PRO-Crastination

I'm telling you now, in case you were wondering if you should entrust me with a project that you might like completed at some point in the near future...the answer is..likely no. I am a professional procrastinator. (next to my friend Jessie...she would argue she holds the title...it would be close).

I am not sure if I mentioned, but recently...and by recently I mean in the last year...we moved kids around in the rooms.  Twins were sharing a room...and now Agent P and Monkey share the room with the bunks and Mini P has her own room.

And good like I am with all projects...I forget that I actually have time constraints. Ages 5-15.  But, I moved a little of this and a little of that and VIOLA! Rooms were changed...

Or that is how I wished it went.

As I moved dressers and whatnot, I decided to just throw a coat of paint on the walls. One wall is nearly unreachable due to the loft, so really, dark brown is perfect. And frankly I can find a girl color to go with dark brown.

So. Pink.

I painted around the closet, door and main wall...

Got her some new girl things to hang so that her room looked more girlie.

And then...

Ya know.

I stopped.

But I have to tell you. I stopped at a point that when I walk down the hall..I don't actually notice it too much.

Of course you are thinking "what a genius"!  I know, I know...I admit, it was genius!

Now, I can walk down the hall and not have her room scream "YOU DIDN'T FINISH PAINTING YET!!!".

Funny, she hasn't really noticed, nor has anyone else.  

I may get to it...eventually...hopefully before the paint goes bad.

But, I have to paint around a window plus move the loft and paint in a very narrow spot - about 2 feet in depth and I'm just not looking forward to it. 

I will let you know when I get a round to it :)

Cheers!

The Naughty List

Yesterday, little miss Mini P put me on the naughty list.

Time out is what I would have preferred if I was to be in trouble...time out..in a hot bubble bath with a movie playing while I was left alone in solitary confinement for 3 hours.

But since Mini P decided to take discipling into her own hands yesterday, (delivering a swat to a brother who wouldn't listen to her), she got sent to timeout AND had her computer time taken away.

Well, she didn't care about timeout, but her computer time? That sent her through the roof. She screamed and hollered and talked to herself about the unfairness of it all, stomped and screamed some more...then made a drawing of her feelings...because hollering and screaming just weren't helping to relieve her feelings about the injustice of it all....

It says "MOM" at the top.  The 2 people in the middle - 1 is Mini P (on left) 1 is me (on right-can't you see my snarling face???).  She says "your mean".  I'm saying "you do not get vg" (video game - which is what she thinks her websites are that she is allowed on - mostly all educational).  

At the bottom it says "not Ainslie, mommy"

Apparently, I've been told. :)

Cheers!

Eating off the land

We have a small garden in our back lot, past the pool. 

Not big, just a few things - zucchini, dead tomatoes, strawberries, some chile plant, watermelon (which seems to be vining on things and basically dominating entire raised bed), peas or beans of sorts, near dead cilantro, squash, cucumber...I think that's it.  

BUT, it has been low on production. 

Here is what I had to feed the family for the week:

Yup.  2 small carrots, some beans (peas maybe? green beans?) strawberries and a cucumber.

Livin' large aren't we??

Last year I couldn't keep up with the zucchini. This year I was prepared with a plethora of great recipes to keep up on dinner varieties. 

I've gotten about 4.

So, frustrated with my lack of food going on MY land, I decided to take the kids to an orchard and pick some of THEIR food. 

I enlisted some help, because we tend to over pick and have trouble carrying it all.  So, help we got! (Really what I think we got was 2 more people picking...thus multiplying our load even more, but whatever!)

Hey, someone has to test the peach...you can't just 'pick' and hope the variety you are picking is your favorite.  You must sample.  It's a rule.

This guy ate 2 apples and 2 peaches while at the orchard...the boy loves his fruit!

So, we started in the apple orchard and moved on to peaches.  As usual, I am pretty sure we got too much:

Peaches

Apples

Because the 6 people in my family need this much fruit for the week.

Thus far, I have frozen 2 batches of peaches for cobbler or pie (about 5 peaches per batch), I made a cobbler and we subsequently ate it. I have canned 3 pints (I think that is what size...) of cut up peaches, 3 pints of peach butter (like apple butter...but with peach), 3 pints of peach syrup or something that might serve as a syrup since I have NO IDEA how to make syrup and at the end of the day I made it all, I was DONE and just added some pectin and called it 'syrup'. 

I currently have another batch of peaches cooking for another round peach butter and syrup. To add to the chaos, I bulk order ground beef and chicken - and the beef was scheduled for pick up in the midst of this and I had to package 40lbs of ground beef into 1.5-2lb food saver bags, seal them and freeze them.

Pretty sure I'm not cooking dinner tonight...the kitchen is a PIT. 

Hope the family loves peach butter and syrup...
Cheers!

Creative minds

Today during school, Monkey was taking a break from writing his words to build Legos - he said his hands were bored :). I love that Legos build fine motor skills for him and has actually made a huge difference in his handwriting!

Lately he has been watching Lego videos to learn how to build other things.  He has built snails, dogs, trees, boats, planes and more...improvising as he goes along with parts we may not have.

He is very creative and loves to build and take apart and build again.  

Except today he built these, and gave me descriptions of each...:

"Here is the party house with windows by the door"

"These are the beer bottles, with caps on them"

"The blue part is someone's office, with beer in it." (do you see all the beer???)

I just absolutely have no words for this...apparently he is getting ready for his college life...in 15 years.

Of course, if I drink during 'school hours', they kids absolutely do not know this. I am smart enough to pour beverages into a non-see-through cup.  And keep it away from kids who sneak drinks from my cup...and it's likely NOT beer.

Because really, sometimes I do need a nice adult beverage during after a long day of school...

Cheers!

STOP!!!

Because sometimes, 1 sign just isn't enough.

Cheers!

But it's still hot....

School started.

Summer break is over.

I'm pretty unhappy about how fast our 7ish weeks of summer went. I say 'ish' because I really didn't count. Could be 7, could be 8, could be less than 8. 

Agent P had 2 weeks of summer day camp - he had fun classes like Lego robotics, All things Paper (read - make more paper airplanes because the 137 we have at home are not enough), some class on spiders...I dunno, maybe another one...

The kids did do a week of Vacation Bible School.

There went 3 weeks.

A-Dog had baseball for 4-5 weeks.

We went swimming.

A-Dog went to a Christian youth convention (I chaperoned) for 1 week.

Last week we went to the movies.

Yet somehow, it's all over.

I always take pictures of the first day of school, and because our summer is only 7-ish weeks, there is no sense taking "end of year photo", because I'm pretty sure it would look just like the beginning of school photo...just sayin'.  

Friday, A-Dog started his Sophomore year.

10th Grade

The other 3 are being home-schooled again this year.  

Agent P is in 3rd Grade (and really loves his watch).

Monkey is in Kindergarten

And of course, so is Mini P ;)

So, there you go. We are back to the grind. Kids grow up so fast, I just want to lay down and soak in it (but of course, then pray it isn't pee that I'm laying and soaking in...ya know?)

Cheers!

Ferris Wheels

Raising 4 kids often resembles carnival rides.

Or at least here at my house....

Sometimes it is the House of Horrors or Tilt-a-Whirl.

Sometimes it is the Merry-go-round (that I can't seem to get off)...

This summer it more resembled the Ferris Wheel.

You know...a nice slow ride, goes in a big circle. Stops every once in awhile. Some get on, some get off.

Except that I DESPISE the Ferris Wheel. I have panic attacks ON and OFF of it. If my kids want to ride it, they know the need to find another responsible adult because Mama will NOT be getting on it. Nor will she be watching.

I don't know what it is about the Ferris Wheel, but it seriously scares the be-jeebies out of me. I can barely talk about it and typing it out so many times has sent me into an adrenaline meltdown.

What does this have to do with anything you ask???

A-Dog is 'of the age' now and able to get his driving permit.

So, we let him.

It was inevitable I guess. 

He looks so happy.

*SIGH*. How did he get this old?

Anyway, we wanted to delegate teach him the ways of the road, but first he needed to be my full service gas attendant proficient in administering gas into said vehicle and cleaning the windshield. 

I'm not going to claim the cleanliness was suitable for driving, but since I rarely clean my windshield, I really couldn't complain. That's what car washes are for...to clean my bug smeared windshield.

Obviously the next step was...ahem...driving.  

There was an incident with a cayenne pepper and my sweet husband and so his vision was not what it should be....so off I went.

Being that A-Dog is our experiment first child, I had NO CLUE what I was doing. I mean, I truly thought that all the time spent on Mario Cart 7 and Golf n Stuff indy cars meant he was good to go.

I am here to tell you friends, do NOT rely on either of those!

We spent about an hour in the neighborhood. Thankfully we can across exactly 2 other cars, both time giving me a full on panic attack-just like being on a ferris wheel...for an hour.

Out where we live we had to improvise...like "pretend there is a stop sign at the end of this road, as there really should be, but there isn't". Most roads are dirt and hilly. Made for great driving conditions....

Needless to say, we were both spent when we returned and both needed several days to recover.

I exercised great patience. I never over reacted, or maybe it was just once I shouted "STOP" (which was code for STOP THE TRUCK NNNOOOWWW). He only drove off the road twice, but learned how to backup and that was a necessary lesson.

Pretty sure that is the last time I will be doing that. 

My sweet husband it going to have to do it...unless anybody steps up to volunteer.  I'll cross my fingers...

Cheers!