just my 2 cents

The old saying goes; Don't let the sun go down on your anger---

Meaning, don't go to bed if you are in a fight with your partner. But I say HOGWASH. For me, the phrase should be something like:

Don't start some giant paintrain "talk" at 11:30 pm when you are exhausted. Instead, hit the hay and it will look alot more reasonable, approachable and in proportion after you are rested.

a little salad

My yummy fresh salad tonight:

Spring mix with herbs (a prepackaged thing, tasted like dill and cilantro were in it for sure)

tomatoes

chick peas

bacon bits

shredded cheese

apples

croutons

Craisins (or dried cherries)

Small, small amount of Roka Blue dressing (Kraft) mixed with Raspberry Walnut Vinaigrette and lightly drizzled over the top

It tasted fancy and colorful and all of it was cheap--even the craisins, less than 2 bucks at walmart.

10.99 special

Run-don't walk- to Panera.

For TEN NINETY NINE, you get a huge box of deliciousness to feed the gang all day long.

You get 13 bagels, any variety--and two tubs of cream cheese, any variety.

Do you know what it would cost to buy 13 bagels with cream cheese on them outside of this deal? I think bagels with cream cheese are like $2.15--- so $27.95!!

$10.99
It is called a BagelPack. Go get one! My personal fave: Asiago cheese bagel with sun dried tomato cream cheese.

dispose

It is SO about paper plates. And paper bowls. And plastic utensils. And paper towels.

It is 2 in the afternoon and instead of dripping oozing tipping stenching mountain of dishes filling the sink and covering every surface in the kitchen including the stove, there is only a coffee cup, the blender, and 2 sharp knives. Because of the disposables.

It may seem bad for the Earth, but hear me out: How good is it for the planet for me and Steve to stand there from 10-1130 everynight washing dishes until our backs seize up? How much water does that use? How much soap? How much time?

We had a barbecue party here this weekend and so I have lots of leftover disposable stuff. It has made more of a difference than I anticipated. Instead of the hour+ dishathon tonight, I will be free to cut loose and fold laundry ;)

People have absolutely no inkling of what is involved in being home all day living and caring for 4 children. No concept of the cleanup and prepwork in being vaguely presentable as a crew in public. Ahhh to teach in a public school and have the kids only from 8-3, to have a crew of cooks and janitors, lunch breaks, after 3 pm to sit at my "desk" in the quiet and plan things out...all the kids the same grade level, summers off...
haha

But yeah its hard to do all this homemaking. if paper products help me then hallelujah.

home sweet home

I had a mild mental freak out last week, quite possibly hormonal, and started looking online for a new house. RANDOM. But if you know and maybe even love me enough to follow my blog, you will not be that surprised. Im kinda impulsive? Well anyhow, it didnt hurt anyone and was free and interesting. So.....there was one online that claimed to have 5 bedrooms, garage, basement, yard, 1800 sq feet, very nearby alot of our friends. WOW, right? Maybe we are paying too much, maybe the market has changed, yadda yadda.

OH MY GOD

It was so sick. The guy showing it was so sick, scary, rediculous in his red sweatpants, dirty hands, and disgusting demeanor. I was greeted with "Which one are you?"....excuse me? "Which one are you, the 6 or the 630?" oh, I am the six thirty, sorry im a few minutes early..(?) "Well lets move fast, I gotta get back to Indiana" ....and I care because....???

So the house was nasty, miniscule, smelly, laid out almost exactly like our old place but...worse. Tiny living room, then tiny dining room, one tiny crooked-y bathroom off to the right with two tiny smelly bedrooms with "closets" with no doors on them, scary white and brass ceiling fans hung about 5 foot 6 inches from the ground...tiny rotten kitchen with creepy stairs behind the kitchen steeper than our old staircase, going waaaaaay up into the tiny tiny tiny 3 bedrooms upstairs. The front bedroom I couldnt stand all the way up in, the ceiling was so low. The basement was so low ceiling-ed, I politely declined the tour. The garage was waaaaay back in the yard and looked about to fall down. The "grass" was just patches of dirt. Yer Not Gonna Put up Some Big Bullshit Gazebo or Some Shit Back Here, Are you? was the jovial backyard conversation that tickled my ears from mister no name. Um, no, no gazebo, sir.

We ended up back in the dining room and I manage to say something about the little random built-in china cupboard being cute, to break the silence. This prompted mister man to say "You have no idea how much work we put into this place. no idea. you wouldnta even recognized it before we out all this work into it. New roof, had to redo it all...some really messed up shit went on in this house, really messed up." (please dont go on.....) "The mom was all messed up on drugs, you know, and once he left (WHO????????????) there was something really bad goin on in this house. You dont even want to know the half of it (youre right! stop!) They had locks on the outside of these doors right here, and right here, there was some child abuse or some shit, there was blood everywhere, on the walls, on the ceilings...."

ok

this is what you tell your suppossed tenants!!!!!!!!!!!??????

He went on to tell me that a "Lady cop" lived next door but he severely doubted whether she was on the up and up " (?????????) that the people across the street were kind of wierd, the lady next door aint doin so good, but shes nice, and so on and so on

He randomly screamed at me "And dont ask me no questions cause I dont have no answers! You have to take that up with my old lady--shes the boss, shes the one, so dont ask me nothin and i aint guarnateein you nothin! I gotta get back to Indiana tonight! Im so tired, tired of all this shit, you know, we wanted to flip this house, I didnt want no parta this--and look at us now, were big landlords now, huh?"

I was slowly sliding out the front door....

His demeanor had gone from vaguely bushed to irate over the five minutes we shared, and I was starting to feel very very homesick and disoriented and not scared so much as really really silly and out of place.

My unease quickly tunred to happy happy joyous relief as I drove home to our awesome house.

I hugged the kids and strongly considered kissing the floors when i walked in.

I might always be the kind of person who likes to look, but I will never again pretend that this place isnt great. Wowee wow wow.

rooming in

Our daughter and son share a bedroom. Have for years. even in the old house which had five (miniscule) bedrooms, they shared a room. Like Mary Poppins, Nanny McPhee, Peter Pan, and all of history, mixed genders in the nursery is nothing new, or wierd, or aghast. They have a bunkbed that can be used as two twin beds. The bedroom is so huge I could have all four of the kids in there, dressers and all, so the options are endless for arranging things.

Recently Greta said she wanted her own room, and we wondered if "it was time"...if she wanted privacy (we almost exclusively change clothes at bathtime, so the nudity thing is not an issue) or to go crazy with pink lace decor.....we told her we would talk about how it would work out for the rest of us, and she said no hurry. I worried so much about Mickey being crushed---after all, two crying babies are hardly the roommate of cool Greta and her late night tales of Harry, Hermione, and Hogwarts...shadow puppets, whispers of "whadda you want for your birthday?"....I dreaded telling him some corny tale about "girls want to be alone"...and the whole thing kind of didn't feel genuine. I didnt get any vibe that she wanted away from Mickey...

Today I felt the opportunity to discuss with Greta what exactly she wanted to do or get out of her girl room, and she looked rather surprised that I was automatically thinking of it as a Girl Room Thing. she said "I just want to hang up Harry Potter stuff and have a writing desk. I want to read late at night and not have to worry about keeping up Holl. Over my friend N's house, she had a harry potter room and I loved it. thats all."

!?!?!?!?
So.
For now, it isnt about girl room. We bought a clip on lamp for her bed for late night reading, and we found some Harry Potter curtains on Ebay for $2.50. We are goingto put her bed waaaay far away from his and have them decorate their regions a little more seperate. I know he wanted to do hot wheels and she wanted to do Harry Potter, and so somehow they compromised on homemade spongebob drawings, which was very diplomatic. I am looking forward to the new set up.

Someday soon, maybe within the year, Casey will be less of a crying baby and more of a car-buddy. Greta will want actual privacy, and Charlie...well maybe we will move by then or do a giant 3 boy room or who knows what. But for now, all she wanted was clearance to go solo on the decorations. Bless her heart. And phew to me and Steve and still getting a little bit of sleep at night. I cannot imagine Casey and Mickey together "sleeping" at this stage...jumping, screaming, beating....

maybe someday we will need 4 bunks---looks so cute in the pictures!