Holy Cow!!

SEVEN more days!!!   The countdown is on to our big move day!  Today we cleared out all the furniture that is not making the trip with us.  And for the next 6 days I will be packing up last minute things, cleaning and getting things all ready for our move day (which is 7 days from today!) We confirmed with the movers that everything is a go with them.  I am a little stressed to think that it is coming so soon!  I am trying not to think about leaving my friends behind.  But it will be good to be on the other side of things. 

Grrrrr!!!!

Why is it that when you are waiting for the mailman, he takes forever to get here?  I have been waiting all day for the mailman to come and apparently he decided not to even do my street today as far as I can tell.  I know where he parks when he does our street and I watched for him all day and he didn't come!!!  Frustrating!!

Tidbit Tuesday

1.  I am making soup today from leftover turkey.  I wasn't going to, but I just can't waste the wonderful yummy bits left on the carcass.  The kids are hovering over the pot, anxiously waiting for it to be done.

2.  I am really getting down on the list of things I can pack this long before moving.  I have to do Little Prince's room and get Princess Belle's room done (ugh!) and then I guess there isn't a lot left to pack right now.

3.  One thing I am proud about is how much less stuff we have in our storage room now.  We used to have so many boxes that never got unpacked between moves,  But we have really gone through stuff and made sure we are only keeping the things that are important to us.

4.  Little Prince has been sleeping a little better lately!  I am thrilled with him.  He is barely eating, but I guess I will take improvements where I can.

5.  I am anxious for this move to be over.  I get so stressed trying to make sure we will have enough money to get everything done that we need to get done.

6.  I really want to get my hair cut before the move and to replace my purse (it actually fell completely apart!)  But with our budget being what it is, I may have to put it off and just get Princess Belle's done.

I am so not this mom: 

Settling?

When I was a kid we moved a LOT . . . like really a LOT.  By the time I had married Prince Charming, I had moved more than 40 times in my life.  But when I turned 13, we moved to dad's hometown and we settled in that town until I had graduated high school.  It gave me a hometown.  It gave me roots.

It struck me that Princess Belle is 13 now.  It would be so nice to give that to her at this age too.  I would love it to have memories of Christmas in the one town.  I would love to have traditions involving small town parades and neighbors.  I want to give them roots.  Yarmouth is a lovely small town with all the conveniences of a big town.  It reminds me of home.  It is not in the city but it is close enough to go into the city when we need or want too.

I guess all of this rambling means that I am truly hoping that Yarmouth could be our last stop.  I want to call it home.  I want my kids and my husband to be happy.  I want to settle and just concentrate on educating my kids and watching them grow up.

Late . . . . but there was a reason, honest!

I am so late posting on my blog today, but it has honestly been a VERY busy day.  I have been working my butt off.  Today I dealt with all 11 of those bags of laundry by doing the following:

• sorting everything out by owner, or where it went, 
• putting away the things we were keeping,
• Put the things we were donating in bags,
• threw out the things that were no longer any good.

I also dealt with every item of clothes that Princess Belle owns.  She had LOTS of clothes.  She tried every single item of clothing on, and we donated anything that didn't fit, she didn't like, or I thought was inappropriate in the way that it fit her.

Then I went through all the clothes I own and that Prince Charming owns.  The biggest thing with us was deciding to get rid of the clothes that were worn out or that were ugly. 

When I was done, I cleaned the kitchen, and the floors.  It doesn't sound like a lot but it was truly a time-consuming, exhausting project! 

Now, I have to go get my house company-ready as Prince Charming has invited some friends over and the kids have been busy making a mess while I was working.

Checking them off!

In the spirit of continuing momentum, I have spent today getting more things done for our move.  I packed until I ran out of packing tape!  I have even been marking every box with a label that says what is in it.

So now, I have nothing left on my to do list except finish packing, do laundry and sort through the rest of the clothes to see if we have anything else to donate.  I will admit though that since Princess Belle has finally finished cleaning her room, the amount of laundry I have to do is staggering!

Prince Charming and I were talking last night and I guess the one benefit to having moved so many times is that we are good at it now.  The unexpected little hiccups aren't really unexpected anymore.  We know they are coming and we plan for them.  Here's hoping that it continues to go this good.

I do get a kick out of how much the little girls love to help me.  At least for a few minutes anyway.  I get out the boxes and tape and they come running to help.  One hands me stuff to put in the box, and they take turning sticking labels and tape.  They eventually lose interest and wander off but I am not allowed to start alone.  These little girls are so cute!

Smooth!

I am so excited.  Things are coming together really well for our move.

It turns out we can actually hire movers for cheaper than renting a truck and hiring people to load it and someone else to drive it for us!  So we are getting movers!

Princess Tigger is wonderful enough to drive us to our new home (That gives me the added benefit of spending a little extra time with her during my move!)

We have even already lined up a transfer of services for all our utilities.

So now, I just have to keep budgeting for the move and finish packing the house.

I really hope this move continues to go as smoothly as all our planning is!

Today

I having a day today.  I am tired, grouchy, and headachy!  Not fun, but I am putting on a happy face and trying to get things done. 

And I am trying not be grouchy when they girls get overly excited and overly loud in their playing.  There is so much to do as I was out shopping for groceries yesterday and when mommy is away, disaster comes to play. 

In the meantime, I am nursing what I think is my 79th coffee for the day and trying desperately to get things done. 

One of Those Days

My family seems determined to keep me as sleep deprived as possible.  I am SOOO tired.  I have so much to do and so little desire to do any of it.  I feel bad, but lack of sleep is kicking my butt!!  Badly!

What do you do when you are sleep deprived and you still need to get things done?  You know silly things like cook, clean, and take care of your family?  Do you have any help for this VERY tired mommy?

Again???

So apparently old age (42 years old) has brought me a strong case of the clumsy's.  I can't even count the number of times my butt or my knees have ended up on the ice this year!  I just seem to have no balance on the ice anymore.  UGH!

So now I have another case technicolor knees and a sore neck again! The last time I feel my neck hurt and I ended up with a 12 day headache!! Please let's hope that my headache and sore neck doesn't last as long this time!

First Day of Spring

It's the first day of Spring!  How wonderful to finally be seeing the end of this VERY LONG winter!  So I thought I would share some Spring Activities for Homeschool!

A simple crown of grass.

Spring Crafts for Kids to Celebrate Springs Arrival!

First Day of Spring Flower Craft

Melting Snowman celebrate the first day of spring

25 Best Things for Families to do the First Days of Spring

A free packet of activities to use to celebrate the exciting first day of Spring!

And just to make you smile, I thought I would share a couple of cute spring things I found today.

I have such funny kids.  I like to note some of the funny things so that I don't forget them when they go away. 

Princess Magpie and Princess Snifflefritz love to snack on cookies and soda crackers.  In our house they are always served together (2 of each) and are called cookiecrackers.  Well, Princess Magpie has started a new thing with her cookiecrackers.  She takes the filling out of the cookies and puts it on her crackers to make a "cream cracker sandwich" and abandons the cookie part altogether.  She is just too funny.

When Princess Belle is talking to me, she starts EVERY SINGLE SENTENCE with "Mom?" and then continues on.  Like she is uncertain that I am paying attention.  Now, I am looking directly at her, and answering her, but she still does this.  And the funniest thing ever, is that if I draw her attention to it and tell her to try to say it without saying "Mom?" . . . she can't say anything at all!!  Without saying "Mom?" at the beginning of each sentence she can't think of how to say it at all.  I eventually just laugh and tell her to just say it how she is comfortable.  I told her I figure that if I ever get amnesia, all I have to do is talk to her and I will know at least that I am mom. 

Breakfast, Treats and Giggles

I wanted to make something yummy for breakfast this morning so I thought, nice sweet, scones would be lovely.  These sound yummy and the chocolate ensures it will be a hit with everyone.  And the best part is, it is a small batch so that it will be gone leaving room for the rest of the Christmas goodies like the yummy chocolate, marshmallow, peanut butter loveliness below.

Chocolate Chip Coconut Scones

Ingredients:

3 cups all-purpose flour
2 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
3 Tbsp plus 1 tsp granulated sugar, divided (or sweetener of preference)
1/4 cup chilled, chopped Shortening or Earth Balance Margarine
1 cup Nondairy milk (I actually used about 1 1/2 cups, it felt dry to me)
3/4 cup semi-sweet chocolate chips
1/2 cup shredded coconut


Preparation:

    Preheat oven 400 degrees F. Grease baking sheet or 12-inch pizza pan.

    In large bowl, sift flour, baking powder, salt, and 3 tbsp sugar. Add chilled butter and work butter into the flour mixture with your fingers until the mix resembles fine crumbs. Add milk, chocolate chips, and coconut. Mix to form a sticky dough. Turn dough out onto lightly floured board and knead for about 30 seconds. Form dough into ball and pat into a circle, about 3/4-inch thick. Place dough on greased pan and cut into 8 wedges using a knife or pizza cutter. Gently separate wedges on pan, giving each about 1/4-inch space. Brush tops with a little water to dampen and sprinkle with 1 tsp sugar. Bake at 400 degrees F for about 18 minutes or until baked all the way through. Let cool on rack. Serve warm or cold with your favorite jam.

 

Chocolate, Peanut Butter and Marshmallows

Ingredients
2 cups marshmallows, small ones (to make it vegan you can use Dandies, Air-Puffed Marshmallows)
225 g chocolate chips, 1 package
1 cup peanut butter
1 tablespoon Earth Balance margarine

Directions

Melt chocolate chips, peanut butter and margarine for about 1 1/2 minutes in the microwave.
Add marshmallows and mix.
Pour in a greased 8inch pan and put in fridge for about 2 hours.
If you need this quick, put in freezer for about 45 minutes.

The Great Sippy and Spoon Apocalypse

Some day, I will find that secret stash of sippy cups and spoons that my lovely children have stashed away.  I am pretty sure they are in preparation for some great sippy and spoon apocalypse that they have heard will lead to sippy and spoon shortages around the world so they are tricking me into buying more and more sippy cups and spoons only to have them disappear in short order! 

I mean where could they be hiding those things??  I guess spoons are easy.  My spoon obsessed children could find lots of places to hide those, but sippy cups???  They are fairly large and you would think that in all my searching I would have turned up at least ONE missing sippy cup, wouldn't you?

Sunday Smiles

I am a little lacking in inspiration this morning.  The house is quiet and I have a MOUNTAIN of housework to do.  So for now I am going to share a few smiles with you.

And one more smile from each of my children just to make you smile too