Catching Up... It's Been a Bit Busy and Not Getting Any Better

So while I was away we have had a few extremely busy days. A week ago we had the one year check on the house for the builder to fix things that have settled during the year. Good news! They are getting fixed! Last Wednesday, Thursday and Friday we had house showings. Last Saturday we had 3 house showings (even though there was an open house scheduled). Very early Sunday morning I was awakened by a little face shoved into my face explaining how he had "barfed in the bed". Yea, nice. D never woke so I took care of the bed while M changed jammies. He got up a couple other times so there was little to no sleep the rest of the night as well as no church Sunday as we sorted out M's health and how to handle the day. Of course you know that had to be the day of G's class at church followed by 2 hours out of the house for open house. Crazy OCD woman--that would be me--- cleaned the house and made it shine while D worked his way through disgusting bedding that had to be washed. My parents took pity on us and babysat sick M and E while we took G to church followed by 2 hours hanging out contaminating their house. Sorry Mom and Dad! Sunday we return home at 4:30 to mark all the things that need to be fixed by drywallers (one year check, remember) and our realtor calls. An offer is in on the house! That worked itself out in about 15 minutes, but the excitement didn't wear off for a while. Early Monday morning I can't sleep with wheels spinning in my head about all the things we have to get lined up. I give up around 5 and just get up. M home from school as he regains strength from his bout with the virus. About Monday lunchtime I knew things weren't right with me. By 4 things are so wrong that I text D to come home ( only the 3rd time in our history of kids so he knows this is not crying wolf). Monday evening I don't remember well and don't want to.....and don't have to because G begins his fight with the plague early Tuesday morning. Seems Ok except I have no energy and we have to out of the house at 8:30 for home inspection by the buyers. Thanks again parents for providing the contaminated shelter during our 3 hours of need. D stays home to help and we make it through Tuesday. At this point you should be trying to guess which human domino falls next to the plague. If your guess is the child who is always in someone else's business you are wrong (still hasn't fallen victim as of Wed. pm). The helpful hubby who did disgusting laundry and helped the rest of us in our time of need goes down for the count. Wednesday is a day of D recovering on the couch with drywallers, general repair people, and moving van estimators running around. Also the kids only have a half day of school; not a very peaceful place to recover. So that is where I have been and what I have been doing. Heading to Alabama to look for housing over the weekend and the parents are taking the kids for a great big grandma and grandpa slumber party at their house. And so the seemingly never-ending cycle of craziness continues. The only advice I can give after living through this is WASHYOURHANDS! WASHYOURHANDS! WASHYOURHANDS! WASHYOURHANDS! love and hugs and don't expect an update too soon. Life keeps getting in the way. B

DC Weekend!

 We finally made it to DC for a couple of days to take in the sights and see some wonders at museums.  I will recommend that if you would like to do this choose a weekend when it is COLD so that the other tourists are kept away and you have the place to yourselves (OK, that is an exaggeration, but only slight.  The crowds were at a minimum and we didn't wait in line for anything.)   Drive up to DC went smoothly.  Checked into hotel early and mapped out our route for the day.   Smithsonian Air and Space Museum was up first.  Various pics of boys with polar ski plane, inside Skylab, looking at rockets,  G with the model of the original Wright Brothers plane, and M with the Amelia Earhart exhibit.   The boys loved it.  D and I compared it to the Boeing Museum of Flight and felt it came up a little short.

  

Since Saturday was our warm day -- a balmy 40 degrees-- we went for a walk to see the Washington DC highlights.   Capitol building,  White House, and a terrific  shot of the Washington Monument at sunset.

  

Saturday we finished up our whirlwind walking tour and headed back to the hotel for a little relaxing, pool time, and pizza.

Sunday began with the breakfast buffet at the hotel and a debate about whether we should try to move the car closer to the National Mall for the day or leave it at the hotel.  Moving it closer finally won out though we weren't sure how close we could get as parking is usually a beast on the Mall.  It turns out that if you arrive at the Smithsonian Museum of Natural History at 9:30 on a Sunday morning when it is 25 degrees out, parking is not an issue at all; you have the pick of front and center parking places right across the street.  Natural History was a hit with everyone.  Who doesn't love a life size African elephant, life size right whale, and lots of bones.  G held bugs, E was excited about everything ( a relief since he wasn't too hot on going to this museum), and M was totally taken with the mummies, bones and taxidermied animals.  Please note this T-Rex is one of the stars of Night at the Museum: Battle for the Smithsonian.

Everyone was tiring out more quickly on Sunday so we squeezed in one item after lunch that was an experiment to see how the kids would handle it.  We headed to the National Art Gallery.  A place where loud, wrestling, whining boys are frowned upon.  The boys surprised me by walking quietly and actually looking at the paintings.  The older two even seemed to like them and talked about which ones they had seen pictures of before.  Luckily, there were couches placed in some galleries for quiet contemplation of masterworks.

Most of the time with parenting you are in the trenches passing out snacks, handing down punishments,  scheduling, helping with projects, keeping things running and once in a while you step back and look and can see that the family is headed in the right direction.  This weekend was ripe for whining with the cold and huge amount of walking), but all three kids kept it together and found something to like about nearly everything we did or saw.  This was one of the first little trips we have taken that was pleasant to be with all the boys and didn't just feel like my "work" had followed me to a different location.  I hope that more and more vacations will feel like this.

love and hugs, B

Confirmation of What You Already Knew About Me....

You already knew that I had organizational issues and I am quite lazy from this post.  Now I will reveal to you a new extreme to my lazy ways and add to it my rampant cheapness.  

One week I broke down in a fit of lazy and bought the already made and frozen PB&J sandwiches from the store.  And the boys liked them.  But I realized that they are not only are they expensive ($4.50 for a box of 4) but also tiny with their little crusts cut off--- G could eat the whole box of 4 for an appetizer.   So I figured that I could take a whole loaf of bread, PB&J from home and make my own.   I set out to do this yesterday.  A whole loaf of bread. 

Spread all bread with a thin layer of PB-- don't want the jelly leaking through as it thaws.  

Sandwich them and cut if desired.   At this point you could cut off the crusts but I don't.  Eventually a boy will be hungry enough to eat anything and will eat the crusts.  Leaving them on gives them the option and I am lazy.

Wrap in plastic and freeze.   If you have someone who doesn't like a certain flavor of jelly you will want to mark them somehow.    Not rocket science, but I don't know why I didn't think of this earlier.  I made 10 sandwiches for about $4.  That is 6 or 7 lunches worth-- remember G, huge eater right now.

So where does the lazy part come in?   Well, I still have the old lunchbox system set up where I fill items once a week and they are set to make lunches

 so this gives them one more option while extending the number of days I can cover after I refill all their supplies.   They make lunches until there are no items left in the supply then I restock.   Maybe this is more than you need to know about me.  Perhaps I should have left you with your Martha-esque delusions.

love and hugs, B

Nothing New

Nothing new to report from here. If I try to write anything it will simply be complaining about keeping the house neat enough to show and stuff so I will leave today without writing a real post. I am beginning a new quilt for our bed and we have a secret adventure planned for the weekend. Hope to post about these things soon. love and hugs, B

Showing Your Home 101....for the OCD

With the house on the market I am having flashbacks to the last time I lived through showings--- six months of showings. Usually our house is pretty neat as each day begins. The kids know how to make their beds and that clothes should be put away out of sight. They have gotten used to leaving a few toys out in their rooms so they did have to change that habit. In general our house needs to begin each day looking as if we don't live here. D is having some difficulty with the concept; he has always left soon after a house went up for sale to begin a new job. Slowly he is catching on to the fact his slippers won't be on the bathroom floor where he left them, his water cup will be whisked into the dishwasher instead of being saved for later, and his wife is a near constant spastic nag. My thought is that any showing could be THE showing. A showing can be called in at any time and if I am out and about running errands I don't want to have to abandon a task to run home and clean up. The clean up/prep for a showing is easier to do if it is only a quick dust mop, turn on the lights, and wipe down the counters. The traffic for home showings has been good. What is annoying but expected is (since there is new construction in our neighborhood) some people are looking at our floor plan and finishes to gather ideas for their own home building effort. Most showings are quick at 15 - 20 minutes. A really good showing is about 30 and gets our hopes up. Last evening's showing lasted an hour and it seems from their realtor feedback the house is outside their price range. So why did they spend an hour looking? Oh well. I think what gets to me about selling a house is that it is completely out of my control. I can't force someone to buy the house....can I? love and hugs, B