Thursday Thirteen; Looking On The Bright Side

I have really portrayed a less than cheerful persona for a little while now. I am also now facing a possible but inevitable divide coming in the not too distant future that is causing me much sadness. Because of this worry about the future, I thought I would feel better if my T13 could reflect the future in a positive light.

So for this reason, My T13 is things that I am looking forward to.

1. Saturday at the Pumpkin Patch with all the cousins

2. The Surprise. I'll share on Monday, but no it has nothing to do with me.

3. Celebrating Aaron's 4th birthday next week

4. Field Trips in the next two weeks. Going with Noah's class to go rake leaves for an elderly family and going to set up a pumpkin patch at Aaron's school for them to pick a pumpkin.

5. Halloween Night. We are going to try something different this year and take the kids to a party at local mall instead of trick or treating. I think it will be a much better choice for our boys.

6. Presidential election. I just want it over so we can stop all the bickering and we can find out which of the two, not really a great choice to be president, candidates will be trying to put our country back together

7. Sonatina Festival in November in which I have three students competing

8. Painting the living room and hallway in November to give it the same much needed makeover that the kitchen received.

9. Black Friday shopping with Deb (and maybe Jenny?). Even though I won't be buying much for the boys this year, it's still the experience of getting up before the roosters and being part of the mania.

10. Christmas Vacation. Two weeks of fun with the kids without the possibility of upsetting anyone (hopefully).

11. December 21st. Two biggies. The Christmas all music service which I really just need to be done and our 12th wedding anniversary which we probably won't get a chance to celebrate this year BECAUSE of the music service.

12. Christmas Eve and Day. Possibly two days in a row with Steve home with us all day and being together. I don't know when the last time that happened was.

13. Disney World in March. No explanation necessary.

Thursday Thirteen...A Simple Painting Project

I'm seriously behind on my reader reading. I am actually way behind on pretty much everything because I got carried away with a tackle this week. I will be sharing the full story with pictures on Tuesday.

But for today...

After six years in our very old house, quite a few things still haven't gotten done. The bedrooms have each been painted a few times, but the kitchen has not. After so many attempts at cleaning the walls, I had HAD IT this weekend and decided NOW was the time to finally freshen up the kitchen.

Here are 13 "discoveries" I made as I tackled this huge project.

1. The light above the sink actually has no encasing and as the peg board above came loose, TONS of blown insulation came pouring out into the sink and ONTO my head

2. If you move a cheap computer desk just ONE TOO MANY times, it will COLLAPSE in your lap, along with the numerous things piled on top.

3. If your computer desk collapses, your kitten will be the first one to inspect the damage.


Thanks for the help, Pumpkin












4. If you move the refrigerator to clean and paint behind, and it has been several years, be prepared for nastiness beyond all comprehension


Minnie's turn to inspect
















5. Ditto for the stove



I STILL can't imagine how all that stuff got under the stove...ewwww!















6. When you buy special "kitchen paint", it will take two or three coats to cover, unlike the bedrooms where I got away with one, sometimes two.

7. If you take three days to paint a room, it will take that many different roller covers if you are not talented at washing them out (me)

8. If you put tape around a window that still has sticky from the plastic window insulation from last winter, then the tape will be REALLY DIFFICULT to take off when the project is over

9. If you paint the kitchen a completely different color, then everything that used to match no longer does

10. When you change the color of a kitchen, you now need to purchase all new window coverings, chair pads, etc. that there is no money left for, but need to be done...WalMart here I come.

11. Every painting project makes a bigger mess than before the project started

12. Now the adjacent rooms need painting even worse than before...just because the difference is so noticeable

13. I love the feeling of a "new, clean" kitchen, even if it means that I will spend the rest of the week playing "catch up"

I can't wait to share the pictures with you next week.

13 Things I Learned This Week

1. If on your behavior chart in first grade, you lose your lion, it "doesn't mean anything" but if you lose your tiger or bear, you're in "big trouble"

2. If you send your kitten away for 24 hours to be neutered, even after he has become great friends with the older cat, they will fight worse than they ever did when you bring him home again.

3. If you finally get out all of the fall clothes for school, the temperature will immediately hike into the 80's for a week straight.

4. A six year old is capable of coming home, doing his little homework, and putting back into his bag with very little coaxing from his mother.

5. MRSA is a disease can happen anywhere and can be avoided (no...no one in our house has it)

6. Bell choir can be a highlight of my week

7. Our family can survive 5 hours at church on a Sunday morning and still be talking to each other when we leave

8. Ditto for Wednesday nights

9. I CAN be a nice teacher on Wednesday nights

10. We can actually be in our fourth week of school, and arrive to school ON TIME every day (except for the day we dropped off the kitty). This is HUGE after last year.

11. The threat of oatmeal for breakfast does wonders to get a six year old to eat his sandwich quickly before school.

12. We can survive an entire week with no more than $10 in any of our three checking accounts

13. After a week of only $10 in our three checking accounts, I need to go grocery shopping REALLY badly.


Happy Thursday and thank you for responding to my "followers" post.

Thursday Thirteen: Why...?

1) ...does the kitty keep eating my hair when I lie down on the couch or the bed?

2) ...do I take longer and longer showers every morning, making the water hotter and hotter?

3) ...am I the only lunch mom that stops the boys from using their spoons to
sling shot food across the room?

4) ...can't I sleep more than two hour stretches?

5) ...can't almost 4 year old Aaron sleep more than two hour stretches?

6) ...is Steve willing to load the dishwasher without complaint for 12 years and going strong?

7) ...do I like chocolate chip cookie DOUGH better than the cookie?

8) ...do I get so stressed that I am not accomplishing enough each day during this three hour window of time while Aaron is at preschool?

9) ...did I patch three spots with grass seed and only get results in one?

10) ...is swinging the only activity Aaron wants to do when he plays outside?

11) ...doesn't Noah enjoy reading when he is so good at it?

12) ...can't I get the stinkin' settings on my printer right?

13) ...do the cats INSIST on sitting with the boys every time they are put in time out?


Just wondering...

Thursday Thirteen: While the Boys Were Gone...

Thirteen things I got done in the three hours that I had to myself while Aaron and Noah were both at school on Wednesday. All of these things seem to be "little" things that would be simple to achieve. However, it is amazing how much more thought process things take when there are little boys fighting, I mean playing, around you.

Not in order, this morning I had time to:

1. Call Suzuki Corporation about replacement of tone chimes for church

2. Take more than five minutes to shower, dry, and curl my hair

3. Change pictures in the frames on the walls.

4. Re-sort and distribute ALL of the children's books from the living room: Aaron's room, Noah's room, garage sale

5. Run and unload the dishwasher (Steve does all the loading...I told you he was a saint)

6. Fold all clothes in the living room and put in respective rooms, followed by two more loads of laundry washed, dried and put away

7. Get bio written for church website and emailed to proper person

8. Clean out both litter boxes

9. Run sprinkler in both front and back yards

10. Find missing folder from preschool that the teacher yelled at me for when I dropped Aaron off this morning

11. Fill out paperwork for the government who had the wrong social security number for one of my payroll tax forms

12. Call the church to fix mistake of above said forms

13. Make VERY long list of everything that needs to be accomplished tomorrow during this precious three hour window of time.

I am hoping that I can get things in the house caught up, then I may be able to tackle some of the bigger projects I had hoped to accomplish this fall.

Thursday Thirteen: How To Properly Wash a Car

As a way to get the kids to stay outside for awhile, I offered to let them wash the car. This is their procedure.

1. Let's carry the buckets of soapy water to the car













2. Let's scrub in one little section of the car over and over again so it sparkles.












3. Maybe the wheels need some rinsing













4. I think my bike would be more fun...I will scrub it until it shines













5. Scrubbing is too much work...maybe I'll just dump the whole bucket on it instead













6. Look Mom, we're actually working together to fill the bucket













7. Enough brotherly love...now I got you where I want you













8. Maybe we will get yelled at less if we just dump them on ourselves

















9. Think we'll get in as much trouble if we whip the sponges at each other?












10. Oops













11. Think the hose will get it down?













12.I must get all the water off of my feet...hmm...what should I use? The hose of course.













13. Enough of that hard work for today...I think I'll just water the street instead.















Anyone want to venture a guess at how clean the car actually got?

Happy T13.

Thursday Thirteen: A Summer of Learning

12 Days until school starts. I am so sad. It has been such as awesome summer. Noah has blossomed into this amazing kid right before my eyes. Everyone told me that the summer between kindergarten and first grade was HUGE, but I really didn't believe it. Noah will be starting first grade and be gone EVERY DAY ALL DAY. Aaron will be going to preschool 4 mornings a week. Even though we struggle financially with me not working full time, this summer really taught me how blessed I am am that I can teach in the evenings and be home with the kids during the day. Here are 13 of the things that I was blessed to witness this summer:

13. Noah went from sounding out 3 letter words in June, to being an independent reader

12. Aaron learned to love going to library every week as much as the rest of us. Both boys completed the reading club and got bags of prizes for the success

11. Noah pulled out his first tooth during a story together at bedtime

10. Aaron, at 3 years old, learned to jump into the deep end of a pool and turn around and swim to the side without help.

9. Noah learned to jump off the diving board and swim to the far end of the shallow end with the backstroke, elementary backstroke, and front crawl

8. Aaron learned to write his name (he FINALLY did the "R" last week)

7. Noah learned how to ride his bike without training wheels

6. Aaron got to participate in REAL school at VBS and loved being part of a "class"

5. Noah started piano lessons and is doing better than I expected

4. Aaron is finally starting to match pitch when we sing with him

3. Noah can recite the entire Lord's Prayer without help

2. Aaron learned to pump his legs on a swing all by himself

1. I learned to appreciate every day with my kids for what it is and know that these days are going WAY too quickly.

So if you tune in to this blog in 12 days, September 2, it probably won't be a pretty site/sight. I miss them already.

Thursday Thirteen: Messes (actually 12 +1clean)

As I was downloading the bazillion pictures I have taken of the cats together in the last few days, I started heading down memory lane and looking at old pictures. I discovered that I seem to have a fetish for taking pictures of messes. I don't know if it is to make me feel better when they are clean, or to remember that my house can always be worse than what it is at any given time.

At any rate, you, my reader, are bound to feel better about your own homes after seeing 13 messes over the years that I have taken pictures







Baby Aaron proud of a lego mess a few years ago

















Noah among his gift mess last Christmas











Aaron among the mess of one of our many room swaps through the years












An "organized mess" with one of Aaron's book paths he used to make last year while Noah was at school.















Noah among the mess in our basement right after Steve pulled down a divider wall to make room for a big bouncer that we got for them last October.











Play dough mess with Deb's girls













Family Christmas Chaos 2005














Christmas morning 2005











One of our favorite pictures of the boys. We call it "The Calm After The Storm". We love everything about this picture: the mess, the bareness, the hat, the calm reading.











The reason we got rid of that loft bed. The bed wasn't high enough for useful space underneath so it just became a place to make messes. This was an attempt at a fort.









Even the cats have to contend with messes when they play












And for one chance to redeem ourselves...a before AND after shot of when we redid our upstairs room.

Before















After















So are you feeling better yet?

Happy Thursday.

Thursday Thirteen: Minnie Takes Over

Today, my blog has been commandeered by Minnie, our two year old Tabby...She is quite angry about the addition of our kitten, Pumpkin, to our home. I will not be held responsible for the following content...









Well, let's see. It's been almost a week now since that little intruder came to MY house. I don't know if that little ball of fur is staying, but he sure does get a lot of attention. But I'm not standing idly by. I have had a few thoughts as I wait for the alien to go away.

1. I won the first showdown while the alien was still caged














2. I'm going to use HIS litter

3. I'm going to steal HIS toy that mommy bought for him














4. I am going to hide downstairs and pout, even when Daddy comes down to pet me

5. I wonder how long until the alien leaves...what if he never does?

6. Just because I don't like to snuggle with Mommy, doesn't mean that the alien can.



















7. I'm going to eat his food

8. Why does he keep playing with people toys














9. I wonder if he misses his brothers, sisters and mommy














10. He really is cute. Do you suppose I am experiencing the loss of childhood, watching this silly thing play around?














11. Maybe if I'm nicer, Noah will pet me too.















12. Why does he keep trying to get near me, like I'm going to be his friend. He got all the way to touching my paws today before I hissed at him. Maybe I'm getting more tolerant...nah!














13. Why did they bring him home? Don't they love me anymore?



P.S. Mommy requests any suggestions for how to make me get along with my new baby brother. I guess I would like that, too.

Thursday Thirteen #10 VBS (again)

I know you're sick of these already, but VBS really does take over our lives. I have gotten absolutely nothing done around the house all week, and I'm really not even that upset (however, Steve is getting a little annoyed, I think). Even though there is that issue from yesterday, I didn't let it cloud the fun today. And it has been fun. Usually, I am grumpy by Wednesday, but for some reason, this year, I am looking forward to tomorrow.

Here are my 13 Highlights...so far...there's still one more day and the ice cream social/water slide tomorrow night.

1. Our youth leaders have been wonderful, as usual. They really are so much fun to work with and I think without them, there would be much less energy during the music times.














2. Noah's behavior has been OUTSTANDING in general. He smiles every time he sees me.














3. Aaron has gotten to be part of a class this year and loved the pretend fire.



Aaron is the blondie in the navy shirt










Everyone did crafts
4.




Aaron made a hat, and actually WORE it














5.


Noah made a journal











6.


Aaron made a flower pot
















Lots of games

6.


Noah catches a ball











7.




Noah passes water









And LOTS AND LOTS of dancing

8.



Hannah, Noah, and Aaron












9.

Please disregard Noah's pudding stained shirt. Apparently, it jumped right out of the cup and onto his shirt.









10.




Aaron had to show off that he could actually do the motions too.













11.



Noah busts a move (he's the one in green where you can only see the top of his head)










12. Snack time of course




Noah actually knew NOT to take the RED licorice (he forgot about the punch the next day...Deb actually witnessed it's wrath)







13. And so far, my favorite picture of the week