"Good guys 'n bad guys"

As we were sitting at the dinner table today, everyone is competing to see who can talk the most and eat the least (or so it seems at times, anyway=). We cover a wide range of topics from cartoons to Bible stories, everyone is loving the bacon chicken and can't wait for the "apple saucer" (as Levi calls it), and this whole time Isaac keeps rubbing his cold feet on me. I keep shifting away and he keeps shifting towards me again and finally I tell him to "quit putting your cold feet on me"...then he asks " Is cold the bad guys and warm (or "woym" as he says it)the good guys?". It took a minute with all the noise to realize what he was saying, but when I did, I assured him that warm was definitely the good guys. Smile. He is just too funny sometimes.

  I scrubbed my floors today...literally. Isaac (yes, he's 4) spilled almost an entire gallon of milk all over the floor the other day and I haven't been able to get the smell out. We mopped right away but I think it got trapped somewhere that we missed and I haven't had time to move furniture very much. So today I moved everything and scrubbed with Murphy's Oil Soap and lemon oil and I think it took care of the smell.  It was a perfect day for cleaning...I had all the doors open and everything.

  Now I'm trying to make headway in the laundry. It's the craziest thing...I know dirty laundry is dirty ok, but HOW can I have a fresh swept floor, and after I finish sorting laundry I have another dust pan full of dirt? Does anyone else have this problem?

 Besides that...I'm currently debating the wisdom of trying to scrapbook a bit this evening. Hmmm.

 It's very tempting but I'm not sure but what all my work today would be undone if I did it while the kids are awake. Unless...I put on a movie. But then, Friday night is movie night so I'm not sure that I should. Decisions, decisions.

 Guess ya'll will just have to find out later what I decide.;) C'ya.

Dry skin anyone?

This weather has been really hard on my skin. It tends to be a little dry anyway, but lately it has been painfully so. So I switched to a more natural soap ...which I tend to like to do anyway but it's pricier... but even that didn't really help, and lotion just feels ok for the minute but not long term.

 Well, when I was getting my bath the other day I  had an inspiration. I have this little glass spray bottle that I keep a solution of lavender diluted in olive oil in all the time. It's great for treating cuts, scrapes,  etc, and lately I've been using it for little cheeks and noses after wiping them so much.  It suddenly occurred to me to try it on my washrag, so after bathing I sprayed some on the rag and then "bathed" again, I even used it on my face. Let me tell you, it did the trick. My skin felt so soft and moistured but not at all greasy. And it lasted all day long, too. I will definitely be doing this again. 

 Just thought I would share that in case anyone else has the same problem. If you don't have lavender, I feel sure just plain olive oil applied to a rag while you're in the tub will do the same thing. 

Week in review

It's really late Sat. night and I should be doing a number of other things like laying out sunday clothes, cleaning the kitchen, getting my bath, etc.....But I know I haven't blogged in a few days and wanted to just give an update while I had a minute (or not).

 Today was another gorgeous day, just like last Sat. and we ended up doing alot of yard work. Ed went to work early this morning only this time he will be gone 4 days instead of 2. He is having to do basic refresher courses and had to swap days with someone so he could get in on the classes. Anyway, I hadn't planned on working outside it just sort of happened. The kids were out there playing and I went out to put Ky in the wagon (she loves to be out there too) and then ended up staying. We started doing clean-up in the back...toys, random flip flops, plastic cups, pieces of trash that blew into the yard, and an endless amount of sticks. It was so inspiring that I moved into the front yard and borrowed a rake. We have pine trees so we have a steady supply of stuff to rake. Then I even ended up cleaning off the porch and the carport.  We were all pretty tired but it was a good tired and everything (outside anyway) looks beautiful.

  You know how it is when you move into a new place....you move in and then after being there a bit you find what works and what doesn't so you tweak it and perfect it. I've been doing some perfecting this week. I got the boys curtains finally up and they look adorable in my opinion. As I get each room just where I want it I'm taking video and when it's done I'll post it on here. I think it will give a better idea than pictures.   Oh, and.....

    I've gotten back into scrapbooking again. It is something I LOVE. I'm able to incorporate everything I enjoy into the process and when I'm done I have something that will last longer than 10 min.,.. and I'm recording history and capturing all those adorable pictures in a way we all will enjoy looking at. Anyway, as you can see I have lots of reasons, and if those aren't enough I'll find more. Ed is  sort of the one that got me back started again. He knows how much I enjoy it and he really encourages me in it. I have a whole little nook carved out in the main area so even when I'm doing it I'm not "out of the loop". I'm still able to see what is going on with the kids or visit with family who happens to pop in. It will probably end up being something I only do when Ed is home though because it can become all-consuming. =) I've actually completed 2 pages this week.

  Besides that, it's been business as usual...does anyone know what usual actually stands for. Around here, I think it means taking care of the necessities of life but that can be so many things for us. 

   I got my menu/grocery shopping done again yesterday. so. good.

I think I'm running out of steam here so I'm going to say Goodnight to all and have a blessed Sunday!

  

  

  

Pictures of the Zoo

"Confessions of a super-mom"or "A trip to the zoo"

Sat. we took the kids to the zoo, and we really had a great time. The last time we went Isaac was in the stroller instead of Kyla....

 It was sort of a spur of the moment thing, when we woke up it was such a gorgeous day that we both thought a field trip would be fun, and we both thought of the zoo. We live within walking distance (yes, with 6 kids, so you know how close that is),and I guess the only reason we don't go more often is that they do charge an entrance fee. It's not much, but it used to be free so I guess it's the mental thing of having to pay now. Anyway, we got ready....translate that, I waded through the chaos everywhere to find clean cute clothes suitable for public display for every member of the family including myself; fixed hair, found boy's hats, checked faces, wiped noses(10 times at least), packed diaper bag, meanwhile telling the boys to "FIND YOUR SHOES". We finally realized that they were probably left in the truck, Oops! (at any given time we probably have 4 or 5 pairs of socks and 1 or 2 mismatched shoes in the floor of our truck). Yep, they were, so the boys were excused for not having them on and I FINALLY got everyone lined up at the door. Our routine is to line everyone up age order at the door before we leave. Gives me one last chance to check them over and make sure Isaac is wearing socks with his shoes and has underwear on. I know, I should have that under control better...working on it.

 Since we do live so close, we decided to walk...we all needed the exercise. Overall the kids did pretty good...they have some new exhibits, and we were just in time to make one where the lady brought out a parrot, a tortoise and a giant iguana. You could pet them, or in the parrot's case listen to him talk. It was pretty cool. Then we made the rounds of all the animals. Levi's favorite was the tiger, Lela's was the tapir, Aaron's was the giant land turtle (or is it tortoise),Kyla liked everything, Alyssa liked the peacocks, and Isaac's favorite was the alligator. It's not a huge zoo but still big enough to be fun. Ed got tons of pictures and by the time we got home and ate we were all beat. We all napped for almost 3 hours after that even though it was late afternoon. Oh well, at least I had the energy to see about baths and such after that.

Oh, just FYI, Super Mom is the name of my vitamins (that I forget to take half the time)as you can see, it doesn't really apply in my case.=)