Paying it Forward

So today I made half of what I'm going to need to make two meals for 2 families that had babies days apart. Both families welcomed boys into this world and I've seen one and he's handsome and I get to see them both tomorrow...I hope. I hope to be getting a good dose of newborn smell tomorrow. It makes me think about how big Sparky has gotten already...he's already 6 months old and it's going by FASTER than I approved. It was not approved...could have been kid approved though.

Anyway, I am bringing one family a meal called Washugal...don't ask that's just what it was when I was growing up. It's Kielbasa, hash browns, and egg all mixed together (not at the same time...gotta cook the hash browns with the Kielbasa, then add the egg in that mixture and cook until egg is cooked) and then sprinkle with cheese. So I'm making that. I also made this, this is Pumpkin bread...I know it's a bit out of season but sometimes that makes it fun... The bread is quite yummy and I actually got the recipe from one of the new mom's I'm bringing a meal to. These are homemade Blueberry muffins, I will be bringing this to the mom who gave me the Pumpkin bread recipe and the other mom (she's got a bigger family) will get the bread. And in case you were wondering the muffins aren't Costco muffins but they are pretty good. They've been husband approved.

So tomorrow will be busy also making meals and getting them to the families. I'll hopefully be dropping one off after lunch sometime and then I'll drop the other meal off more towards dinner time. I have no idea what I'm making my own family but I got the other families taken care of.

After having Sparky, it was the first time that I/we had people bringing us meals like we had, we had meals for 3 weeks I believe. With any of the other kids, family brought us meals but it didn't last for that long, or they made meals I had set aside to make. I'm so glad God was looking out for me/us cause with all the difficulties I had with Sparky thinking about dinner was something I didn't have to worry about. And if I did it would have been stressful...I shudder to think about it really. So hopefully this will help them like it helped me.

For the most part today was productive, I got some laundry done (not folded but that will come tomorrow...I hope), I weeded, made a trellis for my sugar snap peas (I need to make one for my beans), set my soaker hose up for my roses, watered the rest of my LIVING flowers (I have no idea why the boys haven't killed those ones), I swept and Frank mopped (I LOVE that man!) He also cleaned the bathroom while I ran to the store for hot dog buns for dinner tonight. All I need to do is keep up on it and I should be good...HA! Easier said than done for me.

Well I should get going, Dru is up screaming and having a fit cause I won't let him have anything to drink until tomorrow morning with breakfast. It has to do with potty training...long story. And Eli is laying on the floor being gross like boys are and talking to me, telling me he doesn't want to be on the floor, he'd rather be in my arms...not sleeping. Of course. So off I go.

It Was A Day!

Oh What a day...sing it people!!

Actually it wasn't anything terribly special. I slept, I ate...I actually did some work too. I emptied the dishwasher and washed and folded some clothes. After that, not much happened. People were cranky, dad's had headaches and mom's were/are just down right tired.

And as we speak Eli is up fussing...he is getting teeth in...he's got one bottom that has come through and he's working on the other one. So he's a bit fickled...so this is a short post as you can see cause now he's screaming at me.

I hope everyone had a good weekend cause I did!

Tootles!

Tag

Well I'd like to say tag you're it but it seems that I'm the last to do this so there isn't anyone left to tag...that I'm aware of. So I got tagged by Lea and her Mustangs, asking us to write down 6 things about ourselves. So here it goes:



1. Like to ride horses

2. Takes me awhile to make friends

3. I HATE doing laundry!!

4. I LOVE to garden

5. I have grown to like watching the Seahawks (after 11 years it's grown on me and I'm DEVASTATED Holmgren left!)

6. I like to cook (and cook for people that eat)



Just a few notes:
My Gerber daisies are officially D-E-A-D!

I need to replant my zucchini's

Right now my son is singing 'Don't you wish your girlfriend was hot like me, don't you wish your girlfriend was a freak like me' ~I'm not sure I want to know where he learned that song...and does he really know what 'freak' means?

I finally put the pool up yesterday, only to take it down cause of possible thunder storms...Nikkie was right ;)

My cousin Amy is in her 30Th week going on her 31st week and she couldn't be more ecstatic! She is still in the hospital on bed rest but she's doing great and so is her baby!

I got my bible study done last night and now I'm off to my group this morning...have a great morning!

Awwwww Cornflakes!

AAAAAAAAAAwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww Cornflakes!!!! Dang it! I KNEW I shouldn't have ignored my gut feeling and taken a nap and left the big boys to themselves! *shaking my head* Next time, note to self...stay up and do something productive like my bible study or clean the house, or garden!! This is SO not what I had envisioned when I had kids!! I'm telling you I'm missing CHAPTERS in my parenting book...where IS that book by the way??

Anyway, there are cornflakes all over my living room floor and some are especially smushed in thanks to my lovely 2 year old. Who by the way was the one who monkeyed around and got the cornflakes down from the stove (yes I should have put them back in the cupboard but I didn't).

So after my self indulgent nap with Eli this is what I woke up to. That's the itty bitty trail you can see leading from one couch to the other...special.

This one is the biggest mess...and yes my carpet is HORRID but that's a whole other story in of itself...*shooting daggers at Home Depot* See them quake in the boots! NOT!

And really as I'm looking at these pictures, my carpet isn't horrid it's down right NASTY! Ick! I think we'll be investing in a throw rug of some sorts until next year when we get new carpet.

On another note, my kids just brought in their broken whiffle bat...and asked for the OTHER bat. I do not like this other bat...it's an accident waiting to happen and under no circumstances are they to use this bat with out adult (I use this word loosely, the word adult that is...so many definitions going around these days) supervision. It's an aluminum bat...NOT going to happen! I just looked at those two and said why so you can beat each other with the bat?? This is their answer, well Lee's anyway...uuughhh no?

Sigh...

Have a good day everyone! I need to go they are doing cannon balls off my bed...Eli's there...I should go before someone breaks something...sigh...

Busy...Slow...Busy...

Things are either busy or slow or busy.

I signed myself up to be a group leader for my mother's group that I'm in during the school year. So I had a meeting for that today and it was fun. We went around and said who we were, how long we'd been going to MOPS (Mother's of Preschoolers the group I'm in), and how many kids we had. Now you have to understand I have been going to this group for at least 6 years give or take a year, and so all the women knew me. So I'm chuckling inside thinking to myself, really? I really need to say how many kids I have? So I tell them I have 4 kids....(wait for it) all boys (that gets their attention), then I say their ages and then they say that maybe they should all go lay hands on me...people are funny! People are funny...does anyone ever say that about a mom with 4 girls that age? I'll never know, but when I meet someone who does I'm gonna ask. You bet your bottom dollar!

Tomorrow looks slow, which is fine cause it's gonna be hot. I am tossing around the idea of mowing the lawn cause the kids are hounding me, literally, about setting up our pool. So maybe I'll surprise them and set it up earlier. Who knows! I have decided to give up on my flowers cause my boys won't leave them alone, they have dug up my Gerber Daisies several times now. Now all I'm hoping for is that my veggies and sunflowers will just make it thru and we will get to see something from them....ANYTHING!

I have no idea what Friday holds for us but whatever it is...I'm sure it will be good...

Take care!

A Lovely Bunch of Coconuts

So today my family tried something new. It's always good to try new things, so for at least a year now Ian has been asking me to buy a coconut so we could try the milk in it and eat a piece of it. So the other night while I was grocery shopping I decided to grant Ian's wish. That's right folks...I was someone Fairly Odd Mother, I mean godmother...eh whatever. If you work really hard you can be like me too! Exciting right? I'm now accepting applications for a stunt double...





Anyway, here is the coconut...totally unassuming right??



First we try the scissors to open the hole for the milk to come out of...



When that doesn't do the trick or make the whole big enough, we go for the knife sharpener.


Ahhh...there's the milk coming out. Ian and I are a bit surprised when it's not white but clear. We are a bit thrown off...but we go with it. We are quite excited to try this...gotta be good right. Coconut in candy is good...


That coconut had A LOT of milk in it. Why is this considered milk and not say...juice? And just so everyone knows...this tasted AWFUL!!!!! Ian and I were not impressed! I was expecting something sweet...like in the Mounds bar I guess. I don't know what I was expecting but it certainly wasn't that. YUK!! Guess that's why coconuts are on deserted island..cause castaways are desperate to drink that stuff....*shiver*



So it took several thwacks with the hammer to get the sucker open. This thing advertised easy to open coconut...I'd like to know as opposed to what? One on the islands or in the tree or what?

We checked the inside out...WHITE is what comes to mind.Oh he has a lovely pair of coconuts doesn't he! He's a keeper!Ian didn't really like the coconut and that went for me too. Needed some sugar in my opinion. Do you see a running theme here?And then Lee...who knows with Lee...He's just Lee being Lee.

Next on our list...Pomegranates (although I think we've done that one already), Mango's, Papaya, and Starfruit.

Words

Words...

Words are many things...supportive, demeaning, ugly, beautiful, descriptive, tear you down...you get the idea.

A verse comes to my mind..."the tongue is sharper than a double edged sword" and that's some serious paraphrasing, but you get the idea...I hope.

I have spent all day yesterday and today trying to put into words what exactly I was feeling. I had a moment or an experience...actually I don't really know what I had to be honest. All I know was that I haven't felt like I did that day in a LONG time!

It happened on Saturday and I decided that I needed to get out of the house and go do something....so I decided to go for a walk with the boys. I'd go somewhere where the boys could ride their bikes with out going in a circle. So Frank graciously loaded the truck up for me with bikes, car seats and helmets and off we went. There is a trail in town that runs parallel to HWY 410 and that's where we went. You can see all the cars and they can see you. We get there and get going and as we are walking/biking a truck drives by and the people in it are hollering in it and leaning out the window...they holler (and they are leaning out towards me even with some distance from them to me) 'well now there's a fat b****!' I'm so glad my boys were WAY ahead of me and they didn't hear that. I looked around and I was the only one on the trail...sigh...WORDS!

Now...(vulnerable time) I have to say how crushed I was, scratch that I am. And all I wanted to do was scream back was 'well have you noticed I have 4 children!?!' I wasn't blessed with everything you know! I haven't felt so bad about myself since high school! Talk about low self esteem...I mean how many times can you tell yourself 'it's only been 6 months since I had Sparky?' (insert your own name or situation where the name Sparky appears) Uuuggghhh! See what I mean about words? That was an ugly use of words...and really people don't have to yell those things...I'm pretty sure people know when they aren't where they want to be weight wise. It's not like it sneaks up on you...bite you in the butt or anything...honestly!

Anyway...I am feeling quiet vulnerable now and just icky inside and I must end this post now cause I might start crying...and if I start that who knows when it will stop. Sides I don't have time for a pity party...I gots things to do!

On a happier note...(outside of wanting to duct tape Lee to something so he'd quit bugging me) we had a great walk and I will probably do it some more. It took us an hour to walk the trail and at least we all got out of the house. Hopefully we can get Dru to ride his bike faster...that's why it took us so long. And hey I got to drive the truck AND I played girl music just to be spiteful.

So off to start my week with my super-girl underwear pulled up high (not too high though) and off I go back to doing what we all do when things like that happen to us. Rebuild and work on the things we want to fix.

Take care and enjoy this nice weather we have been blessed with.