Lost and Not Found

I don't know if your children are like this, but why do kids always seems to lose the most expensive or most treasured toys yet keep every free kids meal toy they ever acquire?

We have boxes upon boxes of junk toys! You know the ones. You get them for free at any drive-through and if your kids see you throw them away, they cry. They don't really want to play with them, but proclaim that each one is their very favorite!

Now, my sweet Abby has one treasured baby doll that she calls "Tickle" because she likes to tickle her yarn hair as she falls asleep. She has kept this doll since she was about 3 (she is now 7). It has been misplaced before, but this time it has gone missing for about a week and we have turned the house upside down.

There is also the subject of a missing Nintendo DS that she just received for her birthday in November. Now, she is not quite as anxious as Mommy is to recover the DS, but Mommy knows how much the DS cost!

She of course has no idea where she left either one and has about a 3 minute attention span for looking for them. We even approached a higher power tonight and prayed that God would help us to think clearly and remember if we had seen them anywhere! Is that bad? I apologize for hogging His time on such a silly matter, but we are at our wits end!

My big question is, when we finally find the DS (it's got to be here somewhere), do I keep it away from her for awhile as a punishment to teach her to be more responsible? What kind of rules can I set up to help her be more responsible with her more expensive toys? We try to teach her to take care of all of her toys, but look where that's gotten us! Help, please!

Guess What I've Been Doing

You're probably remembering how sweet my hubby is and thinking that he took me on some romantic getaway for the past 3 days, right? That would certainly explain my absence, but what I was doing was nowhere near that sweet!

You may recall the 2nd round of illnesses that came through our house last week and left my sweet Abby with strep throat on Monday. Do you remember my quote? "At least it's not the flu!" Why don't we ever learn to not say things like that!!!!! My dear Abby kept coughing Wednesday and Thursday and we couldn't figure out why. By Friday when she woke up with a fever of 103 degrees, we were back off to the doctor who said she had .... THE FLU! How about that?

After spending $100 on medication for the whole family, we have spent the weekend pretty much holed up in the house. Hubby and I have traded off taking excursions out!

Here's the really bad part. I really need this child to get well and back to school so I can clean this house (and we all know how much I hate to clean!) because Bunko is going to be at my house on Thursday. BTW the theme is going to be a pajama party and the group was very excited about the vote. I will post pictures afterwards!

Just Another Busy Day

I apologize for not having my usual Thankful Thursday post. It's not that I'm not thankful today. It's just that I'm so incredibly busy I don't have time to do it justice!

With Abby at home 2 days this week plus coming home early yesterday (that's a whole other long story) I haven't had any time to do any of the things I desperately need to do this week ... like color my hair! So that is what I am doing right now. The color is in and I will post a photo of the new me later. I have been holding on to my blonde hair for far too long and today I am letting it go!

Here is a picture of me with my blonde hair:

Stay tuned for the new me with brown hair!

Here's the update! Now keep in mind the blonde picture was about 6 months ago so my hairstyle is a little different. It did not come out quite as dark as I thought it would but here I am today in all my glory ... drumroll please:


To see this week's Thankful Thursday posts go to Sting My Heart.

Mama Got Honked At

... and it wasn't for a good reason! Has this ever happened to anyone else? This morning I was taking Abby to school and I got honked at for not pulling out from the stop sign I was at! Can I just say we were at a busy street and I had been up since 4:00 with Alyssa vomiting! I would think that little Mr. My Horn Works should thank his lucky stars that I did not get out of my minivan and come back to give him a piece of my mind!

I was so furious! I might have said some ugly words inside the van, though. I am an excellent driver and I can't stand to get honked at. I never honk at others unless they have failed to realize that the light has turned to green. Even then I try to give a reasonable amount of time for them to prove they are worthy of keeping their driver's license :) before I honk!

So, are you guys big honkers? What do you do when you are the honkee?

I hate housecleaning

Last week my one goal for the day was going to the grocery store. Today I really need to clean the house ... but I hate cleaning my house. Don't get me wrong, I love the way my house looks when its clean. I feel better when my house is clean. I even feel like I've accomplished something after I've cleaned. I just hate doing it! It seems to take me so much longer to do even the simplest things. Does anyone else feel like that?

I did a post a while back where I cleaned for hours but didn't feel there was any evidence of it (refer to The Worst Housekeeper). So now instead of actually cleaning, I am once again writing about needing to clean! Does that make any sense?

I need some accountability here people! I will post pictures later of the progress. Yes that will take away from the cleaning, but it will provide me with a break! See you back here later!

Updated to add: So after hours of cleaning I managed to clean one room of the house. But at least it's the main room of the house!

I spend so much time doing precleaning (cleaning the sink before I wash the dishes, etc.) that I don't get much else done. I also did 2 loads of laundry. Don't think for one second that either of those loads are actually in drawers (wink). We'll live out of the laundry basket for at least a few days!

One Goal for Today

Do you ever start your day with just one goal and seriously not know if you will accomplish it? Today the only thing I really need to get done is a trip to the grocery store. Sounds easy enough, right? Of course before I can do that there are many steps I need to go through at home.

I have to make the list and check with hubby to see how much eating out he is planning on doing this week. He works from home so we also have to plan breakfasts and lunches at home. Great for the budget, tough for the planning :)

Then out come the coupons! There are the coupons that I have leftover from past weeks and the coupons from this Sundays paper waiting for me to clip. Not to mention my favorite website that I always check before I leave www.coupons.com. It's 9:45 now and I have to run my first carpool for Alyssa at 11:45 ... what are the odds that I will make it?

Update at 5:45... Got a call from school at 10:00 that Abby was not feeling well. Hair was still wet. Dried hair then picked up Abby. Did not have time to go before 11:45 carpool. Finally made it to the store after naps at 2:30- YEAH!

Super Thursday

What is Super Thursday, you ask? That is what I am now calling my Thursday afternoons! If politics can have a Super Tuesday, then I can have a Super Thursday. Every Thursday I pick my 4 year old up from school at 11:45. My 1st grader gets out at 2:20 but she stays at school and goes straight to ballet. That gives me a little break. She gets done with ballet at 4:00 and that is when the real race begins! We have to pick her up and get the 4 year old to gymnastics by 4:15. Luckily they are not far apart in distance. There was not another time that we could schedule the wee one's gymnastics so for now, the race is on.

Every other day of the week is pretty mild and manageable. We do go a lot of places, but Thursday is the only one with a real rush in between! It is time to go pick up my oldest, Abby ... On your mark, get set- Go!

The Worst Housekeeper

I am going to take a detour from Days today because I honestly don't know if I will even get to watch today's episode. I don't know if you have a friend who's house makes you feel a little better about your own housekeeping. If you do not, I am here to be that friend today! I think I can declare myself the worst housekeeper! I really do try. I just stink at it!

Take today, for instance. I spent 3 hours this morning cleaning my house. Do you know what my sister's house would like if she cleaned for 3 hours? I guarantee you could eat off the floors and all your clothes would be neatly folded and waiting in your drawers! I don't know how she does it. Now at my house after 3 hours of cleaning, this is what I am left with:

An end table with a pile of junk!

A computer desk screaming for organization!

A dining room I dare not enter!!!!

So what exactly did I do for 3 hours, you ask. I did wash dishes. I did sweep and mop the kitchen and the bathrooms. And lets not forget the monumentous task of vacuuming even though you will not be able to tell it as soon as my darling children set foot into the house. So for the 3 hours of work I do have a kitchen that looks half-way decent:

Don't hold the Totino's pizza box on the counter against me. I had to write this during my lunch break. Then it's right back to cleaning!