Whining? Watch out, I'll put you to work!

Saturday mornings growing up I have memories of watching cartoons and staying in our pj's longer than normal. I want that for my kids, I don't mind if they stay in their pj's longer on Saturday mornings. It's the only day we have like that, it's what the day should be for, relaxing. N made brunch and all I heard was whining. We had to change our afternoon plans due to church. Four is singing at preschool tomorrow morning. We have to be there by 9 am. There won't be time to get back to town for mass. Instead of skipping, I wanted to go tonight at 4:30. That meant holding our play date off until after mass. I really didn't want to miss. We haven't been in town for so long, this is our first weekend back. When I reported the change in plans to the group, whine, whine, whine. My entire schedule is based around them and their needs. It is not fair for me to listen to such whining. I was fed up and put them to work. After breakfast, Four and Six cleared the table. Seven went outside and cleaned up a few things on the front porch. I gave everyone a Clorox wipe and a trash can. They picked all the junk out of the car and truck, wiped it down and took turns using the shop vac to clean it out. Success! N took them for a walk to the auto parts store and our day was looking up. When they came inside, I had them clean out the hall closet. It is full of their things, hats, mittens, boots, coats, sweatshirts, etc. Everyone has a shelf, everyone has a place for their things. Throughout the week, it turns to chaos. They are good workers. It all took about an hour or so. They were off to play.
During our trip, we had a great chef salad from Perkins in the UP. I've been thinking of that salad for awhile. I made one for N to take to work and myself. I'll feed them in a little while, closer to church time.
After mass we will head to Ivy's for lasagna dinner. I made a salad for that and plan to pick up some garlic bread. We will have a great day! I am determined.

Deals today, I'm on a roll

I had Famous Footwear coupons burning a hole in my pocket. They were good only after the first of the year. We went looking for Four, but had no luck. Instead, N and I got each a new pair of tennis shoes for $56! I was so excited for our good luck. Mine normally cost $109. I've never paid that much, but have spent anywhere from $70-100 on them.
Later I found a pair for Four at Target for $8. I plan to get her a good pair of tennis shoes with my next coupon. I thought I was even more on top of things when the pharmacy called and didn't have my prescription, they couldn't get it until Monday. The plan was to call it in at a different store, one I had a coupon for a $10 prescription transfer! My joy was short lived as I received another phone call saying the grocery store didn't have the item either. To Target we went.
I picked up the kids, but brought home slightly crabby boys. I thought we'd hit the grocery store for a treat tonight, but after too much hassle leaving the playground, we came straight home. Oh well. It will be nice to just be home tonight. No big plans for the morning. Play date in the afternoon and a lasagna supper with friends. Ivy's boys are excited for us to come over. We haven't been able to play with them since October, or maybe it was even September. Good times. Nice weekend, hope the weather stays so nice. I'm ready to be done with winter.

Plateau project done!

We turned in Seven's land form project this morning. Boy, did those kids do a great job on their land forms! Some were really amazing. Seven was proud.
Much to look forward to this weekend. Hopefully finish getting my house in order today. We have a play date tomorrow when N is at work. Church on Sunday and a birthday party at the gymnastics place in the afternoon. Should be a nice weekend.
It's so nice outside, hard to believe it could switch to winter any day. Feels like spring is right around the corner. I'll add a plateau picture soon!

Too many miles in between

When things are going well, it's easy to get caught into your own life and focus on the things in front of you. When things take a turn for the worse, it all comes into perspective quickly.
It's then that I am once again, frustrated with all the miles in between me and my family. It seems unfair and I feel helpless. It is especially difficult with the most recent trip just being this past week. Bad weather, bad roads and stressful situations. Not to mention the cost of it all being in the back of your mind. Gas, lodging and food, they all add up.
I am not at liberty to specify what the situation is that is bothering me, just know it needs prayer from anyone who has a prayer to offer. Breaks my heart to be stuck here and not there supporting my family.

Back to normal? I hope so.

This morning was a little rough. Boys not awake by 7:45am. They are usually up before me and we have very little issues. Too many late nights on vacation have thrown us WAY off our schedule. Everyone made it out the door in time, fed, clean and with all the proper equipment necessary for the day. We took Four to preschool then headed to Wally world for a few things. Not sure what happened to me, but I nearly passed out in the dairy section. I have no idea what it was, besides maybe not enough water that morning. I ate breakfast and had some juice, but no water. I found myself feeling dizzy. It was a strange feeling, not normal. N brought me a little bottle of OJ since it was close. I sat for a few minutes and felt better. We headed home right after that. I wish I could say I took it easy the rest of the day, but after the 20 minute car ride, I was much better. There was so much laundry all over and the living room a disaster from our unpacking of the truck, I worked on the house the rest of the afternoon.
Four came home from preschool as happy as could be. We all went to pick up the boys, washed the car, stopped at the bank, and picked up our missing ingredients for tacos. A nice meal together! Seven has a land form project due on Friday. We did not get to work on it before our trip and forgot about it last night. Thankfully, tonight we remembered and got it started. Seven and I created the platform and base. We used card board and the box our Christmas letter came in from Staples. We also used a wrapping paper roll, cut into smaller pieces. With balled up newspaper to fill the tops of the rolls and egg cartons, the formation looks like a plateau (I hope). N and Seven spray painted the top green and the rest a rust color. Seven and I then made trees out of cinnamon sticks and green ribbon. I didn't want to be the one doing all of this, after all, it is his project. I showed him how to cut the ribbon and wrap the pipe cleaners around the ribbon. He did pretty well. I showed him how to wrap them around the cinnamon sticks too. We can glue it all on tomorrow once the paint has dried. I think it turned out pretty great. I will post a picture once we have the finished product.
Kids are still awake, two in their beds. Six was just in here saying he "had a bad dream." He had just been put to bed. Then he tells me he "had a bad day dream." Oh boy. The excuses they come up with. Hope we are closer to normal tomorrow.

Favorite quote from our journey

In the Duluth McDonald's parking lot "Dude, that's are really old snowmobile." Thanks to that teen who stopped to comment on our new addition. Gave us a chuckle after the first leg of our journey.

Oh what fun it is to ride 16 hours in our truck

This was probably the most trying trip to date. We ventured out on New Years morning, all eager to get to the pool at the hotel. By the time we were to Bemidji (only 2 hrs away), we were guessing numbers and colors the other was thinking of. It was going to be a long ride. Duluth McDonald's had a play area, bonus! It also came with a dad and teenagers using the F word freely the first 5 minutes I sat down.
The roads weren't too bad, but we did drive pretty slow to Duluth. Over the bridge and into Wisconsin we go! Thanks go Grandpa J, kids watched many, many episodes of Top Cat, a cartoon from the 80's. Six showed the most interest, but Four didn't want to turn it off later in the day. We arrived to our hotel around the 8 o'clock hour. Roads were bad, worse than earlier. Visibility not good and lots of snow. We were happy to arrive and hopeful for better weather the next day.
Kids loved the pool and N ran to get us some Perkins! It was a nice night, but the kids were up until 11pm. They never stay up that late, not even during the summer.
We all slept until 8 and had breakfast downstairs. N took them swimming, I organized our stuff and we left by 9:30 am. We weren't really in a hurry because of the weather. We hoped it would clear up. We thought the visibility was bad the night before, it was far worse. We traveled 10 hours at 45 miles an hour for most of the day. In Musining, we played bumper cars with an older man and his truck. We were turning right on a round about and the ice took us right into the back of his truck. We were lucky, our only damage was our headlight. No one was hurt. We were barely moving when we turned. We traveled the rest of the way with one headlight.
Our journey continued with a slow pace. There was much relief when we made it to the bridge. Things were better the last 3 hours, some snow and low visibility, but much improved from earlier. What a day. It was great to finally arrive home. No snow here, just what's stuck to the back of our truck. It's like Christmas all over again for the kids, unpacking their new gifts. School tomorrow, but I think they'll go in late. Six took a nap at 5 o'clock. Really don't see an early bedtime happening, especially since it's already past their bedtime.