I smell trouble

We had company last week. One of the girls was watching #2 and whispered, "He looks just like Edward."

He is in boy oblivion.

The Girls

#5 and #6

neither of them with clean faces, oh well.

Gotta try to look cool for mama photos

And these guys were just goofy

What do you get

when you add 6 children, 3 boxes of cornstarch, food coloring and water?

SCIENCE!


and a mess.

My temporary membership in The Fun Mom's Club renewed today. We did goop (equal parts cornstarch and water). Currently, they are making mud pits for their lego guys to be sucked into.

pictures to come

I am at the kitchen table working on my computer

The boys are doing their kitchen work. They left a kitchen rag on the table. The baby climbed up on the table and before I knew it she wiped my face.

ew

Just so you know

we do eat vegetables. I just don't want to type carrots, broccoli over and over and over again. Call it laziness people. Minimum amount of veggies on the table is normally 2 pounds of frozen veggies per meal. No shortage of veggies around here folks.

This REALLY works!

Those who have lived near me know I like to bake. I stumbled across this article a few weeks ago: http://www.motherearthnews.com/Real-Food/Artisan-Bread-In-Five-Minutes-A-Day.aspx

It really works. It is super simple and my boys love having a baguette, a hot, fresh one, for dinner.

TRY IT OUT!

I have used half white and whole wheat. It worked. I did all whole wheat. It worked. I had it in the frig for two weeks. It worked. I had a loaf of bread sing when I took it out of the oven!!! It crackled!!!! I was in baker's euphoria!!!

I checked out the book from the library. I had to pay fines. You can make a brioche dough and make fresh cinnamon rolls. Fresh pizza dough. Fresh baguettes.....

try it, I dare you!

He is on a roll!

#4 has been very prolific in his comments lately.

He told me I had a big belly.

He told me my butt jiggles when I walk.

He said I am sixty-zero years old. (600! REALLY?)

Last night we were cuddling in bed, watching a video on Hulu. We were watching Picture Perfect with Jennifer Anniston.

"Mom? You see her hair. It is booootiful."
"Yes, she does have very pretty hair."
"Mom? I like yours best."

and he pets my hair.

My new life.

The new house has a couple of things we never anticipated. The first is the driveway. We are set back 500 feet off the road. It is a wonderful thing for not having to worry about a child getting hit by a car but it is the lowest area of the property. It ices over. It drifts over. The new van didn't come with snow tires. If it snows on Saturday night we don't go to church-the roads aren't cleared/drifted over and the van gets stuck. The new part of my life is if you get out (of the the driveway, or the 3 miles of dirt road to get to us) you do ALL the errands. I anticipated the not being able to run to Nino's. I never thought about being snowed in for several days after each snowfall. Today I had a doctor appointment and then every single errand we had to do. (I think it was 7 stops.) Water, veggies, returns, look for boots, post office, library, lunch and doctor. I don't mind too much. I am very blessed that the big boys can keep things under control for 5-6 hours when I am gone and DH is here for supervision.

At the old house I would have errands to help blow off some steam cause I could get away for an hour or so. So now I am trying to find new coping mechanisms. but apparently my friends have none so they will die bald from stress induced disesases!!! :) but of course that is only if you think it is a stress::flutter my eyelashes at you:: are you reading my sarcasm??? hmmmmm?????

and if you don't know what I am talking about read the comments from the last post. Trying the bath and book tonight...

Question for ya'll

how do you handle stress? what do you do to keep it in check? or don't you?

Happy New Year

It was a good holiday break. Yes, the basement was torn up. The carpet, baseboards and wet things went out the egress window on Christmas Eve night. The fans have been going ever since. Tom has been here taping and mudding and repairing the drywall. I met him in Adrian last week to pick out carpet. (Tom is a builder we have been using since purchasing this house. He loves the kids and is great with them. He has a great sense of humor and is nice to have around.) Today he is supposed to be here to remove the egress window and seal it back up. Maybe next week I will get my school room back.

I am beginning to think it is foolish to try to get going back on a full schedule with books here there and everywhere. I have found some workbooks and put the big people to work. There was plenty of moaning and groaning but there always is after holiday break. I really wanted to plunge right in but I cannot control a basement flood. Trying to do school with 5 of them and without 2 rooms of the house, whoa. Let's just say I was looking for a stress break at 10:39 this morning. The baby was on the table, #1 was dodging her, he got up and the baby tried coloring in his workbooks, #2 was moaing that all he wanted to read was his Star Wars book, #3 was trying to find a place that was quiet enough to read, #4 was begging to be read to, #5 was coloring and the baby was trying to get the crayons. Can I say crazy?

Holidays were fun. We had 3 family play dates, the Shumways, Jensens and Lunds. We enjoyed all 3. Margo and I played Clone Duels on the Wii. I am not sure if the force was with us. :) Grammie and Poppy joined us Christmas Day. We enjoyed the best deepfried turkey. Dad did good!