Today we had a MOMS Club board meeting to plan the June calendar. While we were trying to do that, I realized how much stuff we have going on in June!!! We waited to put the kids in classes like soccer and ballet until they asked…and this year they started asking. Which is awesome, but overwhelming at the same time because I’ll be having a baby next month. Talk about stressful!

I’m trying to get all the baby preparations done this month so that we can just focus on the kids’ activities and keeping up with day-to-day stuff before the baby comes next month. I’m doing a ton of freezer cooking right now. So far, I have:

Waffles (3 freezer bags)
Pancakes
4 X Baked Oatmeal
4 X Zucchini Muffins
4 X Blueberry Muffins
3 X Lasagna
3 X Baked Beef Sausage Stew
2 X Pizza Pockets (still want to make some more though)
4 X Brown Bag Burritos
1 X Dinner Rolls (need to make lots more)
4 X Breadsticks (need to make more of these too because I’m making a lot of Italian meals)

I’m sure that seems like a lot, but that’s really only less than half of my list. I hope I can finish it all by the end of the month!

Posted: May 15th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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I think we are in for a hot summer this year! I suppose we deserve it, after the mild winter we had. In fact, I don’t think we started our corner fireplaces at all because it never got super-cold. I’d much rather have a mild winter and a hot summer though. I detest the cold.

Anyway, it’s only the beginning of May and the kids have already been playing with water in the backyard a lot. We haven’t gotten sand for the sandbox yet, so they keep filling up the empty sandbox with water and using it as a pool. I’m tempted to get another small plastic pool after we do fill up the sandbox, because they can fill it up themselves. I probably won’t want to be dragging out the bigger pool, inflating it and then deflating it and folding it up all the time when I have a newborn this summer (and I can’t leave it out because we have two puppies who would have a blast chewing it to pieces).

They’ve also gotten out the water table several times and we got new squirt guns last week, so they’ve been spending a lot of time outside. I hope they’re not bored with all of our outdoor options by the time it’s actually summer!

Posted: May 8th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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I’m finally making progress on my list of things to do before the baby comes! My list doesn’t really show it, because I have about 10 things started and only a couple finished, but I really am making progress! I had a good day today where I had a lot of energy and I got all the sleepers and onesies put away, started washing all the blankets and burp cloths, made baked oatmeal and waffles for the freezer and that was all in addition to everyday stuff like doing school with the kids and grocery shoping. I even babysat for a friend and had 7 kids here for a few hours! I assure you, I will be paying for it tomorrow. I already am, but I’m sure I’ll be even more sore in the morning. It feels like someone took a sledgehammer (or some other tool that people would use for building us metal buildings) to whole hip area. I think tomorrow will be the perfect day to work on some of the sewing projects I’ve been needing to get to, since I probably won’t feel like walking much!

Posted: May 8th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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Last night was MOMS Night Out for my chapter of MOMS Club. This month, one of the moms taught an informal cupcake/cake decorating class for us. It was so much fun and I learned a lot of techniques that I didn’t know before. When it came to cupcakes, I always just slathered frosting on top with a spatula, but I can’t wait to decorate them right with a cake decorating tip. They’ll be so much cuter! I’m going to have to practice soon before I forget how though. Too bad I can’t have the instructions playing in my ear on a professional headset while I’m decorating them!

We also learned how to make marshmallow fondant. If you’ve never tried it, let me tell you that it tastes SOOOOOO much better than regular fondant! I can’t wait to try it on a cake myself and impress people who have never tried it with how good it tastes!

Posted: April 24th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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We are getting ready to head up to Wisconsin to visit family again. We haven’t been up there since Thanksgiving, so it is way overdue. It will also be our last “easy” trip up there for awhile. It is so much easier packing for two preschoolers than it will be to pack for two preschoolers and a baby. I remember how much stuff babies need!

The actual road trip will also be our last easy one for awhile. It’s so much easier when the kids are old enough to rot their brains into a comatose state with DVD’s and video games while they’re in the car. I’m actually going to have to *gasp* entertain a baby with toys next time we go on a trip! I wonder if he’ll be impressed by logo golf balls…I remember always having to resort to things other than toys to entertain babies. For some reason they were always easily bored by their toys, but other things held their attention much longer.

There is one way the next trip will be better than this one, though. I won’t be pregnant anymore, so I won’t have to beg Chad to stop every hour so that I can pee. That will be a definite plus!

Posted: April 24th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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Contribution by Saul Martin

My kids and I home school, and next month we are going to do a science unit on Ants. There is a lot of information out there, and I can stretch the ideas to fit with our reading and math goals as well. I bought an ant farm, and have just sent off for the ants. The label says to expect a 3 week wait for your ants to arrive, so that will be perfect timing for our unit. I have also created a list of books on ants to check out from the library to support our study. There are lots of cute craft ideas out there on the internet as well. I’m going to go to www.direct.tv and make a list of any shows or movies featuring Ants to watch with the kids as well. I’m thinking of that movie, Ant Bully, specifically. I think that is the name of it. The movie is based on the book, so we will probably read the book as well. Ants are going to be a fun unit for the kids.

Posted: April 22nd, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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I’m always saying, “After we get past this event, things will calm down and I’ll be able to get to some of these projects I’ve been wanting to get to.” It rarely ever happens (life settling down, that is) but I really need it to after our next trip to Wisconsin next week! I have a big list of things I want to sew for the baby and the older kids before the baby comes in 2 months or less. I have a few diapering things I want to try (sewing prefitteds, dying prefolds, etc.) and I want to sew some Angry Birds plush toys for the big kids. I already have some of the supplies ordered (no fire hose adapters, though!), so hopefully having them show up as soon as we get home will be the motivation I need to get some of these things off my list! Also related: I miss naptime! I used to be able to get so many more projects done when the kids napped for 2 hours every afternoon!

Posted: April 20th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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Sometimes I wonder what kind of instruments my kids will end up playing someday. I know for sure we’ll start them off with the piano to give them a good foundational music knowledge. But I hope they also choose to play other instruments when they’re older. Chad and I both played the flute (I played it because I really wanted to, Chad played it because he wanted to sit by the girls in band) and my brothers and sister played a variety of instruments including trumpet, Pork Pie Drums , and maybe even saxophone (it’s hard to remember LOL). I think different personalities gravitate toward different instruments, so I can’t wait to see which ones my kids end up choosing!

Posted: April 20th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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Tomorrow, I will be exactly 10 weeks away from my due date! I think these last 10 weeks will fly by because I have SO MUCH TO DO! The crazy thing is that I might not even have 10 weeks….this little guy will be full-term in SEVEN weeks! Yikes!

I’m not quite sure how my body is going to handle 7-10 more weeks of baby growth either! If everyone could get a belly this tight from diet pills, there would be a lot more people worrying about musclepharm shred matrix side effects !

Posted: April 17th, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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Today the kids and I spent a huge amount of time cleaning out the van and car seats. Since I had cleaned all the garbage out of it yesterday, I thought I could get it done really quickly, but that wasn’t the way it worked. I intended to only vacuum out the car seats, rather than disassembling them and washing the covers. I had done that last year and it was a PAIN IN THE BUTT. But once I started vacuuming them, it became pretty clear that I should bite the bullet and wash the covers. Luckily, it didn’t take as long as last year because I already had a really good idea of where everything went when putting it back together.

Once we got the seats done, I tried to vacuum the rest of the van, but the vacuum wasn’t really working the way I wanted it to. I ended up going to a self-serve car wash and and vacuuming it with one of those super vacuums. I still had to do some vacuuming at home with our vacuum, but it definitely sped the process up.

Now we get to see how long this lasts. I think I’d have a better chance of successfully buying and selling louisville real estate than of keeping this van clean. For some reason, keeping vehicles clean has always been my downfall. My guess is that it will be pretty messy again by next month.

Posted: April 3rd, 2012 under Random Thoughts.
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