sewing all your own clothing, about growing and/or killing anything you wanted to eat, about dealing with croup and pneumonia with no medicine or doctor. So, Anna Poe and I made a pact that when we were older and had our own homes we were so totally going to live as if we were pioneer women. Covered wagons, foot petal sewing machines, churns, the works.

And I would just like to stop here and point out that Anna is so not holding up her end of the deal. And I so am.

Then we grew up and had babies and pretended we had never even heard of Laura Ingalls Wilder. We're such weanies.

All of this to say that from about 4pm to 10 pm last night we didn't have electricity. It blew. It's hard, this roughing it. We had to go out to eat for supper. The thought!  We even had to watch movies on our lap top, for crying out loud. And it only had 39% battery left so we were really starting to sweat. And my babies were sick and there was no doctor here. Oh, but there was Amoxicillan.


I'll shut up now.

That'll show you!

Claire: "Elaina! I am not going to be your best friend tomorrow! Humph!"

This is Claire

This is Claire happy and content.

This is Claire being silly.

This is Claire building a castle.

This is Claire building a castle with Eily looking on very interested.

This is Claire almost through building her castle.

This is Claire with her finished castle.

This is Eily knocking down Claire's castle.

This is Claire telling off Eily.

This is Claire pouting.

This is Claire still whining.

This is Claire showing us her "hmpph" face.

This is Eily happy that Claire has abandonded the blocks in her huffiness.

This is Claire showing just how upset she is at Eily.

This is Claire.

Spring in January?

Today is gorgeous!! I have all the windows open and the air is turned off and the skies are blue and the grass is green... you get the point.


We left the house at 10 this morning and got home at 1:30pm. In all that time we ran one errand. We went to the dentist to get Claire's cavity removed. The laughing gas made her CRANKY and she fell asleep on the way home. Right now she and Eily are napping and I am reminded how much I love Claire napping when Eily is napping. Of course, when bedtime rolls around I will be reminded why I hate Claire napping while Eily is napping.


Back to cleaning!

We've been busy

We have already done a lot this month.

I've made decorations for Jason's stocking,

(This one's a reindeer.)

(This one is an artist's pallete.)

we've played with and petted Bella,

we've made some silly faces,

we've gone to ballgames,

and we've made food for our cousin that just had a baby girl.

So far, it's been a pretty great month.

I've been tagged

3 songs that are me.

#1 In My Arms

Make an on-line slideshow at www.OneTrueMedia.com

#2 All I Do Is Dream Of You




#3 Que Sera Sera  Ok. So this one is only to make Tommy laugh.

Claire's current favorite movie:

The Road To Bali

Snore

This blog has taken a back seat to the rest of my duties the past month or so. It needed to because there were too many other things that desperately needed attention. And, because we never sleep anymore. Our children slept through the night on January 7th. And that is it. I think it was their anniversary present to us and now that our anniversary is past they no longer feel the need to let us sleep. I know that this season will pass just like all the other trying times have passed but man, oh man, do I wish that the passing would hurry up and get here. Last night, Jason got two hours of sleep. Just two hours. I think I got around four or five hours which is pretty good these days. We pretty much just get through the day as best we can and cross our fingers that this night will be the night.


Our house still hasn't sold. :(

My living room carpets are clean thanks to mom and they look amazingly better. So pretty.

Jason shaved off his facial hair for our anniversary and he's growing it back now. I think he looks good with the hair but my favorite look is when he is clean-shaven. I guess I'll have to wait another year to see that face again.

I have new tights. They're cool.

I think Eily might be getting her second set of molars. She is a dripping faucet all the time now.

Claire is turing into a kid. Like, as in not a baby.

Elaina is allergic to something all the time.
She usually looks like this:















My awful haircut is growing out fast and it's actually fixable now.

What's going on with you?

Sounds I like:

My black heels clicking on the kitchen floor as someone little plays dress-up,

High-pitched giggling,

"Ok, I'm the mommy and you're the baby,"

"Hep,  Naina. Hep, Care,"

The springs in the couch breaking as 3 little girls are jumping,

Excited squeals as Daddy walks through the door,

"My mommy!"

It's been somewhat of a tough week but I think it can only get better. Or at the very least, stay the same. We haven't been getting much sleep around here these days and last night was the worst. Elaina had another night terror (not to be confused with a nightmare) which woke up Eily. Eily then stayed up all night long. At 6:30 this morning I went and got Jason up and asked him to take over. He let me sleep as long as I wanted and I got up at 11. It was marvelous! I'm really hoping for a what-used-to-be normal night tonight and we all sleep a good 9-12 hours. We need it. So very badly.
We had a death of a very close friend this week as well. He had been battling brain cancer and in the last three weeks he really went downhill fast. Yesterday was his funeral and I feel the sadness lingering on to today. I'm just in a cloud of yuckiness.

I'll perk up. Just be patient, please.

Only today (today only?) you can go here and get a free audio download of Laura Ingall Wilder's The Long Winter.

Sorry

I just don't have it in me right now.