What do you do all day?

The forever question to stay at home moms....."WHAT do you do all day?" or more appropriately some days "What did you do all day today?" Uttered either out loud by a very brave (or maybe just naive) husband when he wanders in from work in the evening, or just under his breath if he's learned! ; )

Thankfully I've been blessed with a very gracious husband who has not uttered these words in quite some time. Sure, there was some questioning in those first days-which is understandable-but I don't think I've heard them for years. Smart man.

After being ridiculously sick for a week (strep sucks), and not doing much of anything for a few days, the house was certainly showing how I felt. You know how it goes...laundry piles up, the dishes don't get washed, floors aren't vacuumed, all that good stuff. Thankfully I have older children who did help out with some of it, but they while they are helpful, they can't exactly keep with the full daily grind of 8 people. And lest you think I am discounting my dear husband, he was wonderful as well, and was kind enough to make sure I was taken care of and do what he could around the house when he wasn't at work or church.

Well, thankfully I am feeling human again now! What a difference it makes! So I am finally feeling back up to par, and the lovely nesting instinct is peeking in occasionally. I'm waiting for it to hit me full on so I can REALLY be productive!

So to answer the question "what did you do today?", here it is: Made two crib sheets (pink, of course!), made a little dress and bloomers for unnamed baby girl (not all pink-lol), started her blessing gown, cut fabric for duvets for Jacob and Lincoln for when they make the move downstairs. Vacuumed three times (and I'm sure it'll be more), cleaned the bathroom. REALLY cleaned. like you could eat in there and not worry about it! lol And cleaned out all the cupboards and drawers as well. Exercised this morning (it's nice to feel good enough again-believe it or not I missed it last week!), cleaned out the office, did 3 loads of laundry so far, 2 of dishes, and drum roll please....cleaned out the storage room! Hallelujah! (unless you've seen it over the past two weeks, you just don't understand that) Oh, and I baked muffins, some of them from scratch! Not to mention I finally blogged again. : ) Ok, so truthfully the sewing was yesterday, but hey, sometimes the days all blend together!

And now, the living room awaits. I can't believe how dusty it gets out here. oh well, at least it isn't quite as bad as it was two years ago. Next week-the garage and the basement, and with any luck, the storage tubs and the seasonal clothing changeout. Can I tell you how much I love freecycle and the number of trips to the DI it has saved me?? Sometimes it just feels so good to cleanout.....thank goodness I have a baby every year and a half or so and nest for a few months of each pregnancy! ; )

All sorts of fun new things

One of the sweet joys of parenthood is watching your kids hit new milestones. There is nothing quite so fun as watching your baby learn to roll over, crawl, take those first shaky steps....then all of the fun talking things, words, phrases, jokes...so fun.
Like Lincoln's new words yesterday. "Cheese" and "poop". Nice. Add to it the fact that a 19mo old saying "poop" over and over is nothing short of hilarious to the older siblings, and he's really learning that one well. Then their are the few that are bittersweet...watching your child learn to ride a bike, then take off and not look back, learning to read and wanting to do their own reading instead of listening to your bedtime stories, you parents know how it goes. And those who don't yet, will all too soon.

Where is this going? good question. The kids are always picking up something new, even if it isn't something exciting. It seems like there are some weeks when they go through sudden spurts of getting older and more independent. Where one day your "baby" doesn't look so much like a baby anymore, and suddenly acts like a rambunctious little boy. Where your 5yr old decides that he wants to go outside and ride his bike with the big kids, not with mom watching. I'm sure it's due to the fact that soon an actual baby will be here, but Lincoln just seems so much older lately. Suddenly he wants to be doing his own thing his own way. And he'd much rather be one of the big kids 90% of the time.

In his efforts to keep up, one of the tricks he is trying to master is walking up and down the stairs. He scares me on the stairs anyway, just because he is way too confident in himself! He took a nice tumble down a friends stairs a few months ago, but thankfully theirs were carpeted, padded, and there is carpet at the bottom. The fact that ours are unfinished and there is concrete at the bottom is a bit unnerving to me. Well, apparently he is tougher than I thought. He was following instructions (that had been yelled at him multiple times from me at the bottom of the stairs) and coming down the stairs backwards on his tummy. phew. Disaster averted....or so I thought. Apparently as soon as I was out of sight, he turned around. I my eagerness to get back to what I was doing, I was buried in the storage room when I heard the infamous Thud, thud, bonk, crash, gasp, shriek, THUD. Then silence before the cry. *sigh* I hate that silence. Since I am not exactly the picture of coordination at this point, it took me a few seconds to hurdle my way out of the storage room and get to him. Thankfully he looked MUCH better than I expected, and the fact that he was crying was obviously a sign that he was breathing. No blood, no broken bones, just a big long tumble down some hard steps with one heck of a landing. The head's a bit purple and red, but it matches nicely where he biffed it the other day and got a nice bonk and a scratch.

(good times with stairs in the neighborhood lately....all at my house.....is this a sign?)

And of course, after being cuddled for just a minute or so, and settling down, he wanted to go play with the boys. At least I got that cuddle in there before he went back to being rambunctious again.

Gonna have to see this one

I happened to catch this little snippet on a Ben Stein movie that is new. Ben Stein cracks me up, so when I saw the tag line, I decided to read the article. Definitely worth 3 minutes to read, it sounds like the movie is worth the time too! (links never work for me so you'll probably have to copy and paste)

http://news.yahoo.com/s/uc/20080418/cm_uc_crbbox/op_235852;_ylt=AiHFT4Za6lFRgiFy0KQ0ruYE1vAI

And after you see this one, go find The Great Global Warming Swindle. (although you should see An Inconvenient Truth first. I know, I know, but trust me on this one...it will make sense if you actually do it)

And while we're on it...there's a great book sitting on my shelf if you need a good read too! : ) I adore the fact that people are willing to make these things now! What a refreshing little piece of change!

Just killing time....

While Aaron is gone for a well-deserved guy's night out, I'm just hanging out playing on line taking a break from my knitting. Yes, I said taking a break from knitting! lol apparently I am aging faster than I realized! ; ) Besides, typing keeps my hands busy and thus away from eating the ginormous bag of M&M's that my sweet husband brought me today....along with a dozen roses and the movie Enchanted. (b/c he is enchanted with me. *awwwwww* I know-are we too corny for words or what?!)

So there you go...the kitchen is beautified with flowers, the kids were entertained with a movie (and are now sleeping peacefully!), Aaron is getting a chance to just go play w/out babysitting young men, discussing church things, having to get back to work or having a curfew (ha!), and the wife is placated with chocolate and working on little projects.

It doesn't get much better than this, does it?

Oh wait! It does! I get a really long foot massage tonight when he gets back! : )

This is the life!

And now, back to scouring the online world for names.....

What Good Fortune!

I can't believe it. Really. Not often does fortune smile upon us in an overwhelming way. Imagine twice in one day! Lucky, lucky me! Not only am I being offered 30% of 25 million dollars for helping transfer it for Lt. Doug McGivens with the US Military, due to be postedfrom Denmark to Venezuela any time from now, but I am also being offered 20% of 5 million dollars for helping Mr. David Olds from Thailand invest his money here since he can't there due to Thai regulations. (it's his late father's fortune just in case you were wondering)

Don't you wish you were as lucky as I am? ;)

Seriously-HOW do these things end up in my in box??

Having too much fun!

Well, despite the stomach flu garbage that is. Blech. Thankfully that has passed on it's way (and had better not rear it's ugly head again!). It should just be one of those natural laws that you aren't allowed to get the stomach flu when you are pregnant. Especially once you are big enough that your muscles are stretching out.

Anyway, back to the point. I have decided to launch full on into girly things for this little nameless child residing in my belly. (seriously-suggestions welcome-we're still clueless and Seven is just mean with out last name!) Maybe it was spurred by my dream last night that I actually gave birth to a boy instead of a girl! Whatever it is, I spent the afternoon today putting together some fun little accessories for this little female addition. Thanks to some inspiration from a couple of very talented individuals, and the fact that I am too cheap to buy everything cute that was at the baby expo, I decided to be girly. I can't wait to get started on the bracelets!

And yes-that is Lincoln in the third picture. I needed a head to give me an idea-my girls were too big, my little stuffed prop was too little, and I was looking awful enough that I didn't dare venture down the street to use our cute little toddler neighbor as a model! ( I need to come and borrow Olivia to get some pics of some of these though....if she's up for it!) The good news is that he REALLY didn't like having anything on his head! (phew!)

I miss my chickens

Ok-technically they weren't *mine*, they were given to the kids, but dang it! I miss them!

3yrs ago for Easter my dad decided to be really funny and give the kids chicks. He bought ten figuring that at least a couple would die, especially with all of our kids! Wouldn't you know it, all 10 lived! Only one turned out to be a rooster, and he was relocated as soon as he found his lungs. : ) Funny that our neighbor across the street started hearing him crow a couple of days before we did. Oops! They really were fun to have around, not to mention a great learning experience for the kids (and Aaron and myself as well). I did more reading about chickens in one month than I ever thought I would do in my whole life!

Unfortunately when we moved out here, the chickens couldn't join us. Thankfully we have some wonderful cousins who are also chicken crazy, so they let our chickens go and live with theirs. As far as I know, as least some of them are still around! lol Minus the snotty chickens that started causing problems. Really, what is this world coming to when the chickens cause problems! ; ) But hey, the benefit there is that even as they meet their demise, they're still useful! (my sister will dry heave at that statement, if not actually throw up)

I hooked up to another blog through a friend today, and wouldn't you know it...pictures of chickens! Barred rock hens too...which were my favorite, despite the fact that I never got my little barred rock banty!

After grocery shopping yesterday (gasp! shock and dismay at the rapidly rising prices!!!), I REALLY missed them. It used to cost around $10/month to feed our 9 hens, and they'd usually each lay one egg a day. So, you figure 9 x 30...270....270/12....22 1/2 dozen eggs a month. For less than $2 more than I paid last night for 5 dozen eggs! Really. If I had the option (drawback to HOA, which, what do they do again???), I would have driven my little self to IFA out in good old Cedar Fort this very morning and bought me some chicks. I'm sure it costs more than that for feed now, and we'd have to figure in the cost of building a coop and all that good stuff, but I really do miss them. And not just for the eggs. Believe it or not, they really do make great pets!

And despite what Aaron says-he loved those birds, especially miss Squirly! : )



Hmmm.....maybe if I bribe Heidi with some chicken feed, she'll trade me for some fresh eggs??