8 Weeks: I'd have never guessed that number on my own

So, time flies and yet it's been a long year.  Today was pretty quiet. Not much to say. I had to run something over to Jon's place and picked up some of his stuff so he didn't have so much to shuttle home when the time comes.  It's almost weird to think that before I know it he'll be back here. At the beginning it seems so far away, but now it's doesn't seem like it's been near as long as it seemed at the beginning.  The day will come when he's home full time and he'll probably be thinking, "Holy cow, I need to go back!"  I'll just smile and say, "Welcome to reality."

7 Weeks and 6 Days: Down to the wire

That's about how I feel, down to the wire, or is it thin as a wire. Pretty drained anyway. As the week has progressed I've found less and less energy.

Had high hopes for a productive weekend, but...:

• First I got up early to decorate for Dani's bday and found the kids had gotten into and used up all the balloons, so,
• I went into my office to make some banners or something for her to find my computer infected with some spy ware. After spending over a good hour and HOPEFULLY removing it, I decided that I needed to get away.
• Later I walked past the kids bathroom and the toilet was clogged and running at a constant overflow. The floor was in about 2 inches of water (overflow was running to the downstairs), 
• Right after that I ran to the store. When I came back and opened the garage, and the dogs ran out and took off down the street. This week they've managed to create a big enough hole in their kennel fence to escape if they try hard enough. Guess they made it.  And with the help of someone leaving the back garage door open, they made their way into the garage. After chasing them down and finally getting them into the backyard, I found garage remnants scattered about.  I fixed the hole in the fence, picked up the garage fragments, shut the garage door, and 
• I escaped to the world of witches and vampires for maybe an hour, where I found even make believe people have even worse days than me. Too bad mine wasn't make believe.
• I then decided I had to face reality one more time and went to take the garbage out and the door knob broke and I couldn't get out. Nice. So, I took the front door knob, attempted to fix it, and decided to swap the door knob with the downstairs ones, because I'd much rather get locked in the house to the backyard than the front door. Jacob and Jillian kindly offer to help me screw the door knobs back in place (enough said).
• The carpet was coming untacked so Deanna helped me try to fix that but all the nails I had were bent, so we settled with the temporary fix until Jon gets back.

So, that was my morning, all by about 11:00. This was enough to take the wind out of my sails and I no longer felt as ambitious to get get much more done around the house. And I must have been correct in my thinking because I decided to refill the ice trays and when trying to put them back in the freezer, the 5 trays bumped the door and spilled down the front of me.  Now, if this day is trying to send me a sign, then I think I got it-- 

I'd fallen victim to one of the classic blunders, the first being, never get involved in a housecleaning war in my house, but only slightly less well known is this. Never go up against Murphy, when sanity is on the line...

Oh, PS- I took hid the plugs to the computer and TV.  It's driving everyone crazy.

7 Weeks and 5 Days: Am I done yet?

Well, my guide is out the door and now I don't know what to do....reclaim my house? discipline my kids? read a book? collapse?

Unfortunately or fortunately I'm going to be doing a little or lot of all of it.

I feel like I'm venturing into unfamiliar territory. Wow.

We've had too many distractions around here lately.  Time to refocus after a couple crazy months. Would I do it again? I'd prefer to pick bettering timing, but as of now, I've survived and I still think A LOT of good is going to come out of this to offset the negative.

7 Weeks and 4 Days (3/4): March 4th and Marching Forth

Same old, same old. More work, more chaos, more reminding the kids over and over to stay focused on their work. However, we did get the kitchen looking pretty good after dinner last night, and the girls helped Jacob with his homework. After school I took the girls to the secondhand store to get some pants without holes in the knees. I need to find a secondhand store like by my sister's where things were $1. Oh well. These pants looked like there were in good shape and probably cost a lot more if I'd bought them from a retail store.

Hard to believe this time with Jon away is coming to a close. And, my project at work is due Friday so that's another stressor off my plate.  I think I'll take some time off after this and try to do some things around the house.  Or just relax.  I haven't decided. Maybe both.

7 Weeks and 3 Days: Wild Wednesday

As usual Wednesdays are my busy days. Play practice, activity days, scouts, mutual, being a mom, being an employee, midweek chaos...

But we survived.  We're losing a little steam here, but Sammy's been a big help this week. I've had a few whiners and those that just can't seem to listen. Seriously. Like it just doesn't registerl.

Our family goal is to finish Mosiah this week and it looks like we should make it. We've also set personal goals. Deanna's was to finish 2 Nephi.  She came in last night to say she was on chapter 32, so I'm pretty sure she'll make her goal.  Not sure about the others, but we'll see.

7 Weeks and 2 Days: Livin' life

Not sure what to say about today. Kept Jillian home and she stayed pretty content coloring next to me most of the day. Of course she still wanted to sit on my lap at times, and also wanted to play computer games.  She keeps me hopping, but she wasn't too bad.

I picked up the kids from school, dropped some off at home, then hit Walmart to do some shopping.  I picked up about a dozen and 1/2 yogurts and jokingly said to Dani, "Well, that ought to last about 3 days, right?" After tonight I'm not too certain we'll make it through tomorrow.  Glad my kids at least like good for you stuff too instead of just junk.  Let's see how long the fruit lasts.  I imagine the veggies will last a little longer than the other two...haha.

The kids are still doing pretty good with their chores and music this week.  It's been nice.  There is still room for improvement, but I appreciate their effort.

7 Weeks and 1 Day: Another Day, Another boatload of stuff to do

It sure was nice that I didn't have the pressures of work like I didn't the last few weeks because I found I had plenty of other things I needed to get done that have been ignored lately.  One of those things was realizing that the car registration was due 2/28. Um, don't tell anyone that it's passed that date.  So, remembering this about 11:30, I finished up what I was doing and made a dash to the the nearest Jiffy Lube for and inspection and oil change.  I managed to leave my coupon for $5 off, but managed to pull in when no one was in line, so I got a $10 empty port discount. Sweet.  So now I'm driving my car legally again.

Very sleepy today.  I was itching like mad this morning and ended up taking a couple allergy pills. Don't know if that's it, but I can hardly keep my eyes open today.

Yesterday we had a family meeting and made sure everyone knew their chores for the week.  It was amazing.  The kids have been so great today. Some didn't do everything they were suppose to, but some did everything. Probably the cleanest some rooms have been in a while.  Boy, I sure hope they can keep this up this week.  Organization does have it's advantages.