Daybook - July 9, 2013

Outside my window... its hot and muggy and buggy. Went out first thing in the morning and have avoided the outside like the plague the rest of the day. Not in the mood for heat. See my comment about I am hearing...

I am thinking...of which nursing shirt I want to get. I really need two--a simple white and a simple black one. But I have several options, and am being indecisive.

I am thankful for...help. Christopher has taken all our big girls on a campus-wide trip to go rafting. Which leaves me with four small children by myself. Now, I know this is doable, but at the same time, most of the people I know who are dealing with four small children have actually raised those children from infancy and really know the kids. Half of these kids are my two new ones who are very squirrelly, and a major handful at this point. So of the few houseparents left on campus, I get some help for the next few days. Praise the Lord. Or Chris may have come back to an insane wife.

From the learning rooms...[or in our case--the learning brain]...Baby Q is rolling over--which means he's rolling all over the house.

From the kitchen... I've been good and made several meals while I was off. Basil Chicken Curry (one of my favorite chicken recipes--calls for 10 different spices in the rub but is super easy to make!), and Chicken Satay--except I didn't grill the chicken, I baked it. And of course made sticky rice to go with it because what is Satay without sticky rice?

I am wearing...a skirt and a top that have been spat up all over. However, as Baby Q is now sleeping, and I do not want to wake him up, I will avoid going back into my bedroom for clean clothes until the last possible minute. Unfortunately I have passdown in just a few minutes, and that means I'm probably going to smell of milk. Sigh.

I am creating...a story. Kind of. More like recreating--someone else wrote a kids devotional, and now I'm rewriting it to turn it more into story and less dictate. It's a nice change of pace from editing thesis and other papers.

In my mailbox today.. .not a lot really. Hopefully tomorrow I'll get my amazon Subscribe and Save orders that I didn't get last month because of a credit card issue. I'm hurting without them! Diapers, gluten free pasta, coconut oil, and more!

I am hoping...to talk to my husband tonight. I miss him. And it's only been a day.

I am hearing... the soft wind of the air conditioning blowing. Why is this worthy of blogging about? Because our air conditioning unit froze up the last few days, and we've been having to turn it off to thaw it. And it has been crazy, ridiculously, hot. Some of the hottest days we've had this summer--and we've had no air. I love my air conditioning.

Around the house...things are neat and tidy and clean. Blessings on my darling husband who helped sweep and scrub. The "to get rid" of pile continues to grow as well. Today I went through Blueberry's room. She actually didn't have that many toys to get rid of. I had to confiscate a few toys that belonged to the cottage and mysteriously had made their way into her toys boxes. I also put away the majority of her books. Not because she doesn't read them--oh she does. But because she has so many, I feel like lots are getting lost. So I'm trying something. We go to the library about every week, and get her some new books. In addition, I've selected eight books, and we're going to read those interspersed with the library books for the next month. Then next month I'm going to pick out eight more. I've set them so she can see the covers. I'm picky about the books I add to our library (and yet we still wind up with tons and tons of books!), so just about every book we own is one that I really like and want her to enjoy to the fullest. So I figure this is a way to encourage that.

One of my favorite things...no bake bars. Yum. I found a new recipe on a blog with a fantastic name: www.ihearexercisewillkillyou.com Love it! The bars themselves are made with coconut oil as opposed to butter--and they have turned out yummilitious.

A few plans for the rest of the week:
survive! Just kidding. Kind of. Go to the library. Not really sure beyond that. Probably go to some doctor appointments for our two newbies. Nothing super exciting!

Here is picture (or more) for thought I am sharing...

He rolled from the blanket all the way over to the table in about 30 seconds. And then grinned at me like the cheeky monkey that he is.

Want to join in? Go check out The Simple Woman's Daybook.

 

Fourth of July

For my American friends and family--may you celebrate the freedoms of this country and remember the whys of how we came to be.

Posing for the Fourth

 (More pics at Blueberry Bits and All in the Z).

Cottage Notes

Phew. I feel like I've run a marathon the last few days.

It all started June 21st. We were coming off our last day of being "off duty". I wasn't feeling fantastic, Blueberry suddenly started running a fever, Baby Q had popped out one tooth a few days earlier and was working on a second. When I suddenly got much, much worse, we decided to call in sick. And it was a good thing too as all three of us were pretty miserable for the next three days.

We finally went back on duty on the 25th, me still feeling pretty cruddy and Blueberry no longer contagious but obviously not fully right, and Baby Q still struggling with that goofy tooth.

That Tuesday (the 25th) was a normal "coming back on duty" sort of day. Lots of things to catch up on, behaviors to deal with, errands to run, etc. Wednesday dawned and all chaos ensued. It was one of those days when I started out with plan A and by 9:30am was on Plan Y.

The essence of the chaos was as such:
1. Receive phone call from Social Services director. What would our thoughts be on moving Tortoise up to an older girl's cottage. Our reply--fantastic. Much needed for her. Can we wait until next week when we're back on duty? "Sure," was the reply.
2. An hour later. Um....we need to move her tomorrow. We have two new little girls coming in to your cottage next week.

And from there it became a case of announcing to the girls that Tortoise was switching cottages (tears and protests and complaints and other assorted emotions), packing Tortoise up, all shuffled in with church and other scheduled items.

As Tortoise leans on the OCD side, I finally stepped in around 10pm (first time I had all day to help!) and helped her finish packing up her room or she would have been up all night.

Next morning we were up bright and early as Thursdays are always crazy, crazy days schedule wise, and we had the added busyness of actually moving her and handing her over to the new cottage to deal with as well. Oh, and the additional busyness of going off duty that night which always adds an extra layer of "things that must be done before we go off." Said farewell to Tortoise, passed our cottage down to our Reliefs, stayed up for some together time (watched Master Chef - lol).

Friday--my off day. Sweet off day. Slept in (thank you husband of mine) and worked hard the rest of the day paying bills, doing the budget, cleaning, and shopping.

And it was a good thing I worked hard too.

Saturday was going to be my "pajama day." I always take one day on our three days off (I say "always" here rather tongue in cheek--really should be more like, "I always hope to and occasionally succeed in taking" a pajama day). Basically, a lazier sort of day, not where things don't get accomplished, but a day when I permit myself to bury myself in the house, in my pajamas, and spend some extra time cuddling with kids, pampering, etc.

Didn't work out so well. Started with a phone call, "Someone has to go to the hospital for an emergency, can you watch your kids so your Relief's can go over to their house and watch their kids?" Um, sure....

Followed by another phone call from my bestie on campus who is 25 weeks pregnant---"I'm having contractions, can you watch my two boys?!"

Um, yes!

Well, that was the beginning of the end. Watched the kids till mid-afternoon, when they returned (she was okay, thank you Lord, but needing to rest), we stayed on duty for the rest of the day and Sunday and then were still there for our regular shift.

Sigh. Sweet days off, how I miss thee. I haven't had a normal set of three days off in a good month now. I count on those days for my sanity!

Monday was crazy as well as we finished setting up the new girl's room and then waited for them to show up. And waited. And waited.

They didn't come until about 4pm, which is just as Chris was walking out the door with our oldest girls to be gone all evening (late night) to a baseball game!

Which left me with four little kids--two of whom were unknown entities. Fortunately, my same bestie came over to help watch (limited mobility, but hey, a mommy voice always helps).

Brief summary of my two new ones (no nicknames as of yet):

A 5 year old who is very inquisitive, needs a lot of help focusing, but I think will do okay.

A 3 (almost 4) year old who is very defiant, and I believe precocious would be an appropriate word for her. She's going to be a handful!

Busy shift. Busy life. Love my kids. Need three days off.

PinUps and Pinspirations (Vol. 6)

PinUps: My Top 5 Pins of the While

1.


I want to do this for Blueberry's birthday.


2. 


I really want to make this and see how it goes.


3.


This is so true it cracks me up every time I think about it. Which is just about every day as I wrestle my son to sleep!

4.


OK, this is one that really could go at the "I've used this in some way" spot. Made it twice now and it is AMAZING.

5.

We've put some cinnamon in. Hope it works!


Pinspiration: (i.e. a Pin I've actually used in some way recently)

Totally made these the other day. Blackberry popsicles. Yum!