A Full House

Well, I survived my full house!  I had 10 children under the age of eight, and nothing got broken, no one got hurt, and no one cried!  Yea!

In truth, it was actually quite easy.  I was supposed to get the kids Thursday morning, but they didn’t make it over until 8:30 that night.  And their parents made it back from camp by about 3:30 Friday afternoon, so it turned out that I didn’t have them for very long at all!  I was actually quite disappointed!  Our kids love to play together, and I know mine would have loved to have them over longer.  Sweetheart Girl asked if Evelynn could be in our family so she could stay…
Oh, well.  We’ll have them again! 

Here they are at the table for lunch.  Yum!!  Hot dogs, Chips, Grapes, and Melon Slices.  Oh, and a special treat (for my kids, at least), Root Beer!  BTW, Hero says Root Beer with the accent on Beer- he misplaces the accent on several words, but this one stands out a bit more!

We made Monkey Shakes, and they were a hit, as usual.  The kids covered the back porch with Sidewalk Chalk drawings (Thanks, Gail!  I was down to three!), and they played lots of games.  Some of them (half)watched The Incredible Mr. Limpet, declaring that the thought of people coming from fish was “the most ridiculous thing we’ve ever heard!”  All 5 little ones took their naps at the same time, and the olders played in the boys’ bedroom while I read a book in my bedroom (Awesome!).  Later, they all indulged in their favorite flavor of popsicles.

All in all, we had a great week, a super-great Friday, closing with the return of the Daddy-man! 

Welcome Home, Daddy-man!

Wordless Wednesday- Not!

Okay, ya'll.  I did post pictures today, but they're on the sidebar.  And if you count, you'll notice there are only 5 pics!  I took these before we left for church tonight (they were all clean with hair combed- no small feat), but Twinkle was being a good little girl and napping for me.  Sooo...I'll try to get a good picture of her tomorrow...if not, then soon!

I think the pictures turned out really well, but I probably took 10-15 pics each in an attempt to get one decent one!  The twins can't be outside and stand still for more than a second, and the older boys have developed 'camera smiles.'  You know, the really fake smiles that just aren't that cute, but they really are trying...Thank heavens for digital cameras!

Due Process? I Don't Think So!

Hero is dressed up in his sheriff get-up and comes out to talk to me.

 

Hero:  Hi, Deputy Jane.  

Me:  Hi, Sheriff Hero.  Did you catch a lot of outlaws?

 

Hero:  Well, I did yesterday.  Now it's morning.

 

Me:  Oh.  Did you put all the outlaws in jail?

 

Hero:  Well, I actually gave them to my pet dinosaur.

 

Me:  Uh-oh.

 

Hero:  Yeah, he ate them all.

 

 

I think it may be time to talk about due process!!

Home Alone Ramblings

I'm home alone for the week!  As in, I'm the only adult around for the week- yes, I've still got the monkeys.  Daddy-man is away at Teen Camp, and I miss him already!  He goes away several times a year for camps, missions trips, special meetings, etc., and after (almost) 9 years of marriage, I still hate to see him go!  However, after (almost) 9 years of marriage, I've pretty much got the week handled!


Here's how we usually start the week:


Send off for Daddy-man, Spend the first day getting the house as spotless as possible (the kids don't enjoy this as much as I do, but it really makes the week go a lot smoother!), Shop for the week (I try to do this before Daddy-man leaves, but sometimes it just doesn't work out)


Then we make sure to get some good game time in.  Tonight we played LIFE and Mille Bornes.  I lost both miserably, and therefore challenged Hero to a Mille Borne rematch tomorrow. 


Normally, I would take the kids out on Tuesday because that's a good break for us, but tomorrow I have to wait for the AC guy to come and service the AC, so...not gonna happen :(  Sorry, kids.


Does anyone else save BIG projects for when the hubby is away?  For some reason, I do.  Normally, it's something like cleaning out all the closets or some organizational overhaul.  Sadly, I have so many things that I could do this time around that I don't even know where to begin!  I could seriously ignore my children all week in order to catch up.  Hmmm...still deciding what to do there.

I haven't forgotten my arts and crafts goal for the summer, but I don't think we're going to do anything fancy this week.


Thursday and Friday, I'm going to be watching our Youth Pastor's kids.  He and his wife are at the camp also, and her parents are watching them the first part of the week.  They have 4 about the ages of our kids, so they're gonna have a blast!  I'm going to have TEN children here, ages 7 and under, all by myself!!  This should be fun!  One of the ladies from church volunteered to bring us dinner Thursday night, so that will be a help (PHEW!).


Sorry for the ramblings, but it's after 9pm, and it just seems a little too quiet right now!

A Coaster Set for Dad

As promised, here are pictures of our Father's Day craft. The kids worked really hard on them and got somewhat frustrated as we were working with a new medium (Mod-Podge), but once we got the hang of it, they wanted to keep going!

Here are the supplies you need:

Tiles (I got them at Home Depot for 16 cents each!)

Mod-Podge (a small jar is fine)

Small Squares of Tissue Paper

Paintbrushes

First, paint on a layer of Mod-Podge.

Next, place tissue squares on the tile in any design you like.

Then, paint another layer of Mod-Podge over the tissue paper. (Hint: Be sure the tissue is as flat as possible and be very gentle going over the tissue at first- ours wanted to bunch.)

I actually did a couple layers over the top because I wasn't sure of the finish. Let it dry between layers (about 15 minutes).

Finally, add felt pads to the corners of the bottoms and...Voila!

Happy Father's Day to the best dad in the world! (He'd better use these!)

I Can Wear My Big Brother's Jeans!

Sort of. Hero had a pair of jeans that had holes in the knees, so after I turned them into shorts, I used the bottom of the legs to make Sweetheart Girl a cute little purse! See?

I had originally picked out a cute bold pink ribbon, but Sweetheart Girl chose the black with pink polka-dots. I guess she's got an eye for fashion!

Before I take too much credit, I followed a tutorial HERE (Did the link work? This is the first time I've added one!), and added a few embellishments. It was lots of fun!

*WARNING* If you have young daughters, and we are invited to a birthday party, this may be the gift that is coming! My boys can't seem to help themselves from putting holes into their pants, and I'm guessing I will have a steady supply of material!

Adding a Little Artsy-Fartsy Stuff to Our Days

Summer is in full swing, and boredom hasn't quite set in.  We haven't had time to be bored!  Awesome McAwesome probably thinks we should just live at church!  We've had several special meetings and conferences at various churches, we've been to dinner with friends a couple times, we've had relatives visiting, and this week is Vacation Bible School! 

 

VBS is held in the evenings at our church, so it leaves our days open.  I'm hoping to rev up our crafty-ness (not to be confused with our craftiness *evil laugh*).  I'm the type that has good intentions, I really want to get the kids involved in artsy things, but most of the time I think the mess isn't worth it.  Shame on me!  So I'm going to try this summer to do as many projects as I can before we get involved in the daily schooling grind.

 

Easing into this whole thing, I found these adorable little wood cut-outs at Michaels for $1.  Speaking of which, I discovered Michaels carries a lot of $1 items- I may never go to the cheapy dollar store again!

 

Hero- Working hard to get every spot

 

 

McAwesome- Stay in the lines!

 

 

Sweetheart Girl- Yes, marker got in her hair

 

 

And here are the finished products:

 

 

Ta-Da!!  Not too bad, and the kids really enjoyed it.

 

Now, granted, this is nothing more than coloring, which we already do, but it was a little extra special.  Tomorrow, we're going to work on a Father's Day gift for Daddy-man(shhhhhh), but since he reads this (honey, you didn't read this), I'll have to wait to post the results next week.

Wordless Wednesday

The Incident

So last Saturday night (the 29th) turned into an interesting evening...why is it always a Saturday night?  That is not a good time for us!  It was about 5:30 or so, and the Saturday evening bath ritual began.  Twinkle was very cranky, so I had her strapped to me in the carrier, and I turned on the bath for Sweetheart Girl.  The washing machine was also running so the bath water did not have full pressure.  Sure enough, a few minutes later, I heard the water pressure pick up, and along with it came a blood-curdling scream from Sweetheart Girl.

Now, Sweetheart Girl is known to be a little bit of a scaredy-cat, especially when it comes to water.  I ran in there to tell her to stop her screaming!  But, alas, I went in the bathroom and brown was gushing from the faucet- YUCK!  Now I can hardly blame my 4-year-old from screaming :)


I yelled for Daddy-man (remember, I still have a cranky baby in my arms), and he turned everything off.  Well, once the tub water was turned off, we could see that the brown was actually copper-ish colored, tiny, crystal deposits.  We checked all of our other faucets, and they were just trickling.  Okay, so long story, short, I called a family that lives about 2 miles away, and dragged all the kids over there to bathe.  Normally, it would not have been that bad to take the kids to church without baths, however the previous two days worth of activities really demanded it- upon penalty of banishment (or at least a 'Bad Mother' award) due to the kids' stinkage. 


Needless to say, it was not fun for the three babies to be taken out at that time, thrown into the water, scrubbed head-to-toe, and thrown right back into the van, however, they survived the ordeal.  After the kids were in bed, I went over to take my own shower!


In the meantime, Daddy-man is calling his brother and dad who are in-the-know of all construction-related things.  And his dad has the problem figured out in seconds (he's so smart!).  The water heater went out, and there's some part that oxidizes 'something,' and when the water heater goes out, all those oxidized particles come right out into your water. Eeeewwww.


So I have a full load in the dishwasher, several loads of laundry (always), one of which was in the machine at the time, no hot water, and no cold water, practically speaking.  I do not have the use of showers or bathroom sinks.  I am able to use one toilet that is left leaking because of this disaster.  Ouch.  Thankfully, we have one of those reverse osmosis systems so our drinking water was left unscathed.


But this proceeded my brother and sister-in-law coming into town from Hawaii, and having a big Sunday dinner, plus we were leaving Monday morning for a Church Planters' Conference in Phoenix.  The dinner did happen, however, the paper plates I had out were missed, so Daddy-man and I had a lot of dishes to do that night (we heated water on the stove, and waited for the crystals to settle on the bottom)!  We had to pack up a couple days' worth of church clothes to take to Phoenix, but we had just had Revival services at our church that week so our supply was low without the ability to do laundry!  Anyways, it worked out fine.

Oh, and don't forget I now have soaking wet towels that are going to get all mildew-y while we are gone, AND Minion 1 woke up Monday morning with a messy, dirty diaper that got all over his sheets- which I can't wash!  *SIGH*


The gentleman we rent the house from is a full-time truck driver, and we only see him a couple days each month.  He just so happens to arrive into town Sunday evening.  Hallelujah!!  Hallelujah!!  I can hear the angels singing!


By the time, we returned from Phoenix, he had a new water heater in.  My dishwasher was saved!  And Daddy-man was able to take apart the washing machine and get that unclogged- more importantly, he was able to put it back together, and it works!  It is still clogging up with leftover deposits, and Daddy-man has pulled it apart again, but he will probably have to unclog it a few more times.  We can use all toilets and sinks, however the little mesh screens that cover the faucets are still off and we still get a bit of leftover deposits.  It will take a while for all the pipes to clear completely.  The showers are still a work-in-progress.  The shower heads are all clogged up beyond repair so we have to replace those- not too big a deal- I just need a time to go out and get them!


So all in all, it's been a week and a half since The Incident, and we're still not running at 100%, but it's close enough.  It's times like this, that I don't mind renting at all!