not a single one

Hmm.  Not a single post in August.

I sort of inadvertently took the summer off.

I didn't realize how busy 5 troublemakers were going to keep me (as opposed to last summer's 4 troublemakers.)  I still haven't figured out how it works, since the two kids I lose at school time are the ones to dress, bathe, and sometimes even clean up after themselves.  Yet somehow when they go back to school there seem to be less messes and things are accomplished so much quicker.

Whatever the reason, having the 2 older troublemakers back in school has freed up some time.  I have been able to clean, maintain, and every now and then I get to deep clean something!  It's been a long summer, and I was aching for school to start again.  Now that it has, I've been more productive in the crafting department.

This past week, the stars aligned and both little troublemakers went down for naps at the same time, and Rora found herself with a hankering to watch a movie, so I indulged and got a few crafts done, which I'll be sharing with you over the next few days.

I'm going to try to be better, but I don't know that I can promise anything because soccer season started for our older three troublemakers.  That means 2 soccer games every Thursday night, 1-2 games each Saturday, and practices in between, and sometimes they overlap.  Things are busy, but when I can steal a spare hour or two, I promise to show you what I'm working on!

donut day

I've been a slacker.  I haven't been crafting much since Graham was born.  I've hemmed pants and repaired holes, but pure creation has been on hold while we finish a bedroom in the basement for the oldest two troublemakers to move downstairs . . . also, there's the adjusting to the newest troublemaker.

Graham will be two months old tomorrow, and I will begin crafting, sewing, and posting again next week.

For now, here are a few pictures of one of the sweet things we did today:  we had donuts with chocolate frosting.

See you next week!  I've missed you.

down and out . . . for now

Sunday, the 2nd, my sweet husband started to feel under the weather.  He was burning hot and achy.  It's not uncommon for him to get that way this time of year.  He works at night in the shipping industry, and always ends up sick either before, during, or after Christmas.  He slept in that morning and woke a few hours later his fever having broken and he claimed to feel much better.  Whew!  Dodged a bullet there!

That night, Enos was feeling achy and fevered again, but we hoped with a good night's sleep, he would again feel better in the morning. 

Monday morning dawned with troublemakers #'s 3 & 4 hacking horribly, but acting much like their energetic little selves, so we didn't worry much, except that Enos just couldn't kick whatever he had and I resigned myself to the fact that he was going to be sick and less help than normal while he tried to sleep it off over the next few days (because it turns out he is allergic to calling in sick to work.)

Tuesday morning I realized troublemaker #2 and I had caught whatever the two smaller troublemakers had (which was completely different than what Enos had.)  We were slightly congested, but nothing we couldn't power through, and so we did.

Wednesday morning: husband still sick, troublemakers 2-4 worse, and I felt like death.  I kept troublemaker #2 home from school.  By this point, we were going through Children's Tylenol and Children's Motrin like water.  We lived for when the 3-hour time period was up so that we could all take more medication (except me--I had a 4 hour wait because I'm pregnant and can only take Tylenol, which let me tell you, wasn't cutting it.)

Thursday morning, Enos slept after working all night and woke up six hours later to find me and the kids laying around the house trying not to move.  He announced that he was feeling better, made me call my doctor, and started dosing up the kids again.  My amazing doctor listened to my symptoms (achy, headache, fever, sore throat, chest congestion, difficulty breathing) and called in two prescriptions for me: an antibiotic and cough syrup with codine (both safe for me and the baby.)

Enos went to the pharmacy and came back with my drugs and more of the kids' medicine.  By this point, I hadn't cooked or cleaned in days.  Poor troublemaker #1 was the only one who didn't get sick, and was surviving almost solely on his own--and might I add, he was an angel.

Enos sent me to bed, declaring himself to be on the mend, at 4 pm and took over with the kids.  I slept until 6 am the next morning and woke feeling much better.  As the day wore on, however, it became apparent that I was not completely over whatever I had, and the troublemakers felt the same way I did - better, but by no means healed.  So, we laid around some more, watched movies, napped, and waited until bedtime when we could all pass out again for the night.

Saturday morning was a little better, but about the same as Friday.  The plus side is that by this point whatever Enos had he was over now.

Sunday, I thought we were all coming out of it when the pretty troublemaker (Rora) became extra whiny and irritable.  She spent the evening on Grandma's lap and then passed out for the entire night at home.

Monday morning, all except Rora were feeling better, and with a temperature of 103.8 degrees, I scheduled a doctor's appointment for her.  By the time we got to the office two hours later, Rora was bouncing around and I was starting to question whether the fever was just a fluke.  Turns out, Rora has strep throat, but luckily no ear infections, RSV, or pneumonia, like the last three winters.

All of this is leading somewhere, I promise.

With all that going on, I haven't posted in over a week.  Sorry.  I spent last week sick (obviously,) and this week trying to catch up on the housework I didn't do last week.  After an entire week of the dishes going uncleaned, the floors unvacuumed, the house undusted, and the laundry undone, I'm digging my way out slowly.

When I finally got up to doing dishes again, I put a load in the dishwasher, ran the cycle, and then opened the door to reveal still-dirty dishes (great.)  So, I went to the store, picked up a bunch of dishwasher cleaning products, since I was fairly sure that was the problem (we had extremely hard water where we live,) and ran it through the dishwasher.  Most of the way through the cleaning cycle, water starts spraying out of the door (ahhh!)

Last night, I pulled apart the dishwasher, cleaned 6-years-worth of limescale out of the filter, ran two more cleaning cycles through, and then finally washed a load of dishes, which came out clean!!  (Picture me with a very happy face and my chest puffed out with pride.)

Today, with kids all healthy, dishwasher fixed, and most of the rooms in the house at least basically cleaned, I am focusing on the laundry.  The regular clothes are not in too bad a shape, but after last week's illnesses, I'm also washing all the sheets, pillowcases, blankets, luv sac covers, more blankets, etc.  It all needs to be cleaned, and then I'll feel much better.

So, after a very long explanation (excuse,) I am here to tell you that I will begin sewing, cooking, crafting again this weekend, and should have something more interesting to show you again on Monday!

hanging

So, I kind of left you all hanging after Wednesday! 

Hopefully, you (like myself) were all busy enough on your own that you didn't need my Simple Kids' Christmas ideas.  To satisfy your curiosity, however, we ended up making foam ornaments with the troublemakers' grandma, baking Santa's sugar cookies, making little treats, and much of our time was spent keeping our house clean to impress Santa (which he was.)

Oh, and sewing . . . lots and lots of sewing, but that all happened while the troublemakers were sleeping or out, since all of them still believe in Santa this year (and sadly, this could be the last year that was so.)

The good news is that now that the gifts have all been opened, I'll be able to post the things I was able to get done for you to see during the coming days.

Hopefully you all had a good Christmas filled with family, love, warmth, and fun, like we did!

simple kids' christmas

Are your kids out of school this week?

Mine are.

The. Whole. Week.

So, what am I supposed to do with my kids that will keep my house in tact, yet keep them busy enough not to make me crazy?  ("Santa wants our house to be clean," only works so many times.)

I'd like to introduce:

I hate dislike doing crafts with my kids.  I'm too much of a perfectionist.  I love the little art projects they bring home to me from school, but watching them make something while accidentally sticking their fingers in the glue, putting pieces on crooked, etc makes my skin crawl.

So, I'm putting that aside this week and working on simple crafts with my kids to keep them entertained for the next 5 days until Christmas. 

Each day I'll feature one so that maybe we can all enjoy (survive) this week together!

short break

Sorry about the short break yesterday!  I kept meaning to sit down and post something, but my husband caught the home improvement bug over the weekend, and it spilled into yesterday.

The good news is that we bought a much-needed garden shed, prepped the area, put down a weed tarp, spread gravel, placed the shed, then sanded and repainted our front door and shutters!!  Whew!

It was a long and productive weekend!  How was yours?

welcome!

Welcome to my new blog!  I'm very excited and feel like I'm starting a new adventure!

Take a look around.  Most of the content on here now was written and published while I was a part of Sew Saucy.  If you like what you see, take a button and/or become a follower!

I have lots of plans for the future.  October is going to be big with baking, crafts, and costumes I've sewn in the past, as well as this years' four new costumes for my four little troublemakers.

Don't forget to check back tomorrow for a recipe disaster . . . I had the best of intentions for making a good first impression, but it just didn't work out that way!  *sigh*