Feeling The Cold - Friday

Brrrr... Winter is coming... We had our first really good frost this morning... Right now our drawers are packed with warm and cool clothes... So, that had to be taken care of today now that it will stay cold and not flip flop back and forth... So, out came all the warm stuff minus one outfit for that odd day and in went all the cool weather stuff... Talk about a PROJECT!!! Whew! Every one's drawers were a messed... We had drawers w/ a pair of shorts in them, t-shirt, pair of jeans, socks, underwear, etc... All in ONE drawer! I'm like no wonder everything looks like it was in a crumpled heap on the floor when you put it on... ::smirk:: I'm glad that is taken care of... I don't know if I updated.... I did some reorganizing and found those missing pieces for the quilt I wanted to work on... I'm ready to sew next week... I only have one appointment and the rest of the days I'm sewing!!! I had my 2nd Women of Grace Study Group meeting today... I just love Johnnette... She is just a breath of fresh air in this flat world I live in... Short post today but changing of seasons is a big task for a family of 6 which I know many of my readers with families of my size and larger can completely relate to... Talk to you all tomorrow...

::before and after PICS to come... need to download them from my camera::

Mixed Up - Monday / To Do List - Tuesday

Monday was kind of an off day... I went to an appointment only to find I had remembered and wrote down several times the wrong day... I caught up on laundry... I reorganized my quilting drawers... I guess a while back the children knocked it over and my husband being helpful picked it all up but everything was mixed up... I also realized I'm missing 10 pieces of fabric for a quilt I had planned on working on... That's frustrating... I rested in the afternoon/evening... I have a little bit of a cold...

I rested most of the morning... I still have that cold... It's about the same as it was yesterday... I ran a ton of errands today... One place had a waiting time of almost 2 hours before I could be helped and take care of why I was there... It was downtown... I was in 1/2 hour parking and ran out and moved to 90 minute parking... Glad I didn't have to move again... It is all taken care of so I'm glad I took the time to just wait it out... It was really bothering me that I hadn't been able to do this last Thursday/Friday... I dropped off paper work at a couple of places... It was another thing that had been bothering me that I wasn't able to take care of last week... I dropped off donations to a local clothing pantry... I went to the post office to mail bills and my brother's birthday gift... I stopped in person and paid our car insurance... It is due within a few days once the month begins so by the time payday comes and everything I rarely have time to mail it... I'm glad the office is only a few blocks from our house... I shopped at Walmart for this years supplies of undershirts and PJs... I found Peanut's Christmas Eve PJs... I know she is going to be excited when she sees them... I picked up an electric pencil sharpener... Our manuals have been just eating the pencils... It will make homework pleasant... We have been using pen... I made sausage gravy n' biscuits and chicken enchiladas today... I need to get the laundry moving again...

Full Friday Changed To Free Friday

I had a whole lot of things I was going to do today... I am not going to do them... I going to stay home all morning and not leave the house and relax... After the anxiety/panic attack of worrying/stressing about doing everything today in the short period of time I had available to do them... I decided I'm not going to do it... I'm not going to be all stressed out... I said tomorrow I'm not doing it... This is not good for me and it's not taking care of me... I need to take care of ME right now... So, we all slept in this morning... Monkey, Peanut and Linebacker all slept till 9:30 today... Sure beats quarter after 7! I'm not a morning person so 9:30 is still early for my standards... ::smirk:: I will go out in about an hour to put some money in the bank and drop off some papers but then after that my day off begins again... I'm going to spend my day doing the things I enjoy like cooking my family a delicious meal (Santa Fe Chicken), folding fresh smelling laundry (too much rain to hang out so I will have to settle for warm dryer), if the mood strikes me I might even sit down and sew a bit... Tonight after dinner I'm going to sit down with hot air butter popcorn and watch a movie... A night of laughing with my children is just what I need... Everyone have a wonderful beginning of the weekend...

Thankful to be Blogging Again - Thursday

Things have been mostly good... Engineer is doing well (photos below)... The other children are doing well also... Linebacker has a bit of the sniffles but with the weather/season change that is expected...

Monkey and Peanut had well check ups... They are doing good... Peanut is on the small side (20s %) but healthy... Monkey is right on for the average (50s %)... Nothing too exciting... We declined the H1N1 vaccine and seasonal flu vaccine...

We had some reworking of our finances but looks like we will make it financially with God's graces to our goal of February (tax refund)... God willing we might be better off then we have been in a long time... September to February is our hardest part of the year financially...

I'm looking forward to the holidays with much optimism... I praying for a different kind of holiday where we focus on the true meaning vs the societal/commercial views of the holiday...

I'm still working on my self improvement plan of taking care of myself... No more burning the candle at both ends...

Goal 1: Sleep 8-10 Hours a night with the rare exception of less...
Goal 2: Eat 3 meals and 1 snack at regular intervals not all in 1 hour in the late afternoon/evening...
Goal 3: Have 20 minutes of uninterrupted of alone time every day...
Goal 4: Take care of personal needs daily or every other day...
Goal 5: Remember I am a person and deserve all the above the same as anyone else in this family....

I will update and change the goals when goals are accomplished and well established as habits...

Engineer had a psych appointment and introduced his new staff to Dr. F... It went well... Dr. F. is excited to work with the staff and together as a team help Engineer...

I didn't do all I wanted today but the weather is icky... Rainy and very chilly... I think staying home was the best option... Hopefully I can squeeze my tasks into my already stuffed Friday tomorrow... I've been doing a ton of laundry... Fell a bit behind this week but picked up on other things like unloading, loading, and running the dishwasher by 8-9 PM instead of turning it on at 1-3 AM and heading off to bed... I loved to be quilting today but my sewing desk is in the perfect location and height to be a catch all... I cleaned it off today...

Before:

Sometimes when you are cleaning you should never ask yourself "I wonder what is behind X?" You may not like the answer.... LOL...

Behind:

Not too bad right? Could have been worse... See that brown paper bag? That's my brother's birthday present... Purchased 4th July weekend while we were at the Teddy Roosevelt National Park... His Birthday's the 8th of July... I'm mailing in a few days... Opps... At least I found it... I tore the house apart a few times in search of it and never found it... Now I know why... ::smirk::

After:

Like my new 'lamp'... Birthday present... Gives just a little bit more light on my working surface... There is a 'room' light but it casts shadows since it is a chandelier behind me...

Also, for my birthday I picked up this because I thought oh that's kind of neat... What do you think I should use it for? Leave me a note in my comments section... Thanks! (Size: 10-1/2" square)

Closed:

Open:

As promised recent PICS of Engineer:

Last Group Photo Taken:

Tasty Thursday

It's been a while since I shared a recipe and I will share two today to catch up... ::smirk:: First I will update on the days events... We had our monthly pow wow with all of Engineer's service providers... Those who are uninvited were there... When we shared our latest news about the placement you could see the winds were taken right out of their sails... Should be interesting if they continue to harass us as they have been... They are supposed to call to set up an appointment to finally go over paperwork that we should have been given a month ago... Hopefully they will crawl under the rock that they came out from under and leave us alone!!! We set up another meeting with the placement people to talk about who great Engineer is and all his likes... School will also be in attendance to talk about what structure supports they used to help his day run more smoothly... What an exciting time in his life... I picked the boys up from their 2nd day of school... They had another awesome day... TBTG!!! I didn't have staff tonight so I filled our night with the baking of 4-1/2 dozen bars (recipe below) for the Parish bake sale this weekend... I also made from scratch Sloppy Joes (recipe below) to have for dinner Friday and Saturday... I worked on a monthly menu plan... I worked out dinner for August 24th - October 4th... Isn't that awesome? I am trying out several new recipes and will be sharing them... All that's happening with Engineer we will have to make some changes around here... It's also part of my Burn Out repair program... I walked 8 blocks (0.8 miles) today.. It feels good to be walking again... Peanut had her 2nd speech therapy at the new time... It went very well... We will be adjusting the schedule next week due to appointments I can't move... I worked on Engineer's hat a bit... Almost ready to make the brim... Here are the recipes... ENJOY!!!

Caroline's Bars:

2 Eggs
2 C. Sugar (I use cane not beet)
2 C. Creamy Peanut Butter (PB)
1 t. Vanilla
1 bag of your choice of chips... I made one with PB and one with chocolate...

Combine the first 4 ingredients until well blended... Stir in gently the chips... Press into a 9x 13 pan evenly... Bake 20 minutes (watch so they don't burn on the edges) in a 350 degree oven... Cool completely... Cut into bars...

Approx 56 bars (if I cut the pan evenly ::smirk)

Sloppy Joes

2 lbs Hamburger browned, drained
1 Med-Lg Onion, coarsely chopped, sauteed in butter*
2-4 cloves Garlic, pressed*
1 C. Ketchup
3 T. Steak Sauce*
3 T. Brown Sugar
2 T. Mustard
2 T. Cider Vinegar

Place browned meat in crock pot... Add remaining ingredients and stir well till meat is well coated... Add 1/2 - 1 C. of water if needed... Cook on High 1-2 hours or low 2-4 hours... Serve 2-4 T. of Sloppy Joes on Buns with Cheese and Mustard (as desired)...

*Onion, Garlic depend on personally taste as to how much you put in...
* Steak Sauce - Recipe calls for Worcestershire Sauce which we never use so we use Steak Sauce (A1 or Generic)...

ENJOY!

Marvelous Monday

Today was pretty fantastic... Lots of good news has been coming our way lately... I ran out for errands to the bank, church and grocery store for a few misc. items like juice, eggs, bananas, milk, and bread... I'm feeling unusually optimistic of the future... I had a great sense of inner peace all day today... Tonight was back to school night... I'm taking a year off this year from homeschooling and sending the children to public... Engineer is in 4th grade and Monkey in 1st grade... We toured the school which has been newly remodeled... I think they are both going to have a really good year... They are both excited to start in a few days... I had a ton of paperwork to fill out... YECK! I finished it all up and packed it away in their backpacks to bring to school on the first day... I am a sweaty mess because they don't have central air in the school only a few rooms like the library, office and lunch room I think one of the teachers when I commented they didn't have the air on... I am off to shower...

Free Friday

After talking to my good friend and mentor Michelle (she is really awesome and I admire her greatly) last night I decided to make some changes in my life... I know I posted a while back about a full plate... I made the positive step forward of emptying things off my plate... However I made the negative step forward of just filling those places with other harder to recognized comments because they were not routine but sporadic in nature... I became even more over worked then before... I've another change... I'm going to take one day for myself a week... Right now it's just about 2 hours in the morning but I hope to expand it to a longer time... I won't be spending these days catching up on housekeeping, grocery shopping, or running to appointments... It is about time for ME... I also changed some other things in my life like going to bed and when I take a shower... Since it's Winter can't take one in the morning before the children wake up because my hair would freeze... I don't own a blow dryer so that's not an option... I do enjoy a nice shower when my hair won't freeze... Good way to help you wake up... I'm also making an effort to remember to take my vitamin and eat 3 healthy well balanced meals in a day... Does anyone have any links with print outs where I can write down what I ate so I know I know if I had all my servings of each of the food groups? I thought about looking on a diet set I won't be using it to lose weight but I'm sure they might have that sort of thing.. Any input would be helpful...

Wonderful Wednesday

I have a lot to share but Linebacker needs his 9:30 feeding... Well, I didn't make it back till tonight (Thursday)... I fed linebacker and called it a night and headed to bed... So, tired I even forgot to set my alarm... Good thing for early rising children waking me up or today may not have started off so well... Back to Wednesday... I dropped the boys off at school and headed home for Peanut to have ST... Next we headed to the local grocery store to pick up 3 dozen donuts for MACH I... It will be one of my latest as this is one of the 'obligations' I'm dropping... I'm going next week for the first 1/2 only because they will have a speaker talking about advocating for your special needs child... So, even though I hadn't planned on going I changed my plans for that... I will have to leave early though because I'm going to a once a month breastfeeding group... For some support and information... I home long enough to eat before heading to see the lactation consultant about Linebacker's slightly slower then average gain... What I learned is that changing my list of 'obligations' improving my diet and slowing life down in general is all I really need to do... Yes, he is gaining slightly slower but he is still average doing very well... He just happens to be one of the smaller people... So, he is doing wonderful and I feel great! What a relief of stress that has been weighting so heavily on me... She did recommended More Milk Plus if I wanted to do more then what I'm already doing and I will pick that up tomorrow... If the doctor insists on supplementing to supplement with expressed milk... So, I'm going to start pumping after feedings to build a stock for either supplementation or to mix with cereal when that times comes in a couple months... We will be using the Jack Newman method of supplementation if necessary... I checked into feeding tubes and they come in 3 sizes so that will be one of my questions for the doctor if she insists on supplementing... They are $9 and the speciality pharmacy can order one and have it in about 4 days... After that I picked up the boys and Monkey had ST... We rested a bit and then we to the Home school Mass/Pizza party to celebrate the start of a new schooling year... We stayed till almost 9... I came home and popped a 6.52 lb turkey in the oven... That leads us back to where we are at the top of this message with a turkey cooking and me about to sit down and give Linebacker his feeding... Well it is now 9:30 PM (Thursday) and time for nursing session so I will end my message...