Rainy Days and Mondays Always Get me Down

It is sunday night and I am sitting here dreading tomorrow. Why do I hate mondays so much, what is it that makes that day so much worse than the others? Well here is what I did last Monday, maybe you can understand.

7:00 am Try to get the teenagers out of bed, they aren't moving because they stayed up too late because they took a nap on Sunday afternoon.

7:15 take #1 to HS (can't wait till he can drive himself)

7:45 take junior high carpool

8:00 get other kids out off bed. My kids have always been good sleepers, not something that is so great when they reach school age.

8:45 Take last 3 to school. (How do shoes get lost over the weekend.)

9:00 start a load of dishes I swear I did the dishes on Sunday, but there is a whole load in the sink. I quess I shouldn't make big desserts on Sunday night (who am I kidding, that's not going away). Get a load of laundry started. Where did all these dirty clothes come from. Sure the kids may have cleaned there rooms Saturday, but they just threw everything in the laundry room.

10:00 got to #5's class and swap out books for home reading.

10:15 go to #4's class and listen to the same 3 kids read out loud to you.

11:00 go to # 3 class and wonder why anyone would want to teach 5th grade.

Note to self: no volunteering next year.

11:30 time to pick up the kindergartener, didn't I just send him.

What's for lunch,? Cheese bread because I haven't been to the store since forever and the kids ate everything that was edible over the weekend.

12:00 Why is this house so messy, what is it about Sundays that makes everyone turn into absolute pigs. Keep working on that laundry room.

1:15 #1 calls and needs a ride home from school. I HATE EARLY OUT DAYS!!

1:45 pick up jr. high carpool.

2:00 listens to complaints about how there is nothing for afterschool snack (didn't they just eat lunch)

2:30 Pick up 3 & 4 from school.

2:45 Take #2 to piano lessons, we are late because she is trying to practice her songs one last time, something she hasn't done all week.

3:15 pick her up, then try to make some attempt to get the kids to do there afterschool chores(but my hearts not really in it so they disappear the first second they can.)

4:00 Take #2 to volleyball practice.

More laundry, pile it one the bed - I might fold it later.

5:00 Take #3 to bb game 30 min away (He can't even play, he has 30 stitches in his knee, so at least I don't have to stay and watch)

Make dinner, feed kids, start homework. DH and #2 get home about 7:30.

8:00 make some lame attempt at a Family Home Evening that ends with me yelling at everyone and generally being onery.

8:30 I don't care if your not tired, GO TO BED.

9:oo time to start on the 6 loads of laundry on my bed, at least I have a 24 recorded to watch while i fold.

Tomorrow I get to do it all over again.

Kitchen Floor (Part 2)

I am finally done. Hallelujah!

It was a lot of work, and hard to live without a fully functional kitchen. I don't know how I would do with a complete remodel. It was worth it and I think it looks great, a big difference. It took a long time to grout it, but I think I did a pretty good job. Because of the varying thickness and all the nooks and grooves, it was a bit tricky. I had to seal the stone before the grout so the grout would clean off the surface. The grouting part went fairly smooth, but it took forever to clean it up. I had to go over it about 3-4 times, on my hands and knees with a scrub brush and a flat screw driver getting each tile clean and grout free, before I sealed it one last time ( I used aquamix enrich and seal for future reference) I had to do this in sections so that we could at least walk on part of it. It was also best done after kids were in bed, so I have a had more than a few late nights. The stove and dishwasher are back in place (how I missed that), but the fridge is still sitting in my entryway. Hope we don't scratch the floor up putting it back. I still need to reinstall my built-in bench and my baseboard. It has only been two weeks but seems like longer. Now I have to think about the missing tile in my entryway and get ready to lay the hardwood. Which I think I will attempt to install myself. My husband thinks I am crazy, but is glad he doesn't have to do anything. If I waited for him to get involved it would absolutely never happen.

Today I hired a Stripper!

Not exactly what you had in mind right. I am finally getting to replace my kitchen tile. This is something I have wanted to do since I moved into this house 8 years ago. The light gray, almost white tile has been hard to keep clean, and just overall ugly. Many a bad thought have been thrown at this floor over the years, but none so much as today. That tile would not come up, that soon became evident after a quick shot with my hammer and chisel. So I went out and rented a floor stripper. This had a large sharp blade that hammered against the tile. Did it work not really, so I took it back and rented a power chisel. This was a big chisel powered by a large air compressor. This did a better job of getting up the tile, though very slowly. The problem lay in trying to get up the existing mortar and wire mesh. I was told I needed to get down to the wood subfloor. And so I tried. A friend of my brothers was going to come help on Saturday, so I worked two days on my own trying to get the tile up. By Saturday I knew the mortar was not coming up. In fact my tile guy said he had never seen tile so hard to get up. So we resolved to leave it on and level it off with another layer of mortar. That took up Saturday. The next day my brother's friend came back with a buddy and got it laid. They did a good job and I was glad not to have to do it all by myself. Especially now that I know how much work I had left. So part two of the floor saga later.

Creamy Dreams

Last week my DH, #1, #2 and I played in a coed volleyball tournament. It was pretty cool to be able to play with my kids at that high of a level. They are getting good. We won the tourney and got a gift certificate to a restaurant. Saturday night we decide to use it. We were just finishing stuffing our faces with yummy barbecue when I looked over at #5. He was staring off into space with a squirley little smile on his face. I leaned over and whispered in his ear "what are you thinking about" He looked at me intently and solemnly answered, "Cream of Wheat".