It’s Been a Busy Few Months

It has been a summer.

We, as a family, have been busy. Well, maybe just half the family. The non-busy half has enjoyed us not being around a lot.

First, I started going back to school. It is online and so I can do it at home when I have time, but it is still school. I have learned a lot, made some new friends, had some cool experiences, and I have had to brush up on my math skills that, surprise, surprise, I have not used in real life for the past 25 years. I use writing all the time so those assignments I understand and are fairly easy. The math came back, for the most part, after some quick reminders. I will admit that I had to have help from my kids from seventeen down to ten. For reals, all of them. I was struggling with my last assignment, or test, and my ten year old sat down next to me and looked at what I was doing. After I had gotten it wrong a couple times, he said, “Why don’t you just do it like this?” and proceeded to explain what I should do. I was desperate and fairly humble enough to try anything. I did it and got it right the first time. I am so insanely grateful that my kids understand math.

Honestly though, thinking about my life, I am probably okay at math but my issue might lie in the fact that I have trouble paying attention when I can’t hear, which is most of the time because I am quite deaf. I couldn’t hear the teachers and so I tuned them out. Not the best idea. But it is what it is and I passed all my math for the last fourteen weeks. I am proud to say that I got all A’s. I will add a detail though that made all the difference. For the math portion of the class we were allowed to do the assignments and quizzes and tests as many times we wanted in the time allowed until we got the grade we were satisfied with. That is how school should be. You should not be allowed to progress until you absolutely comprehend the material. I understand why it is almost impossible in a public school setting to run things that way, but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be attempted.

On top of my schooling, I have been dealing with teenage drama. I am thankful I was able to get my son into a counselor so quickly as he was diagnosed with major depressive disorder. Like I couldn’t see that one coming. I have dealt with depression since I was a teenager and it is very frustrating and to have to watch a child of mine cope with it is hard.

Then there is the community play. Every summer there is a play and this year it was The Wizard of Oz. It wasn’t my favorite story, and still isn’t, but after seeing it so many times with practices and having to be there for all the performances to help with wardrobe, it has grown on me. When they were having the auditions I knew my husband, Alex, would do an amazing job as the Cowardly Lion. I dragged him to auditions and he auditioned last second, literally, without any preparation. He was the absolute best Cowardly Lion ever. It was so fun to watch him perform. Considering he’d really had no real experience, he did amazing. Everyone was surprised that he had never acted before.

The play took so much time, for months! But the reactions of the audience was worth it.

The day the play ended we were driving to our friends house a couple blocks away and our truck died. It had been acting weird but I’d had it checked out and the machine said nothing was wrong. The machine was wrong. Luckily after a few minutes we were able to start it back up again and Alex drove it home. We are hoping it is just a battery issue and not something more expensive. Though the battery will be expensive enough.

Then last night I opened the cupboard under the sink and water came out. The disposal had finally had it. Water had leaked before and I didn’t think it was a big issue, but apparently it was. Thankfully we have a back-up disposal that I bought a couple years ago when our current one was acting up. All I needed was the key from the new one to fix it last time. Now I will need to actually replace it. Life has a way of being annoyingly upsetting and also working out eventually. I sincerely hope that we can have a break from breaking down things for a while.

I’ll try to keep writing more often on this blog, as I miss doing it. Don’t know if anyone misses reading it, but I’ll write it anyways.

Will Winter Ever End?

It’s still cold and snowy. It’s the longest winter of my life. It snowed in October and stuck and is still here! I went to knock giant icicles off from my house and thought I would walk on top of the snow. Nope. Down into the snow I went. Up to my knees and any movement sent me farther down. It was cold. We were blessed with warm air and sunshine today, which was much needed. All in advance of the next storm system that is probably moving in because the forecast said inches of snow every day for the rest of the week.

March 28, 2022

March 28, 2023

We’re losing our ever loving minds here.

I have been trying to do stuff to keep myself from going stir crazy. Alex asked if I had started a new project. I told him, “No, I’m finishing projects I started years ago.” Literally. Ten years ago, we took the hand rail off the basement stairs so we could frame in a wall. I intended to paint it and put it back, I think. Ten years later, and I’m finally painting. I’ll hang it up on Saturday when the hardware I ordered gets here.

Yesterday, I did a pretty big project also. Every April and October, we pull out the 72-hour kits and go through them and update the food and clothes. Evangeline and I did the task yesterday, and we went through every single item and inventoried it all on a spreadsheet. I have a lot, but I’m missing a ton of stuff. I now have a list of what I need to add to them all.

I have a cupboard that works wonderfully for all of the bags, and they are in the house, so the food stays at a consistent temperature. When it was in the garage they were exposed to extreme temperature differences. Bonus points for this being right next to the front door.

I hope we never have to use our 72-hour kits. But in case we ever do, I’d like to have food in them that we actually like. I don’t think an emergency makes kids less picky when it comes to food. So I thought I’d take advantage of my parents having a freeze dryer and I’ll make some of my family’s favorite foods and have my parents freeze dry it for me and then I’ll have food that I know my kids will eat and that I don’t have to rotate for the next 20 years.

I ordered a couple more things for the kits, and I’ll have the kids help me with the clothing aspect this weekend. These things are overwhelming to me sometimes, and it’s taken us years to gather some of the stuff. I’m glad we’ve never had to use them.

Keeping a Happy Attitude

Sunday was so good.

I was able to get a full night’s uninterrupted sleep. That always helps. We got up and got to church on time, and with ten people that can be a feat.

Church went smoothly, the choir that three of us sing in sounded so good, my son’s sunday school class I substitute taught went well and there were twelve ten year olds so that was a win. Yay!

We got home, had some lunch, and then most of us watched the movie Joseph.

It is a very good movie, and we had to stop watching before it ended to go to choir practice. My fifteen year old wanted to finish it even though he knows how the story ends. He grumbled when I said we were watching it but sat down next to me and watched the whole thing. Kids can be surprising sometimes. Though I knew if they gave it a chance, they would love it. It’s one of their favorite stories.

After Sunday, I guess something had to give. It is snowing. Again. Still. I had plans to get all my laundry done because I wasn’t able to keep up as well as I’d like, and the laundry piled up. I honestly don’t understand why there is so much. It seems excessive even for ten people.

I did a load and went to start the dryer. It wouldn’t start! Noooo! Nobody has time for this! I checked the fusebox, and nothing was out of place. I decided that I could wash everything since my washer still works, and then later, I’d head to the laundromat and dry it all at once. It could save me some time, maybe, because the washer is faster than the dryer. I figured I’d go after the kids are asleep and be alone. Hahaha. Who am I kidding. The kids never go to sleep.

I went downstairs in the morning to collect some laundry, and the smell of mold was overwhelming. I knew it was an issue, but for the most part, I could push it off because it wasn’t that bad. It is now that bad. I called to see if I could get it taken care of. Well, insurance covers nothing (so stupid), and I couldn’t afford what the companies are charging. So that just kind of added to what I’m already dealing with. It isn’t the worst thing in the world, but now I get to learn how to do mold remediation. My sister did it with her rental house, and I can do it with mine. I’m not looking forward to it as I’m sure the problem is a big deal as it involves moving a cement slab outside and digging down to the crack in the foundation. Not to mention removing the moldy drywall and insulation and fixing it all and putting it all back together and getting new carpet. The joys of homeownership.

Then, the kids got home from school. My son is grounded from practically everything but had a package coming. I unfortunately had parked in front of the mailbox so his package didn’t get delivered. We got in the car to rush to the post office. The post office closes at four o’clock. We got there at 4:02. “There is nothing in my life to look forward to, I was really looking forward to that.” He tried to guilt me. I apologized profusely, but well, kid, get used to disappointment. It happens.

Finally, after running kids to and from various activities and watching an episode of The Chosen (as is our new addition to scriptures and prayer time at night- and the episode was exactly what we were reading so that was fun), the kids helped me load up the wet laundry into the truck.

The laundromat just installed brand new machines. They are so pretty. I want two of the huge commercial size dryers in my house. I got an entire days wash dried in 35 minutes. How nice would that be daily! Okay, maybe just one would do the trick.

It was actually fun, and if it didn’t cost me so much, I’d do it every single week. But I guess the trade-off is the time. I sat and read Treasure Island to my son while the loads dried. My kids loved the experience as they’d never been to a laundromat before. They are easily entertained. I’ve set the bar pretty low. Hahaha!

I’ll still have to see if I can get my dryer to work because I really do need it. I really hope a miracle happens and the dryer was just taking a day off. I know I could use a day off.

I’m Losing Sleep

Up until now, parenting has been easy. Well, up until this past six months.

Now I am anxious, angry, suspicious, saddened, stressed, and so, so, so, so tired. I’m losing sleep over worrying about my son. And he has the nerve to tell me not to worry. Ha! Fat chance. It’s a mom’s job to worry for the rest of their life.

It started months ago, and teenagers think they know everything. News flash, they don’t. At all.

What is a mom to do when the situation their child is in has huge red flags waving wildly for all to see, but the child is apparently blind? Well, I am doing the best I can, and I am going at this at an angle that I can kind of control. I can only control some of the situation, and it’s wearing me out. I know that pushing hard can sometimes backfire, but what choice do I have when I can help them avoid what I’ve seen so many others suffer through that has serious long-term effects?

For now, though, I have done the absolute worst to him I can do (or so he thinks). I took away all the means of communication in my power. That’s right. No phone, no computer, no internet, no vehicle access. It has only been a week, and it is apparent that I’ve ruined his life. Dramatic? Well, I guess not to him. It would be comical to me if it wasn’t so serious.

As I’ve gotten older, my perspective has changed. I don’t see just the now. Today isn’t the whole rest of life. It’s just today. Where a teen sees being grounded as the end of the word, I see it as only a blip on the radar. I’m not going to keep him from the internet until he’s ninety. Though he thinks I will. See, dramatic. See, I am a very laid-back in my parenting style. My kids have never really done much that required harsh discipline, so they don’t know what it looks like. Now that they’ve seen it, it freaks them out.

Before you think I’ve done horrible things, it is literally just grounding him from electronics. That’s it. But I guess I’ve raised a bunch of addicts who can’t live in the real world. That all changes now. It will take a bit of time, but they’ll get used to it.

Meanwhile, prayers are appreciated. I’ve been praying a lot about it, and I’ve been following the promptings that God has so mercifully given me to guide us through this. It makes it a little easier knowing I’m not alone in this struggle. I need all the help I can get. So again, any prayers you can send my way would be greatly appreciated.

Christmas Break

Well, Christmas was okay. It checked all the boxes. It’s not the same as when you are a kid. Being a Mom means you make the magic instead of just enjoying the magic. I was sure to tell my mom thank you for years of magic.

What I found the most magical was the fact that after three different illnesses hit our house we are finally done with being sick. Fingers crossed. We have had sick kids since Thanksgiving. It’s been the most ridiculous deal. Thankfully it wasn’t the pukes, for the most part. Just fevers and coughs. I didn’t catch anything which made dealing with all the sick kids bearable. I finally broke down and took two of them in to the doctor because I was just done and wanted to know if there was anything I could do. Well, they were diagnosed with the flu and prescribed medicine. I didn’t bother to get the prescription and the kids healed up and were better in a couple days. Imagine that. I should have just not gone in.

Alex and I have been keeping the kids busy cleaning the house. They aren’t fans but I am. The house has been cleaner and I’ve been able to tackle some deep cleaning jobs like cleaning the oven and the window tracks. Things I rarely get to because I’m doing the kids’ jobs. Alex took the week off and it has been a big help. I even deep cleaned my bedroom which made me very happy. Every year I ask for a clean house for Christmas and this year I kind of got it. Yay! Don’t worry, they’ve been playing most of the time.

Since I’ve has little kids in the house for the last 17 years my Christmas decorations start to look hagard by the end of the season due to kids pulling ornaments off and rearranging things so by the end of the season I’m more than happy to take it all down and put it away. This year it’s stayed looking nice and I kind of want to keep the stuff up.

I haven’t made as many treats this year as I normally do, and that’s fine, but I did try a caramel pretzel recipe and I wasn’t a fan. It glooped up and wasn’t how I imagined it. So I tweaked it using a recipe I knew worked and it turned out great.

Caramel toffee pretzels

And because it made enough caramel, I made caramel corn with nuts

We watched Lyle Lyle Crocodile after dinner and ate the pretzels and popcorn. The big boys do not like the movie but the rest of us do. It’s cute. My little four year old cried during the movie and it was adorable. She’s growing up and is no longer a baby. I breaks my heart but also makes me happy to see her growing and being herself.

The season is almost over but that just means more adventures. That’s what I am going to keep telling myself.

It Just Drags On

So, we’ve had a time here.

My kids were so excited that we could go to their grandparents for Thanksgiving. We’d had to cancel a quite a bit of outings due to someone being sick. It’s just rude to go places sick and pass it on. So we were so excited that we weren’t sick and could go!

We got to my mom’s and my nieces and nephew were sick. They isolated themselves and even though we all did our best we brought it home with us.

With eight children it takes forever for an illness to leave. We got home and three days later it began. We’ve had sickness after sickness after sickness come through the house. Yes, three different ones. Alex and I have stayed healthy but the kids are a different story. Coughs, fevers, and even a bit of puking. We have had it all. The kids have missed so much school and I feel bad about it but what am I supposed to do when they look like death warmed over?

I’m taking one to the doctor just to see what’s up and if there is anything I can do to help. Alex mentioned that we should change the heater filter and air the house out. Well, that’s a good idea if it weren’t in the single digits for the high temperature outside. I did look at the forecast and after this cold comes through this week it will warm up above freezing and I will air the heck out of this house and disinfect everything. In the meantime the older sick kids are sleeping and I’m holding the youngest all day.

I’m just grateful I’ve stayed healthy. No fun being sick with them.

I’m just hoping it’s all gone by Christmas. That is a Christmas miracle I would get behind in a heartbeat.

If I don’t post again before Christmas, Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays.

Thanksgiving Week: Friday and Saturday

Friday. The official go back home day. It’s days like that where I wish I lived closer so it could just be a quick pop in visit. I probably stay way too long when I visit my family but I can’t help it sometimes. I only go down there maybe 4 times a year?

The kids swam in the hotel pool and had a blast. I tried to let them play as long as they could but we needed to clean up and check out was at eleven.

Elizabeth was learning to swim and found out how to blow up her swimsuit to have a built in floaty. It worked quite well keeping her afloat.

At my parent house the kids all ran around and found a place to play. We opened the crawl space (nicest crawl space ever- lined, deep, lights and they put some spare carpet down) and got the decorations out. I helped my mom and dad put some up. Might as well make myself useful.

My brother and sister-in-law came down to the kitchen to eat and they said their friend found out their kids have RSV. Update, my niece and nephews also have RSV. The kids stayed separate for the whole time we were there so I’m hoping we don’t catch it. Also, prayers for all the little babies effected would be appreciated.

I also got a text from my friend asking when I would be home. I told her that day and she asked if I’d be willing to make an emergency wedding cake. I guess their other cake fell through? I said I would and booked myself up for the day.

The trip home was uneventful. Thank goodness. My 15 passenger van rattled and rolls and shakes like you wouldn’t believe so it’s always a miracle we make it where we’re going. It is a stressful drive for me though. Complete concentration. I did enjoy one part of the drive though, a book about the pilgrims and America’s founding. I thought it was appropriate. And I learned a ton.

Saturday downed nice and cloudy. Then it started to snow. The roads were super slick. Thankfully they cleared the highway so I could deliver the cake and take my birthday boy out to dinner. He turned ten today! He wanted an ice cream cake- thank goodness because I didn’t really want to bake and decorate two cakes today.

I still have a long ways to go to get better skill-wise but I think for an emergency cake it looks pretty good.

We took our new ten year old out for sushi next. It wasn’t his favorite. It didn’t live up to the grocery store sushi. Honestly, I agree. Hahaha. Next time.

We then went to Walmart and got the birthday boy an ice cream cake like he wanted and let him wander all over the store looking for a present. I won’t do that again. He looked for what seemed like two hours. But he got what he wanted and made the day better.

It was a long week full of way more drama than I like -which is none- but we survived and lived to tell the tale.

I’ve got three more birthdays coming up in the next two weeks so I’ll definitely be busy.

Thanksgiving Week: Monday and Tuesday

Sunday’s Thanksgiving dinner with Alex’s family went well. We didn’t stay long because we had a bunch of other stuff planned later in the day. I also have teenage boys who would rather be anywhere else. Well, they would rather be home than anywhere else.

But Monday. I did get to sleep in. It was glorious. I decided that Monday needed to be Christmas decorating day since I didn’t get it done Sunday because we were busy from running from place to place. I pulled out the Christmas lights. Half of one string didn’t work. Cue the tears (I’m kind of an emotional mess lately). Luckily I had the foresight to buy an extra box of lights last year so I was able to calm down a bit. After I got big lights on the tree I realized that they were the outside lights. Oh my gosh. I dislike decorating in the first place and to have to do it twice was depressing. But I persevered and put the right lights on.

Can I just sit down and watch a movie and eat chocolate alone instead of finishing the decorating? The decorating ended up taking two days. And no chocolate. But we did watch Polar Express that first night. I fell alseep towards the end with kids piled on me so it kind of counts?

Also, Alex took the week off. I planned it. Little did I know it worked insanely in his favor. World Cup Soccer going on this week. He’s loving it. Me? Well, I’ll have his help at the half and when the games end around two o’clock each day. It’s fine, it’s fine. But did you know, due to the location of the games, in Qatar, the time difference means he is up at two and three in the morning to catch some of the games? Dedication or insanity?

Monday and Tuesday were days of checking things off my list. So many chores. But the kids and Alex are cooperating fairly well and the house is clean, amazingly, and it’s making me happier.

So Monday night Lauren, my daughter, made two pumpkin pies for Pie Week. She did so good! They tasted amazing. Then Tuesday I made an apple cranberry pie. Again, so good. Well, if you like cranberries, which I do. It needed I’ve cream to cut some of the tartness but I’d make it again. The pie smelled like Christmas.

Hopefully the rest of the week goes well. My son, who literally waits until the day we go somewhere to see if he can get days off from work, has kept me on pins and needles as we have plans for Wednesday through Friday and he hasn’t gotten work off yet. The kid is a procrastinator of the worst order. I give him a month or more advanced warning and he waits until the hours before. Unnecessary stress on all our parts. When if he’d just put in the request to his boss when I tell him to then this stress could all be avoided.

Oh, and Christmas shopping this year. Things are tighter than they have been in a few years and that is always annoying. Economy, cars breaking down, kids’ unexpected expenses, etc. Life. But it is what it is, whatever. So I told the kids to pick what they want the most. My oldest picked an old video game. A game that they don’t make anymore. A game that I can only find used. I resorted to ebay, which I have never used before. I’m not really a fan, but I looked at the prices and timing of all the items and managed to get the winning bid. With shipping I ended up getting it for less than most of the full priced ones so I guess that counts as a win. Now for the rest of the kids. Wish me luck.

The Beginning of Thanksgiving Week

The first of an entire week off from school and work. I was excited to sleep in. Since the time change we decided to just stick with the time and so with the change we are now getting up at 4:30 a.m. Yes, that is way too early. But it’s working. It also means I live for Saturday when I can sleep in. Two weekends someone (different people) decided that it was urgent and needed to call us at eight in the morning. It wasn’t urgent. It could have waited. It could have been texted. I told Alex he is to turn his phone off in the morning for the rest of the week off.

So, seeing as it is Thanksgiving this next week it is also our family’s tradition of “Pie Week”! If you are new here, pie week is where we enjoy all the pies. Thanksgiving day is not enough time to enjoy all the wonderful pies. One is always stuffed with the main meal and we never get to try all the different kinds. So probably about 15 years now for Thanksgiving week, from Sunday to Sunday, we have a different pie every single night. Do I get tired of making a pie a day? Yes. But I do it anyways. This year I’m trying to be a bit more organized and I made four crusts and pre-baked two of them. The filling is the easy part. So I’m a little ahead of the game. Tomorrow’s pie is banana cream and I made it today because we have a family Thanksgiving dinner to go to and won’t have time.

I spent most of the day cleaning and cooking and baking. But I’ll thank myself for prepping it all when I have pretty much zero time to do any of it tomorrow.

While I was working, my daughters went with their aunt. She is so good about taking my kids (and all her nieces and nephews) out for their birthdays. They all went and got their nails painted. They were out and about and I was babysitting her dog.

Poor thing got a cut paw and needed stitches. He was still loopy from the sedative. So he slept on the floor in the way for a few hours. My dog was unsure and my cats wanted nothing to do with him.

Tomorrow’s plan is to go have a family dinner with the in-laws and when we get home it’s finally time to decorate for Christmas. I’ve been meaning to get it all up for a week but life happens and decorating didn’t. My front room is so full of bins you can’t see the floor. I don’t like decorating that much but the kids have said quite a few times in the past weeks how much they just love Christmas. They love the snow, the decorations, the lights, the music, the feel of the season. So I’m going to do my best to make sure they get that experience. Wish me luck.

Scammers

Okay, with things being a little bit tighter, economy and all, I decided it was time to let some things go. So I listed some things on a social media marketplace and instantly people responded. I hate selling things anyways, it gives me anxiety all ways to Sunday and I’d avoid it if I could.

The text conversation started out normal enough but two texts in, the first interested party got a little too polite and insistent. Alarm bells were going off in my head and I knew something was off. I gave him the benefit of the doubt but after a few more texts and emails and such I spotted quite a few errors. Things weren’t adding up. Literally.

I messaged back politely, “Thank you for your interest but this is all too convoluted,” and refused to respond further. He put up question marks. I think in addition to his inability to do basic math, his vocabulary was lacking as well.

I was tempted to text back and tell him every single error he made (there were ever so many) but I’m not going to make it easier for him to trick people.

I was upset, as this is not the first time I’ve had people try to scam me, and I took my listing off the marketplace. I feel bad for all the others who were genuinely interested, but I was not in the mood to filter through them. I’ll relist later.

I don’t know why it’s so hard for people to be honest. It’s not that hard.