Family Pix

Over Easter, my friend Kelly offered to take a family picture for us. It was nice because we were all dressed nicely for Easter church.


My mom hijacked it from my Facebook page and had it printed, I should have one printed, too because the family picture I have hanging on my wall is from when RILEY (my 7 year old) was 2 months old. I think it's time.

Hello there!

Hi Everyone!

If you stopped by (vs reading me in a reader) did you notice any changes lately? I love the new options for backgrounds within Blogger now! I freshened up the 'ole blog for spring with a fancy bright blue and having the option for a double column on the right side over there is super nice.

I also took the blogs I read section off and replaced it with the fancy-dancy new version that has a little snippet of each blog's most recent post....and it's tied to my google reader which I majorly trimmed today, too. I went from near 100 blogs to 38 that I just couldn't get rid of. Should be much more manageable.

Also, you may have noticed that I've been posting less often lately...kinda in a funk about that so I contacted BlogHer ads and let them know they could fill my spot with someone that is up to blogging more often than I have been. They've been super patient with me and I appreciate that, but one tiny check every 6 months wasn't really worth the pressure of posting that often. I tried to build readership, but didn't quite succeed there, either. So, this is the way it will go. I'll be deleting my reviews blog since I'm no longer with BlogHer, I can have them here instead so it's not YET ANOTHER blog to keep up with. I'm also going to try to spend some time working on Cafe Jessica.

But, what I'm really doing is making my life a bit simpler and easier to manage right now. My uncle is really sick and I'd like to worry about that....not a blog I have to keep up with or blogs in my reader. I'm also not joining more weight loss challenges at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans for a while so I don't have to think about weighing in all the time. I'm going to attempt to make real, in real life friends. And I want to feel like I have a purpose again and be a good mommy to my boys because, honestly, I've been slacking there, too. So, expect fewer posts, but with a little luck they'll be longer and more picture filled.

Garden

Tis the season!! YAY!!! This weekend, someone on Craigslist was offering up some purple raspberry plants if someone wanted to come dig them up. Well, yes, thank you! So we went and it was just the little suckers, but we dug and dug and dug some more. My mom and grandma both think I'm nuts because I planted 8 rows of them and each row is 9 feet long. I know they are a lot of work, but I have four kids and if I expect any berries to make jam or pies with, I have to have enough for them to eat and still make things. The man we got them from said I should have berries next year, so we'll see....

Next weekend, we're hoping the neighbor is able to til the garden for me so I can plant some spring crops. I planted some peas between the raspberry rows because I just couldn't wait, but I have onions and spinach I want to plant down there yet.
I heard something on public radio about planting rye on the walkways to help keep weeds down, but need to research that some more and I'm still trying to figure out this companion planting thing. I have a ton of questions, so I might have to go to the extension office and see if someone there can help or point me in the right direction.

Blueberry munchers

How can I keep up when this is what happens when I leave the room for 2 seconds?!

Can you tell which brother was less involved here?

"Wasn't me!" -Tucker

"Whoops! Dropped one (or 12)"

"WOOHOO! Mom left the blueberries out for me!"

Going's on

Good Afternoon!

This morning, I had a tooth pulled so I am stuck sitting still this afternoon. The babies had a nap when we got home and I've been able to sit still. I'm glad that today's weather isn't as gorgeous as yesterday's or I'd be in big trouble. We are planning to do leftovers tonight since Tim isn't home yet to help make dinner. Sounds like he'll be home right around bedtime. I'm tired, but I'm tired of sitting still, too. The boys will be home from school soon, then it's homework and craziness until bed. Hopefully they don't mind watching movies and playing wii tonight. :) Have a great night! Be back to blogging soon!

Got my run on

Went out for another run this morning....it was freezing cold and the tire on the stroller was flat so it was super hard to push (why didn't I figure that out before I left? Yea, I don't know the answer to that, either.) but I went and I DID IT. Just over a mile in 15 minutes and most of it walking. It's a start....baby steps, baby steps.

My SIL Lisa talked to me about doing the Bellin with her in June and while I was on the Bellin Run website this morning, I realized that I'm only 1 day behind in their training schedule, so I did that one day today and I can catch up tomorrow and be on track. I think it's a sign, so I'm gonna go for it. I am going to talk to Tim tonight about doing the registration for it, because I think it'll keep me on track better knowing that I don't want to waste the money for the registration. So, wish me luck, tomorrow is a 15 minute run and I walked/ran 15 minutes today and was sucking wind. Should be interesting!

noreply-comment

I love comments. In fact, that's probably my favorite thing about blogging. I love knowing that something I'm saying or doing is enjoyed by and/or helping others. Maybe I'm just letting you know that you aren't alone in a situation. So, on the RARE occassion that someone does comment, usually I can't reply because the comments come from "noreply-comment @ blogger. com" and like the address states, I can't reply. It's so sad! So, sometimes I have time to search that persons blog to get an e-mail address or reply to their post or they have no blog and I can't reply at all. So, here I am asking for you, my loyal readers, to do me a favor. Will you please update your profile so I can easily reply to you? Here's a simple how to:

If you decide to get a new email account for this purpose, sign in to Blogger and edit your profile. Under the word “PRIVACY”, click the box by “Show My Email Address”. Under the word “IDENTITY”, enter your new email address where it asks for it. And that’s really all you need to do, unless you feel like updating more of your profile.


Pretty please?

Have I got a story for you!

And it even has pictures! Unfortunately, my hubby has the camera and I keep forgetting to ask him for it when he's home. So, I'll keep you hanging on that one. If you are a facebook friend, then you've already heard part of it. My daddy laughed when he read that status update, I'm sure the full story will have him rolling! :) Be back soon with that!!


Oh, and I got new glasses and a new funky haircut to go with them!! Pix of that coming, too!

Running

Hello there. Did you think I forgot about you? This lovely weather and four kids have been giving me a run for my money lately! They all love being outside so much. We're working on teaching the 2 year old to stay off the road which has been a constant challenge lately. I'm thankful that our street is fairly quiet, but there are people that just FLY past our house and it drives me insane. I'm almost tempted to throw a handful of nails or something out there, but then there's all the repercussions of that that I don't want to deal with, either. At least the road has heaved a bit at the bottom of the hill so if they are going too fast, they get a nasty bump. lol!

No real news to report. I found a dentist that takes our insurance and made an appointment with him. When I got there, he didn't lecture me about the condition of my teeth. (yay!) I found out that I need to have a tooth removed and then I start 4 hours of repair work after that. Oh the joy. I don't mind going to the dentist, but the thought of 4 hours is killing me. A lot of my old fillings are falling apart, so better to take care of them now before there's a problem.

Tim is still teaching and loving it. He's going to be coaching soccer and has talked about teaching summer school, too. Should be fun for him, I'm sure! Soccer starts pretty soon.

We're planning a trip back to Boyceville for Easter break, and we are ALL looking forward to that. Can't wait to see some old friends again and catch up with Adam and Kelly, too. While we're there, we'll get to spend some time with Tim's grandma, too and that's always nice. I can't wait.

I started running again....it's slow going, but I'm going. I've lost 7 pounds in the last 3 weeks with the challenge going on at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans and this running that I'm doing so Yay Me! My SIL, Lisa, is trying to talk me into a 10K in June and the one I was planning was for August. I don't know if I'll be ready for that, but I'm sure it'll be fun and she assured me that it'd be ok with her if we walked part of it. Maybe it would be a fun sisters thing. I also ordered a Garmin Forerunner GPS watch to help me with the running. It's pretty cool all the little things it does, I'm excited for it to come and to start using it!!

Well, that's my little mish mash of a post for tonight. Hope all is well!

Runnin' weather

The WI weather has been PERFECT spring time weather this week. It's been high 30's and I'm LOVING it. Today is the first time since September or October that I went for a run and I could totally tell. I was sucking some major wind. I went about a mile and a half and it took me about 20 minutes. I was trying to keep the pace I kept last summer and that wasn't a real smart idea. lol! But, I went and I finished and I didn't collapse. I had the chills when I got back, but downed a few glasses of water and was fine. So, I'm running again. I LOVE IT! :)

Spring is springing!!

We are just 17 days from Spring and with temperatures expected to hit 36 today with SUNSHINE, glorious SUNSHINE today, it even FEELS like Spring. It gets me itchy to play in the garden (never mind that I can't even see my garden under the snow, yet!) and plant some seeds and play in the flowers. I'm SO EXCITED!! I even bought most of my seeds already! I say most because I usually buy tomatoes already started...but they're so darn expensive when you think about it...one plant started costs as much as a whole packet of seeds! But, I also hate buying all those little pots. Today, I came across a SUPER idea, so this year I will be starting my own tomatoes inside and some other veggies, too! I thought I'd share, and hope that it helps some of you, too!

How to Create Seed-Starting Pots From Newspapers -- powered by eHow.com

DIY: Laundry Soap

Alternately titled "How I keep our clothes clean for a penny per load"

Now do I have your attention? It should. Do you realize that Tide costs about .21 per load; same for Arm & Hammer?

When we moved to the other side of the state, and now back again, I knew I needed to do something about keeping our household expenses down. For 1)My hubby was a non-working, fulltime student. 2)My job doesn't pay in tangible goods like money or even food. 3)I like doing things in a more natural way. Honestly, I am still so far from being completely eco-friendly, but I like doing things like our grandparents did. I keep a garden, I cook meals from scratch, and now I make my own laundry detergent.

It's simple, the supplies are pretty cheap and easy to find, and it only takes a couple minutes every couple months to do it. There are several recipes out there, but I'll give you the liquid one and the powdered one that I use.

Liquid

13 cups HOT water
4 tbsp borax
4 tbsp washing soda
1/4 cup liquid castile soap like Dr. Bronner's (I like the orange scent)

Mix together in an ice cream pail (or other container of your choice). Stir every so often until cooled to room temperature. Usually I make this at night, stir a few times before bed and then it's ready in the morning. Use about 1/4 cup for each load.

Powdered

1 bar (3 oz) Ivory, Zote or Felsnaptha soap
1/2 cup borax
1/2 cup washing soda

Grate soap in your food processor, then change blades to the scary chopping blade. Add the borax and washing soda and process until it's a very fine powder. Use 1-2 tbsp per load.


These are both low suds formulas, so they work well in my front loading washing machine and you gotta love that! Enjoy!!

Life? What's that?

You know the feeling where you are SO BUSY, but you look back and really didn't do anything? That's the feeling I've got right now. I didn't manage to get anything done lately, but I haven't blogged, either. Thursday R&R had half a day of school and Friday they didn't have school at all. Saturday morning I went grocery shopping and did some cleaning, then we played around the house and had my parents over for a yummy dinner of Indian Tacos and family bowling night on the wii. Sunday, I took TJ and Riley to church (Tim wasn't feeling well) where TJ sang and we came home, played games and got ready for another week.

Today, I am starting the 30 Day Shred Challenge at the Sisterhood of the Shrinking Jeans. They had a new challenge start last Wednesday, so I have a team of COMMITTED CHICKS (That's our team name) to do this with over the next 8 weeks. I'm looking forward to getting to know those 5 ladies better over the next couple months and hopefully that's just the ticket to make the weight loss stick, but more importantly, to make the MOTIVATION to workout stick! A friend of mine from high school lives close, so she's gonna be coming over on her days off work to do the Shred with me! WOOHOO!! That's always a bonus, too.

So, look for a few of those kinds of posts over the next 2 months and hopefully the posting won't be so sporadic, either! :)

Fisherman Rugby

Rugby has TWO! new posts up on his blog this weekend and I know that he'd love to see some comments! :) Please go show him some lovin'!

Fisherman Rugby

Test your knowledge and WIN!

Test your Whole Grain knowledge and win a really cool prize pack from General Mills over on It's A Boys Life:Reviews! Check it out, contest ends February 28th!

I (BIG PUFFY HEART) My New Sink!

When we moved back into this house last fall, we knew we wanted to make some upgrades and repairs to this house. We built it in 2000 with the blood, sweat, and tears of a newlywed couple (read: broke). We searched for deals on everything. Friends gave us furniture, plumber friends gave us plumbing things; we were very fortunate and still count our friends as some of our greatest blessings. You would not believe the amount of TIME people gave us to help build this house. It was amazing. Every weekend, there was someone here doing something. So, not everything was what we "wanted", but it looked nice and was functional so that's what counted (and still does!) the most. Little by little, we've been making some modifications. I showed you the new buffet thing in the living room already. I've also shown you the garbage cabinet and the former broom closet-turned-appliance garage. Today, I'm showing you my new kitchen sink. I am a mom of FOUR BOYS. That makes FIVE BOYS in my house....who are hungry! Thus, I spend a TON of time in the kitchen. We had a functional stainless steel sink. It was a gift to us and was wonderful, but it really made that side of the kitchen dark. I have white countertops. A month ago on Craigslist, someone offered up a WHITE sink. Not just any white sink....a KOHLER, white, cast iron sink! LOVE LOVE LOVE IT!!

Now, we're in the market for a new faucet to replace the one that came with the sink. I'd love something with a high arch to it, but we'll see!

It's a WHAT?!

This morning, I gave TJ a toilet paper tube when I put a new roll on and told him it was a tooter. I even showed him how to toot it. lol. When I handed it to him, he held it up to his eye. I said, "Oh! It's a binocular." And then he gives me THE LOOK. (You know what I'm talking about, right?!) He says, "No, it's a periscope."


Yeah, too much Diego lately. lol!

DIY Crazy!

Over the last couple months, we've been DIY crazy over here! First, I showed you the "buffet" that my husband made in the living room. He took cabinets that we were removing from our finished basement (to make a bedroom for the bigger 2 boys) and put part of them in the living room (that will become my dining room after we put on our addition.). The other part of them got to stay downstairs and became a craft station for the boys. We used part of the countertop from down there in the living room, but it just didn't seem right. The blue countertop threw off the whole black and tan thing I had going on.

But, one of my AMAZING BIL's called that he found me an 8' sheet of black stone countertop. One of the businesses that he was remodeling was throwing it away. PERFECT! So, he brought it home and just before Christmas, my hubby and both his brothers put it in for me...it involved moving an outlet and carrying that super heavy stone, but it looks so nice! We have plans to put a pie safe on one end where the countertop hangs over and a bookshelf on the other end.

Here's the before and after:



Another project that we've been working on is transforming the garbage area. When we built the house, Tim had this dandy idea for a place for the garbage to be hidden, yet in a place that was easily accessible. He built a slide out cabinet that had room for 3 garbage cans and it worked...kinda. The garbage cans fit, but would fall over if you pulled the drawer open too fast. Not cool with kids in the house! So, when we moved back, that was one of the first projects on the list. He made a frame and cut three holes in the lid that the garbage cans can sit in and not tip over, plus there's a sneaky hiding spot with two sliding doors that is where he made a little pocket thing for my griddle and deep fryer cords and there's room there for the garbage bags....the door that is closest to the back is where we keep my BIL's beverage of choice for when he comes to visit...then it's not out where the kids are gonna get into it! WOOHOO! Here it is:

There's a couple other projects to show you, but I'll save those for another post. Have a great weekend!

Nothing like keeping you hanging...

Sorry about that. I looked at the blog this morning and realized that I hadn't told you about Riley (and TJ's) first days at school. Facebook gets all the news lately and the poor old blog misses out.

Sunday night, Riley had a really hard time going to bed. Tim stayed down in his room and talked to him for a LONG time. He seemed to feel better after their chat and got up and ready Monday with NO issues at all. Mean mommy that I am, I sent him to school on the bus. His buddy Derrick from the bus goes to the same school and is now in his class, so he had someone to go with. Monday night, he got off the bus and said, "I guess that wasn't so bad afterall, Mom!" WOOHOO!! I asked if he made a friend and he told me ALL the boys in his class were his friends! (All 6 of them!) Tuesday and Wednesday he came home and told me that it was a better day than the day before, so it keeps getting better for him! Rugby is even happy because Riley's "Army" doesn't chase him at recess anymore.

TJ's first day, Tuesday, was good, too! We went in, showed him where his hook was for his coat and backpack. Then he grabbed his teachers hand and went into his class and never looked back. He got off the bus SMILING and talking about fun at school. We have some work to do on proper behavior on the bus, but so far, so good!!

Tim and I were talking last night about next year and meeting the fourth grade teachers at both schools before making a decision for Rugby. But, going by Riley's experience so far, it's possible he'll be making the switch, too. And if Tucker gets into the 3 year old program, I'll have all four kids in school. Wow.

The times...they are a changin'!

As some of you know, we've had a bit of trouble with the new school and particularly one teacher there. This week we hit our breaking point. After many tears, some yelling and numerous phone calls (and even a little wine for momma), Riley will be starting a new school on Monday, Rugby will remain where he is since his teacher is great and he's finally starting to make some friends. Riley is hesitant, as any child would be, to change schools in the middle of a school year. He cried a bit when he found out Rugby wasn't going to be there, and only asked if it was ok to go meet the teacher before he starts school. But, Riley is my child that adapts best to change and is the most socially outgoing, so I don't think we'll have any problems. Riley will be attending the Lutheran school in town. And the best part is TJ IS GOING, TOO!! He will have class from 12:30 to 3 on Tuesday and Thursday. He is SO EXCITED about going to school. He was there to play today while I worked out and it didn't phase him....not even seeing the bigger kids. He didn't get all shy and clingy like usual! I am praying this is a good thing for him as I know it really is. I'm so encouraged by the environment there and by the people I've met so far. And who knows, maybe next year all 4 kids will be there.