Wonderful Christmas here.

and I hope you had one too,

My kids made out like bandits, lots of toys, very few that take batteries or make noise, so a plus for me, a few movies too! That is something we will all enjoy.

I got 4 different books, 3 from my kids and a knitting book (EZ’s Knitting Workshop) from my mom, do they know me or what? Hubster got me a bath set and a car charger for my netbook, which I had specifically asked for. I am pleased, nothing huge (but I got a new computer a few months ago, and it was agreed that i would be my big Christmas present)

We had  plenty of family here, my mom and uncle were here for Christmas morning, and opening presents, and then my in-laws came for dinner. I fixed Prime rib and a whole spread, it was really great.

I hope you had a wonderful Christmas too.

Getting ready for Christmas.

I have all the shopping done, and it would remain that way if only Hubster would stop dreaming up things to give the kids… *sigh* men. I have the tree up, and have started wrapping things.. All of my Holiday knitting is done, and I have been working on some relaxing things, I finished my Lady Sweater, I need to take pictures of it still but I love it, it turned out great. I am working on yet another shawl too…

I am also hunting down things that I need to pack into the trailer for a trip to No. Cal for New Years. It is much colder there than here, so I am digging out winter coats and sweaters and such. We haven’t worn these things since we moved here 2 years ago, and can’t buy things for truly cold weather here, so the kids will probably get a bunch of new stuff once we are up there  (we have coats, but the kids have few warm clothes.)

I am also working on putting together our Christmas Dinner menu so that I can get that shopping done and all the prep for that taken care of.

Friday is the last day of school here, until Jan 11th, so the kids will spend the next 3 weeks driving me totally out of my mind.. We will be able to take some of their Christmas presents with us on the trip but definitely not all of them. It will still help with the boredom of a long car trip.

Great Weekend.

We took our travel trailer on it’s first trip. We hauled it to Phoenix for my uncle’s graduation from college,  and we stayed in an RV park instead of a motel. There were a lot of things I totally loved about the experience.

Enough beds for everyone without having to rent a second space/room. With 3 kids often end up with at least one child who doesn’t want to sleep with the others, and with the girls getting older, even more so. Plus, my mom made the trip as well, and 3 adults plus 3 kids in one room just doesn’t work so well, so  that is another room and more money. The trailer will sleep 9-10 if we push it. but the 6 of us was very comfortable. I wouldn’t want to do it long term, but for a few days or even a week or two as we travel, it would be good.

No hauling of luggage. Yes, I had to pack the trailer before we left and unpack it when we got home, but there was no hauling of luggage in and out of motel rooms. For a single destination trip this isn’t so bad, but if you are on a long trip where you stop for one night on the way, get back in the vehicle and go more, then stop for another night, it gets tedious, especially with 3 kids.

Food and dishes. Let me state first off that I am not particularly fond of restaurant breakfasts, plus, eating every meal out gets old fast, and very expensive. I picked up cereal before we left, and baked a batch of oatmeal cookies, and we had breakfasts as each person was up and moving around and ready for it. On my own dishes, which yes, I did have to wash but still, better than drive through rubber eggs.

Bedding and beds. I don’t know about anyone else, but I don’t sleep all that great in a motel with unfamiliar beds, and strange bedding. In the trailer, I was able to have my own pillow, again without hauling it in and out of a motel room, I knew when the sheets had been washed last, and with what detergent. And it is my bed,   in time I will get used to it, and it will be more familiar to me.

Rooms. This was one of the best parts. Our trailer is a Bunkhouse model , it has a section that is bunk beds, then a door that closes that room off from the main living space. This was wonderful for putting the kids to bed and then playing games and talking.

Price. We did some shopping, and found an RV lot in a nice area  of town, with amenities that we wanted (pool, etc)  and for two nights we paid less than what one night in a  motel would have cost, for a single room, much less the two rooms that the 6 of us would have required.

 

I did discover several things that I had missed in packing up the trailer, I made a list and things will be making their way out there to fill the list. Yes, there is room for improvement, but it was still a far better experience than staying in a motel. 

Teh Happy…

It eludes me…

I think a big part of it is not enough sleep last night. Hubster got home from his weekend drill around 9:30, and after we talked for a few minutes, he settled on the couch and started watching his recorded NASCAR race (BORRRRIIINNG… what is entertaining about a bunch of men driving in circles for hours continues to baffle me.) So I disappeared into the bedroom to work on the story  I have been writing. I worked for about an hour and at 11:00 I let him know I was going to sleep, and turned out the light, knowing that sleep would be slow to come since I was working out plot details, but confident it wouldn’t take too long.

I was just drifting off to sleep (after only having popped back up once to jot some notes on the story) when I heard a child cry. *sigh* I got up and dealt with the cold, wet child, and his bed. and by the time I made it back to bed it was a quarter to midnight.

I start to fall asleep again… and again, just as I am –><- this close to being asleep, more noise… this time it is the herd of elephants that is my husband. Crash banging into the room, using the restroom, and getting into bed. I feign sleep, cause I really don’t want to be bothered, but while he is in the bathroom, I sneak a peek at the clock… 0:18, for those of you who don’t have their bedroom clock set on military time (it is a big help when setting the alarm, no more setting it for pm instead of am) that is 12:18. The Elephant climbs in bed, shuffle, wiggle, cough, squirm, cough, wiggle.  (I feel the need to state here that I don’t necessarily need quiet to go to sleep, but I do, however, need still, this was my biggest problem in adjusting to sleeping with another person in the bed, every little wiggle wakes me up again, at least until I reach a sound sleep.) at one point he got up, and I could hear him hunting for his glasses, then 37 seconds later he was back, climbing back in bed.  He did finally settle down and let me go to sleep, but it was after 1 by then.

Needless to say, being a good mommy and going to bed on time, knowing you have to get up at 6am, doesn’t always do what it is supposed to.

some recent realizations…

1. Putting kids to work yields iffy results.
2. I own a LOT of blankets.
3. Putting 2 kids on the same job is asking for fights and a bigger mess than you started with.
4. Windows Live Sync is a wonderful thing. Especially if you have more than one computer you use regularly.
5. Weekends, when all 3 kids are home during the day, mom gets no more than 37 seconds of quiet at a time, and absolutely no time to concentrate on anything.
6. A beard trimmer, with guides, will double as a set of clippers for giving a small boy a haircut.
7. If you say you will do something “over the weekend” this means that the kids start nagging for it to be done as soon as they get home from school on Friday, and continue until the promised event is done or until they annoy you to the point that you cancel said event.
8. I need a new copy of Office ‘07
9. I still enjoy cooking…
10. Google docs Rawks for so many things.
11. Temperatures over 100 in mid October is obscene.
12. Well.. I enjoy cooking when it is not obscenely hot…
13. Men who think they know more than you on a given subject will not accept that you might have learned something they don’t know… no, this isn’t a new revelation, but I feel the need to remind myself periodically.
14. When PMS strikes, it is entirely possible that nothing will sound good to eat, except dark chocolate, and baby carrots. No, not together, that is nasty…. and no, I am not pregnant.

fall means real food…

You can always tell when the weather has cooled off to a livable level around here.. I actually start cooking real food again, and not just the “what can I make fast so I can get out of the hot kitchen” fare we have during the summer… I enjoy cooking, I like finding meals that my family likes, or loves, and I really don’t mind elaborate meals. In fact, cooking Thanksgiving and Christmas dinners are some of my favorite parts of the winter.

Pumpkins are being cooked and frozen for the winter meals, bread baked, pies and cookies have started making appearances… as well as longer cooking meals in the oven… Lasagna, enchiladas, etc. Things that just don’t turn out as well in the Crockpot.

I think I may have to pull out one of my turkeys soon, that sounds about perfect…

The sugar monster

has attacked…. I know I have recently bought sugar… my 9yo remembers having recently bought sugar… but there is no bag of sugar to be found anywhere. We haven’t eaten THAT much sugar, with the girls in school we only make things like muffins (today’s chosen, and had to be abandoned, breakfast) on the weekends, and pretty much the only other sugar eaten around here on a regular bases is in Hubster’s coffee… and HE doesn’t use that much sugar…

argh… so we will have to make a trip to the store today, so that we can have muffins tomorrow..

Another day, another dollar…

Well, I managed to get through August and stay inside my food budget (I am refusing to go to the store tomorrow, the only reason I will leave the house is to take the kids to school, I swear!) which is something I have been struggling with for sometime… why? because things got more expensive, and I was trying to feed us on the same amount it took 2 years ago. (no, the family hasn’t grown.. but how much my kids eat, and cost of food has.) I am excited… and already working on a list for next month… LOL

The girls go back to school tomorrow, with it being Monday and all… I love them being in school, I really do… But there is this wonderful, elusive thing, that I miss so much on school days… it is called Sleep. Hubster gets home at 11pm, and I usually stay up and wait for him, talk to him about his day, etc. and get to bed around midnight… And the alarm goes off at 6. IF I have slept well, I get a max of 6 hrs a night, however, my 3 yo often wakes in the night, needing some attention. I often wake 2-3 times a night for no reason that I can fathom… and then there is that whole getting to sleep issue… sometimes it is easy, sometimes it takes hours. At least on the weekends, if the kids are semi-quiet, I can sleep a little bit later.

The kids and I have no major appointments this week, which is good. Although my oldest hounds me every day “Did the library call yet?” she is waiting for a book on inter-library loan, and is a little bit impatient.

*sigh* Guess I better go put away the laundry before Hubster gets home…

Some days I wonder…

why I bother to get up in the morning.

First, let me state that it took me over two hours, yes HOURS of laying in the dark, listening to Hubster snore,  last night to be able to get to sleep. Part of it, I admit, was enjoying the feeling of having Hubster back in bed with me. Have I mentioned that I really missed him? And then there was that whole pesky, my brain won’t shut off problem.

So I finally drift off to sleep.. only to be awakened this morning (like most mornings these days) to kids fighting. Unlike most days, I ignored it and tried to go back to sleep. I was aware of Hubster getting up, telling the kids to zip it,  and I heard him on the phone, trying to straighten out business that I was unaware of while he was gone. I still pretended, and tried, to sleep.

Hey, school starts next week, and days of sleeping past 6am will be severely curtailed, I was just trying to enjoy it while it lasted….

Anyway, eventually Hubster comes in and starts trying to get me out of bed… Why? Because he wants coffee… Why can’t he make his own coffee you say? Because he’s to lazy, I mean, because mine tastes so much better. *roll eyes*

He eventually sics our 3 year old on me, sets him up on the bed with me, and quickly leaves the room. Said 3 year old proceeds to jump and bounce and tickle me until I get up.

So, I am up, and dressed, and make his coffee… I know I have to go get Hubster’s uniform first thing, so I head out to do that…. After I get back from that Hubster decides he needs gas in his car, and sends me out to get that.

Ok, I know some of you are asking why he can’t just get gas on the way to work? Well, we get gas at Sam’s Club, much cheaper than anywhere else, and it is in the opposite direction from his work, but well worth the trip out of our way for the savings. Yes, we actually save more than the cost of the trip to get it.S

So, Here it is less than 2 hours after I got up, and I have spent less than a quarter of it at home. Blah. At least it was coolish out side this morning (by coolish, I mean it was under 100, barely.)

The rest of the day hasn’t been too bad, just normal day stuff, feeding three house apes,  packing a lunch, searching for missing uniform components, searching for missing locker key, unloading and reloading the dishwasher, gathering up and sorting laundry, feeding three house apes, cleaning up the mess they have made today, maybe a little time for reading and knitting (Currently working on another pair of socks, this one out of Knit Picks Stroll Kettle Dye, in the Bordeaux color, they are working up nicely.)

As Hubster was getting ready to go to work, he was all dressed in his uniform, and bent over his desk, which sits directly in front of mine, checking something on his computer. Something about the uniform and the pose, and well, HIM, just made me go YUM, and I grabbed my camera and took a snapshot… No, I am not going to share it, because of the uniform, and what is visible on his uniform, it is just not a good idea. But trust me, it is a good picture, and is the highlight of my day, and probably several others.

Life goes on…..

It has been a day so far.

I have worked on sorting out items from a co-op I have co-hosted, still waiting on shipping supplies. but we got some of it sorted. The girls helped, I would sit with a box and my spreadsheet, and tell them how many of what item to bring me, and I would pack it into the boxes. We will finish a soon as shipping supplies get here, both boxes and customs forms, because some of the participants are overseas with military.

We got a movie in today’s mail, it is 2 Fast 2 Furious, which I have not yet seen, mostly because it doesn’t have Vin Diesil in it and what is the point if there is no Vin? But #4 came out on DVD, and Hubster is being stubborn about watching #4 without having seen #’s 2 and 3… *sigh* men.  I am sure that once he gets home we will have a marathon, not only of these movies, but of all the things I have recorded over the last 3 weeks. He will want to catch up.

I have battled the laundry monster. He was threatening to eat my house again. I am always shocked at how much laundry a family of 5 can produce. I have more in the washer but it will have to wait until after 7 to get dry.

I mixed up pizza crust, I talked the girls into pizza pockets for dinner. I will make small(ish) circles of dough, add the toppings each child wants, then fold them up and bake. Great  personalized pizza meals. This way, I can make mine with mushrooms and far less sauce than the rest of the family likes, I swear they want so much sauce your toppings slide off. So we put together 4 pockets… 1 for each kid and 1 for mommy…

I have cleaned up some of the scattered mess that three kids always creates, but I am sure there will be more later.

Maybe after my house apes are in bed I can catch some TV and maybe do some knitting. I am not holding my breath.