Ahhh, so I’m a little behind on posting for this week. I think I vowed to post at least once a week or so? If only I had enough time in the day!
It’s freezin’ cold here! Today was a gorgeous sunny day though and it got up to 9 degrees this afternoon. After being at home for almost 2 weeks with a house full of germs, we ventured out to the indoor playground today. I’m becoming a real homebody but even I have to get out once in a while! Nate has been working from home this week but he finally went back into the office today just to let his boss see that he is still alive.
This week’s highlight included the stomach flu (which I haven’t caught yet–knocking on wood as I type this), super cold temps outside, and mouse hunting. I’m absolutely positive Nate thinks I’m the crazy lady who stays at home obsessing about mice and laundry. Our house isn’t overrun with mice but it’s close to it. No matter how much poison we put out, the mice eat it all and still make it indoors. The kids and I were in the living room and one large mouse came right out into the doorway and just looked at us. He ran back into the corner but he didn’t seem scared of us. So I went and set a trap and caught the little bugger 5 minutes later. Stupid mouse. Now I hear another one scurrying around in the ceiling. Argh!
Noah is enjoying his break from school but I think he’ll definetly be ready to return on Tuesday. Luckily the temps are supposed to rise to 30 degrees tomorrow so we’ll be booting the kids out into the snowdrifts. We only got around 4 inches of snow but it blew some nice drifts into the west yard and I’m sure the kids will love digging some snow tunnels and forts. Dominic has been turning into a little butterball and become so cuddly and cooey lately. Not to mention that my favorite part is that he has been sleeping 8-10 hours at night 🙂
Once of my big projects lately is cleaning, organization and money budgeting. Since we have 5 kids and 2 adults living in this house with few closets, I’m determined to make it work. We (ok, Nate and his dad) recently built on a utility room that holds our extra refrigerator, freezer, washer, dryer, and a utility sink. I have to say that Nate and his dad did an AWESOME job. The job took a lot longer than planned but it is so worth it to have that extra space. Nate even built laundry basket-sized shelves from floor to ceiliing so I dont’ have to have the baskets on the floor! One of the best things is that I now have the the diaper changing station set up in the new room so the cloth diaper duties can be done all in the same room! I’ve been sorting through stuff room by room and determining what we can keep, throw away, or sell. So far it has been very liberating and I have to admit that the house stays much cleaner without all the clutter. Even Nate, who is a super pack rat, is impressed.
As for the budgeting idea, my goal is to spend as little as possible this year on unecessary things. I’m so guilty of buying little things here and there and then they all add up in the end and we end up wondering where the money went. I’ve started creating a monthly menu and I plan out our meals one month in advance. I’m also limiting my trips to town to save on gas and Nate is learning to do some of the grocery shopping on his way home from work. If I go shopping, I don’t go without a list and coupons and I only take one kid with me for my sanity. (BTW, has anyone noticed that gas is starting to creep back up again? ) We switched to cloth diapers, purchased a side of beef from a local farmer, I cut the boys’ and Nate’s hair. I’m sure glad they aren’t picky about their hair 🙂 I can’t bring myself to cut the girls’ yet though. One of Nate’s recent proud accomplishments is that he replaced the brakes on the van himself. Ok, with the help of a friend who showed him what to do but I’m very proud of him for taking this on. Especially since it would have cost us over $600 at the mechanic but Nate did both the front and back brakes for just the cost of the parts! That’s my man!
I’ve stayed up way too late as usual. It’s hard to go to bed at night when I have peace and quiet and time to myself to do whatever I want.