Tuesday, December 16, 2014
My baby is gone!
Yes, my oldest baby has moved out of our house! He had decided to spend the winter in Mammoth Lakes working at the ski resort up there. He is so excited. He convinced a few of his friends to join him so now we have 5 boys in a small little apartment below our cabin up there. It is funny how things change so fast. Here I thought I would have him here at least a few more months and now this. *Sigh* I am sad but happy for him. Have a great time my big boy!
Laundry
A few weeks back during Sign Language class we were learning signs for chores or "duties" around the house. It was so funny to see the young teenagers answer the question "What is your chore?" Most of them would sign one thing like take out trash or put away clothes. Some looked at here like she was crazy, "What is a chore?" I had to ask the teacher how do you sign ALL! The next question was "What is your favorite chore?" I was thinking to myself, "Did I misunderstand her signing? How could someone have a favorite chore?" I signed back "nothing." Then last but not least, she asked "What chore did we HATE?" That was easy for me. Laundry! Of course, my teacher and I had to have a conversation about this in front of everyone because she enjoys doing laundry. I believe it even was her favorite chore. I had to explain (with little knowledge of sign) that I have 9 people in my house and there is so much laundry that I could never enjoy spending hours on end doing laundry. She understood.
I am not sure about anyone else but laundry is a battle for me. I can never catch up. I even have my oldest 3 doing their own laundry (yet I still seem to fold a lot of their clothes?) About 6 months ago I was working really hard to finish and actually say that I had finished the laundry. I had cleaned, folded and put them into the children's rooms. It took a full week I believe of all day everyday to get to that point. But when I got into their rooms to put the "last" of them away, I go to find out they all had piles either in their closets, under beds, or just behind their dressers. I told myself right then and there that I would NEVER EVER try to catch up on laundry again.
Everyone has pet peeves I am sure, when it comes to laundry. I have two. One is that I find the most bizarre things in the laundry. When I was gone this past Spring to see my brother, my husband was doing the laundry (shocker!). He pulled on the clothes in the chute and a big toy came down on his head, he called to tell me and I had to laugh (of course then I was chastised by the nurse in the room at the time). I asked him what he was doing standing under the chute while trying to pull down the laundry, but then I realized it was probably the first time he actually had to pull down the laundry. Today I have found probably 10 ties. Why are ties put in the laundry? I really would like to know. They aren't dirty. They don't get wrinkly (unless you put the in the laundry all squished). They don't touch your skin and get oils on them but yet every day I find another tie in the laundry. I also have found some pretty gross things in the laundry like rotten apples, or dried dog poop. Okay, that last one was disgusting and I had a very long "discussion" with my children after that one. I think I almost got sick from that little "surprise."
The second pet peeve is finding folded clothes in amongst the dirty clothes. Once you have blended a clean shirt or pants with the stinky, boy wearing, teenage smelling clothes the clean clothes have to be cleaned again no matter what! Augh! This makes me irritated. What are they thinking? I have asked why they do that and the response usually is "Oh, I forgot to put them away" or my favorite ..... "They didn't fit me and I didn't want to put them in my drawers." Are you kidding me? So I end up cleaning them over and over not knowing that they are not ever being worn they just don't want to deal with them. How hard is it to put them on top of the dresser and tell me they no longer fit? I guess it is so difficult that they need to drag them to the laundry chute and throw them in there rather than just deal with them.
THE MOST WONDERFUL SON IN THE WORLD....
Now this is going to be the shocker of all shockers. I do have one child that LOVES, seriously loves doing laundry. Yesterday when I took him to school, he told me he wanted to do laundry with me instead of go to school. When I told him we could do it after school he got excited. Who is this you ask? My 5 year old of course! He likes to push the buttons on the machines, fill the machine with soap (of course I am holding his heavy body so he can do it), and then watching the washing machine/dryer start to spin. His favorite part though is to fold towels. I do a sanitized wash of all cleaning towels once a week usually. He loves to sit there and meticulously fold the little white towels. Today we did one of those loads and a larger towel load and he was so excited that I had left if for when he came home. He wants to do more but I needed to do more dishes too so he ran off to play and scream with his brothers. I can't bare to tell him that I really hate laundry, unless I am doing it with him that is.
So now you know my least favorite chore, what is yours? Do you have any laundry stories? Thanks for stopping by. I am off to put in another load of laundry. Catch you later!
I am not sure about anyone else but laundry is a battle for me. I can never catch up. I even have my oldest 3 doing their own laundry (yet I still seem to fold a lot of their clothes?) About 6 months ago I was working really hard to finish and actually say that I had finished the laundry. I had cleaned, folded and put them into the children's rooms. It took a full week I believe of all day everyday to get to that point. But when I got into their rooms to put the "last" of them away, I go to find out they all had piles either in their closets, under beds, or just behind their dressers. I told myself right then and there that I would NEVER EVER try to catch up on laundry again.
Everyone has pet peeves I am sure, when it comes to laundry. I have two. One is that I find the most bizarre things in the laundry. When I was gone this past Spring to see my brother, my husband was doing the laundry (shocker!). He pulled on the clothes in the chute and a big toy came down on his head, he called to tell me and I had to laugh (of course then I was chastised by the nurse in the room at the time). I asked him what he was doing standing under the chute while trying to pull down the laundry, but then I realized it was probably the first time he actually had to pull down the laundry. Today I have found probably 10 ties. Why are ties put in the laundry? I really would like to know. They aren't dirty. They don't get wrinkly (unless you put the in the laundry all squished). They don't touch your skin and get oils on them but yet every day I find another tie in the laundry. I also have found some pretty gross things in the laundry like rotten apples, or dried dog poop. Okay, that last one was disgusting and I had a very long "discussion" with my children after that one. I think I almost got sick from that little "surprise."
The second pet peeve is finding folded clothes in amongst the dirty clothes. Once you have blended a clean shirt or pants with the stinky, boy wearing, teenage smelling clothes the clean clothes have to be cleaned again no matter what! Augh! This makes me irritated. What are they thinking? I have asked why they do that and the response usually is "Oh, I forgot to put them away" or my favorite ..... "They didn't fit me and I didn't want to put them in my drawers." Are you kidding me? So I end up cleaning them over and over not knowing that they are not ever being worn they just don't want to deal with them. How hard is it to put them on top of the dresser and tell me they no longer fit? I guess it is so difficult that they need to drag them to the laundry chute and throw them in there rather than just deal with them.
THE MOST WONDERFUL SON IN THE WORLD....
Now this is going to be the shocker of all shockers. I do have one child that LOVES, seriously loves doing laundry. Yesterday when I took him to school, he told me he wanted to do laundry with me instead of go to school. When I told him we could do it after school he got excited. Who is this you ask? My 5 year old of course! He likes to push the buttons on the machines, fill the machine with soap (of course I am holding his heavy body so he can do it), and then watching the washing machine/dryer start to spin. His favorite part though is to fold towels. I do a sanitized wash of all cleaning towels once a week usually. He loves to sit there and meticulously fold the little white towels. Today we did one of those loads and a larger towel load and he was so excited that I had left if for when he came home. He wants to do more but I needed to do more dishes too so he ran off to play and scream with his brothers. I can't bare to tell him that I really hate laundry, unless I am doing it with him that is.
So now you know my least favorite chore, what is yours? Do you have any laundry stories? Thanks for stopping by. I am off to put in another load of laundry. Catch you later!
Sunday, December 14, 2014
Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays, Birthdays!!!!
First, I have to tell you about a conversation I overheard just a few minutes before starting this post (last week) between my youngest two.
5 year old: Did you know that if you flush the toilet you are a girl?
8 year old: What are you talking about?
5 year old: [my 13 year old] told me that if you flush a toilet you are a girl!
8 year old: Really? I guess I better not flush the toilet anymore!(like he ever did?)
Okay, now it makes sense since I am the only one that seems to flush toilets around here!
Yes, it is all about birthdays around here right now. I am tired just thinking about it. I have 4 children's birthdays within 2 weeks, two on the same day (3 years apart). My 2nd oldest just turned 17 on Thanksgiving! Augh, can you believe it? I know, I can't. A little over a week ago we celebrated my 8 year old and 11 year old birthdays. And Monday my 5 year old had his birthday! How exciting! My youngest is already 5? How did that happen?
What do you do for birthdays? We have a few traditions in our family. First, my boys get to pick out their favorite food for their birthday dinner and their favorite cake (or desert). They are all so funny about this tradition. It really shows me what their favorite things are.
If my 17 year old would have had his way (another words his birthday wasn't on Thanksgiving) he would have wanted seafood, especially Dragon Rolls! But he was very content on having Thanksgiving Dinner at Grandmas House, he just said to make sure that we had candied yams. So the following day I surprised him with sushi for dinner. Yum! I am getting hungry now! I want a Lobster Roll from Akasaka! And instead of cake he just wanted pumpkin pie and Oreo Cream Pie! Easy peasy!
My 8 year old and 11 year old agreed on bean and cheese burritos for dinner. Yay! Another easy dinner. I am on a roll! And they just wanted Oreo Cream Pie (11 year old) and chocolate cake (8 year old). That was easy too. How did I get so lucky?
It was so hard for my 5 year old to figure something out for his dinner though. After a long 10 minutes of discussing it, he finally decided on Pizza. But that 10 minutes was exhausting. I didn't want to encourage him on what his favorite meal was. I knew what it was but I was not going to tell him. So he decided on cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza. His favorite is cheese though. He was so excited when he finally decided. I had my Sign Language finals that night and I was studying all day in between all the other extras that "had" to be done that day. So after I left class I was thinking I would go get the pizzas. I didn't want to break the bank on getting RoundTable Pizza so I thought I would be thrifty and go to Sam's Club and get a few. Low and behold, I get there and it would take 30 minutes for them to take the pizza's so I opted on getting pizza and cooking it at home. Guess what? No cheese pizza! It was already late and I thought my 18 year old had to get to school so I did the rush thing and just got the take-n-bake. I was worried all the way home that he was going to be so sad that there was no cheese pizza. He was fine with pepperoni. Thank goodness! I also got his favorite chocolate cake from Sam's but nobody really ate it. Three-quarters of it wasn't even eaten and is still sitting on the table needing to be thrown out. What a waste of a perfectly good cake!
Having birthdays so close to Christmas is hard. Especially for the pocketbook. My husband, once again, was complaining about our (my) spending last night. I am not quite sure if he realizes that we have SEVEN boys that require a lot. With 4 birthdays and Christmas it is really difficult!
I feel like I have been going crazy shopping. Amazon is my best friend for the holidays. I have saved so much money both with shipping and with prices, not to mention the time saved. I am so grateful. Believe it or not, I am claustrophobic. I even have anxiety attacks in stores when there are too many people around me. I try not to go to the stores when there are a lot of people around. I will mentally make a note of when the best time to go to certain stores are. Last week I made a mistake and went to Kohl's in the middle of the day. I was desperate to finish getting sweaters for our family photos (which is more than likely my next post). I feel as if I am still having a nightmare from the experience. The isles were more crowded than usual with merchandise. The store was not packed but it was busy. When I got into line I felt myself start to feel as if the walls were closing in on me due to the amount of people around me. I survived. I just do not want to do that again. That means no more Wal-mart (if I can help it) until 2 weeks after Christmas at least! My secret? Did you know that K-mart has just as good of prices and there is normally no one there. It is one of those forgotten wonders I think. It might be another 5-10 minutes down the road but well worth it. Also, Target (a bit more expensive for everyday supplies) is busier but the crowds are not too much to handle.
So what are your special ways of celebrating birthdays? Do you have anything that you do with your kids to make the day a special day? What about your tricks for surviving the holiday rush at stores? Any suggestions? I would love to hear your take on the madness of holiday shopping.
I hope to be more active on the blog scene now that I am finally done with college classes, at least for a few weeks. Have a great day and a blessed holiday season!
5 year old: Did you know that if you flush the toilet you are a girl?
8 year old: What are you talking about?
5 year old: [my 13 year old] told me that if you flush a toilet you are a girl!
8 year old: Really? I guess I better not flush the toilet anymore!(like he ever did?)
Okay, now it makes sense since I am the only one that seems to flush toilets around here!
Yes, it is all about birthdays around here right now. I am tired just thinking about it. I have 4 children's birthdays within 2 weeks, two on the same day (3 years apart). My 2nd oldest just turned 17 on Thanksgiving! Augh, can you believe it? I know, I can't. A little over a week ago we celebrated my 8 year old and 11 year old birthdays. And Monday my 5 year old had his birthday! How exciting! My youngest is already 5? How did that happen?
What do you do for birthdays? We have a few traditions in our family. First, my boys get to pick out their favorite food for their birthday dinner and their favorite cake (or desert). They are all so funny about this tradition. It really shows me what their favorite things are.
If my 17 year old would have had his way (another words his birthday wasn't on Thanksgiving) he would have wanted seafood, especially Dragon Rolls! But he was very content on having Thanksgiving Dinner at Grandmas House, he just said to make sure that we had candied yams. So the following day I surprised him with sushi for dinner. Yum! I am getting hungry now! I want a Lobster Roll from Akasaka! And instead of cake he just wanted pumpkin pie and Oreo Cream Pie! Easy peasy!
My 8 year old and 11 year old agreed on bean and cheese burritos for dinner. Yay! Another easy dinner. I am on a roll! And they just wanted Oreo Cream Pie (11 year old) and chocolate cake (8 year old). That was easy too. How did I get so lucky?
It was so hard for my 5 year old to figure something out for his dinner though. After a long 10 minutes of discussing it, he finally decided on Pizza. But that 10 minutes was exhausting. I didn't want to encourage him on what his favorite meal was. I knew what it was but I was not going to tell him. So he decided on cheese pizza and pepperoni pizza. His favorite is cheese though. He was so excited when he finally decided. I had my Sign Language finals that night and I was studying all day in between all the other extras that "had" to be done that day. So after I left class I was thinking I would go get the pizzas. I didn't want to break the bank on getting RoundTable Pizza so I thought I would be thrifty and go to Sam's Club and get a few. Low and behold, I get there and it would take 30 minutes for them to take the pizza's so I opted on getting pizza and cooking it at home. Guess what? No cheese pizza! It was already late and I thought my 18 year old had to get to school so I did the rush thing and just got the take-n-bake. I was worried all the way home that he was going to be so sad that there was no cheese pizza. He was fine with pepperoni. Thank goodness! I also got his favorite chocolate cake from Sam's but nobody really ate it. Three-quarters of it wasn't even eaten and is still sitting on the table needing to be thrown out. What a waste of a perfectly good cake!
Having birthdays so close to Christmas is hard. Especially for the pocketbook. My husband, once again, was complaining about our (my) spending last night. I am not quite sure if he realizes that we have SEVEN boys that require a lot. With 4 birthdays and Christmas it is really difficult!
I feel like I have been going crazy shopping. Amazon is my best friend for the holidays. I have saved so much money both with shipping and with prices, not to mention the time saved. I am so grateful. Believe it or not, I am claustrophobic. I even have anxiety attacks in stores when there are too many people around me. I try not to go to the stores when there are a lot of people around. I will mentally make a note of when the best time to go to certain stores are. Last week I made a mistake and went to Kohl's in the middle of the day. I was desperate to finish getting sweaters for our family photos (which is more than likely my next post). I feel as if I am still having a nightmare from the experience. The isles were more crowded than usual with merchandise. The store was not packed but it was busy. When I got into line I felt myself start to feel as if the walls were closing in on me due to the amount of people around me. I survived. I just do not want to do that again. That means no more Wal-mart (if I can help it) until 2 weeks after Christmas at least! My secret? Did you know that K-mart has just as good of prices and there is normally no one there. It is one of those forgotten wonders I think. It might be another 5-10 minutes down the road but well worth it. Also, Target (a bit more expensive for everyday supplies) is busier but the crowds are not too much to handle.
So what are your special ways of celebrating birthdays? Do you have anything that you do with your kids to make the day a special day? What about your tricks for surviving the holiday rush at stores? Any suggestions? I would love to hear your take on the madness of holiday shopping.
I hope to be more active on the blog scene now that I am finally done with college classes, at least for a few weeks. Have a great day and a blessed holiday season!
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