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".

Humpty Dumpty's Funeral

At Humpty Dumpty's Funeral,

the loss was felt by all,

and everyone was schocked to learn

of Humpty's fatal fall.

They held the funeral in a church.

The guests were all quite sad.

They had to close the casket up

'cause Humpty looked so bad.

The king's best men and horses

couldn't patch old Humpty's crack.

Prince Charming even kissed him,

but he couldn't bring him back.

And Simple Simon sat and sulked.

The blow to him was bitter.

The woman in the shoe stayed home.

(She couldn't find a sitter.)

And Mary had a little lamb

to cuddle as she cried,

but Old MacDonald smelled so gross

he had to stay outside.

The Seven Dwarfs attended too,

and even Happy wept,

but Rip Van Winkle never showed -

he must have overslept.

So Jack and Jill went up the hill

in hopes of fetching him.

Two famous brothers did show up,

and boy, did they look Grimm.

The sevice was expensive -

they sent Old King Cole the bill.

The Wicked Witch came only

for the reading of the will.

The wall is now off-limits,

and to climb it is a crime.

It's hoped that no more foolish eggs

will go before their time.

Though Humpty was a real good egg,

his future had been spoiled.

As Mother Goose so sadly said,

"He should have been hard boiled."

Blaine and Hardy VanRy

Lead us not into temptation, but deliver us from weevils!!

I have not spent the last few days as I have planned. I noticed a while back that I had a few moths in my pantry. This unfortunately was not the first time. Last fall I found the same thing. I think the nasty little weevils came from some rice I had bought. Remember when there was no rice to be found in the stores, well I bought a big bag of offbrand rice and put it in my pantry. Later my kids got into it when they were making rice heat bags. Anyway I had a infestation. I threw almost everything away and cleaned out the the shelves. But alas, they returned. I only saw a few of the moths, but I knew there were more where they came from. I was so irritated. So monday morning I started throwing things away again. Away went the pancake mix, cream of wheat, bags of pasta, flour, rice and anything else I suspected. The only thing I am trying to save is a 50 pound bag of powdered milk that I have been meaning to can. I am not throwing that away. I dont see any signs of bugs but I am going to put it in the freezer for a few days just in case. Once I got everything cleaned out and wiped down I decided to paint. After a fresh coat I went to the store to get new shelf liner; Thus ended the first day. My kitchen was a disaster. all the canned good were out on the counter and kitchen appliances were all over the floor. I was mad at wasting so much time on this stupid project. So I laid shelf liner, went back to the store to get some new airtight containers. And started putting everything back. I had flour, rice and sugar stored in large buckets. After throwing the food away I began scrubbing the buckets, on the bottoms in the crevices I found those nasty larvae. How gross! I got everything put back in and boy did it look good. Don't you think? But after loading everything back I took another close look and dang it I didn't see two little worms crawling along the ceiling. Uggh!! are you kidding me. I guess they were hiding in the cracks of the selves and didn't like the paint. Since then I have done some research and have learned that they are very, very hard to get rid of. I will be extremely mad if they come back, but not really surprised. Two days of my life, wasted fighting little weevil bugs. No wonder I never feel like I accomplish anything.

Happy Valentine's Day

My Dh and I had a great valentine's day. We stayed the night at a good friends cabin. It is a beautiful cabin. We so needed a night away, I have to confess it hasn't been the best winter for the two of us, but we are resolved to do/be better. We had such a great time doing mostly nothing. We had the best meal ever, it consisted of: Steak with sauteed mushrooms, king crab legs, lobster tail, asiago cheese bread, and sushi. For dessert we mad chocolate covered strawberries with really expensive dark chocolate. They were delicious. We then watched a great movie and enjoyed each others company. We slept in the next morning, made delicious omelets and hurried home in time to take the kids to church. This was the first time we left the kids all night by themselves with the older ones in charge. We had grandma check in on them, but they were on there own. They did great, the house was a mess, but totally worth it to get away. I love you, babe Happy Valentine's Day.